New Blood: Turnstile

Turnstile is a new hardcore band from the Baltimore/DC area and while most of you know them cause they've got Trapped Under Ice's drummer Brendan doing vocal duties, there's definitely more to the band. I was really into their demo and hearing Reaper is about to release their debut 7" just made this otherwise fucked up week worth suffering through. Check what the band is all about in this quick interview with the Brendan.

Turnstile is a new hardcore band from the Baltimore/DC area and while most of you know them cause they've got Trapped Under Ice's drummer Brendan doing vocal duties, there's definitely more to the band. I was really into their demo and hearing Reaper is about to release their debut 7" just made this otherwise fucked up week worth suffering through. Check what the band is all about in this quick interview with the Brendan.

First off, who are you/what is your role in Turnstile?
-Whatsup! I'm Brendan and I sing in the band Turnstile

How did Turnstile form as a band?
- The band started when my friend/ neighbor, Brady ( who plays guitar in the band) came to me with song ideas that I thought sounded awesome. We began writing, and after a few months of workin together, we recorded the demo. The rest of the guys (daniel, franz, and sean) are some of my best friends who were down to join us.

Where did the name of the band come from?
- I got the name from one of my favorite Hot Water Music songs, "Turnstile".

What bands influence you guys?
- Bands like Madball, Leeway, Inside Out, and Maximum Penalty are strong influences on our bands style.

To my knowledge you are in 2 other bands, one being the almighty Trapped Under Ice, and pop-punk outfit Diamond (DMND). How do you deal with being in 3 bands? All which are catching a lot of attention?
-I love it! There's no rule or limit on anything that you do. The 3 bands have their own style and I love to write and play music, so it really works for me. It keeps me busy

What is the difference playing in each? Do you like one more than the other?
-Playing in each band is completely different from one another, but I love playing in them all. I like singing. Switchin it up from bein behind the drums. Plus I like jumping around.

Are the other members of Turnstile in any other projects?
- Our drummer Daniel Fang plays drums in Mindset, Sacred Love, Praise, and a new band called Peace. Bass-man Franz is a rapper. Check him out, Freaky Franz, Freaky Tales mixtape, he's cool!

What is the hardcore scene like in Baltimore?
- Scene in baltimore is cool. Venues like the Charm City Art Space do a lot of cool shows. Check out Mindset, Sacred Love, Give, Praise, Mob Mentality.

What is your process for writing lyrics? What do you write about?
- The lyrics I write are just about things that I feel: Social Pressures, Relationships, friendship, and just living.

For those who haven’t heard you guys, what can a kid expect picking up a Turnstile record?
- what to expect? Hopefully it just makes you want to dance and jump in your bedroom.

What has Turnstile released?
- we just released a 7" called "Pressure to Succeed" on Reaper Records! 6 songs!

Any new releases in progress?
- We just released our first record, but we do have some New stuff already that we are workin on!

Any upcoming tours/shows?
- We're playing June 1st in Baltimore and June 5th In DC, and Planning on Playing a lot more very soon!

Thanks for your time man, any final thoughts/shout outs?
- Shoutout to Patrick Kitzel and Reaper Records, Fire & Ice, Dead End Path, Hardboiled, Red Bull, Vans, and my friends.

Interview done by Jeffrey Wang

Sheer Terror to release new 7" in July!

This is probably the biggest news of this year! The Sheer Terror 7", featuring two new songs titled "Heresy on the Monkey Bar" and "Blue Shadows Will Fall", along with a cover song scheduled to be out in July. This will be released by almighty Reaper Records!

S.O.S. pre-orders up now at Reaper Records

Head over to the Reaper DIY Store and pick up the S.O.S. 7" "I Owe You Nothing" pre-order. Supplies are limited! 'I Owe You Nothing', the title track off of the new EP of the same name by S.O.S., is available for streaming today on the band's official Facebook page. Head to this link to check it out. Today also marks the launch of the band's "I Owe You Nothing" pre-order! Hit the official pre-order link to get your copy now.

