Harder They Fall #4: Pre-Orders Up Now

Line Of Sight: Pic by Jeff Laisch

In a break from our scheduled programming, just a quick announcement that the latest issue of my very occasional punk fanzine Harder They Fall is now available for pre-order.  Issue 4 weighs in at 44 solid pages of content. No adverts, no filler. Interviews with Rancour from Wales, Ill Natured from Australia, Guilt Ritual from New England, xServitudex, Dan Duggan of Unholy Majesty/The Break In/Santa Carla and The Monster Merchants, Tom Pimlott of Arms Race/ Violent Reaction/Standpoint/ Marco Abiatello of Payday, Dan Capman from Firm Standing Law and Peter Falkous of Thirty Seconds Until Armageddon/ Grace/Vengeance Of Gaia/ Break It Up/ Jinn etc. Phew!

Alongside all that there’s the usual daft anecdotes and articles along with a slick layout courtesy of Falkous. This ones coming out via Static Age publishing so check it out HERE if you want to grab one!

March Of the Damned – This months demo round up

Well it’s been a while. Despite my best intentions of keeping the blog updated weekly, they stumbled and expired on the side of the highway like some knackered old tramp on a hot day when confronted with the greater evil of  an academic deadline looming on the horizon. Consider this update a palate cleanser for me then rather than an omen of things to come. I don’t know if or when I’ll be resuming regular posting/editing here. I don’t plan on leaving it entirely in abandons care but there’s a fallow season upon us.

To business then, first up is the demo from  World Of Difference. They are a new straight edge band that, if memory serves me correctly, contains former members of the Dublin group Bang Bros amongst others…. Continue reading

New Year/ Same old shit it’s the January Mosh Round Up

Look, I don’t normally place much faith in statistics but according to the data analysis thing in the back end of WordPress, these hardcore round ups have become quite popular. I can only assume that the extreme music world has finally recognised my immense talent for discovering good bands and writing hilarious words about them for you, the little people. To capitalise upon that interest we’ll be shifting the monthly round ups to a bi-weekly schedule for as long as I can be arsed to write them. I tend to pick and choose stuff that I personally enjoy for publication here. If you want to read the mean reviews I suggest you head on over to my author feed at Apathy & Exhaustion

Ok to business, lets take a look at Hangman  from Long Island. Hadn’t checked out these guys before but they played some shows with Higher Power on their recent US tour and I heard good things so let’s give them a go. Vile Decree is the name of this new 7″ on Flatspot Records.  Hangman set out their stall on opening track Pesticide, mid paced chugging malevolence. There’s groove and scorn in abundance and when the mid paced break in Coming To shows up I challenge all of you not to screwface and bob your head like you’re mean mugging in a Biohazard video or some shit. Set a rubbish bin on fire, wear shades indoors, take a mean dog for a walk etc.

Abandoned crunches into view and for some reason I’m reminded of the Full Contact songs from the NY Hardest comp even though I havent thought about that record in fifteen years. Brian from Long Island miseries Neglect drops a guestie on this cut and his tombstone drawl provides a dynamic contrast to the Hangman vocalists cleaner style. Overall a pleasing listen, recommended for fans of mid nineties New York hardcore and urban fonts. You can listen to them HERE Continue reading

Drifts Get Deeper- December Mosh round up

The sky has taken on a bleaker quality than usual, the first proper snows of the season have arrived and that showy wanker round the corner has got his big Christmas lights up. Winter has finally come upon us. As I sit here during the seasonal perineum that squats between Christmas and New years I took the opportunity to stick on my wellies and wade through the tide of absolute shit that laps at my door 24/7 aka this months massive pile of demos and EP’s. Here’s three things I thought were good.. Continue reading

November Hardcore round up – Part 1

Let me tell ya readers, we are truly living in some coptic times. Maybe it’s the state of the world that’s got the youth riled up. Not a day goes by without some jackass banging another nail in the coffin of a hopeful outcome for this planet. Sucks for the world but hey great for angry music. My inbox has been inundated with so much fresh well executed hardcore, that it is almost getting boring to review it. With quality at such a consistently high standard it becomes very difficult for a writer, even one as erudite as I, to keep coming up with new ways to describe cool shit. To that end I actively encourage shitheel bands to get in touch with their ham fisted racket, so that I once again have a reason to hack up my scorn first thing of a morning. Anyway the hour is late and I’ve got shit to do so lets crack on with it shall we?

