10.31.2021

FUCKED UP

 







"oberon"
Year.  2022
Label:  Tankcrimes
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  5
Time:  24 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Prog Punk








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"one day"
Year:  2023
Label:  none
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  10
Time:  40 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Prog Punk








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"year of the horse"
Year:  2021
Country:  Canada
City:  Toronto
Label:  Tankcrimes
Format:  2 x CD
Tracks:  4
Time:  94 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Prog Punk













If you thought David Comes to Life was as epic as punk could get, Dose Your Dreams proved you wrong. If you then thought Dreams was the top of the prog-punk mountain, you were wrong again. Fucked Up’s newest entry in their zodiac series (until now, a series of extended 12-inch maxi-singles), Year of the Horse is four full sides of psychedelic epic punk story telling. As with all the Fucked Up concept records, the plot is complex and the record comes with a libretto that fills you in, ala the classic Italian operas. Very roughly speaking, the album is about a horse named Perceval that breaks free from the clutches of death and confronts the forces of the universe itself, other mystical horses and witches. Got that? No? That’s fine.

This record is crafted to be massive and not just sonic chewing gum (though simple, thumbs nappers are cool too) and to that end, it requires study and repeat listens to “fully “ grasp- and you won’t ever fully grasp it because with Fucked Up’s more recent King Crimson/Pink Floydian adventures, the record is just ambiguous enough to raise questions instead of fully answering them.

What’s particularly neat here is that record masterminds Mike Haliechuk and Jonah Falco have forged their most diverse and chameleon-onic sound bed to date. This record flips from Integrity style smashing to Metallica thrashing to Medieval lute play to robo-soul to goth Morricone to Sleep homage to something that sounds like slowed down trip hop, all in one continuous bleeding journey. The dozen plus guests here add to the sonic warp-sphere making this album a galaxy unto its own, and it also makes it a very unpredictable record. There is the risk of the record being too disjointed or too hoity-toity, but that never seems to happen. Why? Maybe the band stays on a theme just long enough before jumping to the next toadstool. Or, maybe it’s because every time the record approaches the indulgence of the worst of ‘70s prog, long running vocalist Damian Abraham comes in and smashes the thing back to earth, as aided by straight up hardcore guitar pummeling.

The album sounds like it wasn’t necessarily planned in advance. Rather, it seems that as the crew kept stacking ideas on top of each other, more and more ideas grew. That can result in a real mess of a record, or, as with records like Exile on Main Street or London Calling, it can result in something truly special when the band is in the zone. Now in their 20th year, Fucked Up is still in the zone (*Review by John Gentile ).
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"dose your dreams"
Year:  2018
Label:  Merge
Format:  2 x LP
Tracks:  18
Time:  70 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Prog Punk








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"year of the snake"
Year:  2017
Label:  Tankcrimes
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  2
Time:  30 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Prog Punk








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"year of the dragon"
Year:  2014
Label:  Tankcrimes
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  5
Time:  52 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:       Prog Punk







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"glass boys"
Year:  2014
Label:  Matador
Format:  CD, 2 x LP
Tracks:  10
Time:  42 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:       Prog Punk








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"year of the tiger"
Year:  2012
Label:  Matador
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  2
Time:  40 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Prog Punk








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"david comes to life"
Year:  2011
Label:  Matador
Format:  CD, 2 x LP
Tracks:  18
Time:  77 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:       Prog Punk
















David Comes to Life is the third studio album by Canadian hardcore punk band Fucked Up. It was released on June 7, 2011 in North America and June 6, 2011 elsewhere on Matador Records in CD and double LP formats. David Comes to Life is an 18-song epic in four acts. It became Fucked Up's first charting album in the United States ranking at number 83 on the Billboard 200.

The album is a rock opera set in 1970s and 1980s England. The story involves unreliable narrators and meta-narrative plot devices. Drummer Jonah Falco described the album as a love story between the title character David and a girl named Veronica.
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"year of the ox"
Year:  2010
Label:  Merge
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  2
Time:  25 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Prog Punk








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"the chemistry of common life"
Year:  2008
Label:  Matador
Format:  CD, 2 x LP
Tracks:  11
Time:  52 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:       Prog Punk














The Chemistry of Common Life is the second full-length studio album by Canadian hardcore punk band Fucked Up. It was released on October 7, 2008 on Matador Records in CD and double LP formats and on Welfare Records in Reel-to-reel Audio Tapes. The statement on the label's site describes it as "an expansive epic about the mysteries of birth, death, and the origins of life (and re-living)".

