To Show You How Much You Meant

I got delayed again, but this series of splits is happening for real this time.  The first two will be more deliberate; the others a bit more random, but no less awesome.  First off, the indestructible and unstoppable Despise You/Suppression split 7" is being reposted for two reasons: Roman requested it (dude, sorry for the delay... again) and because it's got be one of my top five powerviolence/grind records of all time.  Don't ask me about the other four-- it would take some hair-pulling deliberation to work that out.  This one requires no such ordeal.  When I first posted it a few years ago, I probably ripped it at a crap bit rate, so here it is again, with graphics and all.

The Despise You/Suppression split 7" (Slap-a-Ham Records, 1996)

Recent Re-up:

Never Healed/Violent Minds split 7"

Pleasure Inflicted Suffering

This week, every post will be a random seven inch by a band I like, a couple of which have had other releases posted on this blog before. Most of the bands will be fairly obscure, like today's selection, "Human Ruins" by Running For Cover. The first time I experienced their LP, the term thinking-person's power violence came to mind. All of the cathartic punishment that keeps us coming back to this genre is present and accounted for on both of their releases; but the lyrics, which deal mainly with the meaninglessness of life, are tinged with existentialist musings, and on a couple there's even a bit of an Eastern element. PV songs about Kung Fu movies and enchiladas are fun and all, but it's kind of nice to see a band taking things a bit further.

Running For Cover - "Human Ruins" 7" (625 Thrashcore/Out of Limits, 2004)

Left Back, Let Down

Compilation week was interrupted by life, so we will call this Compilation Series, part II. I've got two or three more in the chamber, but for today we have the classic four-way split between Stapled Shut, Crom, Spazz, and Despise You. The only reason not to post this is that it's probably already all over the download circuit (circus). But that's not good enough for me. The impulse to post this was too strong. So here it is, ripped from the vinyl at 320...

"Left Back-Let Down" 2x7" Comp. (Pessimiser/Theologian Records, 1995?)

Spazz Lyrics:

Entropy Time Motherfucker

I thought I could get this up sooner, Roman; sorry for the wait. This is a re-post of the venom spewing classic, Suppression/Cripple Bastards split LP posted way back in '08. I first came to know the biomechanoid hate-generator known as Suppression from their split with Despise You circa 1996, and have since then continued to admire their caustic ejaculations with few interruptions. If Man is the Bastard and Crossed Out deliberately crashed their tour vans into a Guitar Center's amplifier department, these 13 tracks would be the ostensible result if it happened to be in Virginia. The sludge, the speed, the noise-- it's all there, in horrific abundance.

There's little that needs to be said about Italy's grindlords Cripple Bastards other than maybe some comments I've heard about some unenlightened things said by the singer (no details; not in the mood). Other than that, the 23 songs on their side are pretty raw renditions of tracks that would appear on the "Your Lies in Check" LP.

Suppression/Cripple Bastards split LP (Bovine Records... ripped at 320 kbps)

They'll Put the Kibosh on You

I've been too stressed and busy to post much lately, so for a while I'll stick to mostly 7"s . In between these you find some reviews of bands I've come to know and love since starting this blog who have just released some incredible new records; some of these downloads will be limited time only, so check in now and then. Today's featured band is from the good ol' nineties and is ideal for the stressed and pressed for time. Devola have a lot to say, but mince few words. They have a lot of songs, but waste little of your digital space. The CD and 7" linked below will run through you like a bad 25 minute bout with dysentery, and leave you nice and cleansed, if not a little exhausted. The 625 label on the 7" should give you a further idea of the speeds we're dealing with, but there's evidence that this band doesn't take itself quite as seriously as others in the PV crew (note the Cookie Monster-with-groin-injury vocals). The CD finds the band exploring more modern hardcore territory, but rest assured that there are still blast-beats aplenty, and that this development only made the band rock harder.
Devola "Playing the Game of Revenge and Winning Every Time" CD and "The Resuscitation" 7"

I hope to one day have the Devola/Murdock split to post, butI'm not there yet.

