Built to Blast

Evolved Into Nothing

2012-02-26T13:50:00.000-08:00

This was one of my favorite albums of last year, same thing for a lot people I think. In my opinion, one of the best, no bullshit grindcore bands going on right now. The mighty Wormrot - "Dirge", 12" on red w/ white splatter vinyl(limited to 300), 33 RPM.

I don't know what I can say about Wormrot that hasn't already been said a thousand times already. Seemingly coming out of nowhere and grabbing the internation grindcore scene by the balls and not letting go. Two highly acclaimed albums under there belt(I still have to get "Abuse"), and I think another one is on the way soon.

Beautiful package here; sturdy, glossy cover with a printed inner sleeve and nice colored vinyl. There are also 2 bonus tracks on the vinyl edition, and they're dynamite. I have no idea why this is a 33 RPM record though, each side definitely doesn't go beyond the time constraint of a 45 RPM record. Maybe it's more expensive to press a 45 record, I don't know.

I think Arif did this back image.

Inner sleeve

I see this around every now and again. Most recently on Hells Headbangers, which is where I picked my copy up. Hails.

~VII

Sister Gomorrah

2012-02-25T07:26:00.001-08:00

I got to know of Thousandswilldie through the excellent live music video site Kill That Cat a while ago, and I was instantly drawn to their chaotic, and at first listen uncontrollable take on grindcore. So when I stumbled upon their "A Carcass Is Only Dead Once" 7" in the Hells Headbangers distro a couple years ago, I instantly snagged it. Black vinyl, 45 RPM(if I remember correctly).

25 songs on here, and they go by in the blink of an eye. Not a whole lot of breathing room, it's just a suffocating onslaught of blasting hyper-speed grindcore. Truthfully, this is a pretty difficult release to get into, even for well seasoned grindcore fans. There is very little to grasp onto, you pretty much have to just listen and take in the whole thing, and hopefully your head will still be intact when it's over.

Thousandswilldie's output was very small, and they sadly broke up in 2010. However, singer Mike Stitches has moved on with his new, stupidly awesome project Standing On A Floor Of Bodies who you should all get wise too right now. As for this 7", I see it every now and again in various distros. I'd suggest getting their split 7" with Kill The Client first, it's a much more palatable introduction.

~VII

Silver Year

2012-02-24T17:33:00.001-08:00

I'm very tuckered out, so here's a quick post. A bit of a different type of record for this blog. Not hardcore, nor is it grindcore. This is Shoppers - "Silver Year", which is a release that I've become very attracted to recently. 12" on black vinyl, 33 RPM.

Shoppers is a band Syracuse, NY who play a really blown-out style of noise rock. Everything just sounds huge and covered in distortion, and the vocals really remind me of Bikini Kill. There's also some melodic riffs and I get some strong garage rock influence and maybe a little pop-punk. Kinda hard to describe, all I know is that I dig it. A lot.

My band is gonna be playing a show with these guys real soon, I'm pretty stoked. I'm gonna probably post some footage from that show here.

~VII

Queens

2012-02-24T08:54:00.002-08:00

I've been ranting and raving about the band Psychic Limb ever since I got to open for them(which was apparently their first show (edit:out of town), fanboy swag for days) a few years ago and I've been singing their album's praises consistently last year. I even named it my #2 album of 2011. Here's Psychic Limbs - "Queens", 1-sided 12" on yellow vinyl(limited to 100), 45 RPM.

Stupidly good record. It's labeled as a full-length, even though it doesn't even break the 10 minute mark, which I love. To me, it's the perfect length. It gives me just the right amount of solid, kick ass grindcore that I need. Expertly recorded and mastered by Colin Marston by the way.

Very interesting artwork that covers the entire gatefold jacket. There is very little information about this band, on the record and in general. They are notoriously void of any internet/social networking presence. Though you can read many show reviews and see a few live videos of this band online. I honestly have to thank the brother of their drummer for sending me an download file of this some time ago. If he hadn't, I probably wouldn't have found out that they had a record out.

The yellow variant is long sold out, but you can still pick up copies here. Please do and support this excellent band. If any of the members are reading this, get in touch!

~VII

Breed To Breed

2012-02-22T14:19:00.000-08:00

Here's another record that caused a lot of outrage due to it's Scion release. I got some personal beef with this record, but not because of the music or who released it(I'll get to that later). Here's the Wormrot - "Noise EP" 10", black 180g vinyl, 45 RPM.

Apparently all Scion vinyl releases are promos, thus they are given out for free. Of course, this is something that I just absolutely love and I instantly asked them to send me one at the time of it's release. Only 1000 were pressed and I've seen people sell them for crazy high prices. Pretty much just standard Wormrot songs on here, nothing fancy or anything that would remotely make me call them "sell-outs" like quite a few have.

Great artwork from singer Arif Rot.

Now, here's my beef with this record. This is a very short EP, barely passing the 5 minute mark. There is absolutely no reason this warrants being on a 10". 2 songs on the A side, that totals about 2 minutes of music. Fuck all, this should have been 1-sided. This could have even been a single sided 7", and it would have made sense. I crave Wormrot on a 7", this format was pointless. 180g vinyl though, pretty nice for a promo.

Long "sold out" from Scion. I've seen it pop up every now and again, but you can find a download link for it easily using the ol' internets.

~VII

Human Conditioning

2012-02-21T19:29:00.000-08:00

This record's been in my collection for a while, but I've been playing it a lot as of late. I think I like it more now than I did back then, super super grim and rough powerviolence! Mindless - "Human Conditioning" 7" on black vinyl, 45 RPM.

As far as I know, Fazia from Hatred Surge started Mindless after she left the former band. While the HS influence did tag along with Mindless, they definitely have done their own thing. For one, this band is not as inspired by the old school sound as their name might suggest(people who don't know, get a clue). Down-tuned riffs and soupy, up-front bass production gives it a more sludgy, dystopian, grimy feel to it. Brutal stuff.

I think this is the only RSR release I have that has matte paper.

Word has it that a follow-up EP is in the works, and will be released on To Live a Lie. Yeah, you can all change your pants now.

~VII

59 Seconds To Kill Them And You

2012-02-19T13:29:00.000-08:00

I picked up one of the most recent The Afternoon Gentlemen splits when I ordered the Gadget LP. By far one of the best examples of current grindcore. Every record I have by these guys shreds, and pretty much kills every band they share a split with. Here's The Afternoon Gentlemen/Chiens - split, white vinyl, 45 RPM.

6 rippers from the Gents this time around. Totally solid and fierce grindcore, as usual from them. Tight musicianship, phenomenal songwriting, and more stop-starts riffs than you can shake a stick at. I am in love with the vocals in this band too, they can pull of practically everything; the highest of high pitch screams, growls, pig squeals, power violence barks, you name it. The Chiens side is awesome as well, and definitely a good companion to TAG. I'd say they're definitely more fastcore, which is all fine by me. More stop-start riffs, great drumming, it's a solid 4 tracks effort. They have a 1-sided 12" that I'll probably be picking up sometime.

Great artwork and packaging, filled with all sorts of goodies like a sticker, small poster, and a download card.

I hate glare so much...

I just ordered a new TAG split which I've been looking forward too for quite a while. An update on that later! Enjoy some grindcore done right!

~VII

My Hummingbird Of Death Collection

2012-02-19T11:58:00.000-08:00

Hummingbird of Death are one of my favorite fastcore bands, and I'm proud to say that I own almost all of their releases. Not counting compilations, I'm only missing their floppy disc single, which I've been putting off getting for obvious reasons. Now, I'm not someone who tries to get every color variant/cover variant of a record to try and make an artist collection bigger, I'm just interested in getting the music. I do care about getting the rarest variant, but I can make do with not having it. All of these records are 1st presses, as far as I know.

From left to right:

split 12" w/ I Accuse (black vinyl)
split 10" w/ Chainsaw To The Face (black vinyl)
"Show Us The Meaning Of Haste" 12" (light blue marble vinyl)
"Goatmeal" 5" (black vinyl)
split 6" w/ Sidetracked (black vinyl)
split 7" w/ Dead Stare (black vinyl)
"Demo" cassette
split cassette w/ Pile Of Infested Maggot Viscera
"Diagnosis: Delicious" 7" (black vinyl)
split 12" w/ Titanarum (transparent red vinyl)

~VII

Forfeit

2012-02-16T11:37:00.000-08:00

Jay Tichy has a LOT of Sidetracked releases coming out. Just reading his up-coming list is enough to make my head spin and makes my wallet quiver with anticipation. There's a lot I'm very excited for, and I was super happy to snag this baby from Rotten To The Core Records. Sidetracked - "Forfeit", transparent red vinyl, 45 RPM.

12 new songs from Jay and company on this new 7", keeping with the usual formula, fast songs, short song, and short songs. Definitely reminds me of the "Uniform" 7" that was released last year, but with much better production. Sadly this is no where near as good as "Uniform", which honestly is a pretty hard record to top. There is about the same amount of music on here though, including a cover of Nasum - "Red Tape Suckers". This could have easily been another 1-sided 7", but of course they put a single 20 second song on the B-side. Kind of annoying, but I'll humor it.

I snagged the pre-order edition(I think this was the first record I've ever pre-ordered), the only difference being that the cover has red letters instead of white and it's on red vinyl, limited to 100. There's also 100 on green and clear and 200 on black. As well as 10 test presses that are up for sale on discogs. Kinda want to snag one of those, but I won't out of sheer principal. If anyone wants to send me one though, I would love it!

The record also has a large 45 style hole, which I dig a lot. Please excuse the shitty-attempt-to-be-artistic-photo.

Rotten to The Core records as well as To Live a Lie have copies of this. Pick it up!

~VII

The Funeral March

2012-02-15T16:02:00.000-08:00

Got a new grind obsession now! Seems like I have a new one every week or so. Anyway, my latest order from Give Praise Records came and I finally got my hands on this sexy piece of wax. Gadget - "The Funeral March" 12" on transparent red vinyl, 33 RPM.

A lot of my friends have been singing this albums praise for a while, and I never thought much of the band. Until however it finally got a vinyl reissue(6 years after it's original CD only release from Relapse Records), so I finally decided to pick it up. Boy am I glad I did, this is a monster of a grind album! I can easily make comparisons to the big influential European grind bands, but Gadget have enough of their own sound that keeps them just from being another Nasum clone. Lots of minor key riffs and melodies, but with enough dick-shredding velocity to keep it from being to moody. Very very enjoyable album and I'm now on the hunt for all things Gadget!!!

Love this cover art!

Gatefold packaging, not the sturdiest I've seen.

