COLOSSUS

the CITIZENS ARREST 2 x 12" discography, called COLOSSUS finally surfaced yesterday. I hope I don't need to tell you how fucking brilliant this band was (and still is!)? in any case, the packaging is as top-notch as the music. COLOSSUS comes in a gatefold cover and incl. a double-sided poster, a thick booklet with pics, flyers, etc. and the records are made of the 160g vinyl type. music-wise this discography is a little bit incomplete as the tracks from the live 8" and the CRUCIAL CHAOS radio-show on WNYU are missing (except one track of the later). the liner-notes say that the 8" tracks weren't included cause of the bad quality. that's a pity cause those tracks are as raw & vicious as it can get so who gives a fuck about the quality in that case? and as even my tape with the radio-show still is of ok quality I assume that a 1st generation copy of that show should have a quality that one could use without embarrassing oneself. what surprised me was that the tracks from the SONGS FOR THE SOCIALLY RETARDED tape comp. were not only left off the tape comp. isn't even mentioned anywhere. anyway, now that I told you what you won't get it's about time I tell you what you get. the a-side of the 1st 12" has the tracks from their 1989 demo on which the vocal duties were handled by a guy called Ted Leo while the later singer Darryl Kahan played drums. the b-side then follows up with the 6 tracks from their A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS 7" which was released in 1990 and which could be described in one word as: masterpiece. the 2nd 12" starts with the tracks from the various comps. on which CITIZENS ARREST appeared like the LOOK AT ALL THE CHILDREN NOW 12" comp., the FOREVER 7" comp., etc. and ends with a cover of RED C's PRESSURE'S ON that was supposed to be on the FUCK ROCK - ABC NO RIO comp. that never saw the light of day and was therefore unreleased till now. on the b-side you then get the tracks that were on their full-length from 1991 which also was already called COLOSSUS. to make a long story short: in my book HARDCORE is divided in two periods from start till 1994 and from there till now. why? cause from start till 1994 NEGATIVE APPROACH have been the only band that came close to usurping CITIZENS ARREST 's throne. they fought tooth and claw for the pole-position in my personal ranking till finally CITIZENS ARREST could slowly gain the upper hand in 1993. but when they just tried to catch their breath GEHENNA launched their 1st ambush attack and the war was on again and still goes on today! to spell it out for you: buy this record!
edit: when I found out that there is also a "die-hard" edition (= colored wax & incl. a patch) I immediately ordered one. now the sad thing is that after I placed my order I recognized that the label also distributes a lot of National-Socialist Black Metal which is a total let down! why CxA decided to work with those asscandles is beyond me as every label would have been honored to release the discography! therefore my new advice is: try to get the original records on e-bay or where ever you find them (I could maybe help you with a copy of their 12" or either pressing of the 8" which isn't on the record anyway). b.t.w. if you want to sell/trade me a copy of the A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS 7" or the COLOSSUS 12" on red vinyl shoot me an e-mail.

DON'T MISS IT!

POWER VIOLENCE a.k.a. "lightning fast HARDCORE" is the trademark of VILE NATION which hail from Memphis/TN which isn't exactly the capital of said style. nevertheless the 7" which was released on COWABUNGA REC. in 2008 rapes your stereo with 6 tracks that kick some serious ass! edit: I've uploaded a new rip as the 1st one was obviously fucked up!

PIZZA LOVERS vs. RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIAISTS

as FALL IS HERE literally I guess it makes really sense to post this demo which was sent to me by the band via e-mail. if I'm not mistaken they split up but have reformed again recently? music-wise it's fast HARDCORE with rough vocals and a METAL edge thrown in here and there. really solid especially as it's just a demo. if they'd manage to become as cool music-wise as they're already lyric-wise they'd be a totally slaying band. song-titles like PIZZA LOVERS VS. RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASTS (and the lyrics of that track) are way ahead of what most other band's have to offer! as the archive contains a lyric sheet you should d/l this and enjoy yourself by reading the sarcastic lyrics while playing the music loud!

