Young and in the Way – V. Eternal Depression (2011)
Posted: October 28, 2011 Filed under: Black Metal, Crust, Hardcore, Sludge Metal Leave a comment »
Young and in the Way – V. Eternal Depression (320 kbps)
Dark, oppressive, and brooding. YAITW blend the dirty sound of crust music with a black metal influence that is seeping through this recording in the form of tremolo picking and high-pitched vocal delivery. This 5 track EP has four around 3-minute bursts of energy and intermittent piano pieces. The final track in 11 minutes long and begins atmospheric and builds up to a crashing peak. This record isn’t necessarily for daily listening, but is perfect for a cold night where the only thing matching the temperature is your outlook on life.
Hellhorse- Decade of Dust (2011)
Posted: October 28, 2011 Filed under: Crust, Dark Hardcore, Hardcore, Uncategorized Leave a comment »
Hellhorse packs a dark punch, and I mean that. It sounds like people beating the shit out of each other in some sort of purgatory that neither party consented to. It’s not hard to notice that this band from Tuscon, AZ has only a few goals in mind, and I’ll let you figure those out for yourself. Visit their blog to get a tape before I order all of them- http://hellhorsekvlt.blogspot.com/
Hellhorse- Decade of Dust (320 kbps)
Dope Body – Nupping (2011)
Posted: July 11, 2011 Filed under: Experimental, Noise, Progressive, Punk | Tags: experimental, noise, punk 1 Comment »
[LINK REMOVED AS REQUESTED]
Dope Body are from Baltimore and are currently on tour with Liturgy. Think of them as the kid in school that always made you a bit uncomfortable. You never really know what that kid was thinking, but they entertained you. At lunch they sat in the corner with some thick fantasy paperback novel rather than the day’s shitty cafeteria pizza. When discussing who was most prone to snap one day and land the school on the nightly news, this kid always came up.
Dope Body plays noisy, experimental punk. You could probably compare them to bands like Jesus Lizard and Pissed Jeans but you wouldn’t be accurately describing what they are doing. They are at least worthy of a listen, even if that listen only happens once and the files rot away in your hard drive.
Also, they have a pretty gnarly tape available for free download (or purchase) here.
Aus Rotten – Fuck Nazi Sympathy 7″ (1994)
Posted: July 2, 2011 Filed under: Crust, Punk | Tags: crust, punk Leave a comment »
Whilst scouring my bedroom at my parent’s house for treasures of my childhood to pawn off for some money for a pizza, I came across this blast from the past. When I was around 13 years old I knew I wanted to be punk, but thought my knowledge of the music a bit lacking. I had grown tired of my Sex Pistols CD and that Ramones compilation I received that previous Christmas. My father allowed me access to his turntable and I decided that a good way to strengthen my knowledge of the punk culture was to buy a punk album that I had never heard of before. Thus, I went online (the gateway into what I perceived to be the real world outside of rural Indiana) to my favorite wholesale punk rock memorabilia website and bought the first record I saw that I had no clue about. Well, I was well acquainted with Anti-Flag (not one of my finer times) and I thought I hated AFI (I was wrong). The next band under the heading labeled “A” was Aus-Rotten. Never heard of them. Didn’t know what their name even meant. The word “Fuck” was in the title. Perfect.
The five songs last less than ten minutes but I probably listened to that record at least twice a day for a good long while. The insert was all black and white (a color-scheme I still try to stick faithful to) and featured angry pictures of protesters and a full lyric sheet I used to follow the songs with. The sound was heavier and rawer than any punk I had ever heard. The dual vocals seemed less planned and more chaotic than anything Johnny Rotten delivered. The recording quality was so low I thought the record player was even fucking up at some points, which is why the bit-rate on this rip is only 128 and I haven’t bothered to do any better. Their lyrics were pissed off and blunt, preaching anarchistic values and denouncing the very things that didn’t make sense to me either. It is no wonder that every song for my band I played guitar in the next year would rip off from this record in some shape or form.
Now, having listened to this record on repeat while writing this, the lyrics seem a bit too simplistic and maybe a bit over the top in some areas. However, it is still an enjoyable and short listen. In the band’s defense, their music did mature as they did and Aus-Rotten are regarded as an influential band for the Crust scene.
