Stabbed By Words Stabbed By Words

While it might seem like former members of your favorite defunct hardcore acts pop up in a new pseudo-supergroup on a regular basis, it's not so often that said group features a lineup quite as intriguing as Stabbed By Words. Fronted by former Unbroken vocalist Dave Claibourn, this Chicago-area group has more collective years of hardcore credibility than most bands could ever dream of. Before Stabbed By Words members Neeraj Kane, Jay Jancetic and Jason Gagovski went on to be in some of the most influential hardcore bands of the last ten years, they were all members of the short-lived Chicago hardcore act Extinction. Having since served time in The Hope Conspiracy, The Suicide File, Suicide Note, Sweet Cobra, Holy Roman Empire, Arma Angelus, etc., these guys decided to band together with Claibourn at the helm and release an album that shouldn't disappoint fans of the progressive hardcore these guys have always been involved with. This album was recorded in early 2004 and finally released in 2006, but it somehow has yet to receive its due (and until now, a review from us). It would seem that each of the group's members has brought quite a bit of the last ten years of their musical history with them to Stabbed By Words. While the chord progressions immediately call to mind the effective simplicity of the Suicide File, there's a bit more complexity in the performance and the leads, thanks I'm sure to the addition of Neeraj Kane's Holy Roman Empire compatriot, Jay Jancetic. Jason Gagovski's drumming isn't quite as adventurous as it was on the last few Suicide Note records, but it's still notably adept. Perhaps most noteworthy is Dave Claibourn's vocal performance. It's been over a decade since the untimely demise of Unbroken and Claibourn's pipes don't seem even the slightest bit rusty. If anything, age has added extra dimension and even a bit of variety to his vocal style. There's even an extremely brief discordant pop track featuring Claibourn's low-key melodic vocal stylings alongside vocalist Elizabeth Remis. A warning to readers: Stabbed By Words has very little in common musically with Unbroken. I wanted to make it perfectly clear that while my love for Unbroken definitely hasn't prevented me from appreciating Stabbed By Words, the metallic edge that band brought to their hardcore styling is definitely not prevalent. There's quite a bit of interesting guitar work throughout the record, but most of it is seems to be influenced by 80's and 90's post-punk, noise rock and hardcore. While this influence sometimes results in a riff or bit of a song that you'll swear you've heard before, it never became an issue for me personally. What the band might lack in entirely original musical concepts, they more than make up for with intensity and intelligence. As great as the members' respective past projects were at the time, Stabbed By Words often feels like the point at which the last decade of forward-thinking hardcore intersects. It seems as if the group had to recruit a frontman of Claibourn's stature to shoulder the responsibility of leading them. Even the disc's layout, by Aaron Turner of Isis, captures the band's nature accurately, combining deceptively simple images into something markedly complex. Bottom Line: This record has been out for quite some time now and to be completely honest, I don't understand why it hasn't garnered an awful lot more attention. Dave Claibourn's return as a hardcore vocalist should be enough to turn heads on its own. With a band this talented assembled around him, Stabbed By Words was a sure thing from the get-go. It's just as successful in execution as it sounds in concept. This album is thirty minutes of modern hardcore greatness, delivered with all the passion and intensity one has come to expect from musicians of this caliber. If, like me, you missed this record on its release, I highly recommend checking it out.