Endless Disappointment Issue 6- budgetary thunderdome May 2020
Featuring: Helpless Closet Witch Fenland Hardcore Collective Nuclear Family Records puzzles and shit a horrible gig story
Oh Hey,
There will be a day where I write several zines about how historically and fundamentally terrible the Conservative government is; but it isn't today. So around the time of the last issue there was one horrific Monday where every show under the sun got axed simultaneously; it was savage, moreso because I had to cancel 4 of mine and only one of them has any prospects of happening again. It was horrible, but c'est la vie. So we're all in quarantine now: It's been an interesting insight into what people do when life slows down a bit; a lot of people are playing Animal Crossing (one person I worked with has so far clocked in over 200 hours, even more by the time this comes out), some have started podcasts, some have even started zines, which smarts a bit as I've seen two already that look far more professional than mine and have far more varied content......... bastards. Some people are even planning comeback shows, when we're still in quarantine, smart fuckers they are. Anyway, I've committed to a few more releases that will be out for next issue; looking forward to this issue though, this may be possible the most diverse array of content I've put together (which isn't hard but still quite nice). I had some really good interviews lined up for this issue, some of them even got back to me with their answers (shout out to everyone who went as far as saying they'd take part, had me spent ages putting together solid-interviews, only to never respond). Anyway, I hope you enjoy, it’s no Maximum Rock 'n' Roll but I do my best.
Should you want to use your quarantine to just bingewatch shows Should you want to bingewatch the entirety of a show, make sure you know what you’re up against. Here are the approximate times it will take for you to bingewatch the following shows. South Park - 6 Days, 12 Hours, 30 Minutes Community - 2 Days, 13 Hours It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia - 3 Days, 5 Hours Duck Tales - 2 days, 3 Hours, 30 Minutes Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers - 1 Day, 8 Hours, 30 Minutes Darkwing Duck - 1 Day, 21 Hours, 30 Minutes Recess - 1 Day, 8 Hours, 30 Minutes Xmen - 1 Day, 14 Hours Adventure Time - 2 Days, 22 Hours, 45 Minutes The Simpsons - 14 days, 4 Hours, 30 Minutes The Office (US) - 4 Days, 3 Hours, 30 Minutes Twin Peaks - 1 Day, 17 Hours, 40 Minutes Parks and Recreation - 2 Days, 15 Hours Brooklyn Nine Nine - 2 Days, 19 Hours Batman: The Animated Series - 1 Day, 21 Hours, 30 Minutes The Wire - 2 Days, 12 Hours The Sopranos - 3 Days, 14 Hours Westworld - 20 Hours
Nuclear Family Records Cardiff City Hardcore was the absolute mutt's nuts in the 00's but nobody really took over once the dude packed it all in. Not weighed down by nostalgia of how good shit was, Nuclear Familar Records have been pushing on doing their own thing and being dead-decent dudes in the process. Finding a spare moment from constantly releasing EP's, I speak with Josh, one of the brains behind NFR Right, so let's take this right back to the beginning, what got you into Hardcore? It's hard to put it down to one thing in particular but I'd say a combination of bands like Your Demise and Gallows getting covered in Kerrang, and attending heavy shows in Neath and Swansea towards the end of my time in comprehensive. Can you remember your first hardcore show? BWP in Clwb Ifor Bach, 2011, was one of the first hardcore shows I remember attending and it's definitely the one that got me hooked. Given the label's name derives from what was deemed as the "standard" family unit in society, I’m going to need some insight on why that name over anything else We were trying to put together a music video one day and started getting clips together of American propaganda during the Cold War and nuclear detonation test footage. One clip mentioned the nuclear family and it just stuck. Anyone who doesn't make mistakes on the first few releases simply isn't doing it right as far as a DIY label goes; what were some of the mistakes you made and what was the hardest lesson for you to take on? Printing the first few lots of tape sleeves was a tough one to get right starting off, lots and lots of wasted paper getting the sizing right. Hardest lesson to take on is that you can never guarantee a decent turnout for a show, we've made huge profits on shows we thought would be dead and lost a fortune on shows we thought were a sure thing. The Hardcore scene, specifically the UK Hardcore scene, is a unique entity and exhibits behaviours which don't necessarily reflect in other genres or even as part of a wider society. What do you think makes the Hardcore community so unique? I think it's the sheer diversity of the UK scene and passion of so many individuals who do it for the right reasons. We've got some of the best bands around at the moment that rival anything the US is putting out Despite the overarching message of unity that is fundamental to hardcore music, I’ve seen more in-fighting and arguments within the UK hardcore scene than any other scene I’ve been around, whether it be dodgy promoters, band members being caught doing shit things or arguments that ultimately spill onto the internet. Why is hardcore like this? I think all scenes have their share of dodgy characters but I think hardcore is different as people aren't afraid to call out shitty behaviour. Hardcore isn't for everyone and it certainly isn't a place for bigots, bootlickers and abusers.
