Head Hits Concrete - Thy Kingdom Come Undone

Okay, this is awesome. Head Hits Concrete are a political grindcore band from Winnipeg, Canada. As some dude on the intertubes put it, they sound "like early Iron Lung, only out of tune". Just to clarify, out of tune = awesome in this case because holy fucking dissonance is this shit great.

I ended up buying this record from here (digital download only) and in all honesty, you should too. There's a lack of political/conscious grindcore right now and these guys need your support. The only reason I'm putting up a download link is because 1. it's not the whole thing (missing a good 10 or so tracks) and 2. more people need to hear this shit. I don't know about y'all, but I was pretty surprised to see that this band is hardly ever mentioned.

Just a quick breakdown of what I'm giving you here: 48 tracks of pure dissonant, aural assault and album artwork/booklet + liner notes/lyrics (just to put this record into context). Enjoy!

booklet | download

Lack of Interest

Lack of Interest are playing MDF and I'm fucking depressed because it's another band I've been dying to see at that damned festival. Check out the entire line-up here. Anyway, there's no point crying over this (yes, I cried). On to the music.

Lack of Interest are a powerviolence/fast band from Southern Cali. Stylistically they're very similar to Negative Approach and/or Infest (one of my favourite bands in the genre). That doesn't mean that you don't have to listen to these guys. You simply have to. They, along with Infest, personify every single thing I love about powerviolence. It's not just the music, it's also the vocals. The vocals here remind me of the sound I (or you) would make if someone took a nailgun and shot one of those 9-inch motherfuckers straight through the arm. Very angry, very loud and very grunt-like.

For those of you who skipped everything I just wrote to get to the links, let me break down what I've put here:

Double Whammy (split w/ Spazz)

Trapped Inside

Take Another Step

Split w/ Capitalist Casualties

low threat profile-s/t 7"

"this conversation is going nowhere"

old dudes showing us kids how to play powerviolence

here

On a completely unrelated note, I cannot stress how excellent gospel is, do not hesitate to jump on this

Jesus Cröst

Yeah, I know I've putting up a lot of grind/fast shit lately but this is my blog so fuck off.

Jesus Cröst are a fucking ace band from BELGIUM of all places. New favourites so you know you want to check them out. I'm putting up 2 albums of theirs: TOT and 010. They're going to be putting out a split with Phobia soon so cop that once it's done.

TOT

010

Magrudergrind @ Cake Shop (video)

Here's a video I took of (part of) Magrudergrind's set @ Cake Shop, Manhattan. They absolutely killed it. Fuck the Facts also played and they're amazing live and even though their singer is pregnant, she has insane amounts of energy. I have a video of FtF but haven't uploaded it to the 'Tube yet.

Misanthropic Noise (video)

I can't sleep so here's a couple of videos I managed to take during Misanthropic Noise's set. Misanthropic Noise are a grindcore band from the fucking woods of Connecticut of all places. They played the show as a 2-piece (bassist couldn't make it).

myspace.

Punch - S/T LP

The term "female fronted genre X band" has become somewhat of a trend these days, what with the predominantly male metal/hardcore scene suddenly finding itself welcoming bands whose harsh, shouty vocals are being performed by a female. I'm starting to resent that term because in many cases, the fact that the band is female fronted doesn't make even the slightest difference (unless it's clean vocals we're talking about). Case in point: Punch, a straight edge hardcore/powerviolence band from San Francisco (not surprisingly) who also happen to be vegan (fun fact). Their aptly named LP, released in 2009, delivers pretty much everything a hardcore/powerviolence/thrashcore fan looks for (not that there's a very long checklist or anything). It's fast, it's pissed off, it's vegan and the vocalist is just too damn cute. Check these guys out. Oh, did I mention I'm seeing them this summer? =D

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Buy & Support

scholastic deth-killed by school

Straight-edge thrashcore/powerviolence/whatever you want to call it from the San Fransisco bay area. They had a sound which differed from many of their peers, which seemed to take a lot of qualities from old-school hardcore, creating fast, fun and positive music with a message. This message dealt with everything from skateboarding, the love of coffee and life as a nerd, to the lack of substance and political awareness in hardcore today.

link

Get Destroyed

I've had this on my laptop for a while now but I finally bought it on vinyl the other day. Quality hardcore/powerviolence act.

