Hiatus/Reach A Mental Road-split 7" (MCR Company,1991)

Severe Existence/Soulforce split was released in 1991 by Kyoto based MCR Company (MCR-048) and its a long long out of print, for Hiatus this was one of their first releases along with I don't scare easily but.. and Way of doom ep's, there is no need to say anything about them since almost everything they released on seven inches is posted minus the split w Fleas and Lice (hopefully it will be posted soon)
Reach A Mental Road was an obscure act from Sendai, Japan, they started as Rich Mate Rally (perhaps this means Rich Materially or something like that...) they appeared in Give us The Time to Play 2x7" (1990, Lifestyle Sound) and they had a split with Dr & The Crippens (from Sendai too) on MCR Co.. (Speaking of Sendai scene, take a look at Hardcore Showcase lp with several unknown japcore bands)
The split comes in gate-fold cover and includes lyrics in English and some translation in Japanese, music wise Hiatus deliver their usual Doom/early Extreme Noise Terror crustcore in four songs, the side opens with an atmospheric intro, Narrow Minded.. and Positive Smoking Attitude are fast but in Inside Death they slow down the speed, Hey Bob is a three seconds joke song and its what the title says:-"Hey Bob! WHAT?(growl)", P.S.A. is the appropriate song for the new anti-smoking law (no smoking in pubs,bars,restaurants, etc, free smoking on the street, wow! this is the solution to the financial crisis!). On the other side, Reach A Mental Road contribute two tracks of raw, aggressive and fast hardcore, He's singing style(He is the name,ok?) is another proof that this is a Japanese band, lyrics seem to be a little mistranslated or whatever and remind of Iconoclast's lyrical shit.
This time ranting will be a little shorter than the usual. I have a bunch of rips (though no scans yet) of old posts and someday there will be a massive re-post of old posts that are in low quality and no scans but it will take some time

Hiatus-st 7" (Urban Alert Rec.s, 1990)

Another post with my fav. band from Hellgium: This is the first official Hiatus release back in 1990 on Urban Alert Records after two demo tapes and was followed by a bunch of ep's and split ep's and some lp's. This is a repost and it isn't: In 1991 Nabate Rec.s/Mother Peace Rec.s added one more song on B side (and erased first pressing's last track Elvis, which is a joke track in the vein of joke songs that appear in In my mind demo tape) and re-issued with the same artwork and titled as I don't scare easily but....
if you have downloaded I don't scare... then you know what you got here. This is the Hiatus record with the most obvious influences of Extreme Noise Terror and here you got it in a new rip and scans. Elvis, the last track is a blues ballad that last nearly a minute, good enough for a joke song :). Inside the gatefold cover you will find lyrics, special thanks and this statement: "We have been obliged to put All Rights Reserved sentence on the labels of this piece of plastic, We do not agree with that bullshit copyrights. Use, reproduce and tape at will!". Really nice guys!
i don't need to say anything about Hiatus, most of their ep's are already posted and much blurb is written about them, check also wikipedia for some more details on line ups and other bands connected. When they disbanded some members (Azil on guit. and Willy on bass) went on with Unhinged and in a different music direction. Recently they formed back and shared the stage with Sedition, Cress and others, no much updates there though,check some flyers on their myspace.
This is it, i don't want to keep it short but there is nothing left to say, now only the splits w Fleas and Lice and Reach A Mental Road are left to complete the Hiatus ep discog, hopefully will be posted here in the future. stay tuned ;)

Doom/Hiatus-split 7"

Doom are back in action, yeah the legends are back after a near 10 year break and they are on the road: They recently appeared in Scumfest (some pics are here), next week they are going to burn the stage of Punk Illegal, a week later they are going to Hellfest in France, next is DIY Hardcore Punk Festival Vol.6 in Poland and Obscene Extreme Fest.
After all these news everything about Lost the Fight seems to be out of the mood and irrelevant.. anyway this came out in 1993 (or early '94?) on Flat Earth Records and both bands cover one track of each others, Relief cover is funny as hell. The rest tracks are just fine as expected, the record come in gatefold and lyrics included for both bands, Doom side cover artwork was made by Simon the guy behind Arnie Zine.
Hiatus are back in action too but their myspace seems to be abandoned, in their myspace there is a Adobe Flash Player with flyers from 2008-09 when they shared the stage with Sedition, Cress and others
Recently Agipunk released Lost the fight/Pro-life control sessions lp including the tracks from splits with Selfish and Hiatus (plus two comp tracks in the cd version) and is still available
Check this video for a similar to Lady Gaga/Doom-GISM patch case:Its Melanie C (ex-Spice Girl) singing and crowd dancing around her, one guy has a Hiatus t-shirt, you can see him on 1.35 and 2.25. Thanks to Malisha for this :)
Tracklist:
Hiatus:
1) Disarm the Bastards
2) Relief Pt.IV
3) Blood Shot
Doom:
1) Choice?
2) Believer Consciousness (Hiatus)
3) Scandinavian Doorbreaker
4) Lost The Fight

