Fear Tomorrow - Born In Blood 7"

Here's the only 7" by Fear Tomorrow, a short-lived band from New Milford, CT. Fear Tomorrow was formed in 1999 out of the ashes of youth crew hardcore band Follow Through together with members from another local hardcore band, Dismantle. Unlike Follow Through, Fear Tomorrow was much heavier and more metallic, somewhere inbetween Cro-Mags and Integrity. I'm not sure they even did a demo, but they got signed to Follow Through's old label East Coast Empire Records quickly who released their 'Born In Blood' record on 7" and CD in 1999. The CD, which I don't have unfortunately, has one extra track. Later that same year, Fear Tomorrow did a split MCD with the almighty Integrity, who were an obvious influence on Fear Tomorrow's sound, again on ECER. It could have gained the band a lot of attention, but in early 2000 the band folded due to line-up issues. Anyways, here's the 7", it's pretty damn good, so check it out.

Fear Tomorrow - Born In Blood 7"

Welcome To Albany compilation 7"

Stepping out a bit from the 90s era, here's a cool compilation 7" that documents the Albany/upstate New York hardcore scene circa 1988. It was (I believe) the only release on Grinch Records, and features Substance, Insult To Injury, Face Up, No Outlet and Infectious Waste. This compilation is quite varied in style, which is always nice. Even though it's from 1988, there's only 1 youth crew band on here, Face Up, and they're actually quite decent. There's also more rocking hardcore on here by No Outlet and Infectious Waste, mid/up-tempo hardcore by Substance and burly hardcore by Insult To Injury (which might be their first non-demo appearance?). Substance and No Outlet are my favorite bands on here, but really, all bands are solid on here. Definitely give it a chance!

Update (thanxxx to my man Scott): This was indeed Intent To Injury's only non-demo appearance, not to be mistaken with I.T.I. from Chicago, as I had assumed. I.T.I.'s singer Shane is also the guy behind Grinch Records and played in Wolfpack for a short while.

Welcome To Albany compilation 7"

Recoil - Demo '91

Recoil was one of the early 90s hardline bands, after Sean Muttaqi & Vegan Reich started it all. Recoil was from Memphis, TN, and released only this demo that I'm aware of. Members were also in other bands from the local sXe scene at the time like Raid, Pure Blood and Monkey Wrench. The demo's got some solid hardcore that's somewhere between Judge and A Chorus Of Disapproval, but with not such strong vocals, and 2 rather boring instrumental tracks. I know nothing about this band really, there is a bit of information about this band on the XCatalystX Records forum but also not that much really. Henrik posted this demo a few years ago on his excellent, but now seemingly abandoned, Bring Honour Or Walk Away blog but without scans. I've ripped it from my copy tho and included full scans. Enjoy!

Recoil - Demo '91

New blood: Kingpin (UK)

There's a ton of awesome bands coming out of the UK nowadays, and here's another one, Kingpin from Glasgow. With ex-members of Eviscerate AD, Rough Justice and a few more bands, this band hasn't been around for all that long, but fuck it... Their recently released demo, recorded after only 3 rehearsals with the current line-up, shows a lot of potential and promise! The 3 tracks display a love for 90s NYHC as well as more modern influences. I hope this band sticks around long enough to do some more recordings, would love to see where this band is heading... As much as I love 90s hardcore, I also love checking out new bands, and so should you!

Lube Job compilation 7"

Here's a cool and relatively obscure compilation 7". I got it because it's got S.F.A. on it, and I love S.F.A. New York City Hate-Core as they call it, and that's spot on. Great band, especially the first 2 albums. Their 2nd album 'So What?' was released on LP as well as on CD, but the CD version was a split with another band, Necracedia from Philly, with their album 'Now I See Clearly'. Necracedia is also on here, they're a solid punk/hardcore band with some good rough, snotty vocals. Doomwatch was more of a crossover band, mixing punk/hardcore with some thrash metal. Pretty good stuff. Submachine was a punk rock band with a pretty extensive discography. For me, they are the weakest band on this compilation, not into the vocals, the music is pretty solid tho.

This compilation 7" was the first release on Rust Records, in 1991. Rust Records was a label from Pittsburgh, PA, but they didn't stick around for too long. They did only a couple more releases after this compilation, including a Submachine 7". After Rust Records folded, CI Records, another label from Pennsylvania, ended up with the leftover copies of this compilation (as well as the other Rust Records releases), added their name to the cover, hand-numbered them and sold em. My copy is one of the original ones tho, not the 're-packaged' ones.

Lube Job compilation 7"

Apathy - s/t MCD

Apathy was a hardcore band from the Baltimore, MD area who were around from the mid 90s till 2001 or so. In 1997 they recorded their self-titled MCD, which unfortunately wasn't released on Gain Ground Records until 1999. I don't know why it took them so long to release it tho, it's a pretty solid record. Great metallic hardcore, but the vocals were their most distinguishing feature. They were handled by both guitarists at the time, Rob Ingram and Adam Brown, and their combined range makes Apathy sound like Vision Of Disorder at times.

After this release, Rob would focus solely on vocals and they would add an additional guitarist to the band, Ben Swan. With that new line-up Apathy would release a full-length album on Gain Ground in 2000 called 'What The Dead See Through The Eyes Of The Living', and a 2-song promo CD right before their demise in 2001 (neither of which I have unfortunately).

Rob Ingram now does a one-man hardcore band called Stateside Firefight as well as an Iron Maiden tribute band called Powerslave. Ben Swan moved on to do vocals for Samadhi and Age Of Ruin. I have no idea what the rest of band did after Apathy.

Apathy - s/t MCD

Running Like Thieves - Same Time Next Year... demo

Sometimes when you buy a lot of records, you'll come across nice surprises. I got this demo as part of a big bag of demo's a guy was getting rid of over here. There were mostly youth crew demo's from the early 00's in the bag, not the stuff I go nuts for, but I love demo-tapes, so it's all good anyways. One of the surprises was this Running Like Thieves demo.

Formed in the late 90's by Matt Warnke (Bold, Crippled Youth) and Andy Guida (Supertouch, Absolution, Altercation), Running Like Thieves definitely had all the necessary NYHC credentials, but they went into a more melodic direction instead, not wanting to rewrite their past bands' songs. After recording a demo in 2001, the band signed a deal with Livewire Records and released (and re-recorded?) the demo on CD in 2002, with an additional track, as well as a follow-up 7" in 2003. Anyways, here's the original demo, not the Livewire release. This is more melodic hardcore/rock-oriented than their previous bands, and I will say this is not for me really, but I'm sure some of you are interested in checking out this demo.

Matt Warnke and Andy Guida are currently writing music under the name The Mistaken. Andy Guida is also drumming for My Rifle, who released a pretty good 7" on Wardance Records a while ago.

Running Like Thieves - Same Time Next Year... demo