Asbestos Death

Asbestosdeath started life as trio. They recorded two 7"s: their first ("Unclean", 1990) was self released (Asbestos Records) and a second 7' ("Dejection," 1990) was released later that year by profane existance. their guitarist (Tom Choi) left the band to form Noothgrash after the release of the second 7". The band recruited Justin Marler to replace Choi and changed their name to sleep (what later became half Om and half High on fire).
In 2007, shoutheren lord records reissued Asbestosdeath's two 7"s on CD and 10" vinyl. The four songs on the album comprises the entirety of Asbestosdeath's recordings.
(from wikipedia)






asbestos death 7"

Mathcore Megapost

Here are some must-have mathcore albums.

BOTCH - We Are The Romans (2000)



Botch started playing back in 1993, and through their 9 years of existence they managed to release 3 LPs, 3 EPs, and 4 splits with Cave In, Murder City Devils and more. Their influence on modern hardcore is truly remarkable, and I think they never really got the respect and recognition they deserve. This one is one of my alltime favorite albums, and in my opinion their best. It got remastered and reissued this year by Hydra Head, with another CD added full of demos and live versions of the songs.

Myspace
Rapidshare

CAVE IN - Until Your Heart Stops (1999)



Cave In formed in 1995, in Methuen, Massachusetts. They released 5 LPs, 6 EPs and 4 splits, and broke up in 2006. Their members have played in many other good bands, such as Converge, Old Man Gloom, Zozobra and more.

Myspace
Mediafire or Megaupload

COALESCE - 012:2 Revolution in Just Listening (1999)



I think this is the only band in this post that's still alive. Formed in 1994, Coalesce released 4 LPs (including a Led Zeppelin covers record), 4 EPs and 5 splits with Converge, Napalm Death, Today is the Day and the Get Up Kids before splitting up in 1999. They reformed in 2005 to release another great EP, a DVD and several reissues, including this album through Relapse Records, and are now working on a new LP.

Myspace
Mediafire or Megaupload

CURL UP AND DIE - Unfortunately, We're not Robots (2002)



This one is more influenced than influental. Curl Up and Die are from Las Vegas, Nevada, and play this really fun and catchy brand of mathcore. They started in 1998, disbanded in 2005 and released 2 LPs and 4 EPs during their lifetime.

Myspace
Megaupload

Robotic Obscurities

Robotic Empire are celebrating their 10th birthday with a new project: Robotic Obscurities is a blog full of rarities and unreleased shit of some of their past and present artists (Pig Destroyer, Gods & Queens, Versoma, Garuda...). pretty sweet, check it out.



Robotic Obscurities

Italian Eighties part 2

NEGAZIONE



It's time to speak now about what for me was the greatest band in those years, and probably as well one of the most known outside of Italy. Negazione started playin in Torino in 1983 and kept the flame high for nine years. The band rose as a side project of 5 Braccio, where Tax (guitar) and Orlando (drums) used to play. The idea of Negazione was to give a much more individual approach to the lyrics and attitude and avoid slogans that were very common in 5 Braccio. Negazione changed a lot through the years, even though their best period for me is concentrated in their first three years when there music was a strange hybrit of fast and furious hardcore, bitter melodies and the unique screamings of Zazzo, one of the best hardcore voices ever. The lyrics as well are awesome. On this post, I uploaded "Early days, wild bunch", which is a collection of their first three releases (the split tape with declino, the 7" of Tutti Pazzi and "Condannati a Morte Nel Vostro Quieto Vivere"EP, where I think their best tracks are) and "Lo Spirito Continua", an album released in 1986 that many consider their best work. What came after those years was nice, but nothing at all compared to the intensity of their first music.

The Early Days, Wild Bunch
Lo Spirito Continua

CHAIN REACTION


I'm gonna leave now northen Italy for a moment and have a look at what was going on in the extreme south, in this case the city of Bari. The big wave of hardcore punk in Italy's eighties mainly touched northern cities as Milano, Torino and all the sorrounding area, but some very valid things were moving in the south as well, like Chain Reaction. The band, which many people don't even know about existence, was one of the fastest complexes playin in the first eighties in Italy. I really know little about them, only that they were active between 1982 and 1986 and that "Gabbie"EP (1985) is their only release. The music is mainly a fast kind of hardcore punk caracterized by some street punk elements, while the singer reminds me a lot of Siege somehow. A really good one, I heard they reunited sometime ago...

