ONE BEAT FITS ALL! (the 2nd)

as requested - here's the re-up of the BLOOD SUCKING FREAKS 7". click the cover!

DESPERATE (AUDIO) TERRORISM

Dutch THRASH vs. French GRINDCORE / POWER VIOLENCE... well, I'm pretty sure that I already mentioned that I could never really get into SEEIN' RED so it shouldn't be a big surprise that I also prefer ÖPSTAND over SEEIN' RED in case of this split 7" here but even if I'd really be into SEEIN' RED on this split they'd be no match for the Frenchies! honestly speaking I don't think they would be a match for ÖPSTAND anywhere else neither. ÖPSTAND rip and thrash through their 5 tracks as if there would be no tomorrow and leaf you jaw-dropped (France wasn't really known for being fertile ground for all things POWER VIOLENCE way back then and I also don't think that has changed that much till now)! SEEIN' RED offer one track more and also include a booklet with explanations, etc. but as usual don't get me so excited. it's not that they are bad - they are not - their tracks are solid THRASH as expected but nothing more! click the last pic!

HAIL JAPCORE! (the 2nd)

I've re-upped the HAIL JAPCORE comp. - click the cover!

FALSEHOOD

a short time ago I stumbled over .NEMA's 6 track demo somewhere in the depths of the cyberworld and I'm still not sure what to think of it. don't get me wrong it's not bad! if you're familiar with .NEMA you most likely know these tracks as all 6 tracks appear on their later releases in re-recorded versions that kick way more ass than the demo versions. now you might ask what my problem is as that's the norm and not the exception. bands re-record stuff to make it sound more powerful or more aggressive or whatever isn't really classified information not to mention that I favor the demo recordings over the re-recorded stuff on quite a lot of occasions as they sound rawer in most cases. well, sad but true only in most cases and not in all cases. like in this particular case here; when .NEMA's BRING OUR CURSES HOME 12" sounds like a hurricane their demo sounds like a warm summer breeze (ok, I admit that comparison isn't 100% accurate but you get the picture?). even though the recordings of those 6 demo tracks aren't worlds apart from the recordings that appeared on the vinyl. as such a big difference actually is a very rare thing to happen as the songs remain more or less the same after all, I can't fight the feeling that it's not the demo itself but whoever ripped it fucked up, used shitty equipment and /or found a low quality rip burned it on a CD and ripped it again (which I do too once in a while b.t.w. but I burn the mp3s as audio CD which I then rip to wav files and I apply all changes to the wav files which I then burn as an audio CD once again of which I finally rip the mp3s). anyway maybe I was just disappointed cause I hoped that it would be rawer and more vicious than the devil.

FIENDISH GHOULS

in a conversation with an old friend a little while ago we somehow ended up talking about HORRORPUNK and I mentioned BALZAC's ATOM AGE VAMPIRE IN 308 7" and as my friend said that she would be interested in checking it out I ripped it for her. and as I had ripped it anyway I thought I should also post it here too. I'm quite sure that I bought it before I moved to the city I now live which means that would have been at least 11 years ago but I'm also quite sure that I didn't play this 7" even 11 times in all those years even though it's not even that their tracks would be really bad - it's more like when I want to smoke I'll go and buy cigarettes and not a green where I'd have to start by planting tobacco and in this case here it's if I want to hear MISFITS I'd listen to one of my MISFITS records instead of playing a BALZAC record. anyway, as I already wrote earlier: I ripped & upped this mainly for my friend so she can give BALZAC a try. in case you're into MISFITS you perhaps should check them out too! click the pic on the bottom

PICK YOUR QUEEN

Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to another split 7" battle to the death... in the upper corner: from Sweden with a professional fight record of a split 5" with YACÖPSAE, a split 12" with DISKONTO, some 7"es and 2 CDs on SOUND POLLUTION and appearances on various compilations: the undefeated MASSGRAV ! in the lower corner: also from Sweden with a professional fight record of a split 7" with JELLYROLL ROCKHEADS, a split 12" with BRODY'S MILITIA and an appearance on the WEAPONS OF THRASH DESTRUCTION comp. 6"... please help me welcome WIDESPREAD BLOODSHED! is what I would probably write if I was Michael Buffer but as I'm quite obviously not Michael Buffer I'll write that you get 5, well 4 and an outro MASSGRAV tracks on one side and 10 WIDESPREAD BLOODSHED tracks on the flip-side but no matter which side you give a spin - all tracks completely slay! while both bands are fast and furious in case of speed WIDESPREAD BLOODSHED have the upper hand as you might have guessed from the amount of songs each band has put on this little rager. as you can see below the label on WIDESPREAD BLOODSHED's side says 78 r.p.m. which made me curious how long it would take them to rip through their 10 tracks on 78 r.p.m. and as I left the 78 r.p.m. rip in the archive you can find out for yourself too if you want! the brilliant cover of course scores extra points!

