Heil - Demo II (2012)

The term "blackened" is thrown around far too often these days ( God knows, I have used it myself on occasion ) and its applied to pretty much all forms of extreme music to describe the influence of black metal in a bands sound. Usually its pretty far off the mark and applied to any band that uses lo-fi recording and ultra hissy distortion to create their sound.

Heil certainly have that element present in their noisy take on punk. Its a superbly over blown guitar sound and rancid, rasping vocal that make up the majority of this demo. The drums occasionally pick up pace but for the majority of this record work best when banging along at a stomping pace. You know "Nothing Left Inside" by the almighty Black Flag? Well imagine Darkthrone having a crack at that and your pretty close to Heil's sound. Its pretty sweet.

Heil - Demo II

Black Mass - Of First And Last Things (2013)

Bit of shameless self promotion here. We (Black Mass) have been sat on this for some time now. Its a compilation of all the material the band had previously released. After myself and our two guitarists had joined we started building up our own recording rig and this compilation is the result of those forays into home recording. Its come out pretty good if I do say so myself. We have now dropped most of this from the setlist as well, so we saw this release as a good sign off for the first period of the bands life. For now, we have released it on Bandcamp for free. If it doesn't work then use the Mediafire link under, we only get so many free downloads a month. A physical version should be available from Witchunter Records in March.

Bandcamp

Mediafire

Cops - Demo (2012)

On the surface, Cops are a bunch of hardcore punks who enjoy Crossed Out and Suppression as much as the next guy and their band certainly reflects that. But scratch beneath the surface and it begins to show a much nastier side. Squelching little synths and electronics underpin the breakneck guitars and drums giving away a knowing nod to power electronics and noise. Maybe not really anything new in the world of power violence and grind but certainly integrated far better into the Cops sound than most. I have included both demo's in the link below. I don't know if they have anything else available, what little there is is well worth your time. I came across this on the always awesome Terminal Escape.

Cops - Demo I and II 

Wives Of Seth - Demo (2003)

Wives Of Seth a.k.a. Ray Reardon Youth. Snooker violence. A short lived blast of noisy, aggro hardcore from Bloody Kev ( Hard To Swallow, Raging Speedhorn, Regimes and far too many others to mention) and various London folk. We played with them at a very drunken, very sweaty gig in 2004 at a Jamaican pub called The Swan. Dancehall playing in one room and a load of sweaty kids smashing up the other room to loud punk rock. It was superb.
Here's the 2003, Sexy beast sampling demo...............

Wives Of Seth - Demo 2003

You can learn all about this band and nearly everything else Kev has been involved in over at his blog Keep It In The Family.

Satanic Threat - In To Hell (2008)

We all have a love for the head banging fury that masters like Nunslaughter and the mighty Midnight obviously rule at. Now take members of both those mentioned acts and let them loose on some 80's hardcore records and you have this EP by Satanic Threat. Solid, US, 80's hardcore. Think Uniform Choice, Minor Threat, SSD and Youth of Today if they wrote songs about hating Christ and blaspheming. Solid, evil stuff.

Satanic Threat - In To Hell

Koreisch - This Decaying Schizophrenic Christ Complex (1999)

I once listened to this album four times in a row. It was the only tape I had on me during a particular stressful and long winded public transport nightmare back from Sheffield after a Nile gig. Being the days when I had a Walkman, the batteries started going near the start of the fourth play, this album sounded even more horrific at half speed.
Koreisch sounded horrific to start with. A piercing wall of feedback, droned samples ( little girls reciting holocaust figures, extracts from Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes and Naked) and then the ragged blasting and sudden tempo shifts into distorted dirges of ringing noise punctuated by the harsh screaming. This album is more a ritual or trial to listen to, something to better yourself with.
Originally this surfaced out of the north of England on Screams Of Salvation, I do have an original copy around somewhere, and got a repressing and remastering by Calculated Risk back in 2004. Neither pressing ever sold very well from what I gather and Koreisch disbanded and moved onto In The Clear and The Kervorkian Solution. The download below is the remastered 2004 edition.
In a similar way that Today Is The Day make horrific noise as a way of dealing with life and to reflect there world view, so do Koreisch. Its a world view of complete failure and misanthropy.