Gabbie

UNDERAGE

Lets stay in the south for this one. Underage come from noneless than Napoli, and definitly know what oldschool hardcore punk is about. They were active between 81 and 83."Africani, Marocchini, Terroni" is their 7" from 1983. Young, pissed, raw and screaming hardcore with no compromises. Seriously, I dont think I have a lot to add about them, download and understand.

Africani, Marocchini, Terroni

BLOODY RIOT


Roma capoccia! Moving anly a bit northen than Napoli, it's time to speak about Italy's capital city, Roma. This city's scene in the eighties was probably the most punkish, rude, ignorant, drunk and apolitical scene in Italy. During the eighties, roman punx were kinda considered like flees by northern anarcho-puv from ambients like the Virus squat. But Rome's punx revenge on the northern political punx was the infamous slogan "we do mess, we break everything but at least we wash ourselves". 20 years later, did anything change??? Eheheheh, anyways Bloody Riot was the main band in Rome's scene. Very aggressive and metallic hardcore punk, musically few steps above most of other italian hardcore punk bands then. They were formed ion 1982 and broke up in 1987, "Disubbidisciti" is a collection of all their released material published in 2001. These dudes were known as a very angry and dangerous wrecking crew, they were some sort of godfathers of modern chaos punk, though their lyrics were far better than most of the mohawked shit floating around today. Enjoy it!

Disubbidisciti

EU'S ARSE



Literaly, a diminutive of Europe's Arse, which was how other punks in Europe were defining Italy's scene. Eu's Arse started playing in Udine (next to the border with Slovenia) in 1981 and released "Lo stato ti vuole? bene, fottilo!" in 1982 and a split with Impact one year later. Many consider these dudes the Italian Discharge, due to thei rawish versuon of punk and the lyrics obsessed with war and horrors. Today most of these things are boring, but remember we're speaking of fukken 1982. The first song in this CD is an anthem. The split with Impact I'll upload in the SPLITS section.

Lo Stato Ti Vuole? Bene, Fottilo!

IMPACT

This is another thing many of you might know already. Impact were formed in 1980 in the city of Ferrara and played one of the fastest, inventive and angriest hardcore punk in the whole peninsula! "Solo Odio"from '82 , as far as I'm concered was their best release and what I'm posting here. Their split with Eu's Arse you can find in the SPLITS sections i'm gonna upload on the next Italian Hardcore post. Extremely powerful trio that will shake your balls if you still never heard of them. Hardcore punk spaghetti style!

Solo Odio

RAW POWER
Imagine the year 1985. In the USA, speaking of fast and thrashy hardcore punk,next to the names D.R.I., Cryptic Slaugher and C.O.C. people name Raw Power, an extremely fast, technical and powerful band that made all the road from Italy to play some shows. Same year, you get on a plain to Italy and ask people about this great band. "Raw Power", they would say, "Isn't that an Iggy Pop album?".
The point is that, Raw Power, maybe the best band to play in Italy's 80s gained much, much, much more success anywhere else than Italy, maybe cause their lyrics were in English? who knows... I just know that these dudes from Reggio Emilia started playing awesome hardcore in 1981 and had to wait 5 years to get some audience in the peninsula. Anyhow, "screams from the gutter", released in 1984 on an american label and followed by an american tour, is their ultimative master-piece. Extremely technical and fast hardcore punk with a big touch of thrash.
If you dont know it you should really be ashamed, but here I give you the chance of listening to it without anyone noticing. Download and enjoy every second

Screams from the gutter



Well, so far today. be prepared in the next days for another huge and maybe final post about italian hardcore. meanwhile enjoy this!

Italy Eighties part 1

Ok, this one is gonna be quite a long post. I decided to make it just in order to present some crucial history/discography of what happened in italian hardcore scene at the beginning of the eighties, one of the most furious, raging and active countries where punk rock ever stepped. Since it's impossible for me to resume everything in one post i'm just gonna speak of the albums and bands that influenced me.

