Shutdown - Demo 1996

Shutdown started out in NYC in 1994 and lasted till the early 2000's. They played a sweet mix of heavy NYC and more posi youth crew inspired hardcore, especially cuz of the more high-pitched vocals of Mark Scondotto. He's Mike Scondotto's little brother btw, who's known from bands such as Confusion and Inhuman. They've done a bunch of records including a split 7" with Indecision and several albums on Victory Records. This demo was done in 1996, and I believe 4 of these 5 songs ended up on the 'XDecideX' 7". The sound-quality is pretty shitty, but hey, it's a demo, take it or leave it.

As a sidenote, Shutdown is back together and even writing a new album according to their myspace. Sweet!

Shutdown - Demo 1996
Shutdown myspace

New Tools For The Hunter compilation CD

'New Tools For The Hunter: An Australian Hardcore Compilation' is a hardcore compilation from 1997, featuring 10 Australian hardcore bands doing 2 tracks each. It was released on First Blood Records, a label formerly known as X Jedi Knight Productions X, and run by people from the band Shadowcast. Not sure if the label released anything else? Anyways, the quality of the bands is pretty mixed, and with styles ranging from NYHC to old school hardcore to metalcore to emocore to rocking hardcore with a saxophone. Yeah, a saxophone. Standout bands for me are Mindsnare (heavy hardcore), Ultimatum (vegan sXe metalcore) and the aforementioned Shadowcast (heavy metallic hardcore with enviro-/socio-political lyrics). Overall a good overview of the Australian hardcore scene from the late '90s.

From the insert:

Hardcore is a vehicle. Hardcore is an instrument. Hardcore is a weapon. It is a means of expression. An outlet for ideas. A conveyor of emotion. Hardcore is an instrument from which we create solutions. It is a weapon against the outside world. It is a vehicle to channel out our hurt, our pain, our fear, our anger and our defiance. Hardcore is our outlet. Hardcore is our instrument. It is our weapon. This is hardcore and these are our New Tools For The Hunter...

New Tools For The Hunter compilation CD