VINCE GUGLIELMI (PORTRAITS OF ANGER/THE DAILY SNOB/NO ECHO)
PHOTO CREDIT: JO GOT SHOTS (@jo_gotshots)
1. Vince, welcome to All the Cores and More! I know you said you’re usually the one asking the questions, so it’ll be fun to put the shoe on the other foot as it were. Let’s start with The Daily Snob. Break it down for readers who may not be familiar.
Hi Jacob! I’m excited to do this. The Daily Snob is a blog I’ve done on and off since 2011. It started out on Blogspot when I was in college for journalism. The focus shifts depending on my tastes and involvement level in music but it’s more or less a combination of underground music reviews plus my personal rants and raves, or very occasional interviews. I moved to Substack in 2023 and it’s taken off quite a bit since then. The focus has also shifted pretty heavily to hardcore at this point.
I’m currently busy with bands so the blog is less active, but I try to put out six new music reviews a month at the very least. I also launched a Patreon-only podcast earlier this year, which has kind of replaced the “rants and raves” portion of the blog for now. Hardcore is a big part of my life but it’s not my job. I try and tailor my involvement to what brings me the most joy. Right now I prefer being an active face in the scene, but I know people love and support TDS. I try to strike a balance and commit to my readers without burning myself out.
2. You also play guitar in Portraits of Anger. What is the band’s origin story and how would you describe your sound/what influences are you pulling from?
Our vocalist Lucas and I were in a goofy band called Made Men together before POA. We talked during that time about our love for 7 Angels 7 Plagues and discussed maybe starting a band like that. Made Men imploded in a blaze of glory in the spring of 2024, which is around the time Artillery From Heaven by Contention came out. Before then, I wasn’t fully sold on the metalcore revival, but that record showed me this new crop of stuff had something for everyone.
I started writing riffs for POA and Lucas was the first person I showed them to. Basically my inspiration was turn of the century “edge metal” stuff that Contention pulled from, along with some melody from the aforementioned 7A7P. Then we recruited Junaid and Speedy from Klobber. The vibes were excellent from our first practice and only got better when Gravy joined. We all met going to hardcore shows, so naturally the classic Victory Records catalog made its way into our sound along with stuff like Day of Suffering and Disembodied. We also added extreme metal and post-hardcore elements because we love that shit too.
I guess what we’re going for is a synthesis of the five year period between 1997-2001 in metalcore. You get a fair bit of melody and some complex songs, but the 90s hardcore elements and ethos are still there.
3. Walk us through the sounds and themes and the writing and recording process for both Demonstration 25 and the split with Hostile Switch.
Oh man, that’s a great question!
Thematically, Portraits of Anger is a pretty apropos band name. The lyrics deal with resentment and frustration through a personal lens. Lucas and I co-wrote our split and I think it had a Voltron-like effect in bringing out the best from both of us. A lot of metalcore is either couched in impossibly dense metaphor or reads like the Unibomber manifesto. I think Lu has a very straightforward, evocative way of writing, and I tried to complement that with some thesaurus words in classic 90s fashion. Buried Alive and Poison the Well are big influences for both of us.
When Tristan from Hostile Switch hit us to do the split, he had a pretty strong thematic idea in mind with the Dante’s Inferno thing. It fit well with our vibe of navigating pain and anger from personal trauma, though I think we take a super direct route to those topics. The song names “Apostasy” and “Effigies Infernalis” were chosen to fit with the religious/heretical themes. I believe we navigate heaven and hell on this earthly plain through our mind, body and spirit. The lyrics of our songs reflect those struggles even if they don’t explicitly name it.
Our demo was recorded and produced over the course of six months by our bassist (then-drummer) Speedy at his old spot called Fast Track Studios. I hope one day someone makes a documentary about all the hilarious and demented stuff that went down there. It was an incredibly fun process that involved a lot of “learning on the fly”.
The split was more focused. The songs were already written and rehearsed when we took them to the studio. We spent an immersive two-week period recording with our friend/guitarist Ryan Dobson at his spot in Oakville, then sent them to Will Hirst for mixing and mastering.
Sonically, I think the demo is just that: a “demonstration of intent” or “proof of concept” as some call it. The elements are all present but not put together in a way that makes total sense. The split songs were refined through rehearsal and performance. I think that led to a more developed, cohesive sound. In short, I think track one on our side sounds like Poison the Well and the second song sounds like From the Dying Sky, although they’re both distinctly POA.
