Monument & World Vs. Cometh jointly released new album from Sweden's Lesra. 10 tracks with powerful NYHC sound and traditional Ume hardcore style. Listen to the entire album here. You can order the vinyl here.
Check out Lesra's ' You Get Out What You Put In' album
Monument & World Vs. Cometh jointly released new album from Sweden's Lesra. 10 tracks with powerful NYHC sound and traditional Ume hardcore style. Listen to the entire album here. You can order the vinyl here.
Dead Reprise premieres new track feat. Freddy Madball
Tramwreck Interview
Tramwreck brings that sweet combination of thrash and hardcore. It’s fast and groovy, aggressive but laid back, apocalyptic but party-ready. Plus, you get all the nuclear and satanic war shit in the lyrics. Basically, it’s like Toxic Avenger starting a band with Mad Max while all the punks from Return of the Living Dead do the back vocals. The band’s latest artistic output is called Power Vomit, but as far as I know they should be working on some new music already. Check out the interview.
Tramwreck brings that sweet combination of thrash and hardcore. It’s fast and groovy, aggressive but laid back, apocalyptic but party-ready. Plus, you get all the nuclear and satanic war shit in the lyrics. Basically, it’s like Toxic Avenger starting a band with Mad Max while all the punks from Return of the Living Dead do the back vocals. The band’s latest artistic output is called Power Vomit, but as far as I know they should be working on some new music already. Check out the interview.The one thing that bums me out every time I think about Swedish hardcore scene is why the hell nobody stopped Refused before they recorder plenty of bad music? And worse, why did nobody do nothing to prevent them from doing reunion show? Are they still influential band in Sweden?
It’s hard to say why nobody stopped Refused from reuniting or if someone even should have. Our guess is they reunited because they like money and wanted more of it. We like money too so that’s okay with us. None of us are huge Refused fans, half of us had never heard of them until a couple of months ago when their reunion started getting hyped so they’re not an influential band for us. They’re probably influential to some bands but most new hardcore acts that appear in Sweden are either very old school oriented or total hipsters and you can’t hear much of Refused in their music. Also, some of Refuseds music is very experimental and that doesn’t reflect in other Swedish hardcore bands.
Before we started playing together as Tramwreck Skrevet who plays base used to play with a punk band called Sista Skriket, Björn who plays drums played with a metal band and Jocke who screams and Robert who plays guitar both played in the same horror-punk band. While celebrating midsummer (which is a very important hedonistic ritual in Sweden) in 2010 Skrevet and Björn started talking about jamming together since they both longed for playing faster and harder music. Jocke and Robert immediately wanted in and Tramwreck was formed. Sista Skriket had recently broken up so Skrevet had lots of time and enthusiasm that got us going. With time the rest of us either got kicked out of or quit our other bands so we’re now all about Tramwreck. Robert was even forced to quit his job at NASA where he experimented with shredding riffs in zero gravity in order to devote all his time to the band. As for our goals we haven’t given it much thought. We just want to play kickass music.
You released Power Vomit on tape. Why releasing music on a format that nobody uses anymore?
Tapes are awesome, that’s the first and foremost reason. Of course we’d have loved to release Power Vomit on vinyl but it’s expensive as hell and the release was a DIY effort. So when the option was a CD-r demo releasing a tape was by far the cooler option. And that is of utter importance.
Any plans for vinyl version?
Power Vomit won’t be released on any other format than tape. However, later this spring or this summer we’re going to record new material. If we can find a record label that would back us in releasing a 7 inch that’d be great. If not we’ll just release another tape.
Why people should give Power Vomit a try?
It’s tricky promoting yourself without sounding like a pompous asshole but we really do think people should give Power Vomit a try simply because it’s awesome thrashing hardcore. If you don’t like good music you can still enjoy it for it’s packaging. It’s on a cool green cassette with a cover by Blasting Dead Artwork. Truly beautiful!
Favorite type of Beer?
We are all big fans of Risingsbo and Tingsryd, which is a Swedish phenomenon, called “folköl” which for some reason roughly translates to peoples beer.
