Grasp - s/t 7"

There is something about a certain style of artwork that screams 90s hardcore to me, and when I see such a record, I want to check it out. Like this self-titled 7" by Grasp, a short-lived band from British Columbia, Canada. As you can already guess from the cover with its typewriter font and badly copied art (probably copied from some historical/art book), this has 90s written all over it. Hell, the 7" even comes with a handmade DIY patch. Released in 1995 on Construction Records, this record has 5 awesome tracks of intense mid-tempo metallic 90s hardcore on it with screamed vocals and socio-political lyrics dealing with subjects such as rape, pro-choice and addiction. The inserts even have explanations for the, already pretty self-explanatory, lyrics. There really is nothing bad I can say about this 7", it's just another great, and fairly obscure, 90s hardcore record. Members also played in bands such as Render Useless, Jonas and Lost Cause. Unfortunately, this is their only record I'm aware of, if anybody has any other recordings of this band, please share them!

Grasp - s/t 7"

Fasten - Our Dynasty Is Nigh... 7"

My first post of 2016 and this is by far the worst record I've put on my blog since its inception, sorry about that. But... it was time, it kept popping up every time I flipped through my 7"s, begging for a post. Fasten was a shortlived militant sXe band from Venice, Florida and as far as I know they did nothing else besides maybe a few demo's, and this 7" called 'The Dynasty Is Nigh...' which they released on their own label, Upheld Records. I can't give you a year of release, but I am pretty sure I got this some time in the late 90s, so you do the math. My copy is on red and hand-numbered out of 300, I have no idea if other versions exist, if they do I've never seen them. In any case, good or bad, Fasten is and also was a pretty obscure band, playing heavy 90s chugga chugga metalcore style.

Unfortunately for them they were kinda mediocre at it with some pretty bad vocals. Actually, 'Acquittal' is rather decent really, all things considering. But as I mentioned casually above, this was a militant sXe band. Or should I say a MILITANT STRAIGHT FUCKING EDGE band? I don't think there are many bands that took the line 'The militant edge, it's not a joke' from A Chorus Of Disapproval's 'No Part' as serious as this band. Check out the opening of 'Soaked And Showered':

Tapping the vein of the scum I slay
The final blood bath
I stand alone
Soaked and showered from the spray
Of their precious lives
Taken by me the executioner

And yes, they mean xbusinessx, as the song ends with:

Victorious in the name of the X

Man, I doubt my edge is real enough for these straight edge warriors.

All joking aside tho, it sounds like Fasten was a bunch of kids who found the edge and truly believed enough in themselves to release their songs on 7". And that is more than hardcore enough for me. Even if the 7" is not that good.

Fasten - Our Dynasty Is Nigh... 7"