Reality Check - No Love For The Underdogs demo

The Polish hardcore scene has been going through a resurgence as of late. There are a ton of great bands coming out of Poland, such as Iron To Gold, Desperate Times, Outbound and Last Dayz, and also a number of labels making sure these bands are released on tape & vinyl. Reality Check plays heavy up-tempo hardcore akin to bands like Terror, No Turning Back and such. Good stuff. They contacted me (and other blogs) about putting their 2011 demo up for download. Since doing this demo they appeared on the excellent 'Very Cool & Very Core' compilation 7" from 2012 which showcases 6 bands from the current Polish hardcore scene, including some of the aforementioned bands, as well doing a 7" called 'The World On My Shoulders' in late 2012. The compilation 7" was released on Poland's own Ratel Records, and the EP was released on 2 other Polish labels, Elephant Skin Records and Last Warning Records. So if you want a taste of the current Polish hardcore scene, check out Reality Check and the other bands, and the labels. There's some pretty good stuff coming out of Poland, so give it a chance.


Reality Check - No Love For The Underdogs demo

Sharon Tate's Phoetus (S.T.P.)

Sharon Tate's Phoetus, or S.T.P., started in 1983 during the formative Boston hardcore years. But they didn't last too long and late 1983/early 1984 they broke up again after a couple of members quit S.T.P. to form Deathwish. In 1989 original members Chris Jordan (vocals) and Cliff Truesdell (guitar) reformed S.T.P. and their style transformed over time from their old Boston hardcore roots to a slower and more riff-based style of hardcore, with great results. This reformed band did 3 recordings, two in 1990 and one in 1991. The 2 recordings that were done in 1991 were released as the 'Sick Plus Three' demo and the 'Hate Is The Move' demo, the 3rd recording was never released in full as far as I know, only partially later on. In 1994 the band split up.

In this post I've compiled all the S.T.P. releases I know of, and have, that were released with songs taken from the aforementioned 3 recording sessions. In 1991, Germany's Lost & Found Records released 4 songs from the 2nd demo as the 'Hate Is The Move' 7". In 1992 a self-titled S.T.P. 7" was released on Boston's Finest in a single run of 500 hand-numbered copies. Boston's Finest was a label run by Chris Jordan and S.T.P.'s bassist at that time, John Kozik, and the 7" had 2 songs on it that were taken from the 3rd recording session. In 1993, Lost & Found re-released the 'Hate Is The Move' 7", only this time as a CD with the full 'Hate Is The Move' demo on it, as well as 2 additional songs taken from the 3rd recording session, one of which was also on the 7" on Boston's Finest. For some reason Lost & Found renamed the band Stomp That Pussy on the cover of the CD, as opposed to S.T.P. on the 7", even though the band had never used that name for themselves (their crew of friends was called the Stomp That Pussy crew). Finally, in 1995, Taang! Records released 2 more S.T.P. songs on their 'Boston Hardcore 89-91' compilation which were both taken from their 1st demo. If anybody has their full 3rd session recording somewhere btw, I would love to hear it!

Members of this band (all line-ups) would end up in bands such as the aforementioned Deathwish, Slapshot and Anal Cunt. Also 3 members are no longer with us, 2 due to an overdose and 1 committed suicide. R.I.P.

S.T.P. - Hate Is The Move 7"
S.T.P. - s/t 7"
Stomp That Pussy - Hate Is The Move MCD
S.T.P. tracks from 'Boston Hardcore 89-91' compilation

Time's Up

Here are 2 7"s by the New Jersey band Time's Up. They were around in the mid 90s. After doing 2 demo's sometime around 1993, which I don't have, they managed to do 2 7"s which I posted here. As far as I know that's all they did, I'm not sure if they even appeared on a compilation? The band itself isn't too well-known, but guitarists Chris Rascio and John Adubato would play in Burnt By The Sun after Time's Up folded (Adubato forming BBTS and Rascio joining later), and Burnt By The Sun was awesome. Time's Up isn't quite on BBTS's level, but they were pretty damn good still. Creative, off-beat & dissonant metal/hardcore with fairly straight forward shouted vocals.

The first 7", 'At Ease', was released in 1994 or 1995 on Happy Days Records. Happy Days Records would also release Endeavor' '...Of Equality' 7", with Mike Olender on vocals, who would later on do vocals in Burnt By The Sun. The second 7", 'Discernment', was released on Chainsaw Safety Records in 1996. It is more complex than the first 7", and has got some pretty sick parts. The first 7" is great, the second 7" is even better. So give this band a shot, you won't regret it.

BTW, sorry for the shitty quality of the 'At Ease' rip, my vinyl copy is in pretty rough shape. I did what I could to clean it up a bit.

Time's Up - At Ease 7"
Time's Up - Discernment 7"

Fragment - Allegory 7"

Fragment was a short-lived mid-to-late 90s band from South Carolina and played metallic new school hardcore with throaty vocals, reminiscent of bands like Andromeda, Fortydaysrain and such. Unfortunately there's little information on them to be found with the 7" and I can't find a reference to them online either. Which is a damn shame cuz this band was pretty good. This 7" was released on a SC label called Deedlit Records, which also does not bring up any info online. I believe Fragment's drummer was also drumming for Codeseven at some point tho? Oh, and this is not the Fragment from MA who were around at roughly the same time. AJ did an excellent post on them a while ago over at Path To Misery. Anyways, if anybody has any information on Fragment from SC, such as what else they did, what the band-members did before/after Fragment, etc, please leave a comment!

