Review: Climate Of Fear - Holy Terror

Debut album from UK's Climate Of Fear. The name of the band sounds familiar and to be honest I was hoping this one to be along the vibe of early Bitter End albums. Can you blame me? Turns out that was misleading cause the band's focus is more on heavier mid-tempo stuff than pure aggressive and reckless hardcore goodness. The two opening tracks are whatever but it gets better in the second half of this short album. Holy Terror is solid as hell, while Entombed sounds fucking great and is a definite stand out. The dramatic intensity of this latter track goes from menacing mid-tempo vibe to slick faster part and this combination is musical equivalent of timebomb.

You can hear they were aiming high when it comes to technicality and complexity in the music, doing what they could with the skills they have to make these tracks engaging and complex. This leads me to question some of their stylistic choices. There are just too many slower parts and 99% of them don't do nothing for me. I could have done without all those basic ass breakdowns they felt they need to do every 30 seconds of each track. That way otherwise brilliant songs, like already mentioned Entombed, don't flow like they should. I guess it's their weird way to show they can play but no one ever asked for that shit.

The production is crisp and clean, it's not bad but I miss the dirt and grime and reverb. Hardcore does not need to be overly produced.

All in all, despite me bitching about some stuff, it's still a solid record. Next time they just need to drop their ego and get rid of that metal wankery and stick to that more straight forward stuff.

Demons Run Amok

New Blood: Combust!

Who runs NYC?

Make sure you check out Demo 7" out on Straight & Alert!

All answers by Andrew

Congrats on the upcoming 7” ep. But before we get to that, tell me more about Combust. How it all began? How long has the band been around?
Thank you man! Combust began because I (Andrew) and the drummer Dave just always had this desire to play in a straight up NYHC band. Something that was in the vain of our favorite bands we grew up on. The band has been around since the beginning of August just about.

When starting the band, did you had any idea how you wanted it to sound or what type of lyrics to write, or did it just came naturally?
Yea, like I said before I literally came to our drummer Dave with the exact idea of just wanting to be a straight up New York hardcore band. This has been an idea in my brain for years but I’ve always been in different bands so I’m glad it finally came to life. I’m really proud of the demo and the way it sounds. As for the lyrics, that’s just something that comes more naturally I guess.

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Video: Negative Self - Underneath The Wave

I got pirate mp3s of their older songs and they were all pro so I'm not surprised I dig this track here. To say this band sounds familiar would be huge understatement. It doesn't take mad brain skills to figure out where they take their style from. This track is Venice Beach at its prime! Grab that shit before Suicidal's lawyers get on it for style theft. The VHS styled video looks good and fits the music. Good stuff!

Looking forward to new record on BDHW Recs.

2017: Best of the worst

WORLD PEACE CAN'T BE DONE

No doubt 2017 was a turmoil on a global scale. People went mental with politics and religion and just having a twisted outlook on how the world should look like. I’ve always been cool with different views than mine even if I don't agree with them, but it seems most people are going bat-shit crazy right now. Right wing, left wing, whatever. They just lost it. Total nuts. The common sense and reason is in retreat. And because the rich get richer and the rest of us stay poor, the problems will only increase and for sure more dumb shit is to come. With all that tension building up there's bound to be release and I know where it's all heading. Conflict is what I predict. World war III. Thinking about all the drama in Middle East, Russia war on Ukraine, terrorism, fucked up politics in Europe and US and Asia - shit is falling apart at high speed. My advice to you, stock up on some serious amounts of canned food and big ass guns and wait for shit to hit the fan. It's only matter of time. Trust me, I'm from eastern Europe so I should know. And like always we'll be the ones to get the ass whooping. Big time.

So yeah, thinking about world peace is giving me headaches, but don’t even get me started on the personal stuff. I've been busy with a lot of shit and all that kept me from updating this blog as often as I could. Hopefully 2019 will be better in that regard. Who the fuck knows?

Freedom of my life, why make it a mess?
Give me a job, I've got to survive
Discriminate me, why can't you help?
Everybody thinks I'm a scum

On the positive note, the more fucked up the world gets, the harder hardcore gets. It’s been always like that. So enough of getting soft, here's the best hardcore of 2017. (I know it's already February but fuck being on time).

TOP FIVE:

Freedom - Never Had A Choice
I got no time to overthink stuff so I need my hardcore to be swift and straightforward, no bullshitting. Life is complicated so hardcore shouldn't. I also love it when bands sound like they're here on purpose and don't take shit from no one. That's why this stuff right here is the best record that came out last year, and possible one of the best in recent years. This is 100% hardcore based on the same mentality that made Breakdown, Negative Approach or 4 Skins. Life in Detroit is not a joke and that record perfectly reflects that.

Unified Right - If I Can't Listen to UNIFIED RIGHT in Heaven Then Send Me Straight to Hell
Fuck yeah, this year was a year of straight up hardcore and this is another record that will go down in history as the finest example of how this shit was meant to be. The founding fathers of hardcore didn't care about nuisance, and nor Unified Right do. This is raw and aggressive but with the right amount of groove and even short periods of melody. In a times when many records are either overproduced or sound like total shit, this one strikes a good balance between grit and being listenable.