Now here's something interesting; the red vinyl is the most common color variant of this pressing. There's also 200 on white and 100 on black, and both of those variants are hand-numbered. Not often that that's the case, but whatever. The red looks nice.

The only US distro I know that has this is Give Praise Records, there's probably a lot more that carry it in Europe. Do yourself a favor and pick this up!

~VII

My +HIRS+ Haul

2012-02-14T11:32:00.000-08:00

One of my current favorite underground grindcore bands, the mighty +HIRS+ from Philadelphia, have been releasing records and tapes like mad the past few months. Keeping up with this band can be exhausting sometimes, I think they have almost 10 more releases coming out. Here's the recent(and highly limited) lathe cut records that they were awesome enough to send me(<3 you guys) along with a super awesome surprise record!

Here's the first and most ridiculous lathe record, the "Vaygaytion/Gaycation" 4" limited to 20 copies. This is the first 4 inch record I own, and it's a bit of a tricky mother to play. I had to put the needle on the record first and then turn the player on. If I tried to put it on while it was spinning it would manually shut off. There's less than a minute of music on this, which I figured would be the case. Kinda makes me worry about the upcoming Hummingbird of Death/xBrainiax split 4". Anyway, being a lathe cut record the "pressing" sounds pretty weak. I'm very happy to own it though!

Sealed with a kiss. The packaging folds out, but I didn't do it out of fear of causing some damage.

Next up is the "Dimebag" 5 1/2" square lathe, also limited to 20 copies. Getting this was on a first-come-first-serve basis, and the first 10 people who emailed the band after midnight on it's release day would get one. I lucked out. Still crappy sounding due to the lathe cut, but way better that the 4" in terms of songs. Great riffs and some occasional grooves. The B-side is a medley of Pantera songs which is pretty interesting. Comes with a lyric sheet.

It's square!

Lastly is the super awesome surprise gift they sent me. This is the rarest of the rare when it comes to +HIRS+ records(so far). The "Invoulentary Split" with the band The Immaculates. What this actually is is a test pressing for the "Worship" 7", but the pressing plant didn't have and blank stampers, so they pressed 2 The Immaculates songs on the B-side. There are only 5 in existence, and I got the golden #5. I'm a happy boy.

I'm pretty sure all of these are long gone, but they have a legit split 7" with Maradona out now, which I'll be picking up soon, as well as all sorts of new releases out in the near future. Try to keep up!

~VII

Sum Of Men...

2012-02-12T09:23:00.000-08:00

This right here is another recently acquired prized possession, and a crucial addition to my SKULL collection. I got this baby directly from Eric Wood, who had uncovered a bunch of mint(and in this case still sealed!) and way OOP MITB and Bastard Noise records and CD's. I only bought this record, but believe me that if I could afford to buy everything, I would. Here is the first MITB full-length LP "Sum Of Men...The Brutality Continues", OG press, black vinyl, 33 RPM.

So yeah, I think MITB is one of the best bands ever. Totally monolithic, raw, experimental, forward thinking hardcore music. This record, and I guess most MITB records, just have this legendary aura around their music. Like, their whole being and existence is so legendary and somewhat mysterious that it doesn't seem real at times. Like I'm listening to music from other worldly beings. You know, if these entities recorded on crappy 4-track tape records.

On this record, I definitely prefer side 2. Just better songs on that side in my opinion. MITB were definitely still in their developing stages at this point, and there wasn't as much extra vocals/instrumentation like on their later releases.

Lots of pictures in this post. There's just so much cool imagery on the inserts and cover sleeve.

Not sure if Eric still has copies of this available, but he definitely has a bunch of other necessary releases available. Worship.

~VII

Of Mince And Men

2012-02-10T07:57:00.000-08:00

I picked up another piece to add to my To Live A Lie collection recently. I thought this was sold out but low and behold I found it in the TLAL distro. About 5 copies were there actually, kinda weird. Here's the Archagathus/Axed Up Conformist split 7", black vinyl, 33 RPM.

I don't know why I keep coming back to Archagathus, cause honestly, they kinda bore the fuck outta me. Maybe it's because they sound better than Agathocles(the band that they base their entire existence around), but that being said even Agathocles manage to throw in a few interesting songs in their releases. It's pretty pointless taking about this split really, if you've heard an Archagathus release before, you've heard this. Axed Up Conformist are even more boring than Archagathus, and far less entertaining. Meh.

Kinda cool art though.

So yeah, mince...what do you think?

~VII

Heroin

2012-02-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

Truth be told, I'm not that well versed in the screamo/emotive hardcore genre. I'm not against it, there are just other albums I would buy before a La Dispute record for example. That being said, this 7" was sitting in my local shop for a while, and I was able to get it for like 2 bucks, so I figured why not. Apparently this is a pretty highly regarded band in the screamo genre. Heroin - "s/t"/"Paper Bag EP", black vinyl, 45 RPM.

4 tracks on here. Pretty fast, punky stuff with some d-beat momentum. I honestly don't remember much about the music, cause I've only listened to it once. Don't really know who else I can compare it too. Orchid, maybe.

Pretty nifty DIY packaging with all sorts of stamps, screen printing and stickers on it. Now the reason this thing is sometimes called the "Paper Bag EP" is because the sleeve is actually made out of a brown paper grocery bag. I've never seen that before! I can only imagine how long it must have taken to construct all these sleeves.

Some of a store logo inside the sleeve.

Not the best, but it's cool. I currently have my eyes on a really awesome Orchid split, which I may be getting soon.

~VII

Lifetime Shitlist

2012-02-08T12:40:00.000-08:00

I still don't think I entirely get Bathtub Shitter, in the way that I can't just throw them on and fully enjoy their music. There's always 1 or several parts or songs that just leave me scratching my head and pondering. But when I found this album for a great price on VInyl Junkie, I decided to give the band another go, this time taking in a full-length album. Bathtub Shitter - "Lifetime Shitlist", 12" on brown/white swirl vinyl, 33 RPM.

To my fellow musicians; you know that little voice that'll pop up in your head every now and again when you're writing a song that says, "oh, that riff is a little to weird for this song," or "oh, that seems a little too out of place." Yeah, most Japanese bands don't listen to that voice. This album is just so fucking weird, it'll have blasting heavy grindcore then do a 180 and have an all semi-acoustic track. The vocals are fucking bananas, and the delivery is just chaotic. Honestly, it can be a bit of an annoying listening experience, but maybe I just haven't been in the right "mindset" to understand it. Which sounds like a weird thing to say when talking about called Bathtub Shitter.

HORRIBLE.FUCKING.PACKAGING!! This is just ungodly awful. This is the type of packaging that you would be on a shitty bootleg album, but this right here is an official release. So poor, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I think all the money that went into releasing this was spent on the absolutely gorgeous vinyl, which is the only redeeming thing about this whole package.

Bathtub Shitter: Recommended for meth head grind freaks. Who shit in bathtubs.

~VII

Vesicles

2012-02-07T17:05:00.000-08:00

The last thing I bought from the Give Praise sale, and also the final recorded output from my beloved Dead Radical. As far as I know I have all of their records, but something in me tells me that I'm missing something. Anyway, here's the Dead Radical/Republicorpse split 7", black vinyl, 33 RPM.

Great songs from Dead Radical. I'd say that it's definitely the most metallic they've sounded. Awesome, technical, wanky fastcore, just the way I like it from Dead Radical. Not as good as "Rottenness", but still high quaility. And the Republicorpse side is pretty sweet too; definitely more "song" oriented than DR, but I'd still call them fastcore, with a definite metallic hardcore influence. I'd definitely pick up some other records from this band.

Awesome macabre artwork!

What up, Cthulhu?

Give Praise Records still has this, definitely pick it up!

~VII

Squatterstomper

2012-02-06T14:01:00.000-08:00

Here's another 7" I bought from the crazy awesome Give Praise Records sale. This is a repress that GP and Psychocontrol Records did last year of the Backslider/Chainsaw To The Face split, green marble vinyl, 33 RPM.

Backslider is a band that I haven't gotten the chance to talk about on here, and I really should have. Very underrated heavy-hitters of the underground fastcore scene, but thankfully growing in popularity! They're even playing Maryland Deathfest this year which blows my mind! 12 tracks here in about 4 minutes. Dizzyingly fast and relentlessly changing fastcore; negative lyrics and grunty powerviolence barks, I love this band. From what I've heard, they're new EP should be the best thing they've done so far! I've talked about Chainsaw To The Face before, fastcore with the brutality of bands like Despise You. Much better stuff on here than their "s/t" 7".

Different artwork for the repress, not so sure how I feel about it. I love the skull, but the rest of it just seems to out of place and contrasting. I'd say I definitely prefer the original cover art with the Friday The 13th image. Dig them saggy titties :p

You can find this split pretty easily. Pick it up, and look out for Backsliders crushing new EP "Maladapted"! I haven't heard anything new from CTTF in a while, I wonder what's up.

~VII

xBräiniax Hates You

2012-02-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

Got a package from Give Praise Records recently, taking advantage of their crazy good sale where everything they've released was only 2 bucks!! I bought a few GP titles, as well as this; the xBrainiax/Lettuce Vultures split 7", black vinyl, 33 RPM.

I probably should have known that this split was gonna be rubbish, just from looking at the horrible artwork on xBrainiax side. Truly, this is the worst material I've heard from them. Not only are the songs not great, but the recording is just dreadful. Very thin and tinny recording, and the vocals sound like they have this weird effect on them. Very disappointing. I haven't even bothered with the Lettuce Vultures side yet, as I have no hope for it.

wtf^

This is a very nice package however; a sturdy glued-sleeve made from thick cardstock, full color, and an insert. Typical xBrainiax aesthetic with the insert and on the center label, which I love. At least it's a pretty record to look at.

You can find this in numerous distros. Get it if you want every xBrainiax record like me, otherwise I'd say pass.

~VII

Mind Ripper

2012-02-03T08:27:00.000-08:00

Words cannot express how much I love Inset Warfare. All the records I own by them are like my children, and I'm constantly on the hunt for more(at affordable prices of course). This is my favorite split of theirs that I own; the Insect Warfare/Carcass Grinder split 7", clear vinyl, 3rd press, 33 RPM.

Probably my favorite sounding recording that Insect Warfare have had. Nice and beefy, it really makes up for the lack of bass. Plus, this split features the utterly excellent track "Mind Ripper", which has to be one of my favorite grind songs ever(later re-recorded for the "World Extermination" album). Carcass Grinder are a rad, raw as fuck grind band from Japan. I think they're a good band to pair with IW, and their side is a quality listen too.

