This is the final Part of this hardcore, punk and everything-in-between endeavor. I’ll be updating this piece with another band, as soon as I get something back from them. I searched far and wide in my personal archives for something worthy, which I always save for other parts. But since this was the last Part in Harvesting #11, I might as well put forth the greatest artillery of them all. So I chose some bands randomly and some because I’ve wanted to review and/or introduce them for a while. Therefore, this part is filled to the brink with some great bands. I’d say that there’s something for everybody here in this mix, hopefully everyone will like it too. Or, yeah, I’m just dreaming. In this Part you’ll get to know the following bands a little bit better: Real Problems, Stat Dad, Narratives, Noise Complaint, Necklacing, Condition and Institution. Since I haven’t received the material I need for the very secretive band I’ll include later on, you’ll have to fix your eyes on the short but sturdy questionnaire for the newly founded Swedish hardcore-band Institution. Also, enjoy this piece in any way you want.
Real Problems – Curious Feast
An alternatively sounding hardcore-record with a lot of sampling. In the beginning, the first track “The Thing On The Fourble Board” displays a playfulness with different elements like garage, rock and punk all together. With a driving baseline which is almost too distorted for the sound-scape as a whole. They employ a lot of different techniques when it comes to this particular song, a clever trick with silencing the instruments and playing a sample, just to head start it and gear it in the right direction again. I like the vocals in this song, because it stresses my own rock’n’roll feelings of how I would like to sound if I had made a record myself. He’s very good at articulating and getting it up with the tempo, it doesn’t feel out of place and it reeks of discipline and harmonies alike. The ironic song “Dumpster Diving (For Your Love)” makes me laugh when I listen to it and I love the clever song-title. Picturing some bearded rock-n-rollers diving in the dumpster, looking for a wedding ring. Pretty much a “joke’s on you” turned against the hipsters themselves, because I define them with that word at least.
Or, I could call them pretentious bastards. I don’t really want to get into a discussion about the necessities of dumpster diving for rich kids with so little to do, so I’ll leave it up for speculations instead. It’s a catchy and overall fun song, there’s a lot of great spirit but also sarcasm being delivered with this song. One of my absolute favorite songs from this album must be the “Bed Bug Boogie” song. I like the simpleness of this song and I also like the sarcastically made song, both from the singer’s part of it and the lyrical. It delivers a great groove and is easily one of the more easy songs to listen to on this album. The amount of catchiness and ridiculousness take it to a whole other level. Also, the song “You Gotta Lotta Nerve” is one of the harder songs on this album and maybe also one of the more serious ones. I like the lyrics and the instruments on this one, especially in the beginning, where the baseline takes it up a notch and simply goes up-tempo with the whole sound-scape. Makes me want to go crazy and throw stuff around.
Buy their album over at their bandcamp, either digitally or physically. You’ll get a physical CD for the price of 6 dollars, which is just a 1 dollar increase from the digital-only download release.
Stat Dad – Mominatrix
This is where it gets even funnier, hardcore with some skate influences. As their first song “The Church of Shit” rolls on to the speakers, I’m pretty much eavesdropping to everything that’s going on. It feels as if I’m locked out of the show and have to look in at the show when it’s rolling. One of those pretty short but furious hardcore-pieces, that experiment within and on the outer skirts of the genre hardcore. The vocalist is crazy and deserves a medal for this piece, even though it might not sound like anything out of the ordinary. But I like it how it is, he develops his vocalist presence the more you get into it. I also like the baseline intermezzo which launches into a total adrenaline-pumping experience. The only thing I don’t really like is that it’s kind of predictable, maybe not the subject at hand, but the structure of the song. Second song “Sunday Night” is a striking resemblance of how it is when you’re going out to some club you really don’t want to go to, but still go to because of the company that you’re in.