Clearview - Absolute Madness
My boys from Brazil dropped this gem at the middle of the year and though I knew it's gonna be good, I didn't expect that level of good. The lyrics, the music, the vibe are all that I want in hardore and more. If you don’t like this record I don’t even want to talk to you.

Templars - Deus Vult
I am not the biggest Templars fan but I dig couple of older tracks from various past records and was curious when I heard they're making a come back. Turned out this is one of the highlights of last year. Battle scarred oi! sound with classic skinhead rock leanings that's rough where it needs to and melodic when it's time for it. Favorite tracks: Take A Stand, Middle Road and Forgotten Souls. Classic shit. I love oi! and this is supposed to be one of the best that US ever had to offer so I might give their past material more spins to find out what I'm missing out.

Crowd Deterrent - Welcome To Youngstown - ep
Too bad this material is is only available in digital form so far, I would definitely cop a cd or vinyl. What can I say, Crowd Deterrent do what they do best. The band has a basic premise and they execute it to perfection: antisocial hardcore that gives no fucks. This was one of the rawest and grittiest records of last year. Call me immature but this band has the best lyrics in hardcore since Demonstrating My Style.


a place called nowhere's where we live our lives,
a total legacy of violence and crime ,
its the environment that molded our minds,
until im cold in the ground welcome to youngstown

Other records that don’t suck:
Cock Sparrer - Forever
No Warning - Torture Culture
Firm Standing Law - Unashamed
Forced Order - One Last Prayer
St Hood - He Age Of Unreason
Terror - The Walls Will Fall
Queensway - Swift Minds Of The Darkside
Life After Death - Friends Fade, Enemies Stay

So yeah, good year for hardcore and bad for anything else.

Review: Rage - Feel The Burn

Another dope record from Straight & Alert recs. Rage hails from Australia and their sound brings to mind the rawness of SSD, old Agnostic Front or No Tolerance but they also worship recent UKHC like Violent Reaction or The Flex. I won’t stand here and pretend I am the biggest fan of new wave of British hardcore but I’ve seen Flex live and shit was epic. These dudes are juggernaut in this game, the set was just them grinding everyone in a room to dust.

But back to Rage and this ep. I knew S&A always delivers quality so I was down from the get go and after few spins it didn’t disappoint this time as well. Feel The Burn is 5 tracks each deserving respect for the intensity of aggression it delivers, hitting hard with musical swiftness and the meanest vocals. That band takes it back to the basics so expect no silly shit, this is straight up in your face hardcore. If this crazy ass dude from Wolf Creek started a band that would sound something like this. The tracks to the end of the record are the hardest. Constant Static sounds fucking epic, they same goes for No Hope. These two tracks alone make me feel like I've already gotten more than my money's worth. Grab this now and get stomping.

Straight & Alert, 2017

Demo daze: Combat Shock - Sacrifice

Russia hardcore still lives! On their facebook I see the band wearing Leeway and OLC t-shirts so I knew this is going to be legit. Old school crossover ffo Foreseen, Power Play, Leeway and so on. There are 4 tracks in here and all of them are pretty damned incredible with all the necessary components from tight riffing to solid section. This is cool ass demo that makes me want to dig deeper into what's going on in Russian hardcore nowadays.

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In the gutter groove

My man Frédéric is still sitting on some copies of 2nd issue of Gutter Groove fanzine. The list of bands interviewed is fat like a pizza with double cheese crust and includes All Out War, Weekend Nachos, Foreseen, Malice At The Palace, Lodges, True Colors and Integrity. Get yours here.

Review: Slope - Losin' Grip

Slope is a new hardcore band outta Germany and this is their new album on BDHW which does not sound like what you would expect from this label. No breakdows, no snapbacks, no tough guy posturing. It’s more on that hardcore meets alternative rock vibe that’s been so hyped since Turnstile did it. Can’t say I’m much of a fan, but neither a hater. It’s just not my shit. Any day I pick the worst Madball song over best Turnstile track and it’s still a win. To each his own.

Looking at the front cover and seeing the video they did for Goodbye Mr. Dand everything was off to bad start. The band seems to be comfortable in the corners of the mind I don’t like to go. Meaning really abstract shit. I like when hardcore sounds like it could be a soundtrack to Rocky or Die Hard, but Losin Grip feels more like a backdrop to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The song names are all weird and I got no idea what they try to convey with titles like Goodbye Mr. Dandy. Some of this stuff seem unconvincing and if hardcore doesn’t sound sincere then I have problems having that emotional connection with it. At first I was forcing myself to go through some of the tracks because of that. I just felt at the back of my head something ain't right.

I am aware this review is going into negative direction but in reality it’s just me bitching. There are moments that I enjoyed. Musically, they do keep it sharp and there’s fair amount of fine riffing and tight groove to keep my head nodding. Like I said, fans of Turnstile should check it out, but also if you like Leeway, Burn and generally more creative NYHC sound I recommend giving it a listen.