Great artwork all around.

You can find this on Discogs for pretty cheap. Highly recommended.

~VII

Drown

2012-02-02T12:24:00.000-08:00

Another piece from my modest Extortion collection, and my 2nd favorite thing I own by them. The Extortion/Agents of Abhorrence split 7", first press, transparent blue vinyl, 45 RPM.

Great split that I just revisited while taking pictures for this post. I had forgotten how incredibly awesome Agents of Abhorrence are. Like, they're really super great! I want everything by this band, they play grind just how I like it(Discordance-Lung-Iron-Axis grind). The Extortion side is awesome too, the songs are generally way faster than usual. The drums are all over the place. This was also reissued by Deep Six recently, pick it up!!

My absolute favorite Extortion artwork so far. I love the coloring and just the stark bleakness of this image. Incredible detail too, just an all around masterpiece.

Listen to Agents of Abhorrence!

~VII

A Recent Haul

2012-02-01T18:24:00.000-08:00

Lemme just try this, it seems like a quick and easy way to update on recent purchases. I'll definitely still be doing one-on-one posts about specific records, this will just be for showing off the whole purchase. All of these were purchased from To Live a Lie records, here are the records shown:

Archagathus/Axed Up Conformist - split
Dahmer/Denak - split
Dahmer - "9 Song 7""(3rd press)

Really happy with these pick-ups. Dahmer is a band that I'm just now getting into and I'm really liking that I hear. They're what I wish Agathocles sounded like. The Archagathus split I picked up mainly because it's an old TLAL release, and I'll buy anything from that label. I like Archagathus pretty good too, I think the 7" format is better suited for them too.

~VII

H.S.M.P

2012-02-01T14:46:00.000-08:00

As many of you may know, I am a worshiper of "THE SKULL". Man is The Bastard, Bastard Noise, and all the other bands associated with those associated are bands that I love dearly and try to get as many releases of theres as I can. This here is the first split 7" that Charred Remains aka Man is The Bastard ever put out, and a gift to me from Mr. Eric Wood himself. MITB/Aunt Mary - "split", OG press on purple vinyl, 33 RPM.

I'm so happy to own this piece of history, I'm giddy really. The MITB records are raw as fuck of course. I think they recorded their side on a broken 4-track or something. It's lo-fi, but powerful, and it gets the aggression out. The Aunt Mary side is some bastardized noise/grind/glitchy piece that's pretty damn cool.

Very simple fold-over sleeve packaging with green paper.

Apparently Deep Six is going to be reissuing this soon on 10" 45 RPM with some nice splatter vinyl. Very happy to hear that this release will be more widely available soon. LETS FUCKING GO!!

~VII

Sick

2012-01-31T16:52:00.000-08:00

I think every modern hardcore fan should have at least 1 Extortion record in their collection. My collection is modest at best, if only because people sell their OOP records for hefty sums of cash. Yeah, Extortion are one of those bands that have a large following of people who try to buy everything they've ever put out, thus Extortion have a lot of different varients and editions of their releases. Deep Six recently reissued a bunch of their records, which I should be getting in the near future. This record here has to be my favorite of their stuff that I've heard; "Sick" 12", black vinyl, 45 RPM, not sure which pressing this is.

Fantastic record! A good balance of old-school influence from great bands like Infest and Lack of Interest with some some new-school twists and turns. They manage to throw in enough interesting riffs and concepts into their music to save them from being a complete rehash band. Love it.

As always, brilliant art from lead singer Rohan. His artwork is one of my favorite things about Extortion, it's very Raymond Pettibon-ish. Like how you can instantly recognize one of his pieces on a Black Flag record, Rohans art is that kinda reconizable. This cover art here is one of my favorites of his, but falling into 2nd place behind the Extortion/Agents of Abhorrence split.

Double-sided insert

Boring old black vinyl. Deep Six reissued this recently, so it's pretty easy to find now. If you want to see some REAL Extortion praise, head on over to one of my favorite blogs everrr SKULLFUCKED. There's a link on the right hand side of my page, check him out, his blog is way better than mine :)

~VII

The Poacher Diaries

2012-01-30T14:03:00.000-08:00

Gah, no posts for a few days, my bad. In internet time it feels like I've been away for a few weeks. Pretty weird how that happens, but I digress. Two of my favorite bands sharing a split is always a good thing, and this right here is one of the greatest of the greats(that I own). One of my prized records and only my 2nd Discogs purchase so far; Agoraphobic Nosebleed/Converge - "The Poacher Diaries" split 12" on yellow w/ red splatter vinyl, 33 RPM.

This is a Relapse Records pressing, Hydra Head Records did all of the first presses. It looks really good and it arrives to me in excellent condition, although the inner sleeve has a lot of split edges. Not a real big issue, though I am really careful putting the record band in the sleeve.

Excellent material from both bands, of course. The Agoraphobic Nosebleed side shows them being a bit more reserved and less 1000-BPM-y. J.R. Hayes also lends his vocals to many tracks, which is an awesome bonus. The Converge could have been released as it's own EP, it's so solid. Of course their side features the song "Locust Reign", which always makes me want to punch the nearest small animal every time I hear it. Excellent stuff, so happy to finally own this!! Great artwork too!

Printed inner sleeve^

Pretty rare record, and everyone's selling it for buttloads of cash. I lucked out and managed to get mine at a great price. Yay me.

~VII

Double Whammy

2012-01-26T18:45:00.000-08:00

Here is one of my prized possesions, and so far the 7" that I've dished out the most money for. In my opinion this is an essential hardcore record, buy or die. Spazz/Lack of Interest - "Double Whammy" split 7", black vinyl, 33 RPM.

I was a fan of Spazz long before I picked this up, but this is the record that got me to fall in love with Lack of Interest. I love everything about the band, and their side of this split is pretty much perfect. Lovely, classic, crudely recorded powerviolence/hardcore blasters with some of my favorite vocals in the entire genre. If you do manage to pick this up, get it at least for the LoI side. I honestly can't remember much about the Spazz side except for their cover of "Hey Bob, What's Up?"(originally by Pillsbury Hardcore). I'll definitely need to get more familiar with their side in the near future.

*note: my records aren't really as dusty as they look. The camera flash does some fucked up things.

This record is usually not cheap, I've seen it go anywhere from $13.00 to $35.00 on discogs. I wouldn't suggest paying that much, but it was worth every penny that I spent on it. Classic and essential.

~VII

Cheerleaders For Imperialism

2012-01-24T16:48:00.000-08:00

Here's a record that I've had for a while from one of my favorite fast hardcore bands ever; the mighty Hellnation. I try to pick up all the Hellnation records I can, and out of all the ones I have, this has to be my favorite. OG press on Slap-a-Ham records, black vinyl, 33 RPM.

Whole lotta songs on this bad boy. All of em featuring a dude you might have heard off named Chris Dodge on bass bringing his signature clanky bass tone. Every song on here is a rager, nothing is slow, it never stops. Just a constant barrage of blasting hardcore for 18 minutes.

I don't know if I can call Hellnation fastcore, though that title would certainly fit the music. I'm super bummed these guys broke up. A few members are in Brodys Militia, but so far they haven't clicked with me yet. Sucks.

Slap-A-Ham!!!

My Hellnation collection is still only modest at best, but I'm always eager to build it up. I have my eyes on a couple reasonably priced albums on discogs. Definitely more Hellnation posts in the future. GO FAST OR GO HOME!!

~VII

Tentacles of Influence

2012-01-23T14:23:00.000-08:00

Here's the LP that came with my TLAL order, the new Needful Things album "Tentacles of Influence". Czech titans of underground grindcore! Gray/silver vinyl, 45 RPM with a printed inner sleeve.

Needful Things are, in my opinion, one of the most criminally underrated and underexposed grindcore bands going right now. There previous full-length "Dead Point" is an album all grind junkies need to check out. This album here, on first listen, pretty much delivers in every category and is a great follow up release. I'm gonna have to give it a few more spins to see if it's truly on par with "Dead Point", I'll be doing a review of this on Operation Grindcore in the near future. The B-side is especially kick ass. The recording is significantly more cleaner and not as thick this time around, but it's not that big a deal. Not a fan of the cover art at all.

A lot more short songs this time around too, I think only 2 break the dreaded 2 minute mark. Way more blasting and not as much groove. Though again, Side B has a lot more interesting riffs and structures.

I really hope this band gets more attention this year. They're playing Maryland Deathfest, which should get them a lot more fans here in America. Unfortunately I won't be able to see them cause I was to late to buy my 4-day pass. Endless bummer, I'm sure they'll kill it live.

~VII

North Coast Wizard Violence

2012-01-22T18:24:00.000-08:00

My latest package from To Live a Lie came in a few days ago, I picked up 1 LP and a couple recent 7" represses that TLAL did. Here's one of them, Chest Pain - "s/t" on mess/marble vinyl, 45 RPM.

I've been digging this EP for a while since I found it on bandcamp late last year, and I was pretty bummed when I learned that the band had sold out of the 7" version. But good 'ol TLAL was kind enough to repress 500 copies of it(200 on color, 300 on black) so I can finally own a physical copy.

Today was actually the first I had listened to this EP in quite a while, and I forgot how much these guys kinda sound like Iron Lung, but with not as much powerviolence influence. Nothing Overly impressive and far from mind blowing, but it's still a pretty rad hardcore record. Love the artwork too.

One of the better mixed/mess vinyls that I've seen recently. I've dubbed the mixed color vinyls "shit-colored" cause of the ugly, brownish/gray color that often happens. But this one has a nice dark blue with some cool swirls in it. Nicely done. Pretty barebones packaging, standard record & insert. Nothing on the inside of the sleeve or anything. It gets the job done, but I was expecting a bit more.

~VII

Tongue Splitter

2012-01-21T17:16:00.000-08:00

Two new titans of North Carolina grindcore have come together and self-released the first truly great split of 2012! The Old Painless and Priapus split 7", something that I have been highly anticipating, and I was not let down. 500 copies were pressed, 200 on this yellow/light brown marble vinyl and the rest on black.

The A-side is annihilated by the 3 new Priapus songs. Some of the best technical grindcore I've heard in a while. I slept on this bands previous EP "Airloom", but this has made me a total fan. Flip the record over to have your face shredded off by Old Painless, who dish out 5 sudo-spazzy grindcore songs. Awesome record, glad to finally have it. I'm not going to go into much more detail about the music(see the reason why below), so here are some pretty pictures.

Small double-sided insert with lyrics^v

This here is a nice note from Priapus vocalist Jordan. It's always nice when the person shipping you your records does this. You can read a full review I did for this split here on Operation Grindcore.

