Restrain

Restrain were a straight edge band from Lee's Summit, Missouri, a suburb just outside of Kansas City. I've never gotten a full grip on if they were a vegan band or not, but judging from some of the lyrics, they were vegetarian at the least. From the cover art to the lyrics, one gets a real sense of straight edge militancy from Restrain on this 7", but one thing that you might not guess from that statement is that the singer of Restrain was Sean...

78 Days After Death

78 Days After Death were a metalcore band from Salt Lake City in the early 2000's. They arose from the ashes of a band called Deadfall, and played a style of metalcore tinged with black metal. I feel fortunate to have been able to play a handful of shows with them both in Utah and Oregon (although they had to cancel on a couple of Portland and Boise shows). As far as I'm concerned, 78 Days After Death can be placed among some of the other legendary...

Grimlock

Let's go ahead and get this out up front, I love Grimlock! Over the years, I've noticed that people either seem to love or hate this band, and I reside on the love side of the coin. I never particularly took them too seriously, and I think that's what made me love their lyrics as well. Grimlock only played Portland once (in '97 if I remember correctly), and it was quite a show. The singer was spotted doing some pushups before the set, which...

xReflectx - The Hourglass End

I first heard Reflect sometime in 2007 when someone directed me to their myspace page. Having some contact with their singer, Mike, via various message boards, I acquired a copy of their demo. The 3 songs on the demo were really good, but suffered from a poor recording. Fast forward to December 2008, and Reflect now have a full length out on the newly formed Skinned Elbow Records out of Salt Lake City. [On a sidenote: I love SLC hardcore. My...

Hourglass & New Day Rising split

Here's another great release from the legendary Moo Cow Records. Hourglass and New Day Rising were two great bands from the 90s. Hourglass were from Buffaly, NY, and New Day Rising came out of Ontario, Canada. Both of them had a sound that ranged from the heavy, to moments of screaming punk rock abandon (NDR even throw in some emo elements). New Day Rising released what could only be called a plethora of material during their time together. ...

Trial "Are These Our Lives?" 12" - Pre-Order

After years of being out of press, Trials "Are These Our Lives?" LP is available again on vinyl and mp3 download. Unlike the CD version, the 12" includes full artwork and LYRICS.This 12" will be a limited press of 500.250 on Brown Vinyl250 on Maroon VinylI highly suggest that everyone goes to pick up their copy of this re-press. When Trial reunited for 3 shows in 2005, EVR had the gall to do another press of this on CD, but without lyrics and full...

Downcast

So much can be said of Downcast. They played a major role in the San Diego area scene along with bands like Amenity and Struggle. A lot has been made of them being the "P.C. police", and that they became anti-moshing at shows, but one thing can't be denied, and it's that Downcast wrote some great metallic hardcore songs. I tend to have a great love for bands that are heavily political, and Downcast fit into that quite nicely. They did a US tour...

Life's Blood

Life's Blood started circa 1987, and weren't really around for very long, but they had a great sound going with their mix of NYHC and some elements of Oi/street punk (not to mention their politics). Most notable is probably their song "Never Make a Change", which was supposedly a major calling out of Youth of Today. Adam Nathanson, and Neil Burke also went on to form the legendary (and in my top 10 bands of all time) Born Against.Even though there...

Fault

I don't have much information about Fault at all, except that they were from New Hampshire, and that this 7" is really good. This record came out in 1997 on Words of War Records (who have been back up and running for a couple of years now), and has 4 tracks of heavy hardcore that could musically be compared to the likes of Unconquered. If anyone has more info about this band, or knows of any other releases they put out, please get in touch, because...

Unbroken - 1998 Reunion, A Tribute To Eric Allen

This is the entire live set from the Unbroken reunion show in 1998 which was a tribute to Eric Allen, the guitarist who had committed suicide. I ripped this directly from a master copy of the video that was released by New Age or 31G, I can't remember. The other bands on the show were Outspoken (who also did a reunion), The Crimson Curse, Palpatine, and one other which is escaping me now. Unfortunately, I have no means to transfer the video to Youtube...

A change of plans..

Ive recently uploaded all of the pictures of my shirts onto the Collection Space. I wont be updating this blog anymore with tshirt pictures but I will upload rare records instead. Head over to the Collection Space to see more of my tshirtshttp://www.thecollectionspace.com/Collections/xchipxsem/xCHIPxSEM+Shi...

Trial

It has now been confirmed that Trial will be playing a show in Chicago in April of '09, and that is news that makes me very happy. There's going to be a book coming out called Burning Fight, that is all about 90s hardcore, and a show is being organized to coincide with its release. Disembodied, and Unbroken had already confirmed, with Undertow apparently being close to confirming as well, and then the news of Trial confirming came along to knock...

Definitely Not The Majors

Definitely Not The Majors was one more in the long line of incredible compilation cds that came out in the 90s. This comp showcases some of the best heavy bands that hardcore had to offer in that era. At the time that this came out, all of the songs were reputed to be unreleased.http://www.sendspace.com/file/vvy...

Bane - Fuck Yeah I Am Still Holding On

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Spawn - Written In Stone

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Earth Crisis - To The X I'm Crucified

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Snapcase - Progressions Through Unlearning

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Poison the Well - I Could Never Swallow Your False Ideals...

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Ignite - Past Our Means

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Floorpunch - In My Blood Records Design

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Grip - Friction Burn Fatal...

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Andrew Thomas Company - Drug Free Stormtrooper

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Overcast

Someone was reading my mind when they suggested that I post some Overcast in honor of their new record that just came out. Overcast only played Portland once, but the tour package was incredible, and it still sits as one of my all time favorite showsForming in 1991, Overcast were one of the true innovators of 90s hardcore/metal, or as they preferred to call themselves, Devilcore. They first released a 7" called Bleed Into One, which I still don't...