Overall I think these dudes know they craft and I suppose there will be plenty people into this album. No need to put them down since there are tons of bands that are seriously whack, like Wolf Down and all their spin-offs. Slope are only guilty of being on a vibe different than mine but they seem like good dudes. Just with awful taste in clothes and there’s too much abstract shit going on in their heads. If they get their shit together and listen to right amount of Sheer Terror I am convinced their next record will be a killer. This one is still decent though.

BDHW 2017

Audio: American War Machine - Prey Drive

If you easily fall for 'members of' gimmick let me tell you this band has dudes from Slapshot, Agnostic Front, Blood For Blood, Intent To Injure and Bricktop. It's just one song shared so far but man, this shit is tight! You can't teach that stuff. Nothing fancy here but time-tested combo of stomping beat, mean vocals and great chorus. Shit sounds raw and dangerous.

EP should be out on Bridge9 soon.

Video: Soulground - Faces Of Death

I've watched this video twice already and can't help thinking how cheesy and cheap it looks. Was forcing myself, yes forcing myself, to go through that crap in full and the only thing that kept me around was the music. The track is not bad at all, heavy hardcore that sits somewhere between recent European metallic core and Clevo sound. It features guest vocals from Jess of Swoon and it's probably the best recorded performance of her, she's way more menacing here than with her main band.

If you like it, pre-orders are up at Farewell Recs along with new Method Of Proof.

Audio: War Master - Denial Of Life

War Master is death metal influenced hardcore from UK, think something between Bolt Thrower and Merauder. Heavy on riffs and slow to mid tempo groove. An album that you should definitely tune into just for the the amount of aggression displayed here.



More HERE.

Review: Incendiary - Thousand Mile Stare

Incendiary’s rose to fame was with their previous full length Cost Of Living which as you know I heavily backed. Even if hardcore fame doesn’t mean much in real life, they still deserve it cause it was beast of a record. And it’s coming from a person who don’t get that whole 90’ new school nostalgia happening now. Truth is, many bands are jumping on the bandwagon and most of them suck. Not the case here, Thousand Mile Stare sounds like these dudes been on heavy steroids doses when writing this shit.

Cost Of Living was solid, but Thousand Mile Stare is a marked step up. Everything that was good about that old record is even better here. If you remember bands like Indecision, Earthmover or Earth Crisis this album sounds comfortably familiar, but it’s not like they act like last 20 years in hardcore didn’t happen. You can sense they put much thought into shaping these tracks as they use tons of different elements. The band turns in a quality performance with heavy ass chugging riffs and massive stomp parts with maximum effectiveness. When it hits right it’s powerful and ferocious, but there are moments that feel overlong or too complicated. I’m too basic for some of that but I guess it’s what 90’ new school is about.

A separate salute should go to the vocals, not only because of his on point delivery, but also things being said on the record. Maybe not the strongest voice in hardcore, but he’s putting 100% into it. That I respect. And the lyrics are highlight here. The older I get, the more I appreciate stuff that makes me aware about shady shit going on in this world. Fuck apathy, you gotta keep your mind sharp! The political edge in hardcore in recent years has been either absent or reduced to some butt hurt drama over what Gorilla Biscuits said. Or joke bands like Wolf X Down. Incendiary brings more common sense with their politics and it feels the lyrics are based on actual research not tumblr. Whether dealing with topics like how profits rules everything and our lives reduced being to numbers, the lyrics always express devotion to being aware of the forces that be. The key message is that things are looking bad for this generation and it’s going to be even worse for our children. I’ve been telling the same for a long time and it’s good to know other people are feeling the same about where we’re heading. Too bad today’s youth is too stupid to figure this out. Maybe if they weren’t so busy filling pockets of the same people who shipped their very jobs to little kids in Asia, like Steve Jobs. I know he's dead but fuck him and fuck them too. There’s no hope for humanity.

Closed Casket Activities, 2017

New hardcore: Hardside - Sink With Me

Another dope track by Hardside. This is 2 minutes of aggressive and raw hardcore bound together by the meanest vocals, but as usual they top it off with some clean singing that somehow works for this band. No doubt dude got a gift for harmonizing.

Good to see this band growing with each record. I remember I did check their Welcome To Hell ep when it came out and really liked it. You can hear they listen to right amount of Merauder, 100 Demons and all that metallic hardcore classics but keep to their own vibe. It took me a little bit to get used to the way they use clean vocals in their songs but once I did I was all in. This is what would go on to become their trademark sound after all. You’d better get on this!

New Blood: Fuse

Fuse is a killer all-female hardcore from Singapure whose recent demo was a massive display of force and strength. This band definitely deserves attention.

There are 2 aspects that people first notice when they learn of Fuse. First, it’s all female band. Second, you’re from Singapur. Let’s start with the first one, was it an idea from the start to have only girls in the band?
At first, yes, we only wanted girls in the band. This is because we feel that they aren't many females who are given the chance to be included in something that they love. Some females can't seem to find a place where they can have an outlet to showcase their talent and express themselves. But we then realised, we wanted to expand not only to females but those males who were outcasted in some way. So, we kept our options very open. The vocalist went around to find a second guitarist that was male who was interested in joining the band as the rest were all already girls. However, we found our current guitarist now, that happens to be a female and is one of the best guitarist we can find!

