Sunday, December 29, 2013

Bane recording final album.

After 18 years and 3 albums, new age hardcore legends Bane are announcing their breakup following one last album, entitled Don't Wait Up. I can say, without doubt or any shade of irony, that Bane that  is the most influential hardcore band of the last ten years and that, without them, bands like Have Heart, Ten Yard Fight, and even Converge would not exist as they existed/exist. So, in honor of their upcoming split, let's take a look back at Bane and what they did for the scene.

They formed when Aaron Dalbec, then  guitarist for Converge, approached Damon Bellardo and Matt Firestone. They played a few shows under the name "Gateway" before Firestone left the band. Damon then enlisted Aaron Bedard to contribute vocals. They hit the studio in 1995 and released a demo tape, the Free to Think, Free to Be EP, and the Holding this Moment EP and the rest, as they say, is history.

Bane was influential for a couple of reasons.


1. The Lyrics- Although early releases focused on the typical "straightedge youth triumphing against the pressures of adult morality" shtick, later releases had more mature content, with songs like "Wasted on the Young" detailing the hardcore herd mentality and its effect on the young.

2. The Music- Eschewing bro-core chuga-chugas for youth crew sing alongs and pile-along riffs, Bane stood out among the hardcore scene by focusing on melody. Every song is hummable and concise.

3. The merchandise- Okay, hear me out on this, in the early 90s, everybody had an x-watch or a gorilla biscuits t-shirt and it was instantly recognizable to anyone in the know. It was a matter of instant brotherhood. So when Bane had all of those hoodies and those t-shirts and patches, that recognition came back.

So, in memorial, you guys should spin "Give Blood" or "The Note" and reminisce. I know I will.

Goya streaming debut album

Whoa. . .um. . .so, some Ukrainian guys who I assume all have sweet beards and the best dank in town, started a band called Goya and released a totally sweet, massive sounding stoner doom album that recalls the best Electric Wizard as fronted by a less fervent King Diamond. You should check it out. Buy it, it's sweet.

marijuana.bandcamp.com

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Records of the year!

Okay guys. It's time for me to embrace the music bloggers right of passage and slap together a list of my favorite albums of the year. It's a silly tradition but hey, it's fun and I get to post about bands that a lot of people don't hear, and I feel that a lot of these groups are woefully under appreciated. With that said, I still feel kind of douchey posting a list like this, as it always comes across as a massive circle jerk over hip music, but whatever. No releases are in order, except for number 1.


 Yoshiko Ohara- Ringing in Our Wrists

Drowned in ambience, filled with chanting, and littered with subtle, almost subsonic noise swells, Yoshiko Ohara's post-Bloody Panda debut album is a strange one. It hovers somewhere in the middle between purposeful and hauntingly beautiful and aching and shambolically put together and that uncertainty gives it a sense of excitement. It feels like it is going to run off the rails in a very personal and sad way. Apparently Yoshiko recorded hooks and instrumentals and then chopped them up and released it without listening to it. With guts like that, she's the person to watch in the experimental music scene in 2014.



Bat- Primitive Age



"Primitive Age" goes down as the most accurate title of the year. This album is primitive, analog, proto-necro, badass speed,thrash metal with sweet twin guitar leads and perfect bass riffing. The album just sounds old, like it could have brewed in a backwater pub circa 1984. The players must have been fed a steady diet of bullet belts, whisky, and Diamond Head. Give this a spin, it'll brighten up your day.



Beastmilk-Climax 




For a lot of people, post-punk seems to begin and end with Joy Division and I think that's a serious shame. The "movement" (it was more of a loose conglomerate of slightly more poetic punks) spawned a whole lot of great bands. Luckily, the genre seems to have had a resurgence of sorts in recent history, with The Strokes and Interpol reaching mainstream success. While those bands are great, they were a bit too polished in sound for my taste. Finland's Beastmilk a bit of grit and looseness to the music. It feels emotional instead of impersonal.  It also has some muscle. Songs like "Love in a Cold World" and "Death reflects us" have rocking backbeat that makes the bands sound border on deathrock. This isn't original stuff, but it's exceedingly well done. These guys are going to explode.

