Every other Friday, Waldo the African Grey Parrot, frontbird of thrash-grind immortals Hatebeak, will get you caught up on the week’s latest “extreme” releases.
Holy reissues, Batman! Wow, just like the end of the year, the beginning doesn’t hold that much, but there are some reissue type things that’ll be a good peck for you, so I’ll list some and let you check ‘em out for yourself.
“All the kids are fucking dead, I write with love and a gun to my head”
GIVE UP THE GHOST, formerly American Nightmare, are re-releasing 3 EPs on Deathwish. This was how hardcore should have been played: mean and angry. These Boston boys knew what the squawk was up.
Background Music/We’re Down ‘Til We’re Underground/Ice Age are three classics. The members went on to be in various different projects, but nothing as energetic or visceral as this. Do yourself a favor and pick these up. This is typically where one could make some off-color comment about giving them a “hand” (do your own research), but this birdbrain has too much respect. 8 FUCKING PECKS.
Metal Blade knock the war paint off of the ever brutal BOLT THROWER with three vinyl releases of Honor, Valour, Pride; Those Once Loyal and Mercenary, the three full-lengths recorded for the label, and although not the classic material by these crust grindsters, still relevant and very pecking strong. If you are not familiar with the more recent back catalog, or really just dropped off of the BT bandwagon, these reissues are preening awesome, and a fun thing to own on the vinyl format. Good for Metal Blade; although fans will snatch these up, it doesn’t seem like they are trying to squeeze every last cent out of one of their acts. With the same blasts, melodies and punishment as the early Bolt Thrower days, amazing releases from a classic band. 8 FUCKING PECKS.
Uh, how do I even start this? Christian post-metalcore/hardcore that doesn’t identify itself with the Big Man, but DOES identify itself with post-electronic? Wow, that’s a whole lot of garbage for one lame band; can’t they pick one genre and suck at just that one? ATTACK ATTACK! Does genre-skipping, not as much as some bands, but genre-skipping nonetheless. This is pretty standard fare: hardcore part, chuggy breakdowns, singing part, chug, hardcore. Not much to be surprised with here, not even that much to hate; it’s just kind of boring and sucky. I don’t know, maybe I’m getting too old, there is some kid that will be finding this at a Hot Topic and MAYBE will go pick up a real extreme release one day, but this is just lame. Like Hank Hill says, “You’re not making God cool, you’re making rock music suck.” 3 FUCKING PECKS.
Finally, there’s Canada’s own SACRIFICE. Really more thrash than death, but who beaking cares? There are SOME crucial riffs here. Although they’ve never really been able to relive the glory from the Forward To Termination era, they are still around in some form.