Do you get any funny reactions because of that? Does the local scene show proper support?
Funny reactions? Not really. We aren't the first female band in Singapore after all. Before us, especially the pioneers, have already established some form of female empowerment in the music scene. The Singapore scene has showed us more love than we ever expected! And we are eternally grateful for our friends who helped us a lot in the preparation of shaping Fuse. Not all of us have much experience in music and thus took us quite a long time to actually decide that we were ready to record. With many supportive friends who advice us on tone, what kind of gears to get, giving us their opinions etc, has helped us a lot.

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Naysayer - Nation Of Greed

Solid hardcore is of plenty nowadays but only few of the newer bands are able to resonate with my inner self to the point of provoking deeper feelings and thoughts. Be it the fury of Manipulate, social skills of Crowd Deterrent or world commentary of Bitter End, I am always down for taking the path of self awareness through slick riff, loud drums and antisocial tendencies. Naysayer fall into that category and since the demo they've been known to deliver heavy hitters with grit and dirt levels of epic proportions. That landed them a deal with Reaper for the debut ep. Any random band from the street can't just walk up to that label's CEO and have their shit released. One LP and two EPs deeper into their career and they haven't been dropped yet, which shows how steady they are with quality of their output.

Not that much changed with how they go about their craft. This new ep Nation Of Greed is little more metallic than Laid To Rest but still hits with a familiar crunch. It’s 7 tracks in about 12 minutes, and no moment is wasted. There are lot of creeping mid to slow tempo parts, driven by slick, thrash guitar work and just nasty groove. I sense something seriously sinister about the tracks like Can You Feel it? or Face The Fantasy that gives me goosebumps. Lyrically it’s pessimistic as it deals with lower depths of society and what it takes to stand your ground in face of all the madness around. The delivery is straight in your face though. If you’re looking for abstract poetry and souls searching this ain’t one.

Summary: both the music and the message and the mindset behind the band makes me believe we have the same outlook on hardcore and live in general. This is something I respect and look for in other people. This ep got my sincere recommendation.

FFO: Timberlands, army pants, black hoodies...

Ad of the Day

Review: Crowd Deterrent - Show Of Supreme Force

Being a hardcore kid is like being a junkie in many ways. You get hooked up first time you hear Set It Off, Crime Ridden Society or Brightside and the rest of your life you just chase the same feeling. And sometimes you succeed. Crowd Deterrent for last couple of years has been the bomb and this lp combines their various shit since Show of Supreme Force ep came out in 2012. I didn’t need to sell my TV to get this record yet but I would if I had to. Somehow they do it better than anyone out there.

For those who don’t know, CR sound is Agnostic Front meets One Life Crew meets Blitz meets Sheer Terror and just every hardcore band in history that cultivated values such as hatred for fellow man and not-to-be-fucked-with attitude. And they put their own stamp on it with obnoxious antisocial vibe and gang mentality. Combined with technical skills that keeps their delivery sharp and effective you know we’re talking serious shit here. And the vocals are of beast kind, on tracks like Worldwie or Outcast Mentality he proves he has some serious vocal chops. The dude has been blessed with a perfect voice for this shit.

Show of Supreme Force ep are hands down the best of the batch. These tracks are fat to death, I don’t even have a favorite one, front to back this is top notch. This record is already in my top ten for the last decade. The title track is aggressive and raw, hitting you hard with tight groove and sharp riffs all bound together by the meanest vocals. "Life's on the line for you/ no matter what I do/ always stay down for the crew". Hard as nails! As for the Certain Death, I got no problem putting it next to Murdario Stomp easily. The Hated Ones tracks are solid as well, just see me wilding out in my living room to these tunes. The lyrics are the same, most of all a salute to sticking to your guns in world gone to shit. "I can’t handle all this stress / I’m a paranoid mess/ There’s no life left in these eyes/ Seeking shelter but there’s none to bo found /The only peace I’ll find when I’m six feet underground"

This lp gets my highest recommendation.

New music: Forced Order

New track from Forced Order camp taken from the upcoming full length One Last Prayer. Shit sounds powerful like it's 1995 again. The band’s apocalyptic aesthetic has seen it compared to Clevo sound, but I also thought of early Kickback and the way they manage to blend grim with severe aggression. The band turns in solid performance which gets me pumped for the whole thing to drop later this year via Triple B records.

Harness - Carve The New Path

This stuff has been out for a while but for those who still don't know: 5 years after they made their debut with Victims of Suffering ep, Harness has posted two new tracks: Neophyte is a grimy metallic hardcore with a massive stomp part towards the end, while Meditations takes the same route but throws slower, sludgy bent to the game. I put this on the list of shit to write about when it was originally posted to their bandcamp in May but didn't do it until now.

Check it out if you haven't already. If you have, check it again.

Classic Footage: Integrity - Chicago '96

Big ups to Preserving Silence for uploading this.