Hiatus/Embittered-split 7"

I always remember this comment made by an anonymous guy some years ago:"Post some bands that sound like Doom and Disrupt!". Well, here is a split with two bands that sound like Doom and almost like Disrupt: This piece of crust came out in 1992 on Desperate Attempt Records, Hiatus from Liege, Hellgium, need no introduction, some of their records are already posted here (and hopefully some more will be posted soon) so there is no need for some ranting about them, a detailed history there is in their previous posts plus the fact that they were well known and more or less you already know them. What might be new to some is that they are back in action and they have played some gigs
Embittered were from UK, they were active in early/mid '90's, they recorded a couple of demo tapes and released some nice records before call it quit in 1996/97, members were involved in several other bands, here's the saying of Ash, member of band:"Embittered did an earlier demo than 'And You Ask Why' with me on bass, Bri on vocals, Darren (also of Malediction) on guitar and Dave on drums. For "You Ask Why..", Anth joined on 2nd vocals and Sean took over on guitar. Next up in 1992, we did a split ep with Hiatus from Belgium before touring Europe with them and Sweden's Svarts Sno. Gus then replaced Sean on guitar and we recorded a split Lp with Dystopia. Our final recording was an ep called Choked (listen it here and here)featuring even more new members including Mark and Shaun from Malediction. After Embittered, me, Bri and Dale formed Manfat although I left after a year. Bri and Dale then went onto John Holmes and are now doing Goatspeed. Gus joined Hellkrusher, toured America with them in the mid 1990's and never came back home! I've since done 5 year stints in Sawn Off, Boxed In, War All The Time and, as of last month, Deaths Black Riders" (this was written in Errorizer forum).
Rob, one of Embittered vocalists (he sang on "Choked") passed away the last winter a few days before Christmas from a heart attack....

Agathocles-Gotcha 7"

While i was typing this my computer decided to crash and my rant was lost so i had to write it down twice. Then the fold out cover was too large for my scanner and was a headaching trouble to scan it partially but at last i made it. Uuff...
Gotcha ep is another piece of noise in the endless list of 7"s and split ep's of mincecore masters from Hellgium, tracks were recorded back in 1998 and appeared in AG/Comrades and AG/Comrades/Ravage split cd's before the band decide to take the recordings out of the shelf and self-release it. The package is nice and a cool surprise for a band that releases a few dozens of records each year: It comes in fold out cover that surrounds the black vinyl and inside you will find the lyrics, some infos about the recording and AG's biography from 1985-04. I don't know how many copies were made, probably 500 or so, there are eight track here and deliver the usual slow down and melodic bluesy shit you need to cares your eardrums and make you relax
That's it, go get it. click here for a large scan of inside cover with AG's biography

Capital Scum-Clutch the flag 7''

Here's some old scums from Belgium delivering absolute Discharge/Varukers worship : Capital Scum formed in 1983 in Scherpenheuvel and Clutch the flag was their first record, released by Hageland Records in 1986. In 1987 they released Tsjerno kills lp (Hageland) and appeared in several compilations including Extreme Noise tape (Extreme Noise zine, 1984), Alle 24 Goed lp(Punk Etc, 1985), Emma 2xlp(M.A. Draje, 1986) and others. In 1988 they called it quits, in 2002 they came back in action and the next year they released the Freakshow 7" and in 2005 the 100% Guilty cd.
For more details, bio,discog, pictures, etc about them check their site or Kill From The Heart.
Clutch the flag was recorded in Emma, Amsterdam's biggest squat back in these days and delivers five tracks and about eleven minutes of powerful hardcore D-Beat blending Varukers and Discharge. Songs are full of energy, guitar riffs are heavily influenced by Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing era and Varukers ep's, even the vocalist is close to Rat's voice. Nice stuff... There is a sixth track and its just some noise made by the guitar.
There is nothing else to say, go get it
Tracks:
01:Prison life
02:Target
03:Clutch the flag
04:Final nail in the coffin
05:Slavery (deadly laugh)

Katastrophobia - 7" discography

Two weeks ago - Saturday - I was awoken at 9:30 by the ring of the doorbell. Under normal circumstances, I would brood, scowl, & growl at anybody who dared wake me up at such an unholy hour on a weekend morning (never mind that we're all getting up at sunrise to drag our limbs to work five days in a row; every petty bourgeois becomes a king/queen & sole masters of their own time during the weekend - the glamour & comfort of bourgeois democracy, right?...). This particular time, though, I jumped up & ran to the door like a madman, expecting that the postman delivered Kattengat's new album (in clear vinyl, nonetheless). & he did!