Triac/D.O.C split

Nowadays, it seems quite easy for a band in the grind/powerviolence scene to play for a short time, buy some cheap recording equipment and bash out an ep or do a few splits without ever really progressing or improving as a band. So, when bands like Triac or Disciples of Christ a split that outshines 80% of their contemporaries, it's a wonder that they're not bigger than they are. Disciples of Christ are a tad bit heavier than Triac, and they include elements of harsh noise and sludge metal, all rooted in blasty, riffy grind. Triac are a bit more melodic, keeping one food in grind/powerviolence and the other in hardcore, while making fantastic use of samples.

What gets me about this split is the fact that these guys can write good fucking songs, and that's very hard to find in this scene. Righteous.


Cold Cave- 7 inch singles

It was a good year for Wesley Eisold. American Nightmare/Give up the Ghost reunited, undoubtedly causing a swath of fashion conscious, young hardcore kids to faint in ecstasy, he organized a tour with Nine Inch Nails, his most high-profile one to date, and Cold Cave, his post-punk, new wave, synth-whatever project, released three 7 inch singles. Entitled Black Boots, God Made the World, and Oceans with No End. All  of these songs, like every other Cold Cave song, are fantastic but what makes these releases special is, hear me out now, the aesthetic.  All artwork is confined to black and white. All designs are sparse and economical, often containing just a picture of Eisold or, in the case of Oceans with no end, only a black square. All this makes me think that Eisold is setting himself up as a kind of Boyd Rice-esque, enigmatic figure and rarely am I as captured by an artists as I am with artists who create archetypes for themselves and commit to them wholeheartedly.

1. Water Bullet/ Tween Heat split 


This is it, the album of the year. The record that clearly stands above everything else I have listened in 365 days. This album is perfect and it is perfect because I know almost nothing about it. I received it in the post by accident. It had no information or recording details, it had no discernible  cover art, the only thing it came with was a small button from Rainbow Bridge Records. A quick google search revealed nothing but the title and I had no desire to delve any further. I popped it into my cassette player and I was treated with some of the most challenging, yet accessible music I have ever heard. It's noise, it's ambient, it's music concrete, field recordings, all of it so warped that it is near unrecognizable. The other side was similar, sounds of indeterminable source slapping of of each other.

What makes this release for me, is that it seems to change with each listen. Sometimes it soothes and sometimes it punishes. Sometimes it make me think about wonderful things and other times it makes me think of very bad things.

You see, in the internet age, when we can instantly know almost every fact about a recording, or a band, or the intent of an artist, to have a recording with nothing but the music to hold on to, it allows the listener to come up with his own thoughts and opinions about the music. It can become yours in a very special way. The artist can be anybody you want and the art can represent whatever it is that you want. It's art with no preconceptions and we need some of that. It's freeing, in a way.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Agoraphobic Nosebleed DMT mixtape



I kept to a strict macrobiotic diet. I harvested the wheat, fruit, and vegetables myself. I threw out all of my processed foods. I threw out all the processed food in the tri-state area. I was already a vegan so I stepped it up a notch. I got "XVX" tattooed on my forehead. I bought every Slapshot record and I liked every picture of alt models with Earth Crisis tattoo's on their face. One time, I saw my neighbor breast feeding her child and I ripped the covering from her body, grabbed the infant from her chest and karate kicked it right in the face while shouting, "Physically Strong/Morally Straight/Positive Youth/We're the Youth of Today."

I exercised  32 hours a day. I lifted until I had muscles on my muscles. The sound of my workout grunts were so bestial that animal control was called and I ended up with a tranquilizer dart in each of my abs.

I would meditate until the supramundane powers were my bitch. I attained Nirvana seven different times and it sounded like a Yes album.

Now I was ready. My body was literally a block of granite and my mind was purer than Karl Buechner's colon. I sat down. I connected my speakers to my laptop and I pressed play. Unfortunately, I didn't get to listen to it as my heart gave out from pure pretension.

Monday, December 16, 2013

Top ten albums. . .

Hey there! Tis the season for blogs, websites, and zines everywhere to count down their top ten releases of the year. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to bite the bullet and share my list, but first I'm going to be sharing something a bit different. I'm going to turn the clock back a hefty 20 years and countdown my top 10 favorite albums have 1993. They are in no particular order, and this is my opinion, so nobody post butthurt comments complaining about exclusions or numbering. With that said, here we go!

