I came across Haymaker around the same time as The Rites (see post on them HERE ) when i had a renewed interest in hardcore round the early 00's, This was when downloading from the internet first came along as well so i used to go round all the record label sites take the 1 or 2 songs from each release they would offer free and make my own CD samplers to listen to and one of the songs i got from Deranged Records was "Built To Destroy" by Haymaker from their debut album and this was one of the first Cd's I bought that renewed my interest in some of the newer hardcore that had happened while I was not paying attention to that scene in the 90's! Their last EP "Lost Tribe" from 2004 was the last I heard of them and I assumed they were long gone however yesterday i heard the news that they had a new EP called "Let them Rot" which is why i thought a post was long overdue.
Hailing from Hamilton, Ontario in Canada and featured folks who have played in The Swarm (aka Knee Deep In The Dead), Left For Dead, Our War, Cursed and Chokehold to name but a few the members are of Haymaker are rooted in the best and most brutal hardcore to come out of Canada. Haymaker play a particularly violent,nasty,negative and nihilistic not to mention face shredding style of hardcore projecting a sheer menace that is missing from a lot of hardcore bands, in fact the lyrics and ethos behind the band is pretty much the antithesis of hardcore with songs that are anti-scene, anti religious,incite violence,suicide and a lot of personal and projected negativity which, i think is one of the things that attracted me to them in the first place! not that I am a violent or negative person I just find that sometimes when life is kicking you in the balls and you are full of anger and hate then a loud blast of Haymaker can be very helpful. I can only assume that the fact that they aren't THE most popular hardcore band could be down to some of their attributes. All of this negativity is backed up by a sound that is absolutely FEROCIOUS downtuned heavy guitar (heavy but not in am metalcore way were talking nasty and fuzzed out not chugging sub thrash boredom here) dirty bass and utterly hateful vocals all combine to make a sound that has a great bottom end heaviness and really nasty and right in your face but is at the same time utterly compelling. In some ways they remind me a little of an Canadianized Extreme Noise Terror sometimes although they don't have the brutal cement mixer/plane crash vocals, Haymaker's vocalist does spit his words with much venom and anger but you can clearly understand him, however it's in the fast semi D-beat drums and brutal riffing that i hear ENT slightly which makes me think all tho this is without a doubt Hardcore and not crust that people who come here for the heavy stuff will definitely like this band a LOT!
So onto your files I decided once again to compile the bands 7" EP's and demo into one file for you so the link below "Demo's And EP's" contains their debut Demo (later released as a 1-sided 12"), their "Love The Music Hate The Kids" EP from 2000, The 2nd EP "Fuck America" from 2001, their Split EP with Oxbaker also from 2001, the "Lost Tribe" EP from 2004 and the 11 track Live 7" (dunno if this is a bootleg or what as it's not mentioned on Discogs but it's 11 tracks from 5/8/2001 no venue stated) That's everything they have done before the album with the exception of their split EP with Fucked Up unfortunately I think that there is a pressing fault with the Haymaker side as I owned it on vinyl and whenever you played it it sounded like someone had spilled jam on the record and my copy was a first press original! so that has been omitted due to being completely unlistenable quality.All of these are taken from vinyl rips "Love The Music..." is a decent quality rip but is extremely quiet just turn it up the quality is there, "Lost Tribe" sounds crackly but unfortunately that's just how it is, i owned it and it sounded like that first time i played it,the others are decent enough quality as I always say i would not post anything of such poor quality that it wasn't listenable. Next up you have their self titled and only album recorded in 2001 released in 2002 and i have to say this is the best of Haymaker 25 tracks of sheer hatred and bile in 22 minutes this album grabs you by the throat pins you to the wall and fucking screams at you till you can almost feel the spittle flying in your face! ha ha doesn't sound pleasant? trust me it is! I cannot tell you how utterly ripping this album is one of my utter favourite hardcore albums of all time, ripped from my own CD at 320kbps! And lastly well the inspiration behind this post that being that Haymaker are back in 2014 with a new EP which is fucking great news to me and below you will find a link to the not even released yet "Let Them Rot" EP 4 new Haymaker tracks in as many minutes, has any of the bile or hateful sound been lost? has it fuck it's like next day not 10 years later great stuff!! The Lead track has a riff that reminds me of a fucking fast and nasty version of Gang Green's most well known song "Alchohol"! A great return for an excellent hardcore band!
So there you go if you're a fan of hardcore and have perhaps overlooked this band then you need to rectify that RIGHT now I suggest you go for the Album link first as tho the Ep's are great it's a big file and because they are ripped from vinyl the quality is a little hit and miss however the album is ripped from CD so is great quality and contains their best material in my opinion. Blaze Some Hate.....
This post was originally done in 2013 There has been a lot gone on in the world of Sleep since then so I have completely re-edited the original text and updated old links with better quality ones and added some new ones. this supercedes previous posts and is to all intents and purposes a new post. Read on..
A band like Sleep should need no introduction especially with their recent touring and mighty remastered version of "Dopesmoker" last year. If you didn't know here's a quick history Sleep started off as brutal sludgy crust band Asbestosdeath who released 2 x 7" singles they then evolved into Sleep, doing their debut album "Volume One" in 1991 which was not a million miles away from what they had done in Asbestosdeath (3 of the 4 tracks from the Asbestosdeath 7"' appear on Sleep's debut) they then recorded a second album of all new material which they shopped around labels for a release, a tape of it found it's way to Earache records with this letter....
Earache saw the potential and signed them. The subsequent "Holy Mountain" album was a radical departure from "Volume One" and pretty much invented the "Stoner Rock" genre. After the success of this album Sleep decided to sign with major label London records and for their London Records debut to record the now legendary 1 hour plus epic that was proposed 3rd album "Dopesmoker"! Exec's from major labels aren't known for their open mindedness and immediately balked at being presented with a concept album of 1 track an hour long, the main theme being weed smoking (unlike today this was not the most acceptable or commonplace activity in 1995!) The band and label butted heads severely, the band refusing to change or alter the album and the label refusing to release it! They were subsequently dropped, the master tapes were shelved, causing the band to fracture and it wasn't until 1999 long after Sleep broke up that "Dopesmoker" was released albeit broken up into 6 parts and re-titled as "Jerusalem" then in 2003 it was reissued in it's original 1 track format as a rough mix "Dopesmoker" with a bonus track "Sonic Titan (Live)" Then in 2012 the masters were handed over to Brad Boatright of Audiosiege for a proper remastering and released on Southern Lord, this time with "Holy Mountain" Live from 1994 as a bonus track for me that is the definitive version. So that's a brief history of Sleep here's a more in depth look at the albums I've posted....
Asbestosdeath - 7"'s "Dejection" & "Unclean" these were released by Profane Existence and the other by the band themselves in 1990 and are 4 tracks of slow, crawling sludgy stuff reminiscent of Dystopia but if you listen carefully you can hear that trademark classic Matt Pike riffing in there underneath the sludge! and as I said before 3 of the 4 tracks were re-recorded for the Sleep debut album "Volume One" These 2 x 7"'s were collected together on one CD by Southern lord this file is taken from my CD 320kbps.
