Permanent Death

It probably comes as no surprise that I was late to the party for Red Death. I'm not doing a great job at keeping up with new Hardcore bands this year, and I'm going to really need someone to be working the hype machine overtime if I'm going to pay it the slightest bit of attention.

I'd heard the Red Death name thrown around a bit when their album was released. Chris over at Unwavering Spirit posted about it, and then Sandwell started giving it some praise, comparing it to early Corrosion Of Conformity, I figured that I'd grab a quick download, and see if it was worth the Crossover hype I was hearing.

At the time, I was giving the last Iron Age record repeat listens, and following that album up with the new Red Death was a perfect combination. Those raw and raging guitar riffs! After giving it a few spins, I knew it was time to finally grab the vinyl.

Because I slept on this one for so long, the limited red vinyl was long sold out. 851 pressed on black vinyl.

Intro / Coke Bust

Coke Bust have been around for a while now. I remember first deciding to check them out back in 2007, as I'd been hearing their name a lot at the time. I downloaded their 2006 demo, but along with the terrible production and crazy, chaotic sound, I promptly deleted it after listening to just one song.

Fast forward six years, and I get an email from Grave Mistake, announcing that Coke Bust has a new LP available for order. There seemed to be some excitement around it, so I said "what the hell", and downloaded it to preview and see if my opinion had changed. Given that Sectarian Violence and Coke Bust share the same singer, it shouldn't have been a surprise, but damn, this is really good. Insanely fast, rough, raw and angry...recalling bands like Infest, Crossed Out, and Think I Care. I slept on this band for far too long.

200 pressed on red vinyl, and the LP comes with a gigantic poster.

While I was picking up the Confined LP, I figured that I might as well add the Degradation 7 inch to my order as well.

Another solid record. Six fast and loud blasts of anger, clocking in at six minutes total.

Birds That Were Born To Die

Night Birds ruled my world last year. They were an amazing surprise, and I could not get enough of them. Seeing them play live in Boston just elevated my appreciation for them, as it was one of the best shows that I'd seen in a long time. So much fun.

I was looking forward to the new LP, Born To Die In Suburbia, this year. Even though I was on the edge of my seat, waiting for the pre-orders, I still missed out on the limited screen printed cover. The Night Birds aren't big on colored vinyl, so I'll have to take this one copy on black...but that's okay, as plain black vinyl seems to fit the band perfectly.

As for the new album, I wasn't completely sold on it after the first listen, and I was disappointed. That seems to be the theme lately, as more and more, I need repeated listens before an album sinks in. With this one it took me a handful, and while it doesn't match The Other Side Of Darkness, this thing still has the hooks and energy to still deliver.

Sects And Violence

I've been stuck in a Metal kind of mood for a long time. I'm not sure if it has been the strong start to 2013 from Metal bands, but I've had very little motivation to listen to much Hardcore this year. Checking my stats for the past six months, my most listened to bands have been Orange Goblin, Orchid, Fu Manchu, Grand Magus, and The Rival Mob...in that order. Of my 66 posts for the year, 33% of them have been for Metal/Rock vinyl. Instead of searching eBay for Have Heart variants, I'd started browsing through distros like Last Rights and All That Is Heavy for newer Metal releases. As someone that has always made Hardcore a priority, it was certainly a very strange position to find myself in.

I had noticed my shift in priorities, and chalked it up to a serious lack of strong Hardcore releases this year. Maybe I'd fallen out of touch with what was going on in Hardcore. When I received an email from Grave Mistake Records announcing some of their latest releases, I committed myself to checking out some newer bands that I'd never heard before. Sectarian Violence sounded promising, so I tracked down a download for their newest album, Upward Hostility.

Just a few songs was all it took to knock me in the head and kick my ass. Just like that, my musical attention swung from Metal over to Hardcore. My days were once again spent listening to nothing but stuff like Lights Out, Carry On, and The First Step. Once again, I started crawling through eBay, flirting with financial disaster and adding Hardcore record after Hardcore record to my Watch List. All is right in my world again.

Sectarian Violence are a Straight Edge Hardcore band. This shit is ugly and brutal...blazing fast and reminding me so much of Think I Care/Prisoner Abuse, that I had to check to see if they shared the same singer. I loved what I heard so much that I hit up the Grave Mistake store to pick up the Sectarian Violence package deal with the limited blue vinyl LP, and their first 7 inch.

Birds Of A Feather

Last year, one of the biggest surprises for me was Night Birds. Man, it set me of on a tangent of listening to tons of Circle Jerks, Angry Samoans, Dead Kennedys, Agent Orange, and a bunch of other early 80's Hardcore Punk bands. The Night Birds nailed that sound, and I find that I'm still spinning their discography on a regular basis.

When Grave Mistake put up pre-orders for the Fresh Kills LP, I didn't hesitate to buy a copy. Sure it is a compilation album that combines their 7 inch and demo recordings, and while I already owned the self titled and Midnight Movies records...oh, and I already owned Fresh Kills on CD...there wasn't any way that I was going to miss out on this.

The limited pre-order version came with a pretty cool looking, screened OBI style strip. I've raved on this blog numerous times about how much I love the OBI strip, so of course I thought it was a nice addition with this LP.

The back of each OBI strip is hand numbered out of 210.

A few months back, Grave Mistake issued the second pressing of the Night Birds debut album, The Other Side of Darkness. The first pressing was all on black vinyl, and since the second press was as well, I saw no reason to rush out and buy a copy. Since I was in the Grave Mistake store picking up the new Fresh Kills vinyl, and because I'm an idiot, I decided I might as well pick up that second pressing while I was there. Why the fuck not?

First press has white labels, while the second press got red. Sure they are both black vinyl, but when I set them side by side, I was glad to have one of each.