FACE TOMORROW

Perfectly executed and determined positive Y2K//SXE hardcore from Seattle. Of course, you would have guessed that if you had read the "Rain City Straight Edge" thing on the cover. Moshes on point, breakdowns on lock, cheat beat fastcore parts dialed in. It's all of the things, you know? And some of you....some of you know exactly what I mean. 

RAIN CITY STRAIGHT EDGE

HERE

BRAINxTOILET

Utterly guttural Southern grind. Forceful, massive, chaotic, relentless....and fukk is it fast. Choice cut is "Infinite Regret" if only for the (slightly) slower kinda '90s sounding guitar part that creeps in just before the robotic lurch/squeal/mini mosh, but each of those parts whizz by in just a couple of seconds. This 2013 release from North Carolina's BRAINxTOILET requires maximum attention, and maximum volume comes highly recommended. 

BRAINxTOILET

BULLDOZED

Late '90s metalcore was all the rage everywhere is seemed at the time, and SE Asia was no different. But there's something about the pure and vicious don't give a fukk vibe about these recordings that makes me almost nostalgic for knuckle dragging monotonous E chugs and beat down mid tempo moshes. From the brief liner notes on this tape, I gather that BULLDOZED may not have been the most savory or supportive dudes in the Philippines DIY scene ("we never claimed we're the good guys") but they were certainly fierce, and growing up surrounded by poverty and a flourishing economy based on drugs and prostitution that funnels profits to foreign nationals and organized crime while leaving the local population to fight over the scraps....? Well, that might throw a little shade on your outlook. Even on these rough recordings - a 1998 demo and a live set from the following year - you can feel the power....and the hate. 

BULLDOZED

CRUTCH

I wish that this tape could actually capture the fire that this trio started one afternoon back in March when I saw them lay waste to a glorified storage unit in Oklahoma City, but for the geographically challenged....this tape will have to suffice. Volume helps. CRUTCH capture the late '90s hc/blast/pv vibe perfectly - face melting hardcore tunes with brutally simplistic mid paced stomps trading off with grinding blurs and the things Max would always call "jerk off riffs" when WHN? were writing songs (you know, the hand just goes up and down the the neck...back and forth...sorry kids, I know this is a family friendly music blog - except for all the talk about drugs and stuff - but seriously....that is the motion, and that's what the riffs are called, and actually I'm not sorry at all). These dudes absolutely slayed in the flesh, and I was almost hesitant to press PLAY when I got home because sometimes it's just not as good, you know? But this collection rrrrrips right out of the gate, and CRUTCH have fully mastered that CROSSED OUT style 'hardcore into blast into slow DBeat back into blast' thing (and if you know what I mean then you totally fukkn know exactly what I mean) so perfectly that you feel like you know what's coming before they even do the damn thing but then they still manage to surprise you ("Exempt Employee" is a perfect example). I confess that I am not always (or even often) in the mood to listen to this brand of destruction (though I am always down to see it live), but when I am.....? This is the fukkn shit I want. 23 tracks (in just under 22 minutes) culled from comps and demos and shit, and every one of them is a banger. 

YEAR ONE

TAPE #55

You should just be able to read the spine on this one and know what's up. The HOMO PICNIC and 7 SECONDS sets are from around 1985 (they play "Just One Day" from New Wind, but it definitely seems like a new addition to the set), and it's good to hear HOMO PICNIC taking some jabs at the headliners between songs...7 SECONDS are straight fire on this recording by the way, positive and earnest and very fukkn real. CRO-MAGS demo has made the rounds forever (I honestly only included it here in the interest of presenting the cassette in its entirety); the URGENT FURY tracks are from the 1985 demo, one of the most underappreciated NY bands that I know of (these five songs were the A-Side of the Demos 1984-86 10" that Broken Rekkids reissued in the early '90s - highly recommended and still readily available in bargain bins around the US); and the BORN WITHOUT A FACE tracks will save you a cool $50 unless you need to hold the OG wax in your hand (and I kinda do). A relic from the tape trading days of the 1980s, collections like this used to be how people found new bands...you got one of these bad boys in the mail and you listened front to back, soaking everything in a mentally categorizing what clicked and what didn't to help guide you deeper into the unknown. The Unknown is good - it's full of wonder and discovery. And its way better than brainlessly filling up your hard drive....