Sleep Volume One - Debut album from Sleep and released on what was then the European home of all things Grunge & Seattle in the early 90's Tupelo recordings (also responsible for releasing the first editions of Nirvana's "Bleach" in Europe) Not exactly a good fit, however this album whilst the stoner edge can be felt is still not a million miles away from what these guys had been doing in Asbestosdeath this is slow heavy sludgy metal that is also to my ears heavily influenced by early Melvins, in fact the main reason I bought this album is because when I listened to it it just screamed "Gluey Porch Treatments" at me. Remember these guys pretty much invented stoner rock so at this time in 1991 there was nothing to compare this to and it certainly wouldn't fall into the stoner genre had it been invented then!! Like i say this is slow heavy punishing stuff and whilst the vocals aren't quite as anguished as Asbestosdeath this is still some pretty tortured music and vocals.It's a killer heavy album and there's nothing else (outside of Melvins early work) Ripped from my CD at 320kbps
Sleep Volume Two, This,now ultra rare 7" EP was released on Eric Keller (of legendary Swiss grinders Fear Of God) label Off The Disk in 1992 and is probably the holy grail of Sleep collectables as it was probably limited to copies in the hundreds maybe 1000 copies at a push This 7" features their version of Sabbath's "Lord Of This World" (made to sound live but isn't!!) backed with excellent early demo versions of "Nain's Baptism" & "The Druid"! High Quality FLAC vinyl rip converted to MP3 320KBPS
Sleep's Holy Mountain I first heard Sleep in 1992 on the Earache records cassette comp "Naive".This was a showcase for all the non-grind/death metal bands that had releases out or coming out on Earache and featured bands like Clutch, Fudge Tunnel, Scorn, Pitch Shifter and of course Sleep. I was already aware of a few of the bands but when iI got to the Sleep track "Dragonaut" (Subsequently the opening track on "Holy Mountain") I was utterly floored. This was PURE Sabbath worship given a 90's twist and made even heavier!!! (Ozzy Osbourne himself is quoted as saying when he heard Sleep out of all the bands that are influenced by Sabbath, Sleep were the closest in sound and feel) I had been a fan of Early Sabbath for a while then and had exhausted those first 6 Sab's albums, so this came along at a perfect time for me! Though there is no denying the Sabbath influence Sleep have the sound and feel as Ozzy says but they are not straight off ripping Sabbath off for a start this is way heavier in sound and production and riffs like the Monster intro to track 2 "The Druid" are so utterly fucking amazing it just makes me go arrrgggggghhhhhh! everytime! This predates the legion of Sabbath pilfering and weak stoner rock that's around these days by almost a decade. Like I say this album practically invented the style there was NO ONE else doing this type of music in 1992 and there has been no one yet from the stoner genre that has recorded ANYTHING in the same league as this album it's an utter masterpiece! (320kbps Reissue version with "Snowblind" from the Earache "Masters of Misery" Sabbath tribute as a bonus track)
Dopesmoker - I've already gave you the history of this album and about how it never saw release till 1999 (in altered form) years after the band broke up after originally recording it in 1993.However is this the absolute pinnacle of a short lived career by the band who invented stoner rock? Hmm it's a good album no mistake and there's immense fucking walls of riffage by the dumper truck load, But I think it may have been a little ambitious, because I don't think there's enough to it to keep me completely involved for a whole hour. The main riff to the song is a theme throughout and mighty a riff as it might be.... I mean don't get me wrong, when I play this album some parts just make me go whoaaahhh FUCK yeah! And because it's 1 song it's good that when you listen to it certain parts blow you away and it keeps repeat listens interesting, but I have to say the majority of this album kinda washes over me until aforementioned parts just grab me! I'll leave you to make up your own mind on this album and say no more except here is the Brad Boatright remastered 2012 version with "Dopesmoker" and "Holy Mountain (Live 1994) and as a bonus I've also tacked on "Sonic Titan (Live)" from the 2003 version! All ripped from my own CD's at 320KBPS
2012 Dopesmoker reissue art by Arik Roper
I recently discovered, and, being a huge Sleep fan I kicked myself repeatedly, that both a double CD and cassette were released of their reunion show at the famous All Tomorrow's Parties festival in May 2009. Since it has been out for over 4 years (11 years now!) and I only just found out about it last week is an utter tragedy. Becasue 1: I will now have no chance of ever owning one and 2: It's a double CD/Cass of live Sleep!!! So the CD appears to be a bootleg and the cassette is an official release, which of the two these files are sourced from I don't know, I found it on the internet the bitrate is high but the quality is not the most sparkling. It sounds somewhere between an audience recording and a soundboard recording not terrible quality but not amazing either. However the quality of the music is another matter this is an epic 95 minute Sleep set. Now having only got this downloaded yesterday I have listened to it but not intensely, as well as a wealth of material culled from their "Holy Mountain" album there are some NEW Sleep songs on here along with epic length versions of the "Holy Mountain" material (a 14 min through "From Beyond" HELL yeah) this means you should have been reaching for the download link at the point where the words "New Sleep Songs" were mentioned. Don't let my quality control alarms put you off, this is a great live set from one of the greatest bands around not a terrible bootleg for diehards only. This is well worth an hour and a half of your time for even a casual fan, do not doubt it!
Secondly, at the same time as I discovered the above live CD I also discovered there had been a semi-official live 12" from a 2010 show in Denver Colorado. For the sake of completion I thought I'd try and get a download to add to this post. When I was looking for a copy of the 12" online I happened upon a nice little blog by the name of "That's The Thing About That" (Check it out HERE).The kind soul behind that blog had the full set from the show posted up in glorious 320kbps! Now I have downloaded this myself literally minutes ago and I am just having a quick listen the sound is heavier than than the Reunion show recording, but the quality is about the same, not amazing but again far from unlistenable. The set is almost identical and I might have considered not posting this because of that, but as well as the usual glut of material from "Holy Mountain" and the same new songs, this set is worth your having because clocking in at a massive 2 hrs long it also contains an opener of a near 10 Minute run through the intro to "Dopesmoker" which segues nicely into "Holy Mountain". There's another 8 minute run through a second part of "Dopesmoker" later in the set and a super heavy Sleep style run through Ozzy Ozbourne's "Over The Mountain" from his "Diary Of A Madman" album! All in all the fact that I went looking for the 3 track live 12" and found the complete set from the Denver show makes it worth the inclusion! So there you go no less than 2 amazing Sleep Live sets for you.(The link to this is not mine but I have just checked it whilst editing this post today (Apr 2020) and the link is valid and works should that change i will upload it myself)
The story does not end there of course ....in 2014 it had been some 20 years since riff titans Sleep had been anywhere near a studio. I was excited as anyone when I heard they were to release a new single through the Adult Swim Program (check that out HERE ) and lo and behold we received the first new recording from the revitalized Sleep."The Clarity".So is it any good? Well yeah of course it is good, but to be honest I don't know if my expectations were too high or what, but, to me whilst a decent song and at near 10 mins in length there's plenty of it, to my ears, it sounds a bit too much like OM with guitar. Whilst this is not necessarily a bad thing as readers of this blog will know I am a fan of OM, we already have a ton of OM releases to listen to, with a new Sleep single I can't help but have expected a bit more than that. It's a titanic riff and there's a great solo, but all I hear as I said is OM! I have only listened to it a couple of times and I have really enjoyed it, but the reason I loved OM was because they were doing something different to what Chris and Al did in Sleep, from Sleep in 2014 I expected something more along the lines of the new songs they debuted on recent live releases. It is the first thing they have released and maybe the OM thing won't be so apparent with the album, as I'm sure there is to be one! Anyway I shall leave you to judge for yourself. Go check this out Sleep? back in 2014 FUCK man I couldn't be happier!