This question led to some heavy debate within the band but we finally managed to settle on five albums, as following, in no specific order:
Municipal Waste – Waste ‘Em All
Metallica – Ride the Lightning
Nuclear Assault – Game Over
Toxic Holocaust – An Overdose of Death…
Sodom – In the Sign of Evil
What are some bands from Sweden that people should be listening to instead of Refused?
There are a lot of great Swedish acts that people should be listening to. Some that we are fans of are Håll Käften Vad, Vad Vill Du!?, Fredag den 13:e, Passiv Dödsjälp and Näääk. People should definitely check out The Dahmers, an awesome garage-punk-rock band that opened for us at the Power Vomit release party.
Hardcore scene is quite diversified nowadays, with styles of music running from beatdown to thrash, from punk rock to NYHC worship. How it is in Sweden? Is there any tension between people into different styles of hardcore?
The straight edgers are pretty much running the scene when it comes to booking bands and arranging shows but there’s not much tension within the scene. The hardcore scene is pretty unified in the sense that it doesn’t have much connection to its subgenres or to similar genres. For instance, it’s not common to see a thrash band play together with hardcore bands. The Swedish hardcore scene however is too small to support tension within itself. Most of the people active in the scene seem to be pulling in the same direction.
When and how did you get into hardcore?
That’s a hard question. We all got into hardcore through other music genres, such as punk and thrash metal. However we all yearn for faster, angrier and harder music. And our very short attention span only allows us to listen to, and play, very short songs so hardcore is perfect.
From Viking warriors to gender neutrality, Sweden seems to be interesting country to live in. What are your thoughts about the life in Sweden 2012?
Life in Sweden includes listening to everybody whining about how terrible life in Sweden is. But it’s all right, we don’t have much to complain about. Of course, there’s political bullshit in all countries but as far as everyday life goes Sweden is pretty good, and probably will be all through 2012. It’s awful cold though. And these days it’s a little too much emphasis on gender neutrality and too little on Viking warriors.
Bitter Taste Of Life vs. 45 Stainless split is available
Lose The Life September tour details
27/9 Copenhagen, Denmark
28/9 Haarlem, Netherlands
29/9 Amsterdam, Netherlands
30/9 Karlskrona, Sweden
Elapse Interview
The energy and dedication that burst out of every song at Storm, the recent EP by Sweden-owned Elapse, makes you think why this band is so criminally underrated. It’s a shame cause they got enough skills and ideas to make their hardcore both sharp and meaningful. The strong DIY ethic within the band makes them release all their stuff all by themselves and usually straight for free download.. That was the case with their previous album, The Mockracy, and that is also true for Storm. I got nothing but respect for the bands that handle their business and I would be glad if any of the kids reading this who have not heard Elapse, would go and check this band.!
The energy and dedication that burst out of every song at Storm, the recent EP by Sweden-owned Elapse, makes you think why this band is so criminally underrated. It’s a shame cause they got enough skills and ideas to make their hardcore both sharp and meaningful. The strong DIY ethic within the band makes them release all their stuff all by themselves and usually straight for free download.. That was the case with their previous album, The Mockracy, and that is also true for Storm. I got nothing but respect for the bands that handle their business and I would be glad if any of the kids reading this who have not heard Elapse, would go and check this band.Can you give some background on Elapse for those out there who are not familiar with the band? How and when it all started?
The members of Elapse are Love Thübeck on vocals, David Shanks on drums, Simon Flack and Robin Eriksson on guitars, and me, David Tapojärvi, on bass guitar. This band started around 2005 before I played with them. They played all sorts of metal with a lot of different influences, and in 2008 they found their way into hardcore and recorded a 3-track demo under the name of "40+ Bareback Hunterz". I joined them in late 2009 and in 2010 we became "Elapse". We recorded a demo/EP called "General Errors" and in 2011 we released "The Mockracy".
You have just put out a new EP called “Storm”. Can you tell us about that?
It's an EP containing five songs. It was recorded here in our home town Örebro a few months ago and we're just really happy that it's out!
My first thought was that the title might allude to Judge, but is there any other meaning to ‘Storm’?
