Sink To The Bottom

Few tapes, first up, the 2008 demo from now defunct Melbourne youth crew act, Can't Relate. Now I never find it easy to get into stuff like this, ever. But for some reason, this demo always struck a chord with me. I think it was the dudes cool vocals, and the grooved out mosh bits. I've had the digital of this since 2008, but never any hard copy, and always wanted one. Well, Euro label Forever Young recently put this out, a friend of mine made an order for a few and I jumped on it.

Sprayed yellow cassette with a tidy red stencil. Pro looking insert.

Next two: the Reality Unfolds demo and the Risk And Reason mix tape. Both of these were dubbed by Craigos at Midnight Funeral Records for the bands recent Tasmania tour. As you can probably tell, the Reality Unfolds demo is there fucken demo, the R&R cassette is a mix of previous demos and a few tracks from their forthcoming 7" that Craig is pressing next year.

Crafty little sticker to seal the case. I just popped it at the hinges so not to tear it.

Sprayed black splatter on a red cassette, and hand numbered 08/37.

Black splatter on white, hand numbered 28/33.

And the Michael Crafter 'D.Y Or Die' cassette. This band weirds me out a little. Kind of emo violence-grind, with an obvious shit stirring sense of humour.
They toured here recently, but I wasn't keen enough to go see them. I just managed to grab this because my local had a random copy and I thought I'd give it a go.

Sniper Parade

Here's one of these Youth Attack bands that has been developing a reasonable amount of hype lately... this is the new Veins s/t 7" on white wax. Like I said, Youth Attack Records. I didn't realise this until after I bought it, but this is just the bands demo remastered and put to vinyl. Like it matters to me anyway, it's a great recording. Think fast, messy, dirty hardcore akin to other YA groups like Aerosols and Vile Gash and you may kind of get the picture here.
An interesting sleeve, that photos don't really help with, but this thing is all one piece and folds out in the center to expose the record housing. It' the first time I've seen such an arrangement on a 7" record, and though I wouldn't wanna see this too often, this one off deal is cool.
Typical Youth Attach artwork and layout. Minimalist, dark etc. Reminds me of most of the Aerosols stuff and even the Nazi Dust demo and 7".
This could definitely be lumped into the whole mysterious guy hardcore style popularised by bands like Cult Ritual and Sex Vid rehashing Void and mid era Black Flag, and while alot of said style is shit, these guys manage to pull it off to a degree. Like I said, this is just their demo, I am interested to see, what with all of the hype they seem to be surrounded by now, if they can carry the momentum into a new recording. Time will tell.

Fuck Mountain

Here is the new EP, 'Room 5' from Melbourne thrash heads The Omen. This is the band that mad kvnt Craigos has recently joined, they play thrashy, fast hardcore ala bands like Muni Waste etc. Three songs of metal mayhem on offer here that stretch just under thirteen minutes. This was recorded completely DIY by the band themselves, and for a recording of such nature I've gotta say that it's amazing. One of the better Aussie releases of this year. I see kids liking this alot.
Craig runs Midnight Funeral Records, so I suppose you could say that this 7" is somewhat affiliated with the label, but officially this is a 'self release' and for one of Craig's efforts it's quite a bit more 'punk' in presentation. A blank center label, reasonably basic inserts etc. I explained it to him already, that this is exactly what I like in 7" records. Certainly gives it a more human feel.
And because Craig is such a ruler, and I pretty much lap up everything he does, he threw in a test press of the EP for me. Minor differences in presentation to the actual release, the sleeve is black as opposed to grey.

Numbered.

Thanks Graigos.

