EHPC Best of 2017 Hardcore

EHPC Best of 2017: Hardcore. *(Metal sub genres and punk and Oi! and hip hop to follow)

Here is SPOTIFY list including much more than what is here

Instead of a pure "Best Of" or "Top 25" etc... Here are a bunch of great records that came and me (us - Mark Leighton ( @Mark_Spots_The_X on IG ) in 2017. Killer shit. Audio discussion - what the kids call a podcast will be up soon on emptyhandspodcast

No Particular order. I'm not straining over should Incendiary be 4 or 6 over Forced Order. Do that yourselves.

HARDCORE:

Backtrack Bad to My World Bridge 9 

Ricky and the boys return with ill NYHC. Check my interview 

Break Away Cross my Heart React! RVA SXE simple and sweet

Forced Order Last Crusade Triple B metallic chug that sears

Incendiary Thousand Mile Stare Closed Casket Activities check my interview

No Turning Back No Time to Waste Take Control Records Euro stalwarts come back again!

Firewalker 12” Pop Wig Boston hardcore, low tuned and evil. Heavy and dark. Short fast loud

Sect No Cure for Death Southern Lord Records ... Scott Crouse and Chris Colohan team up for dirty crust 'core. My review at New Noise

Wolfbrigade Run With the Hunted Southern Lord D-Beat Swedes deliver again

All Pigs Must Die Hostage Animal Southern Lord phenomenal record by these chaps - grit. variety.

Kohti Tuhoa Hajota ja hallitse Southern Lord Finnish punky D-Beat on Southern Lord – CVLT Nation did a bit on them here. I had gotten the promo and dug instantly.

Open City s/t LP + City of Ash 7” self released / new Dan Yemin, female vox; noisey, chaotic fast, good bass-lines, guitars and dope time changes.

HON MEN HC LPs: 

Walk the Plank Cemetery Vacation Say-10 fast passionate - uncanny Paint It Black worship My review at New Noise; 

Western Addiction Tremulous Fat Wreck Chords - their first LP was cool, but i stay away from Fat Wreck Chords. Nine Years later these dudes pack a punch. This is smart and intense and confrontational; catchy but dirty.

Park Sparrows s/t self ...fast and sullen; RVA punk  bandcamp for $1 

Brick By Brick Thin the Herd Fast Break! - Ray Chaos' 2nd LP with this Upstate NY beatdown band. Tough as nails.

HC EPs: * i bought every one on here. I love 2017!

Free Ex Tenebris Triple B - We loved when it came out…Vocalist Pat Flynn (have Heart) and 3 more Have heart and a criss-cross of members from Clear, Fiddleheads, NYC Headhunters, Give, Line Of Sight, Mindset, Sweet Jesus, Verse. They have created something honest and intense, quite different. Review here

But actually Triple B could get a spotlight for this year: 

Terror The Walls Will Fall, 

Freedom Never Had A Choice, 

Abuse of Power When Then Becomes Now,  

These above three all make the list. But Triple B also did:

No Warning cassette, Foreseen EP before LP, Buried Alive demos LP, Unified Right EP, Violence to Fade EP, the mentioned Forced Order LP, and Faze and Candy too.

Miracle Drug How Much Is Enough War - Again very different and cool with 90s style. Smart songwriting from older dudes with a a love for DC. my interview here

Fireburn Don’t Stop the Youth Closed Casket Activities - Flawless record. Bad Barins love from an ex-Brain and Todd fucking Youth; plus Knife Fight drummer and Todd Jones. Damn.

Rat Cage Caged Like Rats La Vida Es Un Mus ‎ugly and nasty fastcore.

Combatant 7” Sick Plot not like you - angry, old school '82 love.

Drug Control Stabbed New Age Records from DC and they play that. Crazed fast core.

DC Disorder Naive to a World Youngblood Records killer youth crew from a legendary label.

Aggression Pact Instant Execution 7” - Boston banger. chaotic ugly and fast

Memory Loss Exile Vinyl Conflict (cassette; bandcamp) - crusty dirty angry

Exit Unit 7” Deep Six Records – Ex-INFEST and Lack of Interest

Faithless HC cassette *its great even though it was recorded in 2008/2014

Primal Rite Sensory Link to Pain Revelation - heavy but still wicked hardcore + ex-scalped. Not the dive bombs. Heavy, metallic, frantic

HON MEN EPs:

Insist Here and Now - Manchester UK SXE, old school, heavy Youth Crew. 4 tracks on React!; 

Unjust Transparency QCHC killer angry sxe 7”; 

xFirm Standing Lawx Unashamed Carry the Weight - like Judge, Undertow, Strife, Mouthpiece. Really good; SXE UK Band (CTW is a UK label) band name from Chorus of Disapproval song –  style. Energetic and well produced; 

