Betrayed - s/t 7"

Not too long ago I scored a bunch of '90s (and late '80s) hardcore records, including a number of records by bands I hadn't even heard of. Sometimes you just gotta go for it. It doesn't always turn out to be a good gamble, but every so often you come across a record that makes all the shitty records worthwhile. This 7" from 1991 by Betrayed, a band from upstate New York (I think?), definitely falls into the worthwhile category. They weren't the first hardcore band to be called Betrayed and they certainly weren't the last, and certainly weren't as well-known as the current ex-Champion/Carry On Betrayed, but they were one of the better ones for sure! This is damn solid early '90s metallic hardcore, with a really gifted and creative guitarist who totally gave this band a sound all of their own. The songs are great, and there are some killer riffs on here, I'm stunned, and sad, I have never come across this band before. But I'm glad I can now make up for it, hehe...

Anyways, I know nothing about this band really, so if anybody can share anything about this band, please leave a comment! Would love to know if they did anything else, if the members played in other bands before/after Betrayed (esp the guitarist!), etc... Either way, give this a chance, you won't regret it...

Betrayed - s/t 7"

Punch The Klown '97 demo

Punch The Klown were a hardcore band from Brockton, MA. One of the members sent me their 1997 demo back in early 1998, and included 2 extra songs on it, one studio-recording, 'Endless', and one live-recording, 'Broken Path', which was recorded at Cafe Savoi on December 30 1997. I don't know a whole lot about 'em. Shawn Rounds played guitar for them, who also did time in the almighty Overcast. According to their myspace, members also did/do time in bands such as Diecast & Colin Of Arabia. Both of the extra songs on this demo are supposedly on the split 7" with Grudgeholder, but I've never seen/heard this one, if somebody can confirm this, leave a comment. Would love to hear that split 7"! Their myspace also features this awesome song called 'Destined For Failure' which isn't on either the demo or the split 7" with Beneath The Remains, which I blogged about a while ago. Is 'Destined For Failure' also on this 7"? If anybody can give me more information on it, or a full discography or something, please leave a comment!

Either way, despite the slightly muffled sound, this is a really solid demo by a relatively obscure and definitely underrated band. They had a great mix going of mid-tempo hardcore with great vocals, ranging from spoken vocals to screams to deep shouts to gang vocals, with plenty of groove. Give it a chance!

Punch The Klown demo
Punch The Klown myspace

November's Fire 7"

A random 7" that I picked up on one of my trips to the USA, and it happened to be a damn sweet slab of vinyl. I know very little about this band or the label (Crop Circle Records, this is their 1st release), and I couldn't really find a whole lot online either. I seem to remember another blog posted this 7" ages ago but can't find it anymore... So here it is, again maybe? Anyways, this is pretty solid '90s hardcore from New Jersey. Perhaps the band named itself after the Samhain track, but they definitely don't sound like them (thankfully), this is pretty typical '90s metallic 'new school' hardcore. On the back there's a live-shot with an X-ed up singer, but I have no idea if the band as a whole was sXe as well. Apparently this was supposed to be a 3 song 7" rather than a 2 song 7", the missing one being called 'Forgiven', but I have no clue what happened with it. Would love to hear that track, or anything from/about this band really, if anybody knows what else they did or has a demo or something, let me know or leave a comment.

Oh and screw record stores that put price-tags on the actual cover (Mystery Train in Amherst, MA in this case) and not on the protective sleeve.

November's Fire 7"

Just Cause - No Barriers 7"

Absolutely awesome pounding hardcore from 1991. Just Cause was a hardcore band from Maryland which had a crossover/metal edge, similar to bands such as Edgewise ('Silent Rage' era). The first time I heard this band was on the 'A Change For The Better' compilation 7", which I posted a while ago. While their track on there didn't really stand out for me, I did manage to get 2 copies of their 'No Barriers' 7" shortly after posting the compilation, and it's great! Released on the same label as the compilation, Vicious Circle Records, these 4 songs pound away with fast hardcore parts and slower, mid-tempo 'mosh'-parts.

However, the main selling point of this 7" is the cover, as you can see. Can't beat that cover! A wolf wearing a leather jacket and a cap holding a spray can in his paw, the spray can having a laughing face with bulging eyes! Not to mention the graffity-style bandlogo. Yeah, it's weird, laughable, odd and great all at the same time, and somehow totally fits that era. That's the regular cover. My other copy however has one of the limited covers (#17/50), there were 5 different limited covers of 10 copies each, mine is the L7 one. Funnily enough, both covers have the wrong tracklist for side A. Both my copies are on maroon vinyl, the majority of the (1st and only) press was on black.

Here's a true lyrical gem (from 'Tolerance') that just begs for you to love this band:

The minds of the world are closed
And mine is too
I'm only aware of my own ignorance
And that others are ignorant too
We live in a great country
The greatest in the land
But it's nowhere near perfect
'Cause all I have to do is look around

Anyways, if anybody knows anything else about this band, such as a discography or what the members did before/after Just Cause, please leave me a comment! I'm digging this 7", hard. Enjoy!

Just Cause - No Barriers 7"

Pillar demo (pre-Harvest/Disembodied)

A random demo from 1993 that I found on ebay not too long ago. Its redeeming value for me is the fact that Dave Walker does vocals on this one, and Justin Kane plays drums. Dave Walker would later on do vocals for Harvest and Krakatoa, and Justin Kane would go on to drum for Disembodied and Martyr AD, all of those are great bands, with Disembodied being one of my all-time fave bands. Anyways, back to Pillar. Apart from them two, I know nothing about this band really, heh. Well, continuing with the name-dropping, Chad Dziewior (Threadbare, 108, Judas Factor, and a gazillion more bands) produced this demo. And that's it... So if anybody out there knows anything else about this band, leave a comment.

Anyways, this was not the best band ever of the Minneapolis, MN area. Dave Walker's voice was not yet as mature and powerful as it was for Harvest, and musically it lacks power as well as memorable parts. In some parts I'm reminded of Endpoint, some other parts remind me of Undertow, without ever reaching either one's level. I'm afraid to say, it's a fairly mediocre demo all in all. Either way, consider this a piece of Minneapolis hardcore history, nothing more, nothing less.

Pillar demo