4. What was your gateway to hardcore? Can you take us down the iceberg?
My journey into hardcore is well documented. I got in kind of late for folks of my era. I was 20 when I went to my first show. I spent a few years in the more melodic or screamo adjacent scene of the day. Then I got a super intensive job and couldn’t regularly attend shows for a while. I didn’t want to drop out or become one of those guys who “outgrew” hardcore because being involved in DIY, even for a short time, radically informed my life. So, I went digging and got into a lot of classic stuff that I didn’t “get” when I was younger.
I moved to Toronto in 2017 and became more involved locally. In 2020 I got a car. That’s when I started pulling up to shows across the province on a regular basis and travelling to the US. I feel like I’m entering a new chapter with all the band stuff going on. Like I said before though, I try and center the parts of this that bring me the most joy.
5. For folks who may not be as aware of the “lay of the land” in the Toronto/Southern Ontario scene, would you be able to provide a brief snapshot of bands people should be paying attention to as well as any major figures and/or venues that are central to the scene?
Southern Ontario can be cliquey, but not always in a bad way. The Covid reset enabled a lot of weirdos, social climbers and frauds who caused tons of unnecessary drama then moved onto the next trend. I won’t say people are wary now, because most of us are friendly and supportive, but when it comes to doing bands, I think folks want to work with those they know best.
POA comes from a group of seven or eight guys who work well together. That’s something you see across the scene — there’s the Endnote kids, Brampton ex-pats, the Mil-Spec guys, the Niagara crew, so on and so forth. It’s resulted in some incredible music. I can’t remember a time I’ve been this excited about our local scene, although I think things work best when we all try and support each other on some “United and Strong” shit.
I could literally write an essay about ONHC. I cover a lot of it on my aforementioned blog. Check out some of my review roundups if you’re interested. My three favourite venues to see a show at are the Merriton Legion in St. Catharines, Third Moon Brewing in Milton, and the legendary Toronto Style Bar right here in Toronto. The people who regularly book at those places do a great job. I would also be remiss to leave out Greg Not Dead Yet, who is the Wayne Gretzky of booking shows in Southern Ontario.
More people need to put respect on Klobber. We also share members with Fresh Start and 50 Grand. Big shout out to Butcher, Hunting Season and My Place of Rest — college and high school aged kids who show up to bare shows and mosh crazy style. Real deal hardcore.
6. What are some of your favorite releases so far this year—local or otherwise?
Locally: God’s Last Wish, The Brink, The Many, Butcher, Constrain, the Hostile Switch side of our split. Our side of our split to be honest ;)
Otherwise: X-Force, Lose Sight, Seven Crown, Temple Guard, Ethic, Start Today, Subversive Intent, Quick to Judge, Torture Realm, Wreckage, Contain, Shit’s Creek.
7. Who would be your Big Four of either (or both) Canadian hardcore and/or metalcore?
I’m honestly way more of a hardcore kid. My true big four is too Toronto-centric so I’ll give you two lists. One Toronto-based and one for the rest of Canada.
Toronto - No Warning, Fucked Up, Mil-Spec, Urban Blight.
Elsewhere - Wild Side, Left For Dead, Bootlicker, Comeback Kid (I wanted to say Go It Alone or Strain but I would be capping).
Metalcore - Protest the Hero, Misery Signals, Unmoved, Estate of Grace.
8. What’s your take on disbanded or “lying fallow” legacy bands (and fests) re-emerging over the last few years?
Reunions are so woven into the fabric of hardcore at this point that what I have to say is probably akin to what my grandpa thought of cell phones. Still, I don’t think hardcore was supposed to have “legacy acts”. I don’t even think most first wave hardcore kids thought they were gonna live past 1985. Obviously it panned out different 50 years later and things inevitably change. That being said, if you took a Time Machine to 1982 and told Henry Rollins or Ian MacKaye about some of the reunion activities going on these days they would throw up in their mouths.
I like reunion bands that play regularly. I’ll always try and catch Youth of Today, Gorilla Biscuits, All Out War or Negative Approach, but they still do the damn thing and hit the road as often as 60 year old men possibly can. I also think some of these sentimental one offs are so impactful. Foundation at FYA, for example, was a “right place, right time” thing and they didn’t wear out their welcome at all. Same with the Straight Ahead reunions, especially because Sick of it All is finished and those dudes probably still have the itch to play music.
