Sever - Demo 1997

Sever were a short lived Southern California band that featured previous members of Refuge and future members of Throwdown, Bleeding Through, 18 Visions and Wrench along with a couple co-founders of To Die For clothing. They originally went by the name of Taken Breath, which you can see is crossed out in a few locations on the lyric insert.

Marc Jackson (Throwdown, the Eulogy)

Jason Welsher (To Die For)

Josh Welsher (To Die For)

Zach Phelps (Wrench, 18v, Cedargate Records)

Scott Danough (Bleeding Through)

[D. Wilson played bass on this recording] 

Sever - Demo 1997

Download

Mean Season - Numb Again [1994 demo version]

When Mean Season returned home form a European tour in 1994, they entered a studio to record one track. It's purpose was to serve as a preview for the vocal style that Aaron would be using on the upcoming 'Grace' LP. What followed with Grace was one of the finer and more unique sounding LPs of 90s hardcore, and with this one track, you can hear a bit of its evolution.

Mean Season - Numb Again

1994 demo version

DOWNLOAD

Mean Season will also be playing the upcoming New Age Fest in Garden Grove, CA to celebrate the label's 30th anniversary.

Tickets are still available over at TicketWeb

Slugfest - Music To Dance To [demo 1992]

Something tells me that this post isn't really going to need much of an introduction. I've always heard that Slugfest put out three demo tapes during their time together. This post contains a 320k rip of one of them, and I'm always still on the hunt for the other two. I battled lots of tape hiss on this one, and it's still present, but reduced from where it was.

Slugfest - Music To Dance To...

[demo 1992]

https://www.mediafire.com/?avsd5d2er6uh54z/

Everlast - Demo 1993

I'm sure you're all familiar with Chicago's early 90s heavy hitters, Everlast, thanks to their Drown The Self 7" that was released on Chapter Records in 1994. This demo from 1993 is no less of a juggernaut, but has a bit of a more raw feel with the recording. It contains four tracks that were not re-recorded for the 7" or Cold War compilation.

 

Everlast - Demo 1993

https://www.mediafire.com/?p9ijnh6uum8bzgk

Undying - Demo 1998

 

I can distinctly remember the first time I heard Undying. My friend had just gotten a shipment of new releases for his distro, and knowing how much I loved the Day Of Suffering CD, he heavily urged me to take a listen to Undying's 'This Day All Gods Die' EP. I went over to his house to pick it up along with some other new stuff, and it was the first thing that I put on in my car. That EP didn't just blow my mind, it splattered my brain throughout the interior of my car. The mix of thrash/black metal speed, the urgency and breakdowns of hardcore, and the melody of one of my all time favorite bands, My Dying Bride, was the absolute perfect combination for me.

Over the years, I happily booked and played many shows with Undying and was fortunate enough to see them play in multiple states and multiple countries. They never once disappointed me, but over the many years, the one thing that has always eluded me was the demo tape. That all changed quite recently when I finally acquired a copy from a pal like Rich Thurston. Another rip of this demo has floated around the internet for years being labeled as 'Demo 1999', but that is inaccurate. This Day All Gods Die was released in January of 1999, and recorded in August of 1998, so obviously, this demo pre-dates that. Just to be sure, I consulted James Chang, and here's what he had to say about the demo recording:

"I remember that it was freezing when we recorded it. I recorded it in our practice space, and we couldn't leave the space heater on while recording guitars because it dropped the voltage on our amps and made them sound like shit, ha. The band started towards the end of 97 though, and we were together a bit before the demo, so I've got to figure early 98."

Two downloads are below. One clean rip straight from the tape with no alterations, and a remastered version that I think sounds extra nice (both at 320k). Take your pick, or download both, whatever suits you.

 Undying - Demo 1998

https://www.mediafire.com/?1vk49xeswcmcubv 

Remastered 

https://www.mediafire.com/?x677vg3721x6o12

Cannae - Demo 1999 (ex-fortydaysrain)

With an upcoming .fortydaysrain. reunion show on December 2nd in Worcester, MA and a discography cassette soon to be released on Blasphemour Records, this seemed like a good time to rip the Cannae demo.

After .fortydaysrain. parted ways with their third singer, the remaining members shifted gears a bit and started Cannae along with a member of Grimlock. This three song demo was recorded over the course of one night by Adam Dutkiewicz at Zing Studios. Track two, Screened In, also happened to be one of the final .fortydaysrain. songs.

Cannae - Demo MCMXCX

https://www.mediafire.com/?4ndh7tn1ypbriax

Pre-orders have also now gone live for the .fortydaysrain. t-shirt and discography cassette over at Blasphemour Records. 

One Day Away - Demo '99

It's safe to assume most readers who frequent this blog are fairly familiar with the crop of metallic hardcore that emerged from South and Central Florida in the late 90's. While Poison the Well, Red Roses for a Blue Lady, and A Jealousy Issue are all recognizable names for enthusiasts of the genre, One Day Away, a South Florida based band who was a contemporary of the aforementioned bands, surely isn't as well known. The band's sole release, their 1999 demo, offers 4 tracks of dark, crushing, and EXTREMELY metallic hardcore. Insane, rabid vocals over punishing riffs and the occasional melodic break would've seen this band fitting in well on a label like Life Sentence Records. After the band's split in 2000, members went on to play in Until The End and Hate Eternal.

