July 31, 2013

More CREEM

New York's CREEM is one of my favorite current bands.  For their recent Euro tour Static Shock Records released a new 4 song EP titled, 'Curator,' as well as pressing the band's (up to that point) discography onto an LP.  Late 80's NYHC/Boston style.  There were some leftovers after the tour so they were sent out to some distros.  Luckily I was able go snag the both of them.

July 30, 2013

Fuck Art

Noose.  Militant Chicago vegan straight edge hardcore with an early-mid 80's Boston feel.  This is a discography LP, 'The Moral Law,' combining the band's demo and two subsequent EP's, put out by React! Records.  I believe the pink variant was limited to 150 copies, and (at least) some of the proceeds from the sales of this color went to some charity.  Pretty cool.

July 26, 2013

Human Policy

Culo fucking rules.  After several demos, EP's and a split or two, the band finally drops a long player.  And I've got to say this is most definitely their best material to date.  The band's first LP released on Deranged Records, 'My Life Sucks And I Could Care Less' is pure filthy glue-sniffing outsider hardcore punk.  And the artwork is fucking awesome, accompanied by a little zine type insert for the lyrics/credits.  Do yourself a favor and at least listen to this LP once.  An instant classic.

July 25, 2013

And Gnashing

Super Mutant is a band that flew way under my radar until recently.  Not sure how, but at some point I stumbled across their BANDCAMP page and was immediately hooked.  As far as I know this is the band's debut 7" 'Grave Steps' released by Speedowax Records.  What's on display here is a combination of hardcore, grind, powerviolence, and even some slam death metal at times.  Heavy as hell grindviolence, and sometimes the band throws in a slam guitar riff a la Devourment.  It's something I haven't heard much of before and it works extremely well in this style.

As you can see, mine is numbered 45/66 and on red vinyl.

July 22, 2013

Fallacies

The UK has been ripe with quality hardcore of late.  Here is the new EP from London's Stab titled, 'Blindness and Lies.'  Released on one of the members' own Quality Control Records, this 7" shows a step forward for the band.  While they still have that Ripcord/Heresy vibe, the songs here offer a little more variation than previous releases.  Past recordings were mostly fast, balls to the wall hardcore, the songs here still have that sound, but aren't afraid to slow down for a good stomp part.  This is my favorite release by the band and can only assume they'll get better with time.

Red vinyl limited to 200 copies.  Cool fold out sleeve that is very similar to the second pressing of the Violent Reaction EP the label released last year.

July 21, 2013

Fuck to Survive

SQRM is a band that has a reputation.  That reputation is sleazy, depressed, and extremely vulgar.  The band's sole LP, 'Rodeo' shows all of these traits better than a lot of bands that attempt to be this negative.  Released on Youth Attack Records you can expect a really great presentation, and the label delivers here.  Full color cover, and printed inner sleeve.  I saw CC post pictures of the band recording a few months ago, so it looks like they're back from hiatus.  I'll definitely be looking forward to the new material.

White vinyl is from the first press I believe.  Yellow and Orange variants also exist.  Weird art, but it's pretty fitting when you consider the band.

July 18, 2013

Crust Fund

This is probably the heaviest record I own.  I don't necessarily mean musically, I mean in physical weight.  This is the second, and last, EP from Texas' Knuckle Scraper fittingly titled 'RIP.'  Boasting members of both Hatred Surge and Insect Warfare, you can get an idea of what to expect here.  Total Spazz worship type powerviolence.  Put out on Rescued From Life Records, the label did a standard edition but also did 40 of this version with the metal cover on clear/splatter wax.  This thing weighs close to 1.5 pounds.  Nice little package.

July 17, 2013

Dishuman

When Relapse Records announced a few months back they were going to be releasing the newest full length from Japan's Coffins, I figured it was finally time to check the band out.  Relapse has a good track record for picking good bands, so I knew they had to be on to something.  The band's new full length is a double LP titled 'The Fleshland,' and it's a hell of a doom/death metal record.  This record is fucking heavy.  And when I saw that Relapse had a special cover/color variant up for this release I had to get a copy.  There were 500 copies with this color cover and the black/white swirl LP's.  An awesome looking package overall.

July 13, 2013

Last Breath

Debut EP from Chicago's Violent End, released on Lengua Armada Records.  Boasting members of Raw Nerve, Vile Gash, Manipulation, and many others I'm sure, this band was bound to be good.  To be honest, I wasn't that into the demo but this EP is a HUGE step up in the right direction.  Raging hardcore punk that sounds like a mixture of a aforementioned bands.

July 12, 2013

DFTS, DFTS

Here's another NYHC classic; the debut LP from Warzone - 'Don't Forget the Struggle, Don't Forget the Streets.'  Often mimicked, never duplicated, this band had an endless amount of influence on many bands to follow.  As you can see, this record is in very good condition except for one area.  I got this from a friend who got it from someone on eBay.  When my friend got it, it still had the shrink wrap on it, which had something written in permanent marker across the top of the cover.  I guess since it had been on there for so long it seeped through and stained the cover, so when my friend removed the shrink there is some yellowing where the marker was.  All in all it's in great condition though.  This is an original press on Fist Records (although there are some copies that have chains behind the song titles on the back cover.)

July 10, 2013

More Violence

Here is the UK pressing of the LP of the year.  Violent Reaction's "City Streets."  Quality Control HQ.   I was able to nab a blue copy, limited to 100.  As with this label's release of the No Tolerance Discography LP LAST YEAR, the sleeve on this is extremely glossy.  Other than the obviously different cover/layout changes, the differences between this version and the Painkiller press are pretty minimal.  One thing that I thought was an odd move was the fact that this press is 33 1/3 RPM (even though the center label says 45), whereas the Painkiller press is 45 RPM.

July 9, 2013

Seekers of the Truth

Cro-Mag's "The Age of Quarrel."  This is one of the best NYHC records of all time.  Nothing else to really say.  I believe this is a first press with the beige labels and black CENSORED on the inner sleeve.  A later pressing had white CENSORED on the sleeve, and we all know that some copies didn't have a censored sleeve at all.

July 5, 2013

Gulf Coast Grindcore

Insect Warfare is a band that should no introduction if you're at all interested in recent grindcore.  Hailing from Texas, the band stayed true to the roots of grindcore and played fast punk inspired grindcore with little to no metal influence.  This is the band's Evolved Into Obliteration demo pressed to wax by Rescued From Life Records.  This is the clear version out of 100 copies.  The songs here are straight ripping grindcore.  The layout, as you can see, doesn't have much to it.  I didn't even take a picture of the back of the sleeve because it's just black with the song titles on it, and the insert is a one sided sheet of paper as you can see.  Either way, none of that takes away from the pure brilliance on this record.

July 3, 2013

Vile Test

I've never really been a collector of test presses.  I've only recently begun to buy them, and those are even few and far between.  I just never cared to drop the amount of cash they go for most of the time.  That being said, I did choose to pick up this test press copy of the most recent Vile Gash material.  This is the band's 'Deluded' EP released on Youth Attack Records.  Seeing as this was being offered at a fairly low price and it's one of my favorite releases from the label, I had to get it.  Three songs of hateful, negative hardcore punk.  Glorious stuff really.  My only gripe with this record is that the three songs have a total play time of about 3 minutes, but those are 3 minutes of bliss.

This test press is numbered 6/25 and pressed on smokey clear vinyl.