Review: Pick Your Side - Snakes and Ladders

Pick Your Side

Snakes & Ladders

RSR/Hate Ape Productions

Tracklisting:

1. Thru Veins

2. Bleeding Out

3. This is Not a Test

4. Throne of Privilege

5. But Wait!!

6. Don’t Cry (Neil Young cover)

7. Snakes and Ladders

When Pick Your Side started putting out music last year, I was simply relieved that something violent, angry and Haymaker-esque was coming out of Hamilton again.  Beyond that, I honestly didn’t expect much, let alone steady output and even semi-regular gigs to attend.  Fortunately, the boys in PYS seem to have some momentum behind them because they are back with their second 7”, and from what I understand, will be recording a 2^nd LP for A389 in the not-too-distant future.  

This offering, Snakes and Ladders, picks up where Survival Prayer and Let Me Show You How Democracy Works left off.  The first four tracks offer up the same vitriolic, thrashy hardcore that they have become known for, and don’t away from subject matter ranging from betrayal (“Picture your life as a knife fight and you just got stabbed in the guts”) to middle class privilege (“...point blame in protest in the words you sing your bullshit songs, won’t change a thing.”). 

The next couple tracks, “But Wait!!” and “Don’t Cry” reveal the metal/sludge roots that this band also has.  “But Wait!!” is a nice mix of hardcore and metal, which just adds a dynamic element to the record that is welcomed, but “Don’t Cry” might take a little for some PYS fans to get used to.  Why, you ask?  Because it’s a droning, sludgy Neil Young cover that clocks in at over 7 minutes.  Yup, you heard me right.  I really enjoyed it from the 2^nd listen onwards (I was a bit too thrown off by it at first), and love that this band truly doesn’t seem to care what anyone thinks of them or what they should be doing.

You can’t buy it yet (unless you go to one of their shows on their European tour or at Not Dead Yet Fest in Toronto), but you can listen to it here.

Review: Homewrecker - Worms and Dirt

Homewrecker

Worms and Dirt

A389 Records

Tracklist:

1.Wreck

2. Worms And Dirt

3. Baseborn

4. Visions Of Terror

5. Chained Hanging Victim

6. Pipe Dreams

7. Eyes Of Anguish

8. Charlatan

9. Beaten Freedom

I was recently playing Homewrecker’s Worms and Dirt album for a friend in my car and I mentioned that I had written a review raving about the album for the blog...until I realized that I never actually got around to it.  Now, do not mistake my laziness and forgetfulness as indifference for this band.  Homewrecker, hailing from Ashtabula, Ohio, was a complete unknown to me before this album.  I say this with some shame, as this LP shows that they are well on their ways to becoming one of the heavy hitters in Midwest hardcore.

While taking inspiration from the likes of Integrity and Slayer, Homewrecker is able to create their own brand of brutal, pissed-off, metallic hardcore that is perfectly topped-off with some of the most guttural (albeit reverb-soaked) vocals I’ve heard in some time.  In short, this album is anger and evil incarnate, and that is why I love it so much.  

I have a stable of bands that I know I can always go to for the music I’m looking for, and there are always new bands that catch my attention from time to time, but Homewrecker is the first new band in a while that I truly expect to follow throughout their career.  The riffs are monstrous, peppered with NYHC influences, and tracks like “Chained Hanging Victim” and “Baseborn” never seem to get tired no matter how many times I listen to them.

Oh ya, and most importantly, I have a declaration to make about this album: Worms and Dirt has the heaviest, most well-timed intro track of the last 5 years.  Entitled “Wreck”, this atmospheric and distortion laden song mixes demonic riffs and fundamentalist Christian movie quotes (at least I think it’s a movie quote...I couldn’t place the sample for the life of me) to create the perfect introduction to an album that will be lauded, admired, and surely imitated for years to come.

Also, Homewrecker’s Worms and Dirt further prove that A389 is the most reliable and impressive label in hardcore.  No hyperbole, only truth.

Buy it here.

Review: EYEHATEGOD - New Orleans is the New Vietnam 7"

EYEHATEGOD

New Orleans is the New Vietnam

A389 Records

1. New Orleans is the New Vietnam

Years ago I was sitting around drinking with a friend and I threw on EyeHateGod’s Dopesick.  This friend was always picky when it came to music, and generally liked more melodic and upbeat bands, but he immediately closed his eyes and began bobbing his head to “My name is God (I hate you)”.  He looked up and said “I may not usually listen to EyeHateGod, but goddamn I’m sure glad they exist.”  

With the release of the New Orleans is the New Vietnam 7” I think this sentiment is more true than ever.  Metal needs EyeHateGod.  We need EyeHateGod.  And with no new music from them for over a decade, it’s incredibly refreshing to finally hear Mike Williams desperate screams laid over top of Jimmy Bower/Brian Patton’s sludgy riffs once again.

