The late 1990s and early 2000s were a pivotal time for emotional hardcore. Throughout the 90s, there had been a development within emo that saw the emergence of the harsher styles of screamo and emoviolence. This culminated into a period towards the closure of the decade in which several notable bands came close to perfecting prior templates set within the style or expanding upon the genre to create more dynamic and ambitious songs. I think a lot of skramzheads would agree that Neil Perry was a particularly special band that emerged during that era.
Neil Perry seems like somewhat of an underdog in comparison to other influential screamo acts of the era such as Orchid, Saetia, Jeromes Dream, City of Caterpillar, and Pageninetynine. This may be in large part because they never released a full length album. The most definitive release of theirs is the Lineage Situation compilation that gathers all of their songs from various EPs and splits in reverse chronological order. To my ears, the first six songs on the comp, and thus the last six the group released, are what I consider some of the most fascinating songs to ever emerge from the emotional hardcore milieu. While the band's earlier releases were much more in line with the traditional fast blistering fury of 90s emoviolence bands like In/Humanity and Mohinder, by the time of their 2001 split with A Day’s Refrain, the group would more readily give their songs room to breath by juxtaposing overdriven riffs and the monolithic drum theatrics of Justin Graves with melancholic clean guitar melodies and even a little bit of singing. While this balance of ferocity and frailty had been apparent from the inclusion of the sombre closing track on their otherwise aggressive self-titled debut release, the later material fuses the two sensibilities together in a concise and more affecting way. It might be tempting to say that Neil Perry was the band that tied all of the main tendencies of early 2000s screamo together in that they began with a similar frenzied sonic onslaught to that of Jeromes Dream and Orchid, had the metallic edge of Lovelostnotforgotten and Pageninetynine, the melancholic softness of Saetia, and some of the sprawling post-rock sensibilities of City of Caterpillar and Funeral Diner.
Nonetheless, I think Neil Perry's sound is singular enough that you can readily detect their influence in the works of newer screamo bands. For me, one of the years best screamo releases comes from Pennsylvania’s brushburn, whose The Most Withered of Flowers EP is very clearly an updated take on later-era Neil Perry songwriting by further injecting it with the moshy breakdown sensibility that more prominent in current screamo than it has ever been before. The band also titled one song “Overcoming What You Hate” in what I’m pretty sure is a reference to the NP song “Becoming What You Hate.” Furthermore, brushburn has made covering “Breathing With One Bad Lung” a staple in their live set. This song had also been covered by notable Californian band Widowdusk numerous times during their run in the early 2020s.
In spite of most of their catalogue not being on streaming services, Neil Perry continues to be an influential and well-loved band. I often wonder what kind of shockwaves a Neil Perry full-length would’ve sent through the scene, because those six final tracks pointed towards something very idiosyncratic and special. We’ll never know, but the door they cracked ajar is still there to be kicked open. My hope is that their commitment to stretching the limits of hardcore is something that other bands continue to strive for.
May 30, 2026