Integrity- Humaity Is The Devil 10"

My mate from Sydney sold this to me yesterday. Overnight postage. Ian rules.

$20 and a few zines. Good deal.

Trial. Chicago. 2009. Going.

RIPPED FROM A TRIAL BULLETIN TODAY:

Burni​ng Fight​ Book Relea​se Show (​​Two-​​Day Pass)​​

May 2nd - 3rd, 2009

BURNI​NG FIGHT​ - 90'S HARDC​ORE BOOK RELEA​SE SHOW

featu​ring

UNBRO​KEN
DISEM​BODIE​D
TRIAL​
MOUTH​PIECE​
KILLI​NGTIM​E
UNDER​DOG
GUILT​
SPLIT​ LIP
THREA​DBARE​
108
REACH​ THE SKY
DAMNA​TION
RINGW​ORM
BANE
HAVE HEART​
BETRA​YED
BLACK​LISTE​D
SOUL CONTR​OL
THE KILLE​R
HARMS​ WAY
CONVI​CTED
THOUG​HT CRUSA​DE

* Lineu​p subje​ct to chang​e *

LOCAT​ION
Metro​
3730 N Clark​ St
Chica​go,​​ IL 60613​

TICKE​TS
$55.00 - Two Day Pass (​​Advan​ce)​​
Singl​e Day Ticke​ts will not be avail​able in advan​ce and will only be avail​able on the day of show if the event​ does not sell out in advan​ce.​​

Note:​​ A stric​t 4 ticke​t per perso​n restr​ictio​n will be enfor​ced on all pre-​​sale order​s for this event​!​​ Addit​ional​ order​s will be cance​lled and ticke​ts will not be honor​ed.​​

Ticke​ts for this event​ are non-​​trans​ferab​le and re-​​sale is stric​tly prohi​bited​.​​ Ticke​t-​​holde​rs and their​ guest​s (if appli​cable​)​​ must arriv​e at the venue​ toget​her on the first​ day of the event​ and the ticke​t-​​holde​r will be asked​ to prese​nt photo​ ID that match​es the name on the order​.​​ No excep​tions​ will be made at the venue​ and refun​ds will not be issue​d.​​

May 2 - 3, 2009
Metro​
3730 N Clark​ St
Chica​go,​​ IL 60613​

Doors​ open:​​ 12:​​00 PM
Age restr​ictio​n:​​ All Ages

May 2 - 3, 2009
(Two Day Pass)​​

Ticke​t Price​:​​ $55.00
Servi​ce Fee: $7.00
Advan​ce ticke​ts for this event​ are not yet avail​able for pre-​​sale.​​ Pleas​e check​ back at 7:00 pm (​​CST)​​ on Thurs​day,​​ Novem​ber 6th to purch​ase ticke​ts.​

Good Day

Another day of spending too much money. 

This is what a trip to the local record store will get you (or me, whatever).

Integrity 7", Brick Fight S/T 7", Rhythm To The Madness 7"

Lone Wolf 7", The Carrier first 7"

Know The Score- "All Or Nothing"

Not much to say about this Know The Score LP. It's the bands 2 previous CD releases together on the one piece of wax. Go figure. Rad band... pity about the terrible fucken label they're on. 

Wasn't terribly worried about limited pressing with this. I wasn't even gonna get it originally. But I had some extra cash laying around. White Marble /900.

Mystery 7" (Living Darkness)

I was going through my 7"s today looking for some good photos to scan for the zine, when I came across this ep by Living Darkness. First off, to the best of my knowledge, I don't ever remember buying this record. It doesn't look at all familiar, and I have no idea how long it's been there. It's the weirdest thing. Other than this record, I know where I got every single piece in my collection. I could tell you where, when, and for how much I got it for pretty much. But fuck, I have absolutely no idea where this one came from. I'm seriously confused.
 Anyway, I'm thinking that I probably bought it off Borg and Endless Blockades distro, then slammed it straight into it's box when I got home but again, I'm not sure. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but I'll check it out tomorrow. I read through the insert, and they're from Toronto, and Chris Colohan does guest vocals, so you can bet what they sound like. I'm actually quite excited to give this one a spin.

Late post (i've had these for a few weeks)

I like Gehenna.

Got the Forensics ep for free with the Hatred Surge 5" I posted about last week. Not really my dig, but a free record is a free record. The Cruel Hand single serves no purpose really, other than to build funds for B9 I guess. I wouldn't normally bother, but I love Cruel Hand, and this 7" has rad art. /300.