Putting more positivity into it though, what do you love about the scene? There’s nothing better than being in a room full of your friends having a dance and blowing off some steam at a show. I also love the thriving DIY label scene at the moment, shoutout Harness, Wretched, TCS, Death Clock, Callous and QCHQ. Looking more to South Wales, what do you think the current state of the scene is like currently and what do you think the scene needs moving forward? Shows are hit and miss all over the UK, as long as good people keep working then hardcore will continue on. Also, bands need to realise they don’t need a booking agent if they haven’t even got a demo out, that's my hot take. For those who aren't of South Wales, which bands would you recommend right now? Asidhara - Crossover thrash, do not sleep on these. Members of Judgement, Rancour, Forsaken and Mind X Control. Kold War - shameless self plug. Angry vegan heavy hardcore. Shallow Graves - CC Metalcore Kings. Counterweight - Ignorant mosh, demo out soon on Death Clock Records. Enouement - Emo from Cardiff, featuring members of Ark of the Covenant and Natural Order. At the tail-end of last year you put Venom Prison on in the practice room I use for shows. This may not seem a big deal as a standalone statement, but literally the night before they took a slot at Damnation Festival that has previously been taken by the likes of Cannibal Corpse, Enslaved, Primordial, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Pig Destroyer and Vader. How did you pull off that spicy offering? Ash tweeted about how VP hadn't played a practice room in a long time, so I tweeted back asking if they fancied Cathays. Did not expect to get a reply but Ash came through. Your band (Kold War) and Shallow Graves supported. Whilst I enjoyed the show and most would look back at it as a great show, I think it's important that you discuss the things that didn’t go alright on the night. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong that night. Our lead guitarist's guitar blew half a track into our set. Then said guitarist (Tom) had a bust up with Shallow Graves bassist (Ken) over the guitar. Shallow Graves then went on as a three piece without Ken. Was a bloody shambles but we're all mates again now, Venom Prison smashed it and we raised a load of money for Project Mama which is very good cause. Quarantine business has put everything largely on hold these days, how have you been killing the time? Animal Crossing, The Simpsons, state sanctioned dog walks, exercise and really getting into making seitan with my partner Lucy. (They also made a spicy vegan-friendly chorizo thing which you can see in the background of this page) So long as we all make it through this year, what are your plans for the remainder of it? Just try and survive really, every show, tour and holiday I've had planned is postponed. Working on a few new releases for the spring though so it's not all doom and gloom, including a lovely split 7" for the thrashers. For more information, check out www.Nuclearfamilyrecords.co.uk
Dog tales
So this lovely French Bulldog is called Louie He had a rough start to life and was used as a stud-dog at a breeders until he was eventually rescued and adopted shortly after. Thankfully this hasn't stopped him being a friendly and handsome gentleman Unfortunately French Bulldogs have the same snub-nose problems Pugs get the sounds that come from this dog are truly harrowing sometimes but that doesn't bother him he loves his owner very much and can be trusted off the lead. He did however decimate one of my Dog's toys like, I mean it was shreds of plastic by the end I hope he poops most of that out can't be good for him The owner puts Doggy cologne on him and therefore he smelt delightful He didn't have any interest in Dentasticks but he was a big fan of the beef-nibbles
Helpless Having had the support of Holy Roar since the release of their first EP, Helpless grew to become one of the more recognisable names in the UK hardcore scene, with a sound that fitted nicely supporting grindcore and punk/hardcore bands alike. With a slight bump in the road following two members leaving middle of 2019, Helpless returned shortly after with a new lineup and a new lease of life. I had a chatteroo with Dan about how things have been for them. Before I go any further, didn't you used to be in a band called Godsick? Dead certain I saw you play with AcxDC in Bristol. All I can remember was there were far too many supports on that bill and I had to catch a late coach back to Cardiff. That was the band me and Steve were in just before Helpless. That was a cool show actually, even though I blew my voice out before we played. I think Implore was on that show too? They were awesome. Right, back on track. So Helpless has a bit of a reshuffle towards thetail-end of last year, how have things been since? Yeah it's been really good, we're over half way through writing this new album. Both Sam and Simon are great musicians who I've known for years, so it has felt really natural playing with them. So far we've demoed 5 songs and written others, we'll be back in rehearsals as soon as we can once this virus quarantine is over - though this has been a good opportunity for me to get some more writing done at home. There was a fairly sizeable gap between the previous members playing their final show at Dreadfest in Leeds and the first round of shows with the new lineup in October of last year, did you feel any momentum was lost during that time? There was about 6 months or more where we weren't writing anything before and between the line up change, so we lost a lot of momentum during that time. When the new line up was sorted I just wanted to focus on new material until the album was done, but we had a few gig offers and the guys thought it'd be cool to road test the songs we had written. At the moment we only have 2 shows booked: July 7th in Bristol with Gatecreeper and August 29th in Plymouth with Wormrot. Theplan is to have an album's worth ready to record by July at least. Your new lineup now includes Simon from Rash Decision / Monolithian and Sam from Human Cull, in turn forming some sort of West-Country supergroup. Whilst beingin bands is not a full-time venture, it definitely usurps a lot of people's spare time; did anyone ever have concerns as to how they would juggle playing in Helpless with their other commitments? It was definitely a concern, especially as Simon is in 3 other bands, so it was spoken about when I asked them to join, but they were both confident they would have the time and so far it's been good. I've been working a lot over the last year as well so I've probably slowed things down more than anyone. They were both my first thoughts when it came to new members of the band because I know how they play and they're both great people. I'm really lucky to be playing with them. They've brought a new dimension to the band too, Simon has a very expressive style and Sam brings the blast beats. Plus we're all doing vocals now so there's an extra layer of noise in the mix now.
I fall apart like a house of cards at the prospect of having to commit to multiple things at the same time, let alone having to coordinate efforts with other people who may be in a similar situation. How do you find coordinating band efforts, given you yourself also play in Tendrils and Aches? It's definitely difficult. I had hoped that all the bands would be at different stages when I joined Aches and Tendrils, one writing, one recording, one playing shows etc. But it ended up with all bands writing at the same time, I guess I was being naive thinking it would be that simple. I just have to be painfully organised and book myself up with rehearsals a month in advance at the least. I'd be screwed without having a calendar on my phone. That said it's not been a massive issue so far, things are just taken at our own pace, there's only the pressure we put on ourselves. There have been occasions where, due to the crossover been the two, Human Culland Helpless have played shows together. How does Sam cope? Does he cope? I think we've only played one show at the moment with Human Cull since Sam joined? But he'll be on double duties again for the Wormrot show in August. When we played Battery Fest in Brighton last year, there were a few bands between us and Human Cull so he had time to recover. I don't think he has that luxury for the next one though....so I'll let you know how that goes for him So your initial EP draws a lot of grindcore familiarities despite being fundamentally a hardcore record. By comparison, your full-length album Debt bears a lot more familiarities to that of Gaza and The Secret, two bands with a very distinct sound. Was it planned to emulate that sound or did you just find your sound naturally gravitated away from grindcore somewhat? Yeah it's no secret that Helpless started as a Gaza worship band. To be honest that influence started creeping in during the tail end of Godsick, but I hadn't figured out how to play like Gaza at that point and I still haven't, I'm not sure I ever will. There's some things I'd like to stay wilfully ignorant to, I think that sort of ignorance stops me straight up ripping them off. We just end up with my half-interpretations of their style of riff, which by default makes it more unique. I like a lot of music too. My favourite bands tend to be ambiguous in their style, the band Yautja is a good example. They have blast beats and hardcore punk sections but also some noise rock elements as well as huge, rhythmic sections similar to Sumac. I have no idea what you call their style of music, Sumac too for that matter. So from Godsick to Helpless it was a natural progression to play grindcore but incorporate these other influences. Do you intend to progress the sound further with any new songs or are you happy with the setup you have currently? We hope we're progressing the sound. We try to give every song it's own personality and I'm pretty conscious of repeating myself, musically and lyrically. The arts quite distinguishable as well; who did it and what made you go with them over other artists who find their style more synonymous with such music? The cover art for Debt was done by Chris Nicholls; who plays in Age Decay and Oh, The Guilt. Our former bass player Steve put me onto his work. I could tell he was a Francis Bacon fan, who is one of my favourite painters. We actually had something else being commissioned by Chris but he put that painting up on his instagram asking if anyone wanted to take it off his hands. So we saved that painting from obscurity. I just knew I didn't want skulls or a goat on the frontcover.