The title was a bit longer at first. I had a title flying around in my head which was "Storm on a path", then Simon suggested to cut it down to just "Storm". It points to the feeling that nothing ever goes right. That your path, so to speak, is just doomed to fail. I guess it's a bit like the classic "rain cloud over head"-thing.
Is there any chance that ‘Storm’ will be released on any physical format?
"Storm" was actually just released physically. We made a CD version out of it ourselves and it turned out great. On our previous EP "The Mockracy" we had great artwork and all that, but we just slipped hand written CD-R's in to a plastic pocket, which worked okay, but this time we thought if would be fun to make something more "real" out of it. Now it looks like a proper CD release. We've also been talking about putting "Storm" on vinyl, but we're not sure what will happen there. It's also available for free download at a bunch of places, and will soon be on Spotify too.
Lyrically, these songs carry a rather negative tone. What is the main driving force behind your lyrics? What motivates you to write the way you do?
The songs on "Storm" are not necessarily based on concept, but I wrote a lot about things that I guess are in the same frame. It's about finding out what's good for you and what isn't. What you need in life and what you don't. About watching yourself from a different perspective. I would say "Worn Out" is a great example of perspective, where you find yourself looking back at stuff that has been tearing you down, but you've come out stronger and wiser than before. I just felt that I had to get that off my chest.
The motivation behind writing lyrics varies a lot. It can be anything from the society to a line in a movie, even though the song might not end up being about the thing that pushed my buttons in the first place.
The world seems to be in a shitty state these days. How do you feel about things like the financial crisis, unemployment, general instability in many people lives?
Obviously it's not a good thing at all and it's a shame what happens in this world. It's too bad there's more than one way people can feel about this.
Your country is seen as economically stable and generally friendly place to live. How does it all look like from the Swedish perspective?
I guess every country looks nice on a post card. I immediately think about a party called the Sweden Democrats. Their view on immigrants is not the friendliest and they've certainly helped the face of Sweden turn uglier.
What are some of the shows you have played that really stick out in your mind?
For me there are three shows that comes to mind, and I think that the rest of the band agrees. First, the release show for The Mockracy was just awesome, unfortunately David wasn't drumming on this show because of injured shoulders. We hadn't done that many shows before that one, but at this one it was fantastic to see that people had given some of their time to learn our songs.
A few months before that, we played a festival in Linköping called Fat Fest. It was the first time we played outside of Örebro, and there were really cool bands playing there, such as Trapped Under Ice, Bane and Hårda Tider.
The third one that comes to mind we did not that long ago in Gävle. We went there with two other bands from from our town (Chain Reaction and Hårda Bud) and it was amazing. It's a floor stage so they compensated with stools that they kicked around the floor to "stage dive" from.
What other bands out of Sweden you support these days?
There are several great bands from our town, such as Dead Reprise, Chain Reaction, Hårda Bud and Chastise. Then from all around Sweden we've got Lesra, Angers Curse, Bitter Taste of Life, Guilty, Lose the Life and Agent Attitude. This is just the tip of the iceberg, though.
After the EP is out, what’s next for Elapse?
To play as much as possible, basically. We've been hearing a lot of bands talk about this thing called "Euro tour", and it feels like we need to look into that.
Lose The Life posts new song. New album on Ugly & Proud Records!
Lose The Life posted new song, Authority Stomper, on their bandcamp account. The song has a strong political message to it and deals with police but from the anti-capitalist perspective. Here's what band got to say about it: "Ah, there's nothing like a song about hating the police! Many punks and hardcore kids can relate to lyrics about getting into trouble with the law. But we would like to raise the criticism to another level. The police as an institution are only made necessary in a society divided between those who have and those who don’t. The law is written to ensure the power of the already wealthy. Thus, the police are nothing but the henchmen of our real enemy: capitalist society." The song is taken from the upcoming album, 'The End of Conformity', which is due to be released on Ugly And Proud Records.
Bitter Taste Of Life Interview
The Swedish band has been around since 2008 but it was last year when it dropped its debut album, ‘Trapped In Lies’, on World vs Cometh records. Bitter Taste Of Life’s influences are pretty broad, you can hear some modern elements in their music, but they have a firm foothold in more traditional sound as well. They have a tour all across Europe, from Portugal to Poland, planned for May so make sure you show them support when they come to your area. The interview was done some time ago but for various different reasons is being published just now so please excuse if any questions seem to be outdated. It’s still a good read though, and the band is definitely worth checking out!
