Time In Malta - "Construct And Demolish"

Time in Malta was a three-piece post-hardcore-y band from the San Francisco area. "Construct And Demolish" was released in 1999 on Escape Artist Records, which hailed from Downingtown, a town about 35 miles or so west of Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania (aka THE MOTHERLAND). More importantly than this, however, is the fact that Downingtown is home to Victory Brewing Company, which brews some pretty solid beer. I particularly enjoy their Golden Monkey (a delicious triple ale coming in at 9.5% abv) and Prima Pils ales.

Thiiiiiiissssss...I just never got into, but I found it in a box of old-ish cd's and thought to myself, "Hey, maybe someone out there is looking for this, or would enjoy it" The music is sort of progressive (I guess), as far as hardcore punk goes. Truth be told I could never could get into the vocals, not at all. This is the main reason I never listened to "Construct And Demolish" all the way through more than four times. The music moderately made me think of what would have happened if members of Connecticut's Cable (see an earlier post here) and maybe New York's 1.6 Band got together and started a new "project". It is pretty decent musically, but the vox just aren't my thing. Solid production, though via Toast Studio in SF.

Certainly post-hc, but nowhere near as enjoyable for me as, say, Into Another circa 1994 or fuckin' Iceburn circa anytime ever. This record is EA #4, and perhaps you may like it.

Try it out here

Tracklist:
1) Swallowing Glass
2) Moment Of Clarity
3) Impasse
4) I Only Hope
5) Separation
6) Thoughts Like Rain

Hourglass 7"

Five hectic, chaotic and relatively heavy screamy hardcore songs from this Buffalo, NY band that was active during the (you guessed it) mid-90s. Hourglass may or may not have fit into the "screamo" genre - that tag didn't exist until later - but when it's this good you can call it whatever the fuck you want to. Energetic and pretty frantic stuff that crossed boundaries, blurring the not-so-fine line between emo hardcore and more mosh-oriented stuff, or whatever. People that were into both camps dug this band though, including me, and I think that's saying something. Not too many kids back in 1997 dug Honeywell, Earth Crisis, Warzone, Obituary, and Hourglass, all inclusively. Those of us that did were basically smarter that everybody else.

Hourglass released only two records: an absolutely crucial split cd with Canadian crybabies New Day Rising, and this seven inch, but they also initially put out a five song demo. They had a serious case of recording and releasing some songs, then re-recording most of them for inclusion in their next release, then finally doing the same thing one more time. It would have been awesome to hear some different songs, but I wasn't in the band so maybe they did it because they hated the earlier recordings and just wanted to be happy, man. Or maybe they broke up and didn't have new material. Regardless,  New Day Rising is a pretty good comparison as far as a somewhat similar sounding band goes, so I can very easily see why they shared a record with each other. This was released in 1997 on the then-fledgling but always fantastic Immigrant Sun Records (This is Kill #002), and contains no information about when or where this was recorded. The aforementioned split cd was released by Moo Cow Records and also deserves your attention.

-what a tragedy, you fell on your head today-

Tracklist:
1) Cyl
2) Divide
3) Lovesick
4) The Artist In The Liar
5) Clandestine Whisper

Falling Forward - "Four Songs"

Goddammit. This CD5 (thank you, 1990s) by Louisville's Falling Forward is so fucking great, and it still rocks my balls off twenty (!!!!) years after its release. For those not familiar with this band, they played emotionally driven melodic mid-western hardcore that has always struck a chord with me. Excellent, sweeping vocals (and lyrics), wonderful musicianship and absolutely chock full of sincerity of character. This release compiles the 2 songs from the self titled 7" released on Doghouse Records (which this cd also came out on) and the band's two acoustic tracks from a split 7" with fellow Louisville natives Metroschifter (originally released on Initial Records, also in 1995).

After you check this amazing release out, I implore you to get your hands on Falling Forward's earlier "Hand Me Down" record afterwards, which is, by my estimation, overall a slightly heavier cd. In the end, these four songs equate to one of the better 90s emotional hardcore records, period. Recommended for fans of Chamberlain / Split Lip and/or more "rock" oriented stuff like Jimmy Eat World and Boys Life.

-here-

Tracklist:
1) Wrap Around Suit
2) The Great Union Divide
3) Christensen Spring
4) Twenty Nine Sixteen Magazine

Thoughts Of Ionesco - "The Triptych Session"

Another example of what having a really good drummer can do for your band. Detroit, Michigan-area three piece Thoughts Of Ionesco were active during the latter half of the 1990s, and dissolved around the beginning of the 21st century. The band played very metallic, angry, and fervent music that really gave off an uncomfortable sense of desperation and general unhappiness. Most of these songs are the earliest recordings they did, and were compiled with two newer songs which feature an additional guitarist. Decent recording quality here; the guitar tone is big, the bass sound (provided by Nate from Empathy) is murky and buried, and the drums are presented here quite cleanly, whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean.

Thoughts Of Ionesco didn't really get the recognition of other heavier hardcore bands that were around during the same period of time. As a result of this they were overlooked by many people. If you dig / dug Converge, Overcast, Catharsis and Coalesce but never had any experience with Thoughts Of Ionesco, here is your chance to make up for lost time. These dudes released a bunch of records throughout their existence, and this is my favorite of the three that I own (the debut 2 song 7" on Cascade and the "...And Then There Was Motion" LP on Makoto being the other two). This stuff may be slightly more hectic overall than the aforementioned bands, but you can decide that for yourself. Released in 1997 on the Conquer The World Records imprint "Black" (because they were a fucking metal band) and is CTW #19.