The above paragraph was edited from my original post on "The Clarity" now whilst I stand by the OM vibe I feel maybe, as I said, my expectations were maybe too high. So lets FFWD 4 years.
In 2018 some 26 years since the last Sleep album (not counting the multiple Reissues of "Dopesmoker") and with no warning, no hype, no intensive ad campaign, no pre-order bonanza on the 20th of April 2018 Sleep quietly released their first new album in 26 years! This was entirely brilliant, not just because of the date it was released (In the U.S. they put the month first in dates so the release date for this was 4/20/18 for the significance of the number 420 in cannabis culture then please go HERE to further your knowledge) Not only was the quiet release of this album controversial, the album itself seemed to polarise fans. I definitely think the lack of collector arousing pre-order packages, thus denying the collector fraternity their opportunity to outdo each other and everyone else by getting it first and "best" genuinely pissed a lot of people off, because of this, and the surprise release I read several threads where people were complaining about the fact it was difficult to get this on vinyl, simply because demand had probably been underestimated, however that didn't stop the dickheads taking to the internet and bitching about being unable to get ALL the colours (who needs the same fucking album in 5 colours? ) but it was also because of this idiotic collector mentality that the availability was scarce, collectors buying multiple copies, as well as scalpers getting in on the act to flip em on ebay! Whilst this isn't Sleep's fault entirely surely the demand should have been predicted by anyone running a record label having any remote idea how the market, particularly with the kind of music Sleep play actually works these days! It wasn't just that though, once people got their hands on it and ears around it then the bitching really started "It's too short" "2 of the songs have been around for years" (Yes 2 tracks or 1/3 of the album have been staples of Sleep's live set during their various reformations for years but did anyone stop to think that these songs had maybe been in preparation for the next album they had intended before they originally broke up and this IS the next album!) "That intro is pointless" etc. etc. it continued Here's my take on the whole thing...
"The Sciences" - is a fantastic album, and for me it sounds like the next day of Sleep not some 26 years later, herein lies pretty much every whiny little fuckers problem. It's not the next day, it's 26 years later. Whilst Sleep may have played a huge part in inventing the sound we know as Stoner/Doom, for 26 years bands have run riot with it, there are thousands and THOUSANDS of bands who play and have played this style and the problem is the template for the music is a small one. When this music was first around in the 80's and 90's there was a small handful of bands playing it and the influences were a very small platter indeed and the best thing about Sleep was they took that platter of influence and drowned it in SABBATH SAUCE! In 1992 NO ONE had made music this close to the classic Sabbath sound, and made it even heavier! The problem is, in 26 years every tiny little facet of the first 6 Sabbath albums has been plagiarised, every note, every cover, every lyric, has been done to death, it's an oversaturated scene and genre to the point now where it's almost mandatory to plagiarize Sabbath, and, where doing anything original in stoner/doom is pretty much impossible.
So tell me this... How the FUCK were Sleep gonna accomplish the feat of redefining a genre/style that they pretty much invented with something new and groundbreaking after 26 years? They WERE the groundbreakers. How is that possible within a genre that has a strictly defined sound and under a monolithic wave of successive generations of bands who stole the sound Sleep themselves stole from Sabbath? If you truly like Sleep then you will love this album it does exactly what it should shows that the guys who invented this style are still one of the best at it! Here it's ripped from my CD at 320KBPS
So this brings us onto the last 2 bits of Sleep goodness Shortly after the album Sleep issued a 12"/Download of what I assume is an album outtake. "Leagues Beneath" clocking in at just shy of 17 minutes well I can see why they left it off the album due to the fact it probably woulda necessitated the compressing of the 6 album tracks to fit it all on 4 sides of vinyl, so I suppose that's fair enough and they did make it available for download however they coulda put it on the fucking CD right? But once again we have the usual pandering to the vinyl collectors with a fancy one sided limited 12" I'm not gonna start it fucks me off I'm leaving it at that! The track itself is an absolute towering beast of a riff and is easily as good as the other new material on the album and at it's length if you take it on a playlist with The "Sciences" brings the playing time up to 70 minutes! More than enough Sleep to keep you going for 26 more years??
Lastly we have "Live At Third Man Records" so I was surprised as anyone to find these guys signing with Jack White's label for all the new releases but I guess if you are in the vinyl target market then he is the man! This mammoth live album was released on multiple coloured 3 LP and 1 x 12" boxset yadda yadda yadda fuck it I'm gonna get onto a rant about vinyl AGAIN so I'll stop there.. Onto the music Recorded on December 12th 2018 in the Blue Room at the Third Man headquarters in Nashville to a live audience using a direct-to-acetate system and mixed and mastered in real-time.There you go so this epic set clocking in 8 mins shy of 2 hours I assume must have come with a download because I certainly have noticed any hiss or crackle of a vinyl rip and that's what you get here 11 tracks of Sleep live including a near 23 minute run through their masterwork "Dopesmoker" Playing all 5 of the tracks from "The Sciences" (excluding the intro) as well as both "The Clarity" & "Leagues Beneath" With only "Holy Mountain" and closing, unsurprisingly, with their biggest "hit" "Dragonaut" being a nod to the old days! It's a fantastic quality set everything is clear in the mix there's nothing overwhelming about it it's just a fairly decent document of Sleep live and superior in quality to all of the various bootlegs around!
That's it then folks This already huge post updated! There's not a lot more to say other than Sleep are the godfathers and about the best at this kind of music (Save of course Sabbath)
Current Sleep Line Up Date Unspecified I would say 2018 though
And as an extra DOPESMOKER bonus here's something I was shared from youtube....
Calvin Armstrong (cello), Brian Courage (bass), and Kelson Zbichorski (drums) from the Heavy Metal Ensemble of Lawrence University performed Sleep's Dopesmoker on June 2nd, 2012, in the Lawrence University Memorial Chapel.This is just fucking insane unfortunately it's an amateur recording and when the rhythm section kick in properly, great as they are, the cello gets kinda drowned out. but this is still amazing I don't blame you for not watching the full performance but EVERY Sleep fan should check out the first 5 mins...ON A FUCKING CELLO??*~%$$!!! Amazing!
I have been a Saint Vitus fan for a long time I have already posted some on here when I had the original posts of the first 40 or so SST releases but those were unfortunately lost (along with around 3 months of write ups and uploads) when 4shared FUCKED me! I had owned all of their stuff on vinyl but as you readers will know I no longer have vinyl playing equipment and in a recent vinyl for CD trade i did with a friend of mine i received their "V" and "Live" albums which in turn inspired me to ignore the high price of their SST releases and replace my long gone vinyl with CD's! So i figured a re-post of the "Lost" SST stuff and a proper post on Saint Vitus was overdue (That and the fact i can now give you everything in glorious 320kbps direct from CD! now). Onwards....
