King Of Scum

Well, here we are half way through 2015, and honestly I have to say it's been a pretty bum year. More often then not I haven't been blown away by a whole lot of the new music coming out, outside of some very big exceptions. I'm hoping the grueling misery of the colder months will be the catalyst for much more impactful jams. One of the big exceptions previously mentioned is this lil 'ol debut LP from the vicious Newcastle, England noise rock band Foot Hair. Released on Box Records. I had no previous knowledge of Foot Hairs 4+ years of existence before this record actually. The promo sticker described it as a necessity for lovers of scummy noise rock and punk bands like Brainbombs, Flipper or Upsidedown Cross. That was enough to tell me I had to see what this group was all about. This record is apparently only limited to 250 copies, on 180g. black vinyl. 33 RPM.

 Diving into their back catalog a little I can definitely they broke out with their best work yet. Foot Hair and go completely hard as a motherfucker on this slab. Completely in debt to the distorted, repetitive, and just general twisted sounds of more "unsafe" noise rock bands of the 80's and 90's. Upsidedown Cross being the band FH seem to take the most influence, musically and vocally. In a very rare case, the hype sticker's references of influences are actually pretty spot on. Taking the hypnotic and brutally stripped down songwriting of Brainbombs, and contemporary acts like Rectal Hygienics to heart. But also bringing in a loud, bass heavy, cleaner production style. A bit of a risky move with this kind of style, but Foot Hair make it work beautifully. 

  Foot Hair are a band that rely on the sheer power of the riff. Write a great, solid, catchy riff (or two, chorus's are important), and ride that sucker into the concrete. Tracks like the opener "King Of Scum", "Outlander", and "Cool Runnings" are delicious earworm tracks, totally catchy and stomping. Throwing in some very Jesus Lizard-esque guitar leads too to give the songs a little more variety. It all has this real sleazy and unhinged attitude. Like the soundtrack for a "From Dusk Till Dawn" style biker gang. The true highlight for me personally though, is the vocals. What a chaotic, mean, sloppy and indecipherable vocal performance. Words are spewed out in some sort of order, though hell if I know what's actually being said. I think he says something about "joining him in his pit", in the opener. I can only imagine the stench it must hold. Imagine if a band gave the microphone to the drunkest, angriest Englishman in the audience, and you'd be pretty on point. 

Great band photo too. I think this cover art rules. 

I highly suggest checking this album out, though it definitely isn't for everyone. Those 250 records probably won't last long. 

~VII

Water Torture - "S/T"

The recent addition of Buffalo, NY's powerviolence champions Water Torture to next years Maryland Deathfest is a huge HUGE deal to me. Very happy to see these guys, buddies of mine, to be playing a show of this level. The additions of Pizza Hi Five, Mother Brain and Suffering Mind tells me that someone at MDF is doing some quality digging in the underground. But we all probably can say It's honestly something that we knew was going to happen. Since 2014 has been yet another pretty big year in their steady climb in global domination. A with +HIRS+, a 12" discography LP (in Euro and US pressings) and a European tour among many upcoming releases have all made their way into 2014. Their original demo/self-titled EP has also gotten a lot of attention, and the vinyl treatment from Mannequin Rein records a few months ago. I finally picked up a copy when I was in Buffalo for the Summer Scum fest. Figured this would be a good chance to show off this incredible release's past incarnations too.

To me this still stands as one of my favorite Water Torture releases. It has a murky, dark, lo-fi'ness that they haven't gone back to since. And songs like "Cursed", "Amber Grey" and of course "Grey" are still some of the bands best and heaviest. It's great to finally hear this on wax, these tracks are brutal as ever.

Mannequin Rein did a fantastic job with this record. The cover looks exactly how I always pictured it would 7"x7". Nice, thick double-sided sleeve too, all hand numbered. The entire record takes up one whole side of the record, which I think is a pretty smart move. No gaps in between this, just straight forward start to finish. The "secret track" that came with the original download that features Madison from Cloud Rat is sadly absent though. I think they put it on the split 7" with Hades Mining Co. which I have yet to get.

Mannequin Rein knows how to get collector scum like me all excited. Almost all of their vinyl releases have several variants of sometimes ludicrously small quantities. As you can see, all info is scribed on the sleeve.

I also managed to snag one of those test presses mentioned above. Lucky me lucky me. 

Now way back in 2012 this demo was originally released on a cassette as a split with the short lived Buffalo sludge band Dirt Eyes. I think I bought this from the band or got it in a trade with Mr. Goodrich, I honestly can't remember. Very nice J-card, fully screen printed on thick cardstock. The dubbing on my copy is just a touch overblown. Which I think adds to the sound. 

The demo also got a VERY limited European release by the german grind label Knochen Tapes. I haven't really kept up with them much, outside of a couple solid compilations they've put together. This is a pretty nice looking tape too. Solid art, grim looking J-card, and the dub is superb. Wisely going with a single-sided release as well. This thing is limited to 60 copies.

Ain't they pretty? Can't wait to see these guys destroy Baltimore next year.

