Age Sixteen is gearing up to release their debut full length album entitled Open Up Finders, Please on March 16th through 229 Records.  I’ve been anticipating this album for quite some time because their live performances – which rule – always leave me wanting to read their lyrics and dissect their riffs.

I’m happy to say that Age Sixteen does not disappoint.  They’ve managed to craft 9 songs (clocking in at just over 20 minutes) into an album that succeeds in finding a balance between the melodic undertones of recent Pennsylvania based bands like Boy Problems and Street Smart Cyclist with the chaotic nature of late 90′s screamo staples like Joshua Fit for Battle and Ampere. This merging of styles creates an extremely dynamic sound, which I know is such an over used term for this type of band, but Age Sixteen’s song structures breathe fresh air into the stop/start rhythms that have become so typical in the genre.

The album closer The Lion and the Gazelle showcases this point beautifully.  The first minute of the song consists of nauseating feedback, rushed vocals, and a start/stop rhythm that sounds ridiculously heavy.  Then the song reaches its breaking point, the instrumentation falls apart leaving only drums and ringing feedback with quiet guitar riffs that subtly break up the noise.  Then the spoken vocals enter and the mood of the song shifts from fast and angry to a much lighter and hopeful tone with melodic instrumentation providing an appropriate backdrop.  While The Lion and the Gazelle provides a good example of Age Sixteens two most prominent styles of influence don’t expect the rest of the album to be dissected so easily.  The rest of the album is focused on blending many elements together to create a distinct style – which they succeed in doing.

Because of the complex nature of these songs there are a few awkward musical passages to be found (specifically in the intro to As Personal As a Greeting Card) but these songs are so full of riffs and creative chord progressions that you will forgive and forget.

Lyrically this album primarily focuses on the dissolution of family bonds, strained relationships, and the general struggles that you face when you grow up and out of touch with the people that you love.  Kris’ lyrics are delivered with a sincerity that couples well with these songs.  He has a kind of meandering yell that fluctuates between rushed spoken word portions to more aggressive yells and, once in a while, to full on screams.  I particularly like when he uses his voice to introduce new riffs/phrases into the songs.  The song Empty Nest makes use of this technique with great emotional effect when he variates between speaking and yelling the phrase “My Father is falling apart while my Mother sews.”  When the band joins him with a build up on his final yell I can’t help but smile because it is absolutely perfect.

This is a great album that I fully endorse buying and showing to all of your friends.  It’s fast, depressing, angry, and hopeful all wrapped up in a layer of feedback and fast percussion.

Also, if you’re into the album GO SEE THIS BAND LIVE.  The album doesn’t match up to their live show, but that’s how it goes (and how it should be) with most screamo bands.  It’s all about the live interaction.

Download HERE.

Visit Age Sixteen’s Myspace HERE.

Read Kris’ Musical Suggestions HERE.

I first heard We were skeletons when we played a house show together in North Carolina.  A show that initially looked like it was going to be a huge bummer turned out to be our favorite show of the entire tour due in large part to WWS.  These guys are super nice and put out tons of energy when they play.  They are also super young, Rafael (their bassist) just graduated high school.  Their songs are full of short spastic riffs and shouted dualing vocals.  Cool stuff.

Age Sixteen is a band that is going to rule so much.  Kris’ vocals remind me of Marc Paffi from Bear vs. Shark – not really singing but more of a clear yell.  You can hear strong influences from a bunch of European screamo bands.  I  think this style of mid-90′s spastic screamo is starting to come back into style and I really really like it.  They have a demo out now with a few songs on it.  It’s a limited pressing of 100 so get on it.