Records

1917 Records gimme the shits. I pre ordered the last Guns Up! LP in ''06, I pre ordered the last Bracewar LP in '07, and I pre ordered this Violation LP... and all 3 times, I got the records long after they were actually out in the stores, and I never got the most limited press with any of them. Fuck that, I won't order from that label again. Anyway. I love the colour of this record.

/307

Got the last piece of the current puzzle in this Rot In Hell/Hordes split 7" too. Rot In Hell cover Integrity, and Hordes cover Entombed. How can one go wrong?!

Connections Pre Order

I got my Connections pre order 7" today. To be honest though, youth crew (bar the odd band here and there) really isn't my dig at all. The main reason I pre ordered this ep was because of the pure fact that Allan Reid is involved. Great dude, who's been around for ever, and I suspect will be around until he dies. And when you think about it, the idea behind this band is pretty fucken cool. For more details click here.

I like hand numbered sleeves. As you can see though, it looks like I got in a little later than most. To be honest I thought I was quick as shit. Oh well.

The photo doesn't really do proper justice, but the colour of the wax is actually a really nice, light green. Something I haven't really seen before.  The insert is also a super good quality A4 sheet. Like semi thick, and printed really well. Overall for his first effort in pressing records Allan has done an amazing job.

New Mind Eraser

Young Blood Records just posted a new song from the upcoming Mind Eraser 7", "The Prodigal Son Brings Death", that they're releasing. No idea when the label will finally get the orders going for this record, but this song is good enough for now. From what I've heard this ep will consist of 7 fast, grindy songs, much in the vein of No Comment, whereas the new LP coming out on Clean Plate Records is just 2 dirge as fuck pieces. To be honest, the MP3 on offer at Clean Plate is turning me on more, but either way both releases will destroy lives I'm sure.

Extortion Interview

Here's an interview I did with Rohan of Extortion for TheSharpEndZine a while back. It was before I really got into any good PV, so please PV heads excuse the noobness of some of my questions. Yhew.

Members? Roles etc?? 

My name is rohan, i "sing" for the band. not very well i might add. forget lyrics at the drop of a hat. in all the previous bands i've been in i played bass.

dan plays bass, surfs and previously played in pc thug and dead hand. he also is looked upon with distain by the hardcore scene for his occassional hairstyle.

dean is a machine. he also plays drums. our previous drummer (rhys) left for england, so i asked him to play and he's picked it up pretty quick and we're back to writing new songs again. he played in some perth hardcore bands in the mid nineties (nailed down, heist, rupture and a few more).

jay plays the axe, lives off poker winnings and is the richest member of the band whilst also being the slackest. also goes by the name grindsnore due to requiring close to 73 hours of sleep a day.

I think it would be reasonably fare to say that Extortion play a style of hardcore that is for the most part still fairly underground within Australia. The music comes across to me as a fairly thrashy, punky blend. What sound are you guys trying achieve when putting together new songs? Is the whole thrash sound what you’re trying to get at? 

well, we wanted to do a hardcore band primarily influence by early 80s boston and early 90s california hardcore, i guess thats why its sounds "punky". hardcore pre-mid nineties was pretty much just fast angry punk (boston style being fast as fuck). and pretty much every band i've been in has been pretty fucking fast, but that just comes down to me liking fast music. so extortion was always gonna be fast, if thats what you mean by thrash sound? i come from a weird parallel universe where the fast parts of songs float my boat more than the slow parts. not that i don't enjoy a good breakdown, but a rad fast beat and riff makes the blood go to my head and the veins pop out like my head is gonna explode, blood, gore and lymph flying hither and thither.

What bands would you rate is big influences? 

as stated in the answer to the previous question-"we wanted to do a hardcore band primarily influence by early 80s boston and early 90s california hardcore" for anyone who doesn't know what that means, early boston bands like siege, negative fx, dys, ssd, deep wound, gang green and jerrys kids. all fucking fast as fuck. these bands also went on to influence the grind scene in UK in the mid 80s (napalm death, heresy, carcass etc). late 80s/early 90 californian bands like infest, no comment, neanderthal and crossed out took what those early boston bands did and "kicked it up a notch". they "pushed the envelope" and as a result created music that hits you "like a tonne of bricks". also got a bit of basic grindcore like napalm death, repulsion and terrorizer in there. just the brutal fast shit eh. whilst i'm name dropping bands, we like to add the occasional weird slow bits, so i guess flipper and sabbath would be the bigger influences there?