Download here: One Day Away - Demo '99

Soulstice - Demo 93

I don't think this post needs much introduction. If you've been following this site for a while or 90s hardcore in general, you probably already know upstate New York's Soulstice from their Dark Hour 7" on Scorched Earth and Raze The Earth CD on Lifeforce Records. This two song demo from 1993 pre-dates both of those releases, and you can definitely hear an inkling of what was soon to come from the band.

Soulstice - Demo 93

https://www.mediafire.com/?f667l67puk8u705

Mourn The Sun

There was a good amount of metallic hardcore being churned out of the Northwest in the late 90s, but Mourn The Sun were one of the few bands that were really bringing elements of serious metal into the hardcore scene. 

In late1998, their singer, Myron, left the band, and I believe moved to California. He was briefly replaced by Fenny Perez, who came out of San Jose, CA and the band Cathy Ames. Unfortunately, Mourn The Sun didn't last all that long. They called it a day after their bass player, Tyler Hook, passed away in, I believe, early1999.

In the download below is their 4 song demo tape from 1998, and a small collection of unreleased tracks. The first unreleased song was actually pre-demo and was intended to be part of a comp on Dead End Records. The other two unreleased tracks feature Fenny on vocals, and were recorded in late 1998 at the Art Institute in one take.

Mourn The Sun

http://www.mediafire.com/download/ngh4lsj2w42ezr7/Mourn_The_Sun.zip

Motive - Fetus Shall Become Ash [demo 1998]

Motive evolved heavily over the course of their time as a band, and this final recording from 1998 shows them moving much further into metal territory. Fetus Shall Become Ash contains four tracks clocking in at twenty two minutes. Two of these tracks did appear on compilation CDs a year later from Blasphemour Records and one other that I've never been able to find much information about.

As I've listened to this demo over time, I find myself thinking this is actually the best stuff they ever recorded.

Motive - Fetus Shall Become Ash

[demo 1998]

https://www.mediafire.com/?6sb9k4mpgd1m5ce

Overcast - Live 2/15/92 [demo]

With the recent news that Bullet Tooth will be releasing a completely remastered Overcast discography soon, it seemed like an appropriate time to drag out an old tape to post.  There aren't any details as to just how deep this discography package will delve, but hopefully it can help bring such a great band into the spotlight they've always deserved.

One studio demo pre-dates this live demo tape, but I have never actually seen or heard a copy, so I'm not even sure what tracks are on it.  This demo was recorded on 2/15/92 at the Worcester Artist Group.  Of the five songs on it, only one, Faceless, went on to be re-recorded for the Bleed Into One 7".

Overcast - Live 2/15/92 demo

https://www.mediafire.com/?0hdyyqchh6t9nyk

Envy Never Forget cassette/ Larry Ransom notes and backstory

Envy were a great mid 90's straight edge band from Buffalo, NY. I had the pleasure of being friends with some of the guys, played with them(with Halfmast and No Reason) as well as booking them a few times. I always loved their pre-LP demo and recalled that it was initially going to be a second 7" on a west coast label. I couldn't remember the specifics, so I reached out to Larry Ransom, who sang for Envy, and he took the time to write a little something. Check it out and the great info from Larry (that's him as a youngster on the cover).

 "Hello everyone. Jeremy asked me to chime in on this demo tape so I thought I'd write out all that I can remember.

Going back a bit before this tape, I had released two 7"s on my label, New Direction Records. The first being an awesome and pretty much unknown 7" from the Buffalo band, Against All Hope (go seek it out) and the second being the self-titled 7" from my band, Envy. One of the distributors for my releases at that time was Network Sound (New Age and Conversion Records) in California. Their buyer at the time, who would call me when they needed to order a restock was this kid Jason. He was cool and easy to deal with and would always make sure that Network Sound would get me paid on time. He was friendly on the phone and we would often just end up shooting the shit about hardcore and filling each other in on cool new records we had purchased and what was going on in our local scenes.

At one point he was starting up his own label that was going to be an inprint under the Network Sound umbrella and he asked Envy if we would like to release a 7" with him. I talked it over with the band and we decided to do it as we had a grip of new songs we wanted to release and we thought the Network Sound distribution would be a big help in getting the record out into the world.

He named his record label X-hibition Records. The first release for his label was going to be an album from the New Jersey band, Strength 691. He had linked up with Strength 691 through a recommendation from Joe D Foster from Ignite. The Envy 7" was going to be the second release.

We booked studio time with Doug White at Watchmen Studios. We had recorded our original demo with Doug when the studio was still in his parents basement.  But now we would be the first band to record at his new studio on Snyder Rd at the corner of Robinson Rd. We were the guinea pigs of sorts for Doug's new studio so he cut us a great deal on studio time. I think he may have only charged us $100.