10. Drop Dead/ Crossed Out split 5-inch 
Powerviolence reached its creative and aesthetic peak in the early 1990s.  The scene was the perfect storm of fuckup hardcore kids with thrash metal riffs and politically fired up, musically talented people making dissonant music as a political statement. The Drop Dead/Crossed Out split stood out to me. partly because it is a, roughly cookie sized, 5 inch record, and partly because it is just ripping, crushing, flawless powerviolence. Not much needs to be said.

9. Entombed- Wolverine Blues 
With Wolverine Blues, Entombed took death metal, flooded it with a hefty dose of hard rock and trad metal, and slapped it with some viscious groove. The result was, as Guitar World called it, "the best heavy metal record of the decade." This is death metal you can party, drive, and drink to. It's just plain fun.

8. Bratmobile- Pottymouth 

As far as riot girl goes, it produced much better political discussion and influence than it did good music. For all the hype, Bikini Kill is only decent and the others, besides 7 year bitch, are not worth mentioning. Bratmobile, on the other hand, made some gorgeous, spunky punk that conjures the best of X-Ray Spex or The Make Up. "Fuck Yr Fans" has particular charm.  I hope my daughter is a riot girl. I hope she ends up smarter and kinder than me in every way. I hope she kicks the world in the ass and changes it for the better. I hope she listens to bratmobile

7. Rorschach - Protestant- 

Oh, metalcore. How I miss the days in which you were challenging, heavy, and dark. Converge is still going strong but the likes of Earth Crisis and Integrity have all but disappeared. One of the most unappreciated bands of this loose, eclectic scene was New Jersey's own, Rorschach. They were well ahead of their time but  they petered out in 1993. Who knows what they could have accomplished had they continued. 


6. Satyricon- Dark Medieval Times 

 1993.  Norway is burning. A dark force from the forests and the esoteric temples have risen to take back metal. But the front is imploding. Varg Vigernes murders Euronymous, ending Mayhem (for a time) and confining Varg to making ambient albums behind bars. With the most evil, satanic band of black metal gone, Oslo two-man band Satyricon is left to take the helm. With their first full length album, Satyricon focus their music on a more real realm of darkness, the rampant  famine, war, ignorance, and poverty of the medieval age. Like fellow stalwarts Ulver, they add elements of traditional folk music to their sound, a decision that would influence some of the more popular black metal groups in recent years. Satyricon would go on to make some poor albums, but "Dark Medieval Times" stands out as a classic of a scene filled with them.

5. Sigh- Scorn Defeat 

A common idea among metal heads is that the black metal, as typified by the second wave, is solely a  Norwegian mode of expression, that the things that make black metal black metal could only be conjured and can only be used with sincerity by a Norwegian. To the people who subscribe to this, I hold Sigh's 1993 gem "Scorn Defeat" as proof of the contrary. This music is avant-garde and challenging in a way that true Norwegian Black Metal was not, but it retains all of the misanthropy, darkness, and esoteriscism of those bands, making it a metal classic.

4. Gore Beyond Necropsy 

Japan is a culture tailor made to produce outsider art. Whether it is the sexual restraints, the overwhelming business culture, or the strict dress code, outsider art is a necessity. Merzbow, The Incapacitants, and Boredoms all eked out some space in the culture memory, while Gore Beyond Necropsy goes unloved. It's a shame, because the band put out some of the best noisegrind of all time. This album is just pure filth and I love it. They were so much more then their side of a split with Merzbow.

3. Billy Childish- Torments Nest 


Billy Childish is a modern day renaissance man, a prolific musician, poet, writer, painter, and  Unlike most jacks of all trades, Childish is talented in all of his artistic pursuits. Like everything else, his music is raw and emotional. He's had quite a life, and his punky, bluesy take on it is fascinating.

2. Plastikman- Sheet One 

The cover of this album is perforated, making it look like a sheet of acid tabs. With this aesthetic, a prospective listener might think this music will be calm, soothing, psychedelic trance. Instead, it's groundbreaking, minimalist techno. This isn't dance music. Hell, Fenriz has a tattoo of the Plastikman logo. That should tell you something.

1. Earth- Earth 2 

This album, spawned in the perpetually stoned mind of Dylan Carlson, is a fucking monster. It's cloying and crushing and perfect. It spawned a multitude of copies but nothing comes close. A masterpiece. 



Sunday, December 15, 2013

New Internal Rot tracks!

