Puritan / Reversal of Man split LP

Released in 1996 on Arizona's outstanding King Of the Monsters (run by Michael Gentz), this was an early split from two bands who played that frantic, spastic shit we all love; Pennsylvania's Puritan (who hailed from the Poconos), and Tampa's Reversal of Man. Really good stuff here, and if you're into the records that Witching Hour Records started doing just after this split was issued, you'd (probably) be doing yourself a favor to peep this. If you are familiar with the aforementioned cult-ish label, there's a 94 to 98 percent chance you know both of these bands already, and know at least one of them well. Recommended for fans of Inhumanity, Makara, and/or Volume 11.
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Reversal of Man was a bit more prolific than Puritan, but both bands showcase a similar hectic style on this joint effort. Mostly fast, rippin' emo hardcore that comes recommended by this dude, especially the Puritan shit. There are lots of song explanations and personal writings included in the liner notes to keep you busy for a minute, and the bands have been awarded, by me, some extra big ups for referencing "The Dukes Of Hazzard" and aliens.

The Puritan songs (side A) were recorded ???, and the Reversal of Man songs (side B) were
recorded ???. This album was King Of The Monsters #5.

                                     

Tracklist:
---Puritan---
1) Never Meanin' No Harm
2) This Is Medicine
3) They Say 81
4) To Fall In Love...
5) From Inside A Carousel (Whispering)

---Reversal---
6) Pilot Gumby
7) Theory of Lamastra
8) Slingshot
9) Plaster of Paris
10) No Longer
11) Roswell

- please speak to me -

V/A - 403 Comp cd

This post is about the pretty highly regarded 403 Comp, aka Florida Fucking Hardcore, which was put out in 1998 by Schematics Records, a label which was owned and operated by Steve Heritage of Assück (and far less notably Jud Jud) fame. Tons o' bands you should be familiar with (Twelve Hour Turn, Hot Water Music, Discount, Reversal Of Man), and a few you very well may not be (Nineteenhundredandtwelve, Scrotum Grinder).

It's a compilation, there are tons of bands that hailed from Florida on here, some songs are better than others I guess, and this has been COMPLETELY OUT OF PRINT FOR YEARS, Y'ALL. Not included here are pics of the LP jacket and zine which accompanies this cd, mostly because Sean didn't feel like looking for it when he let me borrow this. You do, however, get one of the disc itself and the band list Sean wrote up years ago, which I'm sure made listening to this much easier.

Have a stellar day.

Tracklist:
1) Reversal Of Man - "These Hills Have Eyes"
2) Tomorrow - "Rightasrain"
3) Assück - "Alabaster"
4) Strikeforce Diablo - "Spirit of '59"
5) Hot Water Music - "Where We Belong"
6) CombatWoundedVeteran - "Put Your Weight On It"
7) Cavity - "The Oblivionist"
8) Omega Man - "Life After Death"
9) Nineteenhundredandtwelve - "Six Feet Deep"
10) Early Grace - "Twothousandandtwenty"
11) Discount - "History Is History"
12) Dragbody - "Inhuman Likeness"
13) Twelve Hour Turn - "Little One"
14) Cease - "Insurmountable"
15) Hankshaw - "Maple"
16) Bird Of Ill Omen - "Sharpshooter"
17) I Hate Myself - "Caught In A Flood With The Captain Of The Cheerleading Squad"
18) Scrotum Grinder - "Hot Air, Not Fire"
19) Jud Jud - "Wah Wah Song"

- right here -

Harriet The Spy - "Anthology Of Selected Recordings" cd

Harriet The Spy played a very interesting and diverse style of moody, somewhat melancholic punk which corresponded to a pretty great combination of melody and dissonance. They were a little bit noisy, a little bit spastic, and had a very windy, angular vibe which might be a tough listen for someone who has never heard them before. But hey, this blog is all about exposing people to shit they may have missed out on the first time around, so don't let the above weirdo description throw you off. 