S.O.S. is:
Scott Vogel - Vocals (Terror)
Matt Henderson - Guitar (formerly ofAgnostic Front and Madball)
Sam Trapkin - Guitar (Trapped Under Ice)
Chris Beattie - Bass (Hatebreed)
Nick Jett - Drums (Terror)

The band got together over several New York winter days to record their debut EP. Each member contributed to all parts of the creative process, from every riff right down to the vocal patterns. At the helm of production was Dean Baltulonis, a producer and engineer who has been involved with some of the genres most iconic recordings (Agnostic Front, Madball), and was a natural fit for the session. S.O.S. emerged with a concise, tried and true, no frills hardcore EP titled "I Owe You Nothing".

The idea of S.O.S. first started to take shape around two years ago when Scott Vogel, front man for Terror, and Chris Beattie, bass player for Hatebreed, began discussing the possibility of making music together. The two had first met while touring the US together in 1995, and their discussions were simply focused on making music without stress or complications. While there was some back and forth regarding other potential members, the idea took a more serious turn when Matt Henderson, former guitarist of Agnostic Front and Madball, agreed to be involved. This would be Matt's first formal involvement in a band in over five years. For the next member, Vogel had to look no further than his own band mate, Terror drummer Nick Jett. Nick is razor sharp behind the drums and his ability as a prolific songwriter added another creative dimension. To round out the group and put the final piece in place, S.O.S. brought in guitarist Sam Trapkin from one of the best new bands hardcore has seen in years, Trapped Under Ice. Individually, the members of S.O.S. represent the past, present, and future of hardcore. While that warrants recognition in its own right, the music and the spirit is what leads the charge for S.O.S.

"It took years to finally get everyone in the same room, but the result is cool," states vocalist Scott Vogel. "We did what we set out to do; make a fast and angry hardcore record with no gimmicks or nonsense, and just have fun doing it. It seems like today everything is so professional and serious and this was just friends from some of my favorite bands making some music together."

New Blood: Hold Down

So this edition of New Blood is dedicated to Germany-based Hold Down. Some time ago I wrote about their demo: ”Hold Down plays hardcore that is both aggressive and very catchy. The band certainly has a flair for a proper hardcore sound without any cheap tricks. They stick to the basics of the genre but still keep it fresh and powerful.” I think this sums up the band pretty well and if you ask me, they certainly one of the most interesting upcoming bands from the Germany right now. Read the short interview and learn what they’re all about!

So this edition of New Blood is dedicated to Germany-based Hold Down. Some time ago I wrote about their demo: ”Hold Down plays hardcore that is both aggressive and very catchy. The band certainly has a flair for a proper hardcore sound without any cheap tricks. They stick to the basics of the genre but still keep it fresh and powerful.” I think this sums up the band pretty well and if you ask me, they certainly one of the most interesting upcoming bands from the Germany right now. Read the short interview and learn what they’re all about!

For those unfamiliar with the band - what do you want people to know about the band and your music or message? How did you all meet and how long have you all been a band?
Hello everybody. Me ( sören/ voice) and our former drummer, now guitarplayer mathias, come from the same part of town in the cologne area and we had been playing in another band together before we came up with the idea to start Hold Down last year. We all have known each other for a few years except for our drummer Emilio from Guatemala, who just recently moved to Germany and joined us to finally get things started.

What's the toughest struggle for the band like yours? What's the biggest wall to get over?
Don´t know about the other bands but in our case the biggest struggle was and still is to get a dedicated crew together. It took us a while to find the right guys and we currently don´t really have a bassplayer, so that kind of slows us down in some ways. Another aspect is the fact that I moved to Bremen (300kms from cologne) a while ago and we do not get to hang out and play as much as we want to, but that´s life.

For those who have not heard anything from you how would you describe band's playing sound?
That´s a tough one to answer. I would rather recommend you to download our first output on this page to find out on your own. But I reckon our sound could be described as mainly midtempo orientated hardcore with the odd fast riff and some groove to it.

What have you released so far?
we just recently recorded our first songs as a demo which we didn´t really release in that kind of way. We just wanted to record those songs quite soon after we founded Hold Down to get it started properly. We posted them as a download on our myspace and it can be found here on hardboiled as well.