A total misery and alcohol rampage, and if the last ingredient isn’t present at the time, you’ll get to know it sooner or later. So, lyrically, it’s powerful in its meaning and it delivers the subject within a wrap of nice riffing and interesting parts with the baseline and the drums. I like the sound of the baseline and how it gradually forces itself upon you and just garners the frustration you have within you, it makes me let loose my anger over all this meaningless sifting through public spaces, seeing douches and jackasses. There’s also something apathetic about this, just observing the reality that is revolving around the vocalist. It reflects itself well within the speedy changes of the structure of the song, the further in you get. There’s also a nice solo when you get further into the song. One of the songs, namely “Mominatrix“, as the closing song is the bomb. I like the baseline in the intro and how it just sounds so repetitive and ghastly. A great conclusion for a pretty good album, but I still need to figure out what the hell a Mominatrix is. Now that I know, it cannot be unseen…
You can buy their digital-only release on their bandcamp for 5.50 US dollars, or you could buy the physical release for the same price over at Interpunk Record Store.
Narratives – Hell Is Here
If there’s a thing called “down-tempo” hardcore, this is the epitome of it. There’s such a wasteland within the first song “Bearing“. It’s a spiral, downwards, into unknown territory if you appreciate hardcore. Even though I at first glanced at it, listened and threw it away for a while – I started to appreciate it more and more. It’s a short song with extreme dedication to creating an absolute barren wasteland, a “nullpunkt” if you will, something you shouldn’t have striven for but something you’d experience after a total Armageddon. It sounds like something in between crust punk and metal, the riffing sounds more metal and the general sound-scape also goes with that flow. But there’s the vocalist and the secondary influence that points its rotten fingers and wants a piece of the action. Second song “Birth” shows a very unmelodious but uncompromising nature, in which they’ve blended together two genres and created the absolute zeroed out space possible, to lay out their black-metal atmosphere at times.
Even though it’s no significant factor within this, you can hear it from time to time. But the dominant nature of the secondary influence, namely: crust-punk, shows that you can actually blend these two. It feels very draining to say the least, like the music is sucking the life out of me. But it’s still not overtly romanticized, it’s not entirely uncompromising, but they’ve walked the walk and sure know how to talk the talk. One of the absolute heightened points in this albums existence is the song “Death“, which symbolizes everything about what’s spelled out in the meaning of that word. They somehow manage to stay down-tempo when it comes to riffing, but when it comes to the baseline and vocalist, it sparks a little flame within the more straight-forward and up-tempo situation within the sound-scape. A must have for anyone that shares the lust for crust-punk, but can’t stand the general themes of it and want a more metal-oriented approach to it.
You can either download it for free by visiting this link. Or buy the digital-only release on their bandcamp for 2 US dollars, or the physical 7¨ for 7 dollars and if you want you could get a t-shirt for 8 dollars.
Noise Complaint – Fuck Off And Thrash
Thrash can be very dull at times, but this is the anti-pole of that word. I like the touch that I hear in the first song “Noise Complaint“, with a perfect position for the sampling in the beginning. But I wonder why they use the American dialect for this kind of music, but I guess that just satisfied my Bay Area thrash need. He’s a very fast singer and the back-up singers surely make up for the more imperfect parts of the sound-scape, since they manage to hold it tight and still make it interesting, even though you might not like some parts of it. The song “Nord EST” is absolutely wonderful, even though I don’t really get what they’re singing about and what kind of language that is. Sounds like some Latin-american version of American thrash-metal, with a lot of punk influences when it comes to the riffing and the structure of it. It’s got that punk-oriented tempo that I like so much, with thrash-influences being scattered all over the place, leaving no one safe when it comes to the sound-scape.
I’m sensing a little bit of babble here and now from my side, so let’s continue with my other favorite song from this album. The only thing I like about the song “Bomb The Bus“, more than the tempo and the instruments being completely spazzed out, is the odd riff in the chorus that make it much more enjoyable in the end. One of my absolute favorite songs on this album is actually a song that reminds me much more of fastcore than anything else, employing the basics of that genre, is the song “Constipation”. It’s a worthy closer for this album and a rather childish one at that, but I mean, I didn’t have time to process all the information that came to me via the fucking idiot-proofed thrashing that came my way. I noticed the sample in the end, though. Just kidding, it’s a great closer and it’s good before this whole ordeal gets a little bit too boring. Overall an enjoyable record that serves its purpose, a little bit unconventional around the edges but also a little bit repetitive at times.
You can buy the physical 7¨ of it for only 4 brittish pounds over at A World We Never Made. But be sure to buy it directly from the band instead.