The Swedish band has been around since 2008 but it was last year when it dropped its debut album, ‘Trapped In Lies’, on World vs Cometh records. Bitter Taste Of Life’s influences are pretty broad, you can hear some modern elements in their music, but they have a firm foothold in more traditional sound as well. They have a tour all across Europe, from Portugal to Poland, planned for May so make sure you show them support when they come to your area. The interview was done some time ago but for various different reasons is being published just now so please excuse if any questions seem to be outdated. It’s still a good read though, and the band is definitely worth checking out!Let us know some basic info about Bitter Taste Of Life? How and when it all started, who’s in the band etc...
First of all, we'd like to say thanks for the support and giving us this interview. Keep up the good work with Hardboiled. It all started in late spring 2008 when Olle contacted us. Niklas, Niva and Rickard had another band that weren't going that well, so there was no doubts, we teamed up with Olle. Olle knew two other guys Joel and Marcus who where into hardcore so they tagged along. Unfortunately for us Marcus who played bass at the time had to leave for studies in the US. So we played our first show without bassplayer and for the upcoming shows Niklas and Joel took turns playing bass. After a bunch of shows and a quite unknown demo, Niklas went away for studies as well. Then we decided to put the band on hold for a while. Then in early 2010 Rickard, Joel, Olle and Niva started talking about reviving Bitter Taste Of Life again. During this period we got to know Simon, so he joined us. And by then Niklas was finished with his studies in Portugal and moved back home to Sweden, so we asked Niklas if he’d like to team up with us again and here we are. So now Bitter Taste Of Life is Rickard (vocals), Olle (vocals), Joel (guitar), Niva (drums), Simon (guitar) and Niklas T (bass)
How did you guys come up with the band’s name? Is there any deeper meaning behind it?
We were just brainstorming for a band name and when Bitter Taste Of Life came up we just felt, "this is it". So no, there's no deeper meaning behind it, just a band name that we felt fitted us.
Has anyone of you been in any other band apart from BTOL?
Olle, Joel, Rickard and Niva played in a band called Negative Vibes. Simon was in a band called Orson Sparks and is currently playing in the metal band Arreat Summit.
Can you tell us something about “Trapped In Lies”? What kids should expect to find in there?
It's a 6 track MCD with the signature Bitter Taste Of Life groove, grit and pit starter, with political and angry lyrics.
Lyrically, is there any concept to the album? Can you touch on some of the lyrical focuses of your songs? The lyrics is related to things you encounter in everyday life, what we've been trough and what is happening around us. We think it's very important to be aware of what's going on in our society now a days and how it affects us. Religon, addictions, exclusion and antifascism is some of the thing we touch in our lyrics.
How did you hook up with World vs Cometh?
Christian (also known as "Boris", "Chris") who runs the label is one of our best friends and we asked him if he was up for releasing the MCD and he said yes. And nowadays our guitarist Joel is part of World vs Cometh too. Make sure you all check it out and support them!
You guys are quite different from stuff I usually hear from Sweden. What’s your opinion about the scene in your country and what local bands you support?
A few years back the scene was insane every show was well crowded and everyone went insane when the bands played, but then something happened and the interest in the scene grew a bit cold for a while, not saying that people stopped putting shows up and so on but it felt different and many people you used to see at every show just stopped showing up. Big ups to all the elder ones who's still in the game and going strong. At the moment the scene is on the uprise again, at every show you see new kids, there's loads of new bands coming up and bookers who putting shows up. Shout outs to Norrköping Hardcore, SSE, GBG SXE, Sunpower Bookings, 026 Hardcore, KF Stationen, Västerås SXE and all the others who's putting shows together. There's loads of good bands coming outta Sweden you better check them out! Dead Reprise, Vulture Mob, Decades Of Blood (RIP), Stay Hungry, Elapse, Lose The Life, Keep Rising, Chain Reaction, Guilty, Angers Curse, Kaos, Kris & Helvete, Anchor is some of them.