Who are your strongest musical influences and why?
Beside the all time classic bands from the 80´s/90´s who have defined the Style of Hardcore Music and paved the way for many great Bands, I would say that we´re mostly influenced by (mainly european) hardcore bands like bleed into one, solid ground, no turning back…just to name a few. Those Bands, among others, are the ones who have been working hard during the last years to make European Hardcore as strong and alive as it is today and they stick to the old nyhc-style without loosing their unique sound which is very important to me. That´s the music that we all like, but there are so many good bands around which makes it hard to break it down to a few names. I definitely don´t want to compare us with those great bands in any way, that would be just ridiculous, but since we listen to that kind of hardcore all the time it influenced our approach to play music and made us start something by ourselves.


Where do you draw your inspiration from when it comes to the lyrics?
When approaching a new song, I´m mostly influenced by my own surroundings and my own life. I don´t write lyrics about politics that take place on the international level because in my opinion there are so many things that go wrong in front of our own eyes, fucked up things happen and there are boundaries to get over for everyone of us. There´s a lot to do and countless aspects worth to think and write songs about. Beside the contradictions and problems that we have to face sometimes, there´s a lot of positive energy left inside. Friendship for example is a big part of life, and so there might be one or two songs about that as well.

Tell me about band's performance element – what should kids expect from your live show?
Well, I can´t come up with impressive tales concerning life shows since we haven´t played a single one with Hold Down yet. We don´t have a bass player right now which makes it impossible to play, but are currently setting things up and there are some shows coming up around may. I would say people can expect the things to happen, they do themselves. We´re not afraid to demonstrate the energy we have and if the people want to go mad we will definetely appreciate that. But I think it´s more realistic to say that the people should not expect too much movement in the crowd on the first shows because we´re not that well known and you know what that means.

Tell us what you have coming up that we can check for. Plans, gigs and releases planned for the upcoming months?
We can probably be seen on a few shows in early summer like I mentioned before.
We´re currently setting up a show near cologne to showcase our demo. We also have a couple new tracks and currently work on a few because we have more ideas than we can keep in our heads, which should make us hit the studio again in the later part of 2011.

Any closing thoughts?
Thanks a lot for the interview and everyone who took the time to check our sound, we appreciate that. If anyone is interested in filling Hold Downs void on the bass position, just hit us up. Keep moving!

Unite.Resist Interview

Here’s a quick background info on the band: Unite.Resist is a new and upcoming hardcore band hailing from Scranton, Pennsylvania. The band started out in 2010, has released their self-titled debut Ep in January 2011 on Universal Warning Records and if that’s important for you, there’s Tom from Strength For A Reason playing bass there. Unite.Resist is currently working on the upcoming split with Troublesome on Marked For Death which should be available in the upcoming months. If you like real, honest, down to earth hardcore that tell it like it is, here’s something for you. Hell, every band that mentions Mushmouth as one of their influences should immediately make to every hardcore kid’s ‘to listen’ list!

Here’s a quick background info on the band: Unite.Resist is a new and upcoming hardcore band hailing from Scranton, Pennsylvania. The band started out in 2010, has released their self-titled debut Ep in January 2011 on Universal Warning Records and if that’s important for you, there’s Tom from Strength For A Reason playing bass there. Unite.Resist is currently working on the upcoming split with Troublesome on Marked For Death which should be available in the upcoming months. If you like real, honest, down to earth hardcore that tell it like it is, here’s something for you. Hell, every band that mentions Mushmouth as one of their influences should immediately make to every hardcore kid’s ‘to listen’ list!

Can you give us a brief history of the band? What prompted you to start Unite.Resist and who is in the present line up? What prompted you to start Unite. Resist and who is in the present line up ?

Tom: The band started through a few different line-ups, but came together with the band Myriad in 2003, which was ERIC(vocals), Jim( Drums), Tom (bass), Vic(guitar) and Dom(guitar). In the evolution of that band, Jon (guitar) eventually joined to give the band a second guitar when Dom left. This band played mostly in PA through 2003-2006 During these years Tom joined SFAR and started to tour with them. A few years later when Strength’s drummer decided to step back from the reigns, Jim took on the job of drumming with them for obvious reasons including schedules. We then mulled around with some ideas and decided to get a new project together, topics for lyrics, type of sound, etc., then decided to come out strong in 2010. We recorded our songs before playing live and then started looking for a label. After recording we played a few shows and then released the self titled EP on Universal Warning Records in the first week of January. Lou joined the band in January shortly after the release, playing his first two shows solo , but that’s the way it always seems to go when you have to work a full time job. The present line-up is ERIC(vocals) JIM (drums) Jon (guitar) LOU (guitar) TOM (bass) .