Necklacing – I
Let’s end this piece of nice shit with a great addition to the fastcore, noise and powerviolence family. Total chaos ensures, nothing is controlled, the instruments are fucking outrageously loud. Which I noticed when listening to the first song “Criminal“. I sense a little bit of the old-school and conventional way of making fastcore and powerviolence, but the distortion amidst these songs are pretty damn rad when it shows. But it manages to drown out some of those sounds you’d like to hear a little bit better. It sounds like the singer’s been pitched up a notch, or maybe he/she does it that fast with the vocals. The song titled “Icepick” is absolutely devastating and throws everything out at you, just to prove a point, that this is one heck of a fastcore/powerviolence band – and it’ll stay that way! Even though the other songs are enjoyable at best, but painful at the very worst, I must say that this song is one of the greater ones on this album.
I’d have to say that the song “Chemical” also hits the spot at a good rate, but it’s only 15 seconds long. There’s also a hell of a lot going on in the track “Disease“, which just seems to be a way to bang the life out of your drums and ensure that you’ll get some painful treatment for your fingers when playing in this tempo. However, it’s pure adrenaline that gets pumping and it’s as if you’d go bananas in a totally different setting. I’m sitting here, everything is wonderful, but suddenly chaos ensures and everything turns into total anarchy. Finding myself jumping around in my chair, because I don’t know how I should move to this tempo. The sound-scape is lacking in a sense that it’s too damn distorted, but that is also one of the strengths of it and it’s an album that I’d recommend. It’s pretty good, at least.
Download it for free over at their bandcamp, but while you’re at it, you should give them some money. Mail them if you want a physical version of the release, which will cost you about 5.50 US Dollars. You can find the mail here: necklacingma@gmail.com
Condition – Deteriorating
One of the most menacing releases, both aesthetically speaking and musically. Breaking with the conventions and doing their own thing, which makes it pleasurable to listen to. In their first song “Smoldering Wreckage“, they balance on the edge of everything but have quite an enjoyable sound-scape to listen to. It’s heavy, rough and tough at the same time. The riffs are completely intriguing, filling up the whole sound-scape with smoldering feelings and conquering up the space at the same time. I’m pretty surprised by their sheer talent, as I listen through it, from time to time. The vocals are absolutely perfect on the second song “Sensation Defect“, which leaves me with a great feeling inside after listening to it and the tempo of the drums are absolutely astonishing. I believe that their strength lies in the balance of their combinations, since they mold it perfectly with one another, which takes the listening pleasure to a whole other level.
The songs themselves are not hard to listen to, and it gives you pleasure even though it’s such a serious subject they’ve brought to the table. The aesthetics are frightening and they blend in with the music with total effect, which I think is a great deal of what you’re expecting. When that gets delivered, almost to the point, it makes it so much better. I can also sense some kind of scandicore, vaguely mixed in between the crust punk and the harsher hardcore elements. Also, the song “Complete Fucking Robbery” pretty much sums up what Condition are and have a potential of being. They are stepping it up with each song and it’s also got its own unique sound-scape, even though there can be some repetitiveness, there’s a larger contrast between the songs. Some are more focused on the overall sound-scape, some are just focusing on the total mayhem of it. Great release, you should get it from De:Nihil if they still have any left. Oh, how I love the relentlessness of great hardcore.
You can order a copy of this release from De:Nihil Records and you can also listen to one song from the release, below.
Jallo from the newly founded hardcore-band “Institution” got some questions sent his way and he answered them.
Why the name ”Institution” and what sound do you think you’re going to go for within the hardcore sphere?
– Well, it’s just a name and it happens to be a good name. It’s hardcore punk the way we (the guys in the band) have done in our other bands in the past. Totalitär, Herätys etc.
Are there any new bands that you’d like to recommend for this blog?
– Warcry (US).
How far have you progressed when it comes to your first album “Domen Är Satt” and how did you go about when creating it?
– The album is recorded and mastered. Martin (the guitarist and me made the songs), then we just rehearsed for a weekend, then a short intense recording, 2 days.
What are your plans for the near future and next year?
– Well, I think there’s gonna be some gigs in the near future. Don’t know about next year. Oh, there’s going to be a new 7″ coming spring 2013.
Thank you for this! What have you got to say here in the end?
– Thank you.
Repartiseraren 