Song of the Week: "Homo Afflictus" (Charred Remains a.k.a. Man Is The Bastard)

Still vying for my favorite Man Is The Bastard track is "Homo Afflictus," for the usual intensity these musicians always brought to their music, as well as for its unpredictability of structure and overall weirdness! I've said it before and will continue to do so: MITB's recorded material pales in comparison to their live sets. When these guys plugged in, the brutality was real, not just an aspect of the genre they played. If you were fortunate enough to see them a couple of times, just close your eyes and crank up the volume; maybe some nifty flashback experience will visit your consciousness. For others, the advice concerning volume is still recommended.

"Homo Afflictus"

I've been putting off a re-post of the excellent comp from which this song was ripped. I'll continue to place it high on my list of priorities.

An Earwig's Guide To Traveling

I'll make this quick since most of you have this, and I've got to head to the mountains in about 5 minutes. Gasp was one of the most powerful and unique bands of the nineties and "An Earwig's Guide To Traveling" is the miscellanea that comprises the rest of their discography. I've been planning to post this for a while, and an e-mail from Mr. AD sealed the deal. Yes, the "Sore For Days Demo" is included in the collection. (Scans of the fold-out insert will be here when I get back).

"AEGTT" part I by Gasp (320 kbps... singles, comp tracks, demo)

"AEGTT" part II

Violent Incendiary Distortion Monster

I feel like something fast today. Nailed Down circa 1995-97 fits that criterion. The obvious Lärm and Infest influence is observed in vicious collaboration with menacing Bostonian hardcore qualities and noisy Japanese amplification (made even more apparent by the band's choice of bands to cover: Negative FX, Kuro, and Confuse). "Violent Distortion" is an early example of the band's work before their sound changed a bit. On vinyl it was released as a 10" by a bunch of French labels, and Profane Existence Far East released it on 3" CD. What you get in the folder below are 320 rips of the CD with graphics from both versions of the release.

You'll also find rips of ND's "Honour and Glory" 8" flexi (Six Weeks Recs). The tracks are similar to "VD" but slightly less vicious, and a couple of raw live tracks are tacked on to the end. I did my best with the rip quality considering it's a flexi.

CD Cover:

Download both records here

Play At Any Speed And Fail

I'm gonna throw up a bunch of re-ripped slabs over the next few weeks, and Gob's opus seemed a fine place to start. When I posted the "Kill Yourself Commandment" LP the first time, I think I just stole some rips for upload, and that just doesn't cut it. Tonight we have the 320 treatment for one of the most sour affronts to music ever committed to wax. Gob took everything our ears have been taught to hold sacred and did things to them that are still considered illegal in some states. If you like your noise rock violent or your violence noisy, Gob might be your favorite band, or they might make you rethink your preconceptions about such trite labels. I hate name-dropping, so I won't mention that Mr. J. Kortland of Iron Lung was one of the Gob masterminds.

Download the 11th Commandment!

("The Kill Yourself Commandment" by Gob (Reno) released on Satan's Pimp Recs, 1999)

Because Man Will Always Be Man

Mindless is (was?) one hell of a crusher of a hardcore band with Faiza of Faithealer and Hatred Surge on vocals. Aside from some idiosyncratic flourishes here and there, the band stays true to the lull you with slow, heavy riffs, then crack you over the head with a cudgel of blast beats method of hardcore. Crossed Out did it, Extortion does it, and I'm blessed with a wooden ear that never gets tired of hearing it!

The Mindless 6 track demo tape

It's doubtful (limited to 100 copies), but you may still be able to get a copy here.

Hiatus (Not the Band)

It's time to take a little vacation from blogging. With all the things going on right now, I would hate for this blog to become a chore. If it isn't fun anymore, why keep at it? I think you see my point. After two or four weeks, I hope to be re-energized and back to finding hidden musical treasures under unassuming rocks and ripping the shit out of them! Meantime, I look forward to getting caught up on a ton of other stuff and listening to music for no other reason than the sheer pleasure of it! I've recently received a flurry of e-mails; some from nice people sharing music or saying thanks, as well as those hoping for a review/post. To the former, I say thanks! and to the latter... I haven't forgotten about you-- please be patient. If any old links are down, let me know; I'll be checking comments here and there.



