Citadel Bloodbeard

False Grind Alienation

2012-02-11T10:36:00.000-08:00

There are usually a couple different measures of quickly figure out why you enjoy a band more then you think you should and/or why everyone you've ever met loves that band. One big easy one, for extreme music, is to put that band on at around 70% volume when with a large group of people and see how fast they all start making faces of disdain and disgust until someone finally asks you to turn it down or change it completely(usually to something fucking stupid and mainstream everyone else in the group likes). The faster this happens, the better the band usually is. The other way is that "Holy shit" effect certain bands haves upon listening to a song or riff or blast beat, no matter how many times you've heard that song before. Every time I hear the Torture EP I get that feeling with John's voice or the fucking outrageous blast beats. Insect Warfare is no different other then me having the "Holy shit" moment in almost every song, sometime more then once. That is the true brand of a band that blazed through their perspective genre, and all music in general. This may just be the cannabis, but certain aspects of bands truly do transcend one aspect of media and art, and permeates into others. Insect Warfare is, for me at least, a prime example of true artist talent in a tight package not meant for everyone because it's visceral and in your face musically, lyrically and in the album artwork itself. Can you really think of one IW 7" that doesn't have fucking amazing artwork? What aspect could possibly be a downfall and dethrone them from basically being kings of grind, even posthumously? Few bands playing straight grind like they do as efficiently as they do. Little room is left for filler. Insect Warfare is one of those bands I can post easily about to spread the music, but I have a really time explaining why they are one of the best bands ever to exist on this planet. It's easy to pick out and name their influences as reference, but the band covers all that material already in a very literal sense so there's no use in talking about all the sweet bands they sound like. And despite posting about them already I'm having a hard time trying to figure out the best start off point for introducing people to this band, even after six years I still don't know where to start. Is that another hallmark of a truly great band. I guess I'll let the grinding blasts and shredding riffs do all the talking.

Ghetto D-Beat

2012-02-09T08:02:00.000-08:00

Peter Mangalore play straight up no frills straight edge power-violence with an awesome d-beat twist. Think Discharge meets Crossed Out with lots of feedback and punk as fuck riffs. The bass is turned way up in that style of 90's PV, a trademark of the genre I'm quite fond of. This 5" called "Decay of the Iron Man" has eight fucking awesome songs in under five minutes. My favourites being "Moonlight Over Ghetto Prague" for the repeated chorus over blasts,
"Eternal Life in Return for Obedience" for it's surfing Dick Dale style d-beat
Something unrelated that interesting is the very last song "Gerwalk" is the only song with that production. It's a little louder and more crisp. Regardless it rips.
I don't have much else to say about this short burst of awesome. Get high and rock out.

"Cigarettes, alcohol, prostitutes, POT!"

Life Aquatic: With Love Garden Sounds

2012-02-07T08:49:00.000-08:00

Any large, or at least moderately sized, city needs at least one good and reliable record shop. Where would a music scene come from if there was no place to sell old records to new people or to pick up the newest release at? Even if CD sales have hit rock bottom, vinyl sales have been at a steady increase despite the fact underground vinyl "sales" have remained relatively unchanged due to it never dying, but that's a whole different story. The internet has truly been a blessing from Merlin to any and all music fans making it stupid easy to track down any and all songs from any and all bands to ever exist. This constant streaming flow of information, music and art allows any and everyone to download until they are content, but there is a key element missing in only downloading music. Beyond not seeing the bands live which is a fucking travesty, you miss out on what those bands are about. Without holding a physical copy in your hands how will you really know what the album artwork looks close up? How will you read the lyric sheet and figure out what the band is saying and truly stands for? Digital files are all just bits of binary information, not beautiful multi-coloured slabs of splattered wax of all sorts of shapes and sizes and what's the beauty in just having gigs of information?
During the time I spent in Lawrence, Kansas I came upon a couple of local record stores. Kief's was originally located downtown and has moved to the outskirts for a bigger space as the dude owning it also owns a car/home stereo store. The only other shop I found was Love Garden Sounds. They were originally located up above the Toy Store(yes that's what it's called and what it is) up through a hallway covered in band stickers, show flyers and old 33/45 record covers. Once you walked inside it was just wall to wall records of all genres. They have since moved to a larger, more obvious location with big glass windows couple blocks up the street. Many people are still confused about this as they've had loyal customers from all over the lesser KC area and beyond for the last 15 years. As a result they still receive phone calls, e-mails, etc. asking where they are located or if they are still open.
Love Garden has DVDs and VHS tapes, a cassette rack, used CDs and all the vinyl you could search through as it's an always changing selection. I personally love digging through the used tapes, used 7" rack and the New Arrivals bin. I have found some true gems in those last two spots; "World Extermination" by Insect Warfare, "Anticapital" by Assuck(didn't buy it because it had a $30 price tag), "Violent Noise Party" 7" comp., "Bullet" 7" by the Misfits and an old school pressing of "Vol. 4" by Black Sabbath, amongst the hundreds of other records I bought there. Even for being full of indie rock lovers, hipsters, jazz heads and just good old fashion rockers, the staff knows their shit for the most part and are all very nice and welcoming to talk about whatever genre you're into and help you find something new to listen to. The only negative thing I can say about this shop is the hesitancy the owner has for ordering vinyl for me(others as well). I've tried ordering several different records through them, and the only ones they were willing to get were the first two Krallice LPs from Profound Lore/Gilead Media. They carry Relapse, Southern Lord, Hydra Head and some other high profile labels and will order from them, but I could not for the life of me get Kelly(owner) to get the Magrudergrind LP from Six Weeks or "Abuse" by Wormrot from TvG Records even after explaining I don't have a bank account and it's very hard for me to order things online. He kept saying how obscure those bands are and how hard they are to find, which is bullshit because I could provide exact links to order from I just needed a middle man. I didn't even mind paying the extra cash it would take! Most of the employees would gladly take my requests, but only to be shot down before any ordering took place. Anyway, the city is full of young hipsters, yuppies and indie rockers so most of the music selection is geared towards them. However, there are plenty of high profile metal, punk and hardcore labels and bands to be found especially in the dollar 7" bin and New Arrivals. I can not count how many times I made the "OMFG they have this!?!!?" face digging in the New Arrivals bin. You just really have to be ready to spend time searching for hidden gems, which in itself is part of the magic of visiting record stores. Spending hours on your knees supported only by a hard concrete floor, digging through literally tons of wax finding those rare glimpses of golden vinyl nuggets. That's the true magic. The last bit of true magic for this shop is the in house cats they have. I love the cats dearly and they love me, and everyone else back. I can spend an hour just petting a cat laying on my backpack. But please respect the shop and don't let the cats out if you get the chance to visit.

No, MY name is Bruce!

2012-02-02T08:53:00.000-08:00

The second she got started on the first line.

I got the power cable to my computer fixed. And by that I mean I got a new one. Huzzah! So I don't have much musically to talk about right now but I got a fucking awesome new tattoo from my bro Scareika who is apprenticing at Hard Knox Tattoos here in MV. She gave me this rad shark tattoo. I've named him Bruce, the Terror Shark. This was her sixth or seventh tattoo ever and like her first or second in a shop with a real tattoo machine. Her man-friend Justin and another artist in the shop Reptar (both of whom are great artists) helped her the whole way. Reptar really helped explain to her how to do the shading which I'm way happy with. This took almost all day, from her drawing it to pee breaks and she even had to stop twice and pierce two people that came in since the other piercer was off that day. The tattoo itself was only about two hours maybe but I was in the shop from 1 until like 7. I can't wait for my next tattoo from her. She's going to do a Diver Dan scuba suit with one hand missing. The hand will have blood spurts and be beside the shark. The diver will be holding a knife of broken beer bottle and trying frantically to flee.
I think I have too much fun with this thing. I'll squish or stretch it to make him a short fat shark or a tall skinny shark, the whole time saying "Suck my dick, I'm a shark!" But aren't tattoos supposed to be fun?


It's on the top of my right thigh. I knew you were going to ask.

2012-01-12T16:19:00.001-08:00

Alright so I'm on a friend's computer to let everyone know that the power cord to my laptop came to me in two pieces. A plug for the wall that plugs into the box that plugs into the computer. Now it's in three pieces and needless to say that means I don't have a computer anymore. So yeah. Sorry. I'll update when I can.

Blackest Mass

2012-01-10T19:01:00.000-08:00

So what is it about this band everyone I've ever met seems to love, Black Sabbath? What makes them the go to band for....well everything? And why do so many bands makes so many amazing(and equally horrifying) covers? Is it Tony Iommi's stupid inventive guitar playing? I mean, who else hammers on all the notes because the cut their finger tips off, with their left hand nonetheless. Was it how Geezer Butler fucking RIPS that bass apart during every second of every song? Maybe it was his sweet moustache. Maybe it's Ozzy's untrained, nasally vocals evoking dark images written by other band members. Or what about Bill Ward taking the concept of playing drums and blowing it apart. Could there even someone like Bran Dailor without Bill Ward? Whatever it is, all these forces come together to create a truly moving force.
I really can't express why, but somehow the factors coming all together create something truly magical. Their proto-everything musical concoctions always lifts spirits, and is everything good about art and music. When I went through a break up of three years and was left with $600 rent/utility payments by myself the only thing that made me feel good was sparking a fat bowl and turning up my Black Sabbath vinyl well beyond reasonable limits.
This band really is proto-everything, but you should all know that by now. Certain songs exude everything that is all aspects of metal. They have fast thrashing parts, bluesy prog parts and stupid heavy sludge/doom riffs that make your head hurt. Even bands like Black Flag took chops from them to make something unique and heavy, in their case with the punk ethos. But a person can go on for days citing references and influences to/of the Sabbath. They even have slow songs and gorgeous interludes that don't suck. Well minus "FX" on Vol. 4. Sweet Merlin I hate that song. It's just three minutes of endless effects from what I assume is the guitar and whatever pedals Mr. Iommi uses. He must have been so fucking high when he said, "Hey guys, this song will fit PERFECTLY in between "Changes" and "Supernat" which is by the way the most awesome song I wrote for this record and fits perfectly at the end, but only right after "FX". It'll give it that trippy, psychedelic vibe we've always wanted.". No Tony Iommi, that shit is fucking stupid. I digress, songs like "Solitude" and "Electric Funeral" really set the tone for deep, emotionally intense, the former even being by Tony Iommi. Whom as it turns out has written a large chunk of their lyrics. Knowing who wrote what becomes obvious at one point. His lyrics are about religion/spirituality, the consciousness and other spacy shit while Ozzy's seem almost juvenile. Not that I could do better. That's why Iommi did it. And I don't want to sound like I'm literally masturbating Tony Iommi. He's musical legacy is already in stone. But the other two key elements never get the praise they deserve. Bill Ward practically pioneered the concept of frantic, sloppy drumming with amazingly creative and fast drums fills. Where would the precursors of metal be without the most important foundation of a band, the drums. The man that creates the beat and tone of the songs. Or Geezer Butler. The guy that makes Rex Brown eat cereal out of his asshole! These two men created many solid grooves and moments of headbanging ecstasy together. I've heard stories of the band going through ounces of cocaine in a single setting so it's sort of surprising they didn't grind more. It was only like 15 years between these guys and Mitch Harris' hyperactive blasting, but I could see the Sabbath pulling it off. Can you imagine that insanity!?
I guess this is a good spot to point out I'm not reviewing albums. I'm just talking about one of the greatest bands ever. Just ask Hank. And really anyone not extensively familiar with the first four albums should drop everything they're doing in their lives right now and listen to each one consecutively in a row. Then do it again the next day. There is simply NO reason any human shouldn't love at least one of this bands songs more then they love another human. My fave all time Sabbath songs, in no order, are: "Supernaut", "Solitude", "Symptom of the Universe", "Children of the Grave", "Electric Funeral", "Black Sabbath" and "Hole In the Sky". Those there's some reference for you.

Instead of uploading a bunch of songs or posting link to a discog download, here's a fucking SWEET piece written by Cosmo at Invisible Oranges about their live 1970 set in Paris. Just watch and be in awe.
Note: Links no longer work, but you can still find the footage somewhere.
Full discog available at Angrychairs blog. Dig it.

Circle Pit of Defeat

2012-01-10T17:11:00.000-08:00

I got to watch Circle of Defeat(hopefully named after that Nasum song) play a show the last night I lived in Lawrence, Kansas right before moving back to OH. The venue was a basement called The Overlook and has all different kinds of bands play all the time. I saw Catheter there and Phobia played an aftershow there. My first interaction with the band was when I noticed the singer Alex had on a new Assuck shirt with the sleeves cut off. I commented how I liked it and he said, "I really like it a lot more now the sleeves are cut off". I fucking appreciated that. Of course there were only like 20 people there and we were all just hanging out downstairs and up on the porch drinking brews and smoking fine grade cannabis. I know this was also the very last time I got to circle pit. Circle of Defeat's set was almost over, they had the energy and I just had to grab Dustin and Sean to run in circles while the band played blasts. It's not often you get to initiate a pit with two close friends before you move twelve hours away, but this had to be done.
Before moving on to the grind band I wanna say that Meat Mist was an older band I'd never head before that played fucking thrash and ripped it up. Beta Maxx is an 80's style hardcore band made up of ex Weekend Dad members that might have a future ahead of them. And my bros all in Methhorse. I saw them two nights in a row. One night with a bunch of shit bands at the Jackpot and then this night. Steven is a great drummer and my bro Sean has been playing in doom and d-beat bands since he was 15. Noah is an old school punk active in several KC area bands(check out Sarah Palin's Retarded Baby, you won't regret it) while the singer Dustin is another close friend of mine. This is his first band singing but every show his voice gets stronger and his presence grows. I really hope these guys keep it up and do some sort of split with No Master. Along with Sucked Dry these three bands are the best in the KC/MO area in my opinion.
Musically these dudes rip out Assuck/Insect Warfare worship grind. Not like Cellgraft however which is why I think they're interesting. Still a three piece but Circle of Defeat have a bass player so that low end is kicked up a notch. This style of hybrid grind worship is full of blast beats and energy, two very old stand by friends I rely on. They utilize fret manipulation like pitch harmonics and other awesome music theory tech stuff I can't even describe as I lack the knowledge. See "Incompetent Fools".
The CD version of their most recent album "Victims and Vengeance" starts off with a combination sound clip
/song and then rages with a scream and blast beats, hardly letting up over the twelve and a half minute run time. There is some groove to appreciate and a couple slow parts, namely in the last track which has a stupid long run time even though it ends in a sound clip from Burn After Reading. I love the vocals on here. They are usually low with some high variations, not at all akin to Cellgraft. While both bands take the same formula they get out completely different versions of music. The screams here are sort of punky raw(see "Corporate Bullshit") and I admit all vocal styling is quite death metal. They use rhythms and riffs that come off well thought out and I can see these 3 practice a lot. Maybe that's why each sound clip is perfectly placed to accentuate the grind. Oh and there's fucking pick slides. You never get enough of those.

Blast O Mat approved!

Bonus! Split with Orphans
Fuck the border!

And if you're crazy they have an Insect Warfare cover on their Myspace. But fuck Myspace.

100th Post Good Luck Happy Fun Party Time Riot Extravoganza Vacation Slide

2012-01-08T13:09:00.000-08:00

So I was going to do this big huge mixtape of my 100 favourite covers and I have like half of it all written up and was going to finish it but I fucked up and deleted it all with no way of recovery to instead I'm just posting the In Disgust/Mass Grave split 7". I've been listening to this(well only In Disgust) a lot lately. Watching all the In Disgust Speed Trials videos and hearing/watching their split with Godstomper there were always songs played I never heard. Years of listening and wondering where these stupid heavy songs were. Finally I found this thing buried in my external hard drive. The glory. This band really does embody all that is/was/will be grind. They slow it down and play heavy as fuck riffs but I would hardly call them power-violence like some people like to. We can settle on grindviolence but that seems pedantic despite the awesome word it creates. There's only around five minutes of music on here(obviously, it's a 7") but as we all know, that's more then enough time to lay waste to entire cities. This is that top shelf grind with minimal yet effective sludge parts. The highlights for me are the scream on "Chemical Blackout", sweet whammy bar abuse on "Heavy Handed" and "Die Slow". "Die Slow" again with the fucking skull pummeling breakdown at the end. Walking down the street, it makes me want to punch the first guy to make the mistake of looking at me wrong, right in his face. Watch the Speed Trial video I posted before to see what music like this does. Other bands like Ringworm, Shark Attack, Integrity, Gordon Solie Motherfuckers!, Bad Brains and countless other make people go uncontrollably insane with their energy and vibe. Bands like this were too short lived with not enough small energetic output.
The Mass Grave side is not at all bad, I just don't have a soft spot in my heart for them like I do In Disgust. There are three songs of death infused grind. I may only say that because of the vocal style as the guitars are punk as fuck. The last song is two and a half fucking minutes though and that makes up the bulk of their side. It's not a bad song I just get bored like I usually do with this style of grind. Sorry bros, I still think your part of the world is really awesome though and I'd love to watch Mass Grave play there if I ever visited.
Anyway, this shit is fucking ridiculous, so happy 100th post! This would have taken longer but I've had a few people badgering me to post again. Sorry it took so long guys. I moved back to OH a few months ago and have had a real hard time getting work. In punk fashion I'm sleeping on the floor of my mom's living room because we live in a one bedroom apartment above a deli above a bar beside a drive thru. Oh and the hot water all runs off the same line, so yeah. No privacy with lack of drugs and significant lack of record player have left little to write about, but too much free time. I also recently came out of a relationship so been feeling sensitive with feelings lately. I'll do what I can to keep this up though.

Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannn Joseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Patch Over

2011-10-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

Patches have always been a crucial element in underground music of every genre. Metal(in all its forms), punk, hardcore, crust, grind, sludge, doom. Patches are an essential piece of merch for touring bands, just like shirts, CDs and vinyl. One of the best ways to show where you allegiances in music scene, and generally the world around you today are through wearing shirts and sewing patches on whatever you can. It's like wearing a bandanna showcasing your gang affiliation. No one has to ask questions, they take one look and know your stance. Patches are worn by all underground music fans in various ways and designs. Some people use them for their intended purpose, to fix holes in their clothes. It's easy to wear out elbows in your sweatshirt or knees in your pants. I see tons of people with patches over their front and back pockets as well, those go fast when you only own one or two pairs of pants that you have to wear everyday (this is a choice by most of us as it turns out. I only two pairs of pants period. One work pair, one not-work pair. Both are Dickies.)
Patches come in all sorts of materials, compositions and sizes. Some people choose linen or canvas and silkscreen them. Others use iron ons, some bands have them professionally made at a relatively low cost. Different materials and processes yield different looking patches of various lifespans on your clothes, that is if you patch your shit. I know several people that collect them in an almost archival sense and several people that have patches everywhere, some of which are barely recognizable due to the amount of time worn.I think most of mine are printed on canvas, not many silk screened because that can be very tedious and expensive. Bigger bands have their patches embroidered and sometimes have iron on transferability if you don't know how to sew and don't want to use safety pins. Safety pins work but are quite prone to coming undone and fucking you or the people around you up. But those patches are so big and bulky. They do work well on a denim jacket or vest but can make you look like a posing chump if you're not careful. A surefire way to not make friends is to look like you're trying too hard and showing off eight dollar embossed, appliqued patches of Static-X, Mudvayne or Machine Head. But maybe that's just me being an elitist dick, I don't know. All I can say is that if a band goes on stage and is showing patches of bands I really like or respect then I get more stoked to hear these dudes I've never seen or heard before. That was kind of how i got into No Master among other bands.


Repping OH pride on the OU hoodie

I'm not really sure where the practice of making patches for bands came from. My first assumption would be patches have deep roots dwelling in the DIY punk community of anarcho punk, hardcore and crust bands from the mid-late 70's, possibly from England though I wouldn't be surprised if it started here in the states. I just keep getting this image of Discharge and the Exploited just hanging out and drinking cheap beer while drawing on pre-cut strips of fabric to fix their clothes and then get the idea of selling them for merch. I know that in the very early American hardcore scene people would make band shirts out of white tees purchased from local stores and just write on them with sharpies before printing became an accepted medium. How much more DIY does it get then that? Well besides way expensive but fucking amazing looking silk screened shirts that you can make yourself.
Once I get my camera's battery problem figured out I'll take pictures of the wrap pants I wear for fighting in, they have lots of sweet patches too, except my Bodies In the Gears of the Apparatus patch, it got ripped in half. :( There are many more bands I want patches for though and I feel like a real dick buying them on eBay so if anyone wants to sell or trade, just let me know!


Not the best overlapping images, but fuck it, you the idea.

Publicity Grunts

2011-10-03T09:20:00.001-07:00

"Thank you, Jay Randall for that introduction. And since you got peoples attention, Phobia has a brand new full-length coming out in February/March of 2012 titled 'Remnants of Filth' out on Willowtip Records and produced by non other than the master Scott Hull. And remember, folks ...opinions are like assholes, everybody has one. Cheers!"

Burn?

I loled

2011-09-28T10:27:00.001-07:00

Agoraphobic Nosebleed (or at their least singer, Jay Randall) are apparently not too happy with Phobia frontman Shane Mclachlan. Earlier this morning, the ANb Twitter account was enriched with the following diatribe (divided amongst four separate posts):

"Shane Phobia is the Ike Turner of grindcore, long history of beating girls up when he's drunk and if you think that's cool -we ain't... Gave Shane Phobia plenty of time to figure out what he and his brother owed us and to stop bootleggin'/selling our shit on ebay -times up!...Shane Phobia went ahead with doing ANB merch without working a deal with us first and has I guess sold it for years now without paying us a dime... So glad I've been unknowingly contributing to this fuckin' piece of shit crust punks beer fund for years now -fuck Shane Phobia."

People Take Photographs of Things They Can't Forget

2011-09-08T11:51:00.000-07:00


Left side of cassette box.


Right side of cassette box.

"Rise of Annihilation" by Magnicide,
re-issue of original Suicidal Tendendies s/t,
HoD discog tape,
4 song EP by Dark Ages

So I got a real digital camera recently. 3.2 megapixels and 3x zoom, I'm really catching up to the technological world now. First thing I want to use it for is to catalog my physical music collection. All of my vinyl is still boxed away so I broke out my cassette tapes and snapped some pictures. I have maybe a dozen tapes not shown, but they're classic rock or tapes I just don't listen to and still somehow own. These pictures represent tapes I've collected through my time living in Kansas, only a few were bought in Ohio. I got the Death Angel and Misfits tapes for like fifty cents each at a game shop that sold used tapes. I found the Slayer, Metallica and Judas Priest tapes at a yard sale a couple weeks ago, big surprise when I found them. They were in a box with a bunch of country music and bands like Testament, Soundgarden, Accept and Alice In Chains. They tried to sell me Mudvayne CDs when I wanted to pay and leave. Almost all of the others were bought at one of the Lawrence record shops, Love Garden for $1.50 or less. I got a Red Hot Chili Peppers tape, Queen's "Greatest Hits" and a ZZ Top tape all for like two bucks! They even have older music


Three Fugazi tapes, including "13 Songs" "Hallraker" by the Descendents

related VHS! Too bad I hate Tina Turner.
I bought the Magnicide tape straight from fucking Malaysia. Took a few weeks to order and a few more weeks to receive in the mail. It was well worth the wait though, that cassette fucking rips! I spent hours playing it on rotation at the bakery I worked at. It's always funny to see co-workers show up at 5 AM to work and you're blasting South-East Asian Grind out of the pastry department. Same with my Hummingbird of Death discography cassette, got it mailed to me from Iowa with the "Goatmeal" 5"(which rules!) A lot of others were bought when I saw the band play. My Catheter tape was purchased with the same 7", some stickers and fucking awesome night of getting high with Geraldo before going to that 4 AM shift again. I ended up missing all but the last 20 seconds of their set because I woke up


Misfits "Earth A.D", Catheter/Wojczech split, Grasseaters 2011 demo

late. I was planning on napping then heading over to the house for the show, but got there late and just spent the night partying. The Grasseaters demo was bought at an outdoor show labeled "All Summer, No Bummer" and it delivered. The clouds were overcast most of the day with very visible lightning and very audible thunder, but it never rained. The weather stayed beautiful, the bands were all good and my friends were all there. Grasseaters are from Omaha, Nebraska so they brought a punch of punks from there with them so it was cool to meet some new crusties.
I keep all my stuff in a brown tape box a friend gave me, and it was full of tapes! My bro Greg gave me some serious stuff that I listen to all the time. The Suicidal tape and "13 Songs" are the best examples though he gave me some classic thrash that rules (M.O.D. and S.O.D.). Mother fucker even put in an Anni DiFranco tape to throw me off. We had a good laugh and then I sold traded that shit for something good. But I'm super grateful to have the case to utilize as I have some tapes I do not want broken, lost or anything else bad that could happen. Then the obvious fact that I can take lots of tapes with me relatively easy. I wish more cars had tape decks now so I could rock out wherever I go! I could bring mixtapes and shit, and I have tons of tapes not of the fast/loud/short/heavy variety to make everyone happy. And obviously the collection only grows, much like collecting records. Tape collecting is a new thing for me, though I've been buying records for years now, almost a decade. But I know the cassette scene is just as old as DIY music itself. OG punx, grinders, crusties, black metal kvltists and death metal acolytes have all be tape trading and collecting as long as counter culture music has existed. You can't make a mix tape on a 7" unless you're putting out a compilation record, and it's not a mixtape it's a fucking comp your label is selling. Sure, CDs were around in the 80's but they were fucking expensive and no self respecting punk/metal head could afford one. Shit, even Walkman's for tapes were not cheap when first introduced to the market, but whose parents didn't have some sort of audio set up for their old Pink Floyd and Chuck Mangione albums. So it makes sense that tapes became the main food staple of feeding hungry music fans looking for more bands to listen to. What famous band didn't put out demo tapes before stepping up to 7"s?
In the future I'm going to start taking pictures of my records and posting them with music, and I'm going to go back and add pictures to the records I've already posted. Blog+ has begun.


"Live In Japan" by Judas Priest, "The Ultra Violence" by Death Angel" "Live Undead"+ "Season of the Abyss" by Slayer, "Speak English or Die" by S.O.D.

Obvious tapes are obvious

Thursday Song to Do Bong Rips To

2011-08-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

Metal's version of Willy Nelson, Mike Scheidt, sure knows his way around heavy as fuck riffs. I've been jamming the new YOB album "Atma" for a couple weeks now and I'm coming around to the musical styling of doom metal much more easily then ever before. Especially the first song "Prepare the Ground". This track fucking KILLS and is to me the best on the album. The last three or four songs are much slower paced and emotionally heavy while "Prepare the Ground" is just heavy as fuck. It starts out with down strummed riffs that are chunky and full aurally. The same chord progressions remain prevalent through almost the whole song, building up the whole time. Not in speed but atmosphere and energy. There is a little slowing down before everything explodes at 6:45 into an ultra heavy Hadouken to pummel your face with the bong you are holding. It makes me want to swing a four foot glass bong around Pineapple Express style. This song is long enough to take a couple rips before the song and then one more big one four or five minutes into the song. Not my normal preferred song length but they're a doom band, what do you expect?

Stream the whole album here.

Hayaino Grindsuki

2011-08-18T10:04:00.000-07:00

So "Orphan" came out way back at the end of winter this year. I've been trying to keep it in rotation to fully digest it and get a feel for what's going on. What I like and don't like. The recording method (each song live in one take), production, mixing, all that jazz. At first listen, and reinforced by subsequent listening, I got a huge Hayaino Daisuki(Hi-No Die-Ski(or did I mean Hawaii Daisuki?)) feel. There's just sick speed metal shredding with Chang's high screams and fucking raging blast beats. Obviously faster with shorter songs then Hayaino Daisuki, and some of Chang's older low growls, there's not much of a difference to casual extreme music listeners. I'm not one of those and there's still not much difference. This isn't the Gridlink that fucked my skull a couple years ago, this is Hayaino Grindsuki. Chang and Matsuraba really outdid themselves on this album though. Everything is insane in speed and technicality. Where Hayaino Daisuki win in song writing Gridlink wins in skill and precision. Song lengths have been literally quartered. Gridlink's longest song on here is 1:28 with Hayaino Daisuki's shortest being just under 2:30, but averaging more at three minutes which is twice as long as any Gridlink song. Another huge difference is just production. The Hayaino Daisuki EPs sound crisp with an acute metal sheen of shredding seven string genius. They're the CD quality metal you would expect from Hydra Head circa 2002. Meanwhile this twelve song full-length is just as long as the new HD EP. Like stated earlier this album was recorded entirely live with each song being done in one take, this is very obvious in the four count that precedes almost every track. Think about that for a sec because it's incredibly impressive. Two footed blasting kept in time with staccato shredding riffs. This takes incredible amounts of practice to achieve. This very well may be what sets this LP apart from the previous "Amber Gray". A whole level of confidence and power. This record is several planes above "Amber Gray" in all aspects and it shows. All the hard work these dudes have put in yielded a truly insane piece of grind gold. "Orphan" is quite a fabulous record to sit down to sober or stoned. My favourite tracks are probably "Scopedog" and "I Accept Your Last Wish". I can't express why I like so much this time, but they stick out the most on repeated listens for me.
A fun experiment to do is listen to the four Chang/Matsuraba collaborations in order. HD, Gridlink, HD, Gridlink. There's an obvious progression one can see and hear.

Demo Shit

2011-08-11T18:25:00.000-07:00

Third in my series is the band Barren Waste. One of the dudes in the band (Scott) sent an e-mail with the subject "Music for review" that only contained a link to Reverbnation and no other info. Upon clicking the link we learn they're from New Hampshire and that's sort of a relief because there aren't enough bands from states like that. Like Utah. How many bands are from Utah? Not enough, that's how many. But I digress. The second thing I noticed was the sweet artwork for their newest EP. Dunno where it came from but it has blasting robots and people fucking terrified, I dig it. Musically it starts off being hardcore and there's lots and lots of shredding that seems out of place, to the point of beeing noodly and annoying. And this coming from a guy that likes bands like Brain Drill and Necrophagist and PsyOpus. After seven or eight songs songs start getting really long and slow and boring. The band tries to start being progressive and free form, but it doesn't work. There is a lot of room for Barren Waste to develop, but they need to write actual songs. A straight grind band(which they are not) can get away with only blasting but when you try to incorporate other styles and genres into your music you need to learn actual songwriting too. I don't know how old these tracks are, but I'd be interested to hear some new stuff to see how it compares, and I'll apparently get the chance later this as the band is recording again at the end of the month.

http://www.reverbnation.com/barrenwastetheband

There will be a two-part final post for the band Guilty As Sin who have sent me two CDs to review, I'm just a lazy hack and haven't listened to them enough to review yet, but I will get to it. Sorry for sucking at life Zach.

Altars of Meh

2011-08-11T06:25:00.000-07:00

Here's the second part of a short series reviewing things I've been sent in my e-mail. I got an e-mail from a dude named Justin Oakey with a link to a music video he made for the band Column of Heaven. They contain former members of Shank(awesome), Endless Blockade(meh) and Slaughter Strike(meh). It appears the end result of this amalgam of power-noise-violence in the vein of Bastard Noise. Not my cup of tea. Too much noise, too many electric gadgets and not enough punk. This band is for sure abrasive and intense, just not my preferred brand. The video Justin shot looks great (as well the rest of his work) I just don't understand the imagery or message it's trying to convey. It's too cosmic and cerebral for me.
Final summation: Justin Oakey is a talented dude with a sweet future ahead of him. Noisy-violence bands are not what I like. Feel free to check them out yourselves though. Here are links to the EP and video, in that order.

Altars

"Ecstatically Embracing All That We Habitually Suppress"

Never A Cognitive Waste, Not A Post About Municipal Waste

2011-08-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

I got an e-mail today(sent yesterday) from a dude named Corey telling me he likes this blog and the bands I talk about. This makes me super pumped because it's not often people writing blogs get random affirmation e-mails. Unless you're Cosmo Lee. He said he found link from the other site I write on and has been reading mine for a while. I just wanted to give this dude some props for making my day start off fucking legit.
I noticed at the end of his e-mail a well placed link to his band's Bandcamp page, so I checked it out. He plays bass with a dude in a band called Mental Waste.They remind me of a more hardcore influenced Nails. Less blasts and heavy as fuck riffs but plenty of circle pits and anger. I dig Bryan's vocals and lyrics as well. Bleak observations about humanity. Something interesting is that all the drums are programmed, AnB and Enemy Soil style. Corey and Bryan have been a band since February but haven't been able to keep a drummer due to time constraints and location. Mental Waste is from Califronia, but they're from the central coast which doesn't have a strong DIY scene and is full of kids in metalcore bands so finding a full time drummer has been difficult for them. They don't even have regular practices right now, but that doesn't hinder songwriting. Both dudes have been around a while in various bands (Corey is also in a doom band called Cold Mourning) so recording is an easy process for them according to Corey, "We take about 5 minutes to write some songs, then Bryan works on lyrics, we add vocals and we take a couple months to finish the recordings and get them mixed how we like." They've recorded four other songs and are just waiting to add vocals and mix them, but sort of feel a lack of impetus. So if anyone wants to help them do a 7" or a tape (I'm looking at you To Live A Lie and Last Anthems) get in touch with them so they can record more!
Get into their three song demo below.
&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://mentalwaste.bandcamp.com/album/demo"&amp;amp;amp;gt;Demo by Mental Waste&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Scorned for Ska

2011-08-08T08:56:00.000-07:00

Le Scrawl is not a band for everyone to listen to. They take thrashing, deathy, grindy metal and splatter it with bits of skas more surprising elements such as saxophone, organ and skanking 4x4 beats. This is for sure experimental music, but not in the vein most people think. There's no droning seven minute songs, no keyboards/synth/electro elements, no "atmosphere". Just grindska. Or skadeath. Or skagrind. Or thrashska. I really don't know what to call it besides enthralling and catchy as fuck. Could this be another case of music by location? Le Scrawl are from Belgium, which might have something to do with it. Wedged between France(prominent language in Belgium), Germany, The Netherlands and the English Channel with the UK to the North it makes sense where their influences come from. England was the start of the punky ska movement once it got exported from the Caribbean and Germany is a thrash/death metal Mecca. It all makes sense. I have no clue where their experimental impetus came from but man am I happy they found it.
The thirteen songs presented here on "Eager to Please" start off with energetic metal that bounces and makes you wanna skank until the death metal slaps your face again. The first six songs do really well at alternating tempos and moods with middle songs slowing down to more mid-tempo and letting the organ and horns really shine through. The first three or four times you listen to this you'll ask yourself and those around you "Is this a joke? Are these guys for real?" The answer is fuck yes. It's for real. You probably will chuckle at what seems to be absurd, but you'll eventually go "Oh shit this is really good!". I personally love the metal riffs with guttural vocals that transition into the ska parts that are more light-hearted, with the sick guttural vocals. This interplay of atmosphere gives me the same feeling power-violence bands that play blasts into breakdowns give me.
So do yourself a favor and get adventurous and experimental without listening to Boris.

