Obliteration This Is Tomorrow 7″ Painkiller Records Wow! Members of Knife Fight and Mind Eraser come together to play heavy crusty hardcore. Somewhere between Crucifix, Cro-Mags, Totalitar, and Nausea, this six song ep is one of the best records of the past few years. More please!
Cervix Tour Tape Yet another great crust band. Recently, there seems to be a lot of them. Music in the vein of Nausea or Anti Cimex with distorted, political, lyrics. Well worth checking out. This band is from New York City, so hopefully I will get to see them sometime soon.
Slang Life Made Me Hardcore LP Prank Records Furious D-Beat hardcore from Japan. This is another Japanese band whose sound continues to progress and grow. Fans of modern bands like Totalitar, Tragedy, and Pisschrist will love this record. There is also a slight NYHC influence in their sound.
Staring Problem Pissed Human Dick Tape Some old friends get together (former members of, amongst others, Get Real and Ensign), to play raging Bl’ast!/Black Flag style hardcore. Like many recent bands from the shore, this sound is accentuated with some pretty vicious mosh parts. I’ve ended up missing these guys play over and over the past few years, but this summer I’d love to check them out.
Outlast Take Control 7″ Bottled Up Records A Straight Edge band from New Jersey that sounds like Youth of Today– what is this, 1997? Despite the sarcasm, this is not at all bad. They remind me more of Committed or Ten Yard Fight than Floorpunch. Gang style backups, nice breakdowns, and posi lyrics throughout. Just wish they were more creative with their song titles; they sound a bit generic. For what they do, they do it well. Favorite track = “Power for Change”.
Coke Bust Degradation 7” Grave Mistake Records Shit, yes! Just buy it. Straight Edge cats from DC shredding though 6 songs in 6 minutes. Total thrash mayhem ala Infest type grooves and speed. Standout track is “Deathbed” – I could play this all day!
Give Self Titled LP Moon Flower Records Former members of Lion of Judah come back with this impressive debut record. Give have been hyped as sounding like Swiz, but I hear a lot of other harDCore bands like Ignition and Fire Party in their sound as well. There is a sense of heaviness, but also some melody throughout these songs. Definitely a record worth your time.
Crow Vertigo b/w Occupied Japan 7″ Sorry State Records Unlike so many American bands that get poppier, trendy, or keep putting out the same record over and over, Crow continue to impress me as their sound evolves over the past twenty plus years. Always influenced by Discharge, their sound is now a heavy, metallic, assault. I am reminded of a rawer Best Wishes era Cro-Mags (minus love songs to Krishna). Hopefully Crow will continue to record records like this one.
Cro-Mags Age of Quarrel Reissue LP Mightier Than Sword Records Do I really need to review this? I’m sure you know that the staff of Signifying Nothing unite about this record. This reissue does a decent remixing job that sounds a lot better than the CD reissue which was done in the nineties. Tacked on at the end are the three demo tracks which have been floating around the past few years. If you’re looking to upgrade the sound of your Age of Quarrel album check this out.
Not Sorry Our Choices 7″ React! Records First thing to mind- sick album art! Five songs of old school Straight Edge hardcore. Sounds a bit like Floorpunch meets XChorusX and a bit (yes, yes- a very tiny bit) of Absolution for good measure. Think gang style back-ups, lot’s of “Busts!”, and some hard mosh. I don’t hear the Youth of Today influence that people have thrown around with this band. Big points for them going with this style and not sounding overly generic. The lyrics are actually quite good- introspective and well planned out. They sound like a promising live…
Read more
