Heaviest Bombing

The amount of shit this 10" has stirred up in the last six month makes me giggle. I'm talking of course about the new Magrudergrind EP, "Crusher". This is the subsequent Euro pressing thanks to Bones Brigade Records. The label calls this 'red and black' vinyl. It comes across much more like a smudge of very fine red with the odd black, on clear wax. The red is so fine that it's pretty much pink. First time I've seen anything quite like it actually.
I won't go into massive detail about what kind of trouble this record has created, but basically Scion, the American car company has taken to a certain handful of American hardcore/metal bands (these guys, Trap Them, Pulling Teeth and others) with help by pressing their records for free and putting on mid scale punk 'festivals' etc. As I said, this is a second version of this record with the original being pressed at the end of last year by Scion and released only to American residents (I still haven't seen one on eBay yet). That first version had an alternate cover with the Scion logo present at the bottom of it. Small, but it was ever visible. Alot of people called 'sellout', alot ran to the bands defence. Now take this as you will, but both parties made very convincing arguments with some very valid points. I can certainly see where both sides are coming from. I couldn't give a flying fuck though, they're still playing abrasive as fuck grind/PV. I guess it comes down to what you define as 'sellout'. This band is still one of my favourites and this 10" is a banger.
Not a huge step away from the last LP, this thing was recorded in Baltimore last year by Kevin Bernsten and he has achieved pretty much the same sound that Kurt Ballou did with the LP. The A side presents five tracks of ball tearing grind violence, while the B is home to a fantastic, drawn out slow jam. The highlight of the record, the band let loose guitar virtuoso and Pulling Teeth axe man, Dominic Romeo with a very achieved guitar solo and some cool layering. The song reels out with an erie slow drum beat and heaps of feedback and mess. One of the best songs the band has ever written probably.

Comes with a big four panel poster of the cover art.

Believe what you will, but I've been a fan of this band for a long fucking time, and while their sound has gradually altered on a very minor scale with time, it's clear that they've only gotten heavier, angrier and less palatable to your average hardcore joe. This isn't selling out, this is taking advantage of a free record. What fucking dumb kid is going to buy a car just because some company presses a 10"? Well maybe that could happen, but if it did, said kid probably deserves to be suckered like that.