Sparrows Dragging Hell - EP

While more people argue over what is or isn’t “punk” or “emo,” the definition of post-hardcore has morphed throughout the 10 to 15 years nearly just as much as those musical trigger words. Fugazi was post-hardcore in the ’80s; Quicksand and Hot Water Music were post-hardcore in the ’90s; Thursday and Silverstein were post-hardcore in the ’00s, and now, bands like Pierce The Veil and Dance Gavin Dance get the label. There’s a throughline there if you really study it, but the nice thing about a band like Sparrows is they don’t lock themselves into just one decade’s worth of evolution. On their new EP, Dragging Hell, the songs bounce between soaring instrumentals that could’ve been from Moneen’s The Red Tree to howling vocals that are a cross between Geoff Rickly and Davey Havok. The band doesn’t limit themselves to the self-imposed restrictions of a pop song, either, with three of the EP’s four tracks stretching past five minutes, and one cracking six.

1. References to the Dead
2. Our Father, the Failure
3. Hit the Kill Switch and Silence the Storm
4. It's Always Sunny in Bramalea