How would you describe your playing sound to those who still haven’t heard your music? Is it something people are going to be able to compare to Strength For A Reason?

Eric: If you’re a fan of mid 90s hardcore you will enjoy us, it’s a break from all the breakdown bands that seem to be coming out , if you have V.O.D , Mushmouth , Madball on your ipod pick up a cd . If your a fan of Strength for a Reason I’m sure you would enjoy Unite Resist, but to compare us to them I would say no we have a different sound and style of writing.

Tell us something about your debut album. What do you hope people make of it?

Tom: The aspect that I liked about this recording is that we recorded totally analog, and with all live takes, so when a mistake was made we had to re-do the entire song. On a side note it just so happened that when ideas for the artwork on our Universal Warning EP were completed we used pictures from Ireland, Greece, etc. By the time the discs were printed and released, these countries were having protests in the streets over the economics situations and bailouts.

As for what I would like people to make of it, I would hope that something on the record would strike a chord with a listener, whether it be the music or one of the topics in the lyrics. I wouldn’t want to downplay the music because that is a huge part of a band, but I personally would hope that one of some of the lyrics could possibly start a conversation (especially in the states). The U.S. has taken a turn since 9/11. Whether it be the new attitude the country has taken, surveillance of citizens, erosion of civil liberties and our constitution (which the average person in this country seems to want to give away freely). I think these topics are in need of some serious discussion. I feel this can also strike a chord around the world, not only in the states, due to some of the events that we have seen in the past year. Bailouts in Europe and unrest in the middle-east, N. Africa and Eastern Europe. When it comes to the payment of a country’s debt, the people have to realize that they do not owe the debt, monetary practices are the cause of the troubles. The people have a right to be upset.

Eric: I hope people from 15 to 50 enjoy what we are doing on this release, and see how much work we put into it plus its all analog so the sound of the cd is nice and crisp not a lot of bands do analog anymore . We will also be putting out a split CD with the band Troublesome this summer on Marked For Death Records which will be released in Europe. So be on the lookout.

What are you be singing about on the record?

Tom: If you take a song like “Weaponless” the song is saying that people have a voice to speak out or address their grievances or change their world. But possibly someone who is in the lower or middle class may not be able to flex an economic muscle or pull some political “strings” like someone in a higher class would. So that’s why you hear people say, “that’s the way it is. What am I going to do about it? We can’t change it.” If everyone would change that mindset things could change tomorrow. My favorite part of the song is the MLK excerpt which refers to the U.S. staying true to its constitution, which is the solution to the many problems our country is facing currently. And of course there are other weapons that can be used, but the song is saying that non-violently the only weapon we’ve been left with is our voice and it can be powerful. Now would be a time to speak up in America, because you would rather see a problem solved peacefully than to have to resort to violence. But I am 100% behind the people of Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Egypt, Etc. The song “Pain in Change” is a play on the Obama presidential campaign slogan. Although the U.S. voted the man into office and the world seemed to justify him by giving him the Nobel Peace Prize. He never really had desire to change any of the Bush policies, as the people of the U.S. assumed.

Eric: I agree with what Tom said on the songs and also to let people know its not how cool you are b/c of the way you dress or went to a hardcore show. Its about knowing the people around you and knowing yourself that this is the place. Most people go to get away or to hang out with friends. Due to this current emphasis on fashion or text messaging and facebook you may not always see and to hear what some of the bands are saying open your ears people.

Where do your lyrics come from? What are your main inspirations?

Tom: When I first started seeing hardcore bands it was more the atmosphere of the show that I admired. It gave me the feeling that these people were here for a reason and had a very important message to convey to the audience. For some of the bands it was in their message, but for others it was in what they spoke about between songs. To me it always had a positive message,(or that’s what I heard or gravitated towards). Messages about believing in yourself, standing up for one another, and not being afraid to speak out against what grievances were around at the time socially, etc. I know that there are bands that currently have a something to say, and along with them we hope to contribute to more of a message brought back to hardcore. Currently my inspirations are found in the news. Europe is having economic problems in Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Spain. Problems that other countries will soon see. What happened in Egypt with the internet shutdown and use of the military against citizens in Libya could happen in any country. Europe and the U.S. are not an exception.

