Sick

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

~VII