MEDEA - Doomed From Birth

Location: Stockholm, Sverige

Release: Injustice Records, 2015
Artwork: Staffan Tengnér

MEDEA is the swedish answer to nowadays Power Trip and Foreseen or even Violator, yeah it's that good. I'm guessing we will be hearing a lot more of them in 2016 as a full-length is being written!

Doomed From Birth is their debut EP on the german Injustice Records that sold about hundreds of copies worldwide in just a few weeks. This EP is already impressived, skilled rippin' fast thrash metal with heavy doses of crossover but... what they presented on the new Promo Tape I take my hat off, in fact the hat exploded, the first time I heard it I threw my chair out of the windown and smashed the keyboard on the pc screen. Gadem! I'm talking about possessed riffs, neckbreaking hooks and breakdowns (3 or 4 on each song) it will leave you like you spent the last 7 and a half minutes inside a hurricane or a laundry-machine, it will fuck you up. CAUGHT IN A MOSH!

PURCHASE 7"

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Caution! Before playing the Promo Tape, be advised we are not responsible of any injury it may cause to you or others nearby. Play at your own risk!

AWOL - Vision + Demos

Location: Newburgh, NY

Release: Back Again Records, 1990 (long out-of-print)

This is one of those posts that would be better suited in blogs like Blogged And Quartered or One Track To Hell because we are talking about here of one of those real obscure gems and its complete discography. A.W.O.L. was a band from the second wave of NYHC that lasted from '88 to '91 featuring Sam Carbone, Darryl Quirk and Tom Connelly from All Out War, basically they changed the vocalist (Rich to Mike Score) in 1991 and All Out War was born.

A.W.O.L. is higly recommended for those into that nostalgic late 80's/early 90's

hardcore in the vein of Social Justice, Visual Discrimination, Release and a bunch of others bands/records we grown to love uncovered to us by infamous Lost & Found in a time of need (pre-internet era)! Hence AWOL's records never got reissued,  their music started to fade in people's memories doomed to become only a footnote on AOW's wikipage and would remain so, if it weren't for a couple of dudes in the B9 board.

Discography:

1988 Two Faced Demo

1989 All This Confusion Demo

1990 Vision 7" (self-released)

1990 "Having a Ball" Compilation Tracks

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Acknowledgment: Vista Fanzine and B9board users: EscapedFromTheValley, cthc89, Henry 'unionwiththeabsolute'.

UNION OF FAITH - S/T Demo

Location: North Carolina, US

Release: DIY, 2015

Allriiiight, fasten your seatbelts, Stephen and The First Step crew are back!!

PURCHASE TAPE [Europe]

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First show takes place in two weeks. This also marks one of the last shows from MINDSET.

Thanx to the Garcia Bros. for the heads-up yesterday, which allowed to get a limited free download on bandcamp itself.

BUSTED OUTLOOK - Grand Slam Sessions

Location: Bay Area

Release: Layin' Waste Records, 2015

This band is rad af!! From aesthetics to the urgent music, BUSTED OUTLOOK has all the elements that hardcore punk were initially established upon, not just all that mindless rage and reppin' your local crew we are becoming used to.

They play a mix of youth crew and fastcore with riffs galore and provokative lyrics, featuring members from dozens of other cali groups, such as: Permanent Ruin, In Digust, Condition, Ritual Control, Scalped, and the list goes on.

B.O. has plans for an US tour (with some dates already confirmed) and also Europe for 2016, for that matter they demoed some songs in "grand slam sessions" that will appear on the upcoming full-length by REFUSE RECORDS, scheduled for July. I believe this is their second promo tape, first one was for their debut EP on Warthog and sold on a festival last year, the demo "plagued in horder" was recently issued in vinyl by Speedowax!

SUPPORT:
 2015 Promo Tape [Layin' Waste Records]
Spitting Wind EP [Warthog Speak Records]
Plagued Hoarder 7" [Speedowax]

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[includes '15 promo tape, demo and zine w/ lyrics commented by Rich] 

if your lyrics lack substance / while you are talking about being hardcore / me and my friends will show you the door
- scholastic deth

LAYIN' WASTE RECORDS

New label in da house! Primarily focused on cassettes, Jeremy B.O. has just started Layin' Waste showcasing 5 of the finest Bay Area's hardcore groups and they are all new to me (except Busted Outlook). If you are down with that retro sound New Breed Comp. meets UK82 you may want to watch this label closely, it's raw and hard.

Tapes (and possibly a webstore) are promised to be available early november.

PROFILE - 2015 Promo

Members of Scalped, No Sir and Stressor. SFHC back on the map.

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SUBTLE VIOLENCE - Criminales

Members of Spinebreakers and Bad Times Crew. South Bay Oi punx.