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Knuckle Scraper

Knuckle Scraper is a powerviolence band from Texas, formed after Machine Gun Romantics broke up and they're now one of my favourite PV acts. This album is short and sweet, just how I like it.



Tracklist:

1. Gulf Coast Power Violence

2. Swollen Finger

3. Dona Thrash

4. C.T.L.D.

5. Alex Hughes Singa the Blues

6. Pizza Suicide

7. Wakari Masu Ka

8. Terminal

9. Max Isn't The Bastard

10: Dissin' The Fuzz Never Gets Old

11. Mo' Money, Mo' Problems

12. Big Man

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Filthpact

If any of you remember Uncalm (the crust band whose demo I put up before) from Scotland, this band features members from that same band. Filthpact is now no longer active but I recently found their album Plague Carriers of the Crust Apocalypse lying around on my HDD. It's great fun. There's also a link to their label, Moshpit Tragedy, where this album has been put up for download. So stop by and make a donation. You can pay whatever you want for the album.


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Mosphit Tragedy

french powerviolence

French powerviolence. Who would've thunk it? But no, these guys and girl serve up some of the rawest powerviolence that I've ever listened to. I'm not pretending to know a whole lot about the genre but I do know what i like. And i like this band.

Interesting fact, this very same band also exists as a blackened-sludgey-doomy-drone project called Monarch!. Same lineup but an entirely different "sound". Now I haven't found any material from this band as of yet, but I'll be sure to post that shit up as soon as i find it.

lnk

Thurisaz + UNCALM

I'm gonna compress 2 completely different albums into one post. Like it or not, here it comes.

Circadian Rhythm by Thurisaz


Thurisaz are kind of hard to categorize, especially on this album. I guess the most accurate description would be melodic/atmospheric black metal. That pretty much sums it up. The songs on this album are beautiful in their melody and they all have a very melancholic atmosphere which really seals the deal in making this a solid album. The musicianship is also brilliant. Thurisaz are definitely masters at what they do.
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The next album is actually a demo by a great powerviolence band from Aberdeen, Scotland called Uncalm. One of their members, Dave, has been in several bands of similar genres, the most notable being Filthpact (their album Plague Carriers of the Crust Apocalypse is fucking great) and actually used to be live in UAE. Anyway, their demo is simply blistering. Czech it.
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Time for some sick grindcore

I've only just listened to these albums and both of them have blown me away equally.
First up:
Magrudergrind s/t

Ah, definitely one of my favourite grindcore/powerviolence bands that come from the US. They haven't put out a single album that I didn't like but I'll say this: the new Magrudergrind is definitely 10 times better than the old.
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Next:
Agorapocalypse by Agoraphobic Nosebleed

HOLY FUCKING SHIT is all I could say after the first track of this album finished. ANb is also up there with my favourite grind bands (the guitarist is also the guitarist of Pig Destroyer) and this album is definitely testament to that (their other albums are fucking sick too). The thing about this album is that the songs actually have structure and Scott Hull (guitarist) really fucking kills it on here, with catchy riffs and even...wait for it...mini-solos! Also, there are only 13 tracks on here (as opposed to the 30+ tracks on other ANb records) and most songs are over 2 minutes (as opposed to the short and sweet songs on past ANb records). The vocalist is Kat from Salome (another sick band...watch for an update coming soon) and you couldn't believe it was her if I showed from this picture
Anyway, get this album if you're into having your face kicked in by a hailstorm of 10000 bpm drums, all topped off with some chaotic grind goodness. Fucking A!
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