I came to Saint Vitus simply because they were on SST and i had heard a lot of good things about them, I picked up their "Thirsty And Miserable" 12" as one side was a Black Flag cover however (In my opinion at the time) the burnt out looking California hippies and one of those wearing an Alice Cooper t-shirt on the cover kinda put me off and the music itself well didn't immediately grab me lacking reference points for their gloomy rock I kinda wrote them off as one of the "crap" SST bands, however for some reason i felt compelled to keep going back to it and after a while the 2 originals on the flip of the 12" "The End Of the End" and "Look Behind You" just started to seep into my brain to the point where I became utterly addicted! I sought out what else there was at the time (around 1986 i think all there was then was their debut, "Hallows Victim",Born Too Late" and "The Walking Dead" EP) And as i said before became a BIG fan
A quick history... Saint Vitus began life as Tyrant a 3 Piece Of Dave Chandler - Guit/vox, Mark Adams - Bass and Armando Acosta - Drums (These three would remain the core of every Saint Vitus line up tho having 3 different singers over their existence these three guys ARE Saint Vitus (until Acosta's death in Nov 2010) but they soon added vocalist Scott Reagers and changed their name to Saint Vitus (Taken from Black Sabbath's song "Saint Vitus Dance" from their "Vol 4." album) This original line up of Saint Vitus would make their recording debut with their 1st self titled album on SST records in 1984 and would follow with "Hallow's Victim" album and "The Walking Dead" EP in 1985 all of which are fucking great solid Saint Vitus recordings however in 1985 vocalist Scott Reagers quit the band to be replaced by the total colossus that is Scott "Wino" Weinrich on vocals (See my post on the massive and amazing career of Wino HERE )and from this point on this is the line up of Saint Vitus that would go on to define genres and garner their reputation as THE original doom/stoner band and would be the line up that would record their most important and revered albums. There have been several twists in their long career and even a break up however lets deal with these era's individually....
Inception - 1985 - Well we've already covered the history and members so let's start with the first line up. Signing with SST in 1984 and making their debut album "Saint Vitus" shortly after, it's a pretty stunning debut as well, opening with a squal of wah-wah effected guitar noise first track "Saint Vitus" is a fairly uptempo number which is reminiscent of the kinda stuff Black Flag were doing at the time (Albeit less skewed and off the wall as Flag and with a far more retro 70's Rock/ Sabbath influence Note - Both Black Sabbath and Black Flag were a big influence on SV by their own admission and they toured with Black Flag a LOT in the 80's) However as the album unfolds you start to see the seeds been sown for what would be the trademark Saint Vitus sound gloomy riffing, slow motion drumming and heavy bass! It has to be said that Dave Chandler's guitar sound is unique and is most definitely the defining feature of Saint Vitus whilst their albums went from strength to strength it has to be said that their actual instrument sounds never really varied throughout their career sure the songwriting skills got better and better as did the bands playing but from album to album the sound had been set early and never really changed! Second album "Hallows Victim" and EP "The Walking Dead" (Both recorded at the same session in 1985) follow a similar pattern to the debut however the opening 2 tracks of "Hallows Victim", "War Is our Destiny" and "White Stallions" would remain in the bands set for the rest of their career and both make an appearance on the "Live" album some 5 years later! I would say this is testament to the strength of their material and the consistency in good writing however "White Stallions" is probably one of the most uptempo songs in their back catalog clocking in at the speed of your average SST hardcore band at the time! However these releases are not without their trademark doomier tracks see "Mystic Lady" Or "Empty Love" for evidence of this and the titanic near 12 minute ultra slow burn of "The Walking Dead" is an exercise in doom mastery! It has to be said that Scott Reagers was a great vocalist and has not received enough credit in this write up so far he was easily the equal of his peers at the time and easily as good as the likes of Eric Wagner of Trouble or Bobby Liebling of Pentagram (Both bands doing a similar if completely different take on what was later to be called "Doom" metal) Why he chose to leave the band I don't know it's something I've never really looked into but his replacement was a more than a stroke of genius for Vitus.....
*NOTE* "Hallow's Victim" link is taken from the expanded "Hallow's Victim/Walking Dead re-issue CD and contains a bonus of "Look Behind You" from the SST comp "Blasting Concept Vol 2" and is the original version with Scott Reagers singing (Later re-recorded with Wino for the "Thirsty And Miserable" EP) and there is also a short outro as an extra bonus also from the same session.
1985 - 1989 So next phase for Vitus after Scott Reagers left the band they recruited a fairly unknown new vocalist a member of then also fairly unknown band The Obsessed a fella by the name of Scott "WINO" Weinrich! As I said before this was more than a stroke of genius/luck for the band because for me Wino just fitted the band perfectly not having the histrionic "rock" type of voice of Reagers, this was a far more "heavy" style whilst still having the ability to hold a tune Wino's doom laden vocal style was as much unique as the sound of Saint Vitus themselves and to say that he fit in with that sound well is a MASSIVE understatement when Wino wails "I was born Too late and I'll never be like YOU" on the title track of that album you fucking known he means it! To me this is where Saint Vitus hit the sound they were best known for the slow motion super heavy groove that would spawn entire scenes! First outing with Wino at the helm was the sheer fucking leadweight beast that is 1986's "Born Too Late" less than a year from losing their original vocalist and NO momentum has been lost in the slightest and they are back with a new album and probably one of the most revered of their career, Opening with the slow crawl of the aforementioned title track "Born Too late" is a hymn to the dispossessed of society with Wino intoning Dave Chandler's lines about not being able to walk down the street without being laughed and pointed at or called a "Hairy freak" over a groove that is so damn sludgy and slow you wonder how it all doesn't collapse hideously upon itself, This new revitalized line up would become the masters of this slow groove and "Born Too late" is not an album I would choose to listen to if i was in a slump but at any other time it's utterly stunning music and there's not a bad track of the 6 on there. The following "Thirsty And Miserable" EP contains a great Vitus take on the Black Flag original seeing as it's probably one of the most vicious songs in the Black Flag discography for Vitus to slow it down and give it their unmistakeable groove is just brilliant! The 2 B-sides I mentioned at the beginning of the post are no "filler" either "Look behind you" being a re-recording of a Reagers era track but it's new song "The End of the End" that is the star of this EP whilst being more uptempo than anything from "Born..." it's main spiraling riff has an eerie creepy kinda groove but will have your head nodding in a second and once again Wino is faultless here! The Doomy theme would continue through onto next album 1988's "Mournful Cries" (Their last for SST) The doom and gloom is still prevalent here but the songwriting has come along leaps and bounds and also there is also more of a "tuneful" tone to the songs whilst still being fairly slow and sludgy they are not without memorable groove! Also Wino's performance here is epic obviously having gained confidence in his position as frontman as his vocals really fucking SOAR here, whilst i use the word "Tuneful" before It also contains some of Vitus most crushing riffs just take a listen to "Dragon Time" or "Looking Glass" for evidence.
So leaving SST for Germany's Hellhound records this incarnation of Vitus would see another two releases before the end of the 80's These being the "Live" album (An almost full set recorded live in Germany in Nov 1989) which is a damn good warts and all run through their back catlog and one of the few Live albums i actually own and like! However of more interest is their 5th and debut album for Hellhound the simply titled "V" many people consider this album to be their finest hour and the peak of their career whilst I would kinda agree with that i personally feel that though the production and sound is far superior to all the preceding albums I feel it is simply another great Saint Vitus album in a run of great Saint Vitus albums however it has to be said the opening 1-2 punch of "Living Backwards" and the mighty "I Bleed Black" is utterly flooring even by their own standards! There's still sludgy bleak grooves by the bucketload and believe me on this album the formula is perfected especially with the superior production and there's even a little acoustic and female vocaled interlude ("When Emotion Dies") it is all in all a fucking great album and easily the equal of it predecessors and most definitely a fitting epitath to the end of this era of the band.