Eric: I remember when hardcore had a message, and has seemed to have lost some of that message. We are here because we love the music and the people and I really wanted to say a lot to the kids who just wanted to be cool at shows or to go outside and txt and tell people, “hey I’m at a show “. The kids who start bands who want to just say I’m in a hardcore band but really have no message and no heart they just want the look. We come to this place to get away its our high and we must keep the people with open minds in it that stay true to what's real.

PA bands are recognized for their strong, heavy hitting brand of hardcore . How does coming from there shape your attitude to the music and hardcore culture?

Tom: I’m very proud to come from the PA hardcore scene, and the Northeast area in general. I would like to think that with any band the attitude and sound comes from the regions we were raised. The area we are from, which is an older industrial region, we are people of the same socio-economic backgrounds, all working class families. In the 90s our area was fortunate enough to have a stable club that brought in hardcore bands from other areas and allowed local bands to develop their music, Strength for a Reason was one of these bands. Our proximity to New York (2 hr) also helped. These bands that came up in that time period in turn passed that hardcore ethic along. Some people get it and some people don’t. I feel that the area that we come from is similar to the parts of Europe that have the same brands of music, such as the Ruhrpott in Germany ,England, or Poland. Especially Pennsylvania which produced coal, iron, steel and agriculture. I also feel we also get our work ethic from parents and especially our grandparents, who were hard workers, and I feel that this influences our attitudes.

And what do you think of the hardcore scene right now? What are some other bands you’re down with?

Tom, Eric : I think that the scene has a healthy influx of new bands. Some good fests going on in the U.S. like the new Tsunami Fest, This is Hardcore, Long Island Fest, etc. Some great new bands that have come out at the same time as us are: Troublesome , Lifeless ,Ready to Die , Rock Bottom , Born Low and Wrong Answer who we are really into presently. Right now I am liking the band Carrying the Fire from Baltimore, I like the message and I feel all around the band is amazing. Mother of Mercy is also very good. Steel Nation, who we all agree on, is another PA band who we happen to know personally, as well as Strength for a Reason, Cold World, Wisdom in Chains, Not til Death , and Concrete Reality . And these are bands that are more or less from our "area".So yeah I think there is a lot of potential right now to keep it moving in the right direction.The scene is strong the real bands keep it moving along and keep it alive thank god. The venues are sometimes tough to keep, but everyone will usually work together to find a hall, other location, or basement, which we have played over the last weekend. Its great to see people and the bands come together and put shows on no matter if your from one part of town or another, we should all be working together and pushing for each other. We are all the same, we love this thing called hardcore we love the feeling of being at a show together thats what its about, not doing presales for someone or to get the most facebook likes.

How do you rate paper fanzines, and do you think they still have a part to play in the hardcore scene?

Tom:I think that it is great that people communicate and share ideas through paper zines. It has contributed to the attitude and the drive that made hardcore what it is and we have to preserve that tradition. The internet can’t be the only form of communication within the scene. Whenever I’m at a show and see a zine or a paper pamphlet I will take one to read. While answering these questions I was looking at the Thinking Cap fanzine that I picked up at a show in Philadelphia.

What's your impression of the European hardcore scene?

Tom: I love going on trips to Europe, not only for the sights but for the friends I’ve met in several countries. Having been over to Europe a few times I can say that the fans are very appreciative to the bands from the US, and that the clubs and promoters are better organized that those in the U.S.. I appreciate the honesty European fans will give when it comes to opinions on performances or certain songs. I’ve had the opportunity to play with and befriend the guys in No Turning Back, Cheap Thrills, Bleed Into One, New Morality, For The Glory, Nasty, BOLT , Fallbrawl, Black Friday '29 . And others like Look My Way, World Eater, The Ice and I also happen to be fans of all of these bands. And as in the U.S. I see that when bands dissolve or break up the members usually end up staying in the scene and starting new bands, labels, and zines. This year SFAR had the opportunity to play in Katowice Poland this year and the thing I will remember was that Poland dances HARD. It was a show that I will remember, as well as the ice cold vodka shots, which I crave from time to time now that I’m home.

