Goatmeal

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

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

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!!

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

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

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

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