Koreisch - This Decaying Schizophrenic Christ Complex

Siege - Drop Dead (1984)

Another RIP post. Sad news when it reached me. Kevin Mahony passed on recently. Kevin, along with his band mates in Siege basically defined the parameters and direction of hardcore punk back in the 80's.

If it wasn't for Kevin and Siege I wouldn't be doing what I do now. Here is the only release they ever managed. Drop Dead compromises the 6 track demo recorded back in '84 and 3 more tracks that came to light on Pushead's Cleanse The Bacteria compilation in 1985.
Basically the foundations of any band, musically and lyrically, that parades under the banner of fastcore/grindcore/power violence/hardcore whether your aware of it or not.

Siege - Drop Dead

Some pretty awesome, public TV footage as well.

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Breach - It's Me God (1997)

Solid gold, bulletproof classic. The dark, Swedish hardcore machine known as Breach have never really set a foot wrong. This album is my favourite and one of my biggest influences. I couldn't ever really describe how good this is, just get it listened to.

Breach - It's Me God

They ended the final show by smashing up all the instruments and then the guitarist did this little interview......

Bronson multi post

The legend himself, Charles Bronson. This post has come about from an in joke amongst myself and no one else at my place of work. I have spent nearly 3 weeks signing in as Charles Bronson on the safety check list. I don't really know why, one morning it came to me, no one has corrected or mentioned it, so its just carried on. Despite this massive safety flaw someone has since, written their name as Ben Dover. Only the once mind.

So, in honor of my employers slacks safety practises and in tribute to one of the best badasses to ever stalk cinema ( and also because I have been going through the archives, I needed to re-upload a bunch of things.) I have put together a load of Charlie B related musical things. A Charles Bronson bargain bucket if you will.

1 . Charles Bronson -Collection

 Get It

You should already know who these guys are. Classic, bratty sounding, 90s, hardcore/power violence dudes. To clever for their own good. Enjoy a movie/documentary that came with this compilation here.

2. Herbie Hancock - Death Wish OST

 Get it

The score to Micheal Winners vigilante classic. Often imitated, never bettered. Hancock created an impressive foreboding atmosphere with this one. perfectly suited to Charles Bronson dealing out street justice to Jeff Goldblum, Lawrence Fishburne ( when he was still cool) and all the other punks in his way.

3. Fister - Bronsonic

 Get it

Some nasty, feedback encrusted sludge from over the pond. Sorta like Eyehategod crossed with The Butthole Surfers. Been digging this for some time now. The band are giving it away free as it seems the physical copies have sold out. Well worth a listen if you like.

Barry De Vorzon - The Warriors OST

Perfect Friday night music from a perfect Friday night movie. Walter Hill's 1979 classic The Warriors, as well as being all sorts of cool features a pretty sweet soundtrack by Barry De Vorzon (also responsible for the awesome soundtrack to lost 70's TV show S.W.A.T.) utilizing masses of synths coupled to a rock framework, chuck in a few original numbers and a little ditty co-written with Joe Walsh and here you have it.  I shouldn't have to fill you in on the plot at all but to summarise, it borrows its premise from Anabasis ( fuck you 300 ) by Greek soldier, mercenary, theorist and writer Xenophon. A truce is called amongst the gangs of New York, during the truce the main honcho, Cyrus is shot and The Warriors of the title are framed for the killing. The film follows the journey to evade cops and other gangs to reach their own turf in Coney Island. 