To celebrate this rare confession of bourgeois decadence, I decided to post both Katastrophobia 7"s at the same time (you might remember them from Buck's podcasts a while back) & back-to-back with Billy's post below - Kattengat's Stef used to play in the band, you see. (He also played in Counter-Attack; you can get their second LP at Nabate's blog here.) This post was scheduled (as far as anything is scheduled in this blog) for 10 days ago, but then again the scanwork took literally for ever - you'll realize what I'm talking about once you check it out yourselves. (The fact that I had to decipher track names by matching the lyrics on the lyric sheet to growls didn't help either.) This is some of the most beautiful (albeit skull-infested; HeartFirst would have a fit, eh Billy?) crust artwork I've laid my eyes on for ages, possibly putting even the 'Deadly Sins' boxset to shame! & this is important - not on account of making decadent vinyl junkies happy, but on account of being proof that the band appreciated their work & its message well enough to package it as beautifully as they did. (For the taqwacores out there - lame joke that this is, I must say that this is NOT a danish flag; the second 7" opens up to form a cross, & I just needed to fill the surrounding space with something neutral - red came first with paisley a close second.)

As far as the music is concerned, this is pretty vicious crust. The first 7" is not entirely my cup of tea, as it lacks something in originality & direction (I suspect that brutality might do the trick for some of you, though) & is pretty fast - bordering on chaotic - as well (I prefer dirges), but definitely worth a few listens. The second 7" is far better by any count - fast but more well-developed & with a brutality that is not easily matched. My favorite parts, of course, are the instances in which the band reveals more than a passing resemblance to My Name Is Satan (which band had not even formed at the time that Katastrophobia released their first 7") - in the second 7", in particular, this happens pretty frequently. Regarding the band's bio, I don't have as much information as I'd like to have, but one can infer that they formed in the mid-'90s in Gent, Belgium, put out these two 7"s & the LP 'Age Of Aquarius' (which you can get it in digital format here & is also still available in certain distros), toured the european squat network extensively, played with Scatha in 2001, & disbanded soon (?) after.

I'll end this by saying that those of you who speak flemish might benefit from this interview with Stef, in which he talks about a lot of things - among them his coming of age & leaving punk behind (musically). Maybe I should grow up & do the same some time soon. Meanwhile, I'll be taking a little break from posting, as I've wasted a day on this & I start to get tired of wasting my weekends on ripping stuff - sorry...

Update: Curious Guy was kind enough to upload a Katastrophobia live from 2001 (Duisburg, DE) for us all - you can still get it here!

'(S/T)' 7"





'Homo Morticinus' 7"

V/A - Standardsituationen 2

Finally back with a new post after some time during which Billy shouldered the entire blog burden. This is not the post I originally had in mind, but it will have to do - it's a pretty good compilation, after all. So, yes, yet another compilation & probably a somewhat obscure one - in fact, I got this from a german (it was put out in Germany) & I've only heard greek people ever discussing (or owning...) it (Ναυτία/Naytia - greek for Nausea - contribute a song, albeit in the same version contained in their LP). Seeing as this has been an Antifa benefit, I can only hope it fared better back in the day than its current status would indicate.

I'll keep it short, then. Naytia contribute Χρυσή Νεολαία (Golden Youth); further, the awesome belgians Nations On Fire (what a band! some blogwise-old-timers might remember this post as well) contribute T.V. Reality, which also appeared in the "Death Of The Pro-Lifer" LP. This rounds up Side B - Side A, on the other hand, contains a long track by House Of Suffering ("Insel" - german for island), & I'd have to be a liar to write that I knew House Of Suffering when I bought this. In fact, I still know next to nothing about them, but at least search engines can probably deliver more information on this band nowdays than 5 years ago. Naturally, I also rely on german readers of this blog to fill us all in, as "Insel" is as solid a track as I've (re)heard in a long time.

That's it folks, it's getting pretty late. Enjoy.