~VII

Tighten Your Belts

Lycanthrophy is probably a name you've seen pop up a lot in many grindcore circles and distro's, and hopefully, you haven't passed them by, because this band truly is awesome. They've been around for many years, and I do think they are one of the best grind bands to come out of the Czech Republic. Right up their with Needful Thing and Gride for me. The best stuff I've heard from them by far is their sole full length, "Lycanthrophy", black vinyl, 45 RPM.

A brilliant record, very overlooked. This 20 song record is a beautiful 15 minute blaster of non-stop rip-dick fastcore. Fastcore with huge grindcore influence, mind you. The band really has a modern sound on here, pristine and heavy recording, cleaned up very well. More Rotten Sound then Hellnation. It's some intense stuff, but still has some catchy ass riffs, and I'm sure most will have a lot of fun listening to this. People who can get down with bands like Six Brew Bantha and Idiots Parade should be heading to these guys next. 

The cover art was definitely a grower for me. It's still cheesy and crude looking, but it has charm. I dig it.

I do believe this is getting a US reissue from Give Praise Records. The LP has only been issued in Europe so far, so getting something out their more domestically would be nice.

~VII

Amputee

Another classic for y'all here. I'm an avid collector of ANb, and have amassed almost their entire discography, except for the split 7" with Halo (so close.so many times). I'd definitely consider them to be my favorite grindcore band, their discography is a masterwork. I definitely think that their early 7"s were some of the bands best material, and out of all of those, the second self-titled EP is by far my favorite. Here's the limited blue vinyl pressing, 33 RPM.

This record was just Scott and Jay according to the notes. It's definitely some of the heaviest early ANb material, Scotts tone is so beefy and thick, and the drums have a nice full tone to them. Every song on here is a winner, even the several micro songs that take over the A-side. It's just full on burning metal sludgy grind, and in my opinion, has one of the top 5 best ANb songs closing the A-side, "Amputee". This track is just one of the best slow, simple, chugging, monolith of heaviness. I love how they would just write these total crushing slow jams and throw them in the middle of their records. Something I consider influential.

I love all the artwork on this. Dig those awesome center labels!! As mentioned, this is the limited blue pressing that Clean Plate did to compliment the regular black press. The blue was limited to 200. I bought this copy last month, I've owned a black copy for a while.

Here is my black and blue copies together.

~VII

Tormento

Here's a little looked over 7" release from a super solid band that will probably get talked about a lot more soon. Rapturous Grief are a grind/powerviolence duo from Atlanta, I believe this is a self-released record, limited to something like 200 copies, purple vinyl, 45 RPM.

10 tracks on here, all sung in spanish, but there really isn't a spanish powerviolence/hardcore influence on here at all. If anything, I'd compare these guys to a band likt Shitstorm, due to how caveman simple the songs are in structure and performance. And I love Shitstorm, so to me this is all good. Much less noisy recording than any Shitstorm release though, this record is beefy and muscular as hell. Everything is perfectly mixed, it all sounds great.

To my understanding, there are 200 copies of this, but 100 of them have a different cover, or are on a different color of vinyl, which is why it only says it's /100. Nice poster/insert too!

~VII

The Alcoholic Pain

I've acquired a couple holy grail records that I'm still losing my fucking mind about. Two of those are really early Agoraphobic Nosebleed 7"s, including this one. The very first ANb 7", some call it the "30 Song 7"", black vinyl, 33 RPM.

Pretty much a repress of their original demo cassette. Obviously, not their best stuff. They hadn't really developed and become full realized as a group yet. I don't even think J. Randall was in the band at this point. Typical fast songs, not a whole lot of groove, not very great lyrics, but still a monumental record to have. Very happy to have this in my collection.

Great album cover, everything is in pretty good condition too. The vinyl has a bit of surface noise though.

Discogs this, I did. I got mine for 10 bucks, I've never seen it for cheaper. 

~VII

...Where My Heart Used To Be

I played a show last Saturday, and I got to see a lot of really excellent bands. The one, odd, hardcore band that was on the bill was this band, Colony. Apparently, they're from Upstate, NY, where I also am. Fancy that. Anyways, their live show was one of the most intense, violent, aggressive live shows I've seen in a while. I had to pick up both of their 7"s. Here is their "s/t" 7", pink vinyl, 33 RPM.

This is a very excellent 7 song EP. Overall, Colony play a very heavy, down-tempo style of hardcore, with a little bit of metallic-ism thrown in. It definitely isn't as violent as their live show, but the recording is excellent, and the pressing if very good. The song "...Where My Heart Used To Be" has to be my favorite on the whole thing. It's a dark, heavy, loathsome piece of hardcore. 

Not very interesting cover art, but it's alright. This is limited to 315 copies, and I'm not exactly sure how many are pressed on pink, but I do know it's the more limited variant. I got #297.

Cool image inside the sleeve. I'm not sure where it's from. Anybody know?

You can pick this up in a few distros. Check out their facebook and their bandcamp. Good stuff.

~VII