giovedì 20 febbraio 2014

Frammenti di Vita

If you got into into extreme music (for a lack of better words) here in italy in the early 90s' (like I did), it doesn't matter what you're pretending to be today, Cripple Bastards played a huge role for a lot of us. They were the only link with the glory days of the 80s', the band that introduced a lot of us for the first time to old school italian hardcore bands. Until '97 I almost used to listen to grind, noisecore and death metal only. Cripple Bastards were the band that lemme discover that grindcore roots were in the hardcore scene. It took me a lot to understand it since my friends who were into hardcore were mainly into all those horrible Fat Wreck bands that were so popular in 90s' & youth crew crap. I hated that shit, all I wanted was fast, loud and noisy music with guttural vocals. Cripple Bastards playing covers of Indigisti and Wretched opened my eyes to that scene. It's only thanx to them if "mass media" is my favourite italian hardcore song ever.
For some reasons I got this record only recently. Saw them playing a couple of these tracks multiple times and I had some of them on tapes. I stopped paying attention to CB when Alberto left the band. Only 'coz while they were slowly going more and more metal, I took the hardcore path. But I've always and will always support their anti-PC approach. I must admit this record didn't age that well. After all, it's a cover ep and we all know that, as good as it could be, a cover is always inferior to the original, especially when you're familiar with the original version. But it's not that bad after all. Plus Cripple Bastards "frammenti di vita" represents a period of my life where everything was new and exciting, so I guess I got it because of nostalgia? As with all the Ecocentric releases, it comes without dust sleeve which is quite annoying...

venerdì 14 febbraio 2014

7 Spår E.P.

Sweden, along with US & Japan, has one of the most overrated scene ever. For sure these three countries have unleashed more amazing bands than all the rest of the world in 30+ years of punk/hardcore (well, if we exclude Finland). But it seems that for every fart that came out from the aforementioned countries, everyone start to praise and hype it even if, in most cases, it's just mediocre shit that will be forgotten in a few years. I'm late with this record because of that reason. Plus their debut lp didn't grab me that much. Well, better later than ever. Infernöh ‎"7 Spår E.P." 12" is not a record. It's a textbook. A textbook that must be consulted if you want to understand how swedish hardcore should be played properly: fast, heavy, aggressive and loud but still catchy and memorable as fuck. Well, this is swedish to the bone. You've read way too many Anti Cimex comparsions over the years but I assure you this is at the same level of greatness. Along with Framtid new lp, the best album that came out in 2013 for sure.
This is the european press on D-Takt & Råpunk Records. There's also a US press on Distort Reality with reverted cover colours but if you want the real deal, it's this swedish press of course. Comes with a huge posters and on 180g vinyl for your listening pleasure. The guy I bought it from sent me two copies (in two different parcels!) by mistake. Of course I offered to send one back but he just told me to keep it. It couldn't happen with better record!

mercoledì 5 febbraio 2014

CARCASS GRINDER interview 1996

Classic japanese hc/grind from the 90s'. If I'm not wrong they're still active in a way or another. Taken from Coroners' Report 'zine#3 from around '96/'97.