KREBS!

once again it's time for some NORTHCORE! or time for some LEBENSREFORM a.k.a. LEI to be more precise. just 2 tracks which were supposed to appear on their discography that most likely won't be released anymore which is a shame as LEBENSREFORM were one of the best if not the best band among all the bands that were known to be part of that scene with the likes of LOXIRAN (which scored an honorable 2nd place in my personal ranking. besides that some of them were great drinking buddies and the living proof that NORTHCORE wasn't so much about the edge as a lot of people think and had more than a little bit to do that some asscandle wrote in his shitty zine that I was the most antisocial person he ever met when my band played the West-Side Unity Fest together with them... a classic case of totally wrong expectations on behalf of the promoter), NIETENPUNX, KINDLE, COLE QUINTET, MAXI DANCE SENSATION, etc. and as you'll ask me why I just posted 2 tracks instead of the whole thing anyway... the reason is that I got the discography from someone who prefers to stay anonymous and also asked me to not post anything that didn't appear on their regular releases with the exception of these 2 tracks which are a cover of HEADFIRST's SELF EDGE and the "Infected Bowel Erosion RMX" of KREBS (org. appeared on their 2nd 7" which is called RETOR) done by Rev. Benn Schipper (whoever that may be) b.t.w. and therefore you should be glad that you are at least able to get the biggest part of their discography. speaking of their discography: in case you are looking for a physical copy of any of their releases drop me a line I got multiple copies of all their records with the exception of their split 5" with SLIGHT SLAPPERS on green vinyl. in case of the split 5" on black vinyl I think I still got copies with the white cover as well as copies with the black one. in case you could get me a copy of the above mentioned zine, which was done by a clown called Karsten C. Roneberg and was called ONLY A PHASE (most likely cause he knew he was just pretending?) I'd offer to give you LEBENSREFORM's complete vinyl discography consisting of two 7"es, a split 7" with KINDLE and the split 5" with SLIGHT SLAPPERS as a reward!

LOSING...

this is the LOSING YOUR WAY Pt. 4 7" comp. which I bought cause it features NO VALUE and RUIDO which are no let down just as expected. as I've never seen any of the other parts I can't tell you which bands are feat. on those. in case of Pt.4 there are 10 bands all together. besides that 2 already mentioned there are SEWN SHUT, DEMISOR, D.F.C., EL NUDO, COQUETTISH, OUTNOUTS, THE KILLERS and CIRLCLE X which vary in quality from good to mediocre. really brilliant is that neither RUIDO nor OUTNOUTS actually tell you how their songs are called! great! as the rule of thumb is that HARDCORE 7" comps. have to suck this is among the exceptions to the rule as there it features no band that's completely un-listenable and moves you no further than to your turntable so you can skip their shitty track... click the pic below to d/l!

WE ARE A KNITTING FACTORY BAND

is what Darryl said when someone asked him in an interview if CITIZENS ARREST are a ABC NO RIO band...

LIVE BLOOD

speaking of LIFE'S BLOOD...

DEAD AND GONE!

truth be told: I rarely play the b-side of this comp. 7" as NAUSEA have better songs than the track here and I never really got into the music of BORN AGAINST. the a-side is way better even though LIFE'S BLOOD also have better tracks than HUMAN POWER that track is still pretty cool and the ABSOLUTION track is pretty solid as well. I ripped this from the 1st press that differs from the 2nd press through having a thicker cover if I'm not mistaken. don't quote me on that as I haven't seen a copy of the 2nd press yet and therefore I can't tell you if the track listing on the back covers of those is also wrong neither. in case of the 1st press it is and I ripped the tracks like they are on the actual record and not like they are listed (at least I think I did - it's quite a while since I ripped it). click on the cover above to d/l.

MEDIOCRITY RULES!

already saw this one on some blogs but every rip i found was a 128 kbits rip... so here you get a 320 kbits rip with scans of the artwork of CONFINES 2009 demo tape. some people said/wrote that this would be "the demo" of 2009. well, I think the VACCINE demo was better but this is still pretty good nevertheless! members of FAILURES, SOCIAL CIRCKLE and CUT THE SHIT tearing it up. when I played it for the 1st time I wasn't really listening as I was working on my notebook when suddenly a riff caught my attention as it totally reminded me on JERRY'S KIDS which never is a bad thing! as one song blends into the next (or at least almost) I didn't separate the tracks.

