Sewage- Purge

I tried to come up with a witty metaphor that captures the extreme intensity of Purge’s latest five song effort, “Sewage”, but there is no possible way to understand the almost laughable brutality without listening to it first. The breakneck pace, bone-crushing vocals, and unflinchingly aggressive beatdown riffs make this a truly impressive release and one of my favorite powerviolence albums I’ve had the pleasure of listening too. Pleasure might be the wrong word, however, as the negativity that seethes within every song on “Sewage” is palpable and the enjoyment comes mostly from the adrenaline rushes that overwhelm the listener with every explosion of blast beats and half time breakdown.

Purge wastes no time on “Sewage”, delivering crushing riffs and irresistible grooves on the opening track, More Wolf than Thee. The track blazes into my favorite track, Piss on the Marble, leaving absolutely no respite. The furious blast beats and impressive guitar work in the first half of the song hardly prepare the listener for the final 15 seconds. I cannot put into words how heavy this outro riff is, but no matter how many times I listen to it, it always causes involuntary bedroom/car moshing. Just absolutely fucking brutal. The third track, Backyard Wrestling, could not have been more aptly named. Opening again with robotically accurate blast beats, the song follows the same familiar structure of the two opening songs, before devolving again into a breakdown. This does become a little tiresome, considering that the fourth song, Chemo, also follows this pattern, but Purge manages to avoid suffering from this error too much because of the writing quality and impressive drumming. The final track, Leper, is by far the longest song on the EP, and is the only song to break from the blast-beats-into-breakdown formula so successfully wielded on the other for tracks. The guitar only opening riff creates a haunting atmosphere quickly broken by another down-tempo breakdown. Fortunately, the song recovers, building into a more melodic blast beat passage before slowing back down into one of the cooler, and calmer, riffs on the album.

All in all, “Sewage” is an impressive release from a young band. Pittsburgh has become a breeding ground for original and heavy hardcore and Purge is one of the most exciting bands to emerge from the scene thus far. Pick up this EP and their earlier ones and keep an eye out for any shows in your area, because we all know listening to these songs live will cause some casualties.

-Jack

Tracklist

1. More Wolf than Thee
2. Piss on the Marble
3. Backyard Wrestling
4. Chemo
5. Leper

Download

 http://www4.zippyshare.com/v/58968605/file.html

Nothing For Us Here- Cult Leader

Cult Leader formed from the remains of legendary sludge/hardcore group Gaza and quickly found their stride with the release of “Nothing For Us Here” in April of 2014. Comprised of 6 tracks, the EP totals a brutal 18 minutes of brooding, dissonant hardcore that sets the mood from the opening track God’s Lonely Children. Anthony Lucero’s goosebump inducing vocals ring out over the sea of harsh feedback and sparse, arrhythmic drumming with chants of “There is nothing for us here, move on”, destroying any remaining sense of hope the listener might cling to within the first minute. The 99 second noise introduction gives way to the furious opening blast beats of Flightless Birds, a song that provides no respite from the grinding fury and gives us our first look at the songwriting prowess of Cult Leader. Discordant but beautifully constructed progressions highlight the technical ability of the band but throughout the EP Cult Leader never becomes reliant on technicality to keep the listeners attention.

The true standout track on this album is the third, Mongrel. Mongrel might be the most instrumentally simple and repetitive, but there’s something so powerful about the way the tension is built and released through a riff only varied through the addition and subtraction of vocals, bass, and a second guitar. The song builds to a furious finale and ends suddenly with only a moment’s rest before the start of The Indoctrinator’s Deathbed, a song that inevitably draws comparisons to Gaza’s roots in sludge metal. The transition into Skin Crawler is so natural and seamless it feels like the same song, although Skin Crawler is significantly groovier than the aggressive sludge of The Indoctrinator’s Deathbed. Both songs are good, but don’t stand out as anything special given the bar set by the EP’s opening three songs.

“Nothing For Us Here” ends on the highest of notes with Driftwood, a six minute long song filled to the brim with haunting, melodic guitar work and earnest lyricism. Again, this song stands out because of Cult Leader’s skillful build and release of tension with the song growing to a massive, powerful climax before slowly fading out, bringing the listener back to reality. This song will make you feel sad, and any song that can so intensely conjure those kinds of emotions is truly well written.

Fortunately for fans of hardcore everywhere, Cult Leader recently finished recording their new album but as of now it does not have a release date. If “Nothing For Us Here” is any indication, it will be one of the top albums of 2015. I’d say that Cult Leader is one of the hottest new bands in hardcore, but given 75% of the band’s experience in Gaza, that seems a bit disingenuous. Nevertheless, you should not sleep on this band because it’s apparent great things are on the way.