KILL(ER DISCOGRAPHY)!

the long awaited MK-ULTRA discography 2 x 12" on YOUTH ATTACK has finally seen the light of day! having been announced for ages I started to doubt that it really would be released but fortunately I was wrong and so you've a chance to get your fix of MK-ULTRA without paying a small fortune on ebay for the org. wax. in my opinion they never got the attention they'd have deserved while they were alive and kicking. most people only referred to MK-ULTRA as "the other band of CHARLES BRONSON's drummer Ebro" which was/is far from doing them justice and in case you don't believe I suggest you buy their discography, which delivers 55 tracks of brilliant, fierce and angry FASTCORE/POWER VIOLENCE/whatever and hear for yourself. the 2 x 12" are on white vinyl and come in a gate-fold cover with a thick booklet. also included is a code that allows you to download high quality mp3s of the 55 tracks (ripped with 320 k/bits) and an additional 17 min. live cut. b.t.w. to celebrate the release of the discography MK-ULTRA will play a re-union show. see last pic. for details!

I'LL NEVER BREAK

a while ago Chris posted this on MOSH EISLEY: I was really blown away by this. 5 blistering songs where the longest lasts 0:37 seconds. The music is harsh and to the point with no intros or other bullshit and a singer who must have burbled with a mix of sandpaper and nails.Yes it's that tough a.k.a. just brilliant! Older guys from Think I care,Orchid and Bucket full of teeth in full affect here. 100 tapes were made which are sadly all gone by now. But the songs should be put on a one-sided 7" later this year on Clean Plate/Red Room Records.I'm really stoked,yeah!!! guess what - he was totally right. well, the 7" version arrived today and the VACCINE blog tells me that it's already sold out. so in case you didn't get one of the 300 copies I suggest you d/l it now.

FIGURE 4 RECORDS

ok, here you got all FIG. 4 RECORDS releases and some info from Rick who ran the label. a short (well not such a short) time ago he contacted me and asked me if I'd like to post his releases and as his releases are all great here you go... and don't forget to say thanks to Rick!

The record label came about in the normal way, I guess. I was getting more into hardcore when I went to college in a town that had a really active scene. The "twin cities" of Leominster/Fitchburg, Massachusetts had all these young people, just finishing high school, that were very talented musicians for their age. There were constant local shows, 'zines, etc. It was a pretty self-sufficient little scene just between 2 towns, and I got involved right away.

I was busy at school, but I had a real creative need to satisfy too. We basically scraped up the $$ to do a split 7", then used that "profit" to fund the next one, etc.

The records were well-liked at local shows, and thru zines and mail-order. My favorite part was trading with so many great labels and having a nice distro table at the back of every show in the area. I was even selling records while I slept! Some kids would come by the house and leave $$ in my box and take the records they wanted...!

There wasn't really a goal, just basically a need to satisfy a creative urge, and to promote my friend's bands! It started to slow down when my wife and I moved out of the little scene area, and we had done records with the whole "crew" basically...I was getting into t-shirt printing for bands, which I stuck with for a while, but Figure Four basically just lived it's life after 4 years.

The best memories were the record-stuffing sessions, studio antics, the shows we had in my living room and at the t-shirt factory, the contacts I made around the world, etc.

Keep in mind this was mid-90's, pre-internet! It was done the old-school way, no emails, websites, etc. 'Zines, word-of-mouth, mail-order...that was a great accomplishment now that I think about it! It wasn't just me, but a group effort of very generous individuals that made it all happen...that's what it was all about really, just young people doing their own thing. This was at the height of Grunge Rock and then Green-Day MTV "punk" so it was even more important to "keep it real" as they say...

I am REALLY happy (so are all the band-members) that 15 years later people are still listening to and spreading the music around. That's just incredible for just a handful of records from such a small scene so long ago.

I like to think it was part of a special time in Massachusetts Hardcore history, I know that sounds really cheesy but if you were there, you know it's true!

Thanks Mat for the awesome blog...and if anybody wants to get in touch about the "old days" there is a email address on the website www.corster.com/figurefour

-Rick MacDonald

HATCHET FACE - VOL. II 12"

I lost my own copy of the HATCHET FACE 12" years ago so if you want to sell or trade me a copy drop me a line!

