Belly Of The Beast

I really liked the first couple of Combust records. They have a great NYHC vibe in the vein of early Cro-Mags and Killing Time, and while I really liked those records when I bought them, I haven't really spent a lot of time with them over the past couple of years because I've been pulled to listen to other things. So I wasn't sure how a third Combust record was going to land with me, and I kind of expected to feel indifferent towards it.

I've slowly been getting back into a hardcore mindset this year, and the new Combust has been a big part of that. I didn't really expect much with Belly Of The Beast, but surprisingly it has been a bit of a catalyst that is reigniting my love of hardcore. I don't know what it was... but this record has a swagger that just hooked me and made me want more. It's hard. I has some groove. I just makes me want to move. I didn't even know that I needed this, but here we are.

The colored vinyl is your typical Triple B pattern with a few different colors all filtered through a 5th graders imagination of what looks good. Red and bone white on one side and a black splatter on the other. Limited to 300.

Another Combust Life

We are closing in on the end of the year, and I still have a lot of new releases that I've got to get up here on the blog before the end of 2022. I better step up my production or I'll never get it done.

Combust were a band that I discovered a couple years ago with their 12 inch for The Void. That record was a great surprise with it's Cro-Mags / Killing Time vibe, and I was excited to see what the band was going to do next. As soon as preorders went up for their new record, Another Life, I was in there getting myself a copy. The only options for colored vinyl were shitty splatter patterns, so either way, I was going to lose on that front. I tried to pick the least offensive option with the blue with red splatter pattern.

The album itself is exactly what I was looking for from Combust. The band wear those NYHC influences on their sleeves, and at times I felt like a song was going to slide into something from Killing Time's Brightside. This thing is like a long lost In-Effect record. Great stuff.

The album comes with a poster, which would be super cool if I was 18 again.

Intro Combust

I discovered so many great new hardcore bands in 2019. All the stars must have been aligned because I was open to checking out some new bands, and it seemed like I was stumbling on a great new find every other day. I felt like I couldn't miss, and if I had a good feeling about a band, I'd check them out and immediately fall in love with what I was hearing. I'd seen the name Combust thrown around a few times last year, but made assumptions and lumped them in with some tough-guy shit, so I avoided them.

Combust kept showing up as a recommendation on Spotify for other new bands that I was spinning daily, so in a moment of curiosity, I finally broke down recently and I checked them out. Wow. This is great. There are some great NYHC vibes on this record, but in a great Killing Time and Cro-Mags way...in fact one of the songs strongly reminds me of Seekers Of The Truth from Cro-Mags...plus I've been spinning Best Wishes a lot recently, so this Combust record hit me at the right time.

I'd ordered the more limited green/yellow pressing for The Void, but Edgewood Records sent me the black with yellow splatter instead. Maybe the green/yellow had sold out, or maybe they sent be the splatter by mistake, either way, this record is damn good.

300 pressed on this black/yellow splatter.