What is your opinion about Refused? Would anyone get lynched in Sweden for saying their music sucked balls?
Haha! Personally I (Rickard) don't like them at all and I hasn't got lynched yet so I think it's ok to say that they sucked. But there's other ones in the band who likes them. And no question that they was and is a very important part of the Swedish hardcore scene and the development of it.
Let’s get political. In case Greece eventually falls down, followed then by Italy and then probably Ireland, Spain and so on, do you think we should gear up for Mad Max scenario in Europe in any near future?
Well, there's a chance it could get to that point, maybe not as extreme as Mad Max. As long as all the greedy fucks craves for more and can't see the effects of their actions, there will always be people who's going to make their voices heard, whether it's through violent actions, civil disobedience or on a political level.
So another year has ended... what were the best albums of 2011?
Expire - Suffer The Cycle, Grankapo - The Thruth, Vulture Mob - Feeding Time, 45 Stainless - O.G.B.D, Alley Gods - North State Of Mind, Q-Unique - Throwback, For The Glory - Some Kids Have No Face. That some of them… can't remember them all, haha.
What are the next steps for the band? Any chances for European tour?
We're playing at an awesome festival (Killing The Legacy Fest) in Turku, Finland in january, then we're going to focus on writing new songs for a upcoming 7" split with our brothers in 45 Stainless from Finland who will be released sometime around April or may on World vs Cometh. We're going on a European Tour in May between 11/5 and 26/5. It's going to feel good to be on the road again. Otherwise we got some shows planned here in Sweden and in the end of July we're going to play Zvera Fest in Latvia. And during the autumn we're going to work on a full-length cd and try to sort out a mini tour i east Europe.
Always War - Vengeance Prevail
Always War is relatively less known compared to some other Swedish bands so before I got this CD I had no clue about bands existence. According to the bio, they started out in 2007 with a mission to combine classic crossover hardcore sound of Agnostic Front or Cro-Mags with some heavier metal influences. After struggling for some time with typical newcomer issues like unstable line-up changes, "Vengeance Prevail" is band’s first official release and fits pretty well with the its stylistic aspirations. The music is built around solid hardcore base but with tons of thrashing riffs and double bass action. It’s a little bit like more metal version Terror, Lionheart or Since The Flood, although the band lacks the natural and easy flow of the mentioned bands. It might no not in the league with the best, but when the band is on form, it is immense and sharp. The fact that they keep the songs vibrant and dynamic all the way throughout the album plays definitely to their advantage, with no mindless deathcore crap or clean vocals nonsense. I back up their decision to keep the album short, as it offers only five tracks, of which most barely clock past three minutes. It keeps it more focused and dense, which combined with solid musicianship and some heavy-ass vocals makes it a worth listen.Nature Always Wins Records, 2011
Review by Dloogi
Stay Hungry interview
Stay Hungry started in the summer of 2008 as four veterans in the Swedish hardcore and straight edge scenes teamed up to show the kids what's up. Fast and in your face straight edge hardcore was on the agenda. Stay Hungry has just released new output, "Against the wall", which offers just everything the band is recognized for - powerful music and meaningful lyrics delivered with all the intensity hardcore got to offer!
Search Bloc hails from the city of Cleveland in the great state of Ohio and their sound is fast and pissed off hardcore, totally in vein of One Life Crew or Confront, laced with tight grooves and heavy hitting vocals. Read the interview to know why they're backed by Seventh Dagger and what should we expect to come out of this collaboration in the future.Could you tell us something about “Against The Wall”? What were you aiming for with this album and are you satisfied with the end result?
I'd say that one aim we had was to make a more focused hardcore record, compared to the 12” on Reflections. That record kind of went in different directions, not knowing where to lay the focus. There's some metal parts in there. Those are gone with the wind on ”Against the wall”, which in my opinion is a true hardcore record from start to finish. We were aiming for a feeling of “positive aggression”, and I think we did a pretty solid job. I am very happy with the outcome.
Lyrically, is there any main focus with the new songs? What do you want people to take from the album?