~VII

PCP Torpedo

2012-01-20T18:39:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest addition to my growing Agoraphobic Nosebleed collection, the "PCP Torpedo" 6". I think this is a 2nd pressing, on red/black mix vinyl, 45 RPM. Fun fact of the day; up until YESTERDAY I always thought this thing was called "PCP Tornado". Smart.

Very happy to finally get this record. It's one that's been evading me for a while and I finally found it for a good price on Vinyl Junkie. Definitely not there best stuff, but it's still some kick ass grindcore. 10 songs in all, I think only 2 pass the 1 minute mark. Really not a whole lot more I can say, it's typical early ANb, what more should I say?

not the whole EP^

~VII

Human Hatred

2012-01-19T17:33:00.000-08:00

I'm late to the whole Vaccine thing, and I'm paying for it by no longer having access to there records. Sucks. I really don't wanna pay $15+ for their 5". The 7" that I do have however, "Human Hatred", will tide me off till I then. This thing is a fast and furious beast! Black vinyl, 45 RPM.

One of the fastest and most ferocious sXe hardcore bands that I've ever heard. On the verge of just being grindcore, but there hardcore roots are undeniably dominate. Very lo-fi and abrasive production too, the whole sound kinda reminds me of the mighty Shitstorm. Very short release too; 10 songs in about 4 minutes. This could have very well been a 1-sided 7" and you could still have had it be at 45 RPM.

The one thing I'm iffy about with this band is the lyrics. Very very very straightedge. Like, on almost militant levels. I'm have no problem with sXe people, but I can't stand trying to force beliefs, any kind of beliefs, on other people. The lyrics are pretty much unintelligible though, so it's not that much of a major issue. The music more than makes up for it.

Fold out sleeve

I'm on the lookout for affordable prices on there 5" and demo 7". Really cool band, I'm looking forward for more from them.

~VII

Suffering Mind

2012-01-19T09:41:00.000-08:00

Suffering Mind is one of my latest grindcore obsessions. Awesome grindcore from Poland, I'm sure many of you have heard of them. If not, do yourself a favor and pick this album up. Their s/t full length, white vinyl, 33 RPM.

This was released by 625 Thrashcore and Crucificados Records in 2010. Super solid grindcore album, probably the best I've heard from the band so far. 18 songs in about as many minutes with a Phobia cover at the end, pretty much a perfect length for a grind album. In terms of the type of grind they make, I can make heavy comparisons to bands like Insect Warfare, Phobia, with maybe a teeny-tiny bit of Magrudergrind thrown in. Little sprinkles of Magrduergrind.

Great packaging job, covered in fabulous artwork. The usual crusty/politically influenced artwork. There's a large poster and a double-sided insert included as well. Not much more I can say, so I'll let the pretty pictures to the rest of the talking.

Rad^

Also rad^

This band has a metric fuckload of releases coming out. Including splits with The Afternoon Gentlemen, Needful Things, Phobia, a live 4" picture disc, and a few more that I'm forgetting. This band is gonna put a hurting on my wallet.

~VII

Worship

2012-01-18T17:16:00.000-08:00

+HIRS+ is a band that everyone that's into grind or the drum-machine grind subgenre should pay attention too, because they truly do rule, and their productivity and quality is absolutely astounding. This is their first physical release called "Worship", 1-sided 7" on black vinyl, 45 RPM.

I bought this from the band, who so far has self released everything they've done, and with a shit ton more on the way. I'm currently waiting for a couple more very limited releases to be available, and when I have those I'll definitely do a post about them. The 7" is packaged in a black envelope with a black ink design, which thankfully shows up well when using flash.

They got the whole satanic schtick, but I think it's more of an imagery thing as opposed to a legit belief. The songs are littered with great religious based samples that serves as great segways between songs. Phenomenal grindcore too; kinda technical and spazzy with a bit of industrial coldness. I think there's 10 songs in all.

Here's the picture that I thought was gonna be the cover art, but it just serves as an double-sided insert with lyrics on the flip-side. And as an added bonus, each record comes with a page ripped out of the satanic bible. Fabulous.

You can pick this up on their website here, and you can download all there recordings for FREE on their bandcamp page here. Hail Satan.

~VII

Rottenness

2012-01-18T12:09:00.000-08:00

One last fastcore post for a while, then I'll be moving on to different various things. But we're going out on a high note with this 7" right here, Dead Radical - "Rottenness", I believe this is the 3rd press, black vinyl, 33 RPM.

The first press of this was a one-sided 7" that only had the material on the A-side, but the reissues included a demo on the B-side. Fucking fantastic record, and one that I definitely have to study more to fully pick out all the pieces, but I can safely say that this goes in my Top 3 fastcore releases that I've heard, most definitely. Outstanding song structures, incredibly technical and full of character and personality. More great bass playing, interesting vocals, THE DRUMS!!! Guhhhhh, it's so good.

Typical Dead Radical imagery; stamped labels, smeared artwork, messy font, it's all there.

My favorite cover art from the band right there. Pick this record up, mandatory listening. And remember...

~VII

Are You Okay?

2012-01-18T11:05:00.000-08:00

Yet another xBrainiax post, I've just been devouring all their releases lately, such an awesome band. This is their split 7" with No Comply, released on several labels( including To Live a Lie and 625 Thrashcore), black vinyl, 33 RPM.

Out of all the xBrainiax splits I have, this has to be my favorite. Don't ask me why though, cause there's not a whole lot of things that make this any more unique from the rest of em. There are a lot more "slow-riff-for-a-few-second" bits though, the last songs has a great groove, and they do a ripping cover of Lack of Interest's "My Life" at the end. Killer artwork for there side too, seek this one out.

The No Comply side is significantly not as good, but still good a the same time. I want to fall completely in love with this band, but there's just something keeping me from doing so. I dig the loud, explosive, lo-fi recording on there side, and the bass tone is nice and grating, but I guess when you put it next to xBrainiax it just sounds less exciting. I don't know, cool band none the less.

Star Wars mixed with MITB, phenomenal.

~VII

Goatmeal

2012-01-17T11:11:00.000-08:00

Here is a real gem in the fastcore genre; a wee little 5" record, brought to us by the retardedly good Hummingbird of Death. This is a first pressing on black vinyl, and if I remember correctly it's a 33 RPM record.

20 songs are contained on here, but HOD have actually steered clear of just making tedious noisey blasters and instead opted to *gasp* give a crap about writing songs!! Yes, each of the 19 songs on the A side sound individual and different from the rest, these are carefully constructed and thought out micro-songs, I believe the longest song on the A-side is 9 seconds. The B-side is taken up by the almost 2 minute "From God's Anus To Your Mouth", and then it's done. 20 songs in under 3 minutes. This record takes a gimmicky concept and actually makes it work.

Not much to show in terms of packaging, just a simple folded sleeve made out of printer paper with a one-sided insert. I love little hummingbird guy on the center labels.

Like most of HOD's early records, this is pretty rare. I know that a few people are selling em on Discogs, but for pretty high prices. Ehh, just find a link online and download it. Personally I only need one more thing to complete my HOD discography collection, I'll post a picture once I have that.

~VII

Deprogrammed

2012-01-16T14:28:00.000-08:00

Another xBrainiax post for today. This is the very recent 12" vinyl pressing of their first full-length "Deprogrammed", released this month on To Live a Lie, who also released the CD version prior. Gatefold packaging, mess(shit) vinyl, 33 RPM.

Phenomenal record! Pure, unadulterated fastcore deliciousness. 31 tracks in all, 30 of which take up side A. The last song takes up the entire B-side and almost half of the albums length. There are 2 more slower/midtempo songs on the A-side, but other than that, every other song doesn't break the 1 minute mark. I can't even imagine memorizing how to play all these songs, props to the musicians here.

Very nice glossy sleeve and a wonderful gatefold. All in full color!

Very nice 2-page insert too, but kind of a bummer that there are only lyrics to the first song(I guess, the vocals don't really follow the lyrics). Overall though, a great packaging job from TLAL.

Here's another picture where I tried to show off all the rings, though it's not as good as the last one.

~VII

Hail Fastcore

2012-01-16T11:35:00.000-08:00

I've been on a serious, serious fastcore binge lately. It's been wonderful. I've had a ton of fastcore splits, 7"s and 12"s come in recently, and I've loved every single one of them. The next few posts are gonna be focused on some of these blasting gems, starting with this one; the xBrainiax/Dead Radical split 7", black vinyl, 33 RPM.

Dead Radical are my newest fastcore love, I'm definitely gonna try and get all the releases I can from this band. 19(!) songs on their side, seamless transitions of blasting, tempo changes, technical hardcore futzery. It basically sounds like one long song, and I greatly admire this bands skill. The bass player especially, he pulls out some super interesting bass licks all over this beast. This is definitely the type of release that you have to "study" to fully pick it up. There are tons of things that you'll miss the first time you hear it.

Same goes for the xBrainiax side, definitely one of the reigning titans of fastcore(though there were rumors of them breaking up, but I also heard they just changed some members). They're side is definitely has more distinguishable "songs", but still beyond crazy and intricate. They also pull out the cliche slow song at the end. Still awesome.

Typical Dead Radical aesthetic on this. Smeared ink artwork and messy fonts. They also have a thing for hand stamping the center labels of their records, which is kinda interesting.

This last picture is the xBrainiax side, for some reason I looooooove looking at all the "rings" of the record. Really cool and striking, maybe I'm alone in this. Who cares...

~VII

Owned!!

2012-01-15T16:47:00.000-08:00

Here's another recent and vital addition to the growing Magrudergrind collection; their very first 7" "Owned!!". I don't exactly know which pressing this is, I believe it's the first considering it's a bit of a mispress. Transparent green vinyl, 45 RPM.

Extremely strong material right here, one of the best examples of their early early stuff. Killer hardviolence riffs, great songs, and more of a "hardcore" vocal delivery from Avi. More shouted ~~and not as much Hellnation-y style~~ vocals. Pretty good recording too.

Now again, I do believe this is a first pressing because of the mistake in the pressing. This little letter here says that there is a song missing on the B-side that is listed on the sleeve. It says that you can download the song from a website, and maybe for fun one day I'll go and see if that site still works. It doesn't really bother me that much though, I can find the song on the internet pretty easily. There are a few other color variants of this record too.

Double-sided insert with lyrics.

