• achtergronden
• DE 7EVEN
• video's
• agenda

ernaast

Standstill | The Ionic Spell

A 45 minute Spanish must for the post-hardcore freaks.
CD, Bcore

Tekst: Bart Kluskens

Publicatiedatum: 24 november 2001

I never knew that Spanish people were also that creative with post-hardcore music. I just saw the cover of the album and thought, "this must be one of those enormous post-hardcore noizes". And what do you think, I was right. Man, this album kicks everything that's around you. The bandname Standstill did sound pretty familiar to me but I never heard their music, I guess. I'm glad their album 'The Ionic Spell' is in my collection now. The album has twelve tracks, including the great instrumental intro and outro. The intro sounds like a tune from a movie with a guy telling you some sort of a message. When the ending of this intro is near you're really waiting for some cool stuff. Be aware, Standstill gives you some. This five piece band throws you through your room until you've seen every small fucking corner and maybe more. Pretty hard to stand still to. In the beginning I was hoping these guys were doing all the lyrics in Spanish (because of all the Spanish words on the cover) but unfortunately they didn't. The same as it ever was, in English. But that doesn't make Standstill less good. They really know how to pick the words and lines. As I mentioned before, first there's this intro and after that you'll be blown away by, how appropriate, 'Words'. A real good straigth ahead song to blast open the ears and start an album with. The second song shows you that these guys got more up their sleeves. It starts with a soft acoustic-like sound but very soon you'll be overloaded with distorted noise.
In general Standstill present a variety of hard slamming instruments with some melodic parts and a mixture of emo with a bunch of screaming. 'Two Minutes Song' which really hits the fence and sounds a bit cruel in these days, with lyrics like "Who takes that building down", "Let me say that two minutes is enough to take a building down", "I know you, you're the enemy". Are these guys referring to something? Probably just coincidence. Another marvellous song is 'Naked Monkey'. It starts with soft guitar riffs and a brilliant drum rhythm followed by lyrics and instruments full of anger. The same goes for 'Sunrise People In Sunset Days'.
Standstill is not just one of these post-hardcore bands. They use superb bass-lines and some small electronic samples. Always cool to hear something new. Standstill sounds like bands like At The Drive In and Yage and but there is a bit more structure in their music. 'The Ionic Spell' is a 45 minute must for the post-hardcore freaks. Get it!!

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/standstill/the-ionic-spell/1136/
Meer Standstill op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/standstill