Alternative Press used to be a pretty decent music magazine. Since it willfully threw all of its eggs into the nu-punk/emo/screamo/metalcore basket a couple of years back, however, the publication has pretty much only been good for introducing readers to the latest bands to sound exactly like the latest bands of six months ago. Well, it looks like the mag is back to being marginally useful – it's currently sponsoring a tour spotlighting some new sounds of hardcore. Local all-ages punk fans will no doubt be quite familiar with hometown-hero Christian act Underoath, whose original screamo sound inspired both legions of imitators and a massive underground following so loyal that not even the replacement of original vocalist Dallas Taylor and the more accessible style of 2004's They're Only Chasing Safety could faze it. The real treat here, though, is These Arms Are Snakes – the Seattle outfit's complex yet primal blasts offer a truly singular new wrinkle to the hardcore milieu without coming off as metalicious gimmickry.
Underoath w/Chariot/These Arms Are Snakes/Fear Before The March of Flames. Fri., May 13 @ The Masquerade, Ybor City. 6:30 p.m., $12.
-Scott Harrell
This article appears in May 12-18, 2005.