Low and behold, the missing song :P

~VII

A Killer Combo

2012-01-15T12:51:00.000-08:00

So, my 2nd Discogs purchase ever came in a few days ago, and I couldn't be happier with how it all went, and now I finally own this sexy piece of vinyl which I've wanted for sooooooo fucking long. "A Killer Combo", the excellent Magrudergrind/Godstomper split 7". First press, black vinyl, 33 & 45 RPM, with a fuck ton of inserts.

I mean it when I said that I've wanted this split for quite some time. Pretty much ever since I got into Magrudergrind(the band who's song this blog is named after). Everything about this 7" is great; the bands, the recordings, the pressing, the artwork, it's all good.

The A side is Godstomper, a band that I like and I should have more of their records, but I digress. Probably the best recording from this band that I've ever heard. Good songs too, but there side is way to short. 3 songs in less than 2 minutes, bummer. The Magrudergrind side is awesome, as always. Typical early MG sounding songs, grindviolence-powermosh-fastcore goodness. The song "Spicy Delight" is a real treat, silly lyrics that make me hungry.

The first press had an orange varient, but I can't find one of those without having to dish out a lot of money. I got this for 6.50, which is a fucking steal when it comes to this record. I'm happy!!

To Live a Lie #1 baby!!!!!

Last thing I'll talk about is this insert, which I had no idea came with this record. It's a small poster, and it is amazing. I want this on a shirt, I really really really want this on a shirt. Someone please tell me that is a real thing. So much love for this record!!!

~VII

On Edge

2012-01-05T19:13:00.001-08:00

Always good when I can kill 2 birds with one stone; in this case checking off one more thing from both my growing In Disgust and Sidetracked collections. Absolutely killer split from 2 stupidly good bands, and I managed to snag the last copy from Feral Kid Records. So much win right there. Transparent yellow/orange vinyl, 33 RPM. Btw, I'm trying out a new camera, I guess it's an improvement.

I don't think I should have to explain why both of these bands rule, you should already know. Standard In Disgust on their side, always brutal, always heavy, just great. The Sidetracked side is some of the best stuff, production wise that I've heard from Jay and the gang. Clear, heavy recording, killer fastcore.

Nice, clean, black and white packaging. Typical In Disgust insert, I guess they hate giving out info. At least the Sidetracked lyrics are there.

If you manage to find a copy of this, definitely pick it up. Unfortunately I haven't seen many copies around in any distros, so good luck!!

~VII

Nuclear Summer

2011-12-22T17:45:00.000-08:00

Here's another record from my most recent order of To Live a Lie releases; the P.L.F/Downtrodden split 7", released on a few other labels in addition to TLAL, blue vinyl(limited to 100), 33 RPM.

Cool cover art for the P.L.F side, I think it's either done by Putrid or the dude who did Insect Warfare - "World Extermination". Honestly, I'm not too hot on P.L.F. They're a little to thrash-metally for my taste, but I enjoy a few songs here and there from them. 2 originals and 2 Agathocles covers this time around. If you like P.L.F, you'll like this, nothing new here. Though this recording does have a bass player!

Downtrodden I wasn't so into. Old-school style grind for sure, but they use a drum machine, which works pretty well. Nothing new or original and it's far from mindblowing. I won't be looking out for more of their releases. Pass.

Solid blue vinyl

Fold out packaging with a little lip on the end. Simple packaging, again nothing mindblowing. Lyrics are included.

Also, all copies of this split are hand-numbered, and I was lucky enough to get a nice low number. Of course, this means nothing in terms of quality of my particular record, but the collector snob in me is giddy.

~VII

Decimation Cycle

2011-12-21T18:44:00.000-08:00

This is something that I bought from SKULL master Eric Wood about a week ago, and I finally got to spin it yesterday. The Bastard Noise and Guilty Connector collaboration 7" "Decimation Cycle", 33 and 45 RPM, baby blue vinyl.

Probably the best noise release I've heard from BN thus far. Super dense, thick and harsh sounds. One song has a few lines of vocals from Eric Wood which are super brutal. Very nice copy too, pretty much as mint as a record can be. No bent corners or anything, which is incredible since the sleeve is just folded paper.

Not a whole lot to talk about in terms of packaging. Just a simple folded piece or neon green paper with black lettering. It's an aesthetic I happen to like. Nice colored vinyl too, with one side being 33 and one side being 45. I'm now on the lookout from any Bastard Noise record I can get. Gotta boost up the SKULL collection in a big way!

~VII

Baltimore Beatdown

2011-12-20T15:48:00.000-08:00

Here's a recently releases beauty; the Eddie Brock/Lapse split 7" released on To Live a Lie and Hostile Input records, 45 rpm, red vinyl. Real good hardcore right here!

Tough hardcore with powerviolence influences from both of these up and coming Baltimore bruisers. First up is Lapse with 3 tracks in under 4 minutes. Definitely the faster band on the split, more blasting and a few well timed mosh breakdowns. Great snare sound too! Looking forward to more from this band.

The Eddie Brock side is 2 tracks with a more HC sound than their previous 7". Way longer songs this time around too, more refined songwriting. Definitely a band that throws down live and gets the crowd moving I'm sure. Somehow they got Scott Hull to master their side, so it sounds fucking great!! Definitely a band to look out for.

Stark blak and white inner-sleeve picture and a double-sided insert with lyrics. A download card is also included but my computer can't unzip the files.

I got the red vinyl version, limited to 100 copies. Pretty vinyl, it's semi-transparent and a little bit sparkly, and a little bit of black got in there. Pick this up.

~VII

Slimewave #2

2011-12-19T21:02:00.000-08:00

Wow, these pictures are shitty even by my standards. Fuck all. Anywho, I've recently acquired a few of the Slimewave 7"s that I've been missing from my collection. I now have all but the XXX Maniak/Throatplunger 7", and once I get that I'll do a collection post. Here's one that my friend picked up for me in Philly. This is the Cripple Bastards/Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition split(#2 our of the 6 in the series), 45 rpm, white/blue splatter vinyl.

For those who don't know, back in 2006-07 Relapse Records did a series of 7" splits highlighting some of the more extreme/perverse bands in the grind genre. The cover art to each one had a piece of a bigger picture of an alien autopsy that would come together once you had every one. It was a cool idea, and it made them very collectable. Of course they later did a CD compilation of all the tracks once the splits were OOP.

Out of all the Slimewave 7"s I have, this one sounds the best, and I'm not sure why. The pressing is very clear and not noisy, which is very refreshing. Side A is the Cripple Bastards, who I'm admittedly not a big fan of, but their side has some choice cuts that would later appear on their incredibly "meh" "Variante Alla Morte" full length. These are some of the better and more straight forward songs from that record. Nice.

I haven't owned a SCD release up till this point, and I'm not in any real hurry to get another one. They play the groovy, down-tuned, 2-minute songs goregrind style and they do it well, but I honestly can't remember anything about their side. I know that the end of the 2nd track had a sweet riff, but even still I can't remember what it sounds like. I'll have to listen to it again I guess.

Exceptionally good looking vinyl right here. Very classy and delicious looking white with blue splatter vinyl. Love it to death!!

To the people who will find this last photo this last photo humorous, your welcome. Probably would have been a better fit for the Total Fucking Destruction split. Oh well.

~VII

Resignation

2011-12-07T16:30:00.000-08:00

This is the best EP I've heard all year, dead ass serious. Sea of Shit's self-titled 7" released on PRGNT Records/Idoneum Bello, black vinyl, 45 RPM.

I've only got their 7" demo before this, which I like, but it's far from mind-blowing. But this, this my friends is a masterpiece of filthy, disgusting powerviolence! Everything is distorted, the production is fantastically raw and LOUD, and the songs are non-stop blasters that I find super enjoyable.

8 songs this time around, all fast, minimal slow parts. Even the 3 1/2 minute end track is fast; going from a twisted groove, to blasting, to ending in noise, and all songs seamlessly transition into each other.

I'm a super big fan of this packaging too, it totally fits the ugly, filthy sound of the recording. Stark black and white images/text throughout with a black dust sleeve to boot. Dope.

I ordered their split 7" with Socially Retarded yesterday, when that arrives I'll do a post on that too! Sea of Shit 2011!! Purchase it here.

~VII

Skulldozer

2011-12-06T22:29:00.000-08:00

Here we have one of my most anticipated releases of this year, and boy was it worth the wait. "Skulldozer", the latest full-length from Bastard Noise has finally been unleashed upon the world courteous of Deep Six Records. This is the pre-order brown marble vinyl edition limited to 100. Gatefold packaging with a poster, 33 RPM. Beautiful packaging.

Eric Wood has said that this is the best BN release to date, and I might have to agree with him. Everything that made the previous album "A Culture of Monsters" good has been upped on "Skulldozer". The recording is fuller and louder, the songwriting is fantastic, the vocals are incredible, everything just sounds excellent. BN spent a lot of time on this record and it truly shows.

Six songs this time around(2 more if you buy the CD version). All generally slow dirges, with the exception of "Seeing The Same Fate" which kicks things up a notch tempo wise. Also, the addition of Aimee on vocals is an incredible change to the band. Her presence is not subtle at all; full intensity all the time, and a great compliment to Eric's deep-trollish-growl.

This will definitely end up in my top 5 of the year, without a doubt. A truly excellent album from this legendary group. Worship the Skull!!!

~VII

Parasitic Nonexistence

2011-11-27T12:55:00.000-08:00

I'm sure most of you will know Chainsaw to The Face through "This Comp Kills Facists Vol. 1". They were one of the more unknown bands on there, but their contribution is one of the parts I remember most about the comp. Super fast grindviolence with gruff vocals and kickass drums, "Hating Life" is probably their best song on the comp. So here's their s/t 7" EP released in 2010 on Cowabunga Records, which is where I picked this up. 33 RPM, clear vinyl with black swirls.

This release is a bit more loose and rough than there songs on TCKFV.1. Truth be told, it's not even a very good recording. It definitely sounds like a demo that was pressed onto wax in terms of quality. Musically, it sounds pretty familiar. Still fast, still violent, but oddly enough I think the cleaner recordings on the comp. made their songs more intense, especially when compared to this. The quiet pressing doesn't help either. 19 songs in what feels like 10 minutes, it's decent.

The vinyl is really pretty though; it's super clear vinyl with a very nice, simple black streak all around the record. I believe this is the only one of the clear vinyl versions that had this black streak in it, so yeah, super rare! Collectors scum everywhere are super jealous of this.

