positive punk

7.27.2019

BOLT THROWER

"in battle there is no law"
Year: 1988
Label: Vinyl Solution
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 9
Time: 30 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"realm of chaos"
Year: 1989
Label: Earache
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 11
Time: 38 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"war master"
Year: 1991
Label: Earache
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 9
Time: 44 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"mercenary"
Year: 1998
Label: Metal Blade
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 10
Time: 45 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"those once loyal"
Year: 2005
Label: Metal Blade
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 9
Time: 35 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"Tribute"

Year: 2017

Label: Cvlt Nation

Format: digital

Tracks: 9

Time: 50 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Death Metal

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7.26.2019

PYREXIA

"system of the animal"
Year: 1997
Label: SE
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 8
Time: 24 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

Life is all about second chances. Maybe it’s reconnecting with a lost love, maybe it’s trading in your career as a corporate accountant to finally give your photography hobby your full attention, or maybe it’s re-recording an album from 25 years ago because the finished product never really felt finished.

Our friends in Strong Island’s Pyrexia have opted for the latter with SYSTEM OF THE ANIMAL 25, a complete do-over of said album with the band’s current (and arguably strongest) lineup and the benefit of 21st century production tools. Now much of the time, these kinds of re-recordings can feel more like a vanity project for the artist’s own self-indulgence (George Lucas anyone?) and ultimately only end up creating divisions between the fans. But everything about this one feels more genuine in its approach.

For starters – much of the band’s post-SERMON OF MOCKERY output has been lost to time and bad publishing deals and are only available via YouTube rips or through very expensive used outlets. Secondly – not many folks heard this album when it came out in 1997. Still reeling from the onset of Grunge and bracing for the coming wave of Nu Metal, traditional metal bands were at a loss for an audience and were treading water to stay alive (I saw Voivod open for Pro-Pain around this period if that’s any indicator of how bad things were). SYSTEM OF THE ANIMAL came and went, Pyrexia persevered with more albums and more tours, and eventually the scene right sized itself again. Lastly – the band has been on an absolute tear lately. Between 2018’s UNHOLY REQUIEM and 2021’s GRAVITAS MAXIMUS, Pyrexia has not only reintroduced themselves to the underground metal community but reasserted their dominance crushing riffs and blunt force trauma. Chalk that up to lineup stability, Chris Basile’s growth as a songwriter and producer, and Jim Beach’s vocals from hell – an unholy death metal trinity.

If you’ve never heard the original SYSTEM OF THE ANIMAL, you’re fine and in good company (see previous statements), SOTA 25 is the definitive version and will knock you on your arse in ways the original never quite could. Thanks to beefier production values, there’s a density to tunes like “Downsized” and “Purging the Nemesis” that are painfully absent from the original. And then there’s vocalist Jim Beach; the man’s voice sounds like Cookie Monster made love to a garbage disposal, it’s otherworldly. No disrespect to journeyman vocalist Keith DeVito’s original performance, but his delivery has always been snarly and much less guttural. In the right context he’s great (see Internal Bleeding’s IMPERIUM), but hearing Beach snarling his filth across “Unpurged” makes it a night and day listening experience.

As for the tunes themselves? They hold up. That mid/late 90’s period saw a lot of traditional death metal bands leaning into hardcore tropes and SOTA was at the forefront of that experimentation. Don’t get me wrong – this is as brutal of a death metal record as you could hope for, but the riffs are compact and the breakdowns are a plenty. For what it’s worth, that sound would eventually evolve into the Slam scene we all know and love today, so there ya go, Pyrexia was ahead of their time. If you enjoyed the original SYSTEM OF THE ANIMAL, you’ll certainly dig SOTA 25. If you had no idea this was a retread of older material, you’ll dig it even more. Either way, Pyrexia is back and ready to rage. You’ve been warned (*Review by Aaron Yurkiewicz ).

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"sermon of mockery"
Year: 1993
Label: Drowned
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 8
Time: 26 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"unholy requiem"
Year: 2018
Label: UL
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 8
Time: 28 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"feast of iniquity"
Year: 2012
Label: Unique Leader
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 10
Time: 26 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"age of the wicked"
Year: 2007
Label: UL
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 10
Time: 30 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"system of the animal 25 anniversary"

Year: 2023

Label: Gravitas

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 8

Time: 24 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Death Metal

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"gravitas maximus"

Year: 2021

Label: ULR

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 8

Time: 36 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Death Metal

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7.17.2019

NORTHLANE

"mesmer"
Year: 2017
Label: Rise
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 11
Time: 45 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Metalcore

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"node"
Year: 2015
Country: Australia
City: Sydney
Label: Rise
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 11
Time: 45 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Metalcore

Australian soft and melodic metalcore band from Sydney, formed in 2009. The band comprises guitarists Jon Deiley and Josh Smith, bassist Alex Milovic, drummer Nic Pettersen and vocalist Marcus Bridge. Northlane have released four studio albums: Discoveries (11 November 2011); Singularity (22 March 2013), which reached No. 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart; Node (24 July 2015), a number one album and Mesmer (24 March 2017). Northlane is a melodic metalcore band from Sydney, Australia. Having emerged in 2009, they maintain all the angst and aggression of conventional hardcore punk, however have crafted a fresh and innovative approach to modern metalcore into their style, mixing agressive and noisy parts, with melodic and soft parts.