WORKER & PARASITE

VEDAVU once again: as Mr. Apocalypse predicted I love the TAFKATA record! a double lathe cut 10" that comes in 2 separate full-color covers held together by an obi-strip and incl. a CD-R with the tracks from the two 10"es. as I already told you in my SUMERIAN AXE post. the TAFKATA record is sold out by now and won't be repressed... so if you don't have a copy by now you most likely will never get one. however you could get a copy of the DEVIL 7" that will be released sooner or later. the packaging of that one will be totally rad! how would I know that? as Jeremy "Booze-Blizzard" was kind enough to send me jpg files of it I already have it on my HD but I promised that I won't show it to you but believe me everything VEDAVU did has an unreal packaging and the DEVIL 7" won't be an exception. oh, the 2 posters behind the TAFKATA records normally aren't included!

JUST IN CASE YOU WANT TO KNOW...

I get e-mails from people that ask if I'd do some promotion for them quite frequently but truth be told in most cases I don't even reply cause I got better things to do. in most cases I can't figure out why they would like me to promote their fancy clothing or similar bullshit anyway. I've also refused to post any "web-only-releases" or mp3 rips of releases that labels / bands have sent me till now with the exception of demos (and will continue to do so in the future) as I don't know how I should write a review about anything I've neither seen nor heard and having heard an mp3 rip of an album doesn't count in my opinion as it sounds different to the actual vinyl; CD, tape,etc. plus the scan of a cover doesn't tell me much about the actual quality. to my surprise some of them asked for my postal address to send me a physical copy to review the here and therefore you'll find reviews of stuff I got sent to review it here in the future. on a side-note: I deleted some blogs that I had linked as they haven't been updated for months and I'll delete some more. here we go:

obviously the 1st review is no record, CD, etc. but a book (the e-book version of it to be more precise) which is called A HEAVY METAL SALUTE TO HEAVY METAL BAND NAME ORIGINS written and (self-)published by a guy called Blair Gibson who says about himself that he's "a 32 year old author in the making." he has compiled this book by contacting 542 heavy metal bands through Myspace and/or their own personal websites and asked them what their band name meant and why they chose it. each response in the book is what the band member sent him. the book covers all styles of Metal/Hard Rock from Stoner Rock to Black Metal to Prog to Glam to Thrash and every other genre of Metal in between also including asscandles like e.g. UGLY KID JOE. when I told Ivan from FUCK YOGA REC. about the book he asked me if I'd think that anybody would really need a book about band names and if I'd find the topic interesting enough to write a book about it? I said something like I wouldn't be sure in response and that hasn't changed yet. I guess the biggest problems is that it's a) a book about Heavy Metal and b) the above mentioned diversity. I haven't even heard the names of at least half the bands in the book and I don't give a fuck about most of the other bands and that includes why they choose whatever name they have. the bands that I like and that are covered in the book once in a while surprise with their explanation like MOSS e.g. which said: "We chose our name in tribute to the ancient forest that surrounds our home, and the certain images that moss evokes; it grows on tombstones and graves, old trees and in damp and dark places. Fitting for our music I think". but that doesn't happen to often. the book is available as e-book which is 5,00 U$D and as paperback which is 14,95 U$D. truth be told I wouldn't spend neither 5,00 U$D on the e-book nor 14,05 U$D for the paperback as I don't really care that much about Heavy Metal in general and my interest in Stoner Rock, Prog, AOR, etc. is below zero.

if you're interested go there: Stores.lulu.com/heavymetalsalute
or write Blair an e-mail: Calbeg@accesscomm.ca

AGORAPHOBIC CATTLE

the AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED / CATTLE PRESS split 12" is one of my fave records when it comes down to DRUMCOMPUTERGRIND and was released on BOVINE one of my fave record labels. the 18 ANb tracks on theirs side of the split were written a short time after their 1st 7" when they were at their peak. CATTLE PRESS don't use a drum-computer but their drums sound like they would here and there but as they aren't far from ANb music-wise that's not really a problem. click on either cover to d/l!

IN OUR TIME (the 2nd)

I've re-upped the IN OUR TIME comp. 12", rewritten the whole post and added some new pics! click on the pic!