Post-hardcore is a slippery genre. If emo is commonly defined as "we know it when we hear it," maybe post-hardcore is "we know it when we can't hear anything after hearing it." But that's too easy; lots of music is loud. Maybe post-hardcore is what happens when people who are into hooks and melodies get into heavier styles like punk, metal, and hardcore. Post-hardcore kids listen to classic Metallica and hear the melody beneath the mayhem, the pop in the apoplexy. They listen to emo and imagine what those wobbly arpeggios would sound like with some real balls in the dynamic shifts, some buffness in the chordage.
You can hear some latter-day Wire in Bear Vs. Shark's linear, deeply textured riffs; there's some early Mission of Burma in their pronounced loud/soft dynamics and fist-pumping rhythmic maneuvers. But beneath Terrorhawk's ripped chords, frantic tempos and dudefaced vocals, there's a dewy-eyed indie rock record whimpering to be let out. Not that letting it out would've been advisable-- as it stands, the raw fury and insane energy level of the album stampedes right over the brain and booms down the spine.
Deeper than it initially sounds, Terrorhawk will send you scrambling for a few points of reference before you zero in on the right one. Trail of Dead? Not quite. Constantines? Closer...Soon it starts making sense how the ballads sit comfortably with the screamers, the uninflected melodic vocals with the shredded-larynx ones, the brainy leads with the knuckle-dragging chords: This is the spiritual heir to Cursive's Domestica, an indie-hardcore record that's interested in locating the violence inherent in the lullaby and the euphony in the scorched-earth anthem.
Terrorhawk starts off totally beefcake with "Catamaran". Galloping, muted chords with a little hitch for texture leap out first, but there are some delicate harmonics chiming behind them. The vocals and drums fall into step for a moment, but it's like they just can't friggin' wait to let loose, and soon the song's careening like it was launched from a catapult. "5, 6 Kids" changes the tone right away-- with a tortured lead and ragged vocals, it's like an iron maul dragging on an iron floor, heavy and sparking. And "Baraga Embankment" is an honest-to-God piano ballad that, even after the distorted chords kick in, has already tipped Bear Vs. Shark's indie-rocking hand. I'll be straight with you, I'm not usually into anything deemed post-hardcore. But Terrorhawk grabbed me by the short hairs from the first track, and hasn't let go since.