DEMOS: 

Undone (NWOBHC), Innocent boston d-beat, 

Imposter demo - Quality Control bandcamp. Low tuned. heavy UK82 hardcore 

Screw demo - DC Core - like 86 Mentality,

Stand Point demo QCHQ – cassette;  loves Uniform Choice; 

Payday Second To None QCHQ  (2^nd demo; Clevo love – London SXE);  

Tetro Pugnale – incredible Italian Oi hardcore (Blitz/86 Mentality – LP in 2018!!!) all cassettes

MISC Demos/EPs:

Powerage demo 2017 – i saw on youtube. Dirty bass! Grimy thrashy hardcore. Heavy. French powerviolence

if you miss '90s metallic SXE hardcore – which I love – a la Earth Crisis, One King Down, Morning Again and Culture… or all that Euro stuff – check out:

xElegyx demo - 4 songs of metallic sxe hc with Female vocals;

Inclination demo Straight and Alert - Midwest Straight Edge. Metallic 90's love. dark.

xServitudex Path to Amnesty – killer. This is more metal, low vocals with the djent screech tempo – very Seventh Dagger roster ish, violent;

Ecostrike Time is now CTW - This is the best of these. The best produced and written. Good '90s feel without being too metal. Ecostrike has way better writing; very OKD 

*(Carry the Weight also has put out Blind Authority, New Morality, Secterian Violence, Poison Planet, Red Death (CASS) good eps; also Culture, Coke Bust, and Race Traitor re-issues) 

Harms Way Post Human Review

Harms Way

Post Human

Metal Blade

February 6, 2018

Review by hutch

Harms Way offer Post Human on February 6^th to redefine themselves yet again, this time on Metal Blade Records. Having only heard friends praise this band throughout the years, I was surprised to hear that some hardcore fans deride them due to some asinine adherence to strict definitions of hardcore. Really? 2018? Regardless, I am a fan and have been since day one. Harm’s Way began in 2007. 2008’s Imprisoned was comprised of short (:30 - :60) powerviolence tracks. Harms Way spent the next decade, pumping out a few EPs and 3 LPs on Organized Crime, Closed Casket Activities, and Deathwish Inc. Thought line up changes have ebbed and flowed; Bo Lueders on guitar, Chris Mills on drums, and James Pligge on vocals, have solidified Harms Way’s focus. Ten years witnessed these Chicago malcontents produce unique, aggressive music.

The first song on Post Human, “Human Carrying Capacity”, was released early as a single, on websites and Spotify. This is a familiar Harms Way track (read: sick as hell, heavy as fuck); bad ass breakdown hardcore with a drum machine in the background. After another bruiser, “Last Man”, we arrive at track three, “Temptation”. This is where we began to hear some variation. This is no Ceremony L Shaped Man (a killer record as well) direction; but the slower, quieter atmosphere adds tension and ambience as the bass line pushes the track into a chilling space. The distant vocals and dissonant guitar notes extract an unsettling uncertainty in the listener. The second half of the track returns to expected elements (thick riffs) and damages eardrums. Following “Temptation” is “Become a Machine” – the fastest track on the album and somehow the most robotic in the chorus. This tracks consists of sharp guitar squeals, which pan in the headphones to add momentum and energy. The 4/4 beat is a great hardcore rhythm for the verse before Harms Way enters a bridge that is double bass driven, more plotted.

The second single, “Call My Name”, allows us to see into this interpretation of using outside electronic elements. The beginning of the track uses bass drops and tonal fog before a repetitive groove takes over. Again, Harms Way utilizes these non-traditional hardcore instrumentations to set mood; to alleviate some of the intensity in between monster tracks and segments. “Unreality” has an undeniable groove. This is where maybe a Sepultura or VOD guitar sound manifests. Adding samples here doesn’t change the music, just varies its approach. While I would bet the band resents any slim genre classification, this is still angry hardcore to me.

With the electronics, Harms Way is not “experimenting” but confident in its growth. The time changes and dissection of guitars and drums to use certain instruments in sparse places, aids to the music. Like negative space in a photograph. The result is bulking up its power, guaranteeing impact. (This isn’t Fear Factory or Front 242. (I’m old).) As the albums winds down, “The Gift”, the penultimate song, is the only pure electronic track. Pulses and hisses and programmed drums linger while vocalist, Pligge, bellows. No guitars. It’s a cool track. To finish, “Dead Space” boasts a pounding, searing pace as Harms Way chugga chugga again and propel their enmity toward the finish line.

