Scared To Death!

The new King Nine records has been out for a few months now, and I've been meaning to put up a post about it, so let's take some time and do it!

As we try to kill each other off

All that remains of us is dust

Who really laughs last?

Because I know it can't be us

First of all, "Scared To Death" is one of the better albums that came out last year.  It's not perfect, the sound is pretty bad in my opinion, but hey, the music is hard, the lyrics about the streets and just coping with existence, and it just has a general flow through the album that makes it so good.  From time to time it reminds me of Everybody Gets Hurt, one of the most underrated NYHC bands out there.  Next to that it could be compared with Backtrack and (older) Trapped Under Ice, but it's rawer, less sophisticated, and more negative, certainly compared to Backtrack.  The vocals are raw, shouted, and sound sincere in every word he screams.  Technically not the most impressive, but I just love it when you hear the singer pushing his voice to the limits... (On a side note; this is probably my biggest problem with Madball, the first few albums were straight up hard, and that had a lot to do with Freddy's voice being this fed up, while the later albums display his vocal talents better, it's sang perfectly, but to me it misses the feeling it had back in the days where he just went loose. But hey, this was supposed to be about King Nine right!)

Now, this album got released on Mass Movement Records, a new label based in Baltimore.  I could be wrong, but I believe King Nine is the first release they did.  Not a bad way to kickstart your label.  The first press sold out in the blink of an eye.  I managed to get my hands on two version, namely the Orange and Blue vinyl, both out of 100 copies.  If memory serves me correctly, there were 300 black ones, which seems to be confirmed by the Discogs page of the album (but hey, those are not always as accurate as they claim). My orange vinyl also came with some black and red strokes.

Some time later Mass Movement Records came up with a second press, also pictured above.  This time only two colors, Yellow and Black, with the yellow being out of 300 and the black out of 200 copies.  The yellow has some black and white/light yellow strokes on it on my copy.  The label also changed the labels, as pictured underneath.  Side A now has the label info on it, while they changed the picture on side B too.  I could be mistaken but I believe the new one has been taken on the release show of the record on November 24th 2013.

The first press also had a small sticker on the paper sleeve, stating the artwork had been done by Lauren Moran.  The second press hasn't got this sticker, and has no other mentioning of it either.  To me it seems they forgot to put it on the sleeve/inlay and had to put a sticker on the paper sleeve to at least mention it.  Somehow sad for the artist they didn't mention him again on the 2nd press, or even better rectified their mistake by adapting the inlay.  I must say that I don't like the artwork that much though.  Both presses also came with a sticker of Mass Movement Records and a download code.  Since I have a few, the download code on this picture hasn't been used yet, feel free to use it (first come first serve!)

To make things more interesting for European vinyl nerds, Ratel Records also put out Scared To Death.  They did 150 copies, of which the first 90 came with a pre-order sleeve.  The records are all black, and with the labels being just the same as the Mass Movement Records 1st press, it's safe to say that they just mailed 150 copies and Ratel made up different sleeves.  While I already mentioned I didn't like the American artwork, the European one is something totally different.  Both the regular (live picture) and pre-order sleeve (Lady Liberty & Graffiti) came out great, so Ratel Records did a great job on this one!

On the picture of the labels underneath you can clearly see they're the same as the American 1st press, only difference is that Ratel Records put their logo stamp on top of the A side label.

They also did a different inlay for the records, and this time the Mass Movement version wins in my opinion, with the American version being the white one and the European version the black one underneath.

So, that's the round-up on the vinyl, now go check out this album yourself, buy it on Itunes or whatever, go to the Mass Movement Records Store or the Ratel Records Store, they both have got some copies left, or ask your local distro, if they haven't gotten this album yet, they're missing out!  If you're low on cash, than check out the footage from their record release, looks like one hell of a party there!  Catch you next time...

Local & London

So... after a long time away again, it's time to get things back on track...

Let's start off with Core Of Anger.

