Paint It Black
High-velocity hardcore that pairs intellectual bite with relentless melody. It is the sound of a 90-second explosion that leaves the room feeling cleaner.
High-velocity hardcore that pairs intellectual bite with relentless melody. It is the sound of a 90-second explosion that leaves the room feeling cleaner.
This is the sound of absolute kinetic energy. Paint It Black takes the raw, unbridled speed of traditional hardcore and injects it with a sophisticated sense of melody that never feels soft or compromised. It is music that moves at a breakneck pace, often clocking in songs under the two-minute mark, yet manages to pack in more ideas and emotional resonance than most bands do in five.
What truly sets them apart is the intellectual weight behind the noise. Led by Dan Yemin, the lyrics bypass standard punk tropes in favor of sharp social critique and deeply personal self-examination. The guitars are bright and jagged, the drums are a relentless barrage of precision, and the vocals are delivered with a desperate urgency that feels like someone trying to tell you something vital before the building collapses.
Start with their debut album CVA for a masterclass in modern melodic hardcore. It captures the band at their most visceral, bridging the gap between the catchy hooks of the 90s New Jersey scene and the more aggressive, darker sounds of the 2000s Philadelphia underground.
Paint It Black is an American modern hardcore punk band from Philadelphia. Their music is also described as melodic hardcore, which is characterized by fast tempos, catchy melodies, and emotionally charged singing and shouting. They have released three full-length albums, CVA, Paradise and New Lexicon on Jade Tree Records. The band features Dan Yemin as the group's vocalist and lyricist. Yemin is most known as the guitarist for New Jersey's Lifetime and was also the guitarist of another Philadelphia-based punk/hardcore act, Kid Dynamite. Former drummer David Wagenshutz has also been a member of Lifetime, Kid Dynamite, California's Good Riddance and None More Black, the latter of whom is fronted by former Kid Dynamite vocalist Jason Shevchuk. The other two members, bassist Andy Nelson and guitarist Josh Agran, both also currently play in Affirmative Action Jackson, a hardcore punk band based in Philadelphia. Wagenschutz left in July 2006 to pursue his family and new band Higher Giant, and has since been replaced by Jared Shavelson of The Hope Conspiracy and None More Black. In 2009, instead of recording a single full-length LP, they released nine new songs over two 7-inch EPs released by two different labels. The first one, Amnesia, was released on June 16, 2009, on Bridge Nine Records. The second one, Surrender, was released in August 2009 on Fat Wreck Chords. In 2013, the band's next release came in the form of the EP Invisible. In 2023, the band signed with Revelation Records, with their first album in 10 years, Famine, released on November 3.
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