TAMPAX / HITLER SS

All right, this has nothing to do with the bands I'm gonna speak of later, but it's definitly the punkest thing that ever came out of Italy. Tampax and Hitler SS are the first italian punk bands ever. They come from a provincial shithole called Pordenone and they started playin back in 1977. This split than is the first spaghetti punk piece, and believe me, it's worth every second of it. Dirty, disgusting 77punk punk played with high irony. Some of the songs here for me meant nights of non-stopping laugh. Awesome

Download


5#BRACCIO



This band was one of the most politically outspoken bands in Italy, active between 1982 and 1984 in Torino. Raw, dirty and screaming oldschool hardcore punk built mainly on slogans ("we will piss on your graves"style, as you can see one slogans still were punkish and not PC like today). Very active in the squatting of the historic "Virus" squat, fundamental act for those years. What I post here is the "Vanichiglia" demo from 1982. By the way this band is what came before Negazione.

Download


BLUE VOMIT

Let's stay in Torino, which many consider the biggest hardcore city in italy's eighties. Blue Vomit was an extreme expression of irony and nihilism. Fast, raw, dirty, catchy and sometimes dark hardcore punk with misanthropic and sarcastic attitude (song titles like "I dont stand up in the bus for old men", "I live in a dead city", "Vaffanculo"). These dudes were active between 1978 and 1983 and released only two demos, of which I'm gonna upload only the better second one. Their singer was Luca Abort, the guy which founded later Nerorgasmo, and died few years ago with a needle in his veins.

Download

NERORGASMO
With no doubts the darkest band that ever took place in Italy in the eighties. Formed by Luca Abort (Blue Vomit) and Simone Chinotto, Nerorgasmo played a slow and guttural kind of hardcore punk, with extremely individual and nihilistic lyrics that mainly dealt with the urban decayTheir years of activity were 1984-1993, the year when their singer was found dead of O.D. Some consider them the italian version of The Germs, but I'm really not convinced about that, I'd rather define them unique and unimitable. They released only two records, an EP in 1985 with guttural shouts and an LP in 1993 with much better sound and totally different singing. Both I uploaded.

EP
LP

DECLINO


One of the best bands posted here if you ask my opinion. Still Torino, still raging hardcore. Active between 1982 and 1985, Declino released two EPs and a split tape with Negazione. Declino's music was some sort of italianized oldschool hardcore, with very fast parts, raw sound and crude melodies. But indeed they knew how to play. They were the first straight edge band in italy, though their attitude wasnt at all connected to their personal choices, and as far as i know they never played with X on their hands. Their lyrics also dealt with alienation in modern society in a great way, and their approach to reality was really awesome.
What I uploaded of them is a collection of their best songs that was released in 2004

Download

all right im tired now so thats enough for today. but this is only the beginning, enjoy!

James Chance & the Contortions - Buy

Here's something a little different. One of the original punk jazz groups of the New York No Wave scene, the Contortions were led by saxophonist James Chance, aka James White. Their first recorded appearance, credited solely as the Contortions, was on the 1978 compilation, No New York. The following year, two albums were issued almost simultaneously on the ZE label, Buy the Contortions (an extreme jazz-punk LP) and Off White.



This was out in 1979, and will definately blow your mind if you're into weird and highly innovative music.

Buy or Buy

Youtube

Punk rock journey review

I've been missing out Israel for 3 months, also missing this great great blog so got some stuff to catch up. but before that. I'll put some stuff I had the great chance to see live that are still missing in this big whole music blog database:

start with Fucked Up some say "experimental hardcore", for me its just another great hardcore band influenced by early 80's american punk rock bands, only doing it more rich and filled sound, songs and records are maybe too long for a punk band. ( I think) their newest release kinda suck with guitar effects and sound effects which aren't necessary at all in punk rock music, still their 2006's huge release - hidden world is awesome. although I prefer their very early releases the most, all those little 7" are their best, not too long and still kick ass in their fucked up way.
like many bands today playing punk, they more likely doing the "real thing" on the live show, the recordings are cool, but the live show is awesome, rich sound by 3 guitarists, a female bass player that looks kind of shy and vulnerable although she's very protruding and kick ass. The singer is the most entertaining person in fucked up's live show, weather he is talking and showing warm and love to the German's cold crowed, or spend most of the show being in the crowed searchign for some who know the songs lyrics or just picking up people to crowd surf.
amazing band kizer, there are tons of deep reviews about their music over the internet, if you are really interested although i think its not that important - just listen to the band dammit.

