Blood Red

The debut from this Long Island-based quartet sounds exactly like what you'd think a band made up of kids trained in the art of suburban hardcore and drawn together by a common love of U2 (their name is taken from a line in "New Year's Day") would sound like. Bold and energetic, aggressive and melodic, sonically raw yet musically refined, and filled with angst. The U2 influence is most obvious on the almost six-minute ode to their home, "Suburbia," which opens with a few minutes of subdued chiming guitar work before exploding into a screaming crescendo. Other songs recall fellow melodic hardcore New Yorkers Quicksand and even West Coast bands like 7 Seconds.