~VII

Never Back Down

2011-11-26T22:32:00.000-08:00

The return!! Hola everybody, I'm getting this blog up and running again after a long stretch of nothing. For those who care, I fell out of posting here while finishing school, and when I started writing for Operation Grindcore. But now I got that spark to start posting on my own blog again and concentrate on something I love dearly, vinyl records. I can easily do a post daily since I get a steady stream of new records quite frequently. Also, you may notice the greater decline in good photographs. Well, that's cause the camera I was using took a shit and died, leaving me with my simple Mac webcam(I'm gonna buy a quality camera at some point). But I digress, let's get on to todays record. Lack of Interest - "Never Back Down". Black vinyl, 45 RPM, released on Deep Six Records.

This is essential hardcore right here. Seriously, one of the best hardcore records I've heard. Everything is excellent; the production, the performances, the songwriting, everything. The songwriting in particular is way more developed and complex than most standard hardcore/powerviolence bands. Constant riff changes, tempo changes, etc. Definitely an inspiration to more modern fastcore bands like Sidetracked. 19 songs in about 14 minutes, perfect length for me. It doesn't waste time and it doesn't leave me wanting more

I love the artwork too. I think it's a definite homage to King Crimson's - "In The Court of The Crimson King", but I'm not sure if that was the intent. If it wasn't, then it's a hell of a coincidence.

One-sided insert with lyrics.

Clean black vinyl. Very nice label too, I love that little face in the center.

This is a fairly easy record to find, and for a decent price too. I know Tankcrimes and Vinyl Junkie have some copies. Do yourself a favor and get it if you haven't already, it's well worth it!

~VII

Converge/Dropdead Split Ain't That Awesome...

2011-07-14T16:22:00.000-07:00

It pains me to say that. Honestly. I had HUGE expectations for this split when it was first announced. Two titans of hardcore, coming together, on one slab of wax. It sounded fucking awesome! Slowly but surely, more and more details about the split were announced, and I think the point where I started to have some doubts was when I heard that there would only be one song from each band. "Huh..." I thought, "only one Dropdead song? That's only gonna be like a minute of material." But I still had high hopes, and when it was made available on Deathwish.Inc I bought it immediately. I spun it on my turntable, and was ultimately incredibly disappointed.

First off, the production on the Converge side is incredibly rough and fuzzy. THe bass is high in the mix, the guitars are barely audible, everything just sounds messy. I think that they were trying to go for an old-school powerviolence style production job. But that combined with the vinyl pressing makes it a pretty harsh listening experience, and not in a good way. The song itself is nothing special either; pretty typical Converge, but with more blast beats than usual. Good bass tone though. Again, I think they were just trying to capture the old-school sound.

Dropdead's side is also nothing special, it just sounds like ordinary Dropdead. This song wouldn't sound out of place on any of their other releases, it's just Dropdead being Dropdead. You could argue that this is a testament to their integrity and that over the years they've still managed to keep the same sound, but it just leaves me wanting more. Like, 3 songs more. It's not horrible, it's just underwhelming.

In the end, I guess I was just expecting a more "epic" release, for lack of a better word. This split 7" just fell flat on a lot of levels for me; poor production, underwhelming songs, and poor vinyl pressing. Maybe if there were more songs and it was a 12" I might have been more thrilled, but it's not, and I'm still left unsatisfied.

Dorian Rainwater (Noisear) Interview

2011-07-02T16:38:00.000-07:00

Noisear are gonna be hot shit in the American grindcore scene real soon, I'm calling it right now! Hailing from New Mexico, their technical, discordancy, mind-fuck grind is both heavy and cerebral. In a nutshell, they make good grind. So good that Relapse Records snatched them up and released their latest full-length "Subvert the Dominant Paradigm", and it sounds like we'll be getting another one real soon. This interview was conducted over email with guitarist Dorian Rainwater.

Built to Blast: First off, congratulations on Noisear's signing to Relapse Records! How has that relationship been going?

Dorian: Thank you! Relapse is a great label. They help us with promotion, merch and even some booking. They have a large crew of hard working individuals who are also very friendly and down to earth. They back all their bands 100% and are like family.

BTB: Noisear have been grinding since the late 90's, how do you think the band has changed over the years?

Dorian: Like any band over ten years old we have had ups and downs through the years, but one thing we have always maintained is our mutual obsession for creating grind!

BTB: Noisear are definitely not your standard sounding grindcore band, where do your influences come from when it comes to writing music?

Dorian: Too many to name, haha. Napalm Death, Terrorizer, Assuck, Discordance Axis, Human Remains, Lethargy, 324 and many others.

BTB: Getting to your latest album, "Subvert The Dominant Paradigm". How do you think this album differs from your previous releases, if at all?

Dorian: "Subvert" is a multitude of different styles for us being that we mixed alot of different styles,speeds and arrangements we have not done on prior releases.

BTB: I read somewhere that all the songs on "Subvert..." were written in a day. Is that true?

Dorian: Yes its true. We had 4 songs written and wrote 25 in the studio. Technically it was 2 days because the vocals were layed down the next day.

BTB: Now that stuttering/staccato break in the song "Global Warming", that's total Human Remains worship, right?

Dorian: Those are volume swells, and yeah we love Human Remains to no end.

BTB: I also heard that you guys are already writing songs for another full length?

Dorian: We recorded 20 songs with our original guitarist Thomas Romero last weekend. We also added Dalton Tuerck on vocals. Dalton also wrote guitars on a few songs. We are very stoked about the album and can't wait for everyone to hear it!

BTB: Your drummer Bryan Fajardo has become a powerhouse in the American grindcore scene, playing with everyone from Kill the Client to Phobia. With all the bands he's involved with is it sometimes difficult to get together and concentrate on Noisear?

Dorian: No not at all. We live in the same city, KTC jams in the same room at the rehearsal studio and I do studio guitars with Phobia so its all pretty relative.

BTB: I haven't heard much about the New Mexico scene. Is there a grind scene where you're from?

Dorian: Bryan and I live in Dallas (Texas) now. From what I hear there is a lot more death metal than grind in NM now.

BTB: What bands/albums are you currently enjoying?

Dorian: Gride, Libertarian, Psudoku, Dislike(Croatia), Lycanthropy, Hatred Surge, Mindless, Lie Still, Antigama, The Kill, Sulaco, Rotten Sound, Shitstorm, Lack of Interest, Weekend Nachos, Magrudergrind, Shit Life, Cogs and Sprockets and a ton of others that would probably fill this whole page ha!

BTB: Any final words?

Dorian: Thanks for the interview! Less fa$cion more thrashin!!!

War! Grind! Hell!

2011-06-29T11:27:00.000-07:00

I finally got this cassette in the mail yesterday, "War Grind Hell"; the latest EP from New Jersey raw-dogs Dethroned Emperor. I reviewed this beast several months ago on my youtube channel, and I gave it high praise. It would have been one of my favorites of last year if it had actually been officially released. Production problems aside now, the physical cassette is finally out for all to enjoy!

Dethroned Emperor play a very old-school style of grindcore, with a lot of influence from bestial death metal bands. Very rough, yet clear recordings, growled vocals drenched in reverb, a thick guitar tone, bassy drums. It's an awesome production job. And there's a Terrorizer cover to boot!

The packaging is really nothing special. One sided cover, one sided insert with a plain white cassette with sharpie writing. Pretty basic. It doesn't even have a spine label, which is weird. As far as I know there may be 100 or 150 of these bad boys released. You can get in contact with the band here. They have quite a few releases planned, so keep an eye out. Approved!

5 Underrated Grind Bands

2011-06-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

5. Parlamentarisk Sodomi: Not so much a band, seeing as it's only one person, but it's still some of the best crust-inspired-grindcore you'll ever hear. In my opinion, all one-man-grindcore-projects should be compared to PxSx, and 99.8% of the time, they will crash and burn in comparison. It's very apparent that a lot time, energy, and a keen concentration on production was involved in creating these songs. The drums programming rivals that of newer Agoraphobic Nosebleed, the vocals harken back to crust gods Extreme Noise Terror, and the riffs are unbelievable. Get wise to this project right the fuck now!

4. Maruta: I can definitely see these guys become heavy hitters in the modern grind scene very soon, but for now they seem more like cult band than anything else. While getting rave reviews in magazines like Decibel, Maruta still doesn't seem to be a very talked about band. Which is a shame since their technical, Discordance Axis-inspired grind is definitely something to pay attention too. While they like to branch out stylistically, their music is firmly rooted in grindcore. Blazingly fast, very technical, beefy, heavy grindcore. Learn up!

3. Total Fucking Destruction: Another cult grind band, even with Rich Hoak manning the drums. Formed after the demise of Brutal Truth, TFD is a grind band that sound like no other grind band, which is something that demands some credit. Bat-shit-insane, rock'n'roll, party grind. Tongue-in-cheek, yet deadly serious. Grind this shit!

2. Fuck the Facts: This band is so fucking good, it's almost frustrating. Another band that really doesn't stick to one genre, or sub-genre, but is still definitely rooted in grindcore. Unafraid to venture into territories that many grind bands are to afraid to go; such as melody and epic song lengths. You could be listening to a minute and a half blast of pure grind for one song, then a 9 minute epic of melodic, sludgy, gothenburg inspired metal. Incredible band. Listen up and play it loud!

1. Shitstorm: This band is so overlooked that it's criminal. Definitely one of my current favorites, Shitstorm play direct, to the point, no holds bars grindcore. Short songs, fast drumming, hardcore inspired, powerviolence-influenced, gruff vocals, killer riffs, unbelieveably catchy songs, and they share members with the mighty Torche! One of the best going right now. Their side of the Magrudergrind split is some of the best 9 minutes of grind I've ever heard. Play it loud!

An Interview with Hummingbird of Death

2011-06-19T10:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a recent interview I did over email with Mike, the drummer from the fantastic Boise fastcore band Hummingbird of Death. This interview was done over email. Full support!

Built to Blast: For those who don't know, tell us how Hummingbird of Death formed.

Mike: Justin (guitar) and myself (drums) were in other bands together around 2004-05. By the summer of 2005, though, I grew really anxious to do a fastcore side project. Justin was the only guy I knew who could handle the guitar duties, so I asked him and he accepted. The two of us made a demo tape and it got such a good response that we decided to get a bass player and become a real band. We've been rollin' non-stop ever since.

BTB: How'd you come up with the name Hummingbird of Death?

Mike: It really just popped into my head one day and I thought it would make a cool name. There's no story behind it.

BTB: You guys describe your band as fastcore, care to explain to people exactly what fastcore is?

Mike: It's ultra-fast hardcore punk. The tempos, song structure, song lengths, etc. are all taken to as high a degree as possible. We've been trying to really stretch the boundaries of what the term 'fastcore' encapsulates. The most important thing is that it's rock 'n' roll.

