Album Spotlight: I Could Tell The World by Tiefighter

 

By Ryan Germ
Tiefighter, one of the most underrated 00’s hardcore bands ever. They were in the same pop influenced bubble of hardcore that bands such as Fight Fair and Daggermouth (bet you haven’t heard those names in a while) except they did it the perfect way in my opinion. Now I’m not dissing Fight Fair, in fact I love Settle The Score. But instead of relying on the poppy side, Tiefighter primarily leaned on the hardcore side with this debut record. Anyways without any further ado let’s dive into this record.

It begins with track 1, CTRL ALT DEL. It starts with feedback before going into fast fun melodic hardcore with screams and gang vocals all the way through, it transitions into another short song called You’re The New Metalcore. I didn’t give this a new paragraph because it’s 16 seconds long, it’s fast and angry and borders on powerviolence. Strong opening 2 tracks.

Track 3 is where we really discover Tiefighter’s sound with the song The Face of a Liar. This starts fast like the past 2 songs before going into a breakdown, which for a melodic hardcore band is really solid. It goes into a two step part with lyrics such as “This time you’ve gone too far/You’re speaking empty words from an empty heart/With an empty heart were you alive/'Cause when you said you lived, you fucking died” before going into a breakdown significantly more punk than the first, yet still chugging. The song ends with their final shouts, it encapsulates everything good about Tiefighter’s sound and if you haven’t heard it now is the time.

Track 4 is another crowd favorite for fans of Tiefighter and it’s called Chewed Up and Spit Out. It showcases even poppier elements with the hardcore vocals mixed with classic 00’s pop punk vocals. The guitars in this track are somewhat reminiscent of Title Fight’s Last Thing You Forget with the leads played. Around a minute and a half there’s a really good two step part before cutting out for compressed drums over lofi leads. The song ends with another chorus. Before throwing you into Track 5

The next song, Everything is the most poppy of the bunch, sounding closer to Man Overboard or The Wonder Years with screaming background vocals than a melodic hardcore song. Granted there’s a very bouncy breakdown around a minute in, but it goes back into a solo before the breakdown comes in slower, but it’s a happier sounding breakdown than most in the record. Normally I would bash a song like this, but it’s honestly a really fun minute and a half long break from the first half while still maintaining the breakdowns.

It leads into The Resignation which starts with a drum fill into more pop punk riffs. The HC vocals are back at the forefront of this song, and the drumming is the best on the record. It’s stop and start but not in a way that sounds like he’s losing time, more so a way that sounds complex. Another fun drum fill signals in a groovy 2 step part followed by a breakdown, both of which makes you wanna bob your head and have fun than cave another persons skull.

The next track (So, It’s Come To This) starts with a reversed cymbal hit which is extremely 2008. It switches between full blown screams and half singing in the verses with the cadence the vocals are in. The bell work is absolutely crazy in this one, and the stop and start action is great though it isn’t as prevalent as the last song. Close to the 1:45 part it slows down and is kind of a emo esque breakdown, it’s not heavy enough to crowdkill or spinkick to. But it is half time. So take that as you will.

Nostalgia is the next song, and its the interlude every HC record before 2010 has. However I like this more than others as the leads are nice and somewhat calming, and the intro is sort of ominous with the bell and guitar noises. To get to the bottom line, it’s more dynamic than a lot of other interludes I’ve heard with each hit on each seperate cymbal building to a crescendo.

After that the song 143 starts off with a tasty drum fill and an opening breakdown, it transitions into a fast part with the pop punk vocals returning along side the screams. A 2 step part occurs over a lead before repeating from the start. After the second time it goes to just bass for a side to side into an aggressive two step part and a thicker breakdown that plays through the end.

The next song Fall Away is an acoustic song. It’s objectively really good and has a great chord progression I like. But I feel like if it was like the rest of the record it’d reach a whole other level of greatness. But it’s really well written and sung, and all that matters is what we have instead of the “what if’s”, right?

The song This Means War kicks the record back into full gear. It’s another fast song but the two step part I like the most because it leads in on the toms before being super riffy when it fully kicks in.

The penultimate song Theives starts fast with hardcore and gang vocals. The mosh part for this track is lead in by a bassline which I enjoy, and it ties in the 2 step parts I like with the stop and start drumming which is as it sounds.

A Bad End To a Worse Story caps off the record, and looking at the runtime you may be intimidated, but I’m here to assure you that this is not hardcores version of 2112, just a good melodic hardcore song. So it starts with a snare roll before switching between the hardcore vocals and the Blink esque vocals. There’s more tempo changes in this song than what I heard previously on the record. The lyrics paint a picture of a breakup with the opening bar “Forget about everything I ever said to you!/No matter what you thought you did, your heart was never true./I put myself on the line, and you just crossed it./I would have given up everything, and you would have done the opposite”. There’s a breakdown around a minute and a half in, which switches to a slightly more pop punk infused one towards the end. If you let it play for the full 15 minutes you’ll end up hearing the band fucking around, a fun touch for those who forgot to stop this from playing.

Overall this record I wouldn’t say changed the world. But I’d argue it’s vital to modern pop punk infused melodic hardcore. If you’re coming into this expecting the greatest record of all time you’ll be disappointed. But if you come into this expecting a really really fucking good melodic hardcore record, you came to the right spot.