Fucked up early 7"s (02-07)

Two snakes 7"


Let likes be cured by likes


Hidden world part 1

Hidden world part 2



Dean Dirg warmed up for Fucked up. I think Germany heroes of fast, short, loud and oldschool punk rock. for me sounds like these guys dedicated a lot of listening to Zero Boys, Angry Samoans, Adolescents, D.I, and shitloads of old fast hardcore music.
German crowd seem to like them alot, pogo dancing and stage diving of course, the singer like to attend to the show with glamorous shining clothing, which is funny, though different but after all it is 2008 and they are playing 80's kinda punk rock.
During Brutal Assault's tour last year they had a show with Dean Dirg.

Last kid on the block



Raus!





Paint it black are a great live hardcore band, although they also have been through a change since their 2008's release which is not their best in my opinion, also including sound effects which suck.Like a lot of hardcore bands these days achieving some success and then trying to reach some top and get more famous (?), I think they also had this twist to be more "experimental" which is not so good for hardcore bands.Dan Yemin is a band member of more known melodic hardcore punk bands - Lifetime and Kid Dynamite - only in this case he steps toward the mic and he does it EXTREME!
They toured with Trash Talk which I missed in this whole big ZXZW festival that happened in Tilburg, Netherlands, which also Suckinim Baenaim took part in.

CVA



Paradise



New Lexicon

Hanson Brothers are - post-Ramones, very obsessed with hockey sports, made by punk rock oldies - punk rock band from Canada. not much people reading this blog are into this popish punk rock but they do it really awesome and really rock n roll - like the Ramones!. I haven't dedicated much to NoMeansNo but their drummer is the lead singer of the Hanson Brothers. They are all old, drunk, acting nonadult like which was really funny to see. they played with the Apers, that also play a really popy- punkrock. I guess the thing at their show was to hear their sinegr making laugh of their SxE guitarist which doesn't drink beer, which I personaly think is really rare to find in t hose kind of pop-punk bands, but of course - it doesn't matter.

My Game

Gross misconduct


Sudden Death




Seein Red are pretty known hardcore punk band from the Netherlands, except making jokes of their age and being SxE they played the roughest show I've seen in Germany. I saw RED, along with jumping or just playing so rough and tight. They have tons of releases and splits, so this is only a small taste of this very aggresive political hardcore punk la partzuf

Split w/ Shikari















Chuck Damage oldschool aggressive hardcore punk very influenced by Negative Approach, Posin Idea, Tear It Up. Reminded me very much of Brutal Assault. coming from Munster, Germany. The drummer Jan is a real cool guy that plays also in 2 other hardcore punk bands - Nervous Breakdown and Toxic Revolution.


Chuck Damage 7"




Nervous Breakdown had a show with Mondo Gecko in Mainz - Haus Mainus place - which I would have seen only if I wasn't that dumb enough to fall asleep in a car because of antibiotics weakness, you can watch the hell that mondo gecko organized for this show here - at that same place about a month earlier FxPxO - hardcore band from Macedonia - had a show with Suckinim Baenaim and Vaseline Children which declared to be "cavemen people" and because of that do not own a myspace page. Vaseline children reminded me very much of Tear it up, but weren't that exciting for me. and f.p.o was like the European Brutal Assault, only the music was less interesting then them.

FxPxO - giving birth in order to kill




La Casa Fantom (official website) are 2 men band, bass and drums, both sings, and dig in the dark melodic crust punk - way, I don't know how to determine it and so does the band members, it's really not important anyway. I think the most DIY from all bands I've seen these guys, apparently have their own place in the forest to make and record their music. you can dig about them more in their official website but more important just listen to them!
They played a really long set a the Haus Mainush, the crowd just couldn't get enough and it looked like the band played like4-5 songs more then they planned.


