Ancient Heads Demo Vol. II (Demo Dogz #6)

like...yoinks Scoob! 

Woah. I slept on their first demo, but came across the second installment to find that it's a ripper. These dudes are from Toronto, they're straight edge and I heard physical versions of their cassettes were being sold at Not Dead Yet fest in Toronto, and that piqued my interest enough to try and procure one (details on how you can do so at the end of this post). 

The name "Ancient Heads" is awesome. I mean, there's so many interpretations. I'm imagining deep space explorers crash landing on some old planet of humanoid raccoons. They happen upon the hidden temple, cloaked deep within the reaches of a steaming jungle to find rows and rows of ancient heads...that are EXACT replicas of their own! The explorers freak out and...yeah, it pretty much writes itself. The other would be like "Heads" (meaning "experts" or "fanatics" of the "ancient" variety). Like an ancient sneaker head...or something else even more ridiculous that my brain is struggling to come up with. 

The Andrew Peden cover art is insane. I Love the stippling and the image of a youth-crew kid running away from a Scooby Doo-esque mummy.  Also I'm a fan of the Youth of Today graffiti on the pyramid wall. Imagine Ray and Porcell being chased by mummies. It's Boomerang-channel gold!

Tunewise, this has some definite youth crew elements, but doesn't completely pander to that aesthetic, so if that ain't your bread n' butta, don't shut off. In the riffs and urgency I hear traces of Floorpunch, but it's a little bit burlier, and the punchiness can probably be attributed to a recording/production by Jonah Falco, but it's fresh and vital in ways that a lot of the youth crew type bands aren't really nailing.  Also that mosh part in "Waste of Life" that cannot (should not?) go unmentioned as one of the more well-placed bits of a core song. 

Verdict: Definitely check this out. Bandcamp here and if you couldn't trek to NDY last month, you can still score a physical cassette here.