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PANZRAM is a 2 piece hailing from Ft. Myers, Florida that you may or may not know from the "THE WORLD ITSELF IS A BAD DREAM" tape comp. on which they are featured (and which I also got thanks to John). this is their 7 track demo that's posted with permission from John Fahy who not only runs HUMAN CRUSH RECORDINGS on which the tape was released but also plays guitar and sings for PANZRAM. you also might know him from being a columnist for MRR (that actual writes columns worth reading) or from playing in MERKIT. actually the other PANZRAM guy Joe Lachut also plays in MERKIT and they started the band when MERKIT slowed down a little bit. I downloaded MERKIT's complete discography from some blog I don't remember a while ago but I couldn't tell you if they sound similar in any way cause I honestly can't remember how MERKIT sound as I just listened to their discography once and wouldn't know why that should be important as this is a PANZRAM post anyway. John wrote that they "wanted the band to sound like; noisy, heavy, off-kilter and with personal lyrics about genuine experiences and ideas that are ugly by nature" and guess what they succeeded in reaching that goal. honestly speaking I was expecting POWER VIOLENCE when I 1st read their name but it's more along the lines of heavy HARDCORE which is perfectly fine for me. I prefer that above some shitty IRON LUNG clone band any day plus some of their lyrics are really outstanding and way beyond the typical bullshit that passes for lyrics these days. on a side note: as my tape-deck (that is the one I borrowed from my parents about 3 years ago) seems to fuck up I burned the wma files that you can download from John's blog on a CD and ripped that CD to mp3s again. you can order a physical copy of the tape that also comes with a cool packaging for 5 $ pp. / 8 $ pp world from John whom you can contact via the HUMAN CRUSH RECORDS blog. click the cover above to download!

HOSTILITY NOISE

WEAK MINDS is another band that plays it's part in the NEW WAVE OF GULF COAST POWER VIOLENCE and this is the 1st 15 track 7" that besides 14 tracks of CROSSED OUT worship also includes a cover of LE SCRAWL where the vocals are handled by Rahi of INSECT WARFARE. speaking INSECT WARFARE of according to the web their bass player is also the main brain behind WEAK MINDS. it's hard to confirm as the 7" doesn't offer a whole lot of info. hell, even the track list is written on one of the labels so small it's a pain in the ass to decipher it.

MOB CONTROL

in case you haven't done yet I'd strongly encourage you to check out Ireland's CROWD CONTROL split 7" with Britain's MOB RULES cause it's one of the most hard-hitting records coming from the U.K. I've heard in a while! both bands with 3 tracks of their own. somebody wrote about CROWD CONTROL that they manage to be heavy without being HEAVY METAL and fast-as-fuck without being GRINDCORE which is a pretty good sum up. as they have their 2007 demo uploaded on the web to be downloaded for free I thought I could include it here as well. just click on the pic of the CROWD CONTROL side of the split to get to their demo. in case of MOB RULES I dare to predict that a lot of people will refer to them as POWER VIOLENCE cause they have some ultra-fast parts but as it's more fast like let's say TERRORIZER (again without sounding METAL if that makes sense) than CROSSED OUT I don't think that does them any justice. they are gritty and ugly, fast and fucking fierce with hints from a lot of influences popping up in their songs but they have definitely their own thing going on!

YOURS TO KILL

thanks to RUINATION's former guitarist Andy (who now plays in NIGHTBRINGER which are one of the best bands around at the moment!) I was finally able to get the THEY LIVE / RUINATION split 7". sad but true the 3 THEY LIVE songs aren't doing that much for me and are not even half as good as their other stuff. luckily RUINATION make up for that with 4 great tracks. you can check it out by clicking on the cover. on a side note: the same cover was used on (at least) 2 other records! I guess that's enough...

LIVE BUSTED!

another find in the depths of the web: COKE BUST, which really got me with their LINES IN THE SAND 12", with 9 tracks that were recorded live @ SIDE2 studio. while this isn't the best live cut I've ever heard it's still fun to listen if you dig COKE BUST like I do. on a side-note: "another find in the depths of the web" translates to not my rip and should tell you that if you got complaints about the bit-rate or the quality and whatnot I'm the wrong guy to complain to.

YOU, YES YOU! TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!