To send you on your way properly, I present the Half Man/Kisses & Hugs split 7". Roman, a long time/sporadic FE visitor/friend, was blown away by the small-town angst and violence of Kisses & Hugs' 12" and suggested I post this mean little split. This one's for him and anyone else who dug that piece (all of whom are probably laid up with a sore asshole from the experience). X's & O's were definitely a singular monster, and what Half Man might lack in originality and insanity, is made up for by their sincerity and power on the two tracks here. Made up of ex-members of Campaign and future members of Countdown to Putsch, HM took old school grit and "modern" smarts (I'm look at you Born Against) and made plain, good hardcore punk! They released a couple of EPs, some comp tracks and an LP that sounded like a completely different band. Check with the Mountain Collective for related bands and straggling artifacts.

The Half Man/Kisses & Hugs Split 7"

X's & O's

Continuing on the trope of bands with curious names creating wonderfully fucked up music, here we have an almost-discography from Kisses and Hugs. Another overlap with the last band posted is Kisses And Hugs' soft-spot for insane distortion, blast-beats, and humorous song titles. Not to mention there's a totally jacked-up cover song ("Kiss Me, Kill Me" by Negative Approach). Titles like "Civ Lied" and "Genital Ben," make me really wish they had supplied a lyric sheet, but we'll just have to use our imagination instead (the crazed vocals certainly don't provide an in, either). So who were Kisses And Hugs? They were three rural Pennsylvania/New Jersey youths who look like the kind of kids who got their asses kicked a lot in elementary school (a compliment is a weird kind of way) but who shredded out some insanely fast and chaotic hardcore and unbosomed their angst with quirky and funny words (presumably). I first came to know the bands from the "Education" comp (Mountain Coop) and their split with Halfman (the former tracks appear on this LP). The album posted today is mainly material from 1994 when faster hardcore was only beginning to adopt its clique-y posturing, so it's free from all that. The LP itself only reached the pressing and circulation phase in 2001/2002, and only 500 were pressed. That's about all I know. If you need the split, just leave a comment and I'll get on it.

Kisses & Hugs LP

Guns, Liquor, & Whores

No, the title of this post is not a feeble attempt to get your attention, but it does sound like a fun Friday night. Guns, Liquor, & Whores was actually the previous band of three future members of Manitoba's Under Pressure. Those of you familiar with the latter band from their "Still No Future" 12" on Sound Pollution are bit more prepared for the abomination at hand: raucous fast(hard)core glued together with thick feedback and some hilarious film (?) sound samples (from a movie that I'm ashamed to admit I cannot identify). The nine originals would be enough to make this 10" a smokin' hot affair, but then there's a cover of Turbonegro's "Hobbit Motherfucker" and a blazing mad version of Infest's "Sick (Fuckin')-O" (remember how they tore apart those Void/Faith songs on "Still No Future"? Yeah, it's kind of like that!). A lot of you out there eat up the fast stuff I've posted in the past, so I'm pretty certain you'll like this one too.

GL&Ws didn't release anything else that I can find. I was bummed to find out Under Pressure quit, but they did leave behind 4 really good 12"s and some EPs, many of which are available still. They slowed things down a bit on later releases, but the quality seemed to get even better on the last couple of outings.

Guns, Liquor, And Whores - "Serpico" 10" (Putrid Filth Conspiracy, 2002, 500(?) pressed, 320 kbps)

Altered Beast

Aaron G sent me rips of his old band Altered Beast's demo thinking I would like it. He was goddamn right about that! It's too good not to post, in fact. Aaron threw down the No Comment and Spazz comparisons, which sums it up well, but I'll go ahead and throw in a "Mankind" era Infest one just to sound like I'm doing something here. By now you know basically what to expect, except for maybe the actual quality that awaits you. Trust me, if you like this genre, don't hesitate. Altered Beast only released this demo and didn't get much exposure outside of Chicago. Download now and tell your friends you've known about these guys forever.

Thanks again, Aaron!