Dirge

This is the rather sought after Dead Black 'Certified Mix Tape' from last year. Earlier this year I managed to secure their original demo tape on eBay for a miniscule sum, but this one has been much more elusive, last time I saw it on eBay it went for something stupid like $60. I paid $40 for this from a friend. Still a silly amount I guess, but this thing seems rarer then hens teeth. Basically, this is the demo, plus other random tracks that were originally intended for a 7". It's rumoured that said EP may still see the light of day.
If you're unfamiliar with what these guys are on about, basically it's Jason Clegg from Think I Care on vocals with various Boston all stars behind him playing dirged out, down tempo noise ala God Flesh mixed with the better MITB stuff. It's fucking epic to say the least, and something pretty different when placed in context with the rest of the material that this scene produces.
Obvious Boston Celtics theme, from what I can gather via various photos online etc, Clegg is a bit of a Celtics nut. It's original I guess.
Very happy to finally have this under my belt. Certainly one of my most sought after cassettes of the last 12 months. What makes it sweeter is that you can't find any of this online, so the first run I gave of this was the first time I'd heard much of it.

Zero Mentality

Here's the test press of the new B9 reissue of the Antidote 7". I got this on eBay, I paid a silly amount of cash for it. I find it weird that the test is coloured, but maybe that's a regular that I'm just not familiar with? I don't have that many test's. This one comes in just a hand stamped dust sleeve.

Numbered.

I'm not one to subscribe to the whole hero worship thing, and in turn I'm never really interested in autographs etc, but this signature from Nunzio himself makes it kind of cool.

I'm Stranded

Something a little out of the ordinary that I really like, this is some new 'tour' 7" that Alexisonfire was selling at recent shows here in Australia. It's got two covers of Australian legends, a Midnight Oil number, and one originally by The Saints. Both are rather well done. I read online somewhere that 200 exist. Now I don't hate this band, though apart from maybe three or four songs, I've never given that much time or energy to them at all. I heard that they were selling these through a friend, so I had another friend grab it for me when he went to see them play. Originally I had kind of planned to flip it, but I'm keen on the music, and the rather 'DIY' feel of the packaging/sleeve etc, especially from such a big band, is very cool. Certainly a keeper, for now at least.

Black and white, photocopied paper sleeve with a simple fold. What looks almost definitely like a genuine cut and paste layout too. Simple blank, stamped center labels. Black vinyl. Dine Alone Records.

Bones And Dust

I've loosely followed Acid Reflux since their first s/t 7" and it's safe to say that over the course of the two EP's since, the band hasn't made any overly large changes to their sound. 80's mid west is what you get here I suppose on this, their 'Moves' 7". Expect a healthy dose of bouncy/hooky riffs and snotty vocals too. It's note worthy I guess, that this record is probably their roughest recording to date (not that rough though), and while I do like it alot, I have always had a bit more of a boner for the bands first 7". That release's prefect mix really leant itself to a good conveyance of crazy energy and speed. Something that last years 'Secret Power' 7" and this EP both kind of lack. Anyway, blame No Way Records for this. Black vinyl with the regular cover of 700. 100 were also pressed on red and there was a limited tour cover of 200 with black vinyl.

Charming.

Three EP's in three years. Time for an LP?

More War

New 7" from Massachusetts project group Men's Interest , 'More War'. Eight un-named tracks spread over twelve minutes. Comprised mostly of the more noisy influence, there's stark later 'Flag influences going on here. Members of Waste Management, Mind Eraser and Cold Sweat. This 7" comes into the world thanks to Home Invasion Records.

R.A.H.C.

There's something that I obviously just don't 'get' about Madball. Every album cycle a silly amount of hype gets built, and in turn all I hear is people raving on about them. Give me 'Demonstrating My Style' and then pretty much everything else after that can suck a big dick. This new album, and this single I have here is no different. Anyway, I bought this hoping that I might be able to get into it, but it hasn't worked. This band hasn't been interesting to me ever while I've been into hardcore, like I said, give me that old stuff. This 7" has two songs, the title track 'The Real American Hardcore' and 'All Or Nothing', both of which are on the new full length. This is on blue and black smudge wax, Reaper Records pressed it.
I have a feeling that Reaper was trying to build a similar kind of hype that they did with the latest Terror album in releasing this single, I guess some people are going to be into this, but I just can't enjoy it for the life of me.