Good news on the grindcore front! The near dormant specter of brutal grind that is Internal Rot has resurfaced with new tracks! Two new songs and a live cover of Excruciating Terror. Check it out!

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Perceptions call it quits

A bummer on the Belgian front as melodic hardcore outfit Perceptions are folding their cards. I'm not normally a fan of this strain of hardcore but these guys do it with a passion and energy that cannot be denied. Their final single release is called "The Effort" and can be watched at the link at the bottom. Their final show will be March 8th in Sint Niklaas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHOJCSMJILo

Band of the Day: Diploid


Australia has a thriving, organic  heavy music scene and it's one of the best on the planet. It's been chronicled on other blogs before so I won't get too much in to it but I will say that I am immensely proud of the bands. Australia has exorbitantly high ticket prices, so by creating this small, DIY scene, these bands have offered cheaper culture for the people around them. Hats off to them!

My current favorite band from this scene is Diploid from Melbourne. They burst onto the scene with a self titled EP in 2012. It was a unique, bitter, misanthropic fusion of Black Metal, Grindcore, and old school screamo an. It sounded fantastic and flowing and proved to me that Black Metal and Screamo are two sides of the same unloved, frozen, forest dwelling coin.

Their newest release, Human, keeps all of the traits that made that EP special while introducing some interesting new ones. Although every song is punishing, they each have a jagged, At The Drive-In-esque sense of melody. This is very present in the track "On Going", a personal favorite of mine. It has real weight and momentum behind it.

"In The Toybox" starts with a riff that is very nearly Pulled Apart By Horses but it soon derails into a nasty, paranoid audio diatribe.

What is so remarkable to me is how fully formed these songs feel,  despite their brevity. The longest song is two and a half minutes but it feels like an epic. These guys can clearly play and it shows. The vocals do a nice job of tethering the music to the extreme music world. They're pissed and disgusted and guttural. Rohan Harrison (of Australia rippers Extortion) is performing guest vocals on track "Follow The Trails of Tape into the Forest."

This record is fantastic. I'm crossing every available digit in hopes of a full length.

Also, big props to the cover artist. This pop-art, collage style is rare for this kind of music. It turned out great.
http://diploid.bandcamp.com/album/human

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

This new Cynic song is god-tier

Sean Reinhert on drums, Sean Malone on Bass, Paul Masvidal on guitar. Cynic is back and they are throwing you a fucking curveball. Their new track, "The Lion's Roar" from the new album Kindly Bent to Free Us, abandons their angular, futurist take on death metal for a prog-rock meets power pop sound that could best be described as Andy Sturmer if he had grown up on Porcupine Tree  and Yes.

What gets me about the track is how happy it is. Metal music, in general, focuses on negative emotions and experiences. This is a breath of fresh air for the metal/prog community and it's going to shake things up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTmsaoSebYo

Sammath streaming new album

Dutch black metal band Sammath are streaming their new album, entitled Godless Arrogance, at Terrorizer.com. The album will have an official release on February 3rd through Hammerheart records.

I've listened to it a couple of times and it sounds great. It's no-frills black metal, but the band has added influence from 80's speed metal. Ferocious! Highly recommended!

http://www.terrorizer.com/news/streams/sammath-premiere-new-album-godless-arrogance-full-exclusively-terrorizer/

Kremlin amnesty could release pussy riot members!

Great news on the Russian front! According to The Guardian, an amnesty bill proposed by Vladimir Putin could release women with children who have committed non-violent offenses. Both Nadezhda Tolokonnovika and Maria Alekhina, the two members of Pussy Riot still imprisoned, have young children.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

The Best of Grindcore cover art.


Grindcore seems to be MADE for rad, detailed cover art. Think about it, the genre stems from hardcore, extreme  metal, industrial, and noise music, genres that are known for their challenging and provocative covers.In honor of grindcore and all the musical barriers it broke, I'm going to collect my favorite cover art in the genre.  Expect raw. Expect political. Expect horror. These are in no particular order.

1. Grind Madness at The BBC
Up first is Grind Madness At The BBC. This is a fantastic compilation of seminal Earache bands (Napalm Death, Carcass, Extreme Noise Terror) live recordings on John Peel's BBC program. John Peel was a hero and a tastemaker and his support for underground music was amazing. The cover art is a person's head exploding from a lightning bold shot by the BBC radio office. I can imagine people tuning in to Peel's show and hearing the politicized sonic fury that is grindcore for the first time had a similar reaction.

