Socialcide- Sick of the Pressure EP 7"

Year: 2005
Artist: Socialcide
Album: Sick of the Pressure EP
Label: Self-released

What the fuck!! Talk about the definition of "this record fucking rips" all put into 7inches of thrusting hardcore punk angst. When I first heard this record, I could not believe what I was hearing. This is straight up HARDCORE. It's got this pen sketch cover that just says the name and title in bold lettering with a picture of a house in a field. I have no idea how this works, but it sure looks like a hardcore record.

Hailing from Richmond, VA's almighty hardcore scene of the late 2000's, this band is an essential piece of that puzzle. I've seen them live about 5 times, and it's always a wall of noise pounding me against the wall. These kids really know hardcore.

 I can be fairly brief about this one, because telling you anything beyond, "holy shit you have to hear this fucking record" would probably be past the point. This is some of the tightest hardcore punk around nowadays. It's got the punchy riffs of bands like Government Warning except this is way faster, almost powerviolence speed, but paced well enough to be "perfect". It avoids sounding metal by all means, making it even more awesome. This captures the bands energy at their finest, and this is their best release ever.

Also, I told him I would get the word out. Since I'm blogging about SOCIALCIDE, the singer of this band, Zach, is actually moving to Raleigh this summer. If you're looking for a rad roommate, you should hit him up.

Download Here

IRA

Skitkids // Nightmare Split 7" EP

Artists: Skitkids (a-side) & Nightmare (b-side)
Year: 2007
Label: Hate Records
Tracks
A-side
1- Skitkids- Äckliga jävlar
2- Skitkids- Inskränkt Å trygg
3- Nightmare- Ruin on Parade & Light the Darkness



When Seth Beard was broke out of money, I feel like I totally intruded his record collectionby snagging this record from him for a few bucks. Before I owned it, I would go to his house and look for this record in particular just because I knew he had it. When he did catch up, I did eventually give him his Bastard 12" bootleg back, but I hid this one in the depths of my room and almost put a machine gun turret next to it because I never want to lose this record.

The A-side begins with Sweden's SKITKIDS; a lukewarm bass tone creeps in laying out the concrete for the massive amount of guitar and drum traffic that will rampage this piece of wax. The drums come in at a gruesome pace and a high volume production. Then rhythm guitar invades, which all leads you to believe that this is how loud this record's about to be. Suddenly, like a nuclear blast, your speakers will face an enormous threat that is the next part of the song where every instrument explodes, and this pissed off Swedish dude begins yelling like no one I've ever heard before. So much can be said about the intro to this record, but the best that can be said about the entire thing, start to finish, is that it absolutely does not leave any room to breathe and suffocates you entirely with frantic hardcore energy, and does not once slow down or calm down at all. Prepare to face the assault that is this entire record. When the guitar solo comes in, it also feels like that might be the max volume you'll hear of it, but then after a couple of stops and a punchy re-intro, you hear a massive burst of energy from the guitars, just slamming in unison. At the end of the first song, it gives you less than half a second to think about what you just heard, and then kicks back in with the drum roll into the next song which is just as hellish as the first. This is definitely the best thing ever recorded by SKITKIDS... two songs in four minutes.

Then flip to the b-side, and scramble your brain with a disturbing rumble. The NIGHTMARE side of this record is a complete frenzy. The instrument recordings are very blown out and the drumming is tight where it needs to be and get's real loose during the breaks, and flows up and down from both, defining evolved Japanese hardcore at it's best. This is hard as fuck, that's all that really needs to be said. Imagine drumming that makes GAUZE seem technical, NAPALM DEATH's bass tone, and a sinister and throat slicing guitar tone that will make you trash your room and break things. You can throw your death metal CDs in the trash can now, because NIGHTMARE makes that shit look like Bruce Springsteen or something. I highly recommend not listening to a rip of this record if you are driving down a highway; you would become the most frantic driver ever.

Download here

IRA

Out Cold - Two Broken Hearts Are Better Than One

Artist: Out Cold

Album: Two Broken Hearts Are Better Than One

Year: 1999

Label: Kangaroo

Tracks:

1. High Maintenance

2. Energy Vampire

3. A Is For Asshole

4. You'll Never Learn

5. Skinned Alive

6. Dangerously Unstable

7. Nailgun Murder

8. Schizo

9. One Trick Pony

10. Crawlspace

11. Restraining Order

12. It Went Bang

13. Deviant

14. Spaceshot

Starting in a town a few miles outside of Boston in 1989, Out Cold went against the trend of the time and would uncompromisingly stay true to their formula of tried-and-true 80’s style hardcore for another 20 years.  This record came out in 1999 or 2000, preceding the explosion of 80s hardcore obsession that would flood the US a few years later.  This is not necessarily to say that the band is responsible for a sudden rise in hardcore’s popularity; however, a lot of their influence, while maybe not alluded to, is fairly obvious.  After 20 years, Out Cold’s body of work has become large and significant, and I feel they are severely underrated. 