The band hailed from Kent, Ohio, but an early HTS release gives us a Lyndhurst address for these dudes, which is a Cleveland suburb some 30 miles north of Kent. They were active between the years of 1993 and 1998, the year this disc came out. They began life with a more abrasive sound that what they finished with, and the songs presented here give the listener a first hand account of the progression of the band, including the noted improved musicianship of its members over the course of the band's growth. That sounds like something that I probably don't need to mention as this a compilation that spans the life of the band, but it's something that is a bit more noticeable with Harriet The Spy than with similar types of releases from other bands. They were rather prolific, releasing lots of stuff and appearing on numerous comps, including the Amnesia LP released by Ebullition twenty years ago.

There probably isn't much room here for any middle ground to stand on; although this might be a challenging listen for some people, I can pretty confidently say that those who can dig it will absolutely love it. It is definitely an interesting take on 90's emo hardcore.

Tracklist:
There are 34 songs on here, equating to over 70 minutes of music.
Sorry, but I don't feel like typing out all of the titles. :(

- i admit i ate the ornamental shrubbery, kiss kiss -

Five Stars For Failure - demo cassette

Let me begin today's addendum to Creation Of Minerals by first saying that I feel weird about doing a blog post on a band which I used to play in; there's just something a bit uncomfortable about the idea of doing so. Hopefully I can handle it...

I'm not going to go very deep into the history of Five Stars For Failure here, because that's what this website is for. Fundamentally, we were a three-piece emo/indie/hardcore band from suburban Philadelphia and we really liked Sleepytime Trio, Spirit Assembly and Four Hundred Years. This tape was the first thing we recorded, and it was comprised of the first four songs we wrote that -weirdly enough- appeared on the demo in chronological order. Our guitarist Jay recorded it (played live, of course) on a Tascam 4-track at our practice space, which also happened to be his bedroom in the house that his grandparents owned (we eventually got our shit together and migrated to the garage). It came out sounding very lo-fi and raw, which makes perfect sense. We were happy with it at the time I guess, but nowadays may be tough to make it through, as I just found out. I have no idea why we thought making 200 copies of this thing was a good idea, but that's exactly what we did. We brought a few demos for consignment to some local record shops in and around the city, sold / gave away a bunch at shows, and send a few off to some zines for reviews. A decent-enough review of this cassette (and then eventually our 7") in issue 24 of HeartattaCk gave us a little bit of exposure, which made us feel nice. Looking back on this band years later, we weren't great or anything, but at the same time I don't think we were that bad either. I'd say I'm happy with what we accomplished: this demo cassette, a four song 7", a few compilation appearances, and 31 shows in total. Not too shabby.

Anyways, we would re-record these four jams at an actual studio, and two of them went on the aforementioned seven inch. After we got tired of each other and broke up, we self-released a 13 song discography cd-r, but didn't include these original versions of the songs on it. If you are so inclined, you can also listen to and/or download the discography right over here. Realistically, the only reason I bothered to do this post is because I can't imagine that digital files of these songs exist in the possession of anyone who wasn't in the band.

I'm still very close to the bass player of FSFF, Justin aka The Reverend. He's getting married next month and has asked me to be his best man, which is honestly a total lie because he didn't ask. He essentially told me that I was his best man and didn't leave me with a say in the matter, which I'm obviously totally cool with. We've also put a new band together, King Slender, and will be recording some jams for a demo tape in a matter of weeks. Hopefully it turns out a bit better than this :)

200 copies were made, and this was recorded by Jay Donahue during June of 1999.

Tracklist:
1) Break, Eye
2) Were It Car Invisible
3) Caterstories
4) Stuffing

- wine coolers -

V/A - "In Our Blood" compilation cassette

This tape comprises the only effort I've ever seen released by random 90's hc label Reform Records, which hailed from Mount Holly, New Jersey. There are indeed some notable bands that make an appearance here: Overcast, Conviction, Converge, Blindside, and pre-Autumn band Forethought to name a few. The best tracks have always been in my opinion the first two, which are the Conviction and Knockdown contributions. A close third would be "Mean Streets" from the influential Philly metal powerhouse Starkweather, who ruled.*  I very distinctly remember listening to to this tape during the bus ride to high school in the morning and just rewinding it to re-listen to both songs again right after "Engulf" ended.