Demo Daze: Fuse - Demo 2017

Fuse are 5 ladies outta Singapur and they're killing the classic hc/punk sound on this demo. Each tracks delivers the right combination of stomp, power and anger. Take my word for it, if they continue to deliver that good stuff we'll be hearing a lot about this band in the future.

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Video: Clearview - Dirty Streets

Whether thug life is your thing or you want to harden up through listening to hardcore this is the shit right here. This track is from band's new album and deals with harsh realities of Sao Paulo. From start to finish this just both musically and vocally dominates. This is about as high in the quality department as hardcore has gotten in 2017.

Interview: Society Sucker

"hardcore is a very powerful cultural force in the underground

When we stop worrying about social and political matters we are actively working against what hardcore itself is supposed to be. "

Can you give Society Sucker some introduction. Where you from, how long you’ve been around?
Society Sucker is a hardcore band based in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Wilmington, North Carolina. We wrote and recorded a shitty demo in a week in 2013 and have been at it in one form or the other since then.

Promo ‘17 sounds sick. Tell us something about these new songs. Is there a new album coming and do you have any other new tracks ready?
Thank you so much for saying that! And yeah these two songs are part of a larger grouping of songs that we plan to put on an LP later this year. We have about 3 more songs finished more or less and a handful more in the process of coming together as I write this. We don't have any real plans yet with the actual physical release but its a little too early to worry about that stuff right now. We wanted to get the promo out to let people we are still alive and writing and show them the direction that we are going in for the LP since we feel it is our strongest material to date.

How is average Society Sucker track put down?
We have a pretty cool set up at our guitarist Chris's house where we are able to jam pretty much anytime and record it, so we riff around a lot and work off of ideas until we come up with something that sticks. The whole process is pretty organic, we try and get everyone's input and write stuff that we want to listen to or beat someone's ass to, whichever works.



People compare your band to Merauder, Leeway.... How would you describe your sound to people who are just getting familiar with you?
We started out wanting to be groovy and heavy, mixing elements of NYHC with thrash metal and crossover, but we kept kind of evolving between our demo to our first 7" to our split with Will to Die to now. The influences are still there but our approach to writing the type of hardcore that interests us has changed. I would say we are a heavy hardcore band at our core without a doubt, but we aren't trying to replicate anyone else's sound or be a "X-type of band" or whatever. We definitely take influence from Merauder, Leeway, Crown of Thornz, Stigmata and its obvious, but we also take just as much from bands like Alice in Chains, Guns N' Roses, all sorts of other shit so it's hard to pin down where exactly we are at any given moment. We are hardcore dudes playing the type of hardcore that we want to hear.

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Review: Bent Life - Never Asked For Heaven

I saw this band live and the music was so good I knew I had to get this record. The show itself was odd cause the singer didn’t say a word between the tracks, which is not a hardcore standard, but not everyone is Scott Vogel and the music was dope. Special kudos to the guitar man, this dude is crazy and his work carries a lot of weight here. If they make any money on this record he should get the biggest cut. The band goes of their way to fill every track with both force and groove to make sure today’s hardcore audience is satisfied. If you follow what’s hip in hardcore right now I am sure you’ll find a lot of this stuff here. I mean nothing bad, just saying this has all the right ingredients. On top of it, the singer voice is really rough and he spits every word in full fuck-it-all mode. On the downside, I don’t like the way this is produced. They really went for a heavy sound but in the end a lot of details get lost. Overall, this package is complete: ridiculous songs, forceful vocals and murderous hatred for the whole world.

Bridge 9, 2016

Video: Slope - Goodbye Mr. Dandy

This fucking dress code. I know copying other dudes style is part of hardcore and we’re all guilty of this, but some trends are better than other. I dig good Madball copycat as the next man but I can’t understand why dudes in 2017 try to look like Kurt Cobain and The Stone Roses. Why I talk fashion not the music? Because hardcore is more than music. But getting down to this, the video is both simultaneously decent and shitty. It looks goofy as fuck, but visuals aside the music is not as bad as the singer’s shirt would try to make you believe. This is totally different to what BDHW usually puts on the market. The crew were obviously gunning for the Turnstile crowd with this one but despite the bad intentions there are some hints of decency.

Ad Of The Day

Review: Absolve / Heavy Runner / Power Play - split

This ep has covers of E-Town Concrete, Hatebreed and Death Threat. That should speak to the vibe of the thing.

Absolve is the fastest and their opening track Nothing’s Right is swift and lethal, one of the best I’ve heard in recent times. The vocals are high end, they aggression in the way this dude spits out the verses is amazing. Not many bands cover Death Threat so props to them for this choice, especially when it’s one of my favorite DT tracks and it’s done so well.

The music offered by Heavy Runner is pure ‘90s era beatdown sound. I think bands from this side of Europe don’t get their props when it comes to the dope music they make. Runner is grimy, raw and violent, but nothing feels forced. Everything from the lyrics to the music feels like it could be snatched from any Next Step Up or Stout album.

