1.) “Just Do It” by Breather Resist from Only in the Morning.
2.) “Suicide Soundtrack” by Scarlet from Cult Classic.
3.) “Framce” by Botch from An Anthology of Dead Ends.
4.) “Gleamer” by Intronaut from Void.
5.) “There Will Be No More Scum” by Frodus from And We Washed Our Weapons in the Sea.
6.) “The Deadly Rhythm” by Refused from The Shape of Punk to Come.
7.) “Gift” by Old Man Gloom from Christmas.
8.) “Eagles Become Vultures” by Converge from You Fail Me.
9.) “Guignol Serene” by Trap Them from Seizures in Barren Praise.
10.) “Go Ape” by Spitfire from Self-Help.
11.) “Hexagram” by the Deftones from their self-titled LP.
12.) “I Hate Almost Every Person I Come In Contact With” by Curl Up and Die from We May Be Through With the Past… EP.
13.) “43% Burnt” by the Dillinger Escape Plan from Calculating Infinity.
14.) “Mirrorf***** ” by Young Widows from Settle Down City.
15.) “January 1979″ by mewithoutYou from Catch For Us the Foxes.
16.) “D.E.A.D.R.A.M.O.N.E.S.” by Modern Life is War from Witness.
17.) “Cayman Tongue” by Cave In from their brand new EP Planets of Old.

Overall I’m pretty satisfied. For my taste in hardcore and metal it was pretty difficult to get the mix to breath a little and not have every song hit like a sledgehammer. I also included a few cuts that I hoped my intended audience would enjoy since he’s not entirely “into” hardcore. The Frodus song and the mewithoutYou song I might have saved for a different mix, but they definitely helped keep things more varied.

Anyone making any mixes lately?

I can’t say that I was completely immune to all of those band’s terribleness unfortunately. At one point, my parents gave a gander to my cds and were actually kind of shocked, and thought I was being wrongly influenced by their lyrical content and overall messages. In my own defense, at the time I think my parents forgot what it feels like to be a teenager but in retrospect I’m glad they threw away most of that garbage music. Because a lot of it really was garbage (Like Taproot. Yuck!)

Anyway. I was into heavier stuff. It may not have all been good, but whatever. I was young. Around that time I saw the action blockbuster of the 90s, my current all-time favorite movie of the genre, in the theaters The Matrix. You remember it. You saw it a couple times. You might even own it. Big deal movie. A LOT of action movies copied some of it’s innovations, most notably it’s “stop time” effect where the camera would spin around it’s subject while time was suspended and seemingly frozen.

Well, there were commercials all over TV about the movie and its soundtrack, and there was a clip of a song called “My Own Summer (Shove It)” by a band called Deftones. I had heard the song on the radio, and had even “taped it” off the radio, but I hadn’t heard it with singer Chino’s scream! The radio edit version took out the elongated screams from the cd version of the chorus which is how it sounded in the commercial for the Matrix soundtrack. I was blown away by the power in his voice. I wanted the cd so bad, and my best friend Josh and I had to convince my Mom that it would be alright (despite the alluring image of the woman in a bikini on the cover, woah woah.)

Despite such odds, we overcame and Around the Fur by the Deftones was mine and I studied the record with intensity. I loved everything about it. From Chino Moreno’s incredible melodies, interestingly poetic lyrics and banshee scream to Stephen Carpenter’s dropped D heaviness I was set. Deftones were a more melodic band than the rap/metal I had been listening too, and much fuller and heavier sounding than Blindside. Chino’s melodies were much more fun to sing too, and I found myself copying his singing and lyrical style for awhile in my own songwriting.

Through Stephen Carpenter’s melodic yet heavy guitar style I learned how to create chords using dropped D. This I didn’t fully discover on Around the Fur but on another Deftones record that will make an appearance in this list, but I learned how to use moving octaves within chords to create melodic development without losing any aggression. It can be heard most prominently on “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)” which became my favorite song for some time, and the song captures the feeling of being 16.

Deftones opened new doors for me musically. Not only could I enjoy music that was heavy, but it could be melodic too, which explains a little bit about 18 and 19 year old me. Around the time I was listening to Around the Fur I heard about this metalcore band on Solidstate whom Stephen Carpenter himself listed as a pretty big influence on him during the creation of ATF. That little band is next.

Video for “Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)”
Video for “My Own Summer (Shove It)
Audio of “Headup” (Also Youtube, though not a music video)