Workday Song To Do Bong Rips To

Like, Heavy Metal Dune or something...dude

 Yeah, so I finally got into doom metal a little bit. I've already talked about YOB before and now I can't stop listening to this fucking stupid long song by Sleep. It's like a one hour long Black Sabbath doom riff with way more sweet metal vocals by Al Cisneros. They find a sick riff and ride that riff into the ground carving out a soundwave of groove that could possibly melt a house if played with the right amplification system. All Cisneros' bass is pushed super far in the mix like their forefathers with Geezer Butler in Black Sabbath. And then the fucking sick guitar solos by Matt Pike, ESPECIALLY at around 14:30. The whole band seriously rocks the fuck out and you don't even have to do bong rips to dig the unparalleled jamming. Fuck Phish and Trey Anastasio, this is real jamming. Sleep were heavy and uncompromising. Try writing an hour long song at the pinnacle of your band's career and never playing it live. Fuck.
 The very first picture in the video, that's Heavy Metal-esque with hooded, masked figures wandering the desert that became the cover for the 2012 re-release? Perfect visual for this song. If that picture had a whole story line and movie, this is the soundtrack. Before I talk about how you should smoke lots of high quality cannabis and listen to this I'm going to say you need to read all the lyrics to it as well. My words can not describe their level of raditude, one must experience everything on their one's own. Welcome to Jerusalem.

Lungsmen unearth the creed of Hasheeshian

Ghetto D-Beat

  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!"

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

 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!

Never A Cognitive Waste, Not A Post About Municipal Waste

 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.

Saturday Song to Do Bong Rips To

  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!"

No Cream, No Sugar! Bong Rips? Please!

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

Videos To Do Bong Rips To

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!

Every Woman A Mistress of Pain

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

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!

March Thrash Madness!

 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

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

Scared of Naked People, Not a Post About Weekend Nachos

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."

From Soft to Hard

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!

From Soft to Hard

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!"

Pre-Grind, Proto If You Will

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!"

From Soft to Hard

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!"

Saturday Songs to Do Bong Rips To

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.

1. Gorification
2. The Parasites
3. Apocalyptic Feasting
4. Swine Slaughter
5. Forecfed Human Shit
6. Consumed By the Dead
7. Revelation
8. Bury The Living
9. The Depths of Darkness
10. 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.