IPECAC / OPPOSITION - SPLIT 7"

OPPOSITION - LIVE ON WXPL

OPPOSITION 7"

ENTROPY 7"

ENTROPY - WORLD OF DISGUST TAPE

ENTROPY / UNANSWERED - SPLIT 7"

DIVE 7"

NO WORRIES

the blog isn't dead it's just hectic here!

DEAD ABOVE THE NECK

I'm nearly 100% sure that I already had posted AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED's 2nd 7" but a blog search told me something different. so here it is (eventually here it is again). this little gem was released in 1997 and comes with 12 tracks that are among ANb's best works. even if it's drum computer GRINDCORE at it's best it's still love it or hate it. click the last pic.

MANUFACTURING KARMA

DOMESTIK DOKTRIN are hailing from Indonesia and this is their 1st 7" from 2004 if I'm not mistaken (which may or may not be the 1st S.E.-Asian PUNK/HARDCORE record that was released on a western label). 9 tracks of sick FASTCORE with some THRASH thrown in for good measure here and there.

DEAD SHELL

UNHINDERED BY TALENT

seems to be the motto of the artist who is responsible for the BEYOND DESCRIPTION cover of the split. seriously the KONTROVERS cover isn't that great but the BEYOND DESCRIPTION cover looks like it was drawn by a learning disabled fruit-fly or something like that. to make things worse this is the same genius that is also responsible for the BEYOND DESCRIPTION cover on their split 7"with SPINEBENDER which means they got no fucking excuse at all for letting the "master" insult the eyes of the viewer once more by ruining another cover... but as the music is what counts in the first place this shall be enough about the cover I guess I made it clear that I really think it sucks. Nippon's BEYOND DESCRIPTION offer 3 tracks of fast JAPCORE like they were supposed to do. pretty solid tunes nothing outstanding but by no means bad. Sweden's KONTROVERS deliver 4 tracks of raw & fast Scandinavian HARDCORE that's solid in the best moments but far from being more than that. not bad but absolutely really nothing groundbreaking, outstanding or original. click the last pic!

DEAD AND ON THE FLOOR

while giving HAYMAKER's brilliant 12" another spin I realized that I haven't posted NUNFUCKERS' DEAD AND ON THE FLOOR 7" yet. now you may ask what NUNFUCKERS have to do with HAYMAKER's 12"? well, there's a cover BURNING CHEMICALS on HAYMAKER's 12" that originally is one of the 11 tracks on NUNFUCKERS E.P.! actually I like the HAYMAKER version better but that doesn't mean that the 7" with snotty, raw pissed off Canadian PUNK is bad!

LIMITED

I haven't seen this one on any other blog yet maybe cause it was so limited? just 300 copies made that sold out in the blink of an eye. I was too late for the limited to 100 version of the limited version myself but I snatched some of the 200. anyway, this was the final SHANK release - a cover of CITIZENS ARREST's NUMBER while THE ENDLESS BLOCKADE rip through JUDGE's FED UP. great! click on the cover above!

TRYING TO LIVE UP TO...

an anonymous comment that said: "Hands down, best blog on the internet!" about my blog I've another exception to the rule of thumb that HARDCORE comps. have to suck for you (that is if you accept the term comp. for 2 split 7"es) which is called LEFT BACK/LET DOWN... actually it's a re-post cause I already had posted it before but the old link was a divshare link and the rip didn't sound really good, truth be told it sounded quite the contrary plus it didn't include any artwork besides the cover. so here you go again: 2 split 7"es shared by STAPLED SHUT, SPAZZ, DESPISE YOU & CROM. my favorite DESPISE YOU tunes are on this one b.t.w.! 23 tracks of the cream of the crop in all things POWER VIOLENCE alltogether. get this for DESPISE YOU's cover of D.R.I.'s COUCH SLOUCH alone! click the pic on the bottom!

EXPLICIT CONTENT (the 2nd)

I've ripped the KEEP THIS BAG AWAY FROM CHILDREN comp. again with 320 kbits and did some research on the titles etc. click the cover!