Altered Beast Demo

Puro Desmadre Parte Dos

I was stoked enough to find a cheap, good copy of Gasp's "Sore For Days" demo, but on the B side another treasure lay hidden-- the 23 song Stapled Shut demo! If that wasn't enough excitement for the day, five of the SS songs I hadn't heard before. Those of you who know SS's brand of fuzzed out thrashcore can probably relate at least a little to my child-like glee. It turns out I was wrong about the sequence of SS's discography; the gnarly, fuzzed out stuff was their demo material. On the tape posted below, you can get the entire demo, which includes the tracks from the band's split with Lack of Interest, the (I think) unreleased tracks, the entire "World Of Noise" 7", and "Chavala" from the Reality #2 comp. If you just want the unreleased tracks, I've got that for you too, as well as links to previous Stapled Shut posts if you prefer vinyl rips of the rest of the demo instead. If anyone knows titles for the unnamed demo tracks, you know where to click.

** Update: Thanks to an anonymous commenter, we now have all the track titles, and the title of the demo as well ("LA Times"). The missing titles are as follows: 7. "Stapled Shut" 8. "Killer Breed" 9. "What The Fuck" 10. "Blazing" 11. "Resin Heaven". Thanks again for your help!

The entire Stapled Shut Demo HERE
Just the 5 unreleased tracks HERE
Go to the Stapled Shut/Lack Of Interest post HERE
Go to the Stapled Shut 7" + Comp Tracks post HERE

A World Badly Made

Amen makes its third appearance on this blog, this time covering Oi Polloi, and taking on subjects like nuclear fallout and raccoon-faced satanist posers. Their American tag-team partners are Short Hate Temper. You probably know these El Paso grinders from various power house splits with the likes of Slight Slappers, Scalplock, Quill, and Harsh. A fast EP for a week that cannot be over fast enough.

Here.

Time Of Payback

A couple of FE friends haven't gotten enough Finnish bass & drum ultra-violence from previous Harsh posts. So this Harsh 7" hat trick goes out to Grindfreek and Roman... thanks for your support! The folder below spans most of Harsh's stylistic evolution from their days as a full-on PV band (Six Weeks 7"), to their early foray into double bass brutal-fabulosity (split with German grind stalwarts, Crude BE), and finally to their low-end masterpiece, "Implants." If the idea of putting Man Is The Bastard and Lack Of Interest in a super-collider turns you on, go ahead and click below.

Harsh 7"s

Click the "Harsh" tag if you want their splits with Senseless Apocalypse, Control Mechanism, and Short Hate Temper/Quill.

Some Slow, Some Go!

All request week (month?) begins with the Iabhorher 7" for Mike of the great All Go, No Slow! podcast blog. Iabhorher didn't release much (this 7" on Slap-a-Ham, and some comp. tracks?) before morphing into Cattlepress (more or less). I don't want to name-drop too much, but you may recognize some infamous member(s) in the line-up and on the cover art credit. Although my copy is a little thrashed, the menace doesn't let up on the two bass-heavy aberrations presented here, and you hopefully won't notice it too much when/if you rock out to it. No big deal if you do, because as Mike pointed out, Hyperrealist is going to reissue all the band's material on a 12" soon (at which time, I'll remove the link).



Here

Plutophobia- The Repost!

After a delay, a bit of plutocrastination if you will, I found some time to re-rip the live split LP between NorCal and SoCal violence purveyors, Plutocracy and Phobia. Both sets have pretty great sound quality, and this time the rips are at 320 with photos included. Grind your fucking head in...

...over here.

Keep On Keeping On...

It's time to speed things up again. You may know Tokyo's incendiary ensemble, NK6, from their Yellow Beauty" 7" or their split with Dudman. If you do, then you also know that the Gauze influence is not subtle (they aren't shy about announcing Fugu's role in producing their records), nor is the blazing fast hardcore they produce or the terse lyrics they disgorge. The "Keep On Keeping On" 12" is a fantastic piece of thrashing mad Japanese hardcore that I can't recommend enough to the speed freaks out there. The North American version (Deranged Records) is pictured and ripped here, but there's another version here with different cover art. Thanks a ton to Punk Dinner blog for posting Kanji song titles for so many great Japanese bands! His/her/their work made tagging the violent and noisy little masterpiece below a lot easier. So if you don't have NK6's Bloodsucker Records 7", it's in the folder too (at 320... etc.).

Get 'em here