The 2 Bears - Be Strong
Feb 23, 2012
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Title Fight - Shed
:: July 13, 2011 :: by Anthony Gannon
In summer of 2009, Title Fight released their debut full length album The Last Thing You Forget. It was a compilation of everything the band recorded since they formed in 2003. The band started out as just three teenagers until 2005 when they brought in another guitarist to round out their sound. Last thing You Forget introduced the band to a wider audience and jumpstarted their journey towards the top of melodic hardcore.
In May of 2011 Shed was released. Shed is the follow up to Last Thing and their first LP made of entirely new material. At just under a half-hour, Shed is driving, droning, descriptive, and emotional. There are songs here that leave your brain working in overdrive while running on autopilot. These thirteen songs are definitive proof that punk music is alive and well.
Title Fight’s lyrics exhibit their influences from emo, pop-punk, hardcore, and melodic hardcore. Guitarist Jamie Rhoden and bassist Ned Russin’s singing often covers the struggles of regret, rejection, depression, internal conflicts, and self-realization and self-change.
Title Fight is the only band in history that can get an audience to tear across a pit with unbridled ferocity one minute, sway like a Culture Club show the next, and mosh again soon after. TF songs are characterized by catchy rhythms, interwoven guitars, courtesy of Rhoden and Shane Moran, and determined bass and drum work from Ned and twin-brother Ben.
“Crescent-Shaped Depression” shows TF at their best. A soft, sultry opening leads into an overwhelmingly drawl blast of noise lasting for two and a half minutes. It snakes its way through your ears, into your brain, and leaves you determined to hit repeat just one more time, every time.
Title Fight showcases their hardcore orientation front and center with the lead track “Coxton Yard.” An addictively aggressive intro sets up a furious pace that’s maintained throughout by Ben’s furious drumming and broken only with occasional half-time breakdowns. Shed’s track order ensures that you won’t hear two similar songs in a row.
Shed will be in music critics’ top lists for 2011. The album leaves a strange sensation because it satisfies a wonderful musical itch, but you’re slightly disquieted because there won’t be any new material for a while. Shed exceeded the anticipation built from the release of The Last Thing You Forgot and will build up anticipation to an even greater level for their next album.
Listen to "Crescent-Shaped Depression" -