As I said we were aiming for a positive aggressive feeling. There are a lot of fucked up things going on, so we didn't want to do a LP with overly positive lyrics, sugarcoating all the crap we see. But we also didn't want to be completely pessimistic and negative. I guess the title seems like that, but even that lyric ends with some hope. There are a few songs dealing with hardcore, a few dealing with straight edge topics, a few more political ones, one animal rights track etc, and then it ends with a true posi lyric, “Loose ends”. It's pretty varied. I guess I'd like for people to be angry, but also feel like there's something that can be done.
You new album is widely available on blogs and P2P networks. How do you feel about it as a band when most of the kids today rather download the album off the Internet that support the band and the label?
Is it really? We put up a four track promo ourselves and we will put up the whole album soon. So I guess that kind of answers your question. You know, I used to trade tapes back in the 90s. What's the difference, really? Except for that blogs are less time consuming. I am not in this to sell a certain amount of records. We have done 500 copies of “Against the wall”, and if that's all we'll do, I'm fine with it. I am proud of the record, it's something we've accomplished together, and it will allow us to tour. And having the album on blogs will let a lot of kids know about us. If kids come to the shows and sing along and stage dive, I don't give a fuck if they downloaded mp3s or bought the vinyl. We also have to realize that so far we've only done vinyl, and a lot of kids don't even own record players.
And how do you feel about how Internet is changing hardcore scene? I mean, it’s a great tool for getting information and keeping in touch, but on other hand, you don’t see that many paper fanzines around these days and shit talking is getting out of hand on message boards…
Like everything else it has its pros and cons. I have written about this in Law and Order zine #1. For a band like ours, it has made things a lot easier. I have just finished booking a tour. Without internet, that would've been immensely harder. And sure, there's all the crap on message boards, but fuck it. Let's just feel lucky that forums and stuff like that weren't around when we were fourteen and new in the scene. Because let's face it, we would've made asses of ourselves too from time to time before we learned better. I am obviously a fan of paper zines since I invest a lot of time and energy into Law and Order zine. I wish more kids would be into it, but things are the way they are. All we can do is push ourselves and do something that kids might be into.
Hardcore can have such a great influence on the lifestyle and mindset of its followers. What's the biggest life lesson that you learned from being a part of the scene?
Oh that's a tough one. I mean apart from the lessons I learned from “No thanks” by Uniform Choice, which kind of meant everything to me as a teenager, I dunno. Lessons from the hardcore scene can't be completely cut off from things you experience and go through in life in general. It's all a part of the package somehow. But being a part of hardcore and straight edge for so long definitely made me embrace the fact that I'll always be sort of an outcast. I will never live a normal life. I will always be into doing stuff that others can't understand. I've tried explaining how hardcore and DIY works to co-workers, and it just doesn't come through to them. They keep asking if we get a lot of girls and make money and play in front of large audiences. Like I could give a fuck.
And how do you feel about hardcore becoming more mainstream?
There are different sides to this. In the mid 90s hardcore was BIG in Sweden. Refused could play in every fucking small town and have large turnouts. And that was pretty fucking cool. Nowadays there's a lot less kids. I think hardcore and punk needs to keep a certain level of vigilance to keep out forces that stand opposed to the DIY ethics. But I would also like to see more people at gigs. I mean, it hurts like fuck to stage dive if there's no one there to catch you. I am not really afraid of hardcore becoming more mainstream. Trends come and go, we'll see who gets washed away when the tide retreats.
What part of Sweden you’re from? Tell us about the scene in your area and bands from that area.
Me and Andy live in Gothenburg on the west coast. We have some cool bands here, like Fredag den 13e, Repoman, the might Commitment Crew and several others. The scene is quite divided, though attempts are made to lessen these divisions. We organize shows in a pretty large crew called Gothenburg straight edge. The other three in the band live in Linköping, which is three hours away roughly. This has always been a central point for hardcore shows in Sweden, cause it's located in a good place and has had many influential bands, like Outlast, Nine and Section 8 (the latter came from a village outside the city, but still). There are still fests there a couple of times a year.
I know you cancelled your tour because of the new album. Are there any plans to hit the road now when the record is coming out?