-Snowing Red-


Tracklist:
1) Randall
2) Ascension Versus Conceit
3) Blamesday in C Major
4) Crimson Reflections
5) Martyr
6) Chronicle
7) 1,000 Nights - Commencement
8) Quickening the Pulse of a Grey Noise / Violence Versus Motion

V/A - "N.Y.H.C. - Documentary Soundtrack" compilation cd

With a name like "Documentary Soundtrack", this compilation represents exactly what was going on in the New York (and northern New Jersey too, jabroni) scene in the mid-90's, 1995 to be exact. Live songs from scene-reppin', tough-guy bands like 25 Ta Life*, Crown Of Thornz, Madball, Vision Of Disorder, etc. All of these tracks are quite excellently recorded, I must say, as they are straight from the soundboards of their respective shows. The real highlights here are the jams from No Redeeming Social Value ("the band that made Jerry Garcia retire"), 108 (complete with preachy song explanations, which was par for the course) and the District 9 song "Victim". I still to this day have no idea how 108 made it one here, since they stuck out like a sore thumb style-wise when compared to the bands they shared this compilation with. Be that as it may, they are easily the best band appearing on this cd, so I'll take it.

This album came out on New York's very own Striving for Togetherness Records (#13), who you may recall released records from some of these bands, as well as an early 90s repress of the Smorgasbord Records 7" comp "X Marks the Spot", which was originally released in the late 80s and nowadays could be considered a much-sought-after record. The actual live footage of these songs didn't see the light of day until many years after this disc was released, and you can find it over on YT if you search hard enough. There are also interview snippets with various band members to be found here, discussing what hardcore means to them and how the scene has helped some of them get through tough times, et cetera. The compilers also took into account a female's perspective on hardcore, briefly interviewing a young lady named Virginia Kress who was a regular show-goer at Newark's Pipeline (I guess). In the documentary video footage that's available, you can tell she's really proud to be a part of the machismo-dominated scene that is N.Y. Hardcore. She also really fucking loves (loved) 25 Ta Life.

If you want my honest opinion (you don't, but tough shit), someone should have clued in the dude(s) who put this whole thing together (I'm looking at you Kevin Gill) to replace the Crown Of Thornz songs with stuff by a different band from the area, one who wasn't fucking terrible; like perhaps Warzone, Fahrenheit 451 or Candiria. That would have been a smart move. I guess it could have been worse though, there very easily could have been some E-Town Concrete or Fury Of V included.

Thank fuck there wasn't.

* I'm not gonna lie, I was really into the first few 25 Ta Life records around the time that these songs were recorded. I still have my three "Live at Wetlands NYC" cassette tapes (circa 1995) in the basement. Feel free to make me an offer.

-each moment without you i die-

V/A - "A Document Of Nothing" compilation cd

This cd was a joint venture from Second Nature Recordings (#2) and Out Structured fanzine (#1), two pretty important 90s ventures from the mid-western state of Missouri. Up to this point, Dan from Second Nature cut his teeth with Second Nature Fanzine, which was quite an enjoyable read. I have three or four issues of SN, and I hope to get them uploaded on here sometime soon. The first Second Nature Recordings release was a Coalesce cd, which combined the band's 2 song 7" (originally released by San Francisco's Chapter Recs), two live songs from CBGB's and one previously unreleased jam. This here compilation was Dan's second release as a record label, and it came out in 1996. In addition to Coalesce, this label went on to release tons of stuff by bands such as Grade, Rocky Votolato, Reggie And The Full Effect, Isis, the pre-Harvest and Threadbare band Krakatoa, Blood Brothers, etc.

Needless to say, this is a pretty necessary mid 90s comp, with quite a few notable bands from the era making an appearance. My personal favorite songs here are the ones from Harvest, Converge and, once it gets going, Mainspring. It also has arguably the best song Enkindel ever wrote, before they became shitty and re-branded themselves as The Enkindels. Enjoy!

-here-

Tracklist
1) Enkindel - "Half Witted"
2) Harvest - "Cessation"
3) Cycle - "One Thousand"
4) Stedding - "Tread"
5) Two Line Filler - "I'm Just Fine"
6) Despair - "Fletcher"
7) Walleye - "Crowned"
8) Combination Grey - "Twelve Steps"
9) Endeavor - "Balance Of The Rungs"
10) Autumn - "Final Dream"
11) Rain Still Falls - "Driver"
12) Converge - "Shingles"
13) Surface - "View"
14) Jejune - "Stresser"
15) Mainspring - "From The Tranches"

Common Ground 7"

In 1997, I saw this Vermont straight edge band's 7" listed in a Very Distro catalog, and since the description of it sounded like something I'd be into I took a chance and bought it. This was indeed a smart decision. These 5 kids played straight ahead, melodic youth crew hardcore and they did a pretty damn good job at it. It has enough variation / changes going on to keep most people into this style of stuff interested throughout all four songs. I would say it's similar to Ensign or even Bane in the fact that it was heavy enough for new school kids to get into and classic enough for the old schoolers, as well. The artwork is hilariously bad (although appropriate for the style), and I definitely judged this first when it arrived in the mail before listening to it, so shame on me, right? I'm pretty sure I'm the only person I knew who owned this record, or even ever heard of this band...both then and now.

If you were a part of or were into (you're no dummy, so of course you were) the redux of the youth crew stuff in the later years of the 90s, then I'd certainly recommend this overlooked gem to you. The record was released on Ignition Records in early 1997, and these songs were recorded on Halloween 1996 at Eclipse Studio in Hinesburg, Vermont.

-here-

Tracklist:
1) Slave
2) Smolder
3) Reflections
4) Through Example