Pale Creation - Twilight Haunt

Well, Christmas seems to be well and truly winding down now. The boxes of chocolates are down to the ones that nobody eats and the tree is starting to really display the fact that it was murdered over 2 weeks ago now and would like to be placed outside to rot with dignity.

Christmas is a big thing in our house and across our whole family, we love it. We cooked Christmas dinner at our house this year ('we' being subjective, my partner did the majority) for her side of the family in the day, then had my side over at night for dinner-aftermath-coma drinks and snacks. Then a party at her mums on Boxing day. And then a party at my Dads the day after that. So now the post-Christmas blues are really setting in. A melancholy mood calls for a melancholy record, so it's fitting that just before the festivities kicked off, this turned up - the recent vinyl pressing of Pale Creation's Twilight Haunt LP. Only available on CD up until now (or free download courtesy of HolyTerror.com) A389 have put this out and it looks great.

Original artwork blown up to fit the sleeve and it's pressed on a black and blue splatter (again, looking so good) or 'Blue Storm' as it was called officially. Only 250 pressed, and it's one of those 'never to be repressed' deals.

This album came out first in 1999 and is still their only full length release. If you listen to their output before this LP, they had kind of a cheesy thrash sound so it's pretty amazing how different they sound on this. Mid-paced, sorrowful and extremely dark, there's a metallic crispness and crunch to the rhythm section but with the vocals and lead guitars drenched in reverb it lends the whole affair and desolate and hollow vibe, with an incredible atmosphere. A very interesting addition to the Holy Terror collective.

Pulling Teeth - Lightning Strikes Twice #129 / 250

Hardcore's current love affair with the flexi continues with this Pulling Teeth one-off release.

'Lightning Strikes Twice' is a cover of the Rorschach track by the same name and was pressed to go on tour with PT when they recently came over to Europe. Europe seemed to not include England on this tour so I grabbed this from the A389 store when they had a few leftover. 250 of these in total, 125 on clear.

I'm a big fan of Pulling Teeth and would have bought this whatever was pressed on it, but it just so happens that this cover is really fucking good. Hammers home the sad news that PT have just announced that after the A389 bash in January they're calling it a day.

Hand numbered sleeves, cunningly written in black ink on black print, making it damn near impossible for us blog nerds to get a photo. But this is number 129. Or 124.

Oh yeah, I also ordered ...

Lots of posts in quick succession lately, I'm working through a backlog! This post is in a way the second part to my Pulling Teeth post from the other day, as I ordered a couple of 7"s from A389 at the same time. I felt like PT deserved a post all to themselves for Funerary, so here's what else was in the box all the way from Baltimore. Now, to me the record mailer seemed to be bursting at the seams for a 12" and two 7"s, but more on that later...First out the box, Pulling Teeth split with Shin To Shin.

The Pulling Teeth side is an earlier recording of a track that would end up on Funerary. Slightly more rough round the edges but all the better for it, the Slayer channeling solo sounds even better. Pressed on a sort of camo green. This and everything else listed here I have not much clue on pressing amounts. Dom seems to keep this pretty secret most of the time.

Shin To Shin are probably better know as 'Aaron Melnick who used to play guitar in Integrity's new band'. Their song on here isn't exactly ground breaking but pretty good nonetheless. It doesn't sound 'Clevo' at all really which I suppose is what I was expecting. I was into it, the vocals have a ton of reverb on them which sound pretty cool.

Next up, Canadian Holy Terror band Withdrawal. I've had the download of this on my iPod for a while and it's steadily grown on me more and more so figured it was time to own something real. Pressed on grey. The artwork on this by Give Up.

That was all I ordered. With most orders from most labels, this is where the post would end. Regular readers might remember when I ordered 2 of the new 7"s from A389 a month or so ago that Dom threw in an extra free 7"? Well this time he went nuts.

Gray Ghost 7" 'Succubus' pressed on red.

 Never heard of these and I was blown away. Chaotic and incredibly heavy, guitar tone is so thick it sounds like its struggling to  get out of my speakers. The artwork ties in great with the vinyl colour and looks real nice.

Die Young 7" 'Loss' pressed on a kind of clear gold. Musically, these reminded me of Shai Hulud in a way. A serious, fairly technical metallic hardcore. The unexpected female backing vocals on the first track sounded amazing.

Curiously, Oak's latest 12" 'ii', sent without a sleeve.

No idea why, maybe there are some leftovers that arrived without a sleeve or something? Who knows. Oak play doom metal. It's so doom, and so slow, that in between drum hits and guitar strums you wonder if the song has actually stopped. Look at the song lengths -

I actually really liked this, you can phase out to it, and in its savage, bleak way its almost relaxing.

And finally, something called a CD. These are a new signing to A389, Full Of Hell and this was released a few weeks ago. It's really good. Frantic, caustic, really abrasive stuff.

Technology eh?

That's a ton of extra records, and I was blown away. I was already considering making sure that I get round to ordering everything A389 released from now. It always sounds brilliant, it always looks brilliant and it just seems like such a great label, one you can rely on and whose releases always float my boat. The fact that I really enjoyed all of these randomly picked bands from the label confirmed that decision.