2. Brutal Truth- Sounds of The Animal Kingdom Brutal Truth have always impressed me with their dedication  to grind. They're touring monsters and all of their albums fucking rule. Kevin Sharp is a great lyricist. His words straddle the line between serious political diatribes and side-splitting social satire. I think no album cover captures this than their 1997 release, Sounds of The Animal Kingdom. The fact that the man, the man that resembles a corporate figure morphing into a gorilla. The image has a clear political bent but it's also very funny. C'mon, who doesn't love gorillas?

3. +Hirs+ -Gaytheism- +Hirs+ are, without a doubt, my favorite band in the grindcore scene right now. Their songs are short and sweet, their vocals are pissed as anything, and the guitar work is great but what sets them apart is their politics, their use of drum machines, and creative samples. They're defiantly queer, cop-hating, and anti-religious and I love them for it. Their 2011 compilation release Gaytheism captures their spirit with a title and an image. Fuck Yes.

4. Operation Grindcore Volume 1: It's heartwarming to see someone help out the underground scene like VII and Andrew have over at Operation Grindcore. In 2011, they put out a comp featuring underground grind  from all over the globe. All the bands are great, no-nonsense, DIY fucking grind and the cover art is fitting. It makes me think of massive, humanoid grind-loving aliens descending from space to torture scene kids.
5. Repulsion- Horrified- I wasn't quite sure if this belongs on this list. This album leans more towards death metal than grind, but the art is so perfect I couldn't resist. This is just a classic. A great album and a fantastic cover. It reminds me of old Al Williamson EC comics artwork.
6. Insect Warfare- World Extermination- Released in 2007, World Extermination is a modern grindcore classic. I'm a sucker for black and white, crusty art so pair that with sweet, heavy music and it's a done deal.
7. Lycanthropy- self titled- It's always good to see color in grindcore art, especially color that is done this well. The image is cheesy and rough but it's brought to a whole new level of intensity with the palette used. Also, the band has a great logo, one of the best in grind.

8. D.O.C/Triac split. I'm not a huge fan of either of these bands, but the cover art is just too fantastic to ignore. It conjures images of otherworldly lovecraftian horror. Horror themed covers are a dime a dozen but not many can convey terror as well as this one.
9. Converge/Napalm Death split- Two of my absolute favorite bands on one slap of wax. Perfection made better by gorgeous Jacob Bannon cover art. Bannon is an amazing artist and, in my humble opinion, this is his best cover work.
10. Pig Destroyer- Terrifyer- Pig Destroyer is a band that I'm not really into, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating great art! This is a beautifully drawn image. I like art that shows the female form without it being overly sexual.

Friday, December 6, 2013

Purson premier new songs

Sexy, swinging, psychedelic English rock outfit Purson premiered new tracks  during a BBC radio session. The new songs were titled "Mr. Howard" and "I will be Good."

Listen to the session here:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01mrzz4

Nai Harvest sign to Topshelf Records

Sheffield old-school emo-band Nai Harvest have signed to Topshelf Records. The label, along with Dog Nights Productions are due to release an EP from the band entitled Hold Open My Head on March 3rd.I'm excited. The band is fantastic. The Whatever EP was killer emo-rock and these guys need some more exposure.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Craving stream new album

German black/folk metal band Craving are streaming their new album At Dawn. The album was released on October 11 through Apostasy records.

Give it a listen here: http://www.terrorizer.com/news/streams/stream-cravings-new-album-dawn-full-terrorizer/

Converge announce live dvd

Seminal Massachusetts metalcore band Converge have announced a new live dvd entitled Live At the BBC. Recorded at the historic MV4 studios in London, this session continues the legacy of the Peel sessions recordings of heavy music greats like Napalm Death, Carcass, and Extreme Noise Terror. The release date has yet to be announced.

An audio preview can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-8r-cNzSqI&feature=youtu.be

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Bandcamp artist of the week: Ilabrat Xul


 Religion is an interesting and inescapable part of the human condition and the darker, more esoteric portion of it always catches attention.Magic, alchemy, astrology, divination, it all reeks of a time in which ignorance prevailed, yet it's rituals, language, and art are comforting to me. Like Black Metal, occult language and ideas make me feel connected to something much larger than myself, something ancient and brooding.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a believer in occult practices, I am a believer in science, but, for me personally, it is a positive, mind-clearing form study.

