Namesake

I feel like this post is long overdue, seeing as how the name of this blog is Utopia Banished.  Here is Napalm Death's fourth full length of the same name, second to feature Barney Greenway on vocals.  This record continues the band's move into more death metal territory, but still maintains the grindcore aspects of their original recordings.  This is probably my favorite ND record with Greenway on vocals.  Recently Earache put up some "unearthed" copies of this from the original press and I didn't hesitate to order a copy.  This thing is mint too.  Nice.

Victimized

Subject to a large amount of hype currently, here is another release from Boston's No Tolerance.  This Discography LP was pressed by Quality Control out of the UK for the band's (you guessed it) recent UK tour.  This one compiles tracks from the Boston Straight Edge demo and No Remorse, No Tolerance 7", plus a previously unreleased track.  By now you've heard the demo and 7" so you should know what you're getting here.  The unreleased track, "Victimized," does leave a little to be desired.  The main riff is hard hitting, per usual for the band, but that's it.  It's pretty much 1:20 of the same riff throughout the whole song.  It's still a good track, just probably one of the band's weakest.

Quality Control recently sent out an email to be notified if the band had any leftovers, so when I received the message I sent my payment right away requesting a green copy.  No Tolerance is easily one of my favorite current bands, so ordering a copy of this was a no-brainer.  I then forwarded the message to my friend who lives one town over, and he did the same.  A few weeks later his package showed up some heavy damage to the corner.  The sleeve on his was mangled in one corner, but the record itself was mint.  The sender had even packaged it with two other leftover covers for padding, but those two were also messed up.  A day later my package shows up in perfect condition, and all three of the covers that were in mine were perfect as well.  So I gave one of my spares to my friend and all is right in the world.

The Fixer

A few demos I've acquired recently.  First up is the Oblivionation demo, which is easily my favorite of the bunch.  Featuring ex members of Out Cold, this band plays raging early Boston influenced hardcore.  This demo seriously fucking RIPS.  I believe the band did an initial run of 50 tapes, then Bleeding Edges from New Jersey took over and produced 200 more copies.  This tape is from the latter run.

Second demo is from Richmond's BARGE.  This is another very, very good demo.  Hardcore with a very big powerviolence feel to it.

Next up is a release from another Richmond band, Hard Stripes.  Featuring members of a lot of other current bands (Fire & Ice, etc.) Hard Stripes plays a more stripped down style of hardcore.  Very similar to a lot of the current Toronto crop - Urban Blight (I guess they're not really current anymore), Violent Future, etc.  The songs here are really good, but this tape sounds like shit.

Lastly is the No Rules demo by Boston/DC's Intent.  Boasting members of both Free Spirit and Give, this band sounds almost exactly like Free Spirit.  If you're at all a fan of Free Spirit this one is a no brainer for you.

Better Late Than Never

Here is the Insect Warfare/Hatred Surge split 7", and it's hard to believe that I haven't acquired a copy of this record until now.  It's one of those that you seem to see in most every distro since it's been kept in print pretty consistently since its original release in 2006.  Insect Warfare is one of the best grind bands in recent memory, having released one of the top grind LPs of all time (in my opinion) with the release of World Extermination.  The material on this split isn't quite up to that standard, but it shreds nonetheless.  On the flip side, Hatred Surge blasts through 6 tracks on their patented grindcore/powerviolence noise.  I use the word 'their' lightly since the band was just Alex Hughes at this point playing all instruments, but he had the help of another female on vocals for this recording (sorry, can't remember her name.  But no, it's not Faiza.)

From what I can tell this thing was only pressed once on black vinyl.  Every subsequent press has been on a different color, with black being available only from the first press.  Being the dumbass that I am, I felt the need to wait until I could secure a first press copy of this record before picking it up.  I don't really know why though.

Sick Of Talk

Here's a recent fanclub/bootleg pressing of the full 1987 Infest demo recording.  Let me first say that this is the longest demo recording of any band I've ever seen - 19 songs!  There are some bands that don't write that many songs in their entire existence, and Infest had that many on their fucking demo.  That's why this band rules.  As I've stated before, Infest is one of the most influential hardcore punk bands of all time, especially when you're talking about the powerviolence/fastcore sub-genre(s).

This boot is really well done.  Black vinyl with blank labels, and the cover folds out into this cool collage of show fliers in which the band played.  I'm always glad to add an Infest record to my collection and this one is no exception.  Whoever did this boot deserves a pat on the back.  Well done, whoever you are.