Pulling Teeth - Funerary 2x12" version.

This album, Funerary by Pulling Teeth, is in my humble opinion the best album released in 2011. I was toying with the idea of throwing in with a lot of other websites and doing a 'Best of 2011' list but seeing as it's so late in the year that I'm able to feature this album and seeing as this would be at the top anyway I'm ditching that idea. I've had this on a pretty heavy rotation since it came out at the start of the year and it never fails to blow me away. The first half of the record storms out of the gate in traditional PT style, but then makes some pretty progressive moves towards the final few songs. But it's never jarring, and it all gels together to make one overall fantastic experience listening to it.

This one time pressing of a 2x12" gatefold version of Funerary sold out at the pre-order stage back in May and I missed it. Released by A389 and limited to 250 on black.

Rather than order the standard version I thought I'd wait it out with the digital copy for company. It paid off, because recently A389 put some leftovers up in the rarities section of their store. The cover artwork (which is no different than the regular version) is brilliant and sticks to the theme and style laid down in past PT artwork, including that good old red tentacle / snake thing that appears on every one of their albums.

Good use of a gate-fold, more brilliant art. A nice touch is the center labels on the flip sides of both 12"s. Various members of the band lost family members during making the album and I'm assuming that these are old family photos. The album has a big dedication to the people who passed away and a lot of the subject matter focuses on it. It's a cool personal touch.

Hardcore album, metal album, progressive, psychedelic and daring. Hard to really define what it is accurately. But it's definitely not going to be beaten this year. Unless there's another album that's got a breakdown as good as the one in From Birth. Or another album with a ten minute epic sludge-doom track that features electronic walls of noise, ghostly choirs, sombre violin and vocal contributions from Dwid, Mike Apocalypse from Gehenna and Nick Fiction from Pale Creation. Doubt it...

A389 Order - Kill Life flexi, Hatewaves 5" & Triac 7"

A few weeks ago A389 put up a load of new releases for pre-order. I (upsettingly) couldn't afford the full package deal for everything, so I picked the 2 that I could not miss out on. First up, Kill Life featuring Mike Williams on vocals. Now, any band featuring Mike Williams from Eyehategod on vocals will be pretty special. Factor in that Kill Life are rumoured to feature members of Pulling Teeth, Integrity and Fucked Up and it becomes something unbelievably cool. A super short blast of dirty hardcore with Mike's pained yelling. A full length would go down nicely. Only 125 of these made on red, and available only as a flexi-disc.

The flexi (a thin, bendy sheet of vinyl) seems to be having a revival within hardcore lately. Organized Crime pressed some flexi's of Integrity's original demo Harder They Fall earlier in the year and A389 have also pressed some for Pulling Teeth and Gehenna rarities. I assume the main reason is because it's cheap, but also probably as it's a bit different and makes for a cool collectible. Although I have no idea how to store it, it's got the sturdiness of a piece of paper.


Secondly, Hatewaves new release - another EP, this time on a 5". Called 'The Tombs' it continues the theme of using Pulling Teeth drummer Alex Henderson as a sort of muse, with songs inspired by the stuff that pisses him off. Like the last one,  it somehow manages to sound massively heavy yet quite funny at the same time. 'Pride' vents anger at gay pride marches only because he struggles to park his car - "DON'T PARK IN MY SPACE, I GET IT. YOU'RE GAY". 7 songs in around 3 minutes, they also manage to pack in a hypnotic instrumental so that the final 2 second blast of 'NY Cops' slaps you in the face for not paying attention.  Packaged in a gate fold sleeve which is surely a first for a 5"  (500 of these done I think) and with a business card for Henderson.

And as a nice surprise and because Dom at A389 is a generous dude, he threw in the new Triac 7" for free. One of the pre-orders I didn't order. It's basically ear splitting grindcore, played at a speed and with a violent frenzy that is surely dangerous for the band and anybody listening. Its pretty awesome. 

Scott Hull is credited for mastering the 4 tracks here, and if that's THE Scott Hull, it goes some way to explaining the sheer carnage on offer. 

Gehenna - The War Of The Sons Of Light And The Suns Of Darkness. Andthe split with Blind To Faith.

When is buying records more enjoyable than usual? When you're not paying for them...

These two were bought by way of a Deathwish voucher, given to me from my brother for my birthday a few weeks ago. Deathwish themselves had nothing that tickled my fancy so I tapped up their brilliant distro for two Gehenna releases on A389 Records.

The infamous Gehenna. Dark & chaotic Holy Terror style. Their War Of The Sons Of Light and The Suns Of Darkness LP is a collection of early cassette, split 7" and unreleased tracks all from around 94-95. All out of print since forever and kindly reissued by A389 on grey/red haze vinyl. More of a red with grey explosion, but still looks good. Limited to 200. 