BTB: What's the scene like in Boise? Is there a good amount of grind/fastcore supporters?

Mike: The scene is very small, yet it's big enough to fragment into a number of social cliques that don't like to intermingle. A basement full of people can be counted on to roll out to a grind show in Boise.

BTB: One of the things that I like about you guys is that it seems like you concentrate on songwriting. Like on the Goatmeal 5", each song is distinguishable from the others. Which is incredible.

Mike: Well, thanks very much! We tried really hard to write good songs that sounded as fully realized as possible with a 4-8 second time frame.

BTB: What can you tell us about the upcoming Hummingbird releases?

Mike: Well, we have a split 12" with the late, great Titanarum up next. That was recorded last summer, and I literally just approved the test press yesterday, so we'll be seeing that one released in the next few weeks hopefully. We just recorded two more releases, a full-length LP and a split 12" with Downsided. Hopefully those can be released this year. All three of these releases involve a lot of experimentation, hopefully people will be able to hang with them!
Also coming out in July is a very special limited single entitled "Archaic Technologies 2." I don't want to say much about it now, but there is a connection between the format and the title.
Finally, we are learning songs for a split 12" with the mighty Cold World from Austria.

BTB: Your upcoming split 4" with xBrainiax seems so insane. Knowing you guys, I assume there will be about 35 tracks per side.

Mike: I don't know if we can get that many songs on there! But I think we will take an approach similar to Goatmeal. We haven't actually written any songs for it yet, but I know that xBrainiax has written some.

BTB: Will it be the first 4" record ever made? Are you going to have to make some super special order to have it pressed?

Mike: I can't name any 4" releases off the top of my head, but I know they've been done. Vinyl pressing technology has come a long way recently.

BTB: What's your song writing process like?

Mike: 98% of the songs pop into my head more or less spontaneously. Then I bring them to practice and we flesh them out from there. Some songs take longer than others.

BTB: What music have you been blasting lately?

Mike: A lot of melodic punk lately. Cigar, Satanic Surfers, Quadiliacha. Not On Tour is a recent discovery, they are incredible. Also, Weekend Nachos, Lack Of Interest, Sidetracked, and so on.

BTB: Any final words?

Mike: Thanks for the interview man! Anyone in the northwest US, come check us out at New Direction Fest in Olympia, Washington, August 19-20. Visit www.hummingbirdofdeath.com to keep up to date with us.

-VII Caso-

Operation Grindcore Vol. 1

2011-06-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

I suggest everyone stop what they're are doing right the fuck now and download this beast of a compilation that my buddy Andrew of Operation Grindcore put out just minutes ago. Almost every band on here is a winner, and guess what...my band Hiroshima Vacation is on it! We're just a small, small part of what makes this comp. so awesome. It's pay what you want, so go for it! And support Operation Grindcore all you can! Hails! Download the comp from the bandcamp here!

Seth Putnam is Fucking Dead

2011-06-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

So it finally happened. On June 11th 2011 Seth Putnam, the vocalist and founder of the infamous, if not the most infamous grind band ever, Anal Cunt, has passed away at the age of 43 of apparent heart failure. I won't go into personal opinions on the man or his music, but this will undoubtably be sad news to a lot of people. I'm not sad, I'm not that happy, but I'll just end by saying that he left his mark, and without him grind probably wouldn't be the same. For better or worse.

Buncha 7"s

2011-05-23T13:40:00.000-07:00

My local shop recently got a bunch of old-school hardcore, punk, grind, powerviolence records. Some really good stuff for really good prices (all of these were payed with tip-money). Here's the recent score, starting with one of the best of the bunch; the Dropdead/Totalitar split, released on Prank records in 2002. 45 rpm, grey vinyl.

The Dropdead side is awesome. 5 blazingly fast tracks of pure powerviolence. Recorded at Godcity studios too, which is never a bad thing! I could honestly give two shits and a fuck about Totalitar. It's crust, it's boring, give me 5 more Dropdead tracks!! Comes with a glossy 2-sided insert with lyrics. No dust sleeve for the record. Why...

Next up is a rather silly split between Benumb and James Best, or Roscoe P. Coltrane from the Dukes of Hazard TV show singing about his dog. It's pretty ridiculous, but it's Benumb, so I had to pick it up. The Benumb side is 3 untitled track of heavy, heavy powerviolence. 33 1/3 RPM, black vinyl, released on the legendary Slap-a-Ham label (super happy to get some of their releases in my collection).

Next up is a split between Capitalist Casualties and a german band called Stack released on Six Weeks records. This is my first CC purchase and I'm kicking myself for not getting wise them earlier. 3 tracks from each band, both sides are pretty equal in terms of quality. 45 RPM, black vinyl, nice fold out cover with an insert talking about something. Lyrics included.

I was super happy to find this, a split single between The Get Up Kids and the unfairly good Coalesce. Released on Second Nature Recordings, 45 RPM, black vinyl. This thing has apparently been repressed 14 times, so I'm not exactly sure which pressing I have. What we have here is each band covering one of the other bands songs. Not so big on that whole shtick, but I'm always glad to get more Coalesce. The Get Up Kids are sorta melodic emo/punk stuff. Pass.

And last, we have Fugazi's legendary "3 Songs" EP. Released in 1990 on Dischord Records, 45 RPM, black vinyl, lyrics printed on the back. I love this record! "Song Number One" is so catchy and groovy, "Joe No. One" is this really laid back instrumental that exploded into "Break In", it's short and oh so sweet. There's a real ugly tear in the center of the sleeve, but no real biggy.

Lovegrinder

2011-05-22T14:59:00.000-07:00

My band Hiroshima Vacation got to open for Fuck the Facts and Total Fucking Destruction in Binghamton, NY last Saturday. It ruled, both those bands are stupidly good. TFD will entertain the fuck out of you live. I also snagged this little beauty, the last one they had actually. The new TFD album, "Hater". Released this year on Bones Brigade Records, limited to 300 on transparent blue marble. Bought it from Rich Hoak for 10 bucks. He now owns a Hiroshima Vacation shirt. Boss.

I haven't actually listened to this yet, so I can't say what the pressing sounds like. But anyone who knows TFD should know what they're getting into with this record. Batshit insane, tongue-in-cheek-yet-deadly-serious, hard-rocking grindcore. 27 songs in 27 minutes. Perfect.

I absolutely LOVE the color of this vinyl. Definitely the best looking blue piece of wax I own. True beauty.

3 "Attack of the Supervirus" songs on this one, plus "Human is the Bastard", one of my favorite TFD jams.

Very colorful 2-sided insert with lyrics included.

If you see this, pick it up. I know that Hells Headbangers and To Live a Lie have copies. Get wise to the grind!

"Peace is the Victory"

Grind-Fidelity

2011-05-16T15:06:00.000-07:00

Two records today. Trying to even out my lack of productivity (btw, if you want to write for this blog, drop me a pm) with more shit. First up is the latest full length from death-grind weirdos Brutal Truth, "Evolution Through Revolution". I got this from Mr. Erik Burke when I saw Sulaco a little while ago for the staggeringly awesome price of $5.00. Sweetest deal. This is a 2010 repress on transparent green vinyl, limited to 500, released by the mighty Relapse Records.

Admittedly, I'm not the biggest Brutal Truth fan. I like em, but I'm not in love with them. This record is pretty damn cool though. This is their first full length with Erik Burke (Lethargy, Kalibas, Sulaco) on guitar and he brings some very interesting technical grind riffing to the table. Kevin Sharp sounds crazy, Dan's bass is deliciously distorted, Rich Hoak is a maniac on the drums, (strangely synthetic sounding drums however) as always.

One thing I'll say is that the pressing of this sounds like complete shit. The high end is ridiculous, the high-hat and cymbals are so ahead in the mix, the guitars aren't as powerful as they should be, it's just a mess. I pretty sure this is due to how much music they tried to fit on each side. Not counting the two bonus tracks included on this release, this was already a 40+ minute album. That means that they would have had to fit about 20 minutes of music on a side. A 33 1/3 RPM record can only handle about 18 minutes before sound quality starts to suffer. Definitely the crappiest sounding Relapse vinyl I've heard.

I dig the packaging on this though. I love the gatefold, it's simple, but pleasing to the eye. Not so hot on the different cover art they chose to use for the repress. It also comes with a fully colored 2-sided insert with lyrics.

Not the best, but that's mainly due to the shitty pressing. Oh well. Next up is the mighty Agathocles, the masters of Mince. This is the 2003 repress of their "Razor Sharp Daggers" full-length, originally released in 1995. Black vinyl, released by SOA records.

By my calculations, Agathocles have had about 1,000,345,678 releases during they're existence. Retardedly prolific. That being said, most of their out-put is pretty damn good. There's always a cool riff or several, the songs are well crafted, the production may be shit, but with this kind of output you can't expect them to hit a legit studio every time. This pressing sounds decently raw. The snare has a very loud pop, the guitars and bass have a great crunch, it's a good sounding album.

The original cover was a tiger getting it's throat cut. This release shows a bull being stabbed at a bull fighting game I believe. Pretty sad stuff. The quality of the images leaves a lot to be desired though. The picture is all grainy and pixilated, as well as the Agathocles logo. Piss poor job.

Comes with a good, sturdy printed inner sleeve with lyrics. Hail the Mince.

Counting Seconds

2011-05-10T14:51:00.000-07:00

Gah, no posts in a while. Completing high school is taking away all my fun-hobby-time. Anyway, here's my latest 7" purchase' the Inerds/Coworkers split released by the fine people at Feral Kid Records and Wrong Foot Recordings (Aaron from Coworkers label), 33 1/3 RPM on black vinyl. I purchased this from one of the classy ladies of Inerds at the last Big Day In show in Ithaca.

On the A-side we have 2 songs from Coworkers. A relatively new band from Buffalo, NY with Aaron from Sonorous Gale on vocals. They play a weird style of punk that sort of mixes Fugazi post-hardcore with powerviolence. Really interesting stuff with excellent musicianship. The bass playing is especially note worthy. I dig it.

On the B-side we have Inerds, also hailing from Buffalo, NY. Drum n' bass powerviolence/grind with 2 gnarly female vocalists. Think Magrudergrind mixed with Infest mixed with a more straightforward Man is the Bastard with way more distortion. Killer stuff. I've been digging on their "Stonewall" EP for a bit (which you can download for free on Grindcore Karaoke, along with the songs on this 7"), and this stays pretty true to the sound on that release, except there's a bit more groove.

I really dig the label, simple but very pleasing to the eye.

Also comes with a 2-sided insert with lyric from both the bands.