I don't recall too many specifics about being in the studio. I think we had done our best, performance wise, in the studio compared to our previous recording experiences and as always, Joe drove Doug crazy by trying to get the best sound and mix we could. At the end of the recording session we all signed and dated a dollar bill for Doug and it's still hanging in his studio as we were the first customers. I think next year will be the 20th anniversary of that day and recording. Scary to think!

Joe did the layout for the 7" and CDEP and we sent the layout and master recording to the label for the manufacturing etc. I know things started to go into production as test pressing were made and he sent us 4 of them so each member could have one and he sent us a CD of the mastered recording for CD version of the release. Things seemed to be fine at this point. We had even made flyers and started promoting the release at our shows.
 Things started to slow down after that and he was beginning to be hard to get ahold of and eventually he got fired from Network Sound. Things were starting to remind me of the all too familiar "Hardcore records take forever to come out" scenario like what happened to local bands that had come before us... The No Joke 7", The Slugfest 7" and the Fadeaway split 7". Records that took years to come out after they were recorded. Except ours got worse. It never came out! 

Finally I got ahold of the guy and he admitted he wouldn't be able to continue with the label. The Strength 691 album didn't come out either and I think the guy basically disappeared from HC all togother. We were excited to get that recording out so we pressed up a quick 100 copies as a demo to sell at an upcoming show we had with Mouthpiece in the summer of 1996. We had the tapes professionally dubbed at this place ESP and had the shells printed which was cool and we just made photocopy covers. We sold all 100 copies at that show. We didn't give that tape a bigger pressing or distribution as we had already written a bunch more songs by that point so we thought we would re-record those songs along with all our new ones for an album, which we did do.

So that's pretty much the story on that tape. It's probably the recording that turned out the best for us and the one that people tell me they like the best.

Thanks Jeremy.

-Larry"

Envy Never Forget Promo Cassette 

Fadeaway- Blindsight Demo 1993

Caught somewhere between early 90's "Buffalo stye" hardcore and Turning Point, Fadeaway's Blindsight is one of the absolute best demos to ever come out of the Buffalo, NY hardcore scene. The song writing and pedigree (3 members went on to Despair and another to Snapcase) on Blindsight is top notch, combining songs from 3 different recording sessions; all of which were recorded at Watchmen studios. Though two of the songs (Perfect Blood and Gone) appear on the band's previous demo, they work better in the context of this release. 21 years later, it still sounds current and vital.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/xi0haa7nkecda4f/Blindsight_Cassette.rar

Undertow - Demo 1990 [remastered]

Another gem from the DAT archive of Ron Brotherhood, here's Undertow's 1990 demo.  Joel was still on vocals, and they had really stepped up their game from the Refuse demo a year prior.

Remastered from the master DAT tape, and sounding much better than the Lost & Found bootleg.

 

Undertow - Demo 1990

https://www.mediafire.com/?ywp5l99kh313dk0

Harkonen - Demo 1996

Looking back, the early days of Harkonen seems like a wild ride.  Although they became well known as a three piece associated with Hydra Head Records, between 1996 and 1999, Harkonen had a multitude of lineup changes that saw various singers and guitar players come and go.  Due to familial relations, this was also the period of time where it wasn't uncommon to hear someone refer to Harkonen as "baby Botch".

Recorded in October of 1996 at Uptone Studios, this demo isn't really lacking anything in the sound department, and is a great representation of Harkonen at their earliest.

Harkonen - Demo 1996

https://www.mediafire.com/?ffuflxsb20j74e7

Funerals - Human Ruin demo

Funerals are a newer band that spread across multiple cities in Oregon.  They play heavy hardcore in the vein of Disembodied, and recently released a demo, titled Human Ruin, that can be streamed below.

Funerals - Human Ruin

[demo 2013]

http://funeralscult.bandcamp.com/

Shadowboxing - new NWHC band

Shadowboxing are a new Northwest Hardcore band out of Seattle that bring to mind the likes of Breakdown and Crown Of Thornz with a hint of classic metallic hardcore.  They now have a five song demo, which can be streamed below, and purchased from their site.

Still Above Snakes demo out now

Still Above Snakes is a fairly new band from Vancouver BC, Canada that features ex-members of Burden, Death Sentence, xAbstainx, Fratricide, Head Start and more.  They recently recorded a five track demo, and have put it up on bandcamp.  There's a pretty heavy NYHC vibe throughout the demo, and the production is crisp enough to keep it sounding fresh.

Check it out here

Strain - Demo #1 & Live on CITR

Strain's first demo from August of 1992, and a live radio set on Vancouver, BC radio station, CITR.

http://www.mediafire.com/?t26m2ca103txq3u

Blood Runs Black - Demo 1994

Blood Runs Black were from Syracuse, NY, and played a pretty chunky hybrid of metal and hardcore.  They released a couple demos, a handful of comp tracks and one EP on Harvest Records before a couple members morphed into Godbelow.  Although there isn't any pertinent date related recording info in the liner notes, I believe this is their second demo from 1994, as it features Kris Wiechmann (Earth Crisis) on guitar.

Blood Runs Black - Demo 1994

http://www.mediafire.com/?17yn2eqao9yw8j0