Yeah, when we realized the record wouldn't be out when we were supposed to tour, due to various reasons beyond our control, we had to pull the plug. It sucked so much ass, but it was the right thing to do. We can't take time off from work etc if the LP isn't out. And it sucked cause we desperately wanted to tour with Skull Crusher. Their 12” is incredible. But we have booked a 16 date tour in April 2011. We will be going by ourselves this time around. We'll be playing Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. I have a feeling it's going to be fantastic. It's been pretty easy to book, there are a lot of caring and nice hardcore and straight edge people out there, for sure. It's been a quite humbling experience to book it. It still feels weird that people give a shit about our old asses.
Are there any future plans you would like to share with us before we finish?
Come out to the tour, check out the record. Have a look at www.swehc.com. Check out the bands on the “We support Swedish hardcore, do you?” sampler CD. Be on the look out for new LPs by Anchor, Undergång and Angers Curse in 2011. Check out Boston Strangler, they did one of the best hardcore songs of 2010, “The truth”. KOTF 2011!
Anchor “The Singles Collected” LP Pre Order up now
From the ashes of Damage Control and Set My Path comes Anchor. Hailing from Sweden, Anchor plays a blend of passionate and message filled hardcore that really brings to mind bands like Trial and Snapcase but would also please the ears of Verse / Refused / Judge fans. This is some real and true straight edge / vegan hardcore from one of the most respected bands in today’s European scene. This record compiles all there singles, splits, and eps. Includes a free digital download coupon so you can rock it on the I Pod or what ever. More info here.Track Listing
Atlantis
Walls
Violence
Vanity
Vengeance
Hamnd
It Kills You to Know
In the Throes of Passion
Far Above
Captivity
Beyond Reason and Logic
Values - Sincerely
Values is from Sweden and unfortunately they appear to broke up, at least to according to their Myspace. Anyway, give it a listen if you're into emotional, modern hardcore.Pre-orders for the new Stay Hungry LP “Against the wall” are up
Pre-orders for the new Stay Hungry LP “Against the wall” are up now. The record contains 14 tracks of fast and to the point straight edge hardcore. It will be out late October / early November. It is a co-release between SH Records, Green Menace Records and Get This Right Records. Two songs from the LP are available now on the Stay Hungry myspace page. First press: 300 black, 100 white and 100 blue. Don’t sit around and wait.
Dead Reprise
New album called The Unveiling by Dead Reprise should be out this summer so it's only right I got in touch with those guys with some questions about new music, collaboration with Human Furnace and couple other concerning the band but not only. Make sure you check their new tunes when they're out!
Cold New album called The Unveiling by Dead Reprise should be out this summer so it's only right I got in touch with those guys with some questions about new music, their collaboration with Human Furnace and couple of other concerning the band but not only. Make sure you check their new tunes when they're out!Your new album will drop in July. Can you tell us something about the release?
Well, we recorded 11 tracks in less than 3 days and it turned out really well! Its going to be release on CD and Vinyl this summer through Monument Records in Europe and Get This Right in the US.Its straight up heavy aggressive hardcore in the vein of Integrity, Hatebreed, Terror, Merauder and we are really happy to have Human Furnace of Ringworm doing guest vocals on one of our songs. The album is produced and recorded by our good friend Jonas Kjellgren of Scar Symmetry (ex-Carnal Forge) in Studio Abyss which is a legendary studio in the woods of Sweden. Bands like Dark Funeral, Hypocrisy, Celtic Frost have recorded there and it has the right dark atmosphere and sound that we like.
What can we expect from it?
If you like our previous album you will definitely like this one since we cut a lot of the riffs and made the songs shorter and more energic than earlier. Patrick did a great job with his voice and I would say we grown a lot more both musically and with the lyrics as well. Its all coming out as a great package with really nice artwork made by our friend Dave Quiggle from No Innocent Victim.
Was there a specific sound you were aiming for when writing new songs?
Like I said, we were aiming for more energy and flow through the songs so we made the songs shorter and more straight forward this time. We were definitely aiming for even more 90's influenced hardcore with way less double-pedal breakdowns and shit that all the new bands have.
Have you had a chance to play the new songs live? Have the kids been getting into them?