The album is named after a book by James F. W. Johnston, which (among other things) describes hallucinogenic properties of mushrooms and plants. The title for the track "The Peaceable Kingdom" is taken from a famous painting by American folk-painter Edward Hicks. The cover art depicts the phenomenon of Manhattanhenge. The album won the 2009 Polaris Music Prize.
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"hidden world"
Year:  2006
Label:  Jaded Tree
Format:  CD, 2 x LP
Tracks:  13
Time:  45 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:       Prog Punk







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"year of the dog"
Year:  2006
Label:  Blocks
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  3
Time:  30 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Prog Punk








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10.15.2021

PHOBIA

 








"generation coward"
Year:  2021
Country:  US
City:  Mission Viejo, CA
Label:  Willowtip
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  13
Time:  15 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Grindcore












Long revered as true masters of grind, Phobia return with their latest storming album Generation Coward and its a full-on attack on a generation obsessed with social media and its flaws, with the band sounding as pissed off as they always have, perhaps even more as all the songs on here are delivered with a seething vitriol that is all the more impressive seeing that the band have been around for almost thirty years.

Generation Coward follows on from 2017s Lifeless God and like that album, this is relentless grind with crust and hardcore punk elements thrown in for good measure from start to finish. Kicking off with the viciously paced groove of “Cynic Bastard”, a song that transforms from the intimidating beginning into foreboding grind in the blink of an eye and from then on in, the heaviness is unrelenting.

Tracks like “Excretion”, “Cut Throat”, “Falsification” and “To Be Convinced” are all berserk blasts of grind from start to finish and sound massive while “Haters Be Hating When Ya Living Good”, “Imbecile”, “Internet Tough Guy” and the South Park sampling “PC Fascist Fuck Off” hammer the targets of Generation Coward perfectly in true grindcore fashion.

Even when the pace is dropped a touch as on “Aspiration Lost” and the closing “Condemned To Tell”, Phobia lose none of their power and still sound as heavy and pissed off as when they are going full throttle. The 8 second “Bozo Of Grind” is also pure grind madness and the fact that Generation Coward is thirteen songs in fifteen minutes shows exactly how grindcore should be delivered and Phobia deliver it in spades. This is angry music for angry times and Generation Coward perfectly attacks its targets with the right mixture of black humour and furious audio venom ad shows that Phobia go from strength to strength with an undiminished resentment for the modern world (*Review by Gavin Brown ).
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"lifeless God"
Year:  2017
Label:  Deep Six
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  20
Time:  30 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Grindcore








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"grind core"
Year:  2012
Label:  Deep Six
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  17
Time:  20 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Grindcore







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"22 Random acts of violence"
Year:  2008
Label:  Deep Six
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  22
Time:  20 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Grindcore








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"cruel"
Year:  2006
Label:  Deep Six
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  20
Time:  22 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Grindcore








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"grind your fucking head in"
Year:  2004
Label:  Deep six
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  17
Time:  20 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Grindcore








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"serenity through pain"
Year:  2001
Label:  Deep six
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  23
Time:  40 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Grindcore








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"means of existence"
Year:  1998
Label:  Deep six
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  17
Time:  36 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Grindcore








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10.14.2021

EYEHATEGOD

 









"a history of nomadic behavior"
Year:  2021
Country:  US
City:  New Orleans, LO
Label:  Century Media
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  12
Time:  40 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:         Sludge Metal














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9.04.2021

TURNSTILE

 









"glow on"
Year:  2021
Country:  US
City:  Baltimore
Label:  Warner
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  14
Time:  30 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Hardcore













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time and space"
Year:  2018
Country:  US
City:  Baltimore
Label:  Warner
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  12
Time:  27 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Hardcore













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"non stop feeling"
Year:  2015
Label:  Reaper
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  12
Time:  26 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Hardcore








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"step 2 rhythm"
Year:  2013
Label:  Reaper
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  11
Time:  15 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Hardcore








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8.25.2021

PENDRAK

 










"idem"
Year:  2021
Country:  France
City:  Paris
Label:  Inhuman Homicide
Format:  CD
Tracks:  15
Time:  20 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Grindcore














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8.23.2021

MESHUGGAH

 









"contradictions collapse"
Year:  1991
Country:  Sweden
City:  Umeå
Label:  Nuclear Blast
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  8
Time:  55 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Groove Metal












Meshuggah is a avant-garde metal band formed in Umeå in 1987. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Jens Kidman, lead guitarist Fredrik Thordendal, drummer Tomas Haake, rhythm guitarist Mårten Hagström and bassist Dick Lövgren. Since its formation, the band has released eight studio albums, six EPs and eight music videos. Their latest studio album, The Violent Sleep of Reason, was released on 7 October 2016.

