Rekids

New scores...

The new Hatred Surge ep "Isolated Human". You know the deal with this band. Painkiller Records. Mega delayed but worth it for sure. The best stuff Alex has done yet, bar the work with Iron Lung. Clear orange wax.

The second Vicious Cycle 7", "I'm Watching You" on black. Vinyl Addict. Better than their first ep that I uploaded a few weeks back. More Boston, less youth crew. Great band. I'll probably upload this one eventually.

Rotting Out "This Is Just A Life "7". Red vinyl. I'm kind of confused about this 7". It's on World Won't Listen Records, but I swear I remember hearing at one point that these guys were putting their first 7" out on 6131. This actual record is just the demo re-released, plus (I think) three new originals and two covers (FEAR and Adolescents), so maybe they are still doing a release with said label? Eh, dunno. To be honest I think the only real reason I grabbed this 7" was because I'm OCD. They're not even that good, but I already had the demo tape, so I had to complete the collection. Pretty run of the mill modern thrash ala Outbreak mixed with some NY inspired breaks. Most kids will love this though...

Next is the Creatures/Downpresser split 7". "Tracks To Nowhere" on Fineprint Records. I've raved on about both of these bands in the past, as both of their releases prior to this one just killed it, but as it always has been throughout history, generally split records are a fail and this one is no excuse. Well that may be a little harsh. Neither side is bad, it's just neither is amazing either. Creatures definitely have the upper hand with this one though, the songs just being mega harsh and angry, just like their 7", but I dunno, there's a spark missing. None of these songs are as catchy as the stuff on the first record. Downpresser generally just play too slow here. Whereas the MLP was tough as fuck NY hardcore with plenty of mosh, and speed as well, this material is just slow, and rather boring. I heard about them doing a new LP soon though, so I am hoping it'll be good. Black wax.

Last up... "Fucking Up And Falling Hard" by Hostile Takeover from California. Another so-so release on 625 Thrash. I mean great fastcore/thrash that I'd rate over alot of the other shit coming out at the moment, but as with most 625 stuff that's all it is. Just great. Nothing more. Not mind blowing. If you like anything that 625 has done, you'll love this. Black wax.

Pala s/t 7"

Picked this up the other day. Members of Pulling Teeth and another band I think. Described as a mix of Converge and At The Drive In. Eh dunno about that comparison to be honest. Gimme more time to form an opinion. Good stuff though. Not your average hardcore by any means. Somewhat experimental, but I definitely see the ATDI influences. Black vinyl. A389 records.

Here's a Vicious Cycle 7"...

...on coke bottle clear. Self titled. Yhew.

Scapegoat Videos

Found these youtube vids by means of the B9 board. Chaotic (and amazing quality) videos of some live Scapegoat stuff. Although they've been very quiet as of late I have been assured of new stuff coming soon. They even play a few new jams in these vids, as well as a great SSD cover. You should know these guys: Boston fucking power violence. Pure Crossed Out worship. One of the best modern bands doing this at the moment. The 7" has been out for a looong time now on Painkiller. Get your hands on this music if you can. It'll make you wanna punch holes through brick walls.

Seriously some of the best live footage that I've seen in a long time.

Mammoth Grinder- Rage And Ruin LP

This record is blowing my mind at the moment. Truly deserving of the 'ripped my face off' tag. Their first 7" was okay but where these guys shine is when they're able push out a 6-7 minute epic... obviously a task that would be deemed nearly impossible in 7" format. With that said though the first side of this record, is shorter tracks, ranging from about two minutes to five and a half. Flip it over and it just gets HEAVY. 'God Is Stuck In A Black Hole'. 6:33. Holy shit... such a good song. This band sound like Neurosis, Isis, and Black Sabbath smoked a massive blunt together then jammed out one of the dirgiest albums of all time. It's still available to buy from the band, in either wax or CD format, so I suggest you get at it. Until then, check out their gayspace for a preview. Great band.

Records

Didn't check my PO Box all week. When I managed to get there today, I was made a happy man.

You may remember me posting a couple of weeks ago about the Mammoth Grinder 7" that I got. Well today brought me their new LP "Rage And Ruin" too. I ordered this from Depleted Resource Records a few weeks back, the label that pressed this glorious slab of wax. Grey marble vinyl. Like I have said, these guys take a somewhat different approach to writing music. Three piece, lots of sludge and doom influences, but more or less straight to the point hardcore.