"One by one, you will die"

Saturday Song to Do Bong Rips To

2011-08-06T07:37:00.000-07:00

Nails is a punishing hardcore band from California made up of stalwart scene vets, such as Todd Jones from Carry On and Terror. While still totally original and unique sounding, they can easily be lumped into what bands like Trap Them do, though only douche bags. The bands influences come from all over the place utilizing blast beats, short songs lo fi bass and circle pits. The obvious ones(to me) are Holy Terror bands (Integrity, Gehenna), Napalm Death, C.o.C./Crowbar and of course being fucking angry. But they have this song near the end of the new album that just shreds and is perfect for loading up a fat bowl on a bong.
This specific song was the first Nails song I heard. It was on a Deathwish Inc. comp and is by far the sickest song on it. It's fast as fuck hardcore until 1:08 when it gets sludgy and heavy as fuck , finding it's relentless groove for the last (almost) two and a half minutes of the song. The end head banging groove has it's own tone with changing chord progressions, chugging riffs on guitar and bass, the latter of which incites old school stomps until the instruments fades out into a wall of distorted feedback.

"It's just a fucking lie!"

Murder Metal

2011-06-27T15:39:00.000-07:00

Macabre is to me another incredibly underrated band, just like Cryptic Slaughter. I hear their influence in many, many bands (even if it's not really there sometimes) and feel it's criminal how overlooked they get. Macabre have been weaving tales of about serial killers and mass murderers for upwards of fifteen years and have never had a line up change, but somehow people still overlook these modern metal geniuses. After many splits and LPs (including with PV's prodigal sons, Capitalist Casualties) this is quite a feat, especially in such a trying musical venue such as metal. Countless hours touring and crafting insidious tunes have garnered tremendous respect for this band from me. And to me their milestone has to the be "Dahmer" LP.
Most Macabre albums focus on one person per song, but the "Dahmer" album is solely about the life of Jeffry Dahmer. The album is arranged in chronological order to tell a full story, from childhood to his death in prison at the hands of Christopher Scarver(who gets his own song). It's 26 songs in just under fifty-two minutes, in true grind fashion. Most songs are mid-paced metal jams(ungrind) though some kick up the speed notch. When not playing fast(most of the time) Macabre is just grooving out making your foot tap or head bang. There are a few sludge moments to change pace, but I'm not a big fan of slowing down and usually skip those couple songs. A night with some Yeti imperial stout and this record will give you a serious bangover. Something I think that's fun is how the band utilizes some traditional songs(folk and otherwise) to craft songs. "In the Army Now", "Grandmother's House", "Jeffry Dahmer and the Chocolate Factory", "Coming to Chicago" and "Scrub A Dub Dub" are all takes on traditional songs you will recognize, but made to fit with the Macabre murder metal motif. My personal favourites are "Blood Bank", "McDahmers" and "Do the Dahmer", with "Hitchhiker" as a secondary choice. "Hitchhiker" just has a fucking huge and heavy riff in it. Just TRY to not bang your head against a brick wall from the heaviness. A sludgey song I can get behind!

Odd fact: Producer Neil Kernon, who's worked with Cannibal Corpse and Nile amongst other death metal bands made himself rich and popular by engineering and producing the first three Hall & Oats albums.

"Everybody do the Dahmer!"

5,000 BPMs

2011-06-09T18:21:00.000-07:00

So in my trying to put something awesome up for getting a small milestone I contemplated a band that used 5K BPMs. Now, this is physically impossible by the human body. Dave Witte can only do 1,000 and I think the most I've seen on Youtube is like eleven or twelve hundred, and that's two handed snare rolls the whole time, not using the rest of the kit. The closest thing I can think of is NOISM. Grindy metal played at inhuman speeds by two Japanese dudes with a guitar, computer, and drum machine.
I downloaded this demo(album?) from Cephalochromoscope a couple years ago and bust it out every now and again when I want to just be floored by what music can do. Truly complex, truly technical and truly fucking fast. There is some noodly wankery here, of course, but I like that every now and then. Like I said, I want to be floored not feeling indifferent. Bands like Brain Drill and Discordance Axis push the boundries of human made music, NOISM pushes all the rest.
They list Candiria as a point of inspiration. Didn't see that one coming did you?

Brutal Autonomy

Five Thousand Strong...And Growing

2011-06-01T10:31:00.000-07:00

So today is kind of a milestone for me. I hit 5,000 unique views a few minutes ago. It's been under three full years of "writing" for me, about two and a half to be almost concise. Considering there are blogs that get 5K views every day, I feel pretty awesome. I'm by no means a pro, or even "good" at this. I've always had a good grasp on the English language (minus my bad spelling) but wasn't a big fan of writing in school. I didn't usually have the impetus to write about things I liked, like music. This blog was that impetus. I've really enjoyed meeting lots of you guys in the GrindBlog community we've established. I've made friends, made Jon Chang hate me and joined a much bigger blog that may set me up for internet stardom. I wonder what will happen in the next 5K views.
I want to do something special for this, I just don't know what yet. Expect something awesome!
Thanks again everyone. I'm real stoked.

No Cream, No Sugar! Bong Rips? Please!

2011-06-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

I'm out of cannabis so my only drug right now is black coffee. It only seems appropriate right now to post this song by Black Flag and read. I've read a few excerpts from some Henry Rollins books and he makes mention more then one time about doing exactly what he says in the songs. A story that sticks out in my mind is him sitting in a hotel lobby enjoying the free breakfast at a crazy time of the morning in Austria I believe. His tour stories are quite good.
This version is from their 1982 demo right after Hank joined the band. I actually downloaded this demo from the SST blog, which I've since lost the link for. There are a lot of songs on here that end up on recordings years later. "Modern Man", "Slip It In", "My War", "Beat My Head Against the Wall". Lots of good stuff in the early song writing stages. It's really cool to see what songs get made over on the final records. If enough people want the whole thing I can upload that to, but this is about drinking black coffee!
This song is straight up five minutes long which is a good length for sucking in massive bong rips. By the halfway mark the cannabis will have set in, probably right in the verse. You will feel the seething Rollins puts out during this mid-paced dirge. Not that Dirge. It still has that 'Flag punk beat that you can HB Strut to, but is obviously more influenced by Sabbath and ZZ Top at this point and not as much punk. There's even a solo that's not raging shred. And for lots of cannabis users, this is exactly what they want. So load it, rip it and drink some coffee.

Drinking black coffee, black coffee, black coffee, staring at the wall

Violence Violence, Not A Post About Ceremony

2011-05-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

A good dose of power-violence on this rainy day. Nothing to lift the spirits like grindingly fast power-violencecore. To be totally honest this is probably my favourite PV record or album ever(the Torture 7"). It kind of exemplifies my idea of how the music form is expressed. It's stupid fast hardcore punk with really heavy sludge parts. PV differs from grind and fastcore with the sludge this type of vocals or crazy high screams like in Magrudergrind and Fuck On the Beach. Up until "Unforgivable" these guys also didn't take themselves too seriously, which I appreciate. I feel like this type of music should be about fun, unless you're a political band. Then it's only serious. The song titles and lyrics are simple and straight forward. A lot of times tongue in cheek funny and the rest is fucking angry. The two tones interplay quite well and just pump you the fuck up. I'm either smiling and wanting to run in circles or I'm super vehement from the loathing want to stage dive into people's heads. When the lyrics get dark, they get violent dark. But doesn't everyone feel like ripping out entrails and cutting sternums sometimes? It's acceptable violence.
Musically it's a sonic whirlwind of blast beats, angry as fuck vocals and lo-fi guitar and bass. Seriously lo-fi, sludged out bass that's angry as it is fast to match the punk as fuck sounding guitar, which unfortunately get sort of lost in the mix a lot of the time. There's some real fast circle pit hardcore parts but a lot of these seventeen songs are just raging fast and all you can do is sit there in awe going "Holy shit".
Most people into aggressive music are well aware of this band now after being picked up by Relapse. That's super good for most people involved. I've heard the newest full length, "Worthless" a couple times now and production wise it's a good step up, for instance a new vocal mix which is unlike any Weekend Nachos mix I've heard. The music production kind of makes them sound a lot like the band Nails however and I don't think I like that. I hope it's not an actual stylistic change. Nails is a good band, for sure, but we don't need WN sounding like them. Unique music, not cookie cutter music.

"Revenge is sweet, now you're a mess on my floor, you scum sucking mother fucking road whore!"

Videos To Do Bong Rips To

2011-05-18T19:08:00.000-07:00

Alright guys, this is In Disgust. There are way too many words written about this three piece already, and if you're not a fan already then there's something wrong with you. What the fuck man? How could you not know already? Are you from Utah or something? In chronological order, here are some sick videos. The first two are ID and Godstomper playing a split set. The last two are UGZ speed trials at 924 Gilman St. The 2009 video is them playing all What Happens Next covers. Can, you, dig it!

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;iframe width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/djZ4XXk7ZMg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/iframe&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

This Song is Called, My Mom Hits Harder

2011-05-17T18:19:00.000-07:00

American Nightmare is kind of one of those hardcore bands you either love to death or just feel indifferent about. Wes' lyrics aren't usually my favourites to read, but listening to them is rather fun. The singing along makes it too enjoyable to care and they wrote a few really fucking catchy songs.
Something that I appreciate about AN/AN/GutG is how original their sound was. An obviously contemporized (for the time) version of classic hardcore punk. Plenty of Black Flag, Minor Threat and Bad Brains influences to go around. This amalgam has become fast, energetic no frills hardcore that's full punk. Lots of punk. Tons and tons of gang vocals, circle pits and stage dives. The crucial stuff.
Oh, and what about the fucking awesome Cro-Mags cover they do. By far one of the best Cro-Mags covers ever.
Another interesting point to bring up is how Wes has one arm! I'm not talking Rick Allen one arm, but he's missing like a quarter of his arm, mid forearm to hand is gone. Long gone. I have no idea why to be honest, but it didn't stop him from going completely nuts live.

Full discog here
On a side note, Warwounds(Fuck America) is a fabulous blog with tons and tons of hardcore discographies. You're missing out on some history if you don't read that site.

Fuck Electrons, Protons Are Posi!

2011-05-05T10:53:00.000-07:00

I've already posted their split with The Waste, so here's Crucial Unit's first 7".
"Premium Iced Tea" starts off with shrieking, wailed, frantic vocals over sick thrash-punk-core. Blast beats and circle pit inducing drums with funny and well written lyrics. Crucial Unit is sort of like crossover and sort of like thrash metal and sort of like fastcore. This style is very much a product of their geographical environment. The Bay Area, Oxnard, LA, Hunington Beach, etc. all have sounds very much regional depending on local culture, economy and the other stuff that makes punx angry. The first song presented is one with old school hardcore mentality, writing a song with the band name in the chorus. Most good hardcore bands end up doing this for some reason.The Unit also uses another hardcore staple that Spazz likes to point out, the use of "GO!".
The band has all their material available on their website, which is fucking awesome, and DIY and punk and more cool then most bands that aren't Cellgraft. You see all kinds of bands with songs to stream on Myspace, Facebook, Bandcamp and all that cool shit but not many straight up give all their material away. This kind of promotion only gives me desire to actually purchase their albums. "Premium Iced Tea" has an awesome cover for example. Besides the metal text denoting the band name and the required speed to play the 7" it appears to be exactly what the record title tells you it is. Punks being clever? Never happens, certainly not now.

Baby. I don't wanna make out, I just wanna CIRCLE PIT!

Reproach Vol. 666

2011-04-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

So if you're unfamiliar with this band, you need another serious lesson music history. This 7" came out way back before I was born, in 1982 and is a preamble to all the bands you love today. Dropdead (their biggest non-Siege influence), Knife Fight, Spazz, Haymaker, Chokehold, XBrainiax etc. Shit NA and the Misfits influenced each other immensely. These guys are one of those super proto bands that you don't even realize the number of bands they influenced. Brannon gave hardcore it's demeanor for Merlin's sake. Bald. ANGRY. Insightful. Powerful. Jamey Jasta ain't got shit on John Brannon. He even uses a lot of tough man talking instead of a yell or scream to get his point across in another fashion instead of just blitzkrieg.
Negative Approach is equal parts Blitz, Sham 69, Black Flag and Misfits. One could cite DC band also, but I hear it less than the Necros or Meatmen. Negative Approach fits the aesthetics(music and lyrics) of the aforementioned bands and not the latter. One could argue this, but why would they? Regional hardcore sounds different for a reason. Besides all the comparisons one uses these guys play fucking fast, pissed hardcore with usual one minute run times. There are some grinding examples("Pressure", "Chaos"(not on this 7")) and some bad examples("Nothing"). And in all honesty "Nothing" is the only song I never listen to as it's the last one on side A right before you flip it and crank up "Fair Warning". This rager starts ripping with the rambunctious jam "Can't Tell No One" which is a fucking anthem. Try to not pile on everyone in sight grabbing the mic. "CAN'T TELL NO ONE! WHAT TO DO! CAN'T TELL NO ONE. WHAT TO DOOOOOOO!!!!!" From the first riff you just want to fly off the hook and circle pit like a mother fucker if you're not singing along. Or do both! "Sick of Talk" has an americanized d-beat rhythm section. "Why Be Something That You're Not" is mostly sick mosh riffs. Try not to mosh if a band ever covers it. I dare you. "Lead Song" is another anthem full of gang vocals and sing alongs. Much more punk then hardcore on this song. "Negative Approach" and "Whatever I Do" are two more anthems with fucktons of singing along. The energy in the last two minutes of this record rivals most full-lengths.
Once again the lyrics here are great. They're simple, emotive, to the point and easily singable. I love the things they had to say. Even at 25 the words of a 19 year old ring more true to me then Dostoyevsky ever could. Sorry Andrew. Well, every song but "Nothing". But really, nine out of ten is perfect for a 7".

"I can't take this,
PRESSURE, PRESSURE, PRESSURE, PRESSURE!"
Too many things are too extreme
There's too much shit, too many schemes
It never makes sense, it's just a hype
Forget about it, live your own life

PRESSURE PRESSURE PRESSURE PRESSURE
PRESSURE PRESSURE PRESSURE PRESSURE!

Oh Shi-

2011-04-22T10:32:00.000-07:00

Last night I was able to transfer all my music(and all my other data) from my old external hard drive to my new, larger, more pimp external hard drive. I hope to rediscover much lost music to talk about.
I also have some more, bigger, crazier, more Exciter and awesome news to unveil soon.
Let us all be merry, and drink punch.

Rotting In America

2011-04-17T17:27:00.000-07:00

So everyone's favourite fresh new band Wormrot recently released their sophomore full-length through Earache. There have been a lot of expectations thrust on them by our internet grind community. We longed for more greatness and not lackluster grind. We prayed to Merlin, Glycon and Crom that their signing to Earache was the impetus to bring the band and label to new heights of grind glory. And to be honest. This record fucking rules.
One highlight I really like is the new mix on Arif's vocals. It really sounds much more powerful to me this time around. Well I guess starting on the I Abhor split, but still better production all around. It could a little further in the back so Rasyid's guitar can truly slay with Fit's drumming. Fit by the way fucking rips it apart on the album. His shit is tight, fast, energetic, upbeat and just plain impressive. He can blast or play the groove parts to counter Rasyid's sick guitar slaying. That guy just drops awesome riffs out of his dick. Just all over the place too, really letting us have the proverbial "money shot". Songwise I love the varied lengths and the awesome song titles. "Deceased Occupation" takes it for me groove-wise. It's the "Murder" of the album. I wish it could be seven minutes of the riff at the end of the song. "Murder" was the gallop riff at mid pace, "Deceased Occupation" is start/stop rock and fucking roll. When was the last time you heard a grind band just rocking? A friend brings up an interesting point with this new songwriting direction. There's a lot of power violence going on here along with an upped Insect Warfare influence. I even hear some mincing! When did the 'Rot start mincing! I like it on all fronts. This release is aggressive, powerful and fucking grindingly fast.
My respect for this band only increases every time they have an album come out. I'm aware that in recording this record the band was basically tossed into the studio and forced to bang out these 25 songs in their allotted recording time. The fact that under this immense pressure from a founding force in grind and DIY music they still produced such a blitzkrieg of awesome music demands even more respect. I only wish I had the chance to go see them while touring in america. Two tours, two shows I can't make it to. Maybe Scion will pay for them to tour next year, but we can only hope. I'm personally hoping for an Unholy Grave, 324, Magnicide, Wormrot tour. "Rot Over America".

In Grind We Rot!

2011-03-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

Pretty Little Flower is not exactly straight thrash, but sick and fast nonetheless. There's lots of variation on here which is great because of the large track selection. Full length albums, especially in genres that easily become monotonous, tend to get boring and need to be mixed properly to insure repeated listens so that you don't miss the real gems.This is a basically a discography of the band up to the CDs release which explains the long track list.
Having ex-members of Insect Warfare is no small feat, so these dudes really up their game. Think "Endless Execution..." era IW with that heavy thrashy Razor influence. Add some DRI, Discharge and Napalm Death as well as the bands covered, and you have an easy foundation of thrash grind. Speaking of covers, do enough bands really do sick Repulsion covers? The answer is no. These guys, ND and Nashgul. I digress. Circle pitting thrash is what we're talking about, no proto gore/grind/death. Most all the songs are fast and very hardcore influenced grinding thrash and I like it. Dig in.

Utter and complete, grindcore annihilation.

Fairytale Beginning Ending

2011-03-24T12:16:00.000-07:00

So after much delay(not a complaint) today I received my Magnicide "Rise to the Annihilation" cassette. This is the fifth or sixth time I've ordered something from a foreign country. I've ordered from TVG (Germany) and an independant t-shirt company in England. But my favourite packages always come from south east Asia. I ordered my Wormrot LP straight from the band and I'm still pumped to look at it. Starting last month and culminating today I've received two packages from Magnicide. My first package was their split LP with Toxic Revolution that had some show flyers and stickers in it. On a flyer was a note from Jali that he mailed the cassette separately to insure integrity of all product. I for one fucking appreciate that. A band that cares. Imagine. I bring this up because it's interesting to me the lengths at which people go to receive products. It takes over a decade to obtain a car if you live on Hawaii. It usually takes upwards of two months to receive blast beats in the mail from Malaysia. The waiting, pining, anticipating for that square shaped, thin cardboard box or small bubble wrap packages. The processes the product goes through. Writing international addresses, putting on correct postage. There are even Customs Declaration stamps that the proper authorities must see.