You were recently on the SeaBin Podcast, your bandmate Simon's podcast that got in there a few episodes before every other person wanted to do a podcast. I heard some things and I think you need to talk more about your experiences with, now-deceased medium, Derek Acorah. Ha! Ok there's not much to tell. I just trolled him a little bit on Facebook. He was doing live streams every week so I just pasted in the link to the "Mary LovesDick" video over and over again into the comments. Fuck that guy though. Scamming bereaved people to contact their dead relatives. Fucking vulture. His page sent me a tonne of messages with phone numbers to get a text "reading",obviously all automated. That stuff is so see-through, but clearly they make a lot of money from it. So yeah, I'm glad he's dead. Whilst it's a fool's game to speak too highly of anything ever, it's not unreasonable to say we've got quite a few decent bands doing the rounds in the UK at the moment, a lot of them being picked up by sizeable labels and going on to do some really cool things. Who would you consider your counterparts in the UK right now? To be honest I’ve been bad at finding new bands lately, though this coronavirus quarantine is giving me some time for it. That being said I really like Warren Schoenbright and Ill In Pain, the latter being more akin to us. Aerosol Jesus and Wallowing are great. Geist I really dig, I get a Cursed vibe from them. They Live We Sleep who I’ve only recently listened to, despite knowing about them for ages, they’ve got some great riffs. Obviously there's Human Cull and Monolithian too Possibly a different question, possibly not, who would you recommend people to listen to? Yautja, Great Falls, Endon, Warren Shoenbright, Idylls
Helpless' debut LP Debt is out now via Holy Roar For more information, check out the following links helplessband.bandcamp.com Tendrilsuk.bandcamp.com (Dan's other band) Monolitiandoom.bandcamp.com (Simon's other band) Rashdecision.bandcamp.com (Simon's other, other band) Humancull.bandcamp.com (Sam's other band)
Scenewatch - Lincoln I like hearing about other scenes in the UK; I'm not talking metropolitan cities with huge populations and catchment areas like Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, London, Brighton etc. I'm talking the scenes that emerge out of nowhere in places you rarely see talked about, the ones where it's built up by a few dudes who literally fight tooth and nail and make the most of every opportunity they get, those are the people I want to hear about. Now, I knew of Fenland Hardcore Collective as we worked towards a split together between FilthXCollins and Skinlover. I'm pretty certain I saw members of FLHC in Throatpunch when they supported Infest last year too, and when you look at the sheer amount of shows they've burned through, there's no doubt that FLHC they've gone all-in on the idea of having regular shows happen; it was a no-brainer that I reach out to them. I asked them to talk about their scene a bit; I didn't really communicate the structure of the interview too well or how they should present it, the outcome worked out way better than expected and I feel compelled to make sure the full extent of it is included. For the remainder of this feature it is very much their words, not mine.
So you wanna be a player? but your riffs aint fly. You gotta hit us up to get a mean riff life. You got to Linc My Grind. Damn right. I did have to google the actual lyrics to that. And it's not entirely an accurate title because not all of the bands I'm gonna talk about are strictly grind. In fact only a few could be categorised as remotely grind. But I love puns and I even made a logo for it in photoshop. Just let me indulge myself. I'm going to talk about a handful of what I reckon are the best heavy bands from Lincoln and the surrounding shire. Skinlover This trio mix grind and sludge to create a sonic bludgeoning that can and will take years off your life. I've played alongside Skinlover many times and there was a sense of egging each other on to go heavier and nastier. Their grind parts got more punishing and the sludge became dirtier, with their last EP, I, being a real barn burner. It's evil sounding music that has a huge focus on animal rights in the lyrics with the band actively supporting the Lincolnshire Hunt Saboteurs.
South Holland Indecency Team Hailing from Boston (not Boston), we've got another trio here, but much less abrasive and serious. South Holland Indecency Team, or SHIT, carry on the flame of the old IQHC scene from their hometown in decades past. Their brand of hardcore punk is hugely d-beat influenced and fast as fuck at all times. You could never accuse SHIT of being professional, with the band swigging gleefully on Buckfast between songs at what seems to be every show. Temple Steps Having recently returned from a brief hiatus, the doomy duo are back (but as three piece, wait no now a four piece). They returned and absorbed members of other bands that had split to create some sort of sludgey supergroup of the Shire. Since their return they have been heavier than before, and the addition of a new drummer and bass player has really added some dirty groove to the faster parts. Deathmace Not strictly a Lincoln band, but frontman Yuma resides in the city and the band have been playing more locally over the last year. The band aren't reinventing the wheel with their stomping and blasting thrash tinged death metal, but they do it better than maybe any new band I can name. Well, I say new, they have been around for about 10 years, but that's irrelevant when there's only one album out there. One stonkingly hot album. Cold Hard Truth Boston originals, the beatdown bruisers might reside mostly towards London now, but frontman Tim still lives and works in Boston, like a true Fen lad. They're not really part of the scene if you want to be awfully pedantic, but they're still Boston to me. And still bloody good. Check out the track Muay Thai Or Die on Youtube. Beefy. Cool Jerks More tenuous now, but whatever. This angular crew hail from Leeds/Lincoln and provide in your face post punk with aggression. They come off as layered and intelligent with a snarling and poignant vocal delivery. We had these guys play an all-dayer we did a few months back and they had no problem matching the stage presence of the hardcore the were surrounded by. Luna's Call They've played Bloodstock don't ya know. And fair play to them. Whilst not my favourite band on the scene, this progressive metal quartet don't often get too bogged down in noodling for noodling's sake, with complex but ultimately hard hitting riffs. They're also a good example of a metal band still wanting to play their home town and not being all ego. Vyvyanxbasterd It was bound to happen sooner or later. It's one of my bands. Not to be too bias here, of course. A new three piece to come out of Lincoln with a strong fastcore vibe and little regard for song structure. The live set clocks in at 20 songs and 9 minutes. We've just dropped our demo over at the Fenland Hardcore bandcamp if you want some silliness. And now for some bands that have passed over to the other side‌ Mothcob The best crust punk band ever. I don't even care what you think. Unapologetically brash and fast as owt. It was nasty and in your face and felt urgent. Live they never failed to shred your face off and since they split because of band members relocating (to Denmark and also Liverpool) maybe there's a chance of a return, I hope.