Carry Me

This is a somewhat random 7" that I stumbled upon based purely on the sweet artwork. I mean, obviously there isn't much to it, but it certainly works well. Anyway, on this, their s/t 7", White Shit play scummy, kind of thrashy hardcore with the odd touch of riffy rock. Mostly mid to fast paced stuff on the A-side with a slower number on the B-side.
Presented with a minimal layout on the sleeve. Just the photo on each side with the song list and the record speed.
A photocopied insert with some rather interesting/random bits of information. While the ragged idea of the insert may be somewhat different to the actual sleeve, I think it works well. I guess the peculiarity of the layout does well to create a theme for the band.

Dustbowl

Protestant always seem to release their material with amazing packaging, and this new LP of theirs, 'Judgments' is no exception to the rule. Matte sleeve with simple, yet effective single colour print. On nice, quality card stock. The music is much the same: quality. They sound like Catharsis, but I've said that before.
Awesome insert fold out poster thing. Heaps of bands use this style, but it's almost fair to say that these guys do it the best.

trophy case full of decapitated human corpses won at last year's YMCA youth dismemberment/suicide day event

Magrudergrind are arguably one of the best grindcore bands of current times, at least in my opinion. They were pretty much the band that introduced me to more full on modern grindcore and PV. I listened to them before Insect Warfare, before In Disgust, before just about everything. This is their split 7" with Vomitspawn on Militant Records. This was the bands first foray into vinyl, before this all of their releases had been on CD and CD-R. This is also the final Magrudergrind record that I needed. Now I first got into this band about four or five years ago when their split LP with Shitstorm first came out. At the time I was pretty gobsmacked by that record, but now when I look back at it, especially when I compare it to nearly their entire catalogue, said split LP comes across a little weak. Still, better than most though. Back on track, I spent most of that year hunting down all of their stuff on eBay and the like. Some of it proved a little hard to get my hands on (the split 7"s with Sanity's Dawn and Godstomper namely), while some of it was a bit easier (the split 7"s with Sylvester Staline and A Warm Gun). This Vomitspawn split came up every now and then, and I did actually buy one from a seller once, but it never showed up, and I never heard from the seller again. Then I got lazy and just stopped bothering trying to snare it (I've been like this with the Shark Attack 'Feeding Frenzy' 7" too, but I hope to sort that piece of wax out this week). Anyway, I randomly stumbled across an auction for this split about five weeks ago, bid on it, but lost to someone willing to pay in excess of $30, a price that seemed quite crazy to me. After losing, I decided that it was time to get back to chasing this elusive number. Two weeks after that first auction, this one popped up for a B.I.N. price of $15. Obviously, I pounced.
Earlier material from the band, it's reasonably rough, but very much a proper Magrudergrind recording, especially in the context of that run of split 7"s that they released over the period of 2006-7. Fast, pissy, abrasive. I will admit that out of all of their 7"s, it is my least favourite though. I do also think that the band are getting better and better with this new, 'moshier' direction that they've decided to take. The 2009 s/t LP was down right ball busting. They must be due for a new release soon.
Vomitspawn play a similar style of grind; fast bits with random, charateristically PV tempo changes and blast beats. The vocalist utilises his lower end a bit more than Magrudergrind though.
The seller accidently sent me the Godstomper s/t 7" of all things instead of my original purchase. I freaked out a little, as it kind of dawned on me that it was very possible that he had sent my record to someone else. Luckily he didn't, and he promptly sent me my split, and let me keep the Godstomper EP. Now I'm not at all a fan of Godstomper, though with that said, I haven't actually listened to this 7" in particular. Maybe I will like it. If I don't, one of you pricks are welcome to give me your money for it.

Red wax, an early 625 Thrash release. Maybe it's worth something? I will have to look into it.