The Sound Of Failure - "The Party Is Over"

Perhaps the hardest working Philly area hardcore band during the earliest years of the 21st century (fuck, listen to me!), The Sound Of Failure played aggressive, messy but not sloppy, angry and mostly faster paced crust-influenced punk. The lyrics were spewing pretty straight forward social and political messages ranging from the somewhat deserved death of a bullfighter ("Matador"), the stress of living in the 9 to 5 rat race that is capitalism ("Distress Signal"), the modern day war machine ("Disarm"), etc. Chances are, if you attended shows in Philadelphia between the years of 1999 and 2004, you probably saw them play. Their style helped them fit on bills with lots of different kinds of punk bands, and this fact was one of their greatest assets. Metalcore kids were into 'em, crusty hippies were into 'em, as were the horn rim-glassed "emo" kids, or whatever. Sound Of Failure (sometimes there was no "the" in there) went through a handful of bass players and a couple of second guitarists during its lifetime, but drummer Ron Macauley and vocalist / guitarist Joe Gough were mainstays. They were a great band, but, more importantly, great people. These particular dudes are currently active in Dirt Worshipper and War Emblem. Each gentleman wins extra points from me; Ron for letting me use his sweet Zildjian china cymbal every time our bands would play shows together (without bitching), and Joe for being a Philadelphia Flyers fan.

The band released a 7", a few splits and 2 full lengths during their existence, and it's all really good stuff. This is their 2nd cd, recorded as a four piece, and uploaded with Jho's gracious blessing. These songs were recorded in May 2003 (about a year plus before they broke up) at Skylight Studio in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania by Vince Ratti and Rachel Minton. It was a split release by Ed Walters and Cheap Art Records.

-this is where dreams get fucked-

Tracklist
1) Zombie Death March
2) Trapped Inside Burning Wreckage
3) Lemmings
4) 8848
5) Horsham Clinic
6) Old Man
7) Pursued By Invisible Enemies
8) Marching Orders
9) By Your Own Hand
10) Disarm
11) Threes
12) Still
13) Death To The Weird
14) Distress Signal