Although it borrows its rhyming cadences from hip-hop, Project 86 bellows its lyrics over incessantly eerie guitar riffs with all the raw power of a hungry young punk band, which leaves its eponymous debut sounding closer to the hardcore end of the emerging musical style known as rap-core. Besides its musical inclinations, though, there is also far too much turbulence in these soapbox rants to ever induce you to 'raise your hands in the air, and wave 'em like you just don't care.' The album's closing thought is "When Darkness Reigns." This climate of pitch-black blindness strongly influences Project 86's mostly gloomy lyrical perspective. Happy-happy, joy-joy, this ain't. The album oozes with a strong sense of mental claustrophobia, and statements such as "Stalemate" speak about the kind of inertia so often experienced by those who are stuck between two mutually exclusive spiritual worlds without any clue where to go next. It's as if they're just waiting for someone to shout "Checkmate! Game over." Members of Project 86 may not be a clean-cut quartet of shiny happy people, but this motley crew excels at its craft by specializing in a brand of loud and angry music; a kind perfectly suited for shouting back at the devil.
Other coverage for this album
Art for the Ears 1999Reviewed by Marco PovervestSince Bryan Carlstrom produced the first Stavesacre album, he did quite some jobs for both BEC Recordings as for Tooth & Nail. He did this new fruit from the Seattle-tree too. And not without merit. Project 86 is a young band that was started in 1996 with members who had some experience with bands like Innermeans and Focused. From the first song on this debut-disc the music is thick with…HM Magazine #72Reviewed by Brian Vincent McGovernFollowing in the tradition of bands like POD, EDL, etc., Project 86 comes to the rap-core table with its very own brand of the style. Instead of just ripping off its contemporaries, the band takes the passion and intensity to a unique level, while it would still be tough, in my opinion, to match that of either of those other bands. Beats are usually relaxed, heavy, plodding grooves, and the…Similar sounding releases
1999StavesacreSpeakeasy
2005SeemlessSeemless
2003Dust Eater DogsHardbiter's Inn
2004DisengageApplication For An Afterlife
2005Kids in the WayApparitions of Melody
2002Cave InTides of TomorrowMore from Project 86
2004Songs To Burn Your Bridges By
2005...And the Rest Will Follow
2002Truthless Heroes
2000Drawing Black Lines