You should already know this film so lets look at the musical score. De Vorzon really hit the nail on the head with this one, managing to capture the city-at-night vibe as well as the tension and energy, its a constant chase film. Scene after scene of guys in vests running away from other guys in vests. The main title track is a good high energy number and a reprise of it is used for the coolest looking gang in the movie, the Baseball Furies, when they first make an appearance.

Don't mess.

The other main number from this was co-written by that dude from The Eagles, Joe Walsh and sounds pretty much like his day job. De Vorzon had collaborated with Walsh before hand on numerous occasions and when the film called for a closing number, "In The City" was written.

But enough of me warbling, here is the soundtrack. You should already know the film.

Barry De Vorzon - The Warriors OST

- I would also recommend the game. If you can't get enough of the film or just want to kick the shit out of people, steal car stereos and throw rubbish bins through shop windows its pretty much a must.

- Orson Welles was originally meant to provide a voice over for the film. They had planned on integrating excerpts from Anabasis read out by Welles. It never happened.

- The film was in post production at the same time as the vastly inferior The Wanderers. The Warriors beat it to the post, thank god.

Despite being a pretty full on sausage party there is the scummy but attractive, bra-less Mercy. 

Withdrawn - Seeds Of Inhumanity (1998)

Sadly it has turned out to be nigh on impossible to track down any pictures of Withdrawn, let alone much information on them. That is why you get a flier rather any sort of exciting live picture. ( edit : changed) As far as this goes, I had this Household Name Records comp back in 1998/99 that opened my eyes to a lot of good stuff. Out of everything on it, Withdrawn stood out the most. Nasty, straight edge, vegan inspired metal. Hardcore in attitude but not in sound. Sort of like crossing Carcass, Integrity, Merauder and Slayer into this angry, militant ball of fury. They even got Leckie from Voorhees to lend his bark as full time vocalist. Most of the songs deal with the popular issues of the time such as drugs, smoking, animal rights and the sort. Now, this attitude wasn't for everybody. I know my old guitarist got into a fight with Leckie when they played together on some all-dayer once. Alongside a lot of the H8000 lot in Europe I always found it funny that they managed to create music that was way more metal than a lot of the "real" metal labels where putting out.

Withdrawn - Seeds Of Inhumanity

After this album they got a different vocalist and changed names to Evanesce. Sadly some other bigger band with the same name took offence and they had to change it again. Leckie carried on with Voorhees and the rest have done time in Walk The Plank, SSS and numerous other bands. If you hunt out you can find this massively convoluted family tree that stretches across the country and nearly every band that was kicking around in the late 90's.

Profits - For The Few/1913 EP (2011/2010)

Been digging this a lot recently. Came across it on the Toxicbreeds Funhouse blog. Some pretty sweet, ripping grind influenced hardcore from Portland. If you dig early Pig Destroyer mixed with some elements of Cursed, Nasum and other such noisy fast stuff you will like this. So far they have done 2 EP's. For The Few and 1913 which are zipped up into the one file below. These are also available separately on the bands Bandcamp here. Got it. Good.

Profits - Both EP's

Pine Barrens - Demo 2010 (2010)

Some nasty, local noise right here. Pine Barrens have been slowly getting there shit together for a while now, a few gigs, few mentions. They completed this demo late last year. I say demo, its a self released 4 track affair really. I don't know how to describe this other than its a very dark sounding, black tinged, thrash laced barrage of desperate rasped vocals and minor melodic riffage. Does that make sense? They even throw in sax and violin on the closer. Nearest thing I can think of is maybe Crestfallen ( I proper used to love that band, got that to post soon) with the core toned down and the BM turned up? Maybe? Dan Shaw is involved which means brutality is more than guaranteed over any sort of labelling or niche. Get it downloaded.

 

Pine Barrens - Demo 2010

Those nice folk at Power Negi and Big Mountain Tapes are making it available on the trusty C90 sometime soon. Sweet.

