Herätys - Helvettiin Ja Takaisin EP

Artist: Herätys

Album: Helvettiin Ja Takaisin EP

Year: 2010

Label: La Familia

Tracks:

1. Äääh

2. Hieman Hajallaan

3. Turhuuden Tulva

4. Sokeat Seurjaarat

5. Ei Diagnoosia

6. Tämä Todellisuus

If any of you have talked to me about Swedish hardcore, or hardcore in general for that matter, you’ve probably heard me rave about this band. Herätys released their debut LP early last year. The LP was interesting because the two sides of the record were divided amongst two different recordings of the band: the A-side being much more raw and lo-fi like early Finnish hardcore, and the B-side much more polished, sounding literally like it could have been taken from the last Totalitär record. I loved the LP as soon as I heard it, and this EP is an awesome follow-up.

While this EP is much more akin to the B-side of the LP, I think Herätys really found their own sound on this record, delivering their brand of hardcore with a style and attitude that is distinctly their own. There is still a fair amount of Totalitär influence in the riffing and drumming, but with a lot more differentiation in tempo than the LP, toppled with slogan style lyrical delivery in vein of Discharge in the choruses. Never being a huge fan of the vocal-styling of early Totalitär, Herätys’ Janne is probably one of my favorite hardcore vocalists in a long time. While the band is from Sweden, the lyrics are actually sung in Finnish, lending the vocals to a much more snarling quality. I personally think the vocals were probably better and clearer on the LP, but the vocals on this EP are still raging and so fucking PISSED. Though they may not be one of the fastest or most complicated bands, Herätys and their style of hardcore is a surge of brutal power and pure intensity. You drop the needle on the record and it just explodes out of the speakers! If I ever saw this band live I would probably murder people in the crowd. Just saying. Definitely one of my favorite bands I discovered last year.

You can order this record directly from the label overseas, but Daniel at Sorry State also has them in his distro.

La Familia 

Sorry State 

Download 

-Jeff

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Be sure to get a quick download from win-rar in order to extract any sort of files you will find on this blog, as well as many many many other blogs out there. It's a super fast download, and totally worth it. Plus it will allow you to compress your own files and perhaps mediafire or email them, just like we are doing.

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--IRA

Extortion- Terminal Cancer 7" EP

Short Fuse Records / Way Back When Records
I can't find any website for Short Fuse. Hopefully this guy has like 500 of them sitting under his bed or something, because this EP can be kind of hard to get a hold of.
http://www.waybackwhenrecords.com/ (I suggest signing up for the mailing list so you can get info on the distro and wholesale information. WBW Recs still put out new stuff, so keep in touch with them if you're interested in preorders and cool shit like that)

Track List:
A-SIDE
1- Worthless Life
2- Just A Matter of Time
3- Cut Short
4- Who Cares
5- Monstrosity
6- Cornered
B-SIDE
7- Libidinous Grandmother
8- Isolated
9- Control
10- Unknown Track
11- Trainwreck


I'm going to start my range of record rants and blogging with one of the most powerful 7inches in my collection. From Melbourne, Australia, Extortion's Terminal Cancer EP is by far the definition of everything I've ever wanted to hear in a no-bullshit-hardcore record. If any of you have ever toured through Raleigh, or any of you locals have come over to my house to listen to records with me, the chances of me having already showed you this record is very likely. On the insert it shows all of the frantically pissed off lyrics, which are surprisingly clear in the mud mix of this record. By "mud mix", I definitely mean to point out that this record was recorded on a simple tape recorder. As it reads on the insert "Recorded on a Yamaha MT3X in a room-- RAW AS PISS", and shows a picture of the recorder with two microphones laying next to it. That's the coolest fucking way to record anything, period, and probably took nearly no time at all.

The lyrics laid out are very straight-forward, with a large vent of frustrations, and are all belted out with immense youth-like force. Tight guitar riffing and simultaneous bass guitar, with some of the most abrasive patterns known in all of hardcore. The drum sound on this recording is completely uncompressed and giant. A ton of natural and unedited reverb gives it way to totally explode all over your fucking stereo system. The style of the drums and the riffs are taken from simple formats, yet are performed faster than hell at perfection. The breakdowns are slowed down to a crawl, and when switched back and forth with the opposite fast parts, if you decide to headbang to it, you would definitely break your neck, with the unpredictable transitions and firm stops. Every riff feels like it was cut in half during the writing process, giving leeway to fit the blistering 11 songs on this EP. Not one single fuck up, not one weak link, and not one piece of disappointment exist on this record, that is, if you are searching for an instant abrasive power-violence hardcore classic. It's SO not metal, and that might be why I feel so much more inclined to flip it over and over again.

This record is often overlooked and underestimated, which is exactly why I'm posting it first out of all of my upcoming write ups. It's that fucking great. This summer, I get to see Extortion live at Chaos in Tejas, and they are, in my opinion, one of the strongest lings on that bill. Other bands on the fest that I'm stoked on are Low Threat Profile, Youth of Today, Kriegshog, Larm, Doom and even fucking Crazy Spirit. I'm going to freak out when I see Extortion live. It'd be fucking great to see this band play Raleigh some day; everyone needs to hear this fucking record.

-IRA

Download Here

Subculture - I Heard A Scream

 

Artist: Subculture

Album: I Heard A Scream

Year: 1985

Label: No Core/Fartblossom

Tracks:

1. All My Love

2. Words I've Never Heard

3. Le Chartier's Principle

4. I Heard A Scream

5. Creatures

6. The Last Time

7. Explain

8. Stepdad

9. Relinquished

10. I'm Fed Up

11. Sadness

12. I Thought You Knew

13. Long Ago

14. Catholic Schools

15. Feelin' Good

16. Stomp Your Ass

Sadly, outside of Raleigh circles, Subculture is an '80s hardcore band that is fairly unknown.  The singer of this band, Kevin Collins, is more well known these days for handling vocal duties in Double Negative.  This LP came out in 1985 in fairly limited availability and you'd be pretty hard-pressed to find it these days.  The production is fairly raw and unpolished, but also driven and ambient.  Reed Mullen of C.O.C. is actually credited as a producer on the record, but Subculture sounds quite different from what one might expect of other Raleigh contemporaries, like Corrosion of Conformity.  While there are your metal-twinged, raged-out parts that Raleigh is known for, there is also a fair amount of experimentation in tempo variation, clean guitar arpeggios, and noisy interludes.  

Considering that most of the members of the band were teenagers during the making of this record, the musicianship is actually quite impressive.  The lyrical content however, vastly different from Collin's recent songwriting, is mostly about love and relationship problems!  It works with the dynamics of the music though, creating a roller coaster of moods and undertones.  It's a wonder with the vocal delivery and classic potential on songs like "Sadness" that a full-length like this isn't more well known.  I Heard A Scream is a record at the tale-end of the first wave of hardcore that deserves more attention than it has gotten.  Definitely worth checking out.

Download Here 

-Jeff