Green Wash

Here's a nice little demo cassette that I bought from Opaques Records a while ago. Skuff are a drum/bass powerviolence duo from Canada, and they play the style just how I like it. Simple riffs, some stop starts, and a totally blown out, grimy and lo-fi recording. The Canadian grindcore and powerviolence scene is by far my favorite at the moment. Basically everything I hear from that country is golden, it's incredible. Skuff have a split tape with Bridgeburner out that I want a lot, and have some more split in the future. I'm definitely gonna keep a look out.

~VII

Converge Post Follow Up..

This album made me remember why I fell in love with this band in the first place. Very good album, I'm very satisfied.

~VII

All We Love We Leave Behind

The pre-orders we all made several months ago FINALLY started shipping out, and I got my copy of the new Converge album, "All We Love We Leave Behind", yesterday. I ordered mine through Kings Merch, and got the yellow/gold/orange/whatever variant. Part of me kinda wishes I got the 180g. variant from Deathwish, but that's long gone by now, so who cares. Anyway, Converge is a band that I've really settled down on the past couple years. I used to live and breath this band, and they were my first real introduction to the modern style of hardcore. They really did help change my life. But with the VERY underwhelming couple of splits they've released, and the fact that I've probably over saturated myself with their music, I really don't listen to them all that much anymore. Truth be told, I haven't listened to this album yet either, I just wanted to get some pictures up on the blog after the long break and show you the absolutely GORGEOUS packaging and artwork on here.

Very tidy matte cover sleeve with foil graphics all over the cover. I chalk this up with some of the best artwork Jacob has ever done (wait until you see the gatefold), and it's a very refreshing change from the bands usual "damaged woman" aesthetic.

Bam! Lookit that gatefold. I gasped the first time I cracked this open and saw it. 

The colors...

They called this "yellow vinyl". Nuh-uh. I was honestly expecting a solid yellow color, which I think would have been cooler. 

Everyone and their dog is telling me this is a fantastic album. I have pretty high expectations, and I'm gonna spin it as soon as this is done posting. Updates later!

~VII

Surgery Addict

Here's a mincecore release that I've been eager to get my grubby mitts on for a few minutes now. TLAL joining on releasing this really brought it up to "gotta have it" territory. Here's the Archagathus/Pizza Hi Five split 7", transparent green vinyl, 33 RPM.

I'm a fan of Archagathus, but I never really could handle more than a few minutes of them Before getting totally bored, which is why 7"s are so perfect for them. More of the same mincecore stuff from them, nothing new for the band at all. Kinda of a clean recording, but the vocals just wash over everything. Not much more to say outside of that.

The Pizza Hi Five side is where this release truly shines though. I've been a fan of these guys ever since 2009, and seeing them get all this attention is great. They still got it, and their jams on here are great. Total pulverizing, grimy, gutter sludge mincegrind. I fucking love it. The guitars are super think and chunky and the drums got a heck of a lot faster. Love this band!!

Pretty sure the green vinyl was limited to 100, not that sure though.

Buy this, or forever suck.

~VII

Grind Bleed Your Soul

Got a beauty of a record recently in the form of the uber-sexy Phobia/Suffering Mind split 5". I always love when 2 titans of grind come together, especially when it's packaged as beautifully as this. This is the black vinyl variant, limited to 172 copies, hand numbered, 33 RPM.

The only fault I have with this is that it is waaaaaaay to short. One track from each band, both are less than a minute. Fortunately, they are really strong tracks, especially the Suffering Mind one. Both bands just doing what they do best, which is grind your fucking ears off. Though an extra track or two would have justified what I payed for this a little bit more.

This is the first release for the Poland based label, Behind The Mountain Records, and they did a fantastic job! Brilliant idea packaging the record in a CD digipack, everything looks beautiful. Strange how if this was a normal CD, I wouldn't give a shit, but slip a record inside and I'm going ga-ga over it. Another reason why vinyl is so awesome, I guess.

But yeah, gatefold package, with lyrics, hand-numbered, and it comes with two embroidered patches. Absolutely fantastic. These guys are also releasing the Suffering Mind/Massgrave split 9", and I can't wait to see how they handle that one.

#7/666, son. This is perfect. When I opened the package I laughed at how awesome this was, given my name.

Order this from Behind The Mountain, it's pretty great.