( "V" & "Live" taken from the Southern Lord remastered reissues not Hellhound versions) 1990 - 1996 - Well as i said 1989 and "V" marked the end of the "classic" era of Saint Vitus, Hellhound Records (Saint Vitus home at the time) had, with Wino put together a retrospective of The Obsessed material and it was at this point Wino decided to Leave saint Vitus and reform The Obsessed whilst this yielded some great material (see Wino Post linked in 3rd paragraph of this post) and The Obsessed were a great band in my opinion this was not the shrewdest move on Wino's part after an ill fated spell on Columbia the band folded in 1992.Wino's musical endeavors are chronicled elswhere.... So after losing Wino Saint Vitus went on hiatus for more than 2 years and I have to confess I don't know a great deal about what went on during this 1992-95 period, however in 1992 they returned with Christian Lindersson ex vocalist of heavyweight Swedish doomsters Count Raven and a new album "C.O.D." make no mistake Lindersson is a great vocalist falling somewhere inbetween Scott Reagers more high end "Rock" style and Wino's trademark wail however after a succession of great albums with Wino he had some big shoes to fill. Whilst this is a totally solid album by any standard compared to past glories i really feel that much as i enjoy this album and as I say it is a great album with stellar production it's just not quite "there" Lindersson does a great job of the vocals and his haunting style adds to the sound well but Dave Chandlers guitar seems to have cleaned up a lot and whilst still heavy and still uniquely his own has lost a little of the muffled Vitus fuzz of previous albums. As i say there are some solid songs and writing on this album but you have a listen for yourself and see what you think.... FFWD to 1995 and Lindersson is gone and shock of shocks Scott Reagers original Vitus Vocalist is back in the fold for 1995's "Die Healing" now this is a pretty good album the muffled fuzz tone of Chandlers guitar is in full effect on this album and Scott Reagers puts in a GREAT performance although he seems to have lost his ability to hit the notes as well as 10 years previously and tends to veer into a sorta shout/scream here and there however it adds a welcome touch of agression to his usual smooth vocals! I never hear mention of this album much from Vitus fans and i don't understand why whether it's the lack of Wino or the fact that the band were on their last legs here (Although the quality of this album would dispute that fact) but it is a solid a Saint Vitus album as any of it's predecessors there's the return of some more uptempo grooves harking back to their earliest work but there's also sludgefests aplenty and some killer riffage throughout but unfortunately this original line up reunion was not to last Reagers quit again in 1996 and it's at this point that Saint Vitus Folded permanently. The 2 albums here from this era are both great albums but seem to be kinda overlooked by the hardcore fans however i see it as Saint Vitus have always been a core trio of Chandler/Adams/Acosta despite their vocalist troubles and throughout their career Chandler wrote the bulk, in fact almost all of their music with Wino weighing in here and there and it's the Chandler penned pieces that have remained fan favourites throughout the years and to my mind they continued to make quality music right up to the end no question. See for yourselves
Die Healing (95) - Mediafire 1996 - Present - So having called it a day on Saint Vitus in 1996 the band would not be heard of again until well into the millenium where they would reappear sporadically in 2003 and again in 2008 with the classic line up of Wino/Chandler/Adams/Acosta playing live dates and even headlining the mighty Roadburn festival in Holland but in 2009 due to health problems Armando Acosta had to leave the band and later died in 2010 and was replaced By Henry Vasquez of Blood Of The Sun, however also in 2010 rumours began to fly about the possibility of new Saint Vitus material could it be possible? the reunion and touring was to be expected due to their enduring popularity and the fact that Wino was back but new material some 15 years after the last album?? However the rumors were true, in 2012 Saint Vitus released their latest album confusingly titled "Lillie : F-65" i remember reading about what the title meant and i'm sure someone will comment however the music... after a 12 year lay off and some 22 years since last recording with Wino would it be any good? Hell yeah!! again no momentum has been lost the production is clean and sparkling however this time it does not detract from Dave Chandlers trademark muffled fuzz guitar new drummer Vasquez fills Armando Acostas shoes well and as a band they all play well together there's blistering chandler solos and sludgy grooves thorughout and Wino does what he does best and with whom he does it best with. It could have very been the next day after "V" when this was recorded (if you disregard the obviously 2012 production sound) A worthy end to this post oN one of the mightiest bands to exist on earth Saint Vitus
And as an added bonus here's the free live download EP that was available from Scion A/V last year 3 BLISTERING live tracks from their appearance at the 2012 Scion A/V fest in Tampa Florida 2012
So does the story end there I hear you cry? Well I'll leave you with this quote from the man himself Dave Chandler when asked "Would Saint Vitus make another album after "Lillie : F-65"? "
"Right now we're just taking it step by step to see how people respond to "Lillie...". There would be no reason not to because when you're constantly playing you get a lot of ideas. We're not going to say yes or no now. There are a lot of people talking about the record so hopefully it will live up to everybody's expectations." Here's hoping! in the meantime here's all The Saint Vitus you could ever need! Hope you enjoy it as much as i do!
*NOTE*It has been brought to my attention by an astute anonymous user that Armando Acosto was actually ousted from Saint Vitus before suffering his health problems due to tensions between himself and guitarist Scott Chandler and various bad mouthing on the internet! So there you go. thank you anonymous user.
I have been wanting to do this post since i started this blog but unfortunately though i had ALL The Rites stuff on vinyl I had no rip of their final EP "Fuck Em If They Can't Take A Joke" so a discography post was not possible however just this morning I found that the label it was released on Six Feet under Records have a Bandcamp page and had it up for download! So what better way to return to my blog than with a post that's been on the cards since I started it!
So a bit of history there was a hardcore band called Dead Nation who did a few EP's and one album and broke up in 1999 this band evolved into Tear It Up who were hugely popular in the early millenium but during the time Tear It Up were around (2000-2003) various members were involved in 2 side bands, Cut The Shit and The Rites the history of the 3 bands is confusing it would appear that aside from the vocalist of Tear It Up every other member of Tear It Up was involved with either Cut The Shit or The Rites at some point and also various Cut The Shit and The Rites members that were not originally in Tear It Up also played on various Tear It Up releases! Plus Cut The Shit and The Rites both continued after Tear it Up broke up!!! Even with the aid of the inlays from all their various releases due to the penchant in hardcore for in-jokes and pseudonymns and minimal photos it's all very confusing however all 3 bands were ploughing the same thrash hardcore furrow!!! So onwards...
As I said The Rites were originally a side project of Tear It Up they released 3 EP's a 7",2 x 12 EP's and a live 1 sided album and they were gone! I have tried and tried but cannot find any information about what any of the band members are doing now however the last The Rites EP came out in 2006 so I'm assuming they have split!