-Jack

Tracklist:

1.       God’s Lonely Children

2.       Flightless Birds

3.       Mongrel

4.       The Indoctrinator’s Deathbed

5.       Skin Crawler

6.       Driftwood

Download (320kbps)

http://www78.zippyshare.com/v/12094110/file.html

True Enemy - Disgrace

This shit bangs.  The only time that I had ever listened to Disgrace before this was a split that they put out with Harness awhile back and I remember really liking it but for some reason they always slipped my mind and I never went to find anything else by them.  I was on a road trip and probably got three different texts a day telling me to download this and give it a listen so it's the first thing that I did when I got back.  Really sweet metallic guitar tone and it's riff city bitch.  Definitely makes sense that the members play in Twitching Tongues too.  If you're a fan of Twitching Tongues check it out for the riffs, and if you don't like Twitching Tongues because of the singing check it out because it's just a more aggressive version of TT's riffs but without any of the singing.

Tracklist

1. True Enemy

2. No More Fools

3. Slave To The Lead God

4. Uncreation

5. 1000 Voices

6. Conquered

7. The Forgotten Land

8. The Well

9. Segue

10. Bootlicker

11. The Dawn

12. Conclusion

320kbps Download

http://www11.zippyshare.com/v/05UFs8do/file.html

Rust - Harm's Way

It's been awhile since I've had the time to hop on here and post something but this is a big enough deal for me to hop on quick.  I haven't had a chance to listen to this entire album yet, but I've heard all of the early singles that they posted.  From the singles I can say that Rust sounds like they went in a slightly different direction than their previous efforts, but not in a bad way.  Blinded was the previous release and it is one of the most punishing records that I have ever had the pleasure of listening to.  From my very early first impression of the songs that I have heard it seems like they cut back on the amount of purely punishing riffs to produce something with a little bit more groove.  In my opinion, I think they'll be able to pull it off.  I don't want to say too much about the record before listening through it the whole way but I'm sure everyone is as eager as I am to listen to it so I'm putting it up now.

Tracklist

1. Infestation

2. Law Of The Land

3. Cremation

4. Hope

5. Cancerous Ways

6. Amongst The Rust

7. Disintegrate

8. Docile Bodies

9. Turn To Stone

10. Ease My Mind

320kbps Download

http://www44.zippyshare.com/v/37E3uM6C/file.html

Tierra Y Libertad - Xibalba

It's been a little while now since we've posted and I blame it on school starting up.  Gotta do what I gotta do.  I literally just saw that this album leaked and I knew I wanted to put it up.  I'm literally only two minutes into the first song so I can't say much about it yet other than that it is one of my most anticipated albums of the year.  Also, we hit over 50,000 views some time this past week and I want to say thank you to anyone who checks this blog out.  Keep listening to good music.

Tracklist

1. Enemigo

2. Guerrilla

3. Invierno

4. Pausa

5. En Paz Descanse

6. Tierra Y Libertad

7. Si Dios Quiere

8. El Vacio

Download 320kbps

http://www25.zippyshare.com/v/omg8Jdjc/file.html

Eternal Misery - No Zodiac

I haven't gotten the chance to sit down and listen through this enough times to give a very in depth review on this album, but I can give my first impression.  I became a fan of No Zodiac after their last release Population Control.  I am and always have been very aware of how cheesy this band can be and how shitty half of the things about their music is, but there is something about being a band that is so pissed that it comes off as arrogant that I like.  I always have thought that their vocalist wasn't very good and that he left a lot to be desired compared to how crushing the rest of the instrumentals are so I was very happy to see that the band got a new vocalist.  Some of the songs I think he hits pretty well, some songs I think sound like Job For A Cowboy 2006-era which were only kind of cool back in 2006.  There is also a song on the album that features guest vocals from The Acacia Strain's Vincent Bennett which I thought would sound great on a No Zodiac album but I'm about 90% sure that it was recorded on his phone and sent through a text.  With all of that being said, this is a much better album than Population Control in the view of them growing as artists.  This is a much more solid release musically and I really think that this album will help bring the band a lot more publicity.  Check this album out if you're in the mood for something that is almost disgusting how angry it is.  Laugh at how bad their tour poster is while you're listening to the album.

Tracklist

1. Birth Of Destruction

2. Rise Of Unholy

3. King Of Scorn

4. Constant Decay

5. Tormented

6. Immoral Agenda

7. Cesspool Earth

8. Eternal Misery

9. Endless Suffering

320 kbps

http://www.mediafire.com/download/44v444cs2zgt8ae/No+Zodiac+-+Eternal+Misery.zip

The Joy Of Motion - Animals As Leaders

The new Animals As Leaders finally leaked.  Definitely better than their previous album, but I think it may be impossible to ever beat their first album.  Tosin Abasi still has no trouble with proving his dominance over every other guitarist in the world with this album.

