Hot Cross

"We operate within the confines of a too-often suffocating scene,” says Hot Cross’s Casey Boland. "Cryonics is a mere baby step in evolution and creativity and transcending where each one of us has come from.” Cryonics, Hot Cross’s first official full-length, is full of twists expanding on tried and tested underground musical ideas. Combining the screamo-derived metallic hardcore mayhem of its members’ previous infamous acts (Saetia, You & I, Neil Perry, etc.) with an increased emphasis on melody, sentiment, clean picking, non-standard riffing and the occasional harmonies, Cryonics doesn’t overwhelm with a musical revolution, but lets its unexpected twists slowly burrow into the subconscious. "We have all been in ‘screamy hardcore’ bands,” comments Billy Werner. "We still enjoy the aggression and chaos associated with playing that music, but when you have been pigeonholed into identical-sounding music as your previous bands, you definitely strive to take your music to another level.” While still possessing the ability to lay a stage, or basement, to waste, it’s the unorthodox clean picking, verging on Kittens country territory, at times, that is Cryonics’ most unique weapon. "Clean guitar can cut through like a sling blade, sharper and meaner than any dirty metal riffing,” reveals Casey. "People seem to like it, but some people want endless carbon copies of what a band did one time, and for a very short time. Hot Cross is not interested in recycling the same song.” "We are in an age where I think a lot of bands are still looking backwards instead of ahead,” Billy finishes, "and I think whatever musical progression we experience is a result of us making a concerted effort to try new things and translate musical ideas into sounds that, hopefully, other people will associate with us.”