Fragment - Allegory 7"

Youth For Justice compilation CD

My Faultline post from a month ago received a comment about a compilation Faultline were on. As it turns out, it's the Youth For Justice compilation mentioned in my post. So I ripped it and here it is. This compilation was put out in, I think, 1996 by Earth House, a label (or maybe a collective?) ran by John Faultline, singer of Faultline and Mark Lucy. The compilation features a number of bands, as well as almost a dozen spoken words tracks by among others John Faultline and Mark Lucy. The spoken words tracks deal with a variety of subjects such as objectification, feminism/women's rights, racism, the injustice of the political system etc, but truth be told, they're all too short in length to really delve into their respective subjects. The bands on here are Faultline (with 2 tracks from their 'Roots Of The Rape Culture' album), Council Of Five Nations, In Vain, Faceless, Ego Filter, Emberscent, Quadiliacha (the only band on here I cannot get into) and Element 33. Overall, it's a pretty cool & interesting compilation with a huge variety in styles, ranging from 90s 'new school' hardcore to emo to punkrock. Beside Faultline, In Vain and Element 33 are the standout bands for me. Enjoy.

Youth For Justice compilation CD

The Great Age Of Enlightenment? comp 7"

Here's one of countless benefit compilations that were put out in the 90s, one of the more obscure ones. This one was 'a benefit for Toronto Friends of the Lubicon legal defense fund'. It dealt with the struggle of the Lubicon Cree natives against a big paper manufacturer called Daishowa who wanted to cut trees from the Lubicon land. I've also scanned the inserts so you can read up about it, or if you can't wait, here's a lot more info about the issue. This 7-band, 8-track 7" was released in 1998 as a joint effort between Hit The Ground Running and A-Team Records, both from Greensboro, NC.

Bands on here are Noisome Faugh, Reversal Of Man, Synguya, Racetraitor, Dropdead, President's Choice and Passafist. There's quite a bit of variation between bands stylistically, everything from noise to grindcore to screamo to hardcore punk. The Reversal Of Man track only appears on their 'Discography' CD on Schematics Records (and is called 'Theory Of Lamastra' there instead of 'Theory Of La Masastra' as it appears on here). The Racetraitor track is an early track of theirs which doesn't appear on any of their other releases and has an even more muffled, cardboard box like production than Chokehold (so you gotta love it). The Dropdead track is taken from one of their LP's I believe. I know absolutely nothing about some of the other bands (and in Synguya's case, I have zero desire to hunt down their other stuff), so those might be exclusive to this compilation, I have no idea. Reversal Of Man is the standout band/track on here for me, their track slays, as always. It's not the best 90s compilation by any stretch of the imagination, but it was for a good cause and has a pretty varied line-up. Check it out if yer into any of the aforementioned bands.

The Great Age Of Enlightenment? comp 7"

Faultline

Faultline was a outspoken political straight edge hardcore band from Connecticut. They played metallic new school hardcore, with lyrics dealing with various issues of sociopolitical and environmental nature. For whatever reason this band seemed to never have gotten the recognition they deserved. Maybe they were too political for the crowd that could appreciate their mosh/chugga chugga style, and too 'tough' for the more PC crowd that could appreciate their lyrics and politics? Who knows... What I do know is that they were awesome. The self-titled 7" was released on Alliance Records in 1994/1995 and is a great example of how politics and chugga chugga don't bite. I believe this 7" was first released on Faultline's own Earth House Records tho? It's got some good mid-tempo chugga chugga parts, combined with the heartfelt vocals that were such an important part of Faultline's sound. It's a shame my copy of this 7" doesn't have the insert, which I assume did come with it originally, I would love to read the lyrics more properly.

In 1996 the follow up to the 7" was released as a split release between the awesome Endless Fight Records and Earth House Records. The 'Roots Of The Rape Culture' CD brought a more refined sound. It continued the in the same vein as the 7", and there were still chugga chugga/mosh parts, but the band had incorporated a few more influences, and the vocals had a slightly more hiphop-like delivery. There are also 2 spoken words tracks on here, to reiterate the political nature of the band. It is an awesome album, with some really great and intense lyrics which are definitely worth a read.

There's not that much information about Faultline online, so I don't know what else they released besides this 7" and the 'Roots Of The Rape Culture' CD. I do have a couple of compilations they appeared on, altho with tracks from the 'Roots Of The Rape Culture' CD so no additional tracks/recordings unfortunately. These comps include the 3rd installment of the Over The Edge compilations which I blogged about here as well as the 'Youth For Justice' comp CD on Earth House Records on which they contributed 2 Faultline tracks as well as a few spoken words tracks by the singer. I ripped these spoken words tracks for those who are interested in them. If anybody has any more information about this underrated band, please share! Enjoy!

Here's a vid of them performing 'Separate' from the 7" at a show:

Faultline - s/t 7"
Faultline - Roots Of The Rape Culture CD
John Faultline's spoken words tracks from 'Youth For Justice' comp CD