Wolfbeast Destroyer Claiming the title of most furious band in Boston when they were active, the commanding crew sadly split a couple of years ago. We booked them for a show in Lincoln and it was the most bonkers show we had held up until that point. Bodies were everywhere, it was pure carnage, just as a Boston band should be. We helped release a split between them and This Ends Here from Bristol in 2017. Check this release out, both sides bang. Throatpunch It would be a little remiss for me to not mention my own bands again, but for the past few years Throatpunch have been a staple of the Lincoln hardcore scene. Originally started sounding something like Trash Talk and Black Flag, and going on to shift line ups and influences to end up sounding more akin to Full Of Hell and Spazz. We’re yet to release our final EP and maybe play another show, but our priorities are elsewhere now. The Goat Suplex Conspiracy Bonkers fucking band from when we were first putting on shows in Lincoln. Sorta mathcore/ deathcore but totally mad. They played a set in my first year flat at uni which was pretty fun. They weren't around for a long time and were an extremely volatile band, but when they were around they were so good. The places. Akedo Gaming Bar Our go to venue for gigs in Lincoln. They have free hire of their downstairs basement where you can put gigs on. It's super rad looking and it only holds 50 people down there. The walls around where we put the bands are all graffiti sprayed with Metroid and Link and Bomberman and other cool gaming characters, plus at the opposite end of the room there is an original xbox hooked up to a TV. Sharkteeth Grinder took advantage of this with frontman Bobbo playing Grand Theft Auto 3 during their set when we had them one time. The manager Toby is the safest bloke and a lot of our mates within the scene already frequented the place, with some even working there, so it's a good little hub for everyone to hang out and watch the bands. And when you aren't watching the bands you can literally go into the opposite room and play Mario Kart. We had Calligram booked one time and this kid was in the opposite room all night playing Zelda on the Switch. The Jolly Brewer The other bar we use most often, and again a hotspot for the punk community. For many years this has been the default live music pub, with bands playing every weekend. And original bands to mostly. Alas lately the pub has been going through some uncertain times and has a new manager, but through ourselves and friends putting on gigs and going to them over the past few months hopefully we can continue to have gigs there. Recently we had put on an alldayer there in their beer garden. That's good. In February. That's bad. We also had Full Of Hell, Primitive Man and Eye Flys (with Temple Steps) booked to be there outside before this whole pandemania kicked the world in the dick. The stage backs on to a church as well, so imagine how metal that was going to look! Playing Aloud Studios Not a venue, but one of the things at the heart of the Lincoln music scene. Playing Aloud is the local rehearsal space that also operates a recording studio and as equipment hire, as well as some repairs. It’s a totally independent business run and operated by Scott and Bewick, who not only manage and maintain the facilities to a great standard, but also perform in bands on the Lincoln scene and put on concerts themselves. Bewick is the in house recording engineer who has produced demos and EPs for pretty much every band to come out of Lincolnshire in the past few years. For more information, check out www.flhcc.bandcamp.com or search Fenland Hardcore Collective on Facebook.
Must-Have releases
Whilst bands and genres define generations, not much is said about the labels behind them, ones which tie in so closely to certain movements and scenes they become part of the identity. Whilst Victory, Trustkill and F erret became synonymous with Emo and Metalcore in the 00's; Bridge Nine never seemed to get the same sort of recognition for their contributions to Hardcore despite releasing some really good stuff (they still do by the way, I just lost track). Whilst labels like Deathwish and Equal Vision were about at the time, it was Bridge Nine that appeared to really have the edge on hardcore in the 00's Set up in 1995 in Boston, a side hustle at record stores and selling Red Sox Merch outside Fenway Park gave founder Chris Wrenn the funds to make Bridge Nine grow organically. Despite their early days being funded in part by the ongoing Red Sox / Yankees rivalry, they still went on to release music from the likes of Backtrack, Agnostic Front and H20, engraciating themselves with New York Hardcore. Brindge Nine alumni also include the likes of of American Nightmare / Give up The Ghost, Terror, The Hope Conspiracy and F-Minus, albeit releases from bands like Champion, Have Heart and Ruiner that put the label on the map Unless you were in the know (or knew someone in the know), visibility of Bridge Nine releases was limited in the 2000's; my first awareness was when bands like Give up the Ghost and Champion were played on Mike Davies' Radio 1 Punk Show (or The Lockup if you're old enough) but it wasn't until a few years later I cottoned-on that Bridge Nine was the label that brought a lot of these bands together. Their Distribution in the UK was relatively dire, pretty certain Banquet Records and All Ages Records stocked them but it wasn't until several years later Spillers in Cardiff started stocking select (by which I mean one or two if you're lucky) Bridge Nine releases from more well-known bands like Crime in Stereo, HaveHeart and Polar Bear Club. I remember they used UPS to deliver their parcels, the upside being that I never got stung in terms of customs charges, the downside being that I pretty much spent as much on shipping as I did my bulk order. Anyway, hopefully your record collection already has a lot of these in there already, but if not, just have a listen ok. The following page is, in my opinion, some of the must-have releases from Bridge Nine
Champion - Promises Kept With the exception of Sundowning by This is Hell, this is probably one of my favourite hardcore records of all time. Released in 2004, I was stupidly late to the party on this one and it wasn't until they split up I realised how good they were. Have Heart - Songs to Scream at the Sun Produced by Kurt Ballou of Converge, this should be in the starter-pack for anybody discovering Hardcore for the first time. Have Heart were one of the biggest bands on the roster at the time and expectations were high when this came out, it didn't disappoint. I didn't think much for the album at the time as my attention was elsewhere, but you need only look at the storm surrounding their reunion shows a few years ago to realise how influential they were as a band. H2O - Nothing to Prove For anyone who wasn't familar to H2O and their days on Epitaph, this album probably sounds like a horrific pastiche of every hardcore stereotype under the sun, the only thing stopping it from being so tongue-in-cheek being that A) It's pretty good and B) H2O are the real deal. When listening to the Radio 1 Punk Show a track from this album was played almost every other week and their set at Reading 2008 was testimony to how much hype there was around this album. Also solid guest vocals from Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio and Lou Koller from Sick of It All. Pretty certain CM Punk is in the video for Nothing to Prove as well Dead Swans - Sleepwalkers One of the few UK bands at the time that got recognition overseas; Dead Swans were stupidly influential on the UK scene and Sleepwalkers was truly their Apex output on the Bridge Nine label. I saw them at their final show at The Garge, only it wasn't their final show wasn't it? Apparently every band that split up on an emotional high-note ever has decided to reform for one-off shows . Typical. International Superheroes of Hardcore - ISHC A parody-project formed through New Found Glory being burnt out on being New Found Glory, it's glorious and a much-needed reminder that hardcore needs to calm it down a bit. They released a Harry-Potter themed EP called HPxHC which wasn't quite the same and it wasn't long before New Found Glory returned to being New Found Glory again, which is fine and all but ISHC was far better. Ruiner - Prepare to be Let Down Having released countless splits and EP's, in 2007 they released their first full-length and I was drawn more to the name by anything. Their lyrics were somewhat of a bummer and a bit melancholy at times, but it was fast as heck and barely ever slowed down. They did release another full-length before splitting up, but arguably this was the stronger of the two. Defeater - Travels Their first full-length actually looks to set the story and characters around an ongoing concept about Post-War working-class family in New Jersey. The story itself is a massive-downer and the record is suitably melodic and sombre, but given they've stuck to this concept and sought to flesh-out their lesser narratives in EP's, I feel somewhat obligated to put this in there due to needing to start any story from the beginning.
Have I missed any? Probably. If my selections are a precision attack on your hardcore beliefs, email me at worldofshit@live.co.uk and use the title "put straight in the junk folder" in the subject header.