~VII

Coma

Big ups to the dude from RSR for actually commenting on this blog and telling me that they still had copies of the Extortion - "Get Fucked" 5" for sale. Silly me, I had thought that they sold out a loooooong time ago. But low and behold, I made the order and a couple weeks later, I get this seeminly-illusive little record.

Two tracks on here, both are outtakes from the "Sick" recording session. One regular, fast Extortion song, and a slow moving instrumental. I probably won't listen to this very much, the songs aren't the best, but it's a vital part to my Extortion collection. Very happy to have it.

Pretty cool art, particularly in the center labels. The cover art is just "meh". 

I'll be getting the demo soon, then I'm complete!

~VII

Slimewave Series 7" Collection Complete!

At long last, with the arrival of the XXX Maniak/Throatplunger split, I have completed my Slimewave Series collection. Just look at it in all its beauty.

~VII

HOLY SHIT, I GOT THE FLOOR BOX SET!!

So yeah, really brief post, expect more tomorrow. I'm tired, but I just got home and unboxed this badboy, and holy fucking shit, I could not be happier. I got this from the kickstarter that Robotic Empire had about a month ago, and I was quick enough to snatch this up for about half of waht it normally sells for. I'm a happy guy! So here's it is with my ugly mug showing it off. Booyakasha!

~VII

WIll By Light

Well, here it is. One of my most anticipated releases of this year. This could only go a couple ways; love, hate, or disappointment. After the bitter taste in my mouth left by last years Converge/Dropdead split, I was really hoping to love this one a lot. Here's the Converge/Napalm Death split 7", on transparent pink vinyl, 45 RPM.

 It really pains we to say this, but I really think I don't give a shit about new Converge anymore. At least when it comes to their last 2 splits. It's just been boring, unfulfilling listening with all of their new stuff. One here we got one all new 52 second song called "No Light Escapes" and a cover of Entombed's "Wolverine Blues". The new song, I really don't care for. It's boring, and not memorable in the slightest. The cover is honestly better, and has a lot of guest vocalists on there which is interesting, I guess. I really hate to diss a band that meant so much to me in the past, but I'm really underwhelmed, yet again, but their side of this split.

The Napalm Death side however, is pretty damn gnarly. Two new songs from them, one a fast, grindy song, and the other a more modern ND style song. Interesting riffs, some melody here and there, and Barney tearing everything to pieces with his excellent raw as fuck vocals. The recording is a little quiet, strangely enough, Barney vocals are probably the loudest thing in the mix, but the songs really are good and more than make up for Converge's lackluster contribution.

There were three different variants with this record. I got two of the three, the pink was sold in the Converge e-store, as well as a yellow variant, and the Deathwish Inc. store sold the "vinyl bong" variant. Which is pretty much just a marble color. I got two of the "vinyl bong" ones, one is for a friend.

I'm really hoping the new Converge full-length restores my love for the band, otherwise I'm pretty much just going to stop caring for their new stuff. Napalm Death continues to be excellent though, 30+ years later. Fantastic.

~VII

Left To Rot

Upon shopping for a birthday present for a good friend of mine online, I stumbled upon this, and promptly bought it up for myself. Yeah yeah, buying things for yourself when shopping for others is a little lame, but I've been wanting this for a minute and the Socially Retarded guys never sent me the copy I ordered from them, so it was now or never. Here's the Sea Of Shit/Socially Retarded split 7", black vinyl, 33 RPM.

This completes my SoS 7" collection, and I have to say that this might be my favorite recording of theirs. The band is absolutely crushing on their side; 3 songs of their familiar gutter sludge-bass heavy-powerviolence. It's just sickening. Their self-titled is still probably their most disgusting sounding release, but these are definitely my favorite songs. It's really curious how the dudes vocals change on literally every release. Socially Retarded play powerviolence, and they're recordings are basically on the same filth level as SoS's on here. Their stuff is faster, and pretty good, but nothing great. They're a good pairing though, awesome split.

Brilliant packaging with this one. The cover is thick cardstock, and all the art is screen printed. I absolutely love the art and the grotesque aesthetic. It also comes with the SoS patch, and a double sided cardstock insert with lyrics. Pretty impressive for a used copy!

Grimy.

Here's everything is came with. Black dust sleeve, of course.

I never see this around anywhere, so good luck.

~VII