ATTACK OF THE HARDCORE LOW LIFES

Nippon's SLANG popped up on my radar when they released their incredible THE IMMORTAL SIN 12" in 2008 on SCHIZOPHRENIC RECORDS after they managed to fly below my radar for ages. but it seems as if they not only popped up on my radar but also on most other people's radars too cause after that 12" they all of a sudden not only did a bunch of splits with well-known bands like MIND ERASER and WORLD BURNS TO DEATH but even have a German re-release of THE IMMORTAL SIN announced... this 7" is the one they share with E.N.T. and even though E.N.T. are way better on their 2 tracks than I expected them to be they are no match for SLANG although their 2 tracks aren't as good as the tracks on the 12" neither. as the split was ltd. to 500 copies and sold out fast you should click the cover to d/l it and decide for yourself!

PUNISH THE COP

another POISON IDEA 7" from 1991 I could recently score for cheap. honestly speaking that I got it so cheap was the only reason I bought it cause I already had the 12" version of it which has an additional track and therefore I can't say I really needed this one too but like in many cases having it doesn't hurt neither. anyway on the 7" version you get 2 tracks from the BLANK, BLACKOUT, VACANT 12" area: PUNISH ME which is on said 12" and a total gem plus MARIO THE COP. originally released in an edition of 1000 copies on pink wax hand-numbered and autographed by the band and signed by the cover artist on AMERICAN LEATHER RECORDS. the re-release on VINYL SOLUTION differs from the U.S. version in that the front cover art has a border and the back cover is white on black as opposed to black on white, there are no autographs and it's on purple wax . Also the U.S. sleeve was fold-over. click the cover to d/l!

ARMOURY OF FEARLESS TRUTH

another sweet split 7" released by SPIDERGHOST PRESSGANG in 2006 on brown vinyl is shared by NEVER HEALED and VIOLENT MINDS and is called: ARMOURY OF FEARLESS TRUTH AGAINST WHISPERING RUMOR. truth be told I mainly bought this cause of the VIOLENT MINDS tracks as their self-titled 7" really fucking rocks but NEVER HEALED are no let down either. in fact I even like their 2 songs better than the 2 VIOLENT MINDS songs. I remember a discussion I saw on the web about NEVER HEALED and their views cause of some modified NS-artwork they've used on a live-tape (I think) but I do neither remember any details nor where I saw it cause of this I'll stick to the facts: this split hasn't any shady artwork (neither does the other NEVER HEALED 7" I got) and the lyrics are also clean. if anybody has more info - fill me in! d/l button down below!

DEDICATED TO SUBURBAN HARDCORE

technically this is a re-up cause I already had posted CAPITALI$T CASUALTIES' PLANNED COMMUNITY 6" ages ago but as the old archive didn't incl. the artwork I decided to treat it like a new post. I guess I don't have to write much about CAPITALI$T CASUALTIES anyway as they are around for forever and have splits with countless other bands under their belt. on this 6" they stick to what they are best at and deliver 3 tracks of fast, angry & vicious HARDCORE that takes no prisoners.

ROCKS IN A BLENDER

here it is once again: my love for unusual record sizes, especially 6"es and 8"es displayed in the COMBAT WOUNDED VETERAN / ORCHID split 6". you get 5 slashers from COMBAT WOUNDED VETERAN and 2 tracks from ORCHID. that's 7 tracks of raging music plus great artwork which makes this 6" a great record from start to finish. the most eye-catching thing on this 6" is the cut out skull on the back no doubt about it. click the d/l button on the bottom!

SHIN TO TEETH

as both tracks from the SHIN TO SHIN / PULLING TEETH split 7" are also included in the A389 Records compilation one can d/l for free I think posting them here too won't hurt anybody's feelings. anyway, this was supposed to be a split 5" and I assume it ended as a 7" cause the SHIN TO SHIN track runs 2:55 which is 30 seconds too long for a 5". as I got a weak spot for 5"es, etc. I'd normally be really pissed off that it was released as a 7" instead of the 5" it was supposed to be but this split is an exception! I've already told you before that it contains only one track from each band 7". and while the PULLING TEETH track is far from being bad and has everything you wish for if fast metallic (obviously SLAYER influenced) HARDCORE is your thing it's no match for the inferno SHIN TO SHIN unleash! I never doubted that Aaron Melnick would let me down with his new band but I'd have never thought that he could pull off something like this! this is the most perfect mix of G.I.S.M. and Clevo styled HARDCORE I've ever heard and every fucking second of this track slays! I even like the artwork! more of them please! click the cover above to d/l!

