36 Crazyfists

36 Crazyfists/Scars of Tomorrow Even in a genre marked by really bad, interchangeable band names, 36 Crazyfists, a metalcore crew from Alaska by way of Portland, Oregon, has the worst moniker of them all. (For a list of 35 other famous fists, visit C-Notes, Scene's new blog, at www.Clevescene.com/blogs.) But the music isn't nearly as bad as the name. Sure, the band's new disc, Rest Inside the Flames, has some gratuitous melodic vocals, but its breakdown-heavy screamo -- which rocks enough to make the group qualify for headliner status -- is looser than that of other comparable acts.

On 2004's Rope Tied to the Trigger, Victory Records' Scars of Tomorrow sounded like a bunch of modern hardcore kids who listened to too much Papa Roach. Fortunately all traces of rappish crossover are gone from The Failure of Drowning, as these Helmet disciples from Orange County have returned with a hard-kicking rager of a disc produced by Matt Bayles, the ace engineer-producer who's worked with Mastodon and Norma Jean. This is one band that shouldn't be a supporting act for too much longer.