If you like EHG then you are going to like this single.  Despite a 12 year absence since Confederacy of Ruined Lives, this group of New Orleanians have missed a beat.  The riffs are massive, the vocals sound both anxious and assured, and the group as a whole seems to be the true embodiment of a city that has been beaten down, torn apart, and left for dead.  The band laments the demise of their home turf with the same sludgy blues riffs and that Sabbath-meets-Black Flag-meets-a-lifetime-of-tragic-living style that many have emulated, but that no one can ever really duplicated.  This single is a welcome pre-cursor to an upcoming full-length that will no doubt remind people why EHG are the true kings of American sludge.

Buy the awesome etched 7” from A389 here. 

Review: Pharaoh - This House is Doomed 7"

Pharaoh

This House is Doomed

A389 Recordings

Track Listing:

1. This House is Doomed

2. Waste

Prior to six months ago I had never heard New Jersey’s Pharaoh.  Unfortunately, the sheer volume of music that gets put out every year means that certain bands simply fall through the cracks.  Luckily, A389 put up a deal a couple months ago where the buyer got five 7” records for some bizarrely low price (I think it might’ve been $10), but the catch was that, in true ‘grab bag’ style, there was no choice of what music was purchased.  With such a low price I decided it would be foolish not to pick up a few mystery records, and lucky Pharaoh’s self-titled 7” was among them.

As on their self-titled 7”, This House is Doomed provides 2 tracks of distorted, doom-laden hardcore that never really lets up.  Not fans of the ‘all songs should be under 3 minutes’ mantra, Pharaoh begins off this offering with the title track, a seven minute ode to misery and despair that employs the mid-tempo riffs and anguished screams that have come to mark the Pharaoh sound.  Waste finishes off the 7” with more crunchy riffs and lyrics that are both poetic and incredibly depressing (“I’m going to die as an unknown/no day in my life spent alive”). 

One of the things I really love about Pharaoh is that although their songs regularly run in the 5-7 minute range, their music never seems drawn out, indulgent, or boring.  As a lover of all things fast/frenzied in music, I’m usually hyper-aware of song lengths and can quickly lose interest in anything that I feel drags on.  Fortunately, everything Pharaoh does on this release keeps the listener engaged and wanting more.  So if you like doomy, apocalyptic, purposeful music, then This House is Doomed is a must have, and is hopefully a tease for a full-length release in the near future.

It will be up on the A389 webstore soon, so keep checking back and buy it when you can!

Review: Countdown to Oblivion - Discography

Countdown to Oblivion

Discography

A389 Recordings

Track Listing:

1. Open Season on Hecklers (Part 3) Laso in Ireland
2. Spray P.E.C.
3. To An End
4. Take it Apart
5. Poster Children for Family Values
6. No Brainer
7. Up in Flames
8. The Way It Is
9. I’ll Do Anything
10. More Dead Kennedys (a.k.a. Single Bullshit Theory)
11. Poster Children For Family Values
12. Four Alarm Fire At Lockport Gambino Ford
13. The Way It Is
14. Take It Apart
15. Spray P.E.C.
16. The Fest Sex I Never Had

Let’s start off by getting one thing out of the way.  This is a Chris Colohan-related band.  They are all incredible and I’m not interested in arguing whether The Swarm is superior to Burning Love or if Left for Dead was better than Cursed.  It seems to be a never-ending debate within hardcore circles and such a discussion would diminish and distract from the task at hand:  Talking about how good the Countdown to Oblivion Discography is!

Countdown to Oblivion (or CTO if you are a lazy typist like me) originated as a quazi-side project for some of Ontario Hardcore’s elite in the late 1990’s, including members of Legion, One Blood, Rammer, Teen Crud Combo, Anti-Flag, and The Swarm.  While all of the material that appears on this record was released on a variety of 7 inches and a demo tape, it’s great that Dom from A389 (also a late 90’s Ontario Hardcore alumnus) was able to put it together on a convenient and comprehensive release.

Getting to the actual music, songs like Spray P.E.C. and Poster Children for Family Values exemplify just how well CTO was able to blend pissed-off hardcore and metallic (re: Slayer) riffs.  An entire discography without a song over 3 minutes, CTO was able to capture an attitude and style of music that many other bands attempted, but few were able to master this well.  With two vocalists (Stephe and Chris), CTO was able to deliver vocals so fast and so angry that no single vocalist could possibly deliver (especially live).  The only ‘drawback’ is that because it is a collection of all of CTO’s material, including their demo, there are several duplicate songs.  While some people may be annoyed by this, I don’t see it as a problem at all, as even the duplicates are from different recordings (demo vs. 7inch) and no true ‘discography’ can claim to be complete without including everything there is to offer, even multiple versions of the same song.

If you are a record nerd like me you’ll also love the physical presentation of this record.  The vinyl release came with gatefold packaging and a retrospective look at the band and their history by Colohan himself.  Those of us who ordered early were even able to get the badass-looking blood splatter (red splatter on grey) record, which really completes the package.  If you don’t care about the aesthetics of an album then just download it off of itunes or something.  No harm, no foul.  Either way, it’s in your best interest to own this album.

Buy it!