New Lows-Last of The Rats (Harvest Of The Carcass)
Citizens Arrest-Soaked In Others Blood (Soaked In Others Blood)
Waste Management-Too Much Unity (Power Abuse)

No Tolerance-Empty Words (No Remorse, No Tolerance)
Technocracy-Aggressor (Diary of a Terrorist)
NYC Mayhem-Want Authority (Crossover Days)

Bastard-Defective Chain (Controlled In The Frame)
Soul Swallower-Burning For The Ultimate (Devoured)
Give-I Am Love (I Am Love)

Void-Condensed Flesh (Sessions 81-83)
Scapegoat-Bleach (Self Titled)
Death Evocation-Relentless (Self Titled)

Vaccine-Drug War (Crimes In Blood)
Mauser-End Of The Line (End Of The Line)
Omegas-Excessive Force (Blasts Of Lunacy)

Faith-Untitled (Subject To Change Plus First Demo)
Gasmask Terror-Dead End (Like Daggers)
Negative Approach-Kiss Me Kill Me (Friends Of No One)

Cockney Rejects-New Song (Greatest Hits Volume One)

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Lethal Aggression-Newcaster Lies (Life Is Hard…But That’s No Excuse…)
Staring Problem-Scattered Pieces (Pissed Human Dick)
Give-Life Unknown (Self Titled)

Bl’ast!-Look Into Myself (The Power Of Expression)
Crow-Occupied Japan (Vertigo)
Cro Mags-Do Unto Others (Age Of Quarrel)

The Rival Mob-Raw Life (Raw Life)
Black Flag-I’ve Heard It Before (Blasting Concept Volume One)
Mauser-New Threat (End Of The Line)

No Hope For The Kids-Cold Touch of Death (Angels of Destruction)
Overkill-Hell’s Getting Hotter (Blasting Concept Volume One)
Hatred Surge-Brutal Supremacy (Brutal Supremacy)

Siege-Conform (Demo)
Siege-Walls (Cleanse The Bacteria)
Siege-Grim Reaper (Demo)

Christian Mistress-Mother of Mercy (Mother of Mercy)
Blasting Concept-Wake Of The Spudnik (Self Titled)
State Of Alert-Public Defender (Bootleg)

Free Spirit-Selfish (Free Yourself)
Mind Eraser-The Way Is Shut (Brutal Supremacy)
Soul Swallower-Absolute Power (Devoured)

No Tolerance-Sentenced (Demo)
Discharge-Two Monstrous Nuclear Stockpiles (Never Again)
Rest In Pieces-Toys R Us (My Rage)

The Mob-Common Criminal (The Way It Was)
Confuse-Hate War (Japan One)
Cause For Alarm-In Search Of (The Way It Was)
Gil-Find Your Real Self (Japan One)

Antidote-Real Deal (The Way It Was)
Kuro-Selfish Cow (Japan One)
The Abused-Nuclear Threat (The Way It Was)
LSD-Just Last (Japan One)

Bad Brains Live In Philadelphia PA 1982
Fearless Vampire Killers
The Big Takeover
Joshua’s Song
Right Brigade

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Demos/Tapes/CD
• Our Side
• Cervix
• Blessed Offal

Seven Inch or Less
• V/A-Brutal Supremacy Compilation
• School Jerks-Control
• Citizens Arrest-Soaked In Others Blood
• Death Evocation-Self Titled
• Waste Management-Power Abuse
• No Tolerance-No Remorse, No Tolerance
• Vaccine-Crimes In Blood
• Mauser-End Of The Line
• Give-I Am Love
• Gasmask Terror-Like Daggers

Longer Players
• New Lows-Harvest of the Carcass
• Soul Swallower-Devoured
• Scapegoat-Self Titled
• Technocracy-Diary of a Terrorist
• Omegas-Blasts of Lunacy

Reissues
• Cro Mags-Age of Quarrel
• Supertouch-WNYU
• Void-Sessions 81 to 83
• Faith-Subject To Change
• Bastard-Controlled In The Frame
• Adrenalin OD-Let’s BBQ
• NYC Mayhem-Crossover Days
• Negative Approach-Friends Of No One

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Members of Voorhees are back with a new band that sounds like…Voorhees. Obviously, not as classic as Spilling Blood Without Reason, but good angry 82 era hardcore that will be enjoyed by fans of Voorhees for sure. Cool Devo cover at the end.