Ingen ny dag

November 13th melodic crust punk band, for me sounds like another band f ollowing Tragedy only better and not another cheap attemp to copy them, but jsut improving it with richer drummings and guitars, doing it in a very punk rock way.
I talked with the bass player/ vocalist which for him November 13th is a hardcore band, not reffering much to crust common boredom.
unforthenatly I didnt find the band's albums online, so theres a myspace page and an official one


Grinding Halt I really don't know about this one, it reminds me of Shikari, like a fast thrashy crust hardcore band.
at the ZXZW festival in Tilburg, Netherlands they replaced for Seein Red which canceld at the very end. Again - only myspace for this till maybe I'll find a way to rip vinyls to mp3 (the same with Novermber 13th). but check them out really good heavy shit to hear. official website




Ding Dong Dead I'm not a fan of screamo at all, but this band is sick, the drummer plays for 5 years and taught himself to play the drums, 2 gifted guitarist who propably spent some time on their tools, and yeah of course - 2 throats grinding singers.
They played twice with Suckinim Baenaim a day after another in Munster and in Osnabruck which are realy close. I don't know much how screamo sounds beside Orchid and maybe a few more but this one is extraordinary for sure breaks a few screamo boundries

Tour Ep 2008

I was pretty sure that Torche was mentioned here before. I heard about them a short time after they released their latest album. I've seen them live also at the ZXZW fest'. a really cool sludg metal band, their latest is more soft, melodic and punk rock then the genre given to them, I still didnt hear their older stuff or the side project bands, so I can't relate to their past or musical backgroud but it sounds heavy though still melodically sweet. they played on Orange amps and blast the place with bass vibes, also outro their show with a very long play, just digging peoples minds plugging a loose stings guitar at the end of their show just for that, besides that they gave a really great warm show.

Meanderthal





Hongo that I posted in the past spanish fellows quit change their direction to more heavy crust /metal something,I think their first 2004 demo is the greatest. they had their show at the Schnapsfabric, together with a local crust/punk band- Status//Hysterie and also a band named Confused which seem to be like an old punk rock legend from Germany that had their last tour (and also last show that same night).
Suckinim Baenaim had a show with Los Dolares from spain and Wartorn from the US, both play kind of crust/punk stuff which I'm not into, besides that great people.

along with the crusty Germany also ran into Disfear , Victims and Post War Depression.
doom/metal is not my thing, but seeing live performance of doom is awesome! B.son (Black Shape Of Nexus) is the first and by now the only doom metal I've seen live, and it was amazing I never thought I could enjoy a slow heavy drum beat (only live!).
One thing for sure if you like crust music you should definitely move to Germany, Sweden or any other EU country.

I think that's it for the Germany/Netherlands journey review. All the things been said from a personal point of view not judging or criticizing, I wish only good luck for these bands specially for those who are still trying to distribute their name and get bigger there in the EU countries and their local scenes.
blablabla and may garlic forces will be with you all!

Unruh - Misery Strengthen Faith

Here's another underestimated band. I know really little about Unruh, I downloaded few years ago their CD by "mistake", but hell, it was worth every megabyte occupied on my slow computer. They play some sort of very metallic and sludgy hardcore punk with heavy sound, tempos that run from blast beats and crossover rythms to stoner and kicking ass breakdowns, all fronted by an ill-pissed-desperate voice that makes your skin crawl. Their lyrics are very introspective and deep but indeed require thinking, dont miss a chance to listen to this one.
for tom

Download

Discordance Axis Discography

This one is for Tom. I've uploaded everything I have by Discordance Axis, which includes all 3 studio releases and EP's as well as most of their splits minus the one they did with the Japanese Cyber/Industrial band Def Master (Which I can't find anywhere,) and a couple of live recordings.

The "Original Sound Version" compilation includes the complete "Ulterior" LP plus several demo/rehearsal versions of the same songs as well as just about every split released before 1995. "Our Last Day" is a tribute album of some sort, featuring cover songs by Japanese grind bands such as Gate and Mortalized, as well as Melt-Banana, Merzbow and Joe Chang's Gridlink, in addition to a hilarious bunch of covers by 8bit grinders Cide Projekt.

Enjoy.

Full releases
Ulterior (1995)
Jouhou (1997)
The Inalienable Dreamless (2000)

Splits & EP's
Split w/ Cosmic Hurse (1992)
Split w/ Hellchild (1993)
Split w/ Capitalist Casualties (1994)
Split w/ Melt-Banana (1995)
Split w/ Plutocracy (1995)
Necropolitan EP 7'' (1997)
Split w/ Corrupted & 324 (2001)

Compilations & Live recordings
Original Sound Version 1992-1995 (1998)
Our Last Day (2005)
Live in NYC
Live in NYC @ CBGB's (2000)
Pikadourei (2002)