Each Breath Haunted [EXPLICIT LYRICS]

The Banner

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 16, 2005)
• Original Release Date: August 16, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Label: Ferret Records
• ASIN: B000A2H9V6
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #213,597 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist
From the state that brought you The Misfits, Thursday, My Chemical Romance and For the Love of comes one of New Jersey's newest and strongest outfits, THE BANNER, who have come to claim their place at the top of the heavy music mountain. Like a constantly evolving. mutating monster from the late night creature features, the Banner crushes stereotypes of what horror rock is and should be. THE BANNER's schizophrenic blend of hardcore, punk and black metal flavor blasted its way into the New Jersey hardcore scene in 2000, and have since rocketed their way to the top tier of northeastern hardcore bands. From gut wrenching, metal tinged ballads, to bone crushing, mosh-laden breakdowns, the band seamlessly blends their influences into a finely honed and unique sound. Known through out the tri-state area for their insane live shows, the band earned spots on The Warped Tour and Skate and Surf fest as well as opening spots for many of the nations premier hardcore, punk and metal acts including Poison the well, My Chemical Romance, Bleeding Through, Eighteen Visions, Death By stereo, Throwdown, Dillinger Escape Plan, The Locust, A Static Lullaby and many others. During the span of their existence, fans of the band have become accustomed to blood drenched insanity on the stage. The band is adept at drawing in a crowd, balancing the serious and aggressive lyrics of charismatic singer Joey Southside with a sense of fun and audience inclusion that blurs the line between band and audience. The energy The Banner brings to the live environment can also be found in their collected recordings. After recording a widely circulated demo, the band released their first ep, "Posthumous"(2004) on Blackout! Records. The songs exhibited both heavy and melodic elements that blend together into unique, energetic hardcore anthems, with Joey providing horror-themed lyrics as metaphors for intensely personal musings. The band further honed their sound on following recordings, including a split with Dead Wrong on War Machine Records (2004), and a full length on Blackout!, titled "Your Murder Mix Tape"(2004). Following this, the band chose to finish their contract on Blackout! With a more experimental piece, a 32 minute song that allowed for guitarists Garrett Defalco and Chris "Beef" Leboeuf to expand their musical range, while the rhythm section of Ian Mullen (drums) and Fingerz (bass) provided both Neurosis-inspired pounding and more ethereal, light moments within the span of! the piece. The present and the future for the Banner continues to look bright. With their recent announcement of a new home at Ferret Records, the band has plans for both a new LP, and extensive touring. One can continue expect the unexpected from the band, both in the continuation of musical and lyrical challenges to themselves and their audience, and in chaos of their live performances. Look for the Banner on tour in your local graveyard soon!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An impressive Ferret debut, August 20, 2005

By	The Iron Summit E-Zine "www.isrrecords.com" (Arizona) - See all my reviews

I've got to hand it to Ferret this year. Not only have they had a helluva catalog of releases this year (LoveHateHero doesn't count but The Banner, Madball, A Life Once Lost, Boys Night Out, and the mighty Every Time I Die record this next week which is amazing), they were also the main proprietors of The Sounds Of The Underground tour and while their pals in Trustkill seem to be taking a swerve off the deep end, Ferret chugs along putting out excellent, aggressive releases that bare the independent aesthetic and attitude and enjoy mainstream success at the same time. Needless to say, Carl Severson generally knows how to pick 'em.

The Banner isn't groundbreaking or technically impressive but for what they lack in those areas they make up for in sheer aggressiveness and downright fun songs to listen to. The Banner is to hardcore as Summers End is to metal and The Misfits are to punk and what The Banner do best is take a traditional hardcore sound and mesh it together with some darker imagery and dabble in some quirky lead guitar work with a few scattered breakdowns and hardcore singalongs. Their entirely comfortable in their songwriting as they are just as content with writing a minute and a half track as they are a six minute track. Unlike a lot of metal and hardcore thats coming out, the record sounds genuinely pissed off and while there's a few parts that could of been chopped off from the record (such as the instrumentals), there's not much to complain about here. Give this band a few tours and people will be all over this band.