GLASSES
Posted: June 22, 2011 Filed under: Hardcore, Punk | Tags: hardcore, punk Leave a comment »
There was a time when one could somewhat accurately describe the hardcore scene as a “boy’s club”. Thankfully, bands like Punch, Oathbreaker, and Germany’s Glasses have helped lower the testosterone levels of bands on stage in recent time. This band slays. Punishing hardcore is inter-mixed with some melodic parts to create a solid self-titled release.
YALL- Gum (2011)
Posted: June 17, 2011 Filed under: Noise, Punk, Uncategorized | Tags: lofi, math punk, noise rock, punk Leave a comment »
This is a great single put out by Denton, Texas’ YALL, a two-piece rock n roll dude band. Don’t worry though friends, this lo-fi diddle dong popper squatter is not for kids only. This band truly does lay down some fat grit. YALL will scream in your face and then make you think about it. The title track is an awesomely fun and spastic jammer. Jam along in your jam clothes.
Mother of Mercy – IV: Symptoms of Existence (January 25, 2011)
Posted: May 14, 2011 Filed under: Hardcore, Thrash Leave a comment »
IV: Symptoms of Existence (VBR)
Mother of Mercy are a metallic hardcore band from Pennsylvania. They just released this solid album from Bridge Nine Records. Teeming with groovin’ metal riffs and the finer elements of hardcore song structure, this record will not disappoint.
Cerebral Ballzy
Posted: May 8, 2011 Filed under: Hardcore, Punk 2 Comments »Skate. Shred. Drink. Brooklyn’s Cerebral Ballzy are taking hardcore back to the breakneck speeds of bands like Bad Brains and Suicidal Tendencies. Their 7″ EP You’re Idle is a promising start into what will hopefully become a great driving force in the revival of the ’80s hardcore mentality and sound. These dudes are young, and it kind of shows in their interviews. However, they have time to grow both mentally and musically.
Godstopper
Posted: May 4, 2011 Filed under: Doom, Experimental, Noise, Psychedelic, Rock Leave a comment »Godstopper are from Toronto, Ontario. Their musical and vocal delivery create a haunting, psychedelic type of sludgey rock that is unlike a lot of things I have heard recently. This is summed up quite well on their official website:
“Yes, Godstopper are certainly ‘doomy’ in the sense that their music is slow and intimidating, but doom metal they are not. Simply put, this is noise rock with an unprecedented sludgey swagger. It honestly sounds like nothing the arid and almost extinct scene pioneered by bands like the Jesus Lizard and Unsane has ever spewed up before, yet falls neatly in line with the sound and ethic. With the noise rock revival brewing for a while now, there is definitely a niche for this unique act to exploit.”
The band’s release Empty Crawlspace, which features the track in the video above, is available for free download from their bandcamp. I would encourage anyone to check out this band and be on the lookout for future releases.
Pulling Teeth – Funerary
Posted: May 4, 2011 Filed under: Doom Metal, Hardcore, Thrash Leave a comment »
Pulling Teeth are a hardcore juggernaut from Baltimore, Maryland. Their three full lengths prior to Funerary have proved that they are capable of delivering a diverse sound. In the first few albums, Pulling Teeth mixed the finer elements of hardcore (chant vocals, shorter song lengths, and breakdowns) with thrash metal attributes (Slayer-like guitar solos and grooving tremolo parts). Then, they threw everyone off with the release of Paranoid Delusions/Paradise Illusions, which fused the aforementioned traits with a doom metal sound to create an album that I still regard as one of the best recordings in hard music of the last decade. There was much speculation regarding Pulling Teeth’s ability to follow-up such an amazing and well-received recording with Funerary. They have stepped up to the challenge, and have beat its head against a brick wall.
The first half of Funerary is stocked with punishing compositions reminiscent of the band’s second release Martyr Immortal, but with more polish and precision. The unsettling instrumental introduction, ”A Bitter Harvest”, sets the listener up for the tremolo-addled beatdown that is “From Birth”. This intensity continues unrelentingly throughout the next five pieces, until abruptly halting with the ten-minute long title track. It is here that the sounds of Paradise Illusions/Paradise Illusions make themselves known. The track is a gloomy, sinister, and sulking one that leaves the listener with a sense of foreboding. The rest of the album picks up a bit, but still retains the trudging feeling introduced in “Funerary”. A notable thing in the last half of this album is the use of clean vocals from a band known for their shouted and in-your-face delivery.
The albums is also riddled with guest vocal appearances from other bigger names in the hardcore community. Their inclusion is very well thought-out and in nearly every case works for the betterment of the track. It was also quite fun to hear a voice and try to guess who it was.