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7.12.2019

CANNIBAL CORPSE

"butchered at birth"
Year: 1991
Label: Metal Blade
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 9
Time: 40 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

This is a top album by the band over their enormous career. The fact that it's a follow-up from the debut album, they show much superiority in songwriting here, my favorite ever. Barnes is better on here than 'Tomb of the Mutilated', he wasn't so burly sounding, just gruesome enough to show us that he's at his mightiest. The tempos of the songs are pretty fast and the riffs are top-notch. So are the leads. I'm surprised that at early on their style was ingenious. They knew how to construct death metal that has now lasted over 30 years. On 'Butchered At Birth', they took time to formulating riffs that instill precision.

There is no downfall found in this album, it's purely immaculate in its entirety. They really show the listener what a great release is where it's at: IT'S ON HERE! Barnes has no variability on here. It's purely deep throat the whole way through and the guitars are as I've said ingenious. The leads are quality too. I think it took quite a while to construct music like this because not only is it original sounding, but it's unique too. All of the songs took a shit-ton of guts to put forth throughout the entire entourage. These guys know how to kill it and not only that but KILL IT ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE ALBUM!

It's my favorite Cannibal Corpse release to this date. I'm not just jumping on the bandwagon here, I'm being honest about my preference in this respect. Barnes is solid the whole way through the way that wasn't evident on it's predecessor nor the follow-up from this on 'Tomb of the Mutilated'. I've found no flaws on this album and it'll continue to remain my favorite of all time. The music, vocals, production and sound quality is all tight. And Jack/Bob rip it up here on the guitars. Original member Alex Webster racks it on bass as well. Not to mention Glen Benton guest vocals on a track on here to show you that they were at a high level early on.

I bought this CD a while ago and you can probably hear it on YouTube if you're a newbie death metal fan or metal fan at that. I didn't find any flaws on here throughout the release. I would say support the band and buy the CD. They could use the support. And forget the digital, pull out your boom box and listen to it on there. That's where I started listening to it so take back time and go old school! These guys always showed that potential and on here they deliver. Definitely will remain my favorite release on here of all time but that doesn't mean the newer material is bad in any respect! Check this out! (*Review by Orbitball ).

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"tomb of the mutilated"
Year: 1992
Label: Metal Blade
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 9
Time: 36 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"the bleeding"
Year: 1994
Label: Metal Blade
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 10
Time: 40 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"vile"
Year: 1996
Label: Metal Blade
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 11
Time: 36 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"gallery of suicide"
Year: 1998
Label: Metal Blade
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 14
Time: 36 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"bloodthirst"
Year: 1999
Label: Metal Blade
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 11
Time: 36 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"gore obsessed"
Year: 2002
Label: Metal Blade
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 11
Time: 36 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"the wretched spawn"
Year: 2004
Label: Metal Blade
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 13
Time: 45 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"torture"
Year: 2012
Label: Metal Blade
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 12
Time: 44 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"a skeletal domain"
Year: 2014
Label: Metal Blade
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 12
Time: 40 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"red before black"
Year: 2017
Label: Metal Blade
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 12
Time: 36 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Death Metal

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"violence unimagined"

Year: 2021

Label: Metal Blade

Format: LP

Tracks: 11

Time: 40 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Death Metal

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"chaos horrific"

Year: 2023

Label: Metal Blade

Format: CD, LLP

Tracks: 10

Time: 36 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Death Metal

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7.03.2019

YOUTH OF TODAY

"break down the walls"
Year: 1986
Country: US
City: Brookyn, NY
Label: Revelation
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 16
Time: 29 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Hardcore

Arguably one of the leaders of the second wave of straight edge (vegan, anti-drugs, anti-alcohol) in the mid-'80s, Youth of Today was a New York-based band started by ex-Violent Children members Ray Cappo on vocals and John Porcelly on guitar. Rounding out their lineup in 1985 with Graham Philips on bass and Darren Pesce on drums, Youth of Today recorded and released their debut EP, Can't Close My Eyes, on Positive Force, a well-known straightedge mainstay. Philips and Pesce exited shortly thereafter, and lineup changes abounded until a five-piece settled long enough to record the band's first full-length offering, 1986's Break Down the Walls. Again, the band had more lineup changes after the release and subsequent tour for Break Down the Walls, and in 1988 a four-piece Youth of Today consisting of Cappo, Porcelly, Walter Schreifels on bass, and Sammy Siegler on drums went into the studio to record their follow-up full-length, We're Not in This Alone (1988). By 1990 Youth of Today had decided to call it a day and released a farewell 7" EP on Revelation (soon to become the leading light in the next wave of straightedge). Now known as Ray 2 Day, Cappo formed the Krishna-core band Shelter, which Porcelly eventually joined as well. In 2010 the band returned until nowadays.