Their debut EP "Your Last Rites" from 2002 is a raw blast of fast hardcore thrash that is not vastly different to what Tear It Up were doing, tight fast guitar lines, speedy drumming etc but the production is a bit rawer and the vocals to me are way better than Tear It Up they have more aggression and belligerence which i think is why i always felt they had a slight edge over the other bands playing this kind of music at the time 7 songs in barely 6 mins this is high speed hardcore fun at it's best!. However it's on the next two 12"s "The Rites" and "Wish You Never Knew" that where these guys really hit their stride! The production on both these 12"s is far superior to the EP the guitars are nice and thick (but not heavy) and everything is way clearer in the mix and here you can start to see them showing their influences a bit more, There's shades of Black Flag, Poison Idea and because of the high speed guitar lines it also reminds me of the early Boston hardcore sound (think Jerry's Kids and early Gang Green) and even a bit of chunky metal riffage here and there, this time round the songs are given a bit less of the raw feel of a new band and more of a sound that is big and loud and in your face! Also it's not all thrash although these guys are masters of flooring the accelerator pedal there's a lot of really great mid-paced and slower parts that shows they have their feet planted as much in hardcore PUNK territory as they do thrash see "Pissing On Your Grave" from the "Wish You Never Knew" 12" or "Asshole City..." from "The Rites" 12" for evidence of this! The thing I like about The Rites is that their songs while mainly fast and fairly short are totally memorable with great riffs and they really have worked hard to get a great sound for the band in both the writing and the sound of their instruments and above all these guys can really play they are VERY tight and never miss a beat!
The Rites were consistent throughout their short existence as far as the sound goes I can't say that any of their releases from "The Rites" 12" I mention above through to their last EP "Fuck Em..." are startlingly different from each other however with a sound as great as these guys had then why would you fuck with it? What i'm saying is if you like the sound of my description then you WILL like The Rites
I think unfortunately that bands like The Rites and their cohorts like Tear It Up and Cut The Shit are bands that were very popular that is, as far as popularity in hardcore goes, but were "of their time" so to speak, for example, when i got into these bands around 2002/3 and i tried to backtrack their records (when i still bought vinyl) as many of them are very limited the prices were sky high for example the debut Cut The Shit 1 -sided 7" had only been out 6 months when i got onto them and when i tried to buy it on vinyl it was priced around the £20/£30 mark, now you can pick it up for around £5 same goes for The Rites Their "Fuck Em..." EP had 3 different pressings each with a different cover song on the B-side i have the most limited one which has a press of a mere 145 copies you'd think this would drive the price sky high? Nope you can pick it up for around £2.50! Their debut EP which has been out of print for 11 years goes for 83p for Black vinyl or £2 for green vinyl limited version Now while i think this is good that if you want the vinyl it's available at a reasonable price at he same time i think it's shocking that these brilliant records are so unwanted that they are dirt cheap, it also illustrates the fickle nature of Hardcore fans that a band as great as The Rites were and their records are in no demand at all and there's hardly any downloads available online either it seems no one is interested now
So there are 2 links below one contains all their 7"'s the other contains their 2 x 12"'s and the Live LP here's what you get...
Rites Sevens
"Your Last Rites" EP (2002)
"Pissing On Your Grave" 7" (2005)
"Death Of The Party" EP (2005)
"Fuck Em If They Can't Take A Joke" EP (2006)
Rites Twelves
"The Rites" 12" (2003)
"Wish they Never Knew" 12" (2004)
"There Shall Be No Encore (Live)" 1 -Sided LP (2006)
That's their full discography "Pissing..." 7" and "Death Of.." EP were both recorded at the same session but released seperately these and the Live LP are ripped from vinyl by me so are decent quality, the rest are ripped from my own CD's and "Fuck em..." EP is taken from a pay download so great quality also "Fuck Em..." contains all 3 covers songs they did for all 3 pressings of the 7" I mentioned above and a short bonus track so that's the whole session there!
So that's it a discography of one of the best kinda "lost" bands of hardcore no one i mention them to now has ever heard of them even though they toured the UK in 2005 ( I traveled to Liverpool to see them and turned up a day late and missed the show due to bogus info online) Unfortunately much as i love this music I really do lack knowledge as far as hardcore is concerned it's a genre that I have barely any interest in for me it was really exciting back in the 80's and again for a while in the early millenium but in the interim there seems to be a real lack of any kind of progression and most of it in fact nearly all hardcore really leaves me cold however occasionally if you follow it long enough you do get the odd gem unfortunately these are few and far between and I've yet to hear something since the early millenium that has really impressed me! So go check out some GREAT hardcore below as you know if it wasn't good it wouldn't be on this blog!
Before i go I'd like to thank and credit a friend from back in the early millenium hardcore days a fella named Ellis who took the picture of The Rites playing live in Brighton UK at the top of this post I've lost touch with him now but if you happen to come across this post Ellis leave a comment, I have a full set of pictures he sent me of this night and after the show where the picture at the top of the post was taken The Rites went back to one of Ellis friends houses and played another set in their basement for the assembled crowd and Ellis band at the time also played, absolutely brilliant so here's some pics from the basement show too, wish I'd be there. Hope this post finally makes up for a lack of internet presence for this great band!
Whilst playing with Skitvarld i noticed that the guitarist Mik had an Iron Witch sticker on his guitar and I don't know why but whenever the word "IRON" is used in a band name it always gets my attention I did mean to get round to checking them out but it took me a month and a couple of other people to mention the name before I finally got round to doing it and FUCK! was I kicking myself for waiting that long!
First off I had not realized that Iron Witch were a local band based in Liverpool and to have such a great band on my doorstep for about 2 or 3 years and only be finding out about them now!! ARRRGGGHH!!
Iron Witch have given themselves the "sludge" tag, whilst I would agree with this in part because this is dirty,heavy,nasty music with some seriously gnarly vocals I personally find the majority of "sludge" to be boring repetitive and generally just washes over me and leaves me yawning! However this is not the case with Iron Witch because whilst the music is obviously rooted in that style what lifts Iron Witch above the majority of "sludge" bands is their sense of groove and their memorable songs what I mean by that is whilst most of the "Sludge" type stuff moves at a crawling pace and is content to let a riff hang in the air for half an hour whilst you nod off to sleep Iron Witch do not! Yeah sure they have slow songs and fucking mountainous slabs of heavy riffage by the bucketload but they also have the sense to give some of the songs a groove that gets your head nodding in the best tradition of something like classic Ozzy era Sabbath or "Our Problem" era Iron Monkey before laying the hammer down and pounding your head in! I would hesitate to use stoner to describe these guys as they are way too nasty but that's the kinda vibe i get from the groovier riffs although when i say stoner I mean stoner that is distorted to fuck and dragged through the swamp kicking and screaming all the way!
I hear all sorts of bands in the sound of Iron Witch as well as the aforementioned Sabbath and Iron Monkey I also hear little bits of the likes of Eyehategod, Grief, 13, Sleep, St Vitus etc in there as well as the fact these guys have definitely listened to Side 2 of "My War" often! Whilst these are only my small reference points to give you an idea of what to expect at least they are putting me in mind of the absolute cream of sludgy bands and not all the fucking send you to sleep boring ones and i do think Iron Witch have something more to offer than just a combination of influences Re-interpreted and really are bringing something new and great to this type of sound! They recently posted a version of Discharge : "State Violence,State Control" on soundcloud and along with the nod to the Black Flag bars on their "prospect" T-shirt to my mind shows that they have good influences outside the sludge scene which is no bad thing!
I would be hard pressed to single out any one release by these guys for extra praise as they are all good and though there is obviously a progression in writing, playing and sound with each release they are all consistently great Although I am a sucker for the awesome riffing in the title track of their "Single Malt" EP (not only cos it's a great song but also it's a tribute to the finest export of my home country!) and "Gunshot Residue/Exceeding The Dose" from the "Post Vegas Blues" 7" just makes me grind my teeth and want to wreck shit, there's not a bad song out of the 13 tracks across their 4 releases.
