Sunday, November 25, 2012

Under Midnights and 10,000 Tombs

There are no fewer than six bands with the name Memento Mori, so let me start by establishing that this is the one that did a split with Kylesa way back when.  This Memento Mori hung back in the trenches along the fringes of warring musical worlds, following mainly the protocols of that excruciatingly personal hardcore come to fruition in the nineties, but donning an impenetrable veneer forged in the fires of speed metal, melodic death metal, and early Celtic Frost.  The twelve tracks on their posthumously released CD shows an even more artful melding of those styles than some members' previous band (Sutek Conspiracy tracks have been re-upped here), and were gleaned from MM's 12", split mentioned above, and unreleased recordings. In Memento Mori's case, I think it's more than appropriate to mention that the vocalist later joined Scrotum Grinder and is currently the screamer in No Statik, and that the guitarist is/was in Saros.

Memento Mori Discography CD (Hyperrealist Records, 2004...320 kbps)

Recently Re-upped- No Comment discography!

Coming soon (I promise!)- Re-ripped Despise You/Suppression split 7"

Monday, November 5, 2012

Swallow This

The end of our last century brought the hardcore world platitudes-a-plenty, from the personal to the sweepingly apocalyptic. But there was always an overpowering, undermining presence, seeping out now and again from the barrio cracks, and snapping us out of our self-righteous daze.  Spearheading this force was Martin and Lengua Armada Discos.  Both names have become inseparable from the names Crudos and Limp Wrist, but this post will focus on one of the less celebrated bastard children of the franchise, Tragatelo. I'd like to think it was celebrated less only because of its brief existence.  As Ricardo pointed out, the band was formed by Martin and Lina (of Subsistencia) among other hardworking musicians active in the late '90's.  Lina takes most of the vocal duties, and the band backs her bansheefied screams with the same raw and elemental drive that immortalized some of Crudos's finest work. New fangled designs will come, dazzle, and eventually succumb to obsolescence or else collapse under the weight of their own convolutions.  But the LA Discos workshop hammered out simple ones, made of the most solid stuff, and which aren't likely to wear out for some time yet.

 The twelve inch below comprises the band's tiny discography, collecting their side of the split demo (with Kontraattaque) and some unreleased tracks.

¡Tragatelo!

Recently Re-upped:

The "El Guapo Comp."