Closet Witch Well, I did it, I stopped just interviewing mates and UK bands and started expanding my horizons. Only took like 6 issues, better late than never. I caught wind of Closet Witch through their track on the “Riffs for Reproductive Justice” Compilation that Black Flags Over Brooklyn put up on Bandcamp. Not being much of a musician, things like Technicality and musicianship are lost on me, but there was something a bit more technical and mathcore-esque which stood out having listened to the same powerviolence riffs for the bulk of the working day. I had a chat with them to see how they were coping during this trying time. Normally this would be a softball question, but given we’re all kneedeep in a pandemic there’s a heightened sense of concern for everyone’s well-being in general. How are you all? Alex- Just fine, a little stir-crazy and missing shows but can’t complain. Mollie - The feeling is the same as Alex. I haven’t worked in some time so I’m falling out of routine but definitely remaining healthy and holding up, so fortunate in that way. Cory - Doing fine. Still working. Also, mainly just wishing we were still playing shows. Royce - Mostly just bored and broke. You were actually on tour at the time of President Trump declaring a National Emergency over Covid19 Even prior to the declaration there was a lot of uncertainty, what were the discussions like prior to, and during the tour and what thoughts were going through the band’s head when the news started becoming more ominous? Alex- It really started the day before we left - a lot of folks were talking about it on social media but when we hit the road was when every other band on earth started cancelling their tours. The first leg of the run was really based around Iowa so we figured we’d at least try to get through the first few shows which ended up going really well. Though eventually events started cancelling and both us and Swing Low agreed it was for the best to head back. We all got to our homes before the started closing businesses and things went into “lock-down”. We figured we’d make the most of it and got 3 really fun shows down before calling it. Everyone agreed it was best for the safety of us and everyone at those shows.
Royce - It was kind of strange, because the 3 shows we did manage to get through were awesome. Well attended, sick bands, cool venues... at first it seemed like most of the shows were still going to try to make it happen, but then within 36 hours or so it became pretty clear that there was no possible way to continue. Better safe than sorry. I’ve noticed a steady rise of Conservative / Right-wing news outlets trying to brand Covid-19 as the “Chinese Virus”. What’s your thoughts on that? Alex- It’s bullshit. It’s disgusting and greatly disappointing that the label is even being tossed around. Mollie - Truly hideous how people can label things so ignorantly and with little care about the impact of their choices of descriptive words. sadly, I am not surprised that group of people labeled it as such.... Cory - I haven’t seen or heard much but I also don’t pay attention to many news outlets. Especially the right-wing type. Royce - So here’s the thing: the argument I keep seeing from people who don’t see the problem with it is “it’s a virus that came from China. Chinese virus.” The problem with that thinking is that first of all, the names “coronavirus” and “covid-19” were already ubiquitous by the time people started calling it the “China virus,” so there is absolutely no reason to call it anything else. Secondly, by calling it that, you’re assigning blame to an entire ethnicity of people and creating an us vs. them dynamic. You can claim that isnt you’re intention, but at the end of the day, the closet racists and other assorted morons that hear that immediately have a face in their head of who the enemy is and who is to blame. We’ve already seen a rise in violent crime against Chinese-Americans, and it’s impossible for any rational person to not see the connection between the two things. So yeah, I dont want to get super deep into it all, but I guess you could say I have a lot of thought about this. I understand that you were all in different bands prior to Closet Witch forming. What are your individual backgrounds and how did you all come together? Alex- I’ve been doing smaller DIY acts for a long time and just through playing shows I met our drummer and then eventually we had all met at a basement show in Muscatine. We ended up doing a little project where Mollie and Cory filled in for a member of our old band and we were doing shows for a while but eventually wanted to do something organic to the 4 of us. I grew up on some pretty awful nu-metal and Metallica’s St. Anger, so naturally it comes out in our sound. Mollie - I’ve always been into music and seeing the more DIY side of shows and when I moved to the Midwest I was fortunate enough to find the people in my tiny town I now lived trying to keep something alive. Cory and I had a space where we had shows here and through that we synched uP with Alex and Royce through their old band Muldoon’s Clever Girls. Alex went on a tour with Cory and I’s band the Peaks, filling in for bass, and after that we all truly latched to each other to make something new with time.
Cory - Same, pretty much. Been into music forever, started playing in bands in high school - still doing it. Royce - I originally started as a Latin percussionist for a few years before meeting some dudes in middle school that I skated and eventually started my first band with. I was mostly in punk bands after that until around the time I met Alex. He was one of the main people running this venue in his town called Music At The Mall that was one of the only places doing shows on a regular basis at the time. That’s roughly when I transitioned to heavier music. Then years later, after the venue shut down and the scene sorta dissipated, Alex approached me about a bass and drums punk project called Muldoon’s Clever Girls with a vocalist that we’d both been in bands with previously and knew really well. We did that for a bit, then eventually the vocalist had a kid and had to take a step back. That was around the time we met Mollie and Cory, and Alex pretty much covered the rest of that. Now here we are. As someone who spent their youth obsessed with Jurassic Park, I can’t just let us move on straight away from the name Muldoon’s Clever Girls Alex - We all were technically in that band. Mollie - It is an awesome name but actually every one in CW went through that band and that’s what led to CW. Alex is actually the creator of Muldoon’s and Royce drummed with him. when their vocalist began settling down in life with kids they had asked Cory and I to fill in for some dueling vocals and it was a blast but definitely put us into the pocket we needed to be in to create CW. We all wanted to do something heavy, loud and emotional. Use music for a more intense release I suppose. Musically speaking, your roots stemmed from hardcore/punk bands, was it the intention when Closet Witch formed to be more technical in your playing or did it just end up that way? Alex - Closet Witch’s only intention was the write the most abrasive sound our skill’s could achieve to get drunk folks to leave the basement shows when the night was over. It backfired. Royce - Its funny you ask that, because I actually try my hardest to keep my parts as simple as I can. My approach to this band has always been to start as simple as possible and build up from there. It’s all about building and maintaining intensity for me. I dont want to give anyone time to be bored with anything we do, but i also want them to understand what’s happening with each switch up immediately. The majority of your releases have been recorded entirely by yourselves. Whilst the DIY ethic is supreme, it can also be incredibly fiddly and cumbersome. What motivated you to self-record? Alex - Lack of Money. Though honestly, it’s pretty fun to problem solve and work on it with your friends. It was on all of us to make it the best we could and we just rode with that. Fortunately, it worked out. Mollie - Alex nailed that answer and has recorded and mixed a lot of our recordings. He’s an angel.
