[Punk] The Huguenots - Discography [album]

The Huguenots are a band that you probably won't have heard of, and they split up in the 90's. So why bother with this release after so long? Well Discography, as the name suggests, is the entire recorded history of a band who's members went on to bigger and better thing. In that sense this is almost like listening to a prototype, but listening to it long after the finished article had been presented to you.

It is incredibly hard to find out anything about this band. The guitars are Kurt Ballou (now of Converge), the bass is Aaron Stuart (now lead guitarist with the soon to be defunct Piebald), vocals are by Matt Oates (now with Angels Of Meth) and drums come courtesy of Dan Colby (formerly of The Explosion). Apart from that there really isn't anything else to find out. Once you know who was in the band and that they recorded 16 tracks (well, 15, but one of them appears twice) which last a total of 38 minutes then you're pretty much an authority on the band.

The music is a bit of a grower really, post hardcore with lots of emphasis on Ballou's guitar work. The vocals tend to be either spoken or shouted, occasionally to the point of incoherence, but never go so far as to be screaming. That is something I'm very grateful for as I think it would ruin these tracks, much like it ruins a lot of tracks these days. There are occasional moments of oddness, quite possibly what makes this album worthwhile, where you can hear the embryo of a bigger musical idea not being fully realised. That's not to say it sounds bad, just that a few years after these recordings there were bands doing the same things in a more defined way.

Apart from that there really isn't anything to say. This is most likely suitable for completist fans of Converge and Piebald, not really aimed at gaining The Huguenots a belated fanbase.

If you're curious to hear what they sounded like then you can hear a few tracks on The Huguenots (MySpace)