I could have also called this post "the Ivan" post cause it all started when I was chatting with him a while ago and we ended up talking about RINGWORM quite a bit. in that conversation Ivan said that in his ears their demo would be THE ultimate definition of the sound that people would later refer to as HOLY TERROR HARDCORE (most likely after they came across that term in a zine called INSIDE FRONT or in an interview with the vocalist of CATHARSIS who published that zine in the mid and late 90ies) and I pretty much agree with him. other bands might have gained more popularity over the years, released more records, etc. but I always considered RINGWORM's THE WORMS WILL GET IN demo to be the foundation for the whole genre since I heard it for the 1st time. I openly admit that I'm nearly 100% sure that the records of other HOLY TERROR bands like INTEGRITY or CATHARSIS got played a lot more than RINGWORM's demo or their 12" in my place which may or may not have something to with the fact that RINGWORM seemed to feel quite comfortable within the patterns they (helped) define(d) and with continuing to base their songs on sheer brutality while INTEGRITY and CATHARSIS tried to push the envelope while still sounding brutal at the same time. oh, and I'm well aware that a lot of people would slap/tried to slap GEHENNA with the HOLY TERROR label but I wouldn't file GEHENNA under HOLY TERROR. anyway, back to RINGWORM and to what the title of the post means. in 1995 the RINGWORM demo was pressed on vinyl and came with the 4th issue of a zine called BLOODBOOK that was published by INTEGRITY's vocalist Dwid. now that 7" contains the remixed or remastered versions of the 5 tracks on the demo in a different order and without the movie soundtrack styled parts that were between the tracks on the org. tape which I didn't know back then as had neither seen nor heard one of the actual tapes and haven't seen or heard a physical copy of the demo till today (but I hope to get my hands on an org. copy of the tape soon) and I don't think that it would have any influence on my love for this 7" if I would have known. fast forward to 2009: RINGWORM's THE PROMISE 12" is re-issued on A389 RECORDS and the pre-order version came with a GLUTTONS 7" (which have Human Furnace on vox) and a 2nd 7" with a, I think remastered, version of the RINGWORM demo. this time it comes with the track order of the tape, the above mentioned soundtrack styled parts between the songs and also with the artwork that was used on the tape if I'm not mistaken. I decided to prefer the vinyl color and the darker cover of the INCISION pressing above the vinyl color and the cover of the A389 re-issue (which also doesn't display the band's name and the record title anymore) but the re-issue scores points for having a foldout cover and for coming with a booklet while most of the INCISION 12"es not even came with a lyric sheet. now, as the music on the 12"es isn't really that different enough about the full-length and back to the 7"es cause what I want you to tell me is which version of the demo you prefer. to simplify that task a click on the cover on the top will enable you to d/l an archive that contains mp3 rips of both versions and scans of the artwork.

as already written above the INCISION pressing had RINGWORM and the record title on the front-cover which also wasn't as bright as the cover of the re-issue plus the marbled vinyl didn't look like an abortion which I can't say about the red & yellow vinyl of the re-issue...

TRANSPLANTED

PIG HEART TRANSPLANT is the band in which Jon Kortland, who play-s/ed in IRON LUNG and GOB, lives out his more experimental/noisy side. while I like his other bands way more this is still pretty decent stuff.

WISH I COULD HAVE BEEN THERE

Gehenna (Full Set) from hate5six productions on Vimeo.

fuck, yes!

GUTRIPPER

one of the best bands I discovered in the last years are HUMMINGBIRD OF DEATH and therefore you get their 1st 7" here. released by FATALIST, 625 and GIVE PRAISE in 2007 with a print-run of only 500 copies that should be long gone by now. I thought about posting their 20 (!) track 5" as that's my favorite HUMMINGBIRD OF DEATH record but as that was re-pressed only a short time ago (I got an extra copy of the 5" from the 1st pressing to trade if anybody is interested) I went for the 18 track 7" instead. anyway, you won't be disappointed from their 7" neither as it delivers blistering, furious FASTCORE that comes with outstanding lyrics with quite a bit sarcasm here and there (e.g. STUPID BILLS: OFF TO THE RECORD STORE... WHERE DID ALL MY MONEY GO? good question that I'd ask myself quite often if there would be any record stores here I guess - Satan bless the distros!) and is really gut-ripping just as the title oft the b-side promises.

GAME OVER

as I wanted something really special for the 1st post in 2010 it took me a little while to decide what band/record I should go for before I made my pick but here it is: ENEWETAK's 1st 7" a.k.a. DEAD BIRD which is a monster! it's ugly, it's gritty, it's angry and it blows most of today's records out of the water! period! plus it was released on REVOLUTIONARY POWER TOOLS which was done by Mike Cheese a.k.a. Mike Apocalypse the vocalist of GEHENNA. I know I have seen this 7" on another blog before but I can't remember which blog it was and I'm to lazy to look but my 1st suspect would be Mr. Batguano at FUGITIVE EQUILIBRIUM. even if I'd be mistaken and it wasn't his blog he has posted some other ENEWETAK stuff you should also grab in case you haven't done yet!