The Scare

Since it’s the holiday season and all, I’ve recently been pondering the things for which I am thankful. After the obligatory mentioning of family, friends, health and the rest of the clich’d lot, it’s easy to cite music as one of my first aesthetic pleasures. After digging a bit deeper, I found myself being thankful for the artists that have evolved my current musical palate. Punk rock bands under the Epitaph and Fat umbrellas in the 90s sparked a passion for incendiary and high-energy music that was meant to be played at deafening volumes for mobs of sweaty moshing admirers. I treated my friends like family, just like Lou Koller and Toby Morse encouraged, and I listened when Fat Mike told me about not leaving my mind’s emergency brake on too long. After waxing nostalgic, I realized the days of provocative punk icons producing material with teeth are almost long gone, which is why it might be time to start thanking The Scare.

A five-person outfit straight out of Hyattsville, Md., The Scare has shared a stage with seminal stalwarts Bane, Ignite and Strike Anywhere, so if you are one to judge based on the company another keeps, get intrigued. Playing melodic hardcore punk the way it should be played, short and simple, The Scare combine aggressive drumming and gang vocals with traditional punk guitars to produce a sound worthy of skaters fifteen years ago. The ‘whoahs’ littered throughout Black Mass scream concert-friendly, making it easy to imagine hundreds of fists in the air. Gritty vocals and a lack of flawless production are by no means a detriment, and actually go a long way to creating a more authentic sound. There’s more than enough energy here, and with songs clocking in between two and three minutes, this quintet leaves just enough time for rest.

Lyrically, The Scare frightened me a little at first. Maybe it’s the black nail polish fumes affecting my brain, but subtle evils like Aiden and The Used have worn thin references to vampires and blood, two things I hold in high regard. So when I heard the lines “Our fangs are drawn from dusk till dawn”, being screamed amidst the organized chaos I cringed a little. But The Scare utilize ghoulish symbolism more in the way The Misfits did. You won’t find any dirges pertaining to a destructive breakup or having your heart annihilated by a cheating ex here. Finally, a contemporary band who knows how to correctly implement horror imagery.

The Scare aren’t breaking any new ground, but as punk rock becomes more watered down and the sediment of this subgenre continues to shift, new layers of music are added and styles once popular change or get buried to the point where they can be all but forgotten. By adding a bloody twist to the overall content but maintaining the roots of what makes this music fun, The Scare can proudly wave the melodic hardcore flag.