All of the the music I've below are available at bandcamp for £1 a piece but I was very generously given permission to link them up for you free here which I'm happy to do but I would really be pleased if you would go show these guys a bit of support and go buy some from bandcamp or get one of their shirts or buy a record because although they were kind enough to let me put this post up for you, recordings cost money and if we don't show some support to great smaller bands like these guys then they will cease to exist! And i paid for all these downloads so that i could put them up for you here and it was £4 well spent and most of you would probably spend that on your damn lunch!
I Cannot recommend this band highly enough not just because i love the fact that they are a local band but also because they are really fucking good! if i had come across these guys with no prior knowledge their great music would have had the same effect as it did anyway which was to totally floor me! Go get em folks I guarantee your satisfaction!
They also have a new song on a split 7" with Atrocity Exhibit which is out real soon you can stream it at the bandcamp page but I'm sure you will want to buy one so make your enquiries/pre-orders here - http://www.witchhunterrecords.bigcartel.com/ these guys also sell their "Single Malt" CDEP
So this was a little bit of a surprise for me I recently met a thoroughly decent chap at work called Ged Ward (Pictured above 2nd from left) after working with him first time we discovered we had both grown up through the same musical scenes and we both shared a vast knowledge of old school Hardcore/Death Metal & Grind etc and knew a lot of the same people from the late 80's/early 90's scene so we eventually got talking about bands we'd been in and Ged told me he had played bass in a band called Ballpein with another recent friend of mine Piggy (Dr Aids, Bonded By Bundy Pictured above far left) but he only had some blown out sounding live vids on youtube to play me but what they were doing sounded really good, he said there had been a demo done by the band and wanting to hear it i tried to help him source it through facebook then lo and behold their ex Guitarist just one day decided to upload all 4 tracks from the demo as youtube videos!
So Being the trainspotter geek i am I took these vids and ripped the music from them tagged them up etc and here I present for you the lost Hardcore gem that is the Ballpein demo! Now first off bear in mind these 4 tracks were taken from an old tape ripped to mp3 uploaded to youtube then ripped back to audio by me sorted out and uploaded! So considering the journey these files have done they have come out prettty good quality! Onto the music considering these tracks are from 1999 they sound surprisingly contemporary whilst still retaining a feel of the scene at the time what surprises me is that these guys were not given way more attention then because this is really tight and well played stuff all the way and they have managed to combine a range of influences from different underground styles and blend them together into a cohesive sound without the sound getting messy or overly complicated! This demo would definitely fall into the Hardcore category but I hear a lot of classic Death metal in some of the riffs particularly the intro riff to "Kurten" and the middle 8 of "Unstable" which are straight out of the Autopsy school of riffage!
Overall the sound mainly feels like a blend of Death/Thrash riffage with the heaviest and best of NYHC and being honest I would never have pegged this band as British if I hadn't known beforehand! There's some great little flourishes on the demo too that are right off the wall but fit in with the sound perfectly for example the funky bass runs at the end of "Unstable" and the nice bass and guitar intro to "Low Life Cleansin" which kinda spin you upward towards the fast part! They have a good handle on their pace as well it's not all fast fast fast and the drummer uses a variety of beats not just sticking to the 1-2-1-2 hardcore beat giving plenty of room for the chunky fat breakdowns there's also good variety to the vocals there's growling, screaming, shouting (provided by both Ged & Piggy) and even a bit of that nasally sorta vocal you'd hear from proper old school hardcore bands like Sick Of It All or Straight Ahead!
All in all this short demo really is a lost gem I was really surprised by how good it actually is! Generally you would feel obligated to tell a friend that their band/project was good even if it wasn't!! This is definitely not the case with me here! If someone had got these guys into a decent studio with someone who knows how to record this kind of music I have no doubt the end results would have utterly destroyed as it is this demo is all that remains of this band, Go check it out it's well worth 10 minutes of your time!
So I have never made a secret of my love of 70's rock but this is not a new thing to me my first musical love at the age of 11 was heavy metal the 80's was a great time to love metal and I utterly worshipped bands like AC/DC, Kiss, Motorhead, Sabbath, Twisted Sister, Saxon etc etc that was until one summer i discovered Punk and the rest is history!!!
There is a reason that in it's formative years that it was called Punk ROCK now as dismissive and sneering as the original punk rockers may have been towards the old guard of stadium rock dinosaurs one listen to any classics by The Damned or even something as contemporary crust punk as the last couple of Disfear albums and you would find as much rock as you will punk. and over the years we have had many hybrids of punk and metal/rock etc but there's always been a sort of "shame" of having a love of heavy metal if you're serious about your punk! However one band have always been the exception to this rule and still to this day are worshipped by many punks myself included and that would be MOTORHEAD!!!! And this is where this post comes in here I present 2 albums I have discovered recently that feature some veteran players from the crust and punk scenes that are 100% unashamedely balls out fucking ROCK! let me begin....
First up we have Burning Leather this band features people who have played/play in such crust heavyweights as Detestation, Hellshock, Atrocious Madness, Nux Vomica, and Fall Of The Bastards to name just a few and their album being mastered by Brad Boatright of From Ashes Rise/Audiosiege fame you'd think with a pedigree like that you'd expect some fucking heavy distortion driven crust brutality right? WRONG! and you couldn't be more wrong.
I just got onto this band this week when researching some info on Hellshock and even though the name was a dead giveaway I went ahead and searched for it and managed to come up with a download of their one and only album "Daylight Nights" (Actually their 6 track demo and 4 new songs, they have also done 2 split 7"'s one with Japanese metalpunkers G.A.T.E.S. and another with The Slowmotions but i haven't sourced them yet also worth noting is that the Japanese label that released this album is called (wait for it....) Under the Surface!!!) Although I had expected some metal madness cos of the name of the band and album I was totally unprepared for the sheer unashamed rocking nature of this music! This is Heavy Metal plain and simple albeit in the finest tradition with more than a slight hint of Motorhead! Don't go downloading this expecting to be blown away by some punk influenced metal this is Rock 'N' Roll pure and simple. just one look at the tracklist should give you an idea where this band are coming from with track titles like "Wasted Days" & "In The Moonlight" plants these guys squarely in the rock camp! However that being said I can assure you nothing i have said so far is meant in any kind of negative way this is great fun music first and foremost. There's 12 bar boogies, lightning fast guitar solos and sleazy chugging rifferama by the bucketload throughout this album and the musicianship of this band is more than impressive it may have a reputation for being dumb music but if you wanna play rock/metal you better be able to play folks and these guys certainly can wail!!! I can tell you right now after repeated listens this album left me with a huge shit eating grin from ear to ear I cannot urge you to check this out soon enough it's good time, old school fucking rock with Motorhead written all over it and at the risk of repeating myself even more it's above all great fun! Go get this album now and fucking windmill (or if you're hairless like me do some serious Beard Bangin!!)