StrainEyes No. 6

And then finally you open your package to find its contents. In this instance it was a rad yellow pro cassette with a lyrics booklet rubber-banded on. This is another example of the essence of DIY. I know how hard it is to track down specific parts. The plastic case is an example. Where the fuck do you just go buy a bunch of empty cassette cases? And for records it's even harder. How do I make this 5" record fit into this 7" bag? How do I package this 3" CD? For most bands it's using ingenuity and their own hands to put things together. They will print 100 5" cases, fold every one and bag them. They will screen print their own patches or 7" cases then glue every case together one by one.All this labor goes into a tiny little package only a few select people will seek out to hear. This tape will bring me much joy to listen to in my bakery, and everyone else is left saying "Hello Misery".

straineyes@gmail.com
www.myspace.com/straineyes

For me when I sent the band money I was worried I fucked up the address. I'd never sent a letter to the other side of world in a physical sense. Let alone money I worked for. Things are different in the digital world. Wi-fi banking, ATMs, credit, debit. I can't do any of these things because I have no bank account so it's the old school DIY way for me of contacting bands directly and waiting.


Old computer gets a speed upgrade.

Every Woman A Mistress of Pain

2011-03-22T18:03:00.000-07:00

Another classic thrash album from the late 80's in San Fransisco, CA. Even today amazing bands flow out of the Bay Area. Here's an old standard to ape from. Death Angel.
I have to start with the awesome album title on here. It's so fucking metal. "The Ultra Violence". Tell me that's not one of the best of the era. Sound wise they play standard fast thrash. The standard line up had four Philippine cousins. Big fucking surprise, right? A great band made up of Asians. And from California? Never saw that one coming. But I digress. These guys incite so many hair whips and so much head banging. Honed thrash with yelled then fucking screamed vocals. Nut wrenching but awesome. Death Angel has obviously taken pages from the Priest/Maiden book but made them contemporary for their time.Fast drum beats and shredding, wailing guitars. Of the eight songs, three are instrumentals, or instrumentals with easy to figure our lyrics but each is obviously crafted with care and isn't super sloppy like a lot of bands. Or maybe that part gets lost in the screams, shrieks, wails and feedback. True punk rock style right there.
I found this cassette a few years ago and I've been enthralled since then. I found it sitting in a game store for like two dollars. That loser had no idea what he had. I also found a copy of the Misfits "Earth. A.D" that day. It was a good one. Ice Cube had nothing on me.

KILL AS ONE!

Still Cyco...After All These Beers

2011-03-22T17:23:00.000-07:00

Preface: I've not had any beer today yet.
Highly regarded, and well deserving of it, Suicidal Tendencies are one of the eptiomes of crossover/thrash. Blending perfectly between metal and hardcore punk they spawned too many bands to name, but here are some big/and or good ones: Metallica, Anthrax, Thrashin' In the Streets, DRI, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pantera, Cryptic Slaughter. Fuck, the list goes on. Scott Ian once said Anthrax was always trying to sound like ST because if they did then he knew they were an amazing band doing something right. What else is there to say?
This gem was mostly a re-recording of their self titled album released ten years earlier. It has three additional tracks, all of which rule. The songs on almost the whole album are standard length, 2-3.5 minutes, and somehow it's usually fast and enthralling. I pretty don't get bored with any song on here except "I Saw Your Mommy", fuck that song. It's funny or whatever, but too slow and hair metal. Anyway, Rob Trujillo is on here and he fucking rips up the bass riffs. Once again, I point this out because it's crucial. But repeated listens will reveal why he's in the "biggest" metal band around right now. Makes sense though as Muir seems to be the only one invested in the band now. But Trujillo and everyone else shreds on here. Mike Muir and co. invoke cholos stage diving, elbow dropping everywhere, just like the pictures inside my cassette.
This is for sure one of those bands you wish you could have grown up around, going to their shows. Legend and lore weave tales of insanity in small LA suburbs much like that of Black Flag. Suicidal Tendencies got much more popular however, having two videos made from this album. One for the aforementioned shit song, and one for "Institutionalized". Both the video and song rule. Some other favourites are "War Inside My Head" with it's sick opening and superior singabillity. "Memories of Tomorrow" for....well I'm not going to list these off because I honestly like all but like 1.5 songs on here. Shotgun some beers, smoke a joint and start thrashing to the oldies!

Two Sided Politics!

Policia! Un. Do. Un, do, tre, qua!

2011-03-18T13:02:00.000-07:00

I really should not have to write an introduction for Sepultura. Everyone should be familiar with their name if not the sick proto-death thrashed out metal they produced in the mid and late 80's.
Obviously because of the nature of thrash these songs can get long, but Sepultura was good at creating a groove to get into. Everyone is good at what they do and they attempt to keep things interesting. There are lots of speed breaks or just heavy as fuck breakdowns. Andreas Kisser does some little dittling around for instrumental interludes much like his predecessor Tony Iommi.
My favourites should be quite obvious, but there is more than enough riffs and rage to last a long time for you to pick your own.
Now as much as I like talking about Sepultura, I also must admit that if you aren't already familiar with them then you fucking be. There really should be no need for me to explain them but here I am because some people never got around to it. Do it now. Thrash or die.

Beneath the Remains

Arise

Skullet and Hammer-Communism Crushing Metal

2011-03-17T13:49:00.000-07:00

Here's my first exposure to Strapping Young Lad. I saw this video when I was 19 sitting around my moms living room because I had just broken my collarbone at show. With no way to go to shows use or the internet, I had to rely on Headbanger's Ball for any form of music beyond what I owned. Back then though I wasn't a cannabis user to these guys appealed to me on a different level. My affinity for them only grew with the introduction of the sweet leaf.
What I loved musically was the downbeat, pounding drums and circular riffs between fits of blasting. This thrash tune is for head banging and circle pitting.
I love the video for two very simple reasons. Devin Townsend has an Iron Chef shirt and there are fucking robots with hammer arms crushing skulls. Truly metal.

Industrial Stoner Thrash Metal of Yesteryear

2011-03-08T15:24:00.000-08:00

I've already posted one of their songs before, but since it's Thrash Madness Month I'm giving a link to the whole album. Before anything else though big, uber shout outs to Angrychairs for posting the SYL discog. They have tons and tons of other great stuff there. Check them out if you haven't.
"The New Black" is the last Strapping Young Lad studio album. Devin Townsend has been releasing cycles of his own solo stuff that I haven't heard yet but am interested in at some point. The songs really run the gambit here with all kinds of different tempos, themes and atmospherics not only between songs, but in every song itself. It's all totally industrial stoner thrash, but these guys took it up a notch on this album. Everything is really top level from production to songwriting and onward. I have to comment on Gene Hoglan's sick drumming here. Devin Townsend told him what to play, but man he executes it well. As well as Devin sings and slays on the axe. There are so many stand out tracks for me, but I know different people will like other songs more and I can say this with absolute authority because of the massive variations. Use "Anti Product" as an example, with it's mid 90's ska GWAR/Le Scrawl ska/jazz break. And the clean singing of "Almost Again". I don't usually like this however. I like a cohesive straight runthrough album that blasts, pummels, drills and beats me. "The New Black" really hits all the highs, lows, valleys, skies, nether plains and most aspects of reality in music. Or maybe that's the cannabis you have to consume to rock the fuck out. Either way I recommend this highly emotive and fucking thrashed out album. You should check out the 3/4s grind "The Long Pig" if for nothing else the sick bass riff. Don't hear those enough!Other personal repeat listen tracks are the duo "Polyphony/The New Black", "Decimator", "Far Beyond Metal" and "Monument". One features a manish thing with a dick that has teeth and mandibles. You know the one. If you don't, "You Suck". See what I did there?

Oh, you ironic pop-rock fuck! Don't you fuck with metal!

March Thrash Madness!

2011-03-07T10:55:00.000-08:00

With lots of thrashing happening here, I might as well keep it up. I'm exclaiming this to be March Thrash Madness! I'll try to do only thrash and crossover all of March. I even had this INSANE inclination to wait until March Madness hits and taking the final (x) teams and posting bands from their corresponding states. We'll see how lazy I get and how many drugs I can do first. Haha. But onto the music!
Here's a sweet split from Municipal Waste and Crucial Unit. Municipal Waste you should be quite familiar with since Dave Witte has played drums with them for a few years and Municipal Waste were fore bearers of that "modern thrash revival" we had. Thrash never died, it just went back underground. Regardless, they're a super D.R.I. influenced crossover style thrash band. That's a good pick up reference, but I hear a lot of hardcore influences on here. A couple of breakdowns even. Not slams, this isn't death metal. Fast, sloppy drum fills. Fast talk/yelled lyrics. Fast punx guitar parts. These guys are the line between fastcore and crossover. A few more BPMs and they cross that line. The newer material is longer and much more thrash-tastic. I prefer the shorter crossover songs on their early material a la this split 7". I really love the samples they use as well. Some people aren't too keen on them, and they're missing out. Really adds to the atmosphere for this band. "Born To Party" also appears on the "Art of Partying" LP in a varied form with lots and lots of gang vocals. I also want to note the sweet band Poser Disposer got their name from MW. Cheers.
Crucial Unit play short, fast thrash. Straight up. Their singer should maybe be in a power violence band, but it's interesting over the thrash. One thing making them interesting is the Macabre influence. It's much more prevalent here then on the "Moshzilla" 7". I just don't hear enough Macabre in sweet bands. The other non-Macabre aspects of their music are fucking fast and chaotic hardcore punk thrash. Crucial Unit like Municipal Waste have fun lyrics but some of their tongue-in-cheekery is done with political motivations. I love this lyrical style because it doesn't get boring. It's like those lines you quote in movies over and over before your band samples them.

"It's circular. Round. Circular. Circle. With the music. The flow."

CD to Get Stoned To

2011-03-05T18:25:00.000-08:00

Stygian themed thrash made by power-violence playing coke fiends. But this is akin to stoner thrash, half baked being a good descriptor. There are lots and lots of Conan clips and other SWEET sound bytes. Sometimes it slows the flow of the album down a little too much, but that's a difficult thing to not do when you have a concept album like this.
This album is full of parts musically(and in song titles) that have overt and obvious influences to classic songs/bands. Bad Brains are my favourite reference, but there are so many that I'm sure that even my trained ears missed a few. Nevertheless, there's lots of headbanging thrash. And curse words. I thoroughly enjoyed the use of the word "Fuck", especially in the track "Zamora".
I've been trying to make this a sweet write up for three days, but I get so high while listening to it I can't type. So load some bongs and get ripping.

Shoot Arrows
Eat Pussy

2011-03-03T11:24:00.000-08:00

Thrash metal. It comes in many forms from many places. California being the most common, and often has above average bands. But Japan is the last place you would expect to hear straight up speed metal. Iron Maiden, NWBHM style thrashy, speed metal nonetheless. But somehow Jon Chang and Matsuraba put together a sick band of fun lyrics ala 80's hair metal with blasts and riffs only true shredders can play. There's solos, harmonizing just fucking fast music. Did you read that correctly? SOLOS! Like the first Gridlink album, this is all basically Chang doing high vocals that shred your ears like the guitars. There is a little bit of talking/whispering on the second album but that's about all the vocal variation you get. The low end on here is tight and rad. Syncopated drums with awesome fills. They stand out like most of Chang/Matsuraba's other projects. Oh, and the blasting, did I mention that? These guys really take epic songs that are meant to be Iced Earth epics, but play them retarded fast and cut the time in half. Imagine Maiden playing "Wicker Man" all the way through double speed in two and a half minutes. Unthinkable? No dude, this is it. Dig it.

Not relevant to anything really, but Invincible Gate... came out on my birthday. Suck it thrashers.

Headbanger's Club Dangerous Fire
Invincible Gate Mind of the Infernal Hell Fire...Or Did You Mean Hawaii Daisuki?

God Is Fake, Wrestling Is Real

2011-02-08T09:13:00.000-08:00

Here's a fucking amazing hardcore band from Cleveland that ISN'T a Holy Terror band. It's mother fucking Gordon Solie Motherfuckers!. These guys are the much better version of the Ultimate Warriors. While UW play power violence with wrestling as their gimmick, GSMF just play awesome fast hardcore. They have ex-members of 9 Shocks Terror and Face Value among others. Tony Erba is obviously the famous guy here. Affiliated with Victory Records scandals, Integrity worship and even featured by other bands, like Charles Bronson. They're also infamous for ridiculously insane live shows known to feature many things that are not bodies flying through the air. I never got to see them live(even though they're doing a re-union show in Clevo soon, sad face) but it's legendary. They like the other great bands from the city of porn and rust they're banned from lots of clubs, have shut down shows and entire festivals and have been escorted by police multiple times.
But how do they sound?"Power Bomb Anthems Vol.1" is fast, shreddy, high energy hardcore with comedic edge and lots of gang vocals. All songs have prevalent bass riffing and popping snare rolls alongside the vocals and guitars. Mosh filled Lo-fi hardcore for the win.There's a Warzone spook on "Ghost Cry of Betray". You'll lol. There's also some OH lingo in "Parma Uber Alles" that most of you won't get, but I find it hilarious. There's a Johnny Moped cover on here too, "No One". But fucking Merlin damn it that song sucks. I hate the original and the cover. Why would they do that to us?
The lyrical matter is top notch of course, and about several subjects of interest. My obvious favourite lyrics being in "Tears of A Clone" and "Bought & Sold". Partially for ripping on Paint It Black and Jello Biafra. No one is safe from chair shots to the head! Erba spits his words sounding sort of like Mike Ski as a reference, but way more awesome. No offense Mike. Erba is just pissed while you're not.

Three chords in a cloud of dust, three chords in cloud of dust, three chords in a cloud of dust! In DIY I fucking trust!

Bully Moshpit

2011-02-05T19:16:00.000-08:00

I'm re-upping the HoD 10" because it's fucking rad and I re-wrote some of my old post. Can you dig it!

My Love, My Way

2011-02-05T17:43:00.000-08:00

The album "Witness" is one of the best hardcore(et al sub-genre associated) records of the 2000's. It's been incredibly acclaimed by everyone under the sun. Someone said it's the "greatest hardcore album of our generation". Think about that. This is my "Damaged" or "Out of Step" or "Dag Nasty" or "Petitioning the Empty Sky". Here's some other quotes from the Wiki of this album:
"Witness breaks boundaries and surpasses dreams hardcore has not even had yet. It is eloquent and beautiful in every way. You will get choked up the first time you hear it."
Reviewers for Punknews.org were the most blunt with their praise, simply stating that "if every album could be like Witness, then maybe music wouldn’t suck as bad is it does right now."
This album is that good. I don't give a fuck if you don't like hardcore, especially more mid-paced, dissonant, expressive and passionate hardcore. Everyone in the band plays incredibly well and once again lyrics reign supreme. Jeffrey Eaton blow Darby Crash out of the water when it comes to poetic lyrics. This guy knows what you're feeling deep down whether you know it or not. Every second I listen to this CD I feel like I'm fifteen at my first shit hole bar or basement show with a bunch of sweaty people screaming every word they can as loud as they can until they go hoarse. I can see the band playing, their singer amping the crowd, sharing the mic, diving. Kids everywhere are climbing on top of each other to get on the stage, stage diving, finger pointing. Tears start streaming down our faces because we all feel the same thing. We have collective empathy. The words pour out like they were our own and everyone lets go of everything inside.
Every time I hear this CD, that's how I feel. It all comes rushing back and gives me goosebumps.
All the albums I mentioned are starting points, I especially feel Dag Nasty is a big one. Jacob Bannon is a great lyricist to compare Jeffery Eaton to but the bands don't find much resemblance beyond that. They do however share another relationship, this record being put out on Deathwish Inc. and Jacob Bannon doing the artwork and layout. Kurt Ballou also recorded this at his Godcity Studio in surprise, Massachusetts. Figures. Even the best bands have to go through MA.
My favourite songs are "Martin Atchet", "D.E.AD. R.A.M.O.N.E.S", "Young Man On A Spree" and "Hair-Raising Accounts of Restless Ghosts (AKA Hell is for Heroes, Part 2)". It's so hard to pick a favourite of those. There really is none since their all such solid song. "D.E.A.D R.A.M.O.N.E.S." is a anthem that demands pile-ons and sing-alongs and finger pointing.

When you're 16 you don't know what forever means.
When you are 23 you couldn't be more sorry to say.
That after all this growing up together all the good has gone away.
Sometimes the boys that should be yours best friends become strangers with familiar faces.

Ello, my name's Bruce.

2011-02-04T18:25:00.001-08:00

It's not summer yet but it's time for some kind of pick me up from the cold weather. Shark Attack will easily pump you up into circle pits to get the heat kicking.
These guys are from PA and keep up that area's tradition for raging hardcore. These guys are way more old school then a lot of popular bands from that area. Those other bands are way more metallic and less punk(Earth Crisis, xDisciplex A.D., Brother's Keeper, etc.) Shark Attack have a huge youth crew sound with slightly less positive lyrics. And their singer is fucking pissed. Big surprise there, right? But musically think Youth of Today, Antidote, Negative Approach, Chain of Strength, fast Cro-Mags, Bad Brains. Just good, fast hardcore. An older version of Ceremony is a good reference point. I mean, if Ceremony listened to less Black Flag and only played fast.
Includes a really awesome Antidote cover, though the lyrics are "questionable". I don't really agree with that statement as I don't find this song overtly xenophobic or racist. This is art and about freedom of expression. I don't support overt racism but I will support someone's right to say what they feel.

We're shark attack we're on the attack and we're in your fucking face. WE'RE IN YOU'RE FUCKING FACE!

