Gabriel: Connecticut's long lost secret
Apparently it's quite likely that this demo belonged to my former college roommate and its seems possible simply because I have no idea exactly how I got my hands on it. One thing that is certain is that this demo is by far one of the best. Though I know little about the band's short history, Gabriel hailed from Connecticut in the late 1990s. A time when the CT scene was thriving with young and original bands like Cable, In Vain, Faultline, Hatebreed and Cornerstone.The band's lineup featured some of Connecticut's veterans with Jeremy "Bubba" Braddock on guitar (who also played guitar for In Vain and currently 100 Demons) as well as Jason Labbe on drums (who later joined The Weigh Down) Unfortunately other than that I have very little information on the band.
What I do know is that Gabriel style was aggressive and melodic, much like In Vain or Council Of Five Nations, who all seemed to share members. By today's standards I guess you could maybe pin it down to a style similar to early Hopesfall or New Day Rising, minus the singing. Gabriel's vocalist Kyle had quite a set of lungs while the backing vocals remind me somewhat of Tripface in that it comes off almost gang styled. They never truly overpowered you, but more seemed to be oriented around a groove much like post hardcore bands of their time. While Cable were noisy and In Vain were far more melodic, Gabriel seemed to be falling right in between. Clearly a band that would have been labeled screamo had they come out a few years later.
I really wish I had more information to pass on, but what I will leave you are the MP3's of their entire demo. Hopefully you will enjoy this as much as I have all these years.
Gabriel - Shank
Gabriel - Hour Glass
Gabriel - Stript Gear
Gabriel - Pond
posted by Christopher at 6:09 PM
5 Comments:
Someone came across your blog and sent a link my way. Council of Five Nations and In Vain, had a style that was born of the willamantic scene, from a great club up there , that produced some really interesting bands. THe style was more open to new ideas and very creative a result I think of more influence in music style and also the encouragement of Charlie the guy who ran the club who was very much into many types of music. Faultline, and hatebreed, grew up out of the New Haven, Tune In style of music, which was more traditional. I really liked both.
Nice blog.
John Hirsch, aka John Faultline (www.johnhirsch.org
There was also a long island band named Gabriel that as far as i know only had one demo but I enjoyed it. I don't know what ever happened to them but I am pretty sure I saw them at the first local 7 once or twice
I am sure that there were plenty of bands with the name Gabriel. I do remember the hearing of the LI band, but I never actually heard them. Perhaps having the name means you can only release one demo?!
Wow, this some good stuff. Reminds me of the better days when the "screamo" sound was actually pretty cool.
Glad to see you're posting again. It's always good to hear under-the-radar bands and feel some nostalgia.
Looking for information on In Vain. Does anyone know where online I can get some of their old stuff?
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