My Love, My Way

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.

Not For Babies

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

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!