The same can be said about Power Play. Echo is a beast packed with meaty groove and don’t-fuck-with-me attitude. A lot of newer bands try way too hard to bring back that feel of early Hatebreed or 100 Demons albums, but this band does it perfectly. Their sound has even improved since previous eps. The Hatebreed cover is a rugged , drum heavy, hard-hitting monster. The flat out skill apparent in both tracks make them a name to reckon with.

These 3 bands kill each and every track showing how perfect meeting of the minds this ep is. Each of them display a style that is raw and in your face and miles away from polished and watered down hardcore of today. This is the opposite of everything HCWW channel stands for.

Ratel, 2017

New King Of Clubz

If a band has its previous records released by labels like Filled With Hate or On The Attack you can guess with high confidence what type of sound they’re up to. King Of Clubz is take-no-shit, raw and heavy hadcore that brings to mind the good old days of early Biohazard and Hatebreed (before both became joke of a band). I got their debut MCD called The Day You Die and even though I haven’t listened to it for a while, I remember it was solid. Raw and forceful, but honest. This shit is from 2003, go figure. Three years later and the band releases split with Whatever It Takes which to me is the highlight. Everything fits just right, from the artwork to the music. WIT has some crazy titled tracks on this one, like Teddybear Bastard or Champagne Whores. Work of genius. KOC has songs with titles like Betrayed, Suffering Begins or Inked In Blood, scary shit. On top of that, there’s a Madball cover. Don’t ask me about the albums that followed cause I lost touch until King Of Clubz / Providence split which was a banger. But from what I heard The End and Outlast were decent so I might catch up with this stuff.

To my surprise the band is still active and they will be releasing “Vile Times” via Knives Out Records (France). You can trust this label to make this stuff worth any price as they did a marvelous job with Grimlock and Crawlspace re-releases. Listening to the new tracks made me feel like I woke up in late-90’/early-00’ again. Band’s aggression and directness are on display here in 10 tight tracks encompassing love and hate, brotherhood and revenge, integrity and determination. KOC still don’t play with finesse and get on with this shit like they’re young again. Most of the tracks go from mid-tempo to faster, but not too fast tempos carried by tight musicianship and rough, forceful vocals. Pretty decent comeback.

More info here.

Clearview: Absolute Madness promo

Their previous stuff was mad dope but these new tracks really stepped it up. I had these two on constant repeat all day today and am still not tired of it. That album title is not misleading. Fans of Risk It, Terror or Manipulate should take notice.

Video: Reserving Dirtnaps - Reserving Dirtnaps

There's a strenght in simplicity and hardcore clips made of chopped up live footage never get boring. Good one from Reserving Dirtnaps, Memphis hardcore!

Is that new Cold As Life any good?

Cold As Life keeps on coming back together every now and then but this time beside touring there's new music to be expected. When you got a band with that huge rep and history it's hard to live up to the past. No wonder there are lots of different opinions on whether this Cold As Life is legit or not. Especially when there's just one dude (drummer Roy Bates) that connects to the times when the band got is start. The rest of the line up are new dudes or guys who joined the ranks when they started touring again some time ago. You can suspect some money grab scheme but who am I to tell? First, is there any serious money to be made here? Part of me doubts that, but I also know there will be many dudes in Germany or Belgium ready to buy merch and shit in large quantities. Secondly, who am I to interfere in internal Detroit power struggles? So politics aside, let the music speak for itself. Is this new incarnation of Cold As Life even worth checking out on the stremph of the new songs?



Suffer - musically it lacks that dirt and filth that made their old albums so menacing but compared to majority of current hardcore it delivers. The lyrics are deep and brutal dealing with a loss of a close one to addiction. People changed but Cold can still provide that eerie grime storytelling few other bands could relay. Jesse's vocals are made to sound very much like Jeff Gunnells which is probably the smartest thing to do. I had very low expectations going in but Suffer is a menacing cut that still holds its CTYC roots.



For The Few - solid tune but doesn't carry that much force as Suffer. This is basically a salute to your homeboys holding it down for you which doesn't necessary mean a bad thing in hardcore but it's not what I would expect from this band. On the music front nothing above average. Though I’d wanted new Cold As Life to be like the old Cold As Life I know that is not possible.

So it's 50/50 chances this new ep is not gonna suck.


Days of old

On the rise: Day By Day

Day By Day is a band from Florida that I had not clue about until I got the news Ratel Recs will be releasing their new 7" - 'From Now On'. I am glad they do cause this band rules. The music is good. The vocals are menacing. The artwork looks weird. You can hear they put a lot of thought into their sound making it hard to pin down to a specific style of hardcore. It's in your face aggressive but also very much on a dark and negative vibe. When hardcore deals with usual everyday drama and mix it with some grimy psychological shit I'm all for it. Nothing wrong with squeezing few minutes of thinking about death and mortality into your daily grind. I will definitely get my dirty hands on that ep.

Interview: Altered Beast

Give us some info about Altered Beast?
We all live in Kansas City, Missouri. We started the band in early 2014. Been chugging away since then. Aren't really built for touring because me and the drummer have a lot of kids and life going on. Haha. We are open to some ideas though if people reach out. We definitely aren't going to turn anything cool down.