I'm into the Medieval satanic end-times artwork. Suits it all perfectly. Gehenna in the early days had a reputation for intense and violent live shows, rumours of stabbings and all sorts. A lot of it is probably well constructed mystique but there aint no doubting that they're the real deal. And vocalist Mike Apocalypse (or Mike Cheese or a bunch of other names) certainly gives zero fucks in interviews.

Definatley a party i wouldn't want to go to. All the demons is one thing, but being force fed frogs? I'm out. No matter how well it may enlighten the path to wherever. This LP is raw and nasty and totally brilliant. And so with the rest of my Deathwish Dollars, i snapped up the Gehenna /  Blind To Faith split.

This came out last year. Now im no scaredy little girl, but the Gehenna tracks are terrifying. Raw production, oddly placed psychedelic lead guitar drenched in reverb and Mike's creature-from-hell vocals. Its pretty amazing.

Great artwork too by Szymon Siech. Blind To Faith on the B-side feature members of Rise & Fall and play a stripped back, pretty dark metal punk hybrid. They've got a full length out on Holy Terror Records which i've got iPod style and it's brilliant. Something else for the shopping list. This split pressed on a grey marble. I have no clue about pressing amounts but i'd imagine its somewhere in the hundreds.

Hatewaves - Taste The Beast

The 3 things i found about about this Hatewaves 7" just before I bought it were all I needed to know - 

1. It was released on A389 Records

2. It featured members of Pulling Teeth

3. It would sound a bit like Iron Lung.

I wasn't disappointed one bit. This is the pressing on good old fashioned black, although I have no idea how many were pressed on this or the clear version. I wish A389 had some sort of pressing info on their site but that would make them just too perfect. Seriously, i want to buy everything that they put their name to. So much cool stuff.

Blank flip side, the tracks on this are pretty short - 6 tracks in under 3 minutes. Really solid stop-start grind/pv influenced hardcore shenanigans.

The lyrics and subject matter are refreshingly weird and humorous so it sounds like it was a shit load of fun to make. It will always be cool to hear an NYHC style, gang vocal beatdown section ripping into 'Facebook Abusers'. They've got a new 5"coming out soon on A389 which will definitely be one to look out for.

Part 1 of ROT IN HELL - 12"s.

The eventual aim of this blog is to post only about new records that the postal service doth deliver unto me. Im going to avoid posting about all the vinyl I've collected up until now for the most part but, like with the ANB stuff, there's a couple of bands in my collection that I'm going to add here anyway. Mainly because I aim to add to what I've already got and I want it all up here. So there. Breaking my own rules. 

Anyway. Onwards. The first part of my Rot In Hell collection. RIH are one of my favourite hardcore bands currently together and releasing music. I'm talking top 3. They might be number 1. They're also from the UK, which makes it double brilliant. They play a ferocious breed of Holy Terror, with all the right nods to Integ and Gehenna. And if that doesn't sound good, then you done goofed.  First up, my 12"s.

This is the Hallways Of The Always LP, released on A389 Records. A collection of tracks from the demo 7" and the split 7"s they did up to a point. Any RIH fan will know that they release a split 7" about once a week so it's far from complete, but nice to have some early stuff all in one place.

Front cover art. I love this. Badass forest/Process Cross combo.

It's a gatefold deal. Photo of the band. 

Nothing special there you say? What's that? You say there should be a Process Cross embossed on each band members face that only shows up when you hold it towards the light? Well look again...

Pressed on black with white splatter, limited to 800.

Next is the bands latest and first full length release, As Pearls Before Swine. Needless to say it's balls out and one of the best things I'll hear all year.The cover art is a piece by Jacob Bannon, and it's some fucked up rat skeleton just so you know what time it is.

The gatefold cover folded out, double rat skeleton.

Inside the gatefold, which has the tracklist and a dead animal. I suppose it could be sleeping. It's not. 

This is on the back of the lyric sheet. I don't know what that is.

The vinyl itself is brilliant. I've never seen such a cool mix of colour used to better effect. It's listed as Orange/Gold mix on the Deathwish release list.

It matches the artwork perfectly, and the rotting rust effect it gives suits the corrosive sound to the music.

Released by Deathwish, only 300 pressed.

Lastly, the Nui live LP. it's not an LP i guess, clocking in at just over 20 mins with 5 tracks but it rips anyway. I had no idea this had been released. I spotted it browsing A389's webstore looking for Weekend Nachos vinyl to buy and ordered it instantly. Originally released to raise cash for the bands flight over to Baltimore to play at the A389 Birthday Bash i believe. 

Awesome silk-screened cover.

Black vinyl and the insert. The insert gives details of when it was recorded and it reads like it was performed in front of a selected, invited audience. Lots of other stuff too like how 'the prescence of the Barghest' was in their midst and how 'some doors should never be opened'. I just wish I was there. It's a pretty stark package but works really well.

Best of all is the flip, which is blank vinyl. 

This looks like the shiniest, smoothest, blackest thing know to man. I love seeing a blank vinyl flip-side. Process Cross in the centre. Released on A389. One time only press of 300. Done deal.

Part 2 of this will be all my RIH 7"s, which I'll get up here soon.