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

Cut In Half

Fuck yes, the Extortion/Cold World split 12" is mine! I'm super fucking excited about this, because not only is it new Extortion, but this is the first record of there's that I pre-ordered directly from the band. and everything went great! It arrived a lot quicker than I had anticipated, and in great condition, except for some small tears on the top of the sleeve from it being shipped with the record inside. The band was selling the white vinyl variant, limited to 100, 45 RPM.

I'm very pleased to say that this is an excellent split. I was not impressed with their last two, and I can't really remember a whole lot about the "Loose Screws" 10", so I was really hoping this thing would kick ass. 11 rippers from Extortion, that waste no time and keep things fast and visceral. It really reminds me of their "Degenerate" era. Particularly in the vocals, Rohan hasn't sounded this intense in a while. Cold World is pretty great too. This is the first time I'm hearing them and they're a good pairing for Extortion. Fast fast hardcore, not very original, but definitely entertaining.

Pretty interesting artwork from Rohan this time around. Still trying to put my finger on the concept of this one. It's kinda Blade Runner/Terminator-y.

Two sided, glossy insert with lyrics from both bands.

Extortion are all sold out of white, and RSR is probably all out of their red variant, but I'm not positive. These will be in tons of distros soon!

~VII

Too Late To Survive

After years of coveting, and months of seriously searching, I finally came across a little unassuming Big Cartel site that was selling the Suffering Mind/Lycanthrophy split 7". I took a chance on it, and it really payed off. A crucial part of my Suffering Mind collection has been filled. 33 RPM, grey vinyl.

So yeah, ripper of a split, as I had hoped. Pairing two of the best European female fronted grindcore bands. The Suffering Mind side is a nonstop grind assault, not a lot of stops or breaks in their 5-song contribution, not their best stuff, but it's a great compliment to Lycanthrophy's side, which tears shit apart! I think this is actually the first record I own from them, and it's great stuff. Grindcore boardering on fastcore, with some excellent stops and a nice beefy production. Solid.

I have another SM record coming the the mail, hopefully today, that has been evading me for a while. Updates soon!

~VII

March Of Despair

Long time no post, been pretty busy and lazy these days, same old excuse, blah blah blah. But, I have gotten a lot of really great records lately, including a few that I've been after for a while. I'll try and get through them all. Here's one that I got from Hells Headbangers a couple weeks ago, the new EP from the mighty Coffins - "March of Despair", 33 RPM, transparent maroon vinyl.

Even though I'm not really into death metal these days, I've always had a special place in my heart for Coffins. Their album "Buried Death" was one that I used to listen to all the time, and they do the whole death/doom thing better than most. On this EP we get 4 new tracks and a cover of Death's "Corpsegrinder". All the songs on here are typical, awesome Coffins. The first 2 are a bit more upbeat with a lot of punk and d-beat drumming. The last 2 bring things down to a doomy level, so there's a nice even mix of both sounds. The first 2 songs repeat on the B-side, for some reason. Not quite sure why they did that.

Cool cover art, as is to be expected with Coffins. There's also a printed inner sleeve and an awesome poster.

Another interested thing is that Uchino doesn't do the vocals on this release. Instead, they're done by their drummer, Ryo Yamada. Who does a fantastic job, and has a disgusting, mid-range guttural growl.

I got the maroon vinyl variant, which I'm very happy about. It's the 2nd rarest pressing, and I was pretty surprised that HHR had that color stocked.

Try and get one of these quick before you have to pay tons of money for it. Buy or die, hail Coffins.

~VII

For Nothing

So, Matt, my friend who was kind enough to trade me Extortion's - "Terminal Cancer" 7", is also in a stupidly good bass/drum powerviolence band called Water Torture, who just released their 2nd EP, "Shellfire!" on Diseased Audio Records. Black vinyl, 45 RPM.

I was a huge fan of their "S/T" EP they released last year, and this new one is by far one of the best things I've heard all year. Unforgiving, heavy powerviolence, you can't fuck with this! The recording is much better than their last EP, the bass tone is a lot less murky and more cut-throat and bright. The songs are fast for the most part, but when they break it down to the slow and sludgy, it's punishing. Some noise and power electronics are thrown in for good measure. 

Great cardstock sleeve with a double-sided insert. 

The first 25 pre-orders got this sick back patch, which will be sewn on my hoodie very soon. Get wise to Water Torture right now.

~VII

Terminal Cancer

Not a few days after I posted my Extortion collection, my friend Matt hooked me up with a vital piece that I was missing (more on Matt and his band in the next post). He sent me the Extortion - "Terminal Cancer in a trade. Black vinyl, 33 RPM.

This is an interesting release for Extortion, mainly due to the fact that it's got a really rough recording. This thing was recorded on a crude little 8-track and it sounds, as the band describes it, "raw as piss". I really dig this release because of that. Fans of Extortion's other records might be shocked at how rough this one sounds compared to the rest of their catalog, but the songs are still there and they're tight and visceral as always.

Cool cover art.

Anybody know what the deal is with this yak?

Really cool EP, somebody sell me their demo and the "Get Fucked" 5"!!

~VII