Most of you probably don't know them, and that's just fine.  If you are interested in their official biography you can go HERE or THERE.  The last one is a bit more complete, since it already mentions the band called it quits...  Anyway, this band is not mentioned here for it's musical qualities (which they have none the less, don't get me wrong) but simply because this band was from Roeselare (Belgium) were I grew up.  I knew the guys prior to the band and when they started playing shows I've seen them quite a few times.  Line-ups changed but the band never lost sight of who they were.  I believe somewhere in an old sketchbook I still have some drawings I made for the time they were called "Murder 101" (which was really short).

Anyway, they released a first demo in 2002, which I sadly enough no longer have, so no pictures here, but I've found a few mp3's on an old hard-disk, so I'll include these too.  If memory serves me correctly me and my friend Junior even wrote a lyric each on this one, but hey, it's been a while... Quality-wise this is not a game-changer, not to say it's pretty bad.  The songs themselves are pretty straight-forward metalcore beatdown or however you wish to call it.

Two years later they put out another demo and now some things had changed... The line-up had become a bit steadier, the band had more experience, and it shows on this demo.  I've also managed to get my hands on a promo of the demo (yeah, let's make it complicated), and the third song is a different one than on the demo itself... While the demo has "Brotherhood Foundation" as a third track, "Life" is presented live at the Frontline on the promo.

After they did a small tour with Everybody Gets Hurt (certainly to be covered here later) they managed to get signed to Reality Records, a DIY hardcore label based in Belgium, that had already put out Madball, Kingpin, The Setup, Settle The Score, Everybody Gets Hurt and others, so it was a pretty nice deal!  I remember they did a tour with Arkangel a bit later, but as it mostly goes with bands, things didn't last.  People started studying further away, getting jobs, throat problems, you name it, so in 2007 the band called it quits... One of their members still sings in Restless now, the rest of them I have no idea...  I could bore the hell out of you with more stories about them, drunken times and all, but I'll keep those for at the bar... I'm not going to include their last cd, I'll have a word with the guys in Core Of Anger before I do so.

DEMO 2002

HATE CONQUERS ALL DEMO

PROMO

And though I like local bands, and people should learn to appreciate them a lot more, I can't help but like almost everything that comes from London, and more exactly everything that Rucktion Records puts out... Great bands like Beatdown Fury (what a great reunion show last year!), Bun Dem Out, Deathskulls, Injury Time, Blades Of Unity, Maldito... I'm not doing the list coz I'm gonna forget too many bands I adore...

BUT.
I will make one exeption.  Kartel have always been one of my favorite bands coming from the big smoke.  They have the coolest vibes, funniest shit to say on stage and mix the oldschool New York style perfectly with the harder stuff... And next to all of that, the guys themselves are simply great. First thing I heard from them was the Skeen Demo, a four track demo that was great, so I checked out the Southbound Split they did with Ninebar & Diction, two other great bands from London.

Great stuff from all the bands, but it wasn't until the "Rise Of The Guttersnipe" album came out that I totally realized just how good this band is. The lyrics were awesome, the music was hard but yet had some distinctive sound to it... Nice oldschool parts, hard breaks, LBU shoutouts, everything about the album just worked.  Sadly enough not too long after that, one of the vocalist (Mean Pete) parted ways with the band, which left only DBS on the vocals.  During some time they have been looking for how to cope with this the best way, but when their free sampler cd of "Gutter Music Volume 1" came my way I understood that they had found it.

What I didn't realize was that they did way more than this.  When the album finally dropped, it truly blew my mind.  Music-wise all was still about the same, but this time they had a superb production to it.  The lyrics are practically some of the best I've read in a long time on a hardcore record, the vocals are diverse and crushing, really nothing about this album is flawed...  If someday soon Knuckledust would be calling it quits, which we all would very much hate of course, Kartel is ready to take over the throne of London Hardcore.

Not content to stand in line waiting just to die

We're rising up to claim our piece of the pie

No time to take aim come out shooting from the hip

To push us too far was to let your grip slip.

Get yourself this album through the Rucktion Webstore or anywhere else, you won't be disappointed!

THE SKEEN DEMO

GUTTER MUSIC VOL.1 SAMPLER