I still call Harms Way a hardcore band; albeit ‘metallic’ or whatever. Do they utilize a drum machine? Yep. But, I wouldn’t call them an industrial band by any stretch. This is brutal hardcore. The sound is designed to vent, to exorcise aggression and frustration. As Throwdown did in the late 90s; or Down My Throat and Arkangel did as well. Later, in the mid-2000s, we had Since the Flood, On Broken Wings, Black My Heart, Thick As Blood, etc. These bands lived to watch pit monsters decimate dance floors. Harms Way take those bands’ succinct breakdown formula and lace it with atmospheric extras. The variety is why Harms Way can be on stage before Soulfly, Every Time I Die, At The Gates, or Converge (as they have) and fucking slay crowds. Will Putney, a producer known for Stray From The Path, For Today, Vision Of Disorder, Thy Art Is Murder, Suburban Scum, Body Count, Acacia Strain, and others, grabbed the reigns here. Putney collaborated on some writing and extracted a dope record that guitarist, Bo Lueders, describes as a mix between previous releases, Rust and Isolation.

Lueders’ guitar work is on point; tight riffing (check “Sink”) and galloping riffs motivate the direcction. One would erroneously assume that utilizing a drum machine would make for simpler drum patterns. Not so. Drummer, Mills, remains the thunderous, pulsating foundation of this band’s sound. His vitality and pure power dictates the emotion and motion of the songs. And the dancefloor.

Expect Post Human to grab you with its dirge; that filthy, low tuned guitar tone. The grand, heavy drums balanced with chiming cymbal tweaks – and the drum machine pipe clangs! -  add depth. Props to Putney for his clean production. Equipped with rumbling bass and riding bass drums, the music lays a foundation for Pligge’s growling vocals. Add 808 drops and Post Human is akin to Loyal To The Grave, Sand, Nasty. But here we have a thinking man’s beatdown band. Pligge’s lyrics – with a title like Post Human – and a bigger platform like Metal Blade – delve into existentialism, technocracies, and self-realization. Pligge is wrestling with understanding pain’s placement in human existence. Crank this to ten and meditate while picking up change.

BUY SOME VINYL

RIYL: Ledge, Godflesh, Xibalba, Killing Joke, Voivod, Full Of Hell, Weekend Nachos, Downpresser

Mindset Nothing Less Review

Mindset

Nothing Less

React! Records

Review by Hutch

Release Date: Jan 15, 2015

Hardcore can be criticized for being an over-saturated genre, especially with bands that stick to a simple formula. I will always and love that formula. So, even the average band will get me charged. But then there are the bands that hone that formula and play with skill on their instruments a searing conviction. Those bands rise above. Mindset is such a band. Sadly, they will be playing their final show in 2016, never to release music again.

Mindset is a current band not lost in the sweeping, dissonant, ethereal influence that is so common. They are heavy without being metal. This is straight hardcore, played exceptionally and with worthy production. This is music made to played live, with angry kids flying off the stage and sweat drenched bodies climbing over each other to vent their own strife. These five dudes, loyal to the Straight Edge, got together from the northeast, calling Maryland a central location, in 2008. Their main core of releases, three EP’s and an LP, have all been on React! Records. They have had limited tour and live releases on other labels. 

The sound is fast. The lyrics are spit quickly over unrelenting drums, riding the bass and toms as a snare pounds in 4/4 time. The guitars pause for open chords, which predictably lead into two-step parts and breakdowns. Again, though, these songs are played with such strength and rage that they defy any misnomer of cookie cutter or formulaic hardcore. There is not much to write without redundancy. That said, I have played these three tracks on repeat many times and not grown tired. This is one hell of a last statement for an amazing band.

Members of: Clear, Praise, Give, WARXGAMES, Peace

RIYL: Youth of Today, Chain of Strength, Wide Awake, Betrayed, In My Eyes, Clear, Get the Most, Down to Nothing, The First Step

BUY THEIR SHIT

Test Of Time Boston Straight Edge Hardcore Interview

Test of Time

Interview by hutch

Bridge Nine Records

Boston Straight Edge Hardcore. To me, when I see those words, I have an immediate sound and energy and presence that should accompany any band that boasts those labels. And many people, old and new, recluse and hipster, that will pocket check your cred when you step in a venue with that moniker.

I believe Test of Time will, well, stand the test of time in this case. Yesterday, a white square box was opened in my kitchen to deliver two seven inches which I preordered from Bridge Nine Records.  Unveiling two versions, red and grey, of the one sided A Place Beyond ep, and a pressing of their first ep, Inclusion, my record player tapped its needle impatiently waiting to be blessed. Salivating, my turntable reminisced about the fury and urgency of last summer’s B9 seven inch, The Price.