Without casting too many aspersions on things I don’t like, I almost always prefer to see young active bands build their own legacies and make their own history. I also think this fest circuit has become somewhat of a cottage industry for hardcore’s version of the Disney Adult to cut loose and relive their high school days for a weekend. That is wack as hell. It’s an unfortunate byproduct of these fests getting so big that making money becomes a top priority.
Though I will say, Harold from Total Supply Records (whose opinion I greatly respect) refers to Tied Down as “the best weekend of the year” and I always have a good time there. Wack fest shit has existed since I started going to shows. You can customize your experience to avoid it.
9. I don’t feel like metalcore is so much at a crossroads as it’s splintered into a couple of different dominant sub-types if not separate genres entirely (metalcore that’s basically been absorbed by metal, metalcore that’s its own self-contained entity (see: Metalcore Twitter and the reaction channel sphere), Octane-core, and of course metalcore that’s still rooted in/an outgrowth of hardcore). I’m curious to get your thoughts on this, the state of modern metalcore, and where you see it going.
Oh man this is another awesome and complex question. Contemporarily, I only know the stuff that comes from hardcore. Our demo dropped on Yetzer Hara Records. Interacting with some label mates who are dyed in the wool metalcore kids illuminated how much goes on outside my catchment. It also tripped me out because I don’t come from that world. It’s hard for me to feel real kinship with a “-core kid” who’s never heard “Burning Fight”, even if we are on the same label or in the same scene.
I’m 35, though. I won’t shame a youngster who thinks Attack! Attack! is classical music. That said, I hear those influences in some of what we play with or get compared to, which is nuts. Five years ago only a genuine lunatic would admit to liking both Arkangel and Beartooth, but it happens now. I’m sure battle lines are being drawn amongst the youth but I’ll leave that to them.
I think the lane of stuff we play has a very interesting future. On one hand, Hellfest metalcore is set to inform heavy hardcore going forward. There’s pushback from people my age, but most younger kids thankfully don’t give a fuck. Our pals God’s Last Wish feature members of Sold Short who are a Total Supply band. That’s a common thing going back to the kids from Anxious playing in both Last Straw and xNOMADx. It feels quite grassroots and exciting. The metalcore I liked before POA started, like 7A7P, DoS and Kickback, is super influential now in this weird way where one day I woke up and a million bands were doing it, us included. That stuff is being cemented as hardcore canon if it wasn’t before. Tale as old as time.
On the other side, big DIY movements usually end up falling into the LiveNation world and breaching containment. Balmora was going that route. It will be interesting to see what happens now, but the wheels are already moving. Underground music fans love the idea of hardcore’s authenticity, and successful hardcore musicians often reach a point where they say “are we gonna continue to sleep on people’s floors eating Taco Bell and Kind Bars until we’re 40 or should we try playing the game?” Then those bands get pushback from their OG fans and start doing weird tours where they become a gateway to “real” hardcore.
I witnessed this in the early 2010s screamo scene with bands like La Dispute and Touché Amore. Then again with Code Orange and Jesus Piece. Then Drug Church and Fiddlehead. New bands will take that “true” aesthetic and combine it with stuff hardcore kids turn their nose up at. Hundredth and Counterparts are a good example — bands who wrote Have Heart riffs with “running in place” breakdowns. Local bands will also switch their sound up to match trends, which often results in some really strange shit.
It’s an interesting cycle and it will be fascinating to see how this plays out with a scene I’m directly involved in. I’m more interested in small room stuff at my age, but who knows what could happen? Canada has a lot of current revival or “small m” metalcore bands that I genuinely love. I think our scene has an opportunity to do something really impactful. Part of me believes we already are. We gotta wait five years to find out the whole story.
10. Let’s close with a fun exercise. I’ll say a band, person, term, practice, or place, and you say what comes up for you organically in ten words or less. First one:
Alexisonfire - One of the best to ever do it. Huge influence.
(I consider them a post-hardcore band, that’s why they didn’t show up on my lists)
Matty Matheson - Parts and Labour was cool, I guess.
Cancer Bats - Never did much for me. “Hail Destroyer” is a track.
Gatekeeping - There’s right ways and wrong ways to do it.
No Warning - Ill Blood best hardcore record not from the 80s.
Democore - Keeps the scene alive, but only when it’s creative.
Zany Costumes at hardcore shows - Only permissible if you contribute to the scene.
(BUYING A TICKET DOES NOT COUNT AS CONTRIBUTING IN THIS CASE)
Quebec - Second home. Portraits of Anger “Quebec Metalcore” shirts coming soon.
Vince Guglielmi - Humblest and most handsome man in southern Ontario:)