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"we're not in this alone"
Year: 1988
Label: We Bite
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 13
Time: 27 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Hardcore

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6.25.2019

EL RENO RENARDO

"regreso al metalverso"

Year: 2024

Label: Maldito

Format: CD

Tracks: 16

Time: 60 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Heavy Metal

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"el mundo se va a la mierda"

Year: 2021

Label: Maldito

Format: CD

Tracks: 12

Time: 50 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Heavy Metal

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"hostiopatía"
Year: 2018
Country: Spain
City: Getxo
Label: Maldito
Formato: CD
Tracks: 12
Time: 60 min.
Lyrical themes: parody
Genre: rock
Style: Heavy Metal

This project was born in 2006 in Getxo, near Bilbao, by the hand of Jevo, guitarist of Valhalla and Soulitude. After having tried and failed a similar stupid metal project called Metalcrilator together with members of Valhalla, he decided to get down to work and do it only under the name of El Reno Renardo. Satiric, ironic, humoristic and parodic heavy metal band, who writes lyrics about social issues, personal issues, politics and all subjects related to society. According to the band they make: "freak metal". El Reno Renardo sound strictly musical as heavy metal and hard rock, but they have an undisputed attitude, putting all their discography avaible totally free in their own web, writing critical lyrics and making benefit live concerts. They are honest, modest and sincere. No rock stars at all, but just common people.

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"babuinos del metal"
Year: 2012
Label: Maldito
Format: CD
Tracks: 12
Time: 60 min.
Lyrical themes: parody
Genre: rock
Style: Heavy Metal

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"el improperio contraataca"
Year: 2010
Label: Maldito
Format: CD
Tracks: 15
Time: 60 min.
Lyrical themes: parody, irony
Genre: rock
Style: Heavy Metal

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"el reino de la cagalera de bisbal"

Year: 2008

Label: none

Format: CD

Tracks: 15

Time: 40 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Heavy Metal

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6.18.2019

BAD MONGOS

"mongo machine"
Year: 2019
Country: Catalonia (Spain)
City: Palafrugell
Label: B-Core
Format: LP
Tracks: 12
Time: 22 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk Rock

Founded in 1998, after intense rehearsals in 2000, they recorded their first self-titled and self-produced album. 9 songs recorded at the Costa Brava Ultramarine Studios in St. Feliu de Guíxols by Santi García. In 2001 Graban Green Knees & Carpet Burns, a split of 7 songs, again in Ultramarinos Costa Brava. This time edited by Fandango Records (Washington DC). Split shared with the Belgians The Ones. The following year, faithful to Santi García, they record a couple of songs, one of which goes to a compilation of the French label Bannana Juice Records. In 2003 the band dissolved to return 12 years later, with changes in the formation. Little time passes when they return to enter the same studio to record "Shoot the bullet". Edited in 2016 with the collaboration of BCore Disc. 13 new themes betting on simplicity and effectiveness. At the end of 2018, following the tradition, they return to Ultramarinos Costa Brava to record their last album to date. 12 songs with a more vintage sound but with more adrenaline charge. It goes on sale in May 2019 again under the label of Bcore Disc. Bad Mongos has shared the stage with The Dictators, Glucifer, Mr. No, Gas Drummers, Burning Heads, Michale Graves, Sonny Vincent, Jerry Spider Gang, Sin City Six, PPM, Adam West, No More Lies, Rockzilla, 13th Magic Skull, Safety Pins, Bullitt, Bellako, etc.

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"shoot the bullet"
Year: 2016
Label: B-Core
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 13
Time: 24 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk Rock

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6.03.2019

SEPULTURA

"morbid visions"
Year: 1986
Label: Warner
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 9
Time: 40 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Thrash Metal

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password: brownsock

"schizophrenia"
Year: 1987
Label: Warner
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 9
Time: 40 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Thrash Metal

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"beneath the remains"
Year: 1989
Label: Warner
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 9
Time: 42 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Thrash Metal

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"arise"
Year: 1991
Label: Warner
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 12
Time: 42 min.

Genre: rock
Style: Thrash Metal

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"chaos ad"
Year: 1993
Label: Warner
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 12
Time: 45 min.

Genre: rock
Style: Thrash Metal

SEPULTURA is a brazilian thrash metal band from Belo Horizonte. Formed in 1984 by brothers Max and Igor Cavalera, the band was a major force in the death metal, thrash metal and groove metal genres during the late 80s and early 90s, with their later experiments drawing influence from nu metal, hardcore, punk and industrial music. SEPULTURA has had several changes in its lineup since its formation, with Max and Igor Cavalera departing in 1996 and 2006, respectively. SEPULTURA's current line up consists of vocalist Derrick Green, guitarist Andreas Kisser, bassist Paulo Jr. and drummer Eloy Casagrande.

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