Hailing from Perth, do you guys ever feel alienated from the rest of the Aussie scene? Would you say that bands like Miles Away (kind of) recent popularity has really exposed the Perth scene to the rest of the coun-try, if not the world? 

never really think about it to tell the truth. i dunno about the rest of the band, but i personally am more focussed on the next recording and the next show. speaking of shows, its been pretty good recently. shitloads of bands touring over here and enough people going to the shows to make it worth while. so yeah, whilst we are isolated the rest of the country is coming to us (us as in the people of perth, not us as in the members of extortion, that'd be fucking stupid) so we're not really missing out on too much.

What are a few less known bands that are really sounding good at the moment from the your area? 

battletruk and pillar of hope are pretty gnarly. there is a new band called 9 must die, who i haven't heard yet, but the guys in the band don't listen to the dogshit they call "good music" nowadays, so im keen to check them out.


Here in Brisbane it’s fairly obvious that their is a good division between the scenes. On one hand we’ve got bands like Against and Mourning Tide playing the shows at The Basement then we’ve got bands like Mouthguard playing separate shows. Though with that said we have got band like Just Say Go! and RBAY trying to mix it up, but for the most part both scenes are fairly separated. Is is similar in Western Australia? Are there separate metallic and more underground scenes? Do the two co-exist? 

its pretty mixed over here, and it kinda has been since hardcore bands started popping up again around here in about 2000/2001. there are a lot of new metal and emo/metal fusion bands popping up and playing their own shows which is cool, but the music ain't my cup of speed so i generally give those shows a miss.

How has the Perth Hardcore scene grown and progressed in the last few years? 

as i mentioned 5 bazillion emo-metal and death metal bands have popped up outta no-where, a lot of new kids are going to shows. all ages gigs are pretty big nowadays and everyone wears heaps of black. its not good in the heat. kid will be dropping off like flies on the street come summer. it used to be real small, mixed bills cos their weren't enough hardcore bands to do a all hardcore line-up. i dunno how it got so metal, its weird.

How do you see it growing in the next few years? 

i have no idea. other than playing shows i'm not really involved in the scene so much, my finger is not on the pulse. it will be interesting to see how many of the kids, most of which are still in school, will stick with the music and how many drop out. its bizarre how big it is in perth considering the population, it'd be twighlight zone levels of weirdness if it got even bigger.

To date the band has a demo and a 7” under your collective belts. You’re also on the verge of releasing a new LP ‘Degenerate’. How has past material been received? Do you find you’re moving many 7”s outside of Perth? Where else have you guys been doing really well? 

yeah, we've almost sold out of the 7". most of it has gone outside the state actually. when we went on tour with jaws we sold over 100 7"s in sydney and newcastle and ended up not having enough for melbourne cos thats all we brought over. the 7" got a good review in maximum rocknroll, and felix from havoc records bought a stack of them to distro over in america. henk from kangaroo records in netherlands did the same for europe. its cool that dudes who deal with so much music are into it. there are a lot of average or flat out shithouse hardcore bands out there and we try our best not to be too sub-standard.

Tell me a little about the 7” just to get me up to date. Where and when was it recorded etc? 

the 7" was recorded in july of 2005 at bergerk studios over here. we've recorded there with previous bands and were happy with the results, we really wanted a more analouge sound. no shitty triggered drums, no stupid pro-tools over production bullshit. we recorded 16 songs, only 11 fit on the 7", the other 5 are going on a split 7" with jed whitey that was recently organised and should be out in the next few months on missing link records. due to endless delays the first e.p got fucked around and we didn't get the 7" until about a month before the tour (april 2006).

And what’s the deal with the new LP? Will it be available on both record and CD like past releases? 

yeah, the LP is coming out on deep 6 pretty soon, and the cd will be out a little later. in australia common bond will be organising the cd release, and will be out on october the 2nd.

How long did it take to put together? Where and when was it recorded? 

we recorded at begerk again, feburary this year. it took one weekend to get the first guitar and drum tracks down then another to do the second guitar tracks plus any little fiddly bits to fix up. vocals and mixing were done in a few afternoon sessions. we recorded 25 tracks but cut it back to 18 for the album, so we've got a few left over for a split or something.

As of yet you guys haven’t made your way up to Brisbane. Fair enough your following probably isn’t huge up here but bands like The Faux Hawks recently made the trek. Can us Brisbanites expect to see you guys any time soon? It would be awesome if so. 

no.

Where else have you guys been able to tour? 

we did newcastle, sydney and melbourne in april, just a few days due to most of us being unable to take too long off. hence not going to brisbane or adelaide. most of us have full time jobs.