Royce - Alex had also done several recording projects on his own before we all got together and already had a good amount of experience with DIY recording and mixing and all that. He did both of the Muldoon’s Clever Girls albums and a bunch of other projects that truly never got the recognition they deserved. So we knew going into it that Alex had a knack for making the most of what he had to work with, so it just seemed natural to use what we all had and make the best thing we possibly could together. What was your setup? Alex- We had 3 h4n Zoom Field Recorders, they are typically used by journalists during interviews but they have really decent built in microphones and two DI spots on the bottom. We would mic all the instruments with those - 4 mics on drums, 1 for each guitar. We’d have no playback, you’d just be left to your gut reaction of whether or not you nailed it. Whatever was laid down, made the record so you had to be honest and retract the entire song because it was all done live. We’d time things up at home and then do Mollie separate. We did the Kim Kelly sessions with Mollie in another room - the entire thing was done live and all tracks in a single take. You just gotta work with what ya got. Royce - I remember when we were recording in the basement we’d put the amps in separate rooms to try to minimize the noise bleed between mics. Some songs we’d knock out in a few takes. Then some of the harder songs we would track like 20 or so times so that we all felt like we nailed our individual parts perfectly. And like Alex said, we didnt have the ability to instantly play back our recordings due to the equipment that we had that we were using. So we all really had to just take our time and vibe it out and be really honest with ourselves and each other. It was a little bit grueling at times, but at least it was on our time, so it didn’t feel stressful at all. Editor’s Note: The H4N is the absolute shizz, you can record a Fly farting from a mile away with it. For your self-titled full-length you sought to work with Luke Tweedy, whose has previously worked alongside the likes of Modern Life is War and William E Whitmore. What made you switch from the DIY stance? Alex - As fun as the whole DIY recording route went, it can be incredibly stressful. We felt like the audio side wasn’t growing with the structure of the songs and things needed to change. Luke goes way back with us and it’s always been a great fit. He’s one of the few engineer’s I’ve ever worked with that was genuinely interested and wanted to make the best version of the record we wanted to make. It’s hard to see working on a project without him. Royce - I think Alex nailed it there. We felt like we had done as much as we could with self recording, and Cory in particular went way back with Luke, having recorded at his old home studio with one of his older projects, so it felt natural to turn to someone we knew that could help us create the sound that we wanted when we felt like we couldnt achieve it on our own.
Your split with National Hero was initially released on Floppy Disk. A band in the UK called Pariso did this, and there was even a label that released stuff briefly on floppy disk. Whilst there is a charm that comes with impractical formats, what made you choose the worst of the portage storage options? Alex - Our friend Alex who plays drums for National Hero original proposed the idea and it just seemed neat. The idea of completing a record, multiple songs in under 30 seconds was a really fun challenge. I just wish I got a copy Mollie - The floppy disk was impossible to turn down; someone else worked on the transfer, too, of the files ( Alex from national hero ). So with all of the hard work we didn’t know how to be done already being done, it would have been foolish for us to say no to doing such a silly and short release with our buds . Royce - National Hero was the first band we ever toured with, and we’ve all been friend for ages, so when they came to us with the idea, there was no saying no. I also really wish I wojldve grabbed one. I’m a sucker for impractical format releases. You’ve recently announced a split with Neckbeard Deathcamp and RaceTraitor, two bands that have been quite vocal in their resistance to fascism and the right-wing. How did this split come about and where do you stand in terms of bands like Dawn Rayd and Cloud Rat who are quite open in their resistance against the Far-Right? Alex- They just reached out to us after Black Flags Over Brooklyn and it just seemed like a neat idea to do. It’s been some work but we’re pretty excited for it to finally see the light of day. As far as political Left vs Right, they are both corrupt as fuck - I don’t believe a fucking word they promise. Cory - Yeah, sadly all politics seem to lead me toward a sad and confusing place, however I am a supportive of many of the ideals that the above bands may support. Royce - the split came about after we played at Black Flags Over Brooklyn where Racetraitor and one of the NBDC folks’ noise project White Phosphorus also played. Shortly thereafter we were contacted and asked about the idea, and we jumped on board right away. I think we see the bands you mentioned as good friends and allies for the causes that we all feel strongly about You contributed your song “Arlington Cemetery” to the Riffs for Reproductive Justice compilation released by the Black Flags Over Brooklyn Festival. The UK and Europe overall are quite accepting of abortion, so to see such a polarising stance maintain such a stronghold in politics is actually quite alarming; how much of a concern is it in the USA at the moment? Mollie - Sadly, it’s always been a prominent battle for women’s health care rights in the USA. People are controlled often by their religious views and stand by them even when they are hardly devout to their religion and don’t really open their eyes to freedom of choice, especially when the choices are being made to in many circumstances save lives
and maintain health, mentally and physically. Royce - It feels like every election cycle a new shitstorm of debates flare up about this topic, which surely seems insane to most modern, free thinking people. It almost feels like “The Church vs.Science” sometimes, but I guess some people will just never be swayed no matter how many facts or statistics you throw at them. You were also invited to play the Black Flags Over Brooklyn festival, which was not only drew attention due to the overt ideologies that united a lot of the bands on the lineup, but also that a lot of the bands had worked with each other previously; what was the atmosphere like at the festival? Alex - It was amazing. It’s one of the few festivals I felt the entire room united, it was comparable to Northwest Terror Fest - this entire room with the one focused agreement and energy. People were really respectful during the bands and I thought everyone was having a lot of fun. The venue was absolutely stunning, it was really cool to have a chance to play there before it’s doors closed. Extremely nice of Kim Kelly to include us. Mollie - beautiful, warm and informative. Cory - I agree with the others. Nothing but positive vibes and a great time. Royce - Easily one of the dopest things we’ve ever done as a band. The atmosphere was just so positive. The people involved with the festival were incredibly accommodating and made us feel extremely comfortable and completely at home the entire weekend. Everyone we met somehow felt like we already knew each other. It was incredible. Embracing the seldom seen powerviolence music-video, you put out two very gnarly hand-drawn music videos for Black Salt and Moonstomp. What was the process of putting them together like and, to put it politely and what was your thought process when thinking about how the videos would play out? Cory - I drew and animated both of those videos. I think we maybe chatted about the idea for ‘black salt’ a little bit before I did it then I just went for it. ‘Moonstomp’ took a lot longer and was planned out to be released with to promote our s/t album but we didn’t discuss a premise or anything. it was just kind of a stream of consciousness kind of thing but obviously executed slowly.. just kept drawing whatever came to mind and making it morph into the next thing/scene. lots of paper. lots of scanning! Royce - Don’t let Cory undersell this, he spent hours and hours drawing hundreds of frames of hand drawn animation that he compiled and lined up completely on his own, and basically off the top of his dome. When he showed us the stacks of pencil drawings that he did for those videos, I was completely blown away. It’s just so dope when one of your best friends does something so sick and you just wanna gas them up any way you can.
