Mainstream hardcore

Reviewed April 2007

Brooklyn-based Goes Cube isn't punk or metal, although it has elements of both in its music. It's not screamo or hardcore, either, although they're also present.

Instead, it's a modern, sometimes accessible melding of various hard rock styles into an atmospheric, pulsating wall of noise.

And while the band is virtually unknown, and has produced and released its debut CD on its own with no label backing it, there's something here that hints at more than your typical garage band.

David Obuchowski's vocals are often delivered in screamo style – only he's not screaming. And his guitar playing is in the frenzied, post-modern thrash style that seems so prevalent – except that there's a structure in there on nearly every song.

Likewise, the drumming and bass of Kenneth Appell and Matthew Frey, respectively, has all the energy and delerium of any underground band you can name, but is overtly building dramatic tension.

The end result isn't an edgy band that comes across as selling out, but more a band capable of taking the frenetic energy of youth-oriented fringe muscal styles and crafting something focused and, well, a touch grown-up.

Review by Jim Trageser. Jim is a writer and editor living in Escondido, Calif., and was a contributor to the "Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD" (1993) and "The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Blues" (2005).