So next up staying in Portland (Like I've said about Sweden WTF?? what is going on in Portland man it's a godamn hotbed of awesome music!) We have Ripper, this band features members of bands that I haven't heard of but judging by what I've seen of their other bands releases these guys have their roots in crust/punk as well, discogs.com has these listed as "Hardcore Punk" which is seriously deluded of the writer or the writer is some punker who is just trying to justify their love for this album! Like Burning Leather this album here "Into Oblivion" is another Heavy Metal gem! However in this case the production and sound is way dirtier,meaner and nastier than Burning Leather and the Motorhead influence is far more prevalent here however one look at the tracklist will leave you with no doubt about their metal credentials tracks like opener "Burning Up The Night" & "Soldier Of Fortune" again squarely put these guys in the metal camp. As I've said the production on this album is far rawer than Burning Leather but whether that is due to this being a vinyl rip I don't know but it doesn't detract from the music one bit. Theres chunky riffs and fast guitar runs aplenty backed up by drums straight out of the Philthy Animal school of kit annihilation! These guys are definitely wearing their influence on their sleeve no question but I would hesitate to dismiss them as mere clones as if you look through the obvious Motorhead influence you will find some serious rocking moments on this album and again it just makes me wanna don some denim and leather throw horns and bang my beard ha ha! again i can't urge you enough to download this as again this album also leaves me with a big smile on my face and is also great fun whilst kicking you squarely in the pants!
So there ya go folks some rock 'n' roll madness for ya I want to say don't let my descriptions scare you these albums are both just great music and deserve to be heard by more people if i could lay my hands on originals of these on CD i would not hesitate for a second! Put some metal back into your life go and download these and feel yourself start to grin before you've even realised how awesome these bands are! Hey I wouldn't waste the space or my time (or yours) posting this to poke fun or if i didn't really like these bands? Utterly brilliant stuff!
So once again this was a band i discovered through Matt from Auralskit posting up a youtube video which caused quite a stir with me and my crust loving fb friends! What we have here is a band i have never heard of have no idea who's in but are right up my Sacrilege loving street, I can tell you nowt here except this EP is from 2011 has 3 tracks on it and is utterly blistering metallic crust in the vein of classic Sacrilege (see my post on them HERE), Versklaven (see my post on them HERE) & After The Bombs (see my post on them HERE) There's no info on the net and I had to trainspot like a bastard to find a download of it so I've re-upped it here so there's now at the least 2 links to it up here! They do have a facebook page but both me and Matt posted to them on there and no reply at all so it's all a bit mysterious. However at least I have uncovered this utter gem of an EP for you guys and the rest of the internet! There's 3 tracks of well played, heavy, female vocalled, metallic crust with a very slight stoner edge on there clocking in at 12 minutes and the 6 min "Relentless" is just JAW DROPPING!
I cannot urge you to download this EP enough it is shockingly fucking good and why these guys only came to my attention now after the EP being out 2 years is a mystery! But I'm glad i got onto it now go download this RIGHT NOW If you like any of the bands I mention above there is no doubt in my mind you will soon have this EP on heavy rotation!
I have mentioned 70's rock a lot when doing write ups for various bands I even put up an explanation/almost apology at one point for using the description! However i remain unashamed of my love of GOOD 70's rock there's not a lot that can beat the first 6 Black Sabbath albums, AC/DC with Bon Scott, Thin Lizzy at their best etc etc however one band i never think to mention is Pentagram. There is a good reason for this because although Pentagram have had a career lasting some 40 years they were always more well known for being one of the earliest exponents of what is called "Doom" metal as although they had done a ton of recordings and 2 or 3 7" singles in the early/mid 70's they didn't get their debut album "Pentagram" (Also known as "Relentless") out until 1984, some 13 years into their career by which time they had morphed into the style of doomy metal they are best known for and that has influenced a million bands. But in 2002 and 2006 Relapse records unearthed their earliest recordings from 1971 - 1976 and released them as the single CD "First Daze Here" and a further double CD "First Daze Here Too".Now don't get me wrong i am a fan of the doomy 1984 - present Pentagram but I was unaware until these "First Daze..." Comps came out that they had been going in the early 70's! I always assumed they like other exponents of Doom at the time like Trouble or Saint Vitus an 80's band!
Now I'm not gonna go into the vast 40 year history of the band vocalist Bobby Leibling's history of drug abuse and self destruction has been well documented both in print, online and now in the form of documentary "Last Days Here" so if you want to know why this great band never broke HUGE in the 70's or about their troubled history, revolving door of members etc etc then i suggest you do some research or watch the documentary (I've yet to see it myself) as I'm not gonna even attempt to try and relate it to you here as i have neither the time or the energy to give you page after page of exhaustive notes on this band, this once I'm going to stick to the music....
Now although i only mention the two "First daze..." comps above there was also another compilation of early material in 1998 called "Human Hurricane" but until i was researching this post I was unaware of it as it's on a Canadian label I have never heard of and from what i can gather did NOT have the bands approval. So what i present here is a fairly complete (as far as what has yet been released) collection of Pentagram's earliest recordings. Anyone who is a fan of Pentagram and has not heard this 70's stuff you'll be in for a shock this is a band very far removed from the same band that recorded bludgeoning tracks like "All Of Your Sins" from the first album and quite a few of these tracks have seen very doomy remakes on subsequent albums however for me these 70's era recordings are by far and away the best music they have done (although latest album 2011's "Last Rites" definitely seems to be leaning back to that sound)
So what you get are 4 CD's worth of utterly destroying 70's rock with a nod to their peers a chunk of serious GROOVE and a huge dose of originality if it hadn't been for Bobby Leibling's self destructive tendencies and drug abuse I think these guys would be stadium rockers by now! Songs like "Forever My Queen" , "When The Screams Come" and the utterly astounding "Be Forewarned" (there are a couple of versions of "Be Forewarned" on these CD's my pick being track 11 on "First Daze Here (The Vintage Collection) Are beyond good these guys were just something else apart from the obvious 70's styles of recording if someone had played these to me with no mention of their name or history i would've pegged them as a new and very highly original "stoner/retro rock" type band but the powerful riffage and great songwriting on display here is just amazing they managed to come up with great walls of chunky riffs but without sounding like Sabbath (who at this time in the early 70's would have been the only band to touch them for heaviness and great songs) Check out the riff to opening track "Forever My Queen" which just slays without being overly doomy or clunky. Top all this with Bobby Leibling's amazing vocals and an utterly amazing rhythm section and you have Pentagram. Bear in mind that back in the early 70's recording studios were beyond the financial reach of unsigned bands so in order to get someone to finance a recording you HAD to be Good and you had to be able to play extremely well who'd waste hundreds of dollars on you otherwise? and Pentagram certainly fall into that category the wealth of talent and utterly supreme and tight playing on display here for a band without a deal or a record out is just staggering
Onto the files... here I have for you both the single and double "First daze Here" comps plus i managed to unearth the "Human Hurricane" comp as well. These recordings date from 1971 - 1976 though as i don't own them i can't tell you the dates for any of the recordings I just see the whole lot as the early works of the band and they are so fucking great i really don't care either! the quality of the recordings varies from warm and great quality 70's studio recordings to some less clean and rawer demo sounding material the most consistent album is "First Daze Here (The Vintage Collection)" which has 12 tracks and sounds like an unreleased album and has great production, it's all great quality just some of the recordings are rawer than others but having seen the light of day in the early/mid 2000's by this time the analog masters would have been around 20+ years old so the fact that they even survived in this quality is amazing! Don't be put off as i say it's all good quality just some have rawer production than others these are definitely no "Completists Only" type recordings these are essential pieces of the history of a great band and in my opinion their best material If you're not grooving and head nodding by the time you get a couple of songs in then you really are beyond my help! Here's your links all 4 are essential and all are around the 220-256 kbps bitrate ( I had to split the Double CD into it's 2 discs due to file size restriction) Also note there are a few repeats of songs over the 4 discs but they are ALL different versions from different sessions and years ENJOY!!!