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WINTER HILL GANG - Demo

Members of Scalped, Profile and Provos. Boston homage. San Fran Mob Stomp!

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TUNDRA HOGS - Demo 

Wild music for wild people. Bay Area's Alaska enthusiasts. 
 

DOWNLOAD


I skipped B.O. on purpose because I was already writing an article about'em and they are up next!

--------------- layinwasterecords@gmail.com --------------

KID ARMOR - The Outcome Replays

Location: Orange County, US

Release: DIY, 2014

One year after the well received Better Days EP, KID ARMOR presented in 2014 their second album The Outcome Replays. This time around the punk O.C. influences speaks even louder, more crafted/thought-through and harder then previous compositions, it also features a kickass Adolescents cover.

The first EP was love at first sight, high energy youth crew cali style. The latest EP is one of those records that grows on you and asks for second or third replay as they got really creative with breakdowns and skankin' parts. However, almost a year after its release I can't figure out why there's still no label backing this up!

FFO: Rotting Out, late Down To Nothing, 90's Epitaph Records. 

PURCHASE CD/MERCH

DOWNLOAD [320kbps]

xxx

SOS - S/T EP + Demo

Location: Boston, US

Release: Lockin' Out / Perfect Victim, 2003-2004

Lots of bands named after SOS and at least 2 in hardcore alone. The one in question is from Boston, led by guitarist and producer Eric Lomon and existed for no longer than a year. They recorded 2 albums, each with its own style and shared members with CRUNCH TIME.

The 2003 Demo must be the weirdest release on the LOC host, strange looking artwork and pretty hard to come by. Musically it's that classic early 2000's LOC Sound Boston style.

  The 2004 Self-Titled EP shows the band taking a different path with vocals resembling to R'N'R and musically to The Suicide File, nothing groundbreaking here but very interesting neverthless. My favorite track is the last one, an instrumental trippy song, always listen to it more than once when I put it for a spin.

The EP features an even stranger artwork, they ended up being referred as the SOS of unicorns. I got my copy on CD format ages ago.

To complete SOS' discography, there is an exclusive track on the notorious Sweet Vision compilaton by Lockin' Out and that's that. For the other SOS hardcore band (Scott Vogel, Nick Jett, Matt Henderson) I asked Nick if they were going to record more under that name and he said there's no chance of that happening but Scott has another thing coming with Sammy Siegel, Walter Schreifels and Andrew Kline: WORLD BE FREE! 

PURCHASE EP [last few!]

DOWNLOAD [+ scanned inlay & lyrics]

HEF - Wont' Rain Forever

Location: La Plata, Argentina

Release: DIY, 2015

I've just read an article on Noisey about a youth crew group from Peru! It blew my mind just to think people overseas are starting to grow interest in our region's hardcore punk productions.

The main issue for me here is that we live a big dilemma: to be a punk kid in the third world means, in most cases, you come from a (very) low income family, therefore you won't have access to decent instruments and minimum standard recording/practicing facilities. On the other hand IF you can afford a few upgrades, most local punks will turn their backs on you! So we are caught in a vicious circle, lots of bands playing 'outdated' punk rock and a few others trying a different path striving just to get local support, it often splits the scene and weakness us all. The attitude is there, alive and should not be related to someones aqquisition power but the output is often undesirable (aka boring).

Maybe, as a result, it's been quite a while I don't hear such an exciting band hailing from Argentina, since JUSTIFY I guess. A quick search showed that a new wave of bands are emerging and on the epicenter of that tsunami is HEF! Their debut album Won't Rain Forever doesn't have a dull moment, 9 tracks of positive and fast old school hardcore. You can tell they spent some effort on production, potent guitar tones, vigorous rhythm section and well balanced vocals between shouting and melodic parts. At the end, can't help to compare them with the formidable We Ride but HEF is more down my lane. Check'em!!

ps.: once I found out when and which label will be doing physical copies, I will update here. Digital version was just released 6 days ago.

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porque sempre que llovió, paró

RHYTHM OF FEAR - Mass Illusion

Location: Florida, US

Release: Injustice Records, 2015

HOLY FUCK! This record already sounds like a classic! Mass Illusion is actually RHYTHM OF FEAR's promo tape on Injustice Recs for their upcoming LP Maze Of Confusion. They developed more of a technical crossover sound than the one presented on the demo, more tight and heavier with a strong retro feeling, sounding like it could have been released by Combat Core or Roadrunner back in the days!

Highly recommend for appreciators of Crumbsuckers, Morbid Saint, Kreator and D.R.I.    

PURCHASE TAPE/MERCH

DOWNLOAD [320kbps]