Scared of Naked People, Not a Post About Weekend Nachos

2011-02-04T18:25:00.000-08:00

Ceremony is from California, like a lot of good hardcore bands. Their hardcore is a little more structured and old school feeling on this EP however. This mama jama came out all the way back in 2003 and set them full steam ahead to record with Bridge 9.
There's an alternation in songs. Slow, building, brooding tracks with the strain and tension of Black Flag then a fast d-beat ripper tearing your face for a minute like Discharge. You get three of each, opening with the slow builder. You also get a Negative FX cover which makes sense. Ceremony sounds like the perfect blend of Black Flag, Negative FX and Motorhead and Discharge. One thing to note is how prominent the bass is in the production.
Ceremony has some newer material I haven't really heard any of. I did hear one or two songs off their second full-length and they rip. It's called "Still Nothing Moves You", great title by the way. They put out a LP called "Ronhert Park" last year as well, but I've heard nothing from it. It's apparently named after the city the band resides in.

"Maybe I'll feel like a man, when I do what they tell me to."

Almost Focused

2011-01-28T15:06:00.000-08:00

Bones Brigade is a ripping fast hardcore band from Boston, Mass that plays songs about skateboarding, hanging with friends(and all that entails), skating, video games, quandries of life, skateboarding, the scene and what goes with it, skating and getting wasted. My favourite track from their S/T EP is opener "Never Meant Much". It's three minutes long, but still rips and shreds the whole time, much like the shorter songs following it on the EP. Bones Brigade plays fast skate influenced hardcore. The only thing I want to do during the EP is circle pit. Quite fast. It's all circle pitting drums, shredding guitars a la Black Flag and tons of sing alongs parts. This is all very conducive to stage diving and head walking. I would totally love to see these guys live because of all the ridiculous energy they'd put into the crowd for use. The amount of fun had would have to be illegal. I have to warn you there is some melody in the guitar, but it's forgivable for the rest of positives this band has going for them.
I also have their "Focused" 12" LP on Coalition Records(from 2004). It's gray marbled vinyl and contains fourteen more raging tunes from these dudes. Songs are much the same with a slightly longer average run time then the EP. This is one reason EPs, 5-10" and splits are such a good idea. A large portion of a band's fan base prefers less songs with most being of very high quality so they always come back wanting more. Is "World Extermination" a great listen front to back? Yes of course! Are all the individual 7"s comprising it more enjoyable listening experiences individually? Ninety eight percent of the time yes.
They also have at least two more CDs and another LP. One CD is a comp of 7" songs and demos, one is a repress of their 10" and they have a debut full length LP as well.

"There are few certainties in life. You see people losing their jobs, you see people losing their money, and you see very little stability. But, some things never change. Ninjas are awesome and hardcore played at light speed rules."-Bones Brigade

From Soft to Hard

2011-01-24T18:45:00.000-08:00

It's getting super shitty outside right now in Lawrence, KS. The amount of snow falling and that's expected to fall is just like it was when I lived in OH, except back there it's like this much more frequently. It's only like the third time since the onset of winter it's snowed like this. It's also really shitty like this the further north you get, like Cleveland.
Shitty weather of course calls for specific types of music to cope with. Copious snow is best dealt with black metal(Krallice) or stupid fast, blasting hardcore. The XBrainiax "Disgrace to the Corpse of Eric Wood" 7" is perfect for this. The fastly yelled lyrics of vehemence at ignorant republicans, shit head scenesters,crusties and non-straight edge "substance abusers" thrown against sick power-violence/fastcore is more than enough to power one through inches of snow on foot. And you really can't help but to love the songs with silly lyrics and concepts. I mean their demo was called "Light Speed Demo" and the band have used a heavy Star Wars motif since the beginning. Their take on the skull around the band name is by far my favourite because it's fucking Chewbacca. You get thirty one songs in about ten minutes. 31 songs is a shit load for a seven inch, so it's totally worth it. Stand out tracks for me are "Jaded, Twisted, And Evil", "Trekkie Killer", "Actually, Freedom Is Free", "Mos Eisley", "Young Republicans Fuck Off", "My Way" and "Lenny Kravitz Is His Answer". There's even a No Comment cover(more like Slow Comment HAHA)that ends with some sweet groove XBrainiax uses in multiple songs.

"Cry me a river, emo Spock!"

Top Ten of 10'

2011-01-20T11:37:00.000-08:00

So instead of pretending I know what the best albums of last year were I'm just listing the records I listened to the most at home and at work/in transit. The first list is a concise list of ten full length CDs, EPs and 7"s I listened to eternally on my iPod. Each one got well over four hundred plays. The second is a hand picked list of 12" LPs and 7"s I blasted at home when my ex-roommate wasn't around and when the neighbors baby wouldn't shut the fuck up. There are some trends to note, for instance things I have on both formats I still listen to excessively. I spent way too much time last year listening to Krallice. Hours and hours. I also sorted some bands with multiple albums together because choosing is for gays and this is my list.
324-3 Way Split, Across Black Wings
No surprise here, one of my favourite bands with two solid releases to keep grinding to. Get into it.
Hummingbird of Dead/-Chainsaw to the Face split 10", HoD side only
Six songs in eight minutes. Intro, shredding, blast beats, Koro cover. What more do you want?
Insect Warfare-Endless Execution 7"
Speaks for itself.
Le Scrawl-Eager to Please
Grindska? Skagrind? Jazzgrind? Grindjazz? I mean, what the fuck. It's catchy, makes me want to dance and is full of metal.
Weekend Nachos-Punish & Destroy EP
Stupid fucking power-violence from the grain belt of america. No wonder this shit rips.
Implosive Disgorgance-Chapters EP
Five songs of death influenced grind. Has sludge parts, has songs about cannabis, all songs are short and fast. What more do you want? Oh, these kids were 17 when they recorded this. Fuck. Later went on to Maruta. What?
Krallice-S/T LP
Amazing epic black metal. Sweeping, fast, kvlt. Long mohawks, shredding metal.
Black Sabbath-Vol.4/Masters of Reality
I don't need to explain this.
Wormrot-Abuse
Southeast Asian grind. It's fun. It's DIY. Fucking get into it. New LP this year.
Cellgraft-S/T
Even though this is digital only and they have a newer full-length I love this album. Assuck, Napalm Death, Insect Warfare worship. These guys do it right. Like Wormrot.

Negative Approach 7"
Old school hardcore. Influenced everything you listen to.
Weak Minds s/t 7"
Bass heavy power-violence from TX. Has touring bassist from Insect Warfare.
In Defence/Motherspeed split 7"
In Defence is from Chicago and plays tough guy style hardcore with less chug and shorter songs. Love the lyrics on this. Fave is "In80'sdancepartays". Motherspeed is a hyperactive hardcore band from California. Fuck the fourth song, it's a take on Rage Against the Machine. Faves are "Boy And His Blob" and especially "Dudeside Assistance". All songs have rad lyrics, and the cover and general layout all rule FYI.
Misfits Bullet 7"
The song "Bullet" is a great precursor to modern aggressive music, no way around it. These guys have tons of song like that, but it's the only record I own, and "Earth A.D." only half counts. Well not really, but I have it on tape, so you know.
International Fight/Blast Comp. 7", Side B only
Has songs from tons of awesome grind bands on this side. Yacopsae, In Disgust, Nashgul, Insect Warfare, Matka Thersea.
HoD Show Us the Meaning of Haste LP and split 10" with Chainsaw to the Face, HoD side only
See above.
Krallice s/t and Dimensional Bleedthrough
See above
Nashgul-El Dia Despues Al Fin De La Humanidad
Awesome grind from Spain. Influenced by Napalm Death, Repulsion, awesome 80's movies, Repulsion, punk rock and Repulsion. The LP has a Repulsion cover, no surprise. The album artwork is really sick and done by their bass player Ivan . The record is a sick transparent splatter blue. It's such a beautiful package. Comes with Metal-Punk Division poster.
Hatebreed-Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire
Yes it's on Victory Records, yes they rip off Slayer and yes they inspired hundreds of horrible bands. But this is still a fucking good hardcore record. Circle pits, mosh parts, sing alongs. Dig it or not, I don't fucking care.
Black Sabbath-"Masters of Reality"/"Vol. 4"
Once again no intro needed. Just ripping metal of high quality. The best actually.

I also realize this post is "late". But fuck it.

2011-01-19T08:19:00.000-08:00

Guess what I just bought today?

That's right, an old laptop from a friend. Expect updates sometime soon.

Crippler Crossover

2010-11-19T09:18:00.000-08:00

So before me or anyone else talks about any of these bands anymore: Crucial Unit, Municipal Waste, Hummingbird of Death, Kill Your Idols, Slayer, Leeway, Suicidal Tendencies, North Side Kings, or Capitalist Casualties, we need to talk about D.R.I.
Ultra old school, ultra fast, ultra D.I.Y. hardcore from Texass. The Dirty Rotten Imbeciles are one of the few bands to write the rules for crossover, thrash, hardcore, and fastcore. And probably indirectly for grind and powerviolence too. On this LP (The Dirty Rotten LP) they blow through 27 in less than an equal amount of time. Almost always keeping it interesting mixing in slower parts ("I Want More", "Violent Pacification", "The Explorer") with just rad fast hardcore. The drums are fast circle pit beats side by side with loud talking vocals. Not much yelling or screaming, just loud fast talking and some regular fast talking and a little normal talking, all discussing lyrics of various subject matter. Serious, fun and overall important things are discussed. Their guitar player shows nods to his favorite bands with Discharge ("Dennis' Problem"), and the staple DC and OC bands ("Closet Punk", "Commuter Man" etc.). These influences are good to have though since it keeps the ideas new and flowing but only in the circular constraints of awesomeness. Sort of like a circle pit. Album highlights for me are "Money Stinks", "Couch Slouch (The Crucial Take)", "I Don't Need Society", and "Snap". I can't explain that last one, that's just how it is.

"Money stinks, money stinks. Yeah it stinks."

2010-11-18T14:58:00.000-08:00

Here's a full split that will only get half reviewed. Why? Because only one side blew me away. Sylvester Staline is a French poweviolence band that blasts like having a Fuck On The Beach never went out of style. Screaming, blazing(LOL GET IT) fast hardcore about Satan and smoking weed. Most of the songs titles give indications how they feel about recreational cannabis use. I've never been, but I wouldn't be inclined to see the French as crusty stoner punks, but here they are blasting away between feedback laden interludes. This four piece really puts out a cacophonous wall of sound. The only real low end is in the bass which lays down some thick groove over two-stepping drum beats. They're druer doesn't do much beyond two-steps and blasts but that's a-hokay with me. The vocals and guitar are both wailing, screeching forces of punk recognition only discernible by lyrics, which are unintelligible and almost exclusively about weed. Tre bien!
Appropriate anecdote, my friend Teen Wolf has a steam roller pipe in the form of Satan. What do we do? Smoke out of it listening to these guys and Slayer!
There aren't too many bands I'm aware of from France besides these guys and maybe with reason, because they're so sick. Seth. Rainbow of Death. Gojira. None hold a candle to Sylvester Staline. Like I said, grinding powerviolence!

"Hey ladies! If you ain't no bitch, don't like to be called bitch, put ya hands up like this, here!"

7" to Do Bong Rips To

2010-11-17T08:22:00.001-08:00

I've been seriously rocking the Birdflesh/Embalming Theatre split 7". If I could find a physical copy for myself I'd play the shit out of it but instead I've just listening to it nonstop on my iPod. Although I must admit I only listen to the Birdflesh side, even though Embalming Theatre do an Infest cover, and only the first four tracks. "Vikings From the North(Carnage From Beyond)" is good every once in a while but I usually skip it. The black metal vocals and tongue-in-cheek lyrics with the newer style Darkthrone music turned upbeat instead bleak and grim is entertaining but not a conducive to getting ripped and rocking the fuck out.
The rest of this side of the EP is some sick death metal influenced grind. Deep, gruffly growled vocals with thick, well produced blasts and chugging riffs. Kind of the Attack of the Mad Axe Men style if that helps, especially because i have this idea of both bands always playing with huge smiles the whole time. My favourite track is "Blind Butcher" because it has the most energy. The whole time I want to circle pit and fucking kick people in the face. There's even a violin solo and a hilarious sound clip. But don't take just my word for it. Smoke. Listen. Grind.

"I am so big and müscular!"

2010-09-09T16:09:00.001-07:00

Not dead, just still computer and even internetless. Sorry bros. Hopefully soon I'll have more links, bong rips and blast beats.

Not For Babies

2010-05-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

So I'm stealing a link so I don't have to upload this, but here's the Chainsaw to the Face/Hummingbird of Death split 10". My copy was on black, although there are 170 on purple marble, which is sexy. The artwork on this is amazing as well, I love the combination of both bands names into the image. Grinding fastcore brutality on the cover, and the vinyl.
The Chainsaw to the Face side is what you expect from a band with that name. Good musically, real fucking fast. I just cum buckets for HoD though, sorry dudes.
The HoD run through six songs in a freight train frenzy or blast beats and sincerity. One thing first kicked my dick and always will is how passionate and sincere Mike sounds on this recording. They write songs about all kinds of subjects,remaining intelligent the whole time, but on socially political songs their message really shines through. This 10" hits me like the first Gorilla Biscuits LP. It's hardcore about something. But really fast. What's not to like?
"First We Should Observe the Ancient Ritual of the Traditional Pre-Fight Donut" is a blast filled shredding intro that leads into "Shittier Luck Next Time". It and "Great Annoyance and Displeasure" deal with the shitty human beings wer're all forced to deal with on a daily basis, and those even worse exceptions. The true shitbags needing to choke on bags of decaying anus'. And "Ordinary Hard-Working-Law-Abiding Homophobes" is about what you think it is. It's Mike being fucking pissed about how normal people (gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals, transgender) people are treated by the majority. I know exactly what he's talking about. There's also a rad Koro cover on here, they do the song "Acid Casualty". And at the end is the epic three minute "Anytown U.S.A." The excerpt at the end is Mike/the band's feelings on the us's war efforts in the Middle East. It's full of Discharge inspired lyrics, blast beats and fucking shredding. Oh the shredding.

“Look, you got to remember that if Washington D.C. were the size of Baghdad, we would be having something like 215 murders a month. There's going to be violence in a big city. It’s five and a half million people.” Donald Rumsfeld, former US Secretary of Defense, June 18, 2003
“I'm more puzzled by comments that the violence [in Iraq] isn't any worse than any American city. Really? In which American city do the headless bodies of ordinary citizens turn up every single day? In which city would it not be news if neighborhood school children were blown up? Day-to-day life here for Iraqis is so far removed from the comfortable existence we live in the United States that it is almost literally unimaginable. I don't know a single family here that hasn't had a relative, neighbor or friend die violently. Imagine the worst day you've ever had in your life, add a regular dose of terror and you'll begin to get an idea of what it's like every day for a lot of people here.” -Jane Arraf, NBC News correspondent, October 10, 2006

From Soft to Hard

2010-05-19T18:53:00.000-07:00

Here's both sides of the Hirax/Spazz split that came out in 1997. I have no idea what kind of pressing info there is and I doubt I have an original pressing. The Hirax side of the cover is a band photo while the Spazz side contains the brutal exploding face illustration used on "Raging Violence". Max Ward played drums for Hirax at one time and sang for Spazz. The Hirax song was apparently recorded for the "Blasted In Bangcok" demo but was left out. Either way I prefer Hirax over Spazz. It's not that Spazz sucks or anything, I just havn't gotten into them. Hirax however has an awesome, raw old school traditional metal crossed with early thrash. This obviously evolved to the full blown thrash band they are now. This real fast hardcore with Katon's vocals is a sure way to get you pumped up. Living room circle pits abound. His lyrics about world unity and peace is nice and all and I support how he feels. However, that's not how it works out unfortunately. But who am I to tell him not to have hope.

SHOCK!