Rohan you have handled all of the Extortion artwork so far as well as doing stuff for Go For Broke! and the cover of this very publication. Where else have you contributed work? Where did you learn to draw so well? 

i've not been taught to draw, i just picked it up from scribbling all over anything since i was a kid. i was into comics for a long time, but kinda stopped collecting cos most of them are fucking stupid.

i've drawn art for a couple of local bands like negative reply, dead hand and i did the jaws demo cover. i used to draw flyers for shows too, but i'm not really involved with putting shows on, so i haven't done many. also did the cover of the secret 7/jahilia split 7", they're south east asian thrash bands that got in contact with me via a guy from singapore thats living over here at the moment. its a good record, i'm ashamed to say i drew a skeleton on a skateboard as the cover art. pretty generic stuff, i shoulda been shot in the face for that.

Do you find yourself getting alot of requests to contribute artwork? 

not really, but then i don't really go outta my way to advertise that i draw shit. which is kind of good because working full time leaves me with not too much spare time and whilst i do enjoy doing this stuff, i wouldn't want to be forced into drawing all the fucking time for little to no gain.

Most of your work that I have seen has been scenes of violence (security guards bashing on kids, dudes holding knives to other dudes necks etc) or scary shit in general. Is this the shit that runs through your head? 

i dunno, it just draw whatever i think would look cool. its never until later when someone tells that drawing a braindead mary driving a kinfe through the body of the baby jesus is more than a little offensive that i even notice. most of the time i'm just worrying if the form and rendering is okay.

extortion music is about fuck-ups, dealing with arseholes and shitty situations. it makes sense that the artwork should follow suit.

So after the release of the new LP what are the bands immediate plans? Any thoughts on big touring or anything like that? 

we haven't really made any plans apart from recording in december so we won't be able to tour til at least early next year and even then its a maybe. the album was recorded in febuary, so we've got a shotload of new material we wanna get recorded, which is the priority. we're not really as geared towards touring as many other bands are. myelf and dean work full time jobs so its a fucker to organise taking enough time off to do a full tour.

Outside of hardcore / thrash / whatever what else are you guys into? Alot of dudes get into skating etc. What do you guys do to pass your time? 

i skate a bit, but just to get around. im shithouse and can't do tricks. dan surfs and doesn't skate but can still ollie better than me. jay never leaves the house except to play poker. fuck knows what dean does. we all smoke mad bongs.

I managed to get my hands on the Collapse 7" the other day. Impressive. What happened there? I know that Piotr had to return home but say he ever came back would there be a Collapse reunion? 

piotr didn't go straight home, i'm pretty sure he's working in malaysia in the polish embassy right now. he has mentioned he would like to come back and do a reunion show or two some time, but as the guitarist (and previous drummer in extortion) rhys has left for europe, it won't be possible for at least a few years when rhys returns. as it is, its pretty unlikely. the collapse breaking up was pretty shitty. it was a band we were all happy with the direction we were heading but it didn't seem right to continue after piotr left.

the collapse recorded earlier this year, a few songs that we were going to record before piotr left, but had to can due to our drummer, james, contracting the bubonic plague the weekend we had booked to record. me and rhys did the vocals on the newer recording. it may be released sooner or later.

Do you ever get any people asking about any of your past endevours like that? Anyone ever ask about AIDS or The Collapse or HOK? 

occasionally. usually in zine interviews. to save time i just wrote up a bunch of stuff in a text file on my computer and copy and paste it into the appropriate place. you'll find most of the answers in the zine can be found in other interviews we've done.

Thanks Rohan. Any threats? 

yes.

I've got a hard on for 5"s

For some reason 5" records turn me on. Maybe cause i've only got 3 of them? Probably.

Got this Hatred Surge record today. It was released about 5 weeks ago and limited to only 100, so I just missed this thing when I went to order from Rescued From Life Records. eBay hunting I went then.

It's clear.

I've had this RZL DZL 5" for probably more than a year now. Cool as. Reminds me of the days when pop groups released CD singles in those shitty cardboard sleeves. No idea of the pressing.

Smoke weed.

My first 5" record. The infamous Converge s/t 5". Black of I think 1000? Well I know they pressed 1000 of it, but it was pressed on white too, so I'm not sure if each colour was 500 or 1000. Either way, mine is hand numbered 675/1000 (couldn't get a good pic, my camera sux). The 2 songs on here are 2 of the bands best efforts ever as far as I'm concerned. Downpour was the first Converge song I ever heard, and it's still my favourite by a longshot, and the Vio-lence cover is sheer brutality.