What’s next for Closet Witch? Alex - There was a lot of touring scheduled throughout 2020 but that’s kind of up in the air right now so we’re switching back to writing. More splits and an EP in the works Cory - yep, as of now just writing and practicing as frequently as we can. Royce - A lot of new material coming out this year, hopefully. With live shows sort of being in this limbo state right now, we’re just trying to stay productive and write as much as we can. We already have several releases planned for this year, so we’re just hoping to release as much material as we can, and as soon as we’re able to hit the road again, we have a few pretty huge tour announcements that we’re hoping to be able to reschedule. For more Information, see below https://www.facebook.com/closetwitchband/ The Full extent of their Discography is also available to download via https://closetwitch.bandcamp.com/ While you’re here, if you haven’t listened to the “Riffs for Reproductive Justice” Compiliation, listen to it via the link below, False’ track is super-long but absolutely exquisite. https://blackflagsoverbrooklyn.bandcamp.com/
It Came from Bandcamp... Sometimes I get bored at work; sometimes, during those times, I search for random genres in Bandcamp, sort by newest arrivals and see what comes up. Here are some of the ones that were not complete Dogshit. Piss Horse – S/T OK, so I might have been drawn more to the name than anything else, but as far as unapologetic Thrash/Hardcore goes it’s pretty damn sound https://pisshorse1.bandcamp.com
Demagogue – Parasocial Sickness 2-piece Powerviolence from Sacramento. Reminds me of Cave State. https://demagoguepv.bandcamp.com
Litterbox Massacre – The Rise of Lucifur It’s sometimes hard to tell what is worse, Slam that takes itself seriously or Parody Slam; this record kind of straddles the two as it’s all about Cats, but also isn’t that bad and you can tell they’ve actually put effort into recording this. https://litterboxmassacre.bandcamp.com
Lifewrecker – Isolation London D-Beat/Grindcore wizardry; easily could be up there with Gets Worse and Endless Swarm in terms of being the best grindcore in the UK. Not to be mistaken with that god-awful beatdown band LifeRuiner from years ago. https://lifewrecker.bandcamp.com/album/isolation
LastBorn – Of Broken Bones Solid post-metal in the vein of Cult of Luna and Amenra with a bit of Svalbard-esque hardcore in the mix too. They’re from Minsk so it’s highly likely they won’t ever tour or even get much recognition outside of Belarus, which is a shame as it’s dead-good. https://lastborn.bandcamp.com/album/of-broken-bones
disastour Nobody wants to hear about the shows where there was a huge crowd or it went really well, the best stories are when you get chased by stray Dogs outside the Squat-venue somewhere in Greece, where you get harassed by a Hen-do who don’t like the music but like the look of you, or when someone dresses up as the Sea Captain from the Simpsons and refuses to break character the whole night. I don’t have many myself, but I know people who have terrible stories so this really goes out to them. First story is from Dicky, a mate of mine from as far back as 2007. We met at an absolute dreadful house party (FYI - it was my House Party) when we lived on the same campus; people into extreme metal were relatively few and far-between in Uni so it wasn’t long before I addressed the elephant in the room, that he was wearing a sick Emperor longsleeve and both of us completely dropped a bollock by missing Emperor’s final UK appearances the year before (not that it fucking matters anymore because they’ve reformed just like every other band out there). He plays in a band called The Drowning, he also has a Drone project which have the honour of dressing up in Plague-Doctor outfits a solid year before The Infernal Sea started doing it (don’t quote me on that though). I’m pretty certain he joined Descration and ENT on the basis he strikes a resemblance to the bassist at the time who was looking to wind-down his involvement. Now, for those who are not aware, Extreme Noise Terror were one of the many Crust-Punk/Hardcore/Grindcore bands that were championed by John Peel in the mid to late 80’s alongside Doom, Napalm Death, Carcass etc. This was over 30 years ago mind, and all that is left of the original incarnation of Extreme Noise Terror is Dean, who appears to be largely held together by Tape and Punk-Patches and pickled internally through years of alcohol and substance abuse; his lifestyle isn’t for me but you can’t help but admire his commitment to the cause given that crust-punk shows have been by far some of the smelliest and disgusting ordeals I have had to endure (imagine the constant smell of farts and stale beer from a metal show, but also throw in denim that hasn’t been washed for years, poor dental hygiene and an underlying smell of damp). Extreme Noise Terror is now essentially Desecration (South Wales Death Metal legends) plus the vocalist from Gorerotted plus Dean, ENT’s legacy being enought to warrant a relatively active touring schedule in the same way that Greg Ginn still insists on touring under the Black Flag name. The Following words are very much Dicky’s, not mine.
One gig immediately sprang to mind, my first show filling in for Extreme Noise Terror: A show I had found out about just two weeks previous, which in fact was part of a four date headline tour of Eastern Europe. I had never played a song of theirs in my life, and was asked to fill in on guitar, despite being a bass player for all my bands at that time and not really picked up a guitar in quite some time. If I remember rightly my response to the question was something along the lines of ‘I don’t know, but count me in’. I then had the simple task of learning 18 songs in two weeks learning a new guitar technique whilst still working 50 hours a week in a kitchen. The really good, but also really bad thing, for learning the ENT set is how similar the material sounds and how little there is to distinguish it from other songs, thus causing many brain meltdowns along the way. This turned out to be the easy part. The first date of the tour was in Prague with a flight from either Stansted or Gatwick the same morning. I got picked up from Bristol nice and early and we hit the road, all seemed to be fine. Around an hour into the journey we get a phonecall from Dean, (the sole original member of the band and the reason any of us are even getting to do this) saying that he was going to have trouble getting to the airport on time due to ‘400 nazis with machine guns’ surrounding his house. I get the look as if to say ‘here we go...’, he gets calmed down and makes his arrangements to get to the airport from Ipswich. I had heard of his ridiculous stories/ escapades so it was satisfying to see them so early into our trip. It’s worth noting at this point the first time I met him earlier that year his opening conversation was a solid 15 minute explanation of how amazing crack is. Whatever you may of heard about him, it’s probably true... We get to the airport with no issues and plenty of time to spare, we just have to wait for Dean, a large amount of time goes by, and he still hasn’t shown up, contact has been made so we know he’s on the way, we just don’t know where he is. The gate announces it’s open for boarding, still nothing, the entire rest of the plane boards, still, nothing. One of the guys decides to run back and see if he can find him, we’re asked by the staff to head to the plane as it’s almost departure time, we decide it’s better if 3/5 of the band make it rather than none of us so as we turn around to get on the plane we see a luggage trolley hurtling towards us with Dean curled up in a ball on it. He was at the bar. Close call... This seems like business as usual to the other guys so I just accept it and we have a very uneventful smooth flight.
