Demo Fever

So, as mentioned yesterday, this one will be about a few demo's...

I love collecting 7" records, but for some bands demo's just seem the right format.  I always feel as if a lot of bands loose their hardness/rawness when they get something properly produced, so I find myself listening to demo's quite a lot. Even remember a friend telling me like; "hey, it's cool to have that tape from E-Town Concrete, but the songs on it aren't that good right?" and really giving him a hard time about it. I don't know, the bad sound quality really doesn't bother me that much, it just feels like it's sincere, so yes, I really listen to them (in the E-Town Concrete case even just as much or even more than the rest).

Anyway, we're drifting off.

First band I'd like to mention is Denied.
This is one of my favorite bands, since in my opinion it's the hardest of them all. They don't have the same hardness Fury Of Five has, but go for a more Bulldoze approach (their first CD "Together As None" also appeared on Kevone Bulldoze's label Time Served Records, and has "The Truth" by Bulldoze as a hidden cover track), so this is an old-school beatdown band, just the way I like them.

They have a split 7" with Relentless (which I will certainly cover later) on Respect Due Records, a split CD with Beatdown Fury on Rucktion Records, a fourway split "Step To The Plate" with Full Court Press, Down My Throath & Strength For A Reason on Thornz Records, "Prayer For The Enemy" full-CD on Filled With Hate Records and the aforementioned "Together As None" CD on Time Served Records. Next to that they also have a demo that I'll be covering today.

In fact, I have two versions of the CD. One comes with black and white artwork, and one with some sepia colors and a colored logo on it. Weirdly enough the one with the black&white artwork has a colored Denied logo sticker on the CDr, while the other one who has a colored artwork has just the name written on it. Anyway, this demo came out when they came on tour in Europe, so the songs are not in the same vein as the "Together As None" session, but are rather comparable to the ones on the "Step To The Plate" spit. The last 4 tracks are also live-tracks, but it's not mentioned where they've been recorded.

I know for a fact that this demo also came out on tape, but haven't been able to get my hands on it so far...

Download this demo right HERE.

If you're looking for a better discography on Denied, check out THIS PAGE on the Filled With Hate Records site.

Second band for today is Capitol Punishment.

This band has never released anything more than this demo, and probably didn't do that many shows either. I remember seeing them once somewhere in Belgium, small venue, not that many attendees. But hey, this demo is a real banger. It's hard as nails, the vocals are as deep as you can get them, and the production is not bad at all for a demo. Think I bought this demo somewhere around the same time I bought the Nasty "The Beginning" demo, and I must say that they probably spun equally much. Something in this music just does it for me.

As you can see, again there are two versions. Both are called "Infernal Necro Beatdown", but the second one is the "Tour Version" numbered out of 25 I was able to buy at the show. This tour version also has been remastered, which gives it an even deeper sound, bit less raw, bit more bass, I liked them both. If memory serves me correctly, which sadly enough isn't always the case, the guy singing in this band was Norman from Fuck This Recordings, whom also released a few Nasty CDs, Surge Of Fury, The Boss and a few more. I even believe some members of Capitol Punishment went further and started a band called Panzerhölle, whom released a CD on Warcity Records, but that's something I'm not that certain of... Anyway, Enjoy!

Download it right HERE and HERE (Remastered Edition).


Last band for today is one on request, Age Of Disgrace.

They released a mini-CD "...Those Who Persist" that was distributed by Filled With Hate records, a demo in 2002 and this one. If I remember correctly I got this demo through Toni, the big boss at Beatdown Hardwear Records.
Music-wise it's a tough guy band like there were quite a few at that time, straight forward, a lot of hard breaks and grooving for the rest, and all that with a little metalcore twist. Not their best for recording quality though, sounds like it's recorded in their bathroom. Got to see them live and they were pretty cool, but they never really got bigger. If I'm not mistaking they had a little break in between the mini-CD and this demo, and they released this demo to try to get some shows all around. Guess it didn't really worked out. Not too bad this demo, their mini-CD you should easily be able to find.

Download their 2005 demo HERE.

Thanks for reading, next time something more old-school!

Empire Of Rats - No Peace...

This one is about one of the best bands in the last few years, Empire Of Rats.

I've first heard one of their songs right before they did the pre-orders for the "No Peace" 7inch through Get This Right Records. Since I was blown away by the sheer hardness of it, I just ordered it.

That got me the regular black vinyl version and the pre-order one, which was a coke bottle clear one with a special cover, picturing Brice Davis Colopy. It also comes with an apology letter for taking quite a time to arrive.

After receiving it I got in contact with the guy running GTRrecords and was able to get my hands on a test pressing! And it got even better when the same year I went to the Ieperfest, Europe's best hardcore festival for years. Some band played and while looking at their merch-table I found a few copies of the "No Peace" 7inch. Looking further I saw they were regular covers, but some had the same coke bottle clear vinyl as the pre-order version. I bought one of course, and got to talk to the dude selling them, which of course was somebody related to the GTRrecords. He told me they did a few limited edition "Empire Of Cats" versions for the This Is Hardcore Fest, and that he possibly had one left at home. And you already guessed, a few weeks later it arrived at my place... Seemed that next to the fact it had a limited edition cover, it also had another color of vinyl, being solid yellow. Seems they did a second press I didn't know about, so that one's on the list to buy in the short future!

Anyway, here's the Empire Of Rats 7inch collection so far, when I get the solid yellow copy, I'll do a complete collection picture with the "No Peace" tape and the new LP, so stay tuned!

If you'd like to hear what it sounds like, go visit their Bandcamp, you can listen to the entire 7inch, and download it at a "name your price" principle... You should just do it, coz this is one of the best 7"s to have come out in the last years!

E-Town Concrete Collection Update

So, after a long time of silence it's time to jump back into the game...
Let's start off with the E-Town Collection I posted earlier.
Since then I've managed to get a hold on three more items.

There's the "Fuck The World" 7inch that I already had, but there's some more colors to it:

 The green one at the right bottom and the black one with yellow labels at the left top are the new ones.
The green one is most probably a pre-order version, it's numbered out of 100.
I'm curious to know if the colored vinyls also come with the other colors of labels, so if anyone has a colored one with a different label, get in touch!

I've also found "The Second Coming" LP on clear, the previous one was a solid yellow one, which seems to be the most common color. I've got it through Edward Goodlife, so if you're looking for one yourself you might always try and ask the man himself!

Anyway, more coming later!