Sunday, September 7, 2008

Barrel-Aged Hardcore

The supposed death of hardcore doesn't seem to phase some folks. Take, for example, Violent Arrest, whose members, in the form of Ripcord, slammed the tomb door on the Reagan-Thatcher era with their own violent US-influence (but still uniquely UK) thrash. Their new band is certainly not some defeated, sad bastard ensemble either; it is, fortunately, a continuation of the Ripcord sound (minus some speed)-- straight-forward, defiant, infectious hardcore! These thrashers have been and still are the real thing. If you haven't heard Violent Arrest yet, this ten track 7" (Deranged Records) is as good a place to start as any. The tracks below were ripped from my copy of the EP, but if you go to the label site, you can order VA's CD containing everything they've released so far (including the EP), and/or pick up the vinyl of their excellent 12", or go to VA's Myspace page to get higher quality mp3s.

Link has been removed. This was a limited-time-only download. Check the links above and support the bands! (There's also a couple of tracks in the singingbox).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very cool, thanks! You didn't mention, too, that they get the award for the shortest song titles on record: 10 songs, 13 words (and two of the extras are from a cover song!).

Batguano said...

Ha! I did notice the song title thing when I was typing in the tags. It's very fitting-- VA seems to have "trimmed the fat" off their music in many ways.