While they’ve had a ton of releases over the years, Two Broken Hearts Are Better Than One is definitely my favorite full-length they’ve ever put out.  This record seems to get less attention then some of the others for whatever reason.  There is no real good quality rip of this record anywhere else online, which is a shame because sonically, the songs on this record hit you like a ton of bricks with in-the-pocket rhythmic intensity. That being said, to me the stand-out quality of Out Cold’s sound is that while the songwriting is pure, unadulterated, and straightforward, it is also somehow extremely catchy at the same time.  This is due to the genius of Mark Sheehan, who handled vocal duties for the latter era of the band.  He is another one of my favorite all-time hardcore vocalists, delivering some of the most throat-callusing growls I’ve ever heard, always with serious attitude and lyrical content centered around either personal frustration or sadistic methods of murder.  Even so, no matter how menacing the riffing and lyrics are in a song, he always manages to create some-sort of vocal hook to grab onto.  This is no more apparent than in my favorite song on this record, “Deviant,” with a riff that, while simple, is one the most unrelenting and sinister opening riffs ever, still managing to get stuck in your head. 

On a side note, while I had always planned to post this record on the blog, I recently found out by an eerie coincidence that Mark Sheehan died unexpectedly at the age 41 in early October of last year.  This was obviously devastating for me to hear, Out Cold being one of my favorite bands in the last few years.  I never got a chance to see them live, but this record, and the other slue of great records Out Cold left behind are testament to how great Mark really was.  He will definitely be missed.  RIP.

 Download Here 

-Jeff

 

Beastie Boys- Aglio E Olio EP

Artist: Beastie Boys
Album: Aglio E Olio
Label: Grand Royal
Year: 1995

Tracks:
1. Brand New
2. Deal With It
3. Believe Me
4. Nervous Assistant
5. Square Wave in Union
6. You Catch a Bad One
7. I Can't Think Straight
8. I Want Some
9. Soba Violence (CD bonus track)

Written in 1995 during their successful rap career and released only in Australia and Japan, the Beastie Boys keep to the "Aglio E Olio" (that's Garlic and Oil in Italian) formula of their original hardcore punk influence with this release. This EP in particular is often overlooked for obvious reasons, mainly because their more popular hip-hop and instrumental material kinda rules hard, and this EP is real tricky to find. Nowadays, the most accessible way to get some of these tracks in physical format would be from their 3-disc "Beastie Boys Anthology", which is a mix between everything they've ever done, from the "Polly Wog Stew" sessions, to catchy tunes form "Hello Nasty" and "Ill Communication", all the way up to everything preceding "To the 5 Boroughs"; it includes about 4 tracks from this EP on it.

This record is a NYHC trophy in my opinion. It's got the punchy bass guitar style that sounds like Adam Yauct is worshipping the Bad Brains. The guitar sounds like it was plugged into some pawn shop gear, and replicates the playing of New York's Kraut with the tone and snarl of JFA or Reagan Youth. Mike Diamond's drumming shines in this recording, with his jazzy fluctuations, mathematical and punctual formulas, tight stops synced next to the bass guitar, and perfect analog sounds. He also does the all of the vocals on this record, and he still keeps that teenage angsty vocal delivery, much better than performed on their "Polly Wog Stew" record from the 80's. As a drummer myself, I take a lot of influence from this EP and other early NYHC that sounds anything like this. It's got a lot of weird instrumental breakdowns, that tap into tracks from "In Sounds From the Way Out" (their instrumental record), and their stomper "Sabotage". This EP is a staple of NYHC, especially for the era of the mid-90's when the NY scene was overrun by doofus shit bands like 25 ta' Life, Crown of Thornz, Hatebreed, and other bullshit that sounds like that. The reason I say that is because I imagine the Beastie Boys hearing about the scene at the time, and saying "oh fuck all that", and wrote this EP which is rudimentary, still raw punk, and blows all of that other shit away in a quick 11 minutes. Check out quick tracks like "Believe Me" and "Nervous Assistant" for a real raging fast, and aggro sounding hardcore, and tracks like "Square Wave in Union" and "I Can't Think Straight" for their more technical song structures. Especially on "Square Wave in Union", the intro has this mathematical open-handed drum tricks which is a rare find, because it's really hard to pull off.

Imagine all the Beastie Boys' fans who line up at their show and then see them pull out a Minor Threat cover in the middle of it... I think that's really fucking cool... See THIS VIDEO to find them covering "Screaming at a Wall" by Minor Threat. Other videos can be found of the Beastie Boys performing their Aglio E Olio material live, and I will provide the links here: NERVOUS ASSISTANT LIVE; I WANT SOME LIVE; BRAND NEW LIVE; BELIEVE ME LIVE; TOUGH GUY (from Ill Communication) LIVE. I would have really liked to have been there, except at the time I was like 10 years old, and this footage is from them playing somewhere in Australia, so there's no way in hell for me to have seen that.

Overall, if you haven't heard this record, you're really missing out. That's why I'm uploading this. CDEP released in Japan and Australia, and double 7" released in Australia. If anyone finds a 2x7" copy of this, I'll trade you a really sick record in my collection for it. The CD-EP's can be found rarely in some used bookstores, but all of this is out of print. This would make a really sick bootleg.

DOWNLOAD HERE

--IRA

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

In case you are wondering how to download our posted .RAR files

http://www.win-rar.com/download.html  EASY SHIT!!!

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.

WinRAR will take the .rar files we have posted on the mediafire links and re-encrypt them back into .wav formats in which you will be able to listen to via itunes or Windows Media player. Everything sounds way better in .wav format than it does in mp3 or whatever the fuck that shit is.
--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