Assassinated Records recently pressed a CD with both the bands 7" and LP on the one disc. I strongly considered buying this CD just for the cool artwork. I decided against it in the end though, seeing as I'd have both the records anyway. Lucky too, as the LP's center label depicts the cover artwork from the CD that I was so stoked on.

In my order from Depleted Resource they also threw in this copy of the latest Branch Davidian 7" "Party o'clock" for free. I had never heard of this band before, but I just checked them out, and they seem very cool. Dirty, Boston worship. I will be getting onto these guys more I suspect. White wax, with a white cover and white center labels. Yeow.

Finally got my Ill Brigade ep. I'll never trust Common Bond Records after all of the cock ups this label has dealt to its loyal fans in the past. I have a feeling now though that the label is being run by Graham and Resist Records, as the postage address listed for Common Bond on this ep is the Resist address. Pretty sure Resist handled all of the pre orders too. Not sure though. But I know that Graham has always been professional and trustworthy. Clear wax. Amazing cover.

Hell yeah my Hatred Surge/Iron Lung collaboration 7" came today. Black wax. I made a lengthy post about this record a few weeks back, and made a little mistake insinuating that this bad boy had a few different covers. Turns out it doesn't, each cover that I had seen on eBay and hence posted about is just the front and back of the one cover; the Hatred Surge side (pictured above), and the alternate Iron Lung side which is the two people in doctors masks 'making out'.

The packaging for this record is elaborate to say the least. Three layers for the one cover. The top layer is tracing paper, so you can see through to the yellow layer underneath. The words scrawled all over that yellow layer read 'Hatred Surge//Iron Lung'. The inner layer is what you see in the pic. A cool multi coloured piece depicting a detailed look under the skin it seems of each subject. This can hence be placed directly under the tracing paper top layer for another cool look. Fuck I am a geek for writing this. The tracks on offer here are also easily some of the best stuff either band has written. Just brutal, epic fast-core. So heavy. Soooo good.

Today also brought me issues 1, 6, and 8 of Town Of Hardcore fanzine. Yeah I have the book, but the inner nerd in me couldn't resist grabbing these on eBay. And these are the issues with the bands that I really love... they had to be mine. I got them for a steal too. $5 each except for issue 8. That set me back $8. Just need that 7" that goes with issue 6.

Vicious Cycle s/t 7" upload

I have been blasting this bands stuff all day. Amazing DYS/Negative Approach worship. Reminds me of Dead Stop and Violent Minds too. This is the bands first 7". They've also got two more after this one. I may upload them at some point. But for now grab this. Fucken great.

s/t 7" download

Records

I love days when I land big stashes like this. I knew these were coming, and I looked forward to it all week. Pretty sad huh? Oh the life of a record geek.

First are these two: Crom's full length "Hot Sumerian Nights" and the last Haymaker LP. Without a doubt Crom are one of the weirdest bands I've come across in a while. Of all the searching that I have done online to get just some basic information, at this stage all I know is that they're from the L.A. area and have a rich heritage in PV and Mexican gang warfare. I think that the second fact is a bit of bullshit, though if it were proven to be true I doubt I'd be surprised. This LP has nothing really to do with anything PV or grind like their previous stuff, it's just great cross-over thrash. 21 tracks, but about half are weird samples and the like. Seriously a strange band. 'Balls Deep Gold' wax as the band refers to it, and great, although peculiar viking artwork too.

Haymaker are a little more to the point. I doubt I really need to go into much detail about this band, being that most people have at least heard of them or should have. They've got a strong base in the Canadian hardcore scene with members hailing from a few earlier Colohan related projects and they play just great, no bullshit hardcore that makes me wanna punch like 20 dudes in the back of head, all at the same time. Some of their best stuff here too. Black vinyl. Pushead artwork.

