Classic shit: Next Step Up video for Heavy
Everyone with at least slight understanding of hardcore knows Next Step Up was the shit. One of the hardest in history, I am ready to fight everyone denying their role in shaping up that classic sound of beatdown hardcore. This is supposedly unreleased video that was done somewhere around 1992/1993 from the footage of bands shows in Maryland, Delaware and Washington DC.
Classic: As One - We gotta know-Intro
I am a sucker for everything KDS crew related. Actually, I am sucker for everything Stormcore related, but since they were repping their crew so hard I felt it's important to maintain a bigger picture. Anyway, As One was a side project with members of Stromcore and Slamface. This vid is supposedly from band's last gig in 1998. If you like it, check out this video as well for music.
Forgotten Classics: The Alliance - Detroit hardcore
So little is known about this band that I cannot give you any detailed bio. All I know it featured members of Earthmover, Cold as Life, Hyde, Dogz of War and Tank. Even though there are plenty of kids who don't give a single fuck about that band nowadays, The Alliance was everything that was right (and everything that was wrong, to some) with hardcore in the 00’s. The band called it quits in 2007 after their third album Hit Em Up came out. That's pretty much all I know about them, now let’s get down to the music.
Call for Unity bands no one knows nothing about
Here’s a collection of tracks I ripped from the legendary A Call For Unity comp which includes bands that sound really dope but unfortunately I know very little about. For those who don’t know, A Call For Unity was a series of 3 compilations put out by Back Ta Basics that, deliberately or not, at the times of their release represented some of the hardest bands in hardcore. The comps started to drop in late 90’, which everyone knows was the time the so called heavy East Coast sound was in its prime. Let me just say the comps included material from bands like Fury Of V, 25 ta Life, Krutch, No Retreat, Mushmouth, Next Step Up… the list goes on and on and it’s just the first issue. While the first one in the series was focused on East Coast scene, the latter had bands from diverse places, mainly Europe and Japan .Tracks that were brought together for each comp equate to no less than 70 minutes worth of hard-hitting classics. Timeless stuff, I hope to write more about it in the future.
Forgotten Classics: Stormcore
France was a hot bed of sick, evil and heavy hardcore bands in the late 90s and Stormcore was one of the finest of the pack along likes of Kickback, Trapped In Life and Drowning.
Forgotten Classics: Self Decay
Late 90’, upstate New York, Time Served Records - yeah, it's exactly that kind of hardcore music. You can do that style poorly or you can do it right, and these guys knew how to do it right.Heavy and rugged, simple and straight-forward, this is some classic material from this forgotten upstate New York band. Self Decay started in 1996/1997 (I’m not sure exactly) and Beneath The Lies seems to be their only release. The band featured Rigg Ross, who went on to play with Hatebreed and subsequently joined a slew of NYHC bands like Madball, Skarhead or Rag Men. He did a wonderful stuff on this album so I totally understand why he ended up playing on NYHC ep.
