simple future

Not that many good bands come out of Brisbane. The list has grown slightly in the last 18 months or so, but generally, this city is a bit of a wasteland when it comes to interesting hardcore. Tear Gas were originally spawned here, though since then, nearly half of the band has moved to Melbourne. They're still a band none the less, they just play less often, obviously. I remember their first show when they were still undecided on their name proper, and when Neil would paint his face with a blue stripe across his eyes (something like that anyway, it's been a few years). Back then they were called both Tear Gas and Vaccine, as in they hadn't decided yet and people around town were referring to them as both names. This was a good year, maybe more before the Bostonian Vaccine band had released their ripping demo tape. When the guys decided to go with Tear Gas Neil told me it was because another band from the States had decided to use Vaccine. Not sure if Neil was talking about the mentioned Yankees or not.

From the word go this band was the most hyped in town, due mainly to the fact that nearly all of the guys had been in, or were still part of some other notable Brisbane acts. That and the fact that the bands frontman, Neil is/was (he moved south) reluctantly the unofficial godfather/big daddy (for lack of a much better word) of the Brisbane crust fuelled scene, and everyone loves him. The first show was mental, and every single time I've seen them since it's been much the same story.

This is their new LP of burning spirits hardcore, "The Way Of All Flesh" on black vinyl thanks to Hardcore Victim Records. A perfect progression from the last 7" and the demo before that, this could possibly go down as the best Australian release of 2011, though we still have five months left, so lets not get ahead of ourselves.
Artwork and layout from this city's and country's premier penman, Murdoch Stafford. He manages to outdo himself every time.
Now I don't pretend to listen to a massive amount of this kind of hardcore. I like Bastard and a few others and that's about it. I'll tell you what I hear though; a predominate amount of songs structured around a fast d-beat, with plenty of metallic melody, heaps of leads from both Will and Geordie, and a nasty snarl from Neil backed a few times by some crew style vocals. Most of the tracks hover around the two minute mark or slightly less and the production/mix is top notch and probably the best the band has used so far. There's a handful of songs that I haven't heard before, but they have used some stuff from the demo, and also some live favourites that hadn't seen the recorded light of day until now.
As far as I know, this LP was supposed to be available on their recent tour of the USA and jaunt at Chaos In Tejas, but as is the same old story, pressing issues at the plant fucked with those plans. It's out now as you can see though, and unlike the last 7", I have a feeling that this record will be more widely available. Well alot more so than that EP anyway.
I think most of these songs were written and recorded before Neil and Lee moved to Melbourne. I have no idea of their collaboration schedule now with such a massive amount of land between them, I just hope they keep it together. Amazing live band, and better recorded.