Contrasting the abundance of information usually found within the layouts of many comps that came out during this time period, In Our Blood gives you absolutely jack shit, and you'll just have to deal with it. In case you think I'm making stuff up, I've conveniently included a picture of the blank inner part of the card stock cover for you to check out during your free time.

Some years after it's initial release, this comp was later pressed on vinyl by an Italian label called SOA, from which this rip was culled. I'm still not sure how Edgewise was left off of this compilation, folks, as this would be a perfect fit given the geographical locations for most (if not all) of these bands.

This tape was RR-1, and saw the light of day circa 1994^.

                                   

                      right? i mean, c'mon.

*I dunno though, that Strait Up song is pretty dope too.
^I think, but it could very well have been 1993 or 1995. I honestly don't know what I'm talking about, so let's just go with '94, y'all. Cool? Cool.

Tracklist:
1) Conviction - "Peering Into Darkness"
2) Knockdown - "Engulf"
3) Firefly - "Infidelity"
4) Converge - "Savior Salvation"
5) Introspect - "Savior"
6) Overcast - "Iconoclasm"
7) Blindside - "Devotion"
8) Mode - "Control"
9) Forethought - "Sacred"
10) Starkweather - "Mean Streets"
11) Soulstice - "Know"
12) Strait Up - "Chastise"
13) Disregard - "Look Away (live)"

-carrying the weight of this world on my fucking broken back-

Ascension - "The Years of Fire" cd

First things first, this is NOT the same Ascension that released the excellent Consolamentum full length in 2010. Those dudes are a black metal band from Germany, and although that record is awesome, they are not the topic of discussion here. No sir, this is a 90s hardcore punk-oriented blog, so apologies if you were tricked into discovering this blog while looking for stuff from the current Ascension. THIS ASCENSION played mean as fuck, metal as fuck, and seriously moshy evil hc that would captivate fans of some more well-known, yet like-minded, somewhat similar sounding bands from twenty years ago: Morning Again, All Out War, Abnegation, Bloodlet, Undying, Earthmover, Torn Apart, For The Love Of...you probably get the idea.

My experience with this Ascension (who hail from suburban Cleveland, Ohio) when they were active was pretty minimal. I never saw them nor owned any of their records, but I did have a couple of comps they appeared on, including the absolutely loaded Definitely Not The Majors compilation cd, which was put out by Bush League in '97 ( it could very well have been 1998, now that I think about it). As an aside, I plan on ripping and uploading that disc here very soon, so keep an eye out, yo! Their contribution to that compilation, "Clayden", was one of the highlights of that release for me, and probably will be for you, too.

Upon inspection of the layout for The Years of Fire, one gets the impression that these dudes really loved Satan. Satan and moshing. They even include a quote from Mr. Anton LaVey, founder of the Church Of Satan, on the back cover; "I dip my forefinger into the watery blood of your impotent mad redeemer and write across his thorn torn brow: The TRUE prince of evil, the king of slaves!". Lyrical topics include the band's pro-choice stance ("Infusion") and their aversion to animal testing ("Behind Closed Doors"). They certainly get a head-nod from me right there. The recording decent enough, but more than once I thought I could have sworn the volume briefly either raised or lowered slightly during some songs, but I very well could have made that shit up because I'm getting old and losing my mind. "Evil" and Earth Crisis-influenced, this may or may not be for you. Ascension's guitarist Matt DeVries went on to play in notable Ohio metal band (to some, I suppose) Chimaira.

These songs were recorded in January 1996 at Spider Studio in Cleveland by Ben Schigel. Released by Florida's Toybox Records, who also put out shit from Dragbody and Hot Water Music. These seven jams were also released as a 10" by the same label, and is Toybox number 16.

Tracklist:
1) Transit
2) Kaleidoscope
3) Infusion
4) Malignant
5) Behind Closed Doors
6) Chestnut
7) Station

- Chris would endorse Prozac, but prefers smoking crack -