In 2013,with the concept of genres being almost completely caved in, it's a great time for occult expression in music. I've heard satanic-pop, Orixan jazz, and Kaballah-themed Death Metal. A lot of this music, however, comes across as very unauthentic. It seems to be a rare thing for occult-based groups to truly believe in the message they are preaching.
|
Luckily, there are those that practice what they preach. Those that use music to spread their abstruse ideas.One of those precious few is Indiana's Ilabrat Xul with their album Expositor of the Black Scriptures.

IX play black metal through a power electronics filter. The guitars are overblown and noisey, the vocals are distant and haunting, and the drums are buried under the hellish racket. The recording is very low fi, so I'm not sure about this, but there seems to be some sort of noise synth pedal creating a low hum under all of it. Every song is very mid-paced but the rawness gives it a very immediate quality.

The vocals are fantastic. They are some of the most hateful, bile choked wails I've ever heard. From A Blackened State of Being is especially misanthropic. It makes me want to build a cabin in the woods and keep everyone out.

If you want honest, misanthropic noise in the vein of Prurient, Occult Warwolf, or demo era Burzum

8/10

http://occultsupremacyproductions.bandcamp.com/album/ilabrat-xul-expositor-of-the-black-scriptures-cdr

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

New Mogwai video

Scottish post-rockers Mogwai have premiered the music video for their track The Lord is Out of Control taken from their brand-spanking new record, Rave Tapes, scheduled to be released on January 20th.

For everyone out there into New Years Resolutions, make it yours to listen to this album the night it's released and not cry. I dare you.

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbwIFzxD1-w

Bent Life new album.

Nebraska based metalcore band, Bent Life are bringing the mosh with their upcoming LP Full Skull. The album, which includes two previously released 7 inch Ep's Full Skull Ep and Bent Life, will be released exclusively overseas on Fist in the Air Records.

Stream the new album at the link at the bottom and catch the band on tour in Europe in 2014.

http://www.terrorizer.com/news/stream-bent-lifes-full-skull-full-exclusively-terrorizer/

New Obsidian Gate Track!


After an eleven year hiatus, German symphonic blackened death metal band Obsidian Gate have released a new track, entitled Becoming Iblis. The song is part of their new album Whom The Fire Obeys, set to be released on Kristallblut records.

The track is awesome, really. It's melodic, heavy, and the vocal delivery is spot on.

Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGsW1O52NUA

Monday, December 2, 2013

Sordo Interview

Hello, all! It's been a while. I've had some issues and had to take some time off from blogging but I'm back in full force!

In late September, I interviewed Eddie, the bassist and co-vocalist for Oxnard powerviolence madmen Sordo. They're my favorite band in the PV/Grindcore scene right now. They're fast, lo-fi, and crushingly, trauma-inducingly heavy but each song, although they're between 10-25 seconds in length on average, have hummable hooks.

Eddie was way cool, and although the interview was over email he was personable and funny and I have to give him massive props for putting out his music and his own music through his own label (R.I.P DIY Noise)