Crushing the Left Flank

2010-05-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

So as it turns out I participate in something called MCS(Medieval Combat Sports). The games I play are Dagorhir and Belegarth. I am without a doubt, I am huge fucking geek. I know this. But I don't JUST hit people with foam swords, what I compete in is a sport through and through. There are games out there that use magic spells, character classes, levels, etc. and are much more geared towards role-playing and building generic social skills then what I do. Think of the movies "Role-Models" and "Monster Camp". These games (NERO,Markland, etc.) are for pussies and fatties. Amtgard and Darkon are sort of in-between games. Amtgard with it's mandatory character classes, use of magic and very lax weapon specs allows for both uber-LARPy wizards/bards as well as well-rounded, hard hitting fighters(most high-end Amt fighters are better then any MCS fighter, not counting SCA, EMP and the like). Darkon is a little more intense using heavier weapons, requiring all shields to have solid cores and having minimum force rules making it closer to Bel/Dag, but there is still all kinds of magic and monsterNPC classes to make LARPers cum their pants.
If Amtgard and Darkon are pimply faced teenagers listening to Black Flag and the Circle Jerks for the first time, then Bel/Dag is like a high schooler or college freshman listening to Repulsion and Siege for the first time. These games are full contact sports and allow grappling, shield bashing/edging and shield kicking. Spears, two handed weapons (swords, axes,glaives ) are effective support weapons that can bruise or knock the wind out of you. And getting shot in the face with an arrow or hit with a javelin just plain hurts. You're allowed to throw a javelin as hard as you want at someone from fifteen feet away, or stab someone in the torso as hard as you want. Keeping in mind the whole time that it's all foam and there are people everywhere with glasses and humps from years of walking around looking at their feet. This sort of brings me to the different kinds of people that participate. There are basically three categories:flurbs (role-players), stick jocks(athletes like runners, lacrosse players, rugby players, etc.) and historical buffs/re-in-actors. Not every one of us falls into only one of these categories. By default, everyone picks a "character name" or "moniker" if they'rekvlt making them a role player. Everyone is also required to wear a period costume, or "garb". We like taking as much of the mundane out as possible, medieval is the key.Pre -gun powder period. Yes we're aware China had gun powder, but not guns. And the fantasy genre is recognized so in theory things like Star Wars are doable, with thepre-requisite that all garb/armor be made of period materials. The average person falls into stick jock and flub/history buff or flurb and history buff. Personally, I play a black elf and the unit I'm in compromised of dudes playing goblins, orcs and ogres. We all hit hard and use aggressive tactics. This puts us in the flurb/stick jock category. Nonetheless people complain about us "hitting too hard" because they are pussies. And I will admit right now that stabbing someone in the torso is one of the most satisfying things you will ever do. When you can walk on the field and see the fear in the new fighters eyes when they see you, the ego boost you attain is unlike any you will find anywhere else. Wading into battle with only a 48" sword in your hands and destroying all the shields and bodies that line up to you is a way to truly appreciate how Dwight refers to Marv in "Sin City". "More at home swinging an axe into someone's face in the slaughter fields of the arenas. They would have thrown girls like Nancy at him." This is really an accurate description how it feels.
The normal flurb concerned person will focus on garb, acting out their character and will rarely enter the battle field. When they do it is usually with sub-par equipment and even worse fighting ability. Whether this be through magic use or just no effort all, they are usually not effective in combat. They can however make excellent non-coms and help out with administrative duties. The average re-enactor will have fantastic, historically accurate garb for their persona. They will usually stick to a similar weapon combo and fighting style including shield/weapon weight and design. A lot of them also make their own period camping materials such as tents, buckets and feast ware (utensils, bowls, cups).
An average stick jock is only out for fighting. They care little about looking period wearing Underarmor just below tabards with tennis shoes and Oakleys. Weapon and shield weight/construction are priority for them. The lighter, longer lasting materials are highly desired. Weapon sets vary vastly due to the desire to become knighted. This usually involves intimate knowledge of several weapons and various other skills. The average stick jock uses onmi-directional swords or clubs, and flails. Both items are light an easy to wield as there is no concern for using the striking edge as there is none.
An interesting aspect to MCS is the skills and trades on acquires. Leatherworking, metal and or leather armor crafting, sewing, embroidery, woodworking, the list goes on. Organizations like the SCA and Amtgard have programs and award system for medieval arts and sciences. They even hold tournaments awarding astonishing one of a kind prizes. Some people even take these hobbies to the career level and make museum quality replicas or even movie props. Edhellen Armory is company that started out making foam weapons and has gotten to the point where they could contract the majority of the weapons used in the "Role Models" film, and have been generally successful enough to purchase a park for MCS, re-enactment, LARPs and many other activities. Other companies offer clothes, shoes/boots, armor accessories and even weapons to MCS participants from multiple games. SCA armorers particularly make wads of cash if they are willing to invest all their time into the art. A man that invests enough time is able to craft truly unique pieces of art out of metal or leather using the same techniques of the cultures we emulate.

Sunday 7" to Do Bong Rips To

2010-05-16T11:26:00.000-07:00

First up, props to whoever I downloaded this from. You rule for showing me these dudes. Also props to my friend Teen Wolf for talking about them non-stop. It paid off.

Here's a sixteen track 7" in just just over eleven minutes of raging hardcore/fastcore/power-violence. The power-violence is mostly in the music though as WM have the strained hardcore vocals Weekend Nachos and all those other bands who have that awesome sound. Musically they have fast, really fast hardcore and then moshtastic sludge parts. I believe this is why WM calls themselves of power-violence band even though to me it's more hardcore/fastcore. And these guys actually know how to write songs with memorable parts. Like the double take on "Setec Astronomy" with a four count, then an eight count before the songs takes off. There is lots of groove on here that can mostly be attributed to the heavy bass presence. It's very thick and put in front of the guitar for optimum effect. Weak Minds apparently has an ex-touring member of Insect Warfare, but they're from TX so who is surprised there? It really shows though both musically in print, i.e. song titles. "Fucked Up on PSP's" is a good example as well as "Art Is the Bastard" and "Crowhurst". I also really dig their appropriate take on satire with audio samples from "The Big Lebowski" and video game references. I'd point them all out but if your geek isn't big enough to know already then listen to another band.
There's also a cover on here with some dude in some band. I'm not sure exactly what song, but I think it's the one that sounds like Macabre. I love hearing Macabre influences, don't you?

The one about Freakazoid

Saturday Discography To Do Bong Rips To/50th Post Grindtasticle Extravaganza

2010-05-01T17:04:00.003-07:00

So it's Saturday. And this is my 50th post. With these two things happening simultaneously I'm going nuts with a discog to be stoned to all day, and if cannabis possession wasn't so illegal I'd be uber sure they would support the idea.
I definitely feel a crusty grind band is one of the most perfect ways to spend a day high, and 324 fits that bill. I have posted about them before, but here's a fucking doozy. I'm upping their (almost) entire discography. The only things excluded are songs on comps(which is a lot), their 97' demo as all its contents were re-recorded, the Venomous Concept split(couldn't find it) and the Slight Slappers 7" split flexi which apparently sucks and isn't worth listening to, not that I didn't want to find it. But that still leaves you guys with SIX 324 albums to grind to. My personal favourite full-length is Boutokunotaiyo, but Customized Circle is a close second.
I don't really know how to talk about the music anymore than I already have. Grind. Crust. Fast. Loud. Aggro. That's all you need to know. Just download and get crazy.
Okay I lied, I can talk some more. Like about the super thick, chunky bass grooves Babi plays. Totally on my top five bass players list off all time. I'm honestly a little miffed Mr. Childers left him off his list. This and their amazing drummer really showcase how the band is very low-end driven. Even in the deep yells of Masao help solidify this concept. His yells are deep, throaty, raw, full of energy/passion and I can't understand a god damn word of it because it's in Japanese. Merlin it sounds good though. This guy spouts it out like no one you've ever heard. These guys even use gang vocals a couple of times which is super hardcore, not very grind. And Sakata is not your average grind drummer. One could say he's to grind as Fenriz is to black metal. Punk as fuck and he knows both how to groove and how to move a circle pit. In a lot of their earlier records I also hear the same effect on his blasts as xDxAx. I refer to it as the "vortex effect of the blast". That kind of ringing from the cymbals during the blasts, you know the one I'm talking about. It makes you weep.
The Unlisted Track from "Across Black Wings" is a couple of the "Soulwinter" EP song re-recorded. It also has one of the only uses of gang vocals besides "Rebelgrind".
I'd love to give a short bio of these guys, but I don't really know anything. Their Myspace says some type of Kanji symbol I can't read, and I've already mentioned they're from Nippon(Japan). I don't even know if these dudes are in other bands, but I'd love to hear what they're doing. And if anyone can find the missing pieces to the discog or some fucking English lyrics, please let me know.

Here's the chronological order of albums posted:
Customized Circle EP
Soulwinter EP
Boutokunotaiyo
3-Way Split
Across Black Wings EP
Rebelgrind

Decontrol Drive

Sunshine and Circle Pits

2010-04-24T20:01:00.000-07:00

Another amazing band (ironically from MA, and FSU associated) that gets me stoked it's summer is Colin of Arabia. These guys play stripped down, pissed hardcore that easily gets you raging. And these guys pour their hearts on their sleeve in multiple aspects of the band from the lyrics to the numerous covers they've recorded showcasing their influences. Misfits, Black Flag, Slapshot and Bad Brains which I left off as it's the worst Bad Brains song ever. I mean really, "Regulater"? Come on! Sort of wish they'd have done a Cro-Mags cover considering their use of Cro-Mags riffs, the breakdown in "War On the Poor" being a perfect example. It's the "Crush the Demonic" riff with some different words, but it ends up being sweet. Lots of energy to invoke stage dives and vicious circle pits with kicks to the skull.
No complete albums on this one, just all the random songs that make me rage.

Everyday I walk the same way home
Every walk so fucking alone

Sunshine and Circle Pits

2010-04-24T15:35:00.000-07:00

Despite what naysayers think (brutalalex), Bane is to me one of the most relevant and just awesome hardcore bands from the 90's. I guess I still believe some bands have a message, and some of those sXe revival bands are fucking good. Bane, Carry On, Shark Attack. All great stuff. Some of the Bane guys have also been in Converge, but have since moved on to smaller and better things.
Since these guys play hardcore I'm not to going to be eloquent, instead I'll continue using words like energetic, fast, heartfelt, meaningful and I'll mention how fucking incredibly ugly Aaron Bedard is. But man I love that guy anyway, his voice and overall message really get me every time. It's moving stuff. The lyrics fit all of my above adjectives as well, and with hardcore that's usually a big deal since the music churned out gets monotonous easily. And Bane is for sure one of those bands you need to see live because you get to pile on top of kids to point and sing a long. Every memory I have of their songs invoke happiness and fun, which are thoughts one can never have too many of.

REASONS NOT RULES MAKE US STRONG!

4:20 Grind Madness

2010-04-21T10:57:00.001-07:00

I know I missed the holiday post by a day. My bad. I worked nine hours yesterday and spent the rest in a coma from baked goods. Sue me. Because of this you guys get this whole CD(-1) plus their two Black Sabbath covers(+2)!
Brutal Truth doesn't need much of an introduction. They have members in multiple well known bands, have written for "popular publications", and are all around advocates for things that are awesome. Like grind and cannabis. It seems only fitting to post a CD entitled "For Drug Crazed Grind Freaks Only!" on the day for celebrating cannabis' many uses. It was recorded in New Zealand during the "Sounds of the Animal Kingdom Tour" and has one new, totally worthless song at the end, so I cut it in lieu of these rad covers with Kevin Sharp telling you when to SMOKE. I do have to admit that I'm bummed no one says the line "Smoke it mother fucker!" in "Choice of A New Generation" during that sick bass run before they kick back into the Disrupt riff they use. The live sound production on this is fabulous also. You hear all the instuments. The snappning snare, vicious rumbling bass and dissonant guitars all with Sharp's throats and groans.
Both covers,like I said, are from Black Sabbath and came from an Earache Sabbath tribute("Lord of this World") and a Hydra Head Sabbath tribute ("Cornucopia"). I know both are on CD and I believe "Masters of Misery" is in LP form also. The "In These Black Days" comp was a series of four seven inches also, one of which is a double 7". I have three of them, not vol. III, it eludes me.
Anyway, rock this shit real loud when you get high next time.
SMOKE
GRIND
SLEEP

FISTING!

Hardcore, stage dives, high fives!

2010-04-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

I'm going to see Death Before Dishonor (meh), The Mongoloids and fucking Death Threat tonight. In all honesty I just want to sing along to Death Threat for an hour, but I'm sure they won't play very long. The venue I'm going to The Jackpot has something every Thursday night called Neon where all the high school kids congregate to listen to "dance" music, dry hump and do lots of underage drinking. Apparently this used to be 80's themed, which makes way more sense. Cocaine, bright lights, spandex/tight jeans, underage drinking, it's all 80's. Not Lady Gaga and Beach House. What really blows my mind is that the DJ for Neon, Cruz, sings for a thrash metal band called Hammerlord that has former members of the Esoteric, Coalesce, and Nodes of Ranvier. What the fuck?
Anyway, I'm gonna have fun like I did when I saw Bane(who I get to see the 27th at another venue across the street) and then Magrudergrind there.

2010-04-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

My good friend Ingvar (Mike is his real name, but I only call him by his fighting name) sings for a band called Defile from IN somewhere. I like him and his band, so check out their demo.
This is 3:24 (irony?) minutes of raging hardcore with lots of energy and some d-beats. The quality of this is shit and I can't really hear the bass at all, it's just vocals, drums and something resembling a guitar, which makes the music suffer I think. I like Ingvar's vocals, they sound reminiscent of Human Furnace at times and the drummer has sick d-beats/two-step parts. Simple but effective.

Insert intelligent riposte.

Saturday Songs to Get Stoned To

2010-04-08T18:27:00.000-07:00

Editer's Note: Metalsucks actually did a good job on both Saturday and Sunday of providing songs to get fucked up to.
I know it's not Saturday, but I'll be out of town this weekend for a day battle, so this will have to do because I'm sure Metalsucks won't do any better.
On one of the occasions deathgrindfreak posted something not death metal or grindcore related it turned out to be the full album of a band I've always wanted to hear more of after seeing them play with Despised Icon and Ed Gein. Swarm of the Lotus is by far one of the loudest bands I've ever seen. This counts Ted Nugent and Slayer. Although those bands played in large venues, Swarm of the Lotus had the same full stack rigs in a fucking bar. It was almost excruciating.
I've always had a couple of random Swarm of the Lotus songs I listened to, but this is a pretty fucking solid album containing melodic, sludgy riffs. Slower music really doesn't usually get my attention, but these guys pull of the heavy really well. I've uploaded the first seven songs as I truly have music ADD if it's not absolutlely enthralling, and this drones on at about track eight. If you dig all these however feel free to get the rest of the album and enjoy in your indica induced bliss.
These guys have some other material out as well. Some sort of sweet picture disc, a song on an Eyehategod tribute at least, maybe more.

Terror
Filth Vermin
Smothered
Blackened putrid open sore
You're rotted

Sunshine and Circle PIts

2010-03-31T10:10:00.002-07:00

I'm sure a lot of other people feel the same way I do about this time of year. No more cold weather jackets and pants. No stupid hats or gloves. We can wear t-shirts and shorts showing off our tough ankle tattoos. And even more important bands tour during the summer. A lot. The average moderately known touring hardcore band might play 100 shows in 120 days or more depending on how much DIY they have in their veins. Just think of how many stage dives, circle pits, high fives, head walks and finger pointing sing-a-alongs just one band incites over the course of a tour cycle. Then just imagine how a fucking sick, original sounding band like Righteous Jams would turn it up. Hardcore in itself is no frills, so the little bits bands add make it refreshing every time they play. And these dudes play energetic simple hardcore with a rock and roll feel. A lot like Black Flag, but less Sabbath more punk and some truly sick bass riffs. Which is something hardcore is bereft of sometimes. They're also from Boston so the lyrics have those awesome hardcore colloquialisms I love. And the lyrics themselves are straight forward and honest, not full of confusing analogies that can be used for multiple meanings. I can say that I read the lyrics of every band I listen to, and sometimes I don't care what a band is saying but there's something about these lyrics I just really love. I think it's because Joey C writes lyrics just like I would.
Even though Righteous Jams hasn't really done anything since "Business As Usual" in 07/08 which really bums me out. They've always been one of my favourite hardcore bands and I would love to hear all kinds of new output. But I'm posting the first LP they did called "Rage of Discipline" on Lookin Out from 2004.

Here is the full track listing, but I left off a couple of songs in the download because I didn't like them. What now?
1.Rage of Discipline
2.Iron Mind
3.Green Eyes
4.Bust It
5.No Glory
6.Small Fish
7.Invasion
8.Scream and Shout
9.Where It's Due
10.Righteous Jams

"I don't wanna listen to you scream and shout,
I don't give a shit what you've been talking about,
all your little mind games are bummin me out!"

Consider this one of (more than one) posts about summer hardcore happy fun time.

From Soft to Hard

2010-03-31T10:10:00.001-07:00

Monday I received my vinyl copy of Wormrot's debut LP "Abuse". My iPod said I listened to it over 1300 times since first finding out about them in early December, so thank Merlin that wasn't the deal with the vinyl. It was imported however so there is a little damage to the cover, I mean TVG is in Germany. But oh wait, I ordered this straight from the band, so it came from fucking Singapore, so I'm not really bummed. I got one of the 552 black records, and TVG still has some of the red available, but there are only 110 so if you want one get it quick.
I don't know how to adequately describe what follows after putting needle to wax. One can hear the influences of Insect Warfare, 324 and Napalm Death. But having read interviews I find that there are lots of western pop influences in the band. The is blatantly obvious by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover. It's shocking how fucking good it is too. The upbeat tempo and energy out the ass, just their originals. I also love Arif's Engrish lyrics. Reminds me of Total Fury and the Burning Spirit scene, and I dig that shit!
These dudes just got signed to Earache who's reissuing this on double CD (Abuse+34) and vinyl. They have a couple of cool shirts too with cool package deals. I think I'm gonna buy the CD for the extra tracks. Well and because I think these guys are amazing and I can't wait for them to get huge. They are putting together a US tour for later this year, so try to get them in your city.

Abusive grindcore holocaust is right.

No Master-Ruthless Future+3 CDep

2010-03-24T09:23:00.000-07:00

So I saw these dudes open for Magrudergind earlir this month. They played after a doomy sludge band called Stull. Stull was alright, when they got heavy, it was real heavy but like most bands of this nature I had a hard time focusing on the music and not the singer's super short cut off denim shorts. Then No Master came on. It was apparently their bass players birthday so the singer called for lots of dick punches as he sucked in a whippit before they started. As the feedback started I began getting excited from seeing the bands they were repping. Assuck, Discharge. Fuckng spiked denim jackets and tattoos. The heavy, crusty, punk that ensued worked the crowd into a frenzy which I loved considering there like 30 people there. Most people knew the ques and went crazy accordingly to whether No Master was crushing with crust or whirl-winding with blastbeats. I'm unsure if they played their demo straight through as their set but I really like Eyes and Act of War as a medley. Slow brooding and heavy until they explode with the raw punk energy missing in a lot of extreme bands. Grind isn't only about being fast and aggressive. Death metal does that too. It's the energy that really sets the hardcore based grind apart from the metal based Death. Is that too obvious of a statement? I hope so because too many bands forget it. I know Magrudergrind recognized it because Avi gave them a shout out and Joe more than complimented them. I believe he took Avi's statement of "Real crusty" and took it to the next level with "Crusty as fuck!".

"I've been bled dry. Pain is weakness leaving the body."

Check the two newer songs on their Myspace too. The demo is from May of 2009 so compare and contrast.

Pulverizing Hate Mongers

2010-03-04T19:57:00.000-08:00

The show was fucking sick, as expected. Didn't stay for Misery Index because I didn't want to walk home. Also only got to make small talk, no cool questions. Sorry guys.
But I also saw a super gnarly local band called No Master. I bought their demo and will post it first chance I get.

