This Is Hell/Nightmare Of You Split 7"

This is an interesting project. This Is Hell is a melodic hardcore band from Long Island, New York... Nightmare of You is a pop/indie project from the same area. It is quite a contrast of music styles, but it begins to make sense when you realize that the front men of both bands are brothers. Travis Reilly fronts This Is Hell and his older brother of The Movielife fame, Brandon Reilly runs the Nightmare of You show.

The difference of styles is really interesting when listening to it.

The first half of this split is This Is Hell and it is as fast and furious as anything they have ever released. Their contribution are two unreleased tracks that were recorded during the recording of 'Misfortunes', which came out earlier this year. They sound very much like they were written in that same time frame, though it is obvious why they were not included with the rest of that record. They don't exactly sound like they fit in with that group of songs, they are great as stand alone tracks though. 'Cement Shoes' could be one of my favorite songs that This Is Hell has ever recorded, and 'Built Upon Grief' is an intense blast of hardcore with some melodic bits that are fantastic and it was a lot more than I was expecting with this release.

Nightmare Of You's half of the split is a little more difficult for me to nail down as I am pretty unfamiliar with the band in general. My experience with their previous material is pretty minimal, but I really enjoy what I hear here. It's a dark indie type of music that reminds me of England for some reason, like if the Beatles were moved forward in time to this point in music, their tunes would sound a lot like this. The first track, 'Dopesick Couples' is an acoustic track which is quite the contrast from the This Is Hell portion. 'You Don't Have To Tell Me' finishes off the split with an ambient indy rock ballad with some neat electonic stuff in it that is a pretty nice accompaniment to the rest of the music.

Bottom line, if you like either of these bands, you probably want this, and if you don't you should probably check out the bands anyway.

This Is Hell on Myspace
Nightmare Of You on Myspace
Run For Cover Records
Pre-Order [Early Nov. Release]