Rob Nabbe interview - HSML - S/T (2004)

This one has been sat on my shelf for ages. Just waiting for the right time to be posted. feeling like shit and hungover, this morning seems to be the right time.
I first met Nabbe when my then band played Trashfest in Holland many many years ago, having previously toured with his old band Insult. Spent all weekend hanging out with people, drinking and playing noisy fast music.Nabbe has been responsible for being involved in some pretty sweet bands. Insult, Jason obsessed gore metal with Bile and today's offering.
HSML where a band he followed Insult up with. The album never really got distributed that well, which is a shame because its certainly better than most stuff mining a similar vein in sludgy hardcore.
But who better to explain it all to you than the man himself.......Rob Nabbe, and his thoughts on a few things.....

HSML........

HSML stands for Hot 'n Steamy Monkeylove and started out in the early '00s after the demise of Fastcore pimps Insult. The idea was to create Sludge/Punkmetal influenced by the likes of Iron monkey, Buzzov*en and Entombed amongst others. As a band we never really got picked up since our style wasn't hip or happening at the time. We didn't have the right tattoos, shitty facial piercings, haircuts, dance moves or social skills to fit in with the herd. The fact that our debut LP/CD was poorly distributed and promoted didn't really help either. HSML was heading for the shallow mass grave of obscure and forgotten bands. Sure we played shows with a bunch of well known bands such as Tragedy, Gadget and Cursed amongst others, but whatever. It was painfully obvious the scene wasn't ready for sexy riffs and sexy beasts. To this day I stand behind our record 100% and now that you've uploaded the thing here, all the nerds, wimps and posers can pretend they like us.

Current trends and the lack of any sort of backbone to modern music............

The backbone of modern music is snapped like a twig.
Or was it a spineless worm to begin with? It seems pretty trendy to play weak and lame music that is easy accessible and your girlfriend can mosh to while you hold her purse, Lucy.
There is no substance, no power, no violence. There is nothing good about modern music.

The point of creating/being involved in music.............

The only reason you need to be involved in creating music should be the fact that it's interesting and exciting to yourself and your bandmates. Music aside, it's the drinks, the laughs and the bullshit that makes it worthwhile. As long as you enjoy the music you create, that's all that counts. Who the fuck care's about the internet rumour mill, flavour of the week or how many idiots "like" you on facebook? If I can sit in my car, crank up one of my own records and feel like driving off a fucking cliff out of sheer adrenalin or aggression, that's all that matters.

Current musical highlights..........

My personal musical highlights at the moment involve this project/band I'm doing with a couple of dudes from Ghent, Belgium. The band is called Blind to Faith and is all about malice, violence and distortion. Dwid Hellion (Integrity) picked us up and released our debut LP through his Holy terror records. Recently we've released a split 7" with Gehenna through A389 records and we've only played a few shows so far. We don't wanna play every shithole and will do everything on our own terms for a change. We play whenever we want and that's that. If this means 5, 50 or 500 shows? Time will tell. So far, we've shared the stage with Eyehategod, Voorhees, Geriatric unit and a few others and will be playing with Buzzov*en in April. We're currently in the process of writing a new album and fans of heavy, raw and violent tunes should keep an eye out. Since nerds are to lame to pick up an album or visit a show they can download our debut LP through the Holy terror records website. Google "lazy" or "easy" you cunt.

Friday 13th...........

Daryl Kahan from Citizens arrest played a little part in one of the Friday the 13th movies. I will not spill the beans on which movie it is or if he's getting killed, maimed or mutilated or not.
Bring out the pizza's and beers and good luck.

What stuff you doing musically these days..........

Besides Blind to Faith I'm currently active in Skullhog and Mutank. Skullhog is working on new material that is basically filthy, moronic and utterly barbaric. Like Autopsy and Hellhammer's retard offspring. Mutank is a new Sludge band that focuses on crushing skulls and crumbling buildings and cities through low frequency obliteration. 

Straight from the mouth of the jacket destroying madman himself. This is HSML.............