Tracklist

1. Ka$cade

2. Lippincott

3. Air Chrysalis

4. Another Year

5. Physical Education

6. Tooth And Claw

7. Crescent

8. The Future That Awaited Me

9. Para Mexer

10. The Woven Web

11. Mind = Spun

12. Nephete

Download 256kbps

http://www76.zippyshare.com/v/75973123/file.html

Manifest Decimation - Power Trip

This album rips and there's really no getting around that.  What's so cool about Power Trip is both fans of hardcore and metal completely agree on them being one of the coolest bands around.  Everything these guys put out is insane and keeps me head banging from the second the album starts to the second it ends.  Power Trip is blowing up really fast and I'd expect them to be a pretty big name in the hardcore/metal scene within the next few years.  I can guarantee whatever it is that brought you to liking hardcore or metal is in this album.  Whether it's huge guitar riffs that shred across the entire neck of the guitar, fast drums that keep you banging your head, or ridiculous vocal flows that bring out every emotion ever possible out of you it's in this album.  And it is great. -Ian

Tracklist

1. Manifest Decimation

2. Heretics Fork

3. Conditioned To Death

4. Murderers Row

5. Crossbreaker

6. Drown

7. Power Trip

8. Hammer Of Doubt

Download 320kbps

http://www65.zippyshare.com/v/57379865/file.html

Self Titled - Animals As Leaders

This is personally my favorite instrumental album and it led me to finding Tosin Abasi who I believe might be the best guitarist in the world right now.  I don't even understand how someone could write music like this, much less be able to play it live perfectly night after night.  I don't think that anyone would be able to listen to this album and not be amazed by how impressive every instrument involved is.  I've never had the opportunity to see these guys live but every video I've seen online is perfect and makes them look ridiculously tight.  They have a new album coming out soon so before you listen to that check this out and see where they came from.

Tracklist

1. Tempting Time

2. Soraya

3. Thoroughly At Home

4. On Impulse

5. Tessitura

6. Behaving Badly

7. The Price Of Everything And The Value Of Nothing

8. CAFO

9. Inamorata

10. Point To Point

11. Modern Meat

12. Song Of Solomon

Download 320kbps

http://www.4shared.com/folder/IH6330fm/Animals_as_Leaders__Self_Title.html

Divine Injustice - God's Hate

I don't know too much about this band so far because they are pretty much brand new.  What I do know is, they are from Los Angeles, they're backed by TUI, they have the guitarist from Twitching Tongues, and they are hard as all fuck.  I saw a bunch of bands tweeting about this EP last week and decided to give it a quick look and I've been jamming it ever since.  Like I said, they're so new that I don't know enough about them to say exactly what they're like or even know if they're planning on touring anytime soon.  But I do know that this EP rips and I really hope that I get the chance to see them if they ever get out on tour.  God's Hate reminds me of No Zodiac kind of, but with more exciting guitar parts and not such a constant monotone voice.  Definitely give these guys a look so you can know them before all of your friends.

Tracklist

1. Divine Injustice

2. Admission Of Guilt

3. Headstone (The Scum)

4. Social Class Warfare

5. Instinct

Bandcamp

http://godshate.bandcamp.com/

Tooth And Claw (Single) - Animals As Leaders

This is just the newest single off of Animals As Leaders next album The Joy Of Motion.  I'm really anticipating this next album to be great.  Since their self titled release back in 2009 they have really made quite a name for themselves internationally.  The self titled album is one of my favorite albums to this day while their Sophomore album Weightless disappointed me.  This first single reminds me a lot more of the self titled album so I'm hoping to hear more great music from these guys.  Definitely something to keep an eye out for.

Tracklist

1. Tooth And Claw

Download 320kbps

http://www47.zippyshare.com/v/5251328/file.html

Freedom - Warhound

Freedom is the newest release from Warhound.  It came out about a month ago now and I think that everyone has heard at least a decent buzz from these guys for the past few years now.  When Colder Than Ever first came out a few years ago I thought these guys were the hardest motherfuckers around.  I saw them at a little house show in Tulsa, Oklahoma and shit went insane.  A gas pipe ended up breaking in the house and the show had to end up being cut short.  These guys immediately started bitching and ended up leaving pretty quick.  I guess that was a little bit of a preview into how they'd act the next few years.  I can never decide if I still like these guys because I thought the re-release of Colder Than Ever was just a shittier, less energetic version of the album.  This EP is worth a few listens though.  I can get into the first song but the next three leave me wanting more.  Some of the guitar is a little more "metal" sounding too so I'm not sure what direction they're going to go with from here.  If it was up to me they'd scrap all this shit and go back to the raw, pissed off sound of Colder Than Ever.  Either way, give this a few listens and decide for yourself.

Tracklist

1. Anger

2. Stress

3. Jealousy

4. Fear

320kbps Download

http://www76.zippyshare.com/v/76846314/file.html