1.      First off, could you introduce yourself and say what you do in the band?
My name is Eduardo, or Eddie for most folk. I respond also to Ed or Yayo. I play bass and do vocals.
2.      You’re funny dudes. Do you think powerviolence takes itself too seriously?
Haha thanks man! At times yeah. Like for me it's pretty funny seeing all these dudes in other PV bands expound on how much life sucks and how horribly bleak it is-then like every other post they make is an advertisement for their newest release. I don't know, do what you will and how you want. But I think it's just funny.
3.      What do you think of the anti-music label?
I love it. It pretty much sums up my view on music. A lot of people get it wrong-they have this presumption that I'm some kind of snob when it comes to music-that i'll only listen to PV or grind and not other stuff like Dream Theater or what not. The anti-music sign or noise insignia for me is actually my way of telling all the music snobs that we aren't for them.
4.      You guys seem really into splits, what are some bands you’ve put out splits with? Any bands you really want to do splits with but haven’t?
Haha yeah we kinda just fell into that. Like for the most part I usually set up splits and the other dudes kinda just go with it. Usually people ask us to split and we just say yes haha. I think it's uncouth to deny to do a split with a band. Hell we'll split with just about anyone so long as their a cool band and or cool dudes. We've split with Corrupt Humanity, To Die, Hipster Trash, Chimpowa, Crutch, Knifewound and a bunch others. I'd love to split with Godstomper some day. If DosxAmigos ever came back i'd do a split with them too. I'm looking forward to splitting with a lot of rad ass bands like Tension,Obacha, Six Brew Bantha, Bungus, Exogorth, Chainsaw Squid, Water Torture. Tons for sure haha.
5.      I fucking loved the Solid Snake cover art for “Tactical Precision Violence.” Did you guys get any bullshit from konami?
Thanks man! We're all fans of Metal Gear but I think i'm the more avid player haha. Not at all. I don't think we're so mainstream or even relevant to get Hideo Kojima on our ass haha
6.      You put out “Most Definitely not a Virus” on floppy disk. What attracts you to older mediums of release?
Haha that was just a joke really. Like I run my label DIY Noise and I releases a floppy disc for a few bands and so I just wanted to release one for my band haha. But I actually do collect floppy disks lol. I just like the novelty of it. I mean logically speaking. A vinyl record would be the oldest medium for music. Yet people still release it for no other reason other then to just have it on vinyl.
7.      Are you guys signed to DIY noise? Or are they just a distributor.
That's my label actually haha and no I don't sign anybody. I just release bands and I have a small distro as well. I use it to move Sordo stuff most def.

8.      Are you involved in any side projects?
I run my label. My brother and I also play in a D-Beat/Raw Noise Punk band called DIS-DIG. I use to play noise in my noise band LARVA. And that's about it. Oh and I use to play guitar for a punk band called Wages Of Fear

9.      Finally, could you clue me in on any upcoming projects and when/where we should expect them to be released?
Yeah, I mean I'm sure we'll be doing loads of splits until we decide to call it a day. It's hard for us to record but we do have plans to record in the very near future. As far as splits and other recordings go it's all up in the air. We don't really set any dates for stuff-more just decide to do something and then do our best to get it out when time allows.



Sordo will be releasing splits with raw New York Grinders Hiroshima Vacation and the mighty Chainsaw Squid.

http://narcosarcasmo.bandcamp.com/album/sordo-chulo-split

Monday, September 23, 2013

Is Survived By

What will your legacy be?

When you are dead, who will remember you and what will they remember?

It's hard, isn't it. To think of yourself as leaving thoughts that others will carry after you were gone. That you will exist only in those thoughts.

Now imagine you are Jeremy Bolm and you are the frontman of Touche Amore one of the principal bands in modern hardcore. Kids love you, look up to you, they follow you to dingy clubs and halls and they scream along to words you have written. You mean something to you.

Once you leave, will they still care, will they remember your words? Will your band fade into the realm of obscurity.

On Is Survived By, Touche Amore question what it means to have a legacy, and they do it damn well.

They've abandoned the formulaic musicianship and overwrought lyrics of Parting The Sea Between Brightness and Me in favor of melodic emo-ish guitar lines and meditative, erudite prose. The newfound musicianship help cover the only flaw in the record- namely, Jeremy Bolm's monotone vocal delivery. He carries the same hardcore bark throughout the record, never change style or pitch.

Despite that issue, this is an excellent album and a big leap forward for the band.

8.5/10

Saturday, September 21, 2013

New Warbringer track

Warbringer have released a total fucking ripper of a track entitled "Hunter Seeker" from their upcoming album IV: Empires Collapse due out on October 29

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BfxYMI8L9Q

New Truckfighters!


Psychadelic rock band Truckfighters have released a new song, taken from their eponymous EP coming out October 4th.

I slept on these guys for a while but they totally rule.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnMXxmdzfEI

Make Love Wheat Bread

The Delicious Bread Collective, the  experimental bastions of the nonsensical have released a new album entitled "Make Love Wheat Bread."

I really can't say anything about these guys. Just...give it a listen.

http://thedeliciousbreadcollection.bandcamp.com/album/make-love-wheat-bread

New More Than Life song


Melodic hardcore tour-monsters, More Than Life have released a brand new track entitled "Do you Remember?"

It's very, very melodic alternative rock. A very interesting  change in sound for the band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI2lHSPkW1c