Next I've got here the Sidetracked/Dead Radical split LP on black. I've talked about Sidetracked before: rather complex PV in the vein of No Comment. The best No Comment worship I've probably ever heard actually. They tend to get a little too tech sometimes, with many varying tempo changes, but with a little patience one can enjoy this stuff quite a bit. I reckon if they just chilled out a little bit and lost the full on A.D.D. approach they'd be ridiculously good. Dead Radical don't really do it for me too much. Spazzed out thrash with the standard wretched, snotty vocals that are being done quite a bit lately. Not overly bad, but it just doesn't reach out and grab me by the throat at all.

Next is California Love's latest release "Reaping The Whirlwind". An LP in format, but not an LP in actual length. Ten songs in 12 minutes. All great songs though. I suppose you could rate these guys pretty much as some kind of PV/grind unit. They sound to me mostly like Repulsion mashed together with Gehenna. Like that fast thrashy stuff ala "Black Breath", but then when they manage to blast out a good solid beat it parallels alot of anything that Gehenna has done. Like that awesome 1-2-1-2 black metal styled beat. Dudes vokills really remind me of the Gehenna singer too. Grey wax.

Third in line is the new Harms Way album "Reality Approaches" on black wax. Eh not sure what to think about this thing. Maybe gimme a little more time to get into it, but it really seems like this Chicago units sound has progressed immensely over the last 18 months into something rather generic sounding. They used to play break neck hardcore ala Infest, whereas these days it's just boring standard fare, moshy hardcore. I really liked this bands first 7", though the second one did really indicate that this was coming. I should have known I guess. I'll just wait for the new Weekend Nachos LP due out this year on Deep Six Records.

Bookburner's 7" is amazing. 16oh Records really has a knack for sniffing out shit hot bands. Techincal, break neck PV again like No Comment. Some weird electronic Swans styled stuff too. Clear wax. Heard that they are touring parts of the US at the moment with Sidetracked. Quite a fitting duo if I do say so myself. Can't wait to hear more from these guys.

Mammoth Grinder are a little more hard to explain. First up they're a three piece. They play reasonably experimental hardcore. There's alot going on here: doom, sludge, rock. They manage to meld it all well with some more modern straight up stuff though, and make this release quite interesting. This is their "No Results" ep. Red and clear split wax. I also have their LP coming. Can't wait.

Fever's "SES" 7" on pale green (the 16oh website lists this with a photo of a much darker green press. Not sure if the my copy is supposed to be this light?) and a black copy of the Insect Warfare/Flagitious Idiosyncrasy In The Dilapidation split 7" that came out with the latest issue of Short Fast And Loud fanzine. Haven't listened to the Fever record yet, but I heard one song online and it's fucking brutal. I've also heard them compared to Crossed Out and Integrity, and 16oh put this out so I bet this stuff will annihilate. 

Insect Warfare's half of the split is, as always, shredding. Kings of modern grindcore, such a petty that they broke up, though I suppose they did nearly everything that they could have. FIITD are weird. Three Japanese chicks playing fucked up thrash/grindcore. What am I to expect though? All hardcore that comes out of this country is weird. I really was surprised by how easy this record was to pick up, it's been floating around on eBay for months. Seems like there's a tone of copies out there. Normally Insect Warfare stuff gets snapped up super quick these days, but not this one. Maybe nobody knows about it? I doubt it. But anyway, the stuff here is on par if not better than anything else either band has done.

So there you go. Tones of records, and another reason why I'm gonna be eating out of bins when I'm in America in May. Doh.

PS- all of these bands have myspace accounts, I'm just too lazy to link them here. I strongly advise that if you're not in the know, that you change that right now!

Hatred Surge Servant b/w Bestial Upload

I know I have been riding the Hatred Surge gravy train quite a bit lately. Just seems that at the moment this band, and a few others are all I am digging. Don't worry, I have plans for some good topics in the coming weeks... I have been listening to a tone of great bands today that are getting me hugely excited. But for now...

I've upped the single that HS put out a few months ago with the help of the Deerhealer label. Definitely a different sound for the band, pushing the more experimental envelope ala Swans, or the more crazy MITB stuff. Up to this point all of the bands output has been of the more grindy Napalm Death/Despise You yonk, whereas the tracks on offer here trudge along quite slowly, use alot of electronics and have no real set structure. Here's hoping that with this new LP they're supposedly writing we'll see a few more tracks like this. 

As far as I can see, there isn't too many blogs around with this upload, so here you go.

Hatred Surge- Servant b/w Bestial ep download