Watchmen - s/t 7"

Buffalo, NY has had its fair share of great hardcore bands. Zero Tolerance, Snapcase, Despair, Against All Hope, This World Rejected, etc... Here is a lesser known band from the late 80s/early 90s Buffalo scene called Watchmen. If that name sounds familiar, Watchmen member Doug White also ran, and to this day still does, a recording studio called Watchmen Studios, where many hardcore bands have recorded. Here's the Watchmen's self-titled 7" (also referred to as 'Disease Of Isolation' 7"), which was released on Rorschach Records in 1990. It was ofcourse recorded at Watchmen Studios. I don't know if Rorschach Records was their own label or a friends or something (as it was located in Lockport, NY), but the comic book reference seems too much of a coincidence, Rorschach being one of the Watchmen and all. Anyways, 4 tracks which bridge hardcore and hard rock/metal, with pretty rough vocals. Pretty hard stuff, especially for the time, altho Zero Tolerance had an even harder sound when it comes to Buffalo hardcore from that era. Good stuff tho, I can definitely appreciate this band. It kinda reminds of bands such as Brickhouse. Enjoy! Their drummer would also do time in Snapcase, no idea what the other members did before or after.

Watchmen - s/t 7"

Bipolar

Here are the only releases, apart from demo's, that I know of by Bipolar from Ohio. These 2 7"s were both released on Rubbercity Records in 1996. In fact, they were both recorded during the same recording session and they're the first 2 releases on Rubbercity Records. Bipolar played great 90s mid-tempo metallic hardcore with a mix of spoken and shouted vocals and lyrics dealing with subjects such as rape, human rights and animal rights as well as more personal topics... Seriously good stuff, which is right up my alley. I don't even mind the muffled and bass-heavy production, it reminds me of bands such as Chokehold and such. So if you like bands such as Chokehold or Groundwork, definitely check out this band. It's not as amazing as them, but Bipolar was still an obscure and underrated band by any means. The band was at least partially sXe and vegetarian/vegan, but I don't think they were a full-on veggie sXe band.

Both Bipolar 7"s have a weird ending on side A, which I've left as-is. It's actually part of the 7", and not the needle of my record player going all weird, heh, tho I'm not sure how intentional it was or what the idea behind it was. Anyways, one of the members would eventually make a name for himself in the trance/industrial scene under the name HeldByWill. I don't know much else about Bipolar, and searching around online for them doesn't return much either. But don't let that stop you, as I said above, this is really good stuff. Give it a chance! Also, Rubbercity Records was a record label done by Clint from Don Austin, and which focused mostly on releasing records by bands from Ohio. Splinter and Don Austin were other bands who did a 7" on Rubbercity.

Bipolar - Blankets Of Deceit 7"
Bipolar - Awry 7"

Sheer Terror - Ugly And Proud 7"

Here's a weird little gem. I picked this up at the first Sheer Terror show I ever went to, at the original Bat Cave (RIP) in Tilburg, the Netherlands in 1993 with, if I remember correctly, Belgian Asociality supporting. I can't remember if I picked it up from the Sheer Terror people or from somebody who was selling them at that show. Either way, there's hardly any information on the 7", not even a tracklisting, the 7" itself has white labels, and there's not even a mention of a label anywhere except the catalog number, TS001. But it's not hard to figure out the tracks, they're 'Sin Of Pride' and 'A. No. 1', both from the 'Ugly and Proud' album. There were issues with Maze Records not having enough funds to release the 'Ugly And Proud' album at the time, so maybe that had something to do with the existence of this 7"? Those same issues also led to the 'Thanks Fer Nuthin' album which had re-recordings of a bunch of songs from 'Ugly And Proud', so who knows... But anyways, there's nothing new here, but it's a cool 7" nonetheless, also cuz of the possible history behind it (which is pure conjecture, maybe somebody who reads this knows the real story behind this 7"? If so, please leave a comment).

Sheer Terror - Ugly And Proud 7"

Denile - We Have Not Begun! demo

Thanxxx to a reader of this blog, I was able to acquire this Denile demo in late 2009. To say I was stoked when I received it, is an understatement. I love this band, and this demo only strengthened it. Denile from PA were around for quite some time (1993-2001) but didn't manage to put out a lot of records, which is a damn shame. The first time I heard them was when I got their great split 7" with Dysphoria from 1997. Both Dysphoria and Denile are amazing on it. I posted that split 7" here. This is their 1996 demo tho, which was their 3rd release, called 'We Have Not Begun!'. At this point the band still had only 1 guitarist and at times you can hear the band play more traditional hardcore (most apparent in 'Alone'). But it's a solid, great demo with plenty of heavy, metallic riffs and singer Mark's recognizable vocals. I cannot recommend this underrated band enough, so please check out this band if you haven't yet. Here is an old website which was done by Denile's drummer Tony Fucci that has various Denile mp3's including some tracks from their unreleased full-length from 2000. Edit: The Denile site is now offline for whatever reason. Damn shame! So that also means the mp3's are unavailable, including those from the unreleased album. I have a zip of that unreleased album tho, which was called 'Where Heaven And Hell Meet', altho I can't remember how I got it. But I have uploaded it again now and added it to this post, also cuz of What76's comment. It does not have track-titles unfortunately, and I don't know them either. But enjoy!

Denile - We Have Not Begun! demo
Denile - Where Heaven And Hell Meet unreleased CD
Denile myspace