From Soft to Hard

2010-03-03T07:49:00.000-08:00

Ringworm/Terror split 7"
This guy came out in 2003, back when Terror were relativly unknown and Ringworm was still just blip on the massive Victory radar, though thankfully Deathwish Inc. pulled this split together. It's the second part of a four part series dealing with the four card suits. They've done three so far, the heart still to be released. This was the second 7" (the first having Hope Conspiracy and Suicide File, the third having First Blood and Blacklisted(originally supposed to be Integrity, lucky Blacklisted)) with two pressings. 4,000and 1,000 for the second pressing. I have four copies, two randomaly fell into my possession and two I sought out for purchase. One orange(500), clear(1500) and red(500) from the first set and I have an uncut blue record(325) from the second pressing. In the matrix on the Terror side it says "I need maximum output-more stagedives!!!" and in the matrix of the Ringworm side it says "For a good time call 804-306-6134...", which I did call once but the guy had no idea who Ringworm was, and I was nervous because I was like 16. Anyway, the hardcore.
Terror play that tough guy, self-affirming hardcore that got big(again) around that time. Scott Vogel, who I love as a singer, really steps it up when his band writes short songs. The "Lowest of the Low" EP shows this. Unfortunately the two songs on here don't hold up to the EP, and can in no way hold up to Ringworm. I just find them boring and too slow paced. Not to say I don't like Terror, just saying this was their weakest output until "One With the Underdogs".
The Ringworm side however is fan-fucking-tastic. Raging Clevo style hardcore played fast and hateful. These two songs also appear on the follow-up full length "Justice Replaced By Revenge" that came out two years later, obviously with a different production. I believe the two songs posted are from that CD, sorry guys. The 7" versions are better in my eyes.

"Seeing red, until I finally reach my THRESHHOLD!"

From Soft to Hard

2010-03-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

Hatred Surge/Insect Warfare split 7"
I found my copy of this online for like eight bucks , which I thought was a steal. I'm pretty sure mine is a second pressing (this originally came out in 2006) as the cover is white and the vinyl is transparent green. A few notes about the packing. The artwork on the front and back is SICK, Daniel Shaw is the man. And super big ups to Hatred Surge for giving Poser Disposer a shoutout. Those dudes are awesome. I found some of their 7" (which I own) online, if I find the rest I'll post it. Poser Disposer play a thrashy-grind, maybe akin to that of Macabre, which I hear in so many other bands I love. But I digress.
Hatred Surge is some Despise You style power-violence/grind that while awesome in it's own right, but has a hard time comparing to fucking Insect Warfare. Anyone unfamiliar with them with quickly learn they play Napalm Death to the extreme style grind fucking core. Rahi's demonic vocals and Beu's outrageous static guitar create a pummeling four minute orgasm. Obvious highlights are "Reanimated Horde" and "Hurricane Death", the latter having a tremendous amount of groove.

The correct track listing is also as follows:

1. Rot
2. Out of My Head
3. Pile of Shit
4. Funeral
5.Old and Tired
6. Farce
7.Negative Appeal
8. Obscene Creed
9.Reanimated Horde
10.But Now You Die
11. Hurricane Death

"Cut up the skin, drink from the vein. Obliterate the body, but the brain must remain!"

Built to Blast

2010-02-27T05:32:00.000-08:00

I'm going to see Misery Index with Magrudergrind on the third and I'm considering asking the Magrudergrind dudes some questions. Anything in particular you guys want to know?

2010-02-19T06:11:00.000-08:00

Expect link less posts periodically. I still don't own a computer but I can post from my iPod.
"If you will it dude, it is no dream."-Walter Solcheck paraphrasing Theodore Hertzal, State of Israel Address.

2010-02-07T13:39:00.001-08:00

Sunday Songs to Do Bong Rips

2010-01-10T07:10:00.000-08:00

Since I've started listening to 324 I find myself always listening to the 3-Way Split they did with Discordance Axis and Corrupted or this album. "Boutokunotaiyo" is the full-length I would expect this band to evolve into from their 7" and split. It's the same fast, aggressive, heavy grind-crust from before, just amped way up. The energy and urgency went way up on this record. I wish I knew what they were upset about but but Masao just rages in Japanese the whole time, which makes it all the better. His vocal patterns are all over the place here with my favourites being where he just fucking yells at you non-stop the whole song. Check out "Swinging Skull" as a prime example. Short, fast, loud and fucking aggro at all times. Just the way I like it.

I have to admit that I only uploaded the first half of this album for brevity, but this is an intense 11 minutes. And "Broken Clock" is already on the 7", so you don't need that twice.

Nippon Grind-Crust

Sunday Song to Do Bong Rips

2010-01-08T09:12:00.000-08:00

I think the best way to start a new year and it's correlating first post is with a rad cover. So I'm giving you guys the Insect Warfare version of "New Rotation". For me it's a fabulous song title to accompany the beginning of a new Gregorian calendar cycle. I have to say the best part of both version of this song are the blasts at the very beginning and end of the song. Short exhibitions of obscene speed when they are highlighted like this always have a place in my heart. This is the stuff that makes grind art. The bits that make you warm inside and light in the head.

"Gulf Coast/Nippon Invasion"

Pre-Grind, Proto If You Will

2009-12-18T18:41:00.000-08:00

I keep seeing all these awesome posts about grindcore's fore-bearers; Napalm Death, Siege, Carcass, Deep Wound, Repulsion. These outline the bases of grind's lyrical outlook, vocal style, and guitar and drum patterns (the fucking blast beat for one, thank you Mitch Harris). And a band I think gets overlooked way too much is Cryptic Slaughter. I first heard "Convicted" a couple of years ago and I was mind fucked. It had all the rage and energy of hardcore with very political lyrics and it's played at hyperspeed, even for today's standards. These are some of the fastest 4/4 beats you'll ever hear, and then the blasting. Oh the blasting. It's the kind of 1/1, snare/high-hat blasts Dave "Grave" plays. I guess most people would say they're not real blasts, but it's still fast as shit drumming that's produced just the right way to get the most impact out of them. In fact the whole rhythm section is up front in the mix and I'm glad because these bass riffs are sick. Then it's all topped off with snarling, snotty punkish vocals and a sleek guitar sound make these songs true ragers, worthy of the one man circle pit.
The stand outs here to me are "M.A.D.", "Sudden Death", "Lowlife", and "Rage to Kill" with most having anthemic chants followed by frantic thrashing. The Slaughter also put out three more LP's, "Money Talks" being the only one I've heard. The Wiki says a lot of people like that record better, but fuck them. It's a somewhat slower more groove filled sound and I'm partial to the exuberant first LP.
It's rather interesting to think about crossover influencing grind as well as thrash. Or at least the Leeway/D.R.I. version of a mid-paced hardcore/metal hybrid with long songs and more personal social conscious lyrics. Municipal Waste and Crucial Unit are probably the best example of a contemporary Cryptic Slaughter influence but taking the thrash lyrics and ideology, as well as a healthy dose of AWK i.e. getting fucking wasted and other fun goofy shit like that. Being name checked (in covers) by Napalm Death and Spazz should help support that idea.

Random Slaughter Fact: Bass player Rob Nicholson played as Mr. Blasko for Rob Zombie and replaced Rob Trujillo for Ozzy Osbourne. Is it ironic one crossover legend replaced the other when he left to play for a band influenced by Cryptic Slaughter and the thrash scene they helped spawn?

"Children of today of the killers of tomorrow, nothing in the future except for pain and sorrow!"

Oh Shi....

2009-12-02T14:27:00.000-08:00

I made a banner. What does everyone think?

Throatstab

2009-11-27T18:25:00.000-08:00

This is the second EP Backstabbers Inc. put out. This came out on Trash Art! in 2000/20001 and is only available in CDEP form unfortunately. If anyone runs a label repressing good records on vinyl, this is one for you to convert to wax. This seven song EP is more mega-raging, pissed off hardcore that has a crusty feel and amazing vocals that are raw and full of energy. There are some moments of just ludicrous album filler on here that I admit to hating, and it's not really sludgy, heavy riffs. It's boring album filler. But beyond that each song still has parts that stand out to make them memorable, and when these guys get going they are indeed a force to be trifled with. This album is more upbeat hardcore with bouncing bass, lots of snappy snare and dissonant guitars with agonizingly honest, virulent and hateful lyrics. Once again these guys have moments of total aural cacophony when everyone is going full speed, but within the ugliness of being bludgeoned in the head with a block of concrete you find moments of clarity.
There's really nothing new or overtly innovative with this album, but it's worth a listen to get a feel for the BSI sound and what will become the Trap Them sound. Both "Kamikaze Missions" and the next EP they put out are fantastic albums and I still feel Backstabbers Inc. is a better band than Trap Them.

Spare me your 'drama' spare me your 'friendship' because both can be filed under fiction. You're still the same (a politician) every word you've said to me (filed under fiction)

From Soft to Hard

2009-11-04T08:25:00.000-08:00

After hearing the xBrainiax/No Comply split I was interested in hearing more No Comply even after the aural destruction that xBrainiax cause. Lucky for me I found this 7" at a local record store and I like it even more than their side of the split. They have a real gnarly surf/skate punk vibe in the lyrics as well the music, which is some awesome Georgian hardcore to begin with. I'd liken them to faster version of Ceremony with less Motorhead and a more punky Discharge meets Blood for Blood feel.
The packaging for the vinyl itself is two colors(Orange and black) silk screened onto thin cardboard. I found that there are 75 that were printed on clear vinyl but mine is black and I have no info on pressing numbers for it. Inside the sleeve is a lyric sheet and a digital download coupon where you can download MP3s of your new 7". That's what I did and now I'm passing on the savings to you!

Grinding and grinding and grinding!
My fist into the earth!

A Hidden Hand...of Love

2009-10-28T08:45:00.001-07:00

I just found this dude's Twitter and I'm so stoked. Andrew W.K. is by far THE greatest artist of any generation. Granted the only record he made that's any good is "I Get Wet", it's absolute gold. I saw the video for "Party Hard" when I was a freshman and immediately fell in love. Everything from the nuances of the video to his album packing when I bought it later that week. Especially the album cover! Just as brutal as Pantera's "Vulgar Display of Power" except AWK hit himself in the face with a brick until he bled instead of paying some dude to get jacked in the fact with a meaty fist. Then he started blowing up and his other videos got lots of air time. "She Is Beautiful" showed AWK playing all the instruments and running through a house just rocking out. And his best video, "We Want Fun", is all out mayhem with the Jackass cast and fucking Butterbean. There's a scene where AWK is walking around with Butterbean on his shoulders. Now that's fucking metal. This song and video are the epitome of his style and message. Yes he wants everyone to party 'til they puke, but he's about more than that. He also embodies the ideas of self-affirmation and unnerving positivity in the face of any and all adversity. Seeing him live was a great way to experience this. I've only seen him twice. Once in IN for free and at the final US Hellfest in New Jersey. The Hellfest performance was one of the best things I've ever seen. Three thousand hardcore kids going absolutely batshit. There were two circle pits going, one clockwise the other counter-clock wise and everyone had someone on their shoulders giving high fives. The stage was full of people the entire time dancing, stage diving, grabbing for the mic, taking pictures, throwing beach balls, and then there was the inflatable party dolphin of death. Fucking Boston Beatdown tough guys were grabbing it and crowd surfing or "riding the bull" around the floor where everyone was dancing, two-stepping, HB strutting, taking their pants off and just generally loving life. I've never seen so much enthusiasm from so many people all focused one thing until that night. And all 3,000 people were focused on one thing: having fun. When was the last time any of you saw that? I also have to mention that AWK headlined that day's performances and direct support on the bill for him was Mest. Those poor pop-punk poser pussies. I, as well as 20-30 other people were throwing water/soda bottles at them (some full, some empty) their whole set beckoning them to fucking go home so we could see AWK. If there were more than ten people (i.e. pubescent girls and their boyfriends) there actually enjoying the set I'd have felt bad, but of course no one felt any remorse.
What does this have to do with anything? Well it's getting to be the time of year for holidays and parties. And with AWK being a mainstay for Halloween costumes and New Year's soundtracks I'm posting his best work for everyone to really start their parties raging. I've uploaded 90 percent of "I Get Wet" (the two or three filler songs I don't like have been omitted), the original version of "We Want Fun" from the Girls Own Juice EP, the first two tracks off his second full-length "The Wolf" (Victory Strikes Again and Long Live the Party) which both sound like they belong more on his first album and finally his contribution to the Aqua Teen movie soundtrack "Party, Party, Party" which is also in a hilarious Aqua Teen episode with a montage and a raging animated Andrew himself.
I've also just found out he did an entire cover album of the original Gundam soundtrack for it's 30th year anniversary, which is fucking balls. The first few incarnations of the Gundam series are classic slices of no only anime but good t.v. in general. Speaking of which I'd love to point out his DVD "Who Knows" is fantastic. It covers his performances from like two years of him touring. He spliced together all kinds of fan recorded footage of his worldwide tours including right when "The Wolf" came out and he broke his foot on stage on night and then finished that tour cycle in a wheelchair! And it has some amazing footage of his Furnace Fest performance, which I imagine would have been amazing if I could have went. Fucking HUM reunion for christ's sake.

This is where the link usually goes but the internet connection I'm using right now is worse than a fermented offal discharge, so when everything finishes you'll be able to party hardy.

From Soft to Hard

2009-10-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

I bought this slice of hardcore gold when I was a sophomore in high school from Used Kids and I downloaded it from here. And the first thing I have to say is everyone should go to the 7inchpunk link and read the story about how this was recorded, it's good shit. It also might be one of the most DIY things ever done outside of Black Flag pushing the school bus they took on tour. As for the music, you get two songs of 90's style youth crew hardcore. The band name is from a DYS song and there are a couple of dudes from Chain of Strength in this band so you know at least this isn't a mediocre band wasting wax. There are all kinds of little things I dig about these song, but they're all standard hardcore cliches, like the gnarly gang vocals for instance. But a lot of the things that make this music simple and standardized are the thing I enjoy the most about it. And in all honesty, a little energy can go a long way and these guys have that shit amped up to 11.

"I won't fucking turn away!"

From Soft to Hard

2009-10-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a new regular "feature". When I buy an album on vinyl(maybe a CD (less likely) or a cassette) of something I already have digitally I will post it on here and take it off of my iPod. This is significant for me as I'll be able to fully enjoy those songs the way they are intended. I'm also going to post a bunch of stuff I have both vinyl and digital copies of just for fun.

I ordered the Krallice LP three weeks ago and was finally able to pay for and bring home today. If this was a CD I would have probably worn it out at work and in transit to and from. I've already posted a song by these guys and here's another one. It's a way faster song with all kinds of peaks throughout instead of a huge build up at the end like "Forgiveness In Rot". No matter what I'm doing, riding my bike, cleaning the house, or stabbing people in the chest this songs rising and falling crescendos never fails to pump me up. No fan of extreme metal will be able to resist head bobs and/or foot tapping. The vinyl copy of this sounds so raw which sort of clashes with the upbeat, shredding and severely epic songs on it. But this juxtaposition is very pleasing to me, the dichotomy of ugly and beautiful and there are so many happening in this track. The aggressive but melodic guitars; the smooth bass carving out grooves of bestial low end destruction.
On a related note I get to see Dysrhythmia Sunday night. I think I'm going to talk Colin Marston's head off about this band (maybe an interview?) and then I'll try to be that awesome guy to feed the band and let them stay at my house. Regardless, I'm stoked to see that dude doing what he loves with a rad band. I saw him in Behold...the Arctopus with Mouth of the Architect and Intronaut last year, and needless to say, that was sweet.

Krallice also has a new album coming out 11/10. I'm not going to do all the details, the internet press has them already. I'm sure it will be worth all the hype.

"Black as in evil and darkness."

Songs to Break TVs To

2009-10-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

As the title says, here are some songs guaranteed to make you want to punch your mom right in the fucking face with a tv.
This is some older Ringworm. Fucking classic Cleveland hardcore from the 90's. These guys shared members with Integrity, so there's a good reference point to start at. It's metallic, thrashing hardcore full of vehemence and spite. Human Furnace has really distinct vocals that really lets his abhorrence at humanity seethe out in the lyrics. This is hateful music by mean dudes. They've been "banned" in various clubs for the insane antics at their shows. When I was in high school they played with Terror and Full Blown Chaos for free at a shithole called Bernie's in Columbus where 2x4's were being taken out of ceiling and used as a mosh prop, to scary results. So it's obvious that Ringworm fans are raging alcoholic meatheads. Tough guy hardcore at it's finest. In fact Frank 3 Gun is the guitar player for hatebreed now, so these guys are on the back burner which I find totally disappointing. I know he makes way more money now, but just in a band that hasn't been good since "Perseverance" came out, and that's being nice. These guys also have been fucked by the long Victory Records dick. Tony Brummel has one of the best bands his label ever signed still on his label but he won't do anything with them. The press for their last two albums was fucking pitiful and their American tours were small. I can only hope some miracle happens and these guys gain their rightful place in the hardcore "limelight".

Birth is fucking PAIN!

2009-10-16T20:29:00.000-07:00

I saw Bane on Wednesday with Foundation and a couple of local bands. It was fucking awesome. Hopefully I'll have a post about it soon.

