Maximillian Colby - Discography

Somewhere in the mid-90s hardcore got mixed up, torn apart and recalculated in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Nobody knew what to make of it, what to call it or how to define it; it was a dynamic composite of dissonance, beauty and honesty that unshackled genres and freed emotion. Of course, I speak of Maximillian Colby – a collective of seemingly incongruent members that regrouped on the campus of James Madison University to overhaul hardcore by altering it between a split personality of beauty and mellowness and tenacity and jaggedness. Sadly, this near-legendary outfit is no more and their eulogy rests peacefully with this album, the appropriately titled Discography, and assures its place in underground rock history. The material here varies between the clean, hypnotizing plucks of the eight-minute opener of “New Jello” and the bruising frenetic journey of “Coughin’” – but the real magic is Maximillian Colby’s ability to combine the two extremes into one taut package of pure rock intensity and unadulterated emotion. Discography won’t change the musical world or alter the state of its dynamics, but what it does do is give an appropriate conclusion to one of the most revitalizing bands in the mid-90s hardcore scene. And if this record changes just one person’s perspective on the confines of anguished hardcore, alters just one person’s point of view on the captivating possibilities of sonic extremes and enables just one person to remember this artistically cathartic outfit, it was all worth it. [www.lovitt.com]