New stash

In Disgust- "Reality Choke" 10" (clear wax): First heard about this band about 6 weeks ago in an issue of Mindless Mutant Zine. Well actually, I had already heard them on the Trapped In A Scene comp LP that 625 did, but didn't take too much notice. Glad MM turned me in the right direction. Fucken really good southern Cali grind violence. Reminds me alot of Magrudergrind. 

Self Destruct- "All My Friends Are Dead" 7" (black wax): The Endless Quest turned me onto this band. Pretty good Black Flag styled stuff straight outta the UK. To be honest with you though the only real reason I picked this ep up was for the really phat cover art. A top view looking down into some dudes bedroom. Really detailed. Looks rad. (click the photo for a closer look).

Harms Way- s/t 7", and "Imprisoned" 7" (both black wax): Another band I read up on in that issue of Mindless Mutant. They've been described everywhere as a PV band, so I guess that's why I looked into them, but to be honest I'm not getting much PV at all. More like straight up seminal mosh with the odd faster bit here and there. The bands bassist is the singer for Weekend Nachos. Maybe that's where the PV descriptions come from? Anyway, the "Imprisoned" ep has been out for more than 18 months, and the other one has just come out in the last month or so. I managed to get both from Rev though, so I guess not many dudes are frothing on this band? I'm not really either, but I'm definatley not ashamed to have these 2 eps in my collection.

Creatures- s/t 7" (black wax): Cool kinda fastish, thrashy stuff from the states. Rev describes these guys as a negative band "that brings to mind Think I Care and Sheer Terror". Eh maybe? Not as good as either band, but still alright. Grabbed from Rev.

9 Shocks Terror- "Mobile Terror Unit" 7" (purple wax): The repress of this ep on Havoc. I said it about h100's: need I say more? Classic Clevo.

Braindead- "Priest Killer" 7" (black wax): Got into this English PV unit when I fell in love with Rot In Hell, as the two have a split 7". A pretty proven take on modern PV. Moshy in places, mega fast, and pissed off. Great power guy vocals, reminds me of Infest etc.

Hammer Bros.- "The Kids Are Dead" LP (green wax): Just another band I came across by lurking the spazz. Pretty freaking good moshy stuff. I got the Mp3's for this album and the LP before it, and I'd say I do like that older stuff better though. I'll get it on eBay one day I guess. I had to catch 2 buses across town last weekend. The entire trip I blasted Hammer Bros. Was a good bus ride.

Breathing Fire- "Years Of Lead" LP (clear wax): Haven't listened to this album yet, but I know it'll destroy worlds. The 7" did, and I love PV, and I love Painkiller, so I fear not.

Four Corners Comp LP (black wax): Came free with another order I did. Bunch of youth crew bands. Not siked, but hey it was free yeah?

Gehenna- "Upon The Gravehill" LP, and Disco LP (black and green wax respectively): I'm on a HOLY TERROR BENDER. Duh. Rad art on both. Love this band.

9 Shocks Terror- "Zen And The Art Of Beating Your Ass" LP (purple/pink wax): Another classic repress. My favourite 9 Shocks stuff by far.

Catharsis- "Samsara"double LP (black wax): eBay winner. See below post.

Bunch of tapes. Too tired to write a description for all. And besides I haven't listened to all of them yet. The middle one in the top is a friends band. Shock Value. Hai gaiz! Good 80's inspired stuff. They do Black Flag covers, so they gotta be cool right? Middle bottom one is Suffer from Perth. Sweet sweet Crossed Out worship. Interview in the first ish of Downsided. The CD there is a Japanese band named Sex Messiah. I grabbed this from Borg and Endless Blockades. Pure GISM worship. Good mix too. Great demo. The others are Men's Interest and Mentally Challenged, both from Painkiller, and the Shortlived demo.

Catharsis "Samsara" LP

As some of you may know, Catharsis have been one of my favourite bands as of late. In paticular, their album "Samsara". So I grabbed this one on eBay a few weeks ago. It arrived today. Got it for a pretty good price too, but as you'll see there's a reason for this...

See the tears at the top there? Yeah. And in general the sleeve has definitely seen much better days. But I don't mind, I got the LP, and it rules. I can still get a better copy down the track.

If the actual wax was in any sort of disrepair, I wouldn't have bothered with this one, but as you might be able to see, the vinyl is near perfect.

Aside from the cover art, the best thing about this LP is the insert. It's divided into 4 sheets, with 3 songs on each. Cool as artwork on each sleeve too.

So all I want now Catharsis wise, is the 7" and the "Passion" LP. Any of you out there wanna help?