HSML - S/T

AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO

AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO AGGRO

Armour Of God - 3 Tracks (2000)

There really isn't much more that can be said that hasn't already about the overwhelming loss of Johnny Morrow back in 2002. You cannot deny the power of Iron Monkey and you would have to be blind to not be aware of its influence still to this day. Armour Of God was a project that involved JPM and his ex-Monkey band mates Jim Rushby and Justin Greaves alongside Sean and Marvin from The Varukers. The best way to describe the sound would be Infest pumped up on steroids while throwing in huge Boston style mosh riffs. Completely untrendy, no frills, aggro hardcore with those vocals raging over the top.
These three tracks saw light of day as a split with 3rd Stone on the Threefold label back in 2000. I have only included the Armour Of God tracks as I don't like the 3rd Stone side. The above picture is courtesy of the jacket destroying madman known as Nabbe.

 Armour Of God - 3 Tracks

As far as I know, these are the only recorded evidence of Armour of God. I have heard things over the years but nothing has ever really come up. If anyone knows different then seriously, swing us a line.

Fugazi - Inner Ear Demo (1987)

I remember seeing Fugazi back in about 2000/01. One of the most unintentionally terrifying/upsetting moments in my young music goer life was brought on by some metal chump stood right in front of me, throwing a plastic beer glass into the pit. Ian Mackaye saw this. The band stopped. he pointed right at the chump and told him to pack it in. it seemed like he was pointing at me.
Fugazi's 87 demo right here. Songs that would go onto make up on the Fugazi and Margin Walker EP's and Repeater three years later. Recorded at the Inner Ear Studio. Everyone should love Fugazi. These versions really don't differ from the album versions at all. Little guitar tweaks or slight changes here and there. I'm not going to point any of them out for you, work it out yourself. There is the added awesome bonus of the unreleased (officially anyway) "The Word".

Fugazi - Inner Ear Demo

The Minutemen Duo/Watt and Hurley - Live at ATP (2003)

You like The Minutemen? Everyone should like them. If you don't know about them then get reading and hearing up on your history. They will enrich your life. Obviously the band ceased to exist after the tragic loss of D Boon back in 1985 but Mike Watt and George Hurley have got back together on a few select occasions. Just that wonderfully tight rhythm section laying it down. Here is a live recording from an All Tomorrows Parties show in LA back in 2003. They rip through 26 classic tracks.  For all these shows, Watt even set up a guitar and amp at the other side of the stage in memory of D Boon.

The Minutemen Duo - Live at ATP 2003

Jackals - S/T 7" (2010)

Been at Supersonic this weekend. Hands down equal parts awesome, eye opening and inspiring. I managed to pick this up while I was there. Been meaning to get it for some time and it was one of those "oh, that's handy" distro finds. Jackals are from Norwich. They have two vocalists. They are most definitely a hardcore band but veer close to power violence and crust during the course of this 7" and this recording is available free for download. It does mean you will miss out on the quality looking green/grey splattered vinyl and I do implore you to try and pick this up. It is being released jointly by Holy Roar, Power Negi, WWHRD and Wineblood and is easy enough to get hold of. Nice and aggro.

Jackals - S/T 7"

Vaccine - Demo (2009)

A short Sunday post. My current favourite discovery. Aggro as fuck, nihilistic, pissed off straight edge hardcore. Angry at everything including other straight edgers. Some dudes from Ampere, Relics and Orchid playing fast and short. This demo clocks in just over two minutes with 5 songs. Superb stuff.

Vaccine - Demo

No Comment - Downsided 7" (1992)

The definitive example of west coast hardcore/Slap-A-Ham power violence. I was always aware of the name but only really got round to getting hold of this a couple of years ago. Pretty shonky I know, Considering. I couldn't believe how intense this was and how musically accomplished the whole band was.. You just need to listen to Raul's drumming to understand. Allegedly they used to give him speed before gigs so he could keep up.

No Comment - Downsided

A raging classic.