Rich Get Richer

2011-05-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling like giving more praise to Agoraphobic Nosebleed today. So here's the newest addition to my growing ANb collection; an OG pressing of their split with Cattlepress on black vinyl (black limited to 2200). I got this from a righteous old dude at a local record fair on Record Store Day for $14.00. That's a deal if I ever heard one!

This is real early, 90's era ANb. 17 short, groovy, powerviolence inspired songs, plus a Voivod cover. The drum machine isn't anything special, mostly blasts and some thrash beats. The snare does have this really nice metallic pop to it though. And it old-Scott Hull-production-fasion, there are some apparent changes in production quality through out.

One complaint i have with this pressing, is that the recording is really quite. You have to really crank the volume if you want this thing to blast. The guitars are especially quite, on both sides of this piece of wax.

I haven't spent a lot of time with the Cattlepress side, but what I have heard is crushing! Heavy, sludgy, REALLY pissed off hardcore. Very awesome stuff.

A quick word of advise to you aspiring vinyl collectors out there; really inspect your used records. Don't be blinded by the excitement of how rare the record is, actually take some time to look at it. The record might be warped, or there could be tears, dents, bends, all that bad stuff. I had no idea that one of the corners was seriously bent until after I left the record fair. It's no a big deal, but still a bummer to not have this in pristine condition.

One thing that's cool about buying from serious collectors is that they keep EVERYTHING! This thing came with all the original inserts and booklets. Which I super happy about, it's a very good looking booklet. Digging the manga artwork.

Total! Fucking! Self Destruction!

2011-04-24T15:25:00.000-07:00

Ooooooh yeah, this one's a beast! One of my favorite splits from 2 of some of the most original grindcore bands going right now; the mighty Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Total Fucking Destruction together bring us the "Frontside Nosegrind EP"! This is a 2009 repress on some sexy solid red vinyl, limited to 1000, released on Bones Brigade Records. I got it from Hells Headbangers.

There are so many good things to say about this 7". First off, Outstanding artwork! Incredibly colorful and detailed, and dare I say beautiful with some very impressive gloss. I love looking at this thing. Look on the inside and you'll see how this split got it's name. *WARNING* Graphic Imagery Alert!

Brutal stuff, but the dude seems stoked, so whatever.

I can't say enough good things about Agoraphobic Nosebleed, I'm never disappointed by their output, which is super impressive since they're always changing styles. I love em so much, they have the esteemed honor of having their logo sewn on to my favorite hat. On this split they open up with one of my personal favorite songs from them; "Self Detonate". A sort-of fast, grooving powerviolence epic with Jay Randall spewing out some of the best lyrics he ever wrote. The 2 other songs on their side follow the more familiar very fast ANb formula. Another cool note, Pete Benumb does the vocals on the track "Degenerate Liar". Perfect.

Total Fucking Destruction's contribution is good, but a hell of a lot weirder. 2 tracks, the first of which being a noisy, seemingly structureless jam with spoken word vocals. The last track is a blindingly fast cover of The Exploited - "Sid Vicious Was Innocent". Not my favorite songs from TFD, but I really admire their characteristically weird grind. I'm having the pleasure of opening for TFD for the second time in May. Sure to be amazing.

This split if fairly easy to find, and every time I see it around it's for a good price, so if you see one, get it and blast that shit at top volume! GRIND!!

Endless Repent!

2011-04-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

This is a little underground beauty; a split 7" between OSK/Scumbelly. This was self released by the bands I believe, I got it from the always reliable To Live a Lie records for about $3.50. Clear vinyl, cut to 45 RPM, don't know how many were pressed.

I got this just because of the OSK side, specifically for the last song on their side "Endless Repent" which is one of the best powerviolence songs I've heard in a while. That endtro is epic as fuck! Also good to note that OSK has a few members of Massgrave.

The Scumbelly side I could do without, I didn't dig it at all really. Poor song writing and lack of good riffs did it for me. Nothing special on their side of this.

There are a few weird things going on with this piece of wax. For one, there are these weird black dots in the vinyl. At first I thought it was just some dust, but it's actually in there. I haven't really seen anything like it since my clear copy of Total Fucking Destruction - "Peace, Love, and Total Fucking Destruction" LP. It doesn't seem to effect the sound or the needle, so whatever. My shitty camera can't pick them up without the picture becoming blurry.

Also, you get the bare minimum in term of packaging with this release. Just the cover sleeve and vinyl, no insert, no lyrics, no nothing. The vinyl doesn't even come with a dust sleeve, which is very bizarre.

Dig the crazy-colored-pencil-drawing-artwork though.

To Live a Lie records still has a few copies of this available, so if it sounds like your thing, pick it up, if only for the OSK side.

BENEATH THE CONCRETE

2011-04-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

Resistant Culture-"All One Struggle" Clear LP (1,000 Copies)

I picked up this beast on Record Store Day 2011 at Phono Select in Sacramento for a whopping $12. They play a nice mixture of Crust/Grind with heavy tribal intertwined throughout, Chanting, tribal drums, flute, rattle, with a thick inhumanly gruff vocal delivery. A Sick as Fuck avante guarde monster of a n LP!

This gatefold is super glossy, I don't even like to touch it because I leave my slimey fingerprints all over it, so most of the time I admire it through the LP sleeve I purchased.

This gatefold opens up to reveal the Mayan Ruins with a large swirling light projecting toward the skies surrounded by a Nuclear Power plant, a concrete bridge in ruins, and mother nature looks pissed. 2012 anyone?Inside is this 24"x 36" HUGE poster.

And I finally have my first clear LP and she's a beauty. Surprised I actually found one of the 1,000 thousand of these in existance through Seventh Generation Records especially at my local record store. And all thanks to my favorite holiday of the year Record store Day.

The Inalienable-Fucking-Dreamless

2011-04-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

Happy goddamn Record Store Day y'all. Hope you all had a blast going to your local record stores and supporting them and the artists by giving them your money! I know I did, I got this little beauty right here. Pioneering, technical, forward thinking grindcore at it's finest. I've wanted Discordance Axis - "The Inalienable Dreamless" ever since I got into grindcore, and the only copy I saw for sale was a used CD version on Amazon.com for about 35 bucks. So to have it on vinyl is outstanding. Limited to 300 copies on black vinyl, repressed for Record Store Day by Hydra Head records.

Unfortuatly, due to my shitty camera, I can't take as many pictures as I wanted (or have them turn out presentable in any way). But this piece of wax is a beauty. The stark, landscape cover artwork is quite a contrast to the chaotic, dissonant grindcore it holds.

The vinyl sounds pretty good, the bass levels are up pretty high though, so some of the higher note riffs don't come out to well, which is a bit of a disappointment, but it sure as hell doesn't take any of the intensity away.

Hydra Head was kind enough to include the DVD sized booklet the earlier pressings came with. Hard-to-read font and everything.

More beautiful ocean landscape.

Hydra Head sold out of these things real quick, so good luck trying to find one outside of ebay. But if you find one for cheap, do yourself a favor and get it. I promise you you won't be disappointed.

Retaliate

2011-04-09T13:01:00.000-07:00

Here is something that you don't see around very often; Kill the Client - "Cleptocracy". I got this from the always reliable Hells Headbangers for a really good price. The record itself was released on Rescued from Life records. 18 tracks of pure, filthy, ugly ass, brutal grindcore (the last track is a cover of Infest - "Terminal Nation") from one of the best newer grind bands around. This thing is vicious. One look at the fantastic album art should tell you what you're in for; to the point, unrelenting brutality.

There's really not a whole lot of bad things I can say about this LP. It blasts, it thrashes, it grooves (sometimes). It's a beast. The production on this thing is raw and distorted as fuck, hard to hear everything sometimes, but it's one intense listen. Any fan of grindcore should get this.

Comes with a two sided insert with lyrics included.

I believe this is limited to 600 on black, and I haven't seen it anywhere else except Hells Headbangers, so if you happen upon it, pick it up cause who knows when you'll ever see it again.

Adieu Dear Friend

2011-04-05T16:55:00.000-07:00

Here's a little beauty of a 7", brought to us by my favorite canadian grind freaks Fuck the Facts. The "Unnamed EP" came out last year, and was one of my favorite releases of 2010. I bought this from their drummer the first time I saw them in my hometown of Ithaca, NY.

Six tracks, three new songs exclusive to this release, one instrumental interlude, and two older tracks. One coming from their "Mullet Fever" album and one from the "Overseas Connection" split with Sergent Slaughter.

I really have to applaud Fuck the Facts for this release. They financed and released this thing completely on their own, no label help what so ever. The packaging is very elaborate and intricate, some of the most professional looking I've seen for a DIY release. The creepy face drawings were done by their singer.

The vinyl itself was limited to 500 hand numbered copies (I got number 495/500), 400 on black and 100 on clear. A few of my luckier friends got clear versions. Truth be told, I've only listened to the vinyl once, since it came with a free download card I've mostly been listening to it on my ipod. The production is very good, the bass guitar is a little low in the mix though. I think there are still vinyl copies available from the band, but you can download it on their bandcamp page. Go for it, you will not be disappointed!

Where's the Unity?

2011-04-04T16:12:00.000-07:00

Here is the first post to this new blog, and I got to start this out strong. So here's my most recent vinyl score I purchased today at my fantastic local record store Angry Mom Records. Y'all should know Infest; legendary, pioneering west coast powerviolence from LA. This is their first full length album released on a Swiss label called Off the Disk records.

Note the album cover. This is the original art used on the first pressing. Later pressings like the Deep Six records reissues used the stark black-and-white-prisoners-of-war photo. The type of imagery that has become synonymous with Infest. Also note the fugly-ass white bar on the side. I don't know why that's there, but sadly, this means that this is not an OG pressing.

This is an unofficial release that apparently came out last year. The label that put it out seems to be a spin-off of Off the Disk records. The matrix etchings say OTD 2, try and figure that out. However, for an unoffical release, this thing sounds surprisingly good! All the instruments are heard, the vocals sound pissed, the bass is crusty as fuck. The drums are a bit muffled, but not a lot. Overall, it's a pretty decent sounding boot. I've had good luck with unoffical Infest releases actually. I bought a boot of their 1987 demo on 12" a while ago, and it definitely does not suck.

Whoever put this out did a great job with the presentation. All the colors are very bold, especially the whites. The blue center label is a nice touch as well.

I especially dig the insert with that great photograph of Joe Denunzio screaming his guts out. Lyrics are included on the flipside of the insert as well. The vinyl itself seems to have this really dark blue color, but it doesn't seem to be transparent or anything.