How did the band come about?
Max and Dakota (guitarists) approached me about doing vocals. They had a song (Come Clean) off the demo written and threw it my direction. I scammed our drummer Dan because he and I had been working on some other ideas. We started writing songs and scooped Steve up on bass. The cool thing is none of us had any other projects at the time. It is a good energy when everyone is hungry and focused on one project. Since then things have changed. Most the other guys have other things going on. We aren't writing as many songs as I want, but I'm not stressing.

Just recently you dropped new self-titled ep. What was your main goal when writing these new tracks?
We had been playing these tracks live for a while. We instantly kept writing after we dropped the demo tape. The songs were pretty mature by the time we hit the studio the second time for this ep. We still kept it bare bones as far as production. The one thing we did consistent was record in the same studio. It is a super nice modern studio with great equipment and rooms. War of Ages, and Norma Jean had both recorded there. The goal was to keep it natural and raw sounding. No bullshit effects that made us sound like some studio monster. I wanted that live sound. We record the songs live and punch in the fixes for any mistakes we made. I save the vocals tracks for the end, and usually try to nail them with a single take. I don't like reverb or any overdubbing on my vocals.



Who is going to release it on a physical format?
We actually have it pressed on 7 inch now with our friend Sam from Blak Skul Records now out of KC. He lives next to Max and has been super cool putting it out. We have gotten some good responses out of it. Even Maximum Rock N Roll gave us a cool review. I was pretty nervous when Sam submitted it to them. Normally they chew bands like us and spit them out. Haha. We pressed 400 on black, and around 100 on red.

How did you get involved in hardcore?
I got involved in hardcore by just listening to the music. I lived in a very small town and there were some older friends that were part of the early 80's movement that taught me the ways. I didn't understand the subgenres until I started getting older. You gotta understand that I am about to be 41 years old. I began listening to independent music at a really young age. I was exposed to DRI and Slayer when I was in 6th grade. So that was around 1985/1986. I got directly involved by playing in a local band after high school and opening up a lot of the local shows. I was always going to shows though. I was addicted to dancing and having fun. I didn't care if I was solo or going with a group of friends. After all those years I just kept getting more and more involved from running sound at a local venue, to putting on random shows of my own in the city.

What did you find inspiring about that movement?
The first time I understood what the difference between hardcore and other music was when I began to get deep into NYHC worship. I was so intrigued with who was related to who, and what bands they all had before. I had known about most of the bands through the years, but like I said, I didn't understand that Agnostic Front, Slapshot, Murphys Law, etc were part of a sub genre call hardcore. The most inspiring thing that drew me in was hearing AF Last Warning and hearing the in between talking that Roger did. He was talking about unity and caring about social causes that were affecting them in NYHC. That whole positive banter and vibe showed me the reality of their style. After that I picked up on 25 Ta Life and Rick's lyrics were super positive on Strength Through Unity. At that time I was sold on the idea of Unity and Togetherness. That is what initially attracted me to hardcore. How you could sound so tough, and the pits be so wild, and have such a caring and inclusive message.

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Demo Daze: Dead Heat, Territory, Badwill

Territory - Blackhole Blues Demo

Tucson, Arizona heavyweights back with 3 new tracks that scream 90' metalcore. If that style is your shit you need to give it a try. Sheer Terror cover is a bonus.

DOWNLOAD / BANDCAMP



Badwill - Мы Те, Кто Мы Есть

This one is from the other side of iron curtain. Tough as nails music with heavy grooves and vocals that don't fuck around. Only one track is sung in English, the rest is in Russian.

DOWNLOAD / BANDCAMP



Dead Heat - Access Denied/ S​.​E​.​E​.​D.

2 tracks of musical punishment filled with classic uncut raw that brings to mind likes of Merauder or Leeway. Metallic hardcore hasn't sounded so good in a while.

BANDCAMP

Review: Schizma - O Nas

Schizma are local legends in their native Poland but among international hardcore community their status is not so solid. It’s a shame cause they released some of the finest hardcore music I’ve heard in my life. I pity people not familiar with their magnum force opus Unity 2000, a beast of a record from, you guess, year 2000. That album is one of my top ever, but I’m also never far away from a copy of Pod Naciskiem, their previous output where they really nailed their NYHC-infused sound. It’s crazy to think those albums came out over 15 years ago. Many consider that to be the best era of the band. The records the band put out in 2000s appeared to be a series of close misses or shots that veered way off target. Nothing embarrassing, but nothing great neither. In recent years they switched their formula and instead of full length album every couple of years they started putting out shorter four track eps. This format works for them and the band may really be getting some of their mojo back.

O Nas is a top quality hardore. There are 4 tracks and everything about them just clicks. The ep flows well from start to finish. The band plays tought ass hadcore with a crossover/thrash vibe but they try to put their stamp on it so it’s not just a mixtape of different influences. Some of the riffs sound like they could be lifted from Chaos AD, while some tracks are straight up hardcore. The music do not get stale and it’s amazing how many creative ways they came up with to make this stuff above average without losing aggression and focus. Not a moment of this feels too long or repetitive. On top of it all, fertile vocals deliver the message of strength and resilience without sounding pretentious. If you don’t mind this being sung in Polish give it a try.