TAPE #55

TIMELINE

From the north shore of the Black Sea in Ukraine....hard hitting midpaced SXE hardcore knows no boundaries, no borders. Melodic and melancholic, TIMELINE create tension with their almost casual approach, never unleashing but always teetering right on the edge with spoken/shouted vocals expectant and fierce. There are only four tracks here, and I confess that it took two of them for me to really lock into what TIMELINE were up to...but the power of technology makes repeat listens effortless, and I've listened to "Fume" five times this morning. So far.

TIMELINE

GREEN BERET

This one shouldn't be lost on any self respecting follower of current DIY hardcore....but maybe you missed a chance to snag their 2014 West Coast tour cassette? Here you go. Full throttle throaty DBeat hardcore from Boston, recorded live in the studio and sounding hot like fire. I don't think there's so much as a breakdown until "Concrete Nightmare" at about the halfway point of this sub-15 minute collection of creamers. They ripped that basement to shreds when we played with them in Oakland, and capturing that live fury on for a tour release was a class move. Even if you have the records, this one is worth your time. 

HARDCORE 2014: LIVE AT SIDE TWO

STINGER

A flaming hot staff thrust to the sky: STINGER is ruthless hardcore manifested as war metal.  There's a ripping split with MAULER that came out earlier this year, but I still think I prefer this 2014 cassette release (and not just because I'm trying to be contrary). I just listened to the last 45 seconds of "By The Fang" and my day is pretty much downhill from here. 

STINGER

SLAVEDRIVER

Excessive words can sometimes dissuade potential listeners, so I will keep it brief. SLAVEDRIVER are massive, filthy, intense, and relentless. That should be all you need....it's certainly all that I need. 

SLAVEDRIVER

FERAL BRAIN

Here's your demo of the month, punks. Sweden's FERAL BRAIN drop eleven minutes of searing hardcore punk in your lap with the most mandatory vocal listening in recent memory. Don't get me wrong, the tracks are great (and there are TRACKS, you dig - not just a collection of riffs) and the high moments ("No Way" specifically - it's the rippingest fast hardcore song I have heard in fukkn years, and that might not even be hyperbole) are more than enough to make this demo mandatory listening. If you like hardcore and you like to get your face melted, and you don't care about what new thing is cool because you just want to go harder....then FERAL BRAIN is basically your new favorite band. 

FERAL BRAIN

...also - the breakdown on "Judgement Day" is really REALLY sick...

WHITE WARDS

Y'all don't really need a lesson on this, do you? Washington state mutant hardcore kids, though they done growed up years ago. Blown to shit KEXP recording, I can only hope that some 30something who thought they were gonna jam some public radio on a Saturday evening got an earful and turned this shit off as soon as Joey urped up at the beginning of "Lot Lizards." This shit is ugly, my friends. (you're welcome)

WHITE WARDS live on KEXP

PROPIA DECISION

Maximum strength late '90s fastcore from Argentina. These kids would have destroyed audiences in North America, just enough of the melodic singing (I am not talking pop punk melodic singing...it's a '90s hardcore thing, you either get what I mean or I'm just going to keep confusing you) and blistering speed on the fast parts. The crew vox juxtaposed against the lead singer and the blistering delivery of riff after killer riff (if you need to pick one song to convince yourself, it's "Operacion"), these kids were doing shit right. <<***see below***>> PROPIA DECISION combine proto-fastcore, relentless contemporary Japanese hardcore (I'm talking the US influenced stuff like contemporaries NUNCHAKU or YELLOW MACHINE GUN) and the aforementioned impassioned vocals that really make this shit stand out. I'm rambling. Because I really like this tape and I want you (yes: YOU) to listen to it....and hopefully you will like it too. Punk is cool, I super like punk. Also hardcore. And if there are more recordings, then please drop me a line and get my address. 

