Asphalt - 357 Knockout CD

Project or band, Cleveland, Ohio's Asphalt was one of a kind. Their sound was both unlike anything that came out of the Clevo scene at the time, while at the same time fitting right in with the creepy, brooding atmosphere it created. In 1994 2 members of Integrity, guitarist Chris 'Hawthorne' Smith and drummer David Nicholi Araca, got together with the bassist of their old band False Hope, Sam 'Salvatore' Lopiccolo, and started jamming. They enlisted the help of various people from the Clevo scene for doing vocals and additional instruments, including Dwid who does vocals on most tracks. The end result was the '357 Knockout' CD which was released on Dwid Integrity's Dark Empire label in 1994. The album also includes one track each from 2 other projects/bands they were doing at the same time, Backslider and Mammoth. All in all, this is a great release, altho I admit it took me quite some time before it really grabbed me, it's just not yer average Clevo hardcore album, hah. If you don't like it, give it time and some more plays... It's well worth the effort.

Within weeks after finishing the recordings for this album, drummer David Araca died of a brain aneurysm. Hawthorne and Lopiccolo would do another 7" a year later (which I don't have unfortunately), but that was basically the end for Asphalt, a unique entry in the already quite diverse history of Cleveland hardcore. Their other band Backslider stayed active for quite a few more years and Hawthorne also ended in Keelhaul.

 Asphalt - 357 Knockout CD