Cry Wolf

Hot off the recent post about The Rival Mob's debut LP, here is another long player that I've been awaiting eagerly - Nails' new LP, 'Abandon All Life.'  When their first LP, 'Unsilent Death' dropped it easily made my end of year list, and this one is no different.  If you don't know, the band takes elements of death, grind, hardcore, and crust, mix them up, and blow out your fucking eardrums with the end result.  This thing is absolutely crushing in terms of speed and straight up aggression.  Todd Jones proves again why he is one of the most important guitarists that's been involved in hardcore in the past decade or so.  A complete rager from start to finish.  All copies were pressed on black, and I read somewhere that the initial run was 3,000 pieces, which is close to being sold out already.  That's crazy.

Ask A Punk

The Altered Boys demo that came out last year (or maybe late 2011?) was a promising effort, but their new self titled 7" on Katorga Works blows that out of the water.  Fast and tough hardcore that sounds like a mixture of Urban Blight, Think I Care, and something out of the late 80's, this is right up my alley.  All copies on black vinyl.  New EP due out real soon on Deranged Records.

Top Contender

Well here it is, a record that I've been waiting for for a LONG time.  I'm speaking of course about the debut LP from The Rival Mob - 'Mob Justice.'  I don't need to say much other than this will make my top 10 of 2013, and it meets any and all expectations you'd want from the band.  Sorry for the bad lighting in the pictures - the seafoam green is actually a really awesome looking color.

World Unfolds

Mind Eraser is one of my favorite bands of the last decade - actually maybe ever.  This is their 'The Prodigal Son Brings Death' EP from 2008.  In my recent pickup of the No Tolerance 7" test press, I also upgraded my copy of this Mind Eraser 7" to a more rare variant, for a cheap price too.  Aside from the 'Glacial Reign' LP, this is some of the band's best material.  I was VERY bummed to hear in an interview with DFJ (ME's vocalist) that the band was going to call it quits after their next LP.  It's bittersweet news because I'm more than a little excited about the new LP, but bummed about them disbanding.  Oh well, can't win them all.

Orange/black mix vinyl, limited to 200 copies.  Also, it's kinda lame how the font on the insert is completely illegible.

Unbreakable

Here is the new, (almost) swansong of straight edge powerhouse Vaccine.  At some point last month the band announced they were calling it quits, which is right around the time their latest 7", 'Dead Inside' came out.  This one continues the band's sound with little variation, but that's okay because I love their short blasts of powerviolence-infuzed hardcore.  Their final show is coming up soon, as well as their final release, which is a split with No Faith.  If you don't know, No Faith is a side project of Vaccine that features members of that band playing noisy pv.  Anyway, this band will be missed greatly by me.