Meshuggah has become known for their innovative musical style and their complex, polymetered song structures and polyrhythms. They rose to fame as a significant act in extreme underground music, became an influence for modern metal bands, and gained a cult following. The band was labelled as one of the ten most important hard rock and heavy metal bands by Rolling Stone and as the most important band in metal by Alternative Press. In the late 2000s, the band was an inspiration for the djent subgenre.

In 2006 and 2009, Meshuggah was nominated for two Swedish Grammis Awards for their albums Catch Thirtythree and obZen, respectively. In 2018, the band was nominated for a Grammy Award for their song "Clockworks" under the "Best Metal Performance" category. The band has performed in various international festivals, including Ozzfest and Download, and embarked on the obZen world tour from 2008 to 2010, and also the "Ophidian Trek" .
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"destroy erase improve"
Year:  1995
Label:  Nuclear Blast
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  12
Time:  45 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Groove Metal








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"chaosphere"
Year:  1998
Label:  Nuclear Blast
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  8
Time:  40 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Groove Metal








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"immutable"
Year:  2022
Label:  Atomic Fire
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  13
Time:  50 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Groove Metal








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8.22.2021

BETTER THAN A THOUSAND

 









"just one"
Year:  1997
Country:  US
City:  Washington, D.C.
Label:  End Hits
Format:  CD
Tracks:  12
Time:  20 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Hardcore














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"value driven"
Year:  1998
Label:  End Hits
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  12
Time:  20 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Hardcore








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8.13.2021

ECOSTRIKE

 










"a truth we still believe"
Year:  2021
Country:  US
City:  Florida
Label:  Triple-B
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  9
Time:  21 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Hardcore














Let’s get something out of the way, I’m fucking straight edge. I feel it is important to lead with this pertinent information when it comes to reviewing this record. If you also identify with the lifestyle or perhaps you don’t and simply enjoy bands that have that classic Judge/Strife sound, I implore you, keep reading, we have a great record to talk about. Before A Truth We Still Believe came out, I was having a conversation with some friends about the state of straight edge music in 2020. One aspect we were ruminating on was the fact that bands of the subgenre just didn’t speak plainly anymore.

Many tracks that have come out in my recent memory seem to lean more on veiled messages, that for the uninitiated would be hard to discern. I’ve always thought the most effective lyrics in regards to straight edge were the ones that spoke directly. Think songs like “In My Eyes”, “Clear”, “Smash It," etc. With all this being said, South Florida's Ecostrike is veiling nothing in regards to their convictions on their sophomore performance and I am very about it.

I’ve always thought Ecostrike was pretty good. Previously, I was more into their vibe and message rather than their sound. I like Strife and I know since Ecostrike started they’ve been posited as a modern Strife incarnation, but on this new record I feel they have really come into their own. They find a cross point of sounding like Strife still, but incorporating some elements of Judge and making it sound distinctly from modern as opposed to something that could have been plucked from the New Age catalog back in the day. It sounds clean, tastefully metallic, and solid all around. My favorite song on the record is “Another Promise” because lyrically it hits so close to home.

Other standouts are “Count Me Out” and “A Truth We Still Believe," The latter of these two has an anthemic vibe that I’m sure will evoke the biggest of pile ons at the first show they are able to play off this record (Hell, I might go to said show myself just so I can join in). The tremolo harmonic work on “Letting Go” simply rocks and adds a cool guitar element to the track.

“A Better Way” reminds you that Ecostrike is also convicted in regards to animal’s lives, speaking plainly about veganism and empathy towards fellow sentient beings. When it comes to commitment, this record hits a lot of points.

A lot of the hardcore I first got introduced to was about unity, friendship, straight edge, and sticking to one’s word, this record brings me back to how I felt about those early records in my journey into the subculture. It’s like seeing an old friend’s child and seeing some much of their parent in their features, but the child being distinctly their own person as opposed to a copy. Having a sophomore LP best your debut LP is not an easy feat and Ecostrike has done it. I recommend everyone listen to this record at their earliest convenience and show anyone new to the genre looking for hardcore that has something real and sincere to say  (*Review by Ace Stallings )
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"voice of strength"
Year:  2018
Label:  Trible-B
Format:  CD, LP
Tracks:  7
Time:  17 min.
Genre:  rock
Style:        Hardcore








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