Spook Recods, 2017

Video: Crowd Deterrent - Hated Ones

Hated Ones - the true outcasts of the hardcore scene
Hated Ones - always on our own and that's just fine with me

New Blood: La Guadana

Give us some background about the band? Who are the members, when was it formed and where your're based?
Basically La Guadaña is only 3 old friends who had the idea for so long to play together and record something before our guitar player moved to Israel for a few months.

The members are Samuel, the drumer , Ofer ( guitar ) and myself, Josue ( voice, bass and some guitars) We all live in a small town near Barcelona called El Masnou.

Samuel and me have played together for almost 20 years in the band Anal Hard, Samuel plays aswell in a punk rock band called Guspira and I have a rock band Called Destierro. Ofer also has a Stoner rock band called Grass and played many years in the hardcore band Fresh Thrash.

What have you released so far?
So far all we have is the demo cassette with 6 tracks on it, released on backside records a while ago.

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Review: Enemy Mind - No Safe Space

Enemy Mind is a name that ring bells in beatdown circles. The band released their self-titled debut in 2009, followed the same year by split with Line Of Scrimmage, but has been mostly silent since. So this new album can come as surprise cause many believed the band is long dead and gone. They’re not and this new record on BDWH is a proof. They always were on the heavier vibe but with these new tracks the band got heavy as shit with death metal influences all over. Not to say the core element is gone. Despite all that metal stuff you can hear where they come from and there are some hints of Hatebreed, Bulldoze or Built Upon Frustration breaking through from underneath the surface.

No Safe Place is not a bad record but it’s not like after first listen I couldn’t wait to tell people about it. The thing is that, I’m not so crazy about death metal, I can barely sit through entire Morbid Angel record. I can’ even tell you how this one compares to current standards for death metal. There were times when listening to this album I thought to myself I’d rather be listening to Madball.

The title is a play on sensitive college kids and if you’re offended that’s your problem. The band is from Pittsburgh and they don’t have safe spaces over there.

Overall, the album doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from the other metallic beatdown bands we’ve heard countless times before in recent years, but if you enjoy hadcore of that style, then it’s worth checking out.

BDHW 2017

Crawlspace 'Don't Get Mad...' reissue on Knives Out

Knives Out will be releasing 'Don't Get Mad... Get Even!' as a double picture disc 10". As always expect top quality, this is strictly collectors item.

The deluxe "OG" edition is limited to 100, featuring a die-cut heavy paper sleeve packaging, a 48 pages "Sanctuary Flyers" book, a 12 cm, Crawlspace piece of wood logo, illustrated download card, a die-cut vinyl Crawlspace sticker, a #number certificate - all is hand-numbered.

The classic "MAD" edition is limited to 150, featuring a die-cut heavy paper sleeve packaging, illustrated download card, a die-cut vinyl Crawlspace sticker, a #number certificate - all is hand-numbered.

The inside sleeve main color is blue for the private sales (for both edition) and then red for normal official sales. Both edition packagings, download cards, certificates are different.

Orders here.

New Blood: Life Abuse

I'm a sucker for every new shit from the Crowd Deterrent camp and this is another project done by Rob (vocals of CD) and it's quality as always. Music-wise this is something between Crowd and Race Riot, both in music and attitude. Listen to the demo below and read Rob giving some more insights into LxA.



What’s the story behind Life Abuse and why start another band when you already have Crowd and Race Riot?
I wanted to do a new band with guys that live closer to me in the Youngstown Ohio area. Crowd Deterrent barely plays anymore unless it's something we really want to do and race riot only practices if we have shows coming up . I wanted to do an actual band that practices and plays whatever local shows we want . Steve from cd/rr plays drums so I wrote two songs in one day and we tried em out . They came out pretty cool so we decided to go with it .

How does Life Abuse compares to your other bands?
I'd say it's somewhere in between cd and rr. The newer cd stuff is heavy metallic hc and race riot is straight 80s punk hc stuff , life abuse is kind of fast crossover hc almost in the middle of the other bands I do.

Life Abuse is a dope name for a band and lyrics are spot on. What you want for people to get from listening to ‘How can death be any worse?'
Thank u ! I always have names for bands layin around just in case I start something new haha. The bands lyrics are pretty bleak and really just represent how trapped and shackled I've always felt in everyday life. The world is built to keep people in line and keep the machine going at all costs, there's no room to stray from your designated path . I always hated laws and rules that we are forced to live under day by day and the thought that there's zero you can do to change it . People can get what they want out of it ,but it's just my personal thoughts on modern life .

Have you done any shows so far? How are kids reacting to these songs?
We played our bass players house for his bday party and it was a great time. It was all friends and they're biased so the show was pretty good for our first haha. Our next show is end of feb in Cleveland so we will see how kids react. All the songs are fun to play so no matter what reaction it'll still be a good time .

What the future holds for the band?
We are gonna start playing as much as work allows all of us to. The other bands I do are playing some really cool shows/fests this year so I'm trying to do Life Abuse shows in between all of that. Especially house party shows .