On the other side we get into the arrivals lounge and Dean is adamant that we hit a bar before anything else, so we let him grab a pint while we do our bits before heading through security. As we go through we assume Dean has seen us and will follow, we wait on the other side, FOR TWO HOURS. They say touring is just a whole bunch of waiting around but that was a long ass wait, when he eventually comes through we find he’s taken valium and passed out next to the bar. When we get picked up for our lift to the venue we find that tonights show is sold out with another 50-80 people expected to show up and just try and peek in through the windows and listen to what they can from outside the venue. I’ve been running through the set in my head trying to get to that sweet spot of drunk where you’re loose but still able to function. Deans sinking a whole lot of whiskey and also not eating on account of the food being ‘sawdust’. Support bands play their sets and it’s time for us. Set up goes smoothly enough, so we just decide to go into the set and get it going as everyone is inside already (It’s not like the UK where you have to play the first song to an empty room to get anyone inside). We opt for the classic ‘wall of feedback’ intro and lay in wait for Dean to hit the stage before going into the first song. Five minutes go by, and he’s still not out and the sound guy asks whats going on. He goes to the backstage room and we keep rolling with the feedback and I feel like I’m doing a Drone set. Another painfully long ten minutes pass before we see Dean being carried towards the stage barely keeping his head up, NOT GOOD. We find he’s drank his whole bottle of whisky and then taken a load of valium. The time has finally come to play for Extreme Noise Terror. At this same time Dean, who is stood pretty close to me throws his hands up into the air, fall backwards and take out half the drum kit, along with yanking my guitar lead out of my pedals killing my sound dead. Fifteen minutes of build up for 2 seconds of one chord, ‘welcome to the circus’ I thought to myself... After scrambling together again while the sound guy and several concerned audience members gather round Dean, we decide things aren’t really going to improve so we just start the set again and if he manages to join in then cool, if not at least theres riffs. As we kick into the set proper this time around Dean’s still on the floor and there are stage divers, crowd surfers and drinks flying everywhere. He tries his best to do his vocal parts from the floor but he doesn’t have the energy to get the microphone close enough to his mouth to be heard. It’s too late now, just blast through the set and try to remember the riffs. The pressure was well and truly off by now as it didn’t matter what the hell I did, I was never going to be the focus of this show. Around halfwy through the first song he gets back to his feet and throws his arms up without falling over, maybe, just maybe things will be fine now. Of course they’re not, as soon as he starts doing vocals he falls back again, flat on his arse, luckily missing the gear this time. After a couple of songs that follow a similar pattern the sound guy grabs a chair and sits him on it right next to me. This is a fucking weird gig.
Around half way through I do the worst thing I could of ever done, I thought ‘I haven’t messed anything up yet’, and from then on I mess up riff after riff and theres points I’m sure we’re all playing different songs, never mind, just keep making noise, this is Crust after all, not Tech Death. At one point the sound guy asks me how many more songs we have left, I get the impression he was expecting me to say two or three, because when I told him ten, he gave me a look of dread, as he was physically holding Dean to the chair by this point. The last part of the set is a blur but I think there was a fight somewhere in the crowd, when we get to the last song the crowd gives one last flurry and I await the backlash after we get off stage... The people I speak to seem to of loved it, with several people saying it’s the most Punk Rock show they’ve ever seen, which I guess is how we got away with it. I come from a much more Metal background where technical perfection is the main merit which you are judged on. So it was quite nice to have an absolute shambles of a show go down so well. Apart from Curby, the organiser of Obscene Extreme Festival, he fucking hated it and vowed never to book the band ever again. As we get ready to leave the venue for our hotel it seems Deans made a miraculous recovery and is walking, talking relatively normally, he’s only gone and done meth. We then have the genius idea to confiscate some of it from him, so that we can give it to him before tomorrows show in case things take a similar turn. Dean travels seperately to us and on the way home we get pulled over by armed Police, with a bag of meth on us, no pressure... Luckily it was to tell our driver he had a tail light out, Ok, that’s enough excitement for one day. There was plenty more drama on that tour but that’s for another time...
Editor’s note: I would recommend, if you haven’t already, watch Extreme Noise Terror’s collaboration with The KLF at the 1992 Brit Awards.
Puzzle Corner Right, we're reaching end of the issue and I've got got a few more pages to fill; you know what time it is? PUZZLE TIME. Let's start with something dead-easy, here's some stars that were big in the 70's and 80's and had a bit of difficulty accepting nobody gives a shit about them anymore so hibernated until they became nostalgia acts.
so here's a juicy one about bands who openly talked shit about how god-awful Victory Records are Yep, the band that once released the likes of Snapcase, Earth Crisis and loads of other cool bands quickly became the running joke of the music industry as it stopped releasing iconic albums and instead signed literally every emo band under the sun for a defined period of time. Apparently they released an adult film in the 90's with Earth Crisis being played in the background, this is hearsay though as they did a really good job covering it up.
Puzzle Corner A load of forgettable Intercontinental Champions have just got lost in the Archives of WWF/ WWE History. Do them a favour and go look for them so they can go back to pretending they're in the same league as Curt Hening, Ricky Steamboat and Shawn Michaels. Seriously though, Ezekiel Jackson; the Jacket-boy for Brian Kendrick goes on to not only become the last "ECW" Champion, but has the Intercontinental Championship to his name yet still gets released without ever really leaving a legacy. Twat.
Trivia: - One of the Godfather's Ho's is a recognised WWF Hardcore Champion - Raven has been the WWF Hardcore Champion 27 times - 24 Wrestlers have held the Hardcore Championship for less than a day - Steve Blackman is the longest reigning Hardcore Champion, having held it for 172 Days over 6 separate reigns -At Wrestlemania 2000 the Hardcore Championship changed hands on 10 different occasions.
Available now at fhed.bandcamp.com Grief Ritual - Moments of Suffering
Brand new album from Gloucester’s finest. It’s essentially Rudiments of Mutilation by Full of Hell, only a bit slower and better recorded
Grief Ritual - Life is a Phase
Debut EP FFO: Trap Them, Rot in Hell and Minors. Set to play 2000 Trees this year (if it goes ahead)
Grim Existence - Expansion of Reality Gnarly Death Metal with Hardcore Riffs. First new material since 2014. FFO: Entombed, Leeched, Gatecreeper
The Atrocity Exhibit - Extinction Solution 12”
Latest full-length from the elder statesmen of UK Grindcore. FFO: Gets Worse, Wormrot, Human Cull and anything with Blastbeats.
Deus Vermin - Monument of Decay (CD)
Some of the best Death Metal to happen in 2018 and the heaviest stuff out of Leeds in years. FFO: Of Feather and Bone, Tomb Mold and Dragged into Sunlight.
Opium Lord / Churchburn split 7”
Split 7" between Blackened Sludgelords Opium Lord and US Sludge Heavyweights Churchburn
Acrid Pork Smell - Acrid Pork Smell EP
One-off side project featuring former/current members of Extreme Noise Terror, Desecration, The Drowning and Gorgantuan
Coming Soon Releases from Zek, Sewer Trench and Vacuous