Defile
Demo 2010

Fast, angry, hardcore somewhere between midwestern style and power violence. I bet live you can hear a bit of Rorschach in their sound too. I’d like to hear more.

Slowburn
Demo

Members of a variety of NJHC bands including Spirit, Vision, and Floorpunch playing melodic, Turning Point, style hardcore. This isn’t too bad, but it’s not something I would listen to that often. The members of this band have done much better before.

Beware
Demo

Members of Stick Together and a few other PA bands doing pretty bland Chain of Strength style hardcore that has all of the flaws most 1980′s “melodic,” nearing emo, hardcore bands have. The generic 88 styling of Stick Together are way better. I’m shocked by how many people are so into this.

Bloody Hammer
Demo 2010

Moderately generic Oi! trying to sound like all of the classics. This isn’t a bad effort at sounding like Four Skins, one of my favorites, but isn’t something I will listen to much. I don’t dabble too deeply in this genre during modern times, but check this one out if you love this stuff.

Good Times
Demo

This was handed to me on the way out of a show. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be serious, but the music moves between 88 style hardcore to chugga chugga idiot metal. Add in some pretty misogynistic lyrics and this is pretty shitty.

Hatred Surge
Deconstruct LP
Rescued From Life Records

Taking cues from bands like His Hero Is Gone, Neurosis, and Mind Eraser come this LP by Hatred Surge. Brutal hardcore with alternating male/female vocals. This is one of my favorites of the past few years.

Rorschach
Remain Sedate Reissue LP
Gern Blandsten Records

While I like Protestant a lot more than this one, the first Rorschach LP is an essential part of the evolution of post youth crew hardcore in the nineties. The influence of late eighties bands like Breakdown can still be heard from their very early sound, but so can the incoming influence of bands like Bl’ast!, Voi-void, and Die Kreuzen as well. As with Protestant, the resisue is greatly aided by remastered sound.

Miles Davis
Bitches Brew Live CD

I highly doubt this is a legit release, but worth checking out. The liner notes are hilarious though: the writer acts like NO ONE has ever heard live material of Davis from this era. Tape traders have avidly passed around shows from his electronic years from a damn long time. Ignoring that is comical. There are better shows out there.

Young Republicans
Sabatoge Your Cookout 7″
More Than A Witness Records

One of the great holy grails of the tape trading circuit when I was a teenager was the Young Republicans demo. As you probably know, members of, and songs, from this tape moved to New York City and did a slightly more well known band called Youth Of Today. This demo is pretty generic early eighties hardcore that isn’t bad, but doesn’t really stand out. Worth noting is the songs that did move over to Youth of Today and eventually Project X as well, which is an interesting historical note. Just for that, I strongly suggest picking this up.

Waste Management
Get Your Mind Right 7″
Painkiller Records

Wow!!!! Serious SSD worship from this Massachusetts band. The music is more in the vein of early NYHC bands like The Abused or Agnostic Front, but the pleading, sick, Springa style vocals are unbelievable. I hear a little bit of Crucifix too (SSD meets Crucifix? Fuck.). This would have fit in nicely alongside records on XClaim! or Rat Cage. Nice cover of “Fight,” out of nowhere, in the middle of the record too.

New Lows
Self Titled 7″
Lockin Out Records

Somewhere amongst Word As Law era Neurosis and Humanity Is The Devil era Integrity comes The New Lows’ debut single on Lockin Out. this is a style can be fall apart quick because of too much chugga chugga or experimental bullshit, but The New Lows keep it together. My only complaint is a few too many kickbox style mosh parts. That shit is so corny; however, the band can’t be punished for the idiotic way a crowd way react to them.

DropDead/Converge
Split 7″

DropDead did a split with…Converge? Okay. The DropDead side of this split is pretty good, up to their usual good standards. Converge are just not a band who have ever interested me. Post hardcores love that shit.

