Sunday, November 18, 2012

Respect Due compilation 7"

Here's a fairly obscure compilation 7" I came across recently. Released on Brick Records in 1996, it features 4 quite distinct bands, making this a somewhat weird, but also very cool compilation that showcased 2 Massachusetts bands, Intent To Injure and Lockdown, and 2 bands from Rhode Island, Time's Expired and Temperance. Brick Records was, and still is, (co-)run by Josh Gagne of Intent To Injure, who also goes by the name Truth Elemental. The label is still around but releases hiphop/rap records. I don't know if there were any other hardcore releases on Brick Records? ITI do a Black Flag cover here, decent enough but it doesn't really stand out. Time's Expired's song is great groovy new school hardcore with rap vocals, the song was taken from their self-titled 7". Lockdown was a hardcore band which had broken up in '94 or so, but got back together again. This was their first recording since reforming I believe. Excellent heavy tuned down metallic hardcore, I wish I had more of their material. Temperance's song was taken from their self-titled 7", great mix of emo and metallic new school hardcore. A sweet compilation all in all. Enjoy!

Respect Due compilation 7"

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Persevere - 1997 demo

Ages ago I posted the Positive Youth/Persevere split 7", and wrote that Persevere had potential and wondered about their other recordings. Recently a cool guy named Arvid 'the BF' gave a me a bunch of 90s demo's, and one of them is Persevere's 1997 demo, their only other recording. So here it is. It's an excellent demo of 90s metallic & melodic 'new school' hardcore mixed with some emo-esque parts, a mix of screamed and spoken vocals, and some pretty hardcore Christian lyrics. Not my kinda thing lyrically, but musically this is right up my alley. Just listen to 'Through It All' which is amazing and intense from start to finish as it shifts seamlessly between emo, melodic hardcore and almost chugga chugga. Persevere were from Bowie, Maryland, and were around from 1996 until 1999. It's a shame this band never recorded anything else, as they had written a lot of material that was never recorded. I think a member also played in some old school hardcore bands around the same time called Longshot and What Lies Ahead? Anyway, enjoy this demo.

Persevere - 1997 demo