Antioch Arrow

Antioch Arrow were a post-hardcore/screamo band  from San Diego, California that existed from 1993-1994. Despite their brief tenure, they were seminal in the development of their respective genres and in establishing the San Diego/Gravity Records scene as a point of notoriety. Regardless of their widely-heralded music and influence, no band has ever come again that's quite like them. I suppose they're one of those bands that just can't be recreated or replicated, and as corny as it may sound, are truly unique. Personally, I can always go back to them and never cease to be in complete awe of what they've done, in every respect. For that, they're probably one of my favourite bands ever.

They were pretty productive for a band that lasted for just over a year, and the evolution in their sound is quite apparent from album to album. At the beginning of their career, they featured a fast-paced sound with an aggression harkening back to the Washington, DC/Dischord bands of the early 80's, mixed with the angular, octave-savviness of later bands such as Nation Of Ulysses, Fugazi, and Lungfish. They brought that sound to a new extremity where everything was just intensified, becoming more noisy, dissonant, and chaotic. Essentially what it resulted in was psychotic poetry readings screamed over jazz grooves whacked on on some drug that doesn't even have a street name. Every instrument just seems to be falling over the other, but they're still cohesive enough to distinguish different parts and different songs. The vocals are equally sprawling, not forming any real melody, but fitting into a groove with a spoken-screamed style, which matches the abstract lyrics perfectly. Aaron (the vocalist) also has a very unique voice with qualities unlike anyone else. The bass (Mac Mann) is also quite noteworthy, since it is often just as prominent and driving as the rest of the band, and switches from being very dissonant to melodic to just straight-up energetic. This sound is explored and delved further into with each of their first three albums. Their final album, released posthumously, does continue what they'd been doing, but they adopt a whole other side of goth-y post-punk influence with really haunting pianos or something, and the aesthetic of the artwork. The also play a little cleaner, with the words also being fairly decipherable and the band are a bit tighter. The change in sound is absolutely astounding, and they remain just as insane-sounding as always.

Antioch Arrow/Candle (1993)

1. Antioch Arrow - Stilts

2. Antioch Arrow - Time Square

3. Antioch Arrow - The Fixed Orbit

4. Candle - Now Lost To Then

5. Candle - A Gain

The Lady Is A Cat (1993)

1. Conspiring The Go-Go

2. Lightning Bolt

3. Ain't My Day

4. The Fixed Orbit

5. The Guardian Angel

6. Klutz On Broadway

7. Teenage Debutaunt And The Debutaunt Ball

In Love With Jetts (1994)

1. In Love With Jetts

2. Angel's Lawn

3. The Puppy Love

4. Chaos Vs. Cosmos

5. Space Age

6. The Great Wall

7. Somba

8. Antioch Gold (For You)

9. The Blessed Test

10. The Suspicious Uzi

Gems Of Masochism (1995)

1. Paper Moshay

2. Too Bad You're Gonna Die

3. Date With Destiny

4. David

5. Dead Now

6. Gotta Love The Lights

7. Introducing Elizabeth

8. Picnic Pants