Charles Chassinand, guitarist, may not be originally from Boston, but as a city, Boston welcomes someone with such sustained vigor. Coming from Florida, being in bands and working at Think Fast! Records, Charles has the resume. Charles spends his current days, over the Charles, at MIT doing AV/Sound for the legendary college. This job, especially a particular colleague, fuels his prolific songwriting.  

Test of Time has existed for only two years come September. “I’m nuts about getting things going, moving forward. As soon as we did our demo, I had other songs written. Let’s keep it perpetual.”

And independent. Vocalist Todd and Charles put together money, recorded in their basement, and put Inclusion out themselves. 500 copies. Charles explains that they recorded twenty six songs and six covers. “The plan is to keep the music trickling. We are not able to tour. The singer and I have jobs not allowing it. So I want to always have music coming out.”

 The covers which have been released are eclectic; Germs, Mission of Burma, Skid Row (“youth crew gone wild”).  Charles also mastered the three tracks on A Place Beyond.  I comment of the ferocity of the first track, blazing out of the gate. It has that Boston stomp, The Rival Mob channeling DYS. Charles admits, “it is a weird little song, one riff. But vocals over it make it seems to move.”

A Place Beyond progresses, though. The songwriting, remaining course and aggressive, ventures into Bane and Have Heart territory. While the songs punch with severity, the ethos of Test of Time remains reflected in the packaging, which he is doing. Attached to each copy will be one of five hundred unique 4x6 photos from Mexico/South America tour. The attachments are handmade and sleeved by Charles and the band. “Todd and I sit down and think about the layout and how to make it unique. Too many bands make the artwork seems like an afterthought.”

Charles unabashedly admits to emulating EVR or No Idea in the 90s. I contribute, “Oh, my favorite was The Swarm. The Frank Sinatra one. (Old Blue Eyes is Dead). That’s the pinnacle of packaging for me.” Charles agrees immediately. “That’s the exact record that sparked it,” he states. “Give people a reason to buy to this stuff.”

Musically, A Place Beyond was “written before our new bass player, Robert, who writes a lot now.” This information is spurred by my compliments of the raw intensity of the tracks which Charles wrote. That is matched by the dynamic structure of the songs. “That means a lot. I try to put effort and make the song move forward. The LP (By Design, out in July) will be like that more. I want it to have a flow. I use pianos to write. I don’t want it to sound like every hardcore record. I expose it to a co-worker who doesn’t listen to hardcore to tweak.”

“Every instrument is in my head. Not to be Stalinistic,” he clarifies quickly. “I know the parts and sounds and accents. When I put songs together for me, I have rhythm guitar and bass. I picture a lot of melodic parts, leads. I have 50% recorded before we move. So I know the record flows in a certain way.

Hardcore bands have the turnover rate of strip clubs and pub dishwashers. I would assume sporting the SXE emblem must be a hindrance to attaining new members. “I can’t see us having a full time member not straight edge. Especially at our age; lots of people drop it. I hang out with non-SXE people, obviously. But someone that has the party attitude could not be on board with our work ethic. What we end up needing happens to be SXE; those characteristics and qualities.”

And as far as that banner, which some use as a divisive implement, Charles chagrins. “I proclaimed edge when I was 12. Straight Edge kept my head of my ass. It promotes a lifestyle choice. If you’re SXE, here we are. If you’re not, check us out. We don’t have songs that condemn. Many SXE bands are accusatory, but we don’t separate.”

And how does a band hit the stage with comparable ardent rage to deliver when not inflated off of Jager bombs and groupie sweat? Charles explains, simply, “When we play a show, we hit an arcade. Two hours at an arcade and we get so amped.”

Well I hope Charles and Todd and company do a little research of European arcades. At the end of July, they head to Europe to play a string of 12 shows in two weeks. This tour will be complimented by a split with English band, only released in Europe. Additionally, there will a six song split with Old Flings from Asheville, North Carolina and then a split with Pick Up the Pieces from Mexico. All harvested from the thirty song cache.  Hard work pays off.

I assumed it would be daunting to claim “Boston Straight Edge”. Charles brushes it off. “We aren’t stating a proclamation. I look at those bands – so few of those bands are SXE today. Seeing where those dudes are now, we are already older than they were when they broke edge. SO what did it mean to wave SXE? And Todd has been around forever. Boston forever. SXE forever. Having him front the band, gears the focus. He is sincere and a nice guy.

“We want to be nice. Some dudes are “nice”, but it is a bullshit act. They are nice until you talk about money or whatever issue sets them off. Todd and I don’t get upset. We stay cool.”

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