Keep It Mean

2009-10-08T14:38:00.001-07:00

I've been having a shitty couple of days mentally. I can barely pay rent, I eat once a day if I'm lucky, I have no heat/cold air in my apartment during this season change etc. Am I being a whiny bitch about the whole situation? Maybe. But all this sulking has made me full of hate right now so I've been combing through some Cd's (yeah, I own a few) and I found this gem. I bought this at the only show I ever saw the Cursed play, and it was the first time I'd ever heard of them. I saw them play after Daughters and before Most Precious Blood (who never showed, van problems) and American Nightmare (GUtG). By far the most intense set of the night was from Cursed. No one moved, everyone just stared. I think partially because most people had never heard these four Canadians before. It was just so intense. They played every song on the CD with ferocity and energy. And somehow they managed to have fun, every band member was smiling and just rocking the fuck out.
I'm sure everyone already knows who Chris Calohan and two other Cursed members from The Swarm or possibly Ruination and Left For Dead. But apparently someone from Haymaker was in this band too, which I didn't know. But it helps explain the rancor and acrimony pouring out of this album. This kind of picks up where The Swarm left off, or another good comparison is His Hero Is Gone. There's a fair share of droning instrumentals but this is mostly crusty hardcore album and less of a spiteful hardcore record like previously. I feel like previous bands were a much more youthful and hate filled version of something like Sheer Terror while Cursed had grown into it's own entity (Disclaimer: I heard Cursed before the other 9 bands these guys were in) of seething, pounding fucking rocking hardcore.
I should also point out that "Guilt Parade" is a Swarm cover, so you get 9 originals, a cover and an instrumental track.

Turn the dollar, dig the hole deeper, regret as you get another year older...."But tomorrow's another day", that's what the hopeless say.

Tuesday Song to Bong Rips To

2009-09-22T17:30:00.000-07:00

Edit: I was a little bit TOO high when I wrote this and I will either delete it or re-write it at some point.

I've posted a Krallice song before, and here's another one. This is the second track off their self-titled LP from last year. This is a lot more straight forward than "Forgiveness In Rot". "Cnestorial" is fast. It has tempo shifts and full outright changes all the time. This song is filled with build ups and then peaking with epic, soaring passages. Listen to this first 70 seconds and you'll see what I mean. I could re-write my whole last post about just this song. It's upbeat, there's shredding, the vocals ache out the speakers and into my psyche. It's fast become my favourite song on here. I find it the most upbeat and energetic. I listen to this song every day when I ride my bike because it's perfect for such an activity. You get into a lull of peddling and them BAM you're rotating your legs like there's a pack wild Ettin chasing you down and you have no other choice than to move away as fast as fucking possible before the angry militia of two-headed monsters devours you alive.
So yeah, before I start getting repetitive, just download and enjoy. If it warrants, I'll also post the new song they have for the records coming out in November this year. I can't wait.

The lesser gods have taken their withered placement back from man.

2009-09-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

EDIT: "Hacked to Chunks" is a No Comment song, both bands are covering No Comment. Sorry everyone. I suck.
Mr. Childers did some posts involving power-violence and fastcore so I've been ravaging my music collection trying to figure out some of the caveats and I found a killer 9" split of Hummingbird of Death and Chainsaw to the Face. I listened to it, it ruled. Then I found a 2005 demo I have of Hummingbird of Death and fuck my ass there's a XBrainiax cover (Hacked to Chunks) on it, so here's the whole demo with a super sick cover. If this stuff is power-violence, fucking sign me up.

Seriously, pass the effing popcorn!

2009-09-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, sorry so long no see. My (ex-)girlfriend and I broke up a couple of weeks ago and I just now bought an external hard drive and got all my stuff off her computer. Expect sporadic, but righteous posts.

----------------
Now playing: Brutal Truth - Lord Of This World
via FoxyTunes

Saturday Song to Do Bong Rips To

2009-07-04T18:32:00.000-07:00

Since I have no interest in the either the 4th of July or it's fireworks here's something to actually get excited about.
I am very admittedly not a big fan of black metal. There's not much to it that's appealing beyond the fantastic monikers those guys use. A lot of the nuances that people love about it are the things that agitate my ears. Separately a lot of the single characteristics are things underground music fans strive to keep pure in their respective music selection; hyper fast blastbeats, tremelo picking, harsh or rough production from little to no budget, vast and epic atmosphere, etc. But when combined it makes for an auditory rectal hemorrhage and I just can't get into that. But somehow Krallice seem to pull it all off without being tedious. All the songs on their album are long, averaging ten minutes long, with the last being fifteen and half minutes. The little I know about most black metal tells me these guys should be playing atmospheric/symphonic black metal with copious amounts of samples and keyboards. And there should be like six guys in the band. However Krallice was recorded by the Bloody Panda drummer, and the guys from Orthelm and Behold...the Arctopus/Dysthermia on guitar and bass respectively so you know these guys are not fucking around with some pussy metal. This is soaring, vast, epic black metal with a good amount of old fashioned shredding, moving cymbal crashes and a very strange upbeat rhythm that will keep you moving your head or finger tapping until the music stops. For being a desolate and bleak form of music, this shit is very uplifting. It reminds me of a fast Mouth of the Architect from two states east or a distant cousin of Wolves In the Throne Room despite how many comparisons I see to early Burzum and Ulver. You can hear the New York element permeate from these guys. This isn't super techy/prog instrumental metal that you're used to hearing from these guys, it's the concrete jungle oozing out of wailed vocals and the airy cacophony that is their wall of sound. For every thousand band whose sound is razor thin, these guys have a full, rocking sound.

Solar winds breed laceration.

Saturday Song to Do Bong Rips To

2009-05-30T21:41:00.000-07:00

Metalsucks did a good job today, but my girlfriend is gone for the weekend so here is another song to get ripped to.
We all know and love Sepultura with or without Derek Green and I celebrate the majority of the Sepultura discography. I got into them when I was a young teenager and was absolutely floored by what I heard (and saw, the artwork for early Sepultura is AMAZING) on the Beneath the Remains and Arise albums. Max Cavalera used to be one angry, abrasive mother fucker. His lyrics dripped with vehement candor from the shrapnel of his aching, throaty vocals while the music itself is a hash of proto-every extreme metal genre. There is sloppy filler here and there, but that's allows live shows to shine. Sepultura originally broke up in 96 when I was only 8 so I never got to see them, but I did buy a copy of Under A Pale Grey Sky and got mind fucked again. It's a two disc CD containing the last show they ever played with Max in December, 16 1996 in London. Strife played with them, and that would be awesome to see, but I digress. This album has songs from their entire catalogue (up to that point), but every song is done better than on the record. It's always faster, more aggressive and has a better effect. My personal favourite is the Arise/Dead Embryonic Cells medley. I also put the Cro-Mags cover for the sweet pit call out and the Beneath the Remains/Mass Hypnosis medley on here too (in no order).

Hate throughout the arteries, Mass Hypnosis. Believers kneeling over their sins. Inhuman instinct of cowardly leaders make the world go their own way. Tens of thousands hypnotized trying to find a reason why.

Thursday Song To Do Bong Rips To

2009-05-28T13:45:00.000-07:00

Metalsucks is lacking again, so here we go.
I once again can't remember where I downloaded this 7" at but it's really fucking good. 324 are a Japanese grind band and have put out two EPs and 2 LPs as well as this. I've yet to listen to their other stuff but if it's like this seven minute 7" then I'll shit myself in glee. These dudes play their grind with lots of contrast between blasting and mid-paced grinding. The singer is has a Barney Greenway feel to him, but I'm okay with that as the music isn't very Napalm Death. It kind of has a crusty hardcore feel in the guitar and bass with the blasting and vocals. I've really gotten into this since I downloaded it, so should everyone else. It's hard to pick a favourite but "Idealize" or "Waterdrop" get my vote.
I'd love to look at some lyrics, so if anyone has some let me know.

Waterdrop!

Thursday Song To Do Bong Rips To

2009-05-07T15:46:00.000-07:00

Despite it being Thursday which is before the weekend, I'm gonna do one of these because Metalsucks has been putting up boring songs again.
Anyone that's ever heard a few Strapping Young Lad songs knows it's metal for stoners. Devin Townsend only recently having stopped smoking cannabis himself.
Everyone in this band is in at least three other bands, so there's not a lot of room for mediocrity. A lot of the SYL I like is pretty thrashy, and they have some weird dense stuff I'm not fond of. But these guys can write some really intersting mid-paced songs too, like "Monument". It carves out this groove with a marching snare with some pick scraping odd riffing. It's just fast enough to be up-beat and keep something on you moving. Finger drumming, head bobbing, the works. There are some other good songs on "The New Black" but this is by far one of the best.
The lyrics below are not from this song, they're from "Relentless" off of the "SYL" album.

Bombs away, bombs away, everything is in it's place!

2009-03-02T06:25:00.000-08:00

I really can't remember where I got this from on the internet, but it rules. It's fast hardcore with the loud talking/yelling style of vocals with lots of gang vocals. The music (and singer for that matter) really remind me of Bane a lot which is good for Life's Halt because Bane is one of my favourite bands of all time. There a lots of flashy, crunchy power chords, fast snare rolls and an awesome bass sound that's bouncy and chunky. No chugging open-D chords here bitches. No frilly melodic passages, no singing, no pop-punk horse shit. Just fast, honest hardcore. The way I like it.
I uploaded the whole 9 track CD because I don't want to pick and choose what to upload. I'm in the process of tracking down a copy for myself. This album is entitled "We Sold Our Souls For Hardcore" and I know they have a 7" split with What Happens Next?, as well as some cool footage on Youtube of their 2001 tour.

Make it right, and make it fucking last!

2009-03-01T13:11:00.000-08:00

I totally admit being way too into vinyl and I buy stuff whenever I can. For instance Deathwish has been doing auctions every year on eBay and I buy stuff from them. But some people definitely go too far. Here are some examples:
Converge Test Press
Another Converge Test Press
Shipwreck AD Test Press
Pulling Teeth Test Press

I know of those are test presses, but fucking seriously. I also need to point out that Wes Eisold's book sold for 180 dollars. Fuck me.

Sunday Songs To Do Bong Rips To

2008-12-29T08:51:00.000-08:00

Since yesterday Metal Sucks (and me) didn't do anything yesterday I'm going to do it today. I'm using Crowpath because Mr. Childers made a post about asterisk* and some people (including myself) commented about them. These guys are an awesome Swedish band that I first found out about in High School. Their metal is chaotic and groove laden enough to make for a good soundtrack or background to/for some bong rips that give a heavy kick to your brain.
I can understand why people label them as deathy because I sometimes see a strong Hate Eternal influence, and you can even compare them to Ed Gein(though this may be more coincidence). Crowpath utilizes odd time signatures in the drums, the rampant,insane riffing and the "slinky" yet crunchy bass a lot of bands use. They have a sort of tech style that is reminiscant of Ed Gein kind but Crowpath differs in they don't play it almost to a powerviolence/noise level. They actually manage to get really brutal (obviously the Hate Eternal reference) in both slower parts and lots of blasting passages. Then they start to lay down sick grooves that are low end heavy. The bass riff in the uber groove at the end of "Twenty Years Delayed Abortion" is a really good example of this. The vocalist(Henrik Ivarsson, awesome Swedish name) does a lot of standard screaming he also blurts, wretches, scrowls and even screeches out some dense, heavy and very expressive words that seem more accessible than most of the American "poetic" lyric writers I'm used to. Except Jacob Bannon. <--"The Suburban Plague" contains my favourite lyrics, but there are some other good ones too. Fortunately these guys are a metal band and not hardcore, so lyrics aren't a super, super important element for me with these guys.

The other songs I posted besides the ones above are:
"Like Flies To Flames"
"Kings Among Cockroaches"

The four songs I posted are from "Old Cuts and Blunt Knives" which is a discography of their vinyl releases and "Red On Chrome" is their first full-length album. I know they've released two records since then but I havn't heard them. I'm sure they're great though. If anyone needs specfic track details let me know.

Monday Morning Songs for Bong Rips Before Work

2008-12-29T06:29:00.000-08:00

So today I have a couple of hours to myself before I go to work. So I'm hanging out with the dog and listening to some Animosity. I saw these guys the weekend before Thanksgiving here in Lawrence (at the Bottleneck) with All Shall Perish, Job For A Cowboy, Hate Eternal and Annotations Of An Autopsy. I had heard Animosity a few times before, a couple of songs off of each album when it came out, and wasn't super impressed. But when I saw those guys live I was super impressed. Their singer was just losing it with the posi-style jumps and the fucking awesome faces he made running around belting out awesome metal. They had lots of blasts and shredding which are two things I like. They played "A Passionate Journey" just like on record and the scream at the beginning is fucking awesome live too. Hearing it in a venue is what motivated me to get some of their music. I do have to say some of their songs are a little bit boring on record, but if five are filler and the rest are good, you can't really complain. I uploaded some songs from both of their records on Black Market Activities "Empires" and "Animal". If anyone wants playlists lemme know. And yes they played all of these songs live.

I hear that life goes on, but I guess just not for everyone. Consumed by bliss that now all I do is miss. The memories can make me happy but now I'm fucking pissed!

2008-12-25T17:07:00.000-08:00

In the celebration of "christmas" here's some Tran-Siberian Orchestra.

Saturday Songs to Do Bong Rips To

2008-12-20T14:32:00.000-08:00

Since Metal Sucks hasn't posted anything to smoke lots of pot to today, I'm taking the honor again. Wait until you hear this shit.
Brain Drill is from somewhere in CA. They the kind of bone liquefying tech metal PsyOpus and Necrophagist play. Necrophagist is a little more straight death metal and PsyOpus is a little more contemporary ADD/spazz grind, which sort of puts Brain Drill in the middle. Ridiculous fast blasts, probably even lots of gravity blasting for good measure, all kinds really fast guitar sweeps/scales/riffs and bass runs/rumbles with the cliche "inhuman growls and bloody shrieks". It's not that these guys are particularly progressive with their lyrics or at all experimental/proggy a band, but fucking one-legged autistic christ they're fast. And their singer really fucking let's it out. His lows are terrifying, and throat grinding while his highs are intense shrieks of desperation from being eaten. For me, it really just all comes together. You get head trauma from the blasts and when they slow down to use some groove it's heavy enough to asphyxiate you.
This awesome musicianship combined with the bands interest in zombie apocalypse, consuming copious amounts of marijuana, excessive cursing and being genuinely awesome are all things I enjoy to do every day. The songs I uploaded are from "Apocolyptic Feasting" but "The Parasites" is also on their EP of the same name. Here's a full track listing of the CD with the songs I uploaded italicized.

Gorification
The Parasites
Apocalyptic Feasting
Swine Slaughter
Forecfed Human Shit
Consumed By the Dead
Revelation
Bury The Living
The Depths of Darkness
Sadistic Abductive

I also recommend "Swine Slaughter", as it rips faces off too.

This is my attempt at not making some ridiculous pun that's not at all funny. This is brutal and fast.

From Soft to Hard

2008-12-14T17:08:00.001-08:00

Backstabbers Inc.- "Evolution" 7"

Notice the Man Is the Bastard style skulls,
this trend has been going strong for quite some time.

First off this post is in response to to am I mean? for him posting about a Trap Them 12".
In an effort to post more informational posts I'm going to start actually looking at my copies of the records I post. For instance this 7" came out in 2000, is the first Cadmium Sick Records released and the lyrics are printed on a separate sheet of paper. It's a little less than seven minutes of fucking hateful hardcore/grind. The kind of music that warrants stomping head walks and vicious circle pits. These guys can even get really dense and chaotic and with blastbeats and some ripping low end. This is a really good precursor for the rest of their material and the next band some of the members are in, Trap Them. I haven't heard more than like four songs by Trap Them (who changed their name, see below) but apparently it's been a good transition is style for them. But BSI is just an honest expression of contempt for the things we that we all hate played in a very fast and loud. Which is how it should be. The only time I've seen them was at the first Bottlerocket Fest in MI. They were one of the bands I was most excited about seeing and I was not disappointed. Every second was they played weighed so heavily on me by the cacophony they were releasing through the amps. Every second Ryan was screaming was a moment the anger he felt about the things happening around seethed out. I think it's great when people's faces get so ready and strained from moving and screaming, and that's just what everyone in the band was doing.
I also have have a 7" comp call "People Don't Take Photographs of Things They Want to Forget" with Transistor Transistor, Purity's Failure, Trap Them & Kill Them and Advocate on Broken Press. The BSI song is called "Flesh Wounds, Target Practice and How I Became a Statistic" It's transparent blue, side A says "Cir Sus Peanuts..." on the matrix and side B says "Get fucked" on the matrix. I don't have any of the songs from this in digital format, but I would like to find a way to rip my vinyl.
I unfortunately couldn't really find any pressing information on either of these.
BSI also put out a discography on Black Market Activities (Guy from The Red Chord's label) called "Bare As Bones" that has the 7" I posted, and I believe two other 7"s. They also put out an LP called "Kamikaze Missions" on Trash Art! before they broke up. They were originally based out of Vermont/New Hampshire, but had a large number of member changes including lots of drummers and at least three bass players, and I know some of their drummers were also in The Red Chord and Unearth.

The correct track listing is as follows:
Hair and Nails, Nails and Hair(Don't Kiss the Rapist)
I Wish You Were Here (So I Could Tell You to Leave
Still Photos Exemplifying Blind Rage
"Sergeant Gun In Mouth, Reporting For Duty"
Problem Solving Technique Of An Asshole
Send Me A Fucking Blitzkrieg
What If He Shouts Back? (The Anti-tortured Souls Campaign Anthem)

"Thanks to those who've pulled the knives from our backs."

2008-12-12T13:49:00.000-08:00

I went and did some shopping today. In addition to buying the "Jeremiah" 12" EP from Godspeed! You Black Emperor for Christmas gift I bought for myself the following:

Shredder Compilation 7", has songs from S.A.D. Boyz, Kondom-Nation, Aducted Children, Slut
Vinyl, Capitol Punishment and Plaid Retina.

Girls of The Gravitron 7". I've never actually heard them before, but a kid I went to high school with is in the band, so I picked it up.

Youth Revolt "Second Opinion" 7"

Cause for Alarm/Warzone split 10"

Judas Priest "Point of Entry"

and lastly I got a limited edition version of Avskum's "In the Spirit of Mass Destruction". The cover is what I'm assuming to be silk screened. The back is a map of their 2005 (un)American Tour. I didn't realize this until I bought it, but it's also quite limited. Hand numbered 131/200 limited. I can't wait to play everything.