Five books everyone should read?

I’m sorry that I didn’t keep it to five books, but pick any of these five and you should enjoy

1. Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited by Auldous Huxley

( A similar book is 1984 by George Orwell, but I feel that Huxley realizes that the government will use a different form of control (through media and entertainment) rather that just brute force.

2. Inside the third Reich by Albert Speer

( As you should know our band does not condone fascism or national socialism, but stands for the opposite. I feel that everyone should at some point in their lives read a book about how a system like that can be built up around a population when the right circumstances permit. If one realizes how this happens, we would possibly not repeat the same mistake. Other books in this same vein could be The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn or The Coming of the Third Reich by Richard Evans)

3. Media Control : The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda by Noam Chomsky (also, the book that started it all: Propaganda by Edward Bernays or you could watch the documentary about Bernays “The Century of the Self” that can be found on youtube. Byernays was the nephew of Freud and the man who invented propaganda)

4. Slaughter House Five by kurt Vonnegut

(any of his books are a good read, Blackbeard, Cat’s Cradle, etc.)

5. The Brothers Karamozov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

(which gets me into other books like War and Peace by Tolstoy)

Also you can not go wrong with the classics

Art of War by Sun Tzu

The Republic by Plato

The Iliad of The Odyssey by Homer

The Gallic War and othe Writings of Julius Ceasar by Julius Ceasar

The Prince by Machiavelli

The Trial and The Metamorphosis By Franz Kafka

The Grapes of Wrath By John Steinbeck

Three mistakes everyone should do before they die?

Eric: I have no clue im only 27 find me when im 60 if im still alive and ask me .

What are some future plans for the band? What should we expect from Unite.Resist in the 2011?

Eric : we are writing for our Europe release as of right now, taking it easy on shows it should be out this July on Marked For Death Records .we all have a lot more time in the summer's soon as we are done recording that we will be playing out as much as we can .

Any last words ?

Eric : Thanks to all who support us we are thankful for how far we have come in just a few months and we plan to keep moving with our message as far as we can go .

Harm's Way to release new album at Closed Casket Activities

The time has finally come for a new LP from our own Harms’S Way. Just over 1 year from the 7″ release of the “No Gods No Masters” EP Closed Casket Activities will be bringing you the new full length entitled “Isolation”. This record is 8 new tracks that truly shows their progression into their own style of metal influenced hardcore. Recording has been finished at Brick Top Recordings in Illinois by Andy Nelson (Weekend Nachos) and original illustrations for the project has been handled by Jon Macnair to bring the audio and visual aspects of the recording to life.

In anticipation of the announced Harms’S Way – Isolation LP we will have a 7″ single for the song “Breeding Grounds”. This will be a tour exclusive on the upcoming East coast run with Expire and Venia and limited to 300 copies. The track will be available for a free download shortly at Closed Casket Activities but for now can be streamed here.

Summer Of Hate 2011 - final line-up revealed!

From the Hard-Ass Records blog: After working on the show pretty much since the day after the last year's SOH ended we are happy to announce the FINAL LINE UP for SUMMER OF HAVE V as well as tickets for the show. Detroit hardcore legends COLD AS LIFE and Connecticut's PALEHORSE will complete the lineup. We are truly excited to have CAL & Palehorse play this year. CAL is a band that we have loved since we were teenagers and seeing them at Summer of Hate will truly be the best environment to see them that we could imagine (other than back in the day in Detroit, of course!). CAL will be filming the set for an upcoming DVD about the band's history and this will be the only show they are playing all summer. More info here!

Tried and True - Fight Song

The new issue of Just Say Yo! zine is out

Just Say Yo! #4 is finally out! This time it's 60 pages, full size, in English with an artwork by Matt Gauck. Inside you can find interviews with Vinnie Caruana (The Movielife, I Am The Avalanche), On, Bridge And Tunnel, Bökanövsky, The Saddest Landscape, Austin Lucas and Hate5six. Also, the ultimate Leatherface mixtape (by Alex Fox), columns, reviews (records, zines...) and other shit. Available for 2 EUR (or 3 USD) + shipping and you can place your order here.