Haymarket Riot

Bloodshot Eyes (2001)

Hein Terweduwe

Haymarket Riot features former members of Gauge, Traluma, and The Traitors, so they're already into the Chicago post-punk scene for quite some years now. Having released two EP's on Divot Records previously ("Wax" & the self titled "Haymarket Riot"), they now signed to thick Records for this debut full-length. Fans of Fugazi will surely adore these complex arrangements and constantly varying sound, mixing intense with heldback guitar play and whispering with shouting vocals that end up in a strong and solid result. To be honest, I'm not really aware of any other bands that produce this constant manoeuvering of sounds like this band, except maybe the before mentioned Fugazi with a little dose of Victims Family, but it damn sure sounds like these guys are master of their instruments. Unfortunately for my CD-player, I'm not really into far-fetched multi-layered and emotive music like this. But I'm sure there's a big audience out there that will love this. nevertheless, I think I can even rank it higher than Fugazi's later stuff, because it's more intense. So, my rating of 7 below is only a personal opinion. If I had to rank them on artisic level I'd surely have to situate them somewhere in the 90 percentages. The band will be touring Europe in April 2002.