DON'T WANNA BE FRIENDS WITH YOU!

the 2nd FUCKED UP mixtape. there's not much to say about it as it's more or less like any other mixtape I saw till now plus I'm not really that much into FUCKED UP to tell the truth. so after telling you that I mainly bought the tape cause of the MIND ERASER, URBAN BLIGHT, BRUTAL KNIGHTS and SEX VID stuff it contains (that also incl. unreleased stuff) and that besides the already mentioned bands the tape also features SOCIAL CIRCKLE, DANGEROUS FUMES, COLD WORLD, DANGERLOVERS and probably one or two bands more I don't remember right now I 'm already done. click the cover to d/l!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

FUCK EVERYTHING! it's been a while since my last post... well, during the last weeks I had to face so much bullshit on one hand and such a shitload of work in my job at the other that I neither had the time nor the mood for blogging like in writing new posts (that's why the "new" posts are more ore less just re-written old posts) or to just even take care of the blog (and a lot of other things I should have taken care of truth be told) by e.g. responding to comments or whatever cause in the little spare time I had I was too busy with listening to GEHENNA, HAMMERHEAD (the German ones of course), HARM'S WAY, and GRAVEHILL's PRACTITIONERS OF FELL SORCERY demo (I guess that's a hint for some) while getting fucked up. you could also say life got in the way or whatever! I actually wouldn't even mention it here but as one of the things I should have taken care of but didn't was replying to e-mails there's a ton of people out there that are waiting for a response from me for ages (I'm thinking especially about you: Mahlon, Sven, Keke & Tony but also some others) and so I thought that this post would be quicker to do than anything else. right now I'm in the process of catching up but I'm still mercilessly slow at replying/writing e-mails as I'm a) still drowning in work and b) also have some issues with my fucking internet access since 4 weeks cause my router takes fuck everything very seriously and is well aware of the fact that everything includes me and my nerves too! it will take me most likely another 2 weeks to get back to everybody on my list but the above mentioned will be first.

VULTURES

here's the totally awesome 2nd 7" called FULL WOLF MOON of the band that, as I told you already when they appeared here for the 1st time will "bite you in the face and crawl under your skin" a.k.a. HERDS. the last song is called HORSE-BREAKING but should be called neck-breaking instead! 5 tracks of ferocious and angry HARDCORE just as you'd expect a band with ex-members of CHARLES BRONSON, THREATENER, GET RAD, 14 OR FIGHT, KUNG FU RICK and SEVEN DAYS OF SAMSARA to sound. the artwork is also top notch as well as the packaging!

HIGH LIFE

DeKalb's SICK/TIRED have released their 1st full-length on TO LIVE A LIE RECORDS (it was supposed to be released on COALITION RECORDS but COALITION has gone belly up). as I was a little bit involved in putting out their debut split 7" my opinion could be seen as a bit prejudiced... anyway, believe it or not the 12", which is called HIGH LIFE is a fucking ripper! I knew that already before I got a physical copy of the record cause the tracks were all recorded in the same session than the 4 tracks on the split 7" and Kirk had sent the whole session my way quite some time ago and which lead to their appearance in the MAD BLASTS OF CHAOS series. the 12" is available in 3 different colors: black, red (ltd. to 100 copies) and gray (ltd. to 22 copies). as you can see on the pics below Kirk was kind enough to send me one of the 22 gray copies. as I haven't seen a physical copy on red I don't know if the red ones also come with a certificate like that you can see below which came with my gray one. the artwork of the cover and the inlay is also totally rad! seriously, in my opinion SICK/TIRED are one of the best bands around right now and if you like your HARDCORE fast and furious you should do yourself a favor and get yourself a copy of HIGH LIFE! you can check out one track here.

CANCER

as this is isn't the 1st time EXTORTION from Down Under appear on this blog you might be familiar with them by now already. if you aren't familiar with them what are you doing here anyway? the recording on TERMINAL CANCER is a little bit rawer than on most of their other releases which suits them well in my opinion! click the cover to download!

