Street Prowler

Coming off the heels of one of my favorite demos of last year, here is the new 7" by Canada's Violent Future.  Continuing their style of rough and tumble hardcore in the vein of Urban Blight, this is another killer release.  Four new tracks here that will easily get you stomping around your bedroom.  Released by Slasher Records, here is the common black version.

Father of Skin

Let me just start this off by saying it's really cool to see a band that you've helped out going somewhere.  I'm not trying to say that if I didn't put out Skinfather's demo it wouldn't have seen the light of day, or that no one could have done it as well as I did (because neither of those things are true), it's just a cool thing to see them going somewhere.  Anyway, back to the record at hand.  The band's previous material was a good mix of old school Swedish death metal and heavy metallic hardcore (think Dismember meets All Out War), which I really liked a lot.  With that being said, their new EP 'Succession/Possession' blows the demo out of the water.  Gone are most of the hardcore leanings and what is left is a very good homage to the originators of the classic Swedish sound.  Besides two new songs there is a cover of the almighty Unleashed.  The lyrics are also very un-Christian.  What's not to like about this band?

This was put out by Life and Death Records out of Germany and the green/black mix variant was limited to only 50.  I see big things for this band in the future.

Ball And Chain

A few months ago I posted about the Coke Bust / Vacccine split that was put out by Refuse Records out of Europe.  The U.S. press was scheduled to drop around the same time but ran into several snags, which delayed it until this past March.  This split finally sees a U.S. release on the Drugged Conscience label, and it was worth the wait.  Newly done art work (which is leagues better than the Euro press) and a different mastering job make this the better version.  Again, all songs on this split are some of each respected band's best efforts.  Unfortunately Vaccine played their last show a few weeks back, but Coke Bust has a new LP scheduled to drop this year on Grave Mistake.

Yellow vinyl, limited to 200 copies.

White Minority

Black Flag was (is?) one of the most important bands in punk and hardcore, period.  Their first few EP's and LP's are essential to the history of hardcore, and punk in general.  Jealous Again is one of their earlier efforts which also features the band's second vocalist.  It's unfortunate that Chavo was only the frontman on this EP because he is definitely a show of force.  This might be blasphemy but I'd rank him above Keith Morris as far as being a vocalist is concerned - he doesn't beat out Rollins though.  This EP is second only to 'Damaged' in my opinion.  Anyway, here is a first press copy with the thick chip board cover.

Second Reaction

The debut 7" from Liverpool's Violent Reaction was my favorite release of 2012.  Old school straight edge hardcore done PERFECTLY.  Seeing as how that was my favorite release I felt obligated to pick up a second press copy of the EP.  This copy has a completely redone 5 panel fold out layout that folds out into a big X, which just looks awesome.  Not much else to say other than there's a new LP due out SOON on Painkiller, which is sure to be in my top of the year.  This is completely essential if you consider yourself a coreman in 2012/2013 and beyond.