Yes we did and they sound amazing. I love to play them as they are a lot more energic. We also added a Daniel from Path Of No Return on 2nd guitar for our live sets to make the songs even heavier. We've been playing "The Famine" for a really long time as it was one of the first songs we wrote for the new album and its always great to play live and the kids are into it...
How did you get Human Furnace of Ringworm to sing on The Famine?
I toured with my friends in Path Of No Return back in 2005 on the Crowbar-tour and they had a show with Ringworm somewhere in Germany. I always loved that band and it was great to meet the guys and see them live. Since that day Ive been in touch with HF and asked him to sing on one of our songs and he said yes right away. We tracked the vocals in like 1 take in the dressing room when they played in Sweden last year and it sounds exactly like I wanted. Its definitely an honor to have him sing on our record!
The Unveiling – what does the title mean to you and is there any running theme for the album when it comes to lyrics?
"The Unveiling" is another word for the "Apocalypse" which really speaks for the time we are living in right now. The world is a very sad and dark place at the moment but we're trying to keep the spirits high and live day by day. There is a theme on this album which is inspired by "the Four Horsemen". I think that Patrick wrote some really good lyrics that fits the music perfect. We are not a political band but there is definitely a message in there if you read between the lines.
With this album you’re working with Monument HQ in Europe and Get This Right Records in the US . How did you hook up with them and what was the reason to leave GSR?
I guess when we signed with GSR we had high hopes and expected to tour a lot more and put Sweden back on the map for good quality hardcore. We were very unlucky to have 3 cancelled tours in a row which were completely out of control and not our fault. We kind of put the band on the low side after this to concentrate on other things and I guess that a label expect you to sacrifice everything and do whatever you can to hit the road or whatever. We really tried but we came to a point were we had to take a step backwards and start over again. The split with GSR came naturally and as we slowly started to get our shit together again and write new songs we felt stronger than ever. Monument is a swedish label and distro that have been around since we started the band and the owner always supported us and helped us in many ways so it feels great to have a good friend releasing our new album! Same for Get This Right in the US, the two guys behind the labels are good old friends of ours, Dave from Palehorse and John from CDC... We know they love hardcore and are doing things with their heart for the right reason. We have a great deal and we couldnt be happier at this moment! Cant wait to get the album out!
So since the album is almost here, what are your other plans for the rest of the year? Any tours?
Since we're all busy with different things in life we put the band on a level that works well between us. We are realistic nowdays and try to plan ahead a long time before to make things work. Right now we're planning to release the album on the 23rd of July and we will play in our hometown of Örebro that night and in Stockholm with First Blood the day after that. In August we will do a short tour on the mainland Europe and we will most likely do some shows with The Haunted in Sweden in September and try to go back to Norway and Finland as well. Hopefully we will be able to do a longer tour next year as support to some band that we like, we'll see!
There has been a lot of good things going on when it comes to hardcore in 2010. What are some recent hardcore bands or albums that you’re into?
Seriously... Im not really into any new bands and I have no clue on whats going on in the scene. We just do our thing and we all grew up with bands like Earth Crisis, Integrity, Merauder, Madball, Sick Of It All and Biohazard and those bands are still our favorite bands that we like to listen to. Of course there are some good new records out there but me personally prefer to listen to the old classics and a lot of black metal and other kinds of music. A new album that we all are really into at the moment is the new Deftones-album.
And what’s going on in Sweden? Any bands we should check?
I hear about new bands all the time but I cant say that Ive gotten into any of them. Some bands that keep it real are Elapse, Hands Down and Lost Kind from Örebro. Other Swedish bands to check out are Between Us, Anchor, Angers Curse, Growing Pains and another band that I play drums in from Örebro called Let Me Out. In Norway you have Kvellertak and Purifed In Blood and a whole bunch of great bands from Finland and Denmark like Shatterproof, Bolt, St Hood, Down My Throat, Cutdown, etc.
Ok, thanks for the interview. Any last shout out?
Check out our new CD/LP "THE UNVEILING" through www.monumenthq.com and keep yourself updated through our Facebook and myspace.com/DEADREPRISE
Thanks for your time... Scandinavia Hardcore lives!