Wasted Time
Futility 12″
Grave Mistake Records

Wasted Time come back with an excellent followup to their debut 7″, this time heavily soaked in Kings of Punk era Poison Idea and Oi! bands like Blitz and 4-Skins. Wasted Time is able to tread between an authentic old style and more modern production and stylistic values. This is one of the best records of the decade.

Innumerable Forms
Dark Worship 7″
Hell Massacre Records

Justin Detore’s death metal project is exactly as awesome as it sounds. Serious old school death metal which really stands out in a genre I don’t dive too deeply into outside of most of the classics. A lot of the newer Mind Eraser (Justin’s day job) material in somewhat in this vein, or at least heavily influenced by it. Excellent and worth tracking down.

Gasmask Terror
Black Sun Fake Gold LP
Solar Funeral Records

Gasmask Terror are an interesting band whose sound falls somewhere between UK82 and D-Beat styles. I think this LP drags a little bit, but I think I have a general distaste for longer records in this style from most bands outside of the heavyweights like Discharge. This is definitely worth checking out.

Waste Management
Power Abuse 7″
Painkiller Records

Yes!!! Brutal SSD style hardcore from members of Mind Eraser. This record takes the best of early Boston and New York with some seriously raging lyrics (especially “Too Much Unity”). A definite contender for record of the year.

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So, my senior year of high school I was working on a new fanzine. This would be my first full length, pretty serious effort, fanzine after a couple of false starts. I really wanted to interview War Zone, so a friend (Dan Skebra?) gave me their voicemail number and I called it up. After leaving a very nervous message, I didn’t hear anything for about a week and crossed them off the list of bands to interview. One day after school I was getting ready for work and my mother hands me the phone. I asked her who it was and she said “Ray.” I figured it was my friend Ray, who I worked with and also went to shows (although his friends were more into pop-punk and bands like 25 Ta Life). Turned out it was another Ray: Raybeez!

He apologized for taking so long to get back to me and asked me about my fanzine. I told him I named it after a Mouthpiece song and we talked about how great Mouthpiece had been (they’d broken up the previous summer). We set up a time to do the interview at an upcoming War Zone show somewhere down the shore. Raybeez promised to keep in touch and I hung up totally psyched.

A few weeks go by the show happens, but do to some circumstances out of our control my friends and I couldn’t make it. I spoke to Raybeez a few days later and he said to not worry about it, we’d catch up soon. He called one more time like a month or so later to see how I was doing. He even remembered I was finishing up high school soon. How fucking cool is that?

School ends and that summer War Zone played at Manville with, I think, Uprise and No Contest. I introduced myself to Raybeez, apologized in person for missing the earlier show, and again he was so cool about it. He asked me what song I wanted to hear and four words snapped to the front of my brain: “Escape From Your Society.” You bet they played it along with a ton of old songs.

I hoped to find him after the show to thank him again, but my ride wanted to take off right away so I didn’t get to see him. About two months later he was dead.

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If you haven’t check out the interview Double Cross did with Jules from Side By Side, the final part of the interview has been posted online. Depending on the interviewee, DCXXX can be pretty hit or miss, but this one is really good.

Supertouch
Lost My Way 7″
Reaper Records

Sounding, and looking, like something out of the stuff that post hardcores put out in the late 1990′s, you know, when they “grew up” and discovered beer and Oasis, this is not surprising, but still pretty disappointing. I wish bands that only had half their members and a new sound would just start a new band. I’ll still bust for Struggling to Communicate though.

Talk Is Poison
Rage To Infinity 7″

This is a bit of a disappointment as well. Talk Is Poison were one of my favorite bands of the 1990s. However, while not terrible by any means, this record lacks the ferocity of their early material. Not horrible, but not as good as their early work. Worth checking out.

Battletorn/Double Negative
Split 7″
Volcom Entertainment

Double Negative continue to be one of my favorite bands of the last five years with three raw “early COC meets early COC” style ragers. I wish this band would come to New Jersey! Battletorn are a band I’m not super familiar with, but they sound okay. Three real quick thrashers with a little crust influence. Get this one for Double Negative.