GET FUCKED UP!

finally the long awaited CALIFORNIA LOVE / GEHENNA split 7" surfaced here just in time to sweeten my "fuck-everything-mood"! very kind really! as you can see on the pics there are 2 versions of it around - the regular one on black wax and the one ltd. to 250 copies with the red cover on red wax that came with a GEHENNA live 12" and a copy of THE LOVE BELOW's REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS 7" on colored wax. I know that a lot of people aren't really into this split 7" or even think it's weak... not that I would care about other people's opinions but I don't really understand why someone would think this split is weak cause the only negative thing I could say is that it has just one track from each band and therefore is rather short. besides that it is more or less what I expected it to be if not even a little better! CALIFORNIA LOVE's vocalist Aaron had told me before that their recordings would be shit but still OK as they'd be shit in a kind of early DEATH METAL demo way. well, I agree that there is a touch of DEATH METAL in their track called FEUERSTURM but I wouldn't say that the recording is shit or that they sound unbelievably different to their 2 12"es and I'm really looking forward to their farewell 7" with the other 8 tracks from that recording session that their guitarist will release (the 1st test presses were all fucked up). lyric-wise CALIFORNIA LOVE stick to the "we despise the human race" theme which is also nothing new in their case. sad but true Aaron also told me that CALIFORNIA LOVE split up. the GEHENNA track on the flip-side is called GET FUCKED UP and as it already had been available for download from Mr. Apocalypse's blog for a short time a while ago you might know the song anyway. as a matter of fact GEHENNA can do no wrong in my ears and therefore you might have assumed that this track is no exception and that I'm as much into it as I'm into all their stuff if you are frequently reading this blog or just have read what I wrote about GEHENNA in the past. in case you've made that assumption... guess what - it's 100% correct! that shouldn't really make you wonder as GEHENNA sound spiteful, vicious and ugly in their own unique way even though you can hear which bands have influenced them quite clearly.

actually the pic on the left doesn't show the real cover of the GEHENNA live 12" that came with the pre-order version of their split with CALIFORNIA LOVE, is ltd. to 250 copies and is called THE HOPE GUZZO BOOTLEG. sorry for that but the cover doesn't fit my scanner and as it's a photography it would have been too tricky to make multiple scans and cut & paste it together if I wouldn't have had the time to do that anyway plus you can also see the actual cover on the pic at the bottom. now, you get a regular live set recorded at Gilman St. on one side and a KXLU radio live show on the flip-side which is the better one in my opinion. truth be told I think that 99,99% of all live recordings suck so much that no one needs them and consider releasing them on any format a waste of resources! among the very rare exceptions would be the CITIZENS ARREST live 8" and their radio show, some of the LIFE'S BLOOD stuff that's around, POISON IDEA's DUTCH COURAGE, the GEHENNA / CATHARSIS split 12" and a few more including this one. someone once told me the the voice of GEHENNA's vocalist on the earlier mentioned split live 12" would sound like a demon from yelling at you and he doesn't sound so much different here. this is some of the rawest, ugliest and hostile music I've heard till now. if you can't get into GEHENNA or also if you just can't get into their live recordings - don't worry cause it might not be your fault. it most likely just might be the case that you lack the experience of crawling through the stench of urine and vomit in the darkest pits of human existence fighting tooth and claw to keep your sanity. anyway, let's move on to the artwork and packaging of the record. I admit that I felt a little disappointed for a moment when I held the physical copy in my hands for the 1st time. the cover a 12" x 24" sheet of thick paper folded in the middle and not a bag and comes with a small booklet that gives you a track-list and an interview but no lyrics but when I looked on the inside artwork I suddenly realized that the pic on the inside was the photography from the cover only inverted which they did on the split 7" artwork too - I guess that's called continuation and is considered to be a style of art. now, while I've already told you that the record is called THE HOPE GUZZO BOOTLEG I haven't told you why yet. in case you don't already know who Hope Guzzo is let me tell you that she's the photographer who took the pic that was used for the cover of this 12" plus she's the person interviewed in the booklet by GEHENNA. I should add that the introduction to the interview briefly explains why her art was used on the cover. as the ltd. pre-order packs are sold out by now I scanned the interview in case you missed it!

here's a pic of the THE LOVE BELOW's REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS 7" I mentioned earlier. I'd give that 7" a 2nd try for the rad cover alone I guess...