Ritual On A Chain

Another year, another Planet On A Chain record. Honestly, I'm surprised at how much this band has released. Three albums over three years, plus a couple of 7 inches before that. It's impressive for a hardcore band.

Ritual Routine keeps doing what POAC does best... unrelenting fast hardcore. I don't think that they really do anything new here, and that's cool with me. While all of their records kind of feel the same and interchangable, there was something about their last one, Culture Of Death, that I really enjoyed more than others... and for me, this new one falls a bit short. Maybe I just need to sit with it a bit more... or maybe there was just something with Culture Of Death that clicked with me more. Who knows... but either way POAC keeps doing what you'd expect POAC to do, and that album cover art is rad as fuck.

330 pressed on yellow colored vinyl.

100% Never Again

I really need a system to keep track of records that I've ordered. A few years ago I used to keep a notebook that I would use to capture info on when I would place an order for a record... writing down the date plus any any info about it that was kicking around in my head at the time, including what put it on my radar in the first place. This was useful when months later I would finally get around to the blog post. My 2026 resolution is to start that back up, because sitting here now and looking at this Never Again record, I have no fucking idea what prompted me to buy it. This kind of thing happens to me more than I'd care to admit. My memory really is shit.

My email records show that I ordered this 7 inch back in February from Cash Only Records, but I'm not sure where I heard about it. I mean I assume that I saw it on the 'gram somewhere, but I'm not sure who would have shared it that it made enough of an impression that I would have to immediately search it out, listen to the songs, and buy it within a 10 minute span... but that's exactly what happened. So whatever it was that made me check it out, I'm glad that I did because this record is that good. Pure straight forward hardcore, and that is exactly what I wanted.

Red/black smash (or more commonly known, dark red) colored vinyl that is limited to 200.

Meantime

I hadn't heard of Meantime until I saw Marcus post about this record a couple of months ago. I don't really follow what Indecision Records is releasing, so I wasn't surprised to find that this came out a couple of years ago and that it had passed me by undetected, but once Marcus dropped comparisons to Go It Alone and Champion, I sat up and took notice.

That isn't to say that Meantime exactly sound like either of those bands, but their sound does bring me back to those mid-2000 hardcore days. Man, those were special times for me with so many good bands, so Living In The Meantime clicked with me immediately and I had to rush over to Indecision to pick up a copy.

150 pressed on this splatter pattern vinyl, and while I'm not really looking to collect multiple copies of this, it would be really nice if one of those record release versions managed to become available to pick up at some point.

Spite And Desertion

I took a chance on the first Spite House record back in 2022, and while I didn't really listen to it a whole lot at the time, it was a really solid album that reminded me of some of the melodic post-punk stuff of the early 90's. I've come to really appreciate that record over the past couple of years, but I was still a bit hesitant when I discovered that they had a new album on the way this year. I'm aware that skepticism is my default reaction, especially when it comes to new music from band that play this kind of style... like, okay your band was good enough to pull off one record, but surely you will fuck up the next attempt and go too soft and melodic... but most of the time bands prove me wrong, and I'm happy that is the case with the new Spite House album, Desertion.

While it took me some time to ease into the self-titled Spite House album, with Desertion, I was immediately hooked. I'm not sure if the songs are better here, or if it was my state of mind, but right from the start I was into it. I'm kind of at a loss as how to describe this... on the one hand they remind me of that 90's melodic style that bands like Garden Variety were doing, but I also hear some Title Fight here... I don't know but it is really good.

Violet a-side and blue b-side with glitter colored vinyl. Limited to 150.