Dusted Angel
Self Titled 7″
Corruption Recordings

See my review of their LP. Members of Bl’ast! doing boring stoner rock. This style is really played out.

Rorschach
Protestant LP Reissue
Gern Blandsten Records

When I began to slowly drift away from the hardcore scene around 1999ish, there were two records that I spun on a consistent basis. Black Flag’s My War album was the soundtrack to almost every morning. Rorschach’s Protestant album became what I listened to at work, at home, and in the car. An incredible mix of Die Kreuzen, Black Flag, King Crimson, and others. Around this time, as women actually started to date me for some reason, I used to play Protestant in the car on dates as a “rorschach test” to see if they could hang. Most couldn’t; seriously, why would I bother dating someone who couldn’t handle this record?

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A 1965 performance of Naima by John Coltrane.

Antidote
Thou Shalt Not Kill 7″
Bridge 9 Records

Along with Infest, when I got into hardcore there wasn’t another band talked about in such mysterious and hushed tones as Antidote. The record was expensive, but the music was great. There was a bootleg 12″ of it with other early NYC eps (Cause For Alarm, The Abused and either The Mob or Urban Waste), but for most people, this was a record to get on tape, which I had a really nice dub from a virtually mint copy in 1997. Obviously, Antidote influenced the youth crew sound, especially Youth of Today, combining the early NYHC sound with the guitar playing of UKHC bands like Discharge. Some pretty stupid lyrics (not really “racist,” just idiotic), with some righteous lyrics, plus perhaps the best artwork on any hardcore record this side of the Age of Quarrel make this one a keeper. If you don’t own an original or one of the other reissues of this, definitely pick this one up.

Invasion
La Caza LP
Deranged Records

Somewhere between Amebix and Discharge come Spain’s Invasion. One of the best records of the past decade, Invasion are noisy, but also very tuneful. I listen to this one all the time.

Hands Tied
Through The Wreckage 7″
Livewire Records

Released for their reunion shows last summer, this ep shows some progression from their first record in 1996, but there is also something lacking about these songs. I think my problem here is that they both drag to the three minute mark almost, but could lose 30-45 seconds each easily. They’re aren’t bad songs, just not something I am enjoying. What I am looking forward to is hearing the finally recorded Gagged & Bound ep songs, which were live favorites during Hands Tied’s second lineup with Geoff TDT, Dan from Ressurection, and Matt Smith of Rain On The Parade/Shark Attack.

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I don’t need to explain this one.

Bad Brains
171A Sessions 7″

Has anyone else noticed that a lot of Bad Brains demos are popping up the past few years? These are three versions of songs you probably know, but heavier than say the Black Dots session. A live, horrible, reggae song ends the record. Not really that essential.

Waste Management
Tape

Members of Mind Eraser, etc doing really ILL Boston 82 hardcore ala SSD. The best part about this one is the pleading, furious, Springa style vocals. One of the best bands going today. There is a live set on here too with Abused and DYS covers. I’ve been waiting for someone to proclaim there is “too much unity!” for years.

Give
Heaven Is Waiting 7″
Deranged Records

This is my least favorite Give record so far. Heading away from Swiz and more towards something like Avail, this is a little too poppy for me. Still, their other records are so solid that a few misses here and there are acceptable.

Various Artists
Youth Crew 2009 7″
Upside Down Records

Youth crew? Most of these bands sound like Chain of Strength. The only really decent band here is Break Through. I found most of the bands to be rather uninteresting. This style is really in need of a hiatus.

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Necros-Youth Camp (IQ32)
Mind Eraser-Manhood (Glacial Reign)
Sacrilege-A Violation of Something Sacred (Beyond The Realm of Madness)

Rorschach-Hemlock (Protestant)
Corrosion of Conformity-Holier (Animosity)
Blessed Offal-Bottomless Grave (Demo)

Misery-Class Warfare (Who’s The Fool)
Neurosis-The Choice (The Word As Law)
Slang-World of Lunacy (Life Made Me Hardcore)

Indian Dream-Silent Screams (Orca)
Mauser-New Threat (End of the Line)
Black Flag-Best One Yet (Loose Nut)

Whirl-Blue (Distressor)

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