PROPIA DECISION

*** <<...for context, this was released the year the WHN? and LIFES HALT first crossed paths...further reinforcing the hopefully-all-to-obvious fact that the world outside North America is continuously cranking out killer bands and records (and tapes) that get passed over simply because of geography....but I digress...>>

PUBLIC SUICIDE

This 2013 demo is the most glorious collision of early '00s fastcore, ugly '90s SoCal powerviolence and boys making dogpiles all over other boys in the spirit of East Coast hardcore. PUBLIC SUICIDE hit all of the buttons, they flip every switch. And they turn all of those switches to the "ON" position. Five tracks, 4 minutes and 14 seconds - and 64 of those seconds are the instrumental intro. It's so simple, there's no reason it should be this good.....and yet it is totally this good. 

PUBLIC SUICIDE

GOD HARVEST

These Florida crushers paid us a visit almost six years ago, and they have certainly not mellowed with age. Heavier than last time, with more churning blasts and leads that hint to metal roots lurking under the stench that dominates the recording. Relentless punishment in eleven doses. 

INSULATED

MISLED YOUTH

You already know about this shit, right? I mean, both of the singles are straight screamers, but you might have let the demo slip by you since it came out a few years earlier. Don't fret, I'm here to help. Now, enjoy this healthy slab of harDCore. 

MISLED YOUTH

NINE CURVE

The title of this banger should tell you everything you need to know, right? I sometimes wonder if there will come a time when this brand of high energy positive determination will ever not appeal to me...and I truly hope that time never comes. Maybe these sounds are passé to some, but these sounds are very very real to me, and even though I might go days (or weeks) without ever pointing my index finger to the sky and silently singing along to something that once meant something greater, it just takes a few seconds of loosely blasting drums and powerfully catchy guitars to remind me how much this shit moves me. Give "Notice" (perhaps the most dated track on this 199? demo) a full volume listen and you'll see what I mean....the whoa-ohhs at the 2:20 mark say it all. So yeah, 18ish year old melodic/posi fastcore from Tokyo. Enjoy and remember.

NINE CURVE

CV+G

One off collaborations are a good idea, but good ideas are sadly and too often fraught with lackluster execution and results best kept secret. Not the case with the three tracks presented here by the bleak powerhouse CRACKED VESSEL in cahoots with one-man raw black metal act GIDIM. Not surprisingly, the addition of GIDIM gives the recording a sharp edge, and the emotional exposure that makes CRACKED VESSEL so compelling on their own adds nuance to even the harshest parts of this offering....like when "JDV" breaks from the introduction and subtly pulls you in in preparation for a wall of sound akin to '90s German metalcore clashing violently with atmospheric black metal. Fans of all encompassing acts like CELESTE will want to take special note here...these aren't the "cool" sounds that are making kids squirm these days, but I suspect that CV+G is going to stand the test of time quite well. 

CV+G

GENEX

More howling, distorted, mysterious, bombastic hardcore punk music. Crank the mosh that starts "Enemy" before you do anything important today and you'll be prepared for anything life throws at you. You won't be prepared for the start/stop riffs that follow, but reality will be yours for the dominating. Luckily, I'm still not tired of this shit, because there's a lot more of it to find. 

HUMAN RITES

BLACK PILLS

Last year, to celebrate the birthday of white America, STERILE MIND played a show in Vancouver and then drove 16 hours to play a show in a park in Santa Rosa, California with two bands from Colombia. It seemed like a good idea in theory, and when we rolled the whole thing out.....? It was, in fact, a good idea. It's hard to explain to civilians what "we" do, and telling a stranger about that Vancouver show would surely be met with agape jaw/s and curious eyes....because there were like 13 people there. And they certainly didn't seem to care. But the show was good, you know? And we played with BLACK PILLS, and when we talked to them, it seemed like we were all on the same team...and being on the same team is so much more important than being cool or being liked, you know? These freaks dish out MASSIVE emotional hardcore, and since we met them last year they've toured Cuba and Brasil (maybe more?), which means they are rippers that I am jealous of. It's a good and inspirational jealousy though, so I'm OK with it. More, please. 

BLACK PILLS

RITALIN OD

What? You said you like hardcore punk music? And you said you like hardcore punk music that's kinda weird and creepy sounding, as if it was made by deranged mutants? Cool. Here you go...

RITALIN OD