Continue reading

“Hey Jeff wheres the belly shirt?” – Discovering NYHC The Hard Way

Did you know that in 1995 the internet didn’t exist? There was no Spotify. Youtube was still a little swimmer in Chad Hurley’s ball bag. Even Lars Fucking Ulrich wasn’t having a hissy fit about Napster yet. Therefore finding any music that wasn’t part of the mainstream was no easy feat. As an up and coming hardcore kid or heavy metal fan it wasn’t that simple to pick up records if you weren’t “in the know” with older heads. Me and my crew came upon hardcore together. Through Biohazard we discovered Sick of It All. Through Sick of it All we were lucky enough to see Strife supporting them at Bradford Rios…..each fresh layer took you a little deeper into the fold. But because were young turds we didn’t have access to that esoteric wisdom passed down by the “older generation”. We were on our own. Continue reading

For those about to mosh…September Hardcore Roundup

It has been a while since we last had a peek under the  lid to see what’s boiling away in the realms of underground metal and hardcore. Lets rectify that immediately shall we?

 First out of the skillet is Razorbite I had assumed this shower to be from Leeds given Nat Wood took their photos, Jimmy Wizard drew the cover and Atko recorded the demo but no Donny, these guys and girls are from Glasgow. I’ve visited Glasgow on a number of occasions and it’s always struck me as a tough fucking town. The first time was back in 1997. We asked for a pizza in some glum cafe and the pie faced curmudgeon behind the counter shoved a frozen pizza into a deep fat fryer before presenting it to us on a Glasgow salad, a formidable bed of chips. Like thats normal. Other highlights of that evening included a three legged dog, Knuckledust playing in a weird mosher pub/strip club hybrid hell hole, trying to get some kind of sleep in a sketchy mill and waking to discover we were being silently watched from a doorway by a man in a pair of bunched tighty whities and a Massacre T-shirt. Choice. The sounds Razorbite produce are a testament to all that misery…groove heavy hardcore not unlike Trapped Under Ice I guess, but the production on this is all squashy and sounds like the first One King Down record. I like that One King Down record loads though so it’s chill. So yeah, Trapped Under Ice meets Albany hardcore circa 1994 with bratty female vocals. It’s a combination that took some getting used to but its not immediately like anyone else and I dig it. Maybe you will too, have a listen HERE 

Continue reading

Jason Frye Of Harrowed – A Thanet State Of Mind

10730867_816735798377774_5192776515379629312_nEarlier this year I resurrected my hardcore fanzine Harder They Fall. I had written the two previous issues back in the early 2000’s, when my involvement in that scene was far more active. In 2015 I felt like I wanted to flex some creative punk rock muscles that had cramped up and so I recorded some punk songs with my friends Jamie and Kieron which became the Severed demo and I interviewed some other friends  and Harder They Fall issue 3 became a thing. The issue sold well, certainly well enough for to convince me that doing a fourth issue might be a nice idea. And sadly that’s where we come unstuck. Life got busy again and my plans to publish another issue had to get dialled back. Anyhow, I DID manage to conduct a couple of interviews for issue 4 before I ran out of steam and rather than let them languish I figured I’d throw them up on the ol’ Hammer. First up is an interview with my old friend Jason Frye. We’ve been allies for over a decade, we’ve  played in bands together and he’s patiently endured more of my  belicose ranting than most. With a new Harrowed split EP with Art Of Burning Water on the horizon courtesy of Secret Law & Superfi Records I thought it was high time that the quiet man of Kent’s hardcore/metal scene had his say….
Continue reading

Corehammer presents: Dungeonpunx Podcast

LogoAfter much procrastination we have finally got our finger out and recorded the debut episode of the Corehammer podcast, which I have dubbed Dungeonpunx. I had been wanting to try my hand at podcasting for a while but the opportunity to get the rest of the OG Corehammer mournival around the table on the regular was proving to be an impossible feat. Despite my best efforts, conflicting schedules, geographical hinderance and a generous serving of good old fashioned apathy amongst our ranks put the clappers on my plan for full media dominance. I sulkily resigned my podasting ambitions to the steadily increasing mountain of ‘that could have been cool’ ideas.

Regular readers may recall my crisis of faith a few months back HERE Increasing pressures from work and university as well as recently volunteering a couple of Saturdays a month to work with autistic kids have led to a gradual withdrawal from regular posting and editing here, as well as a re-evaluation of what I really want out of the hobby. And whilst my 13th Company have not graced a battlefield since last years Corehammer Christmas party, I HAVE been playing D&D 5th Edition on the regular for just over a year and absolutely loving it.

A change in personal  responsibilities meant that I recently had to take a hiatus from my usual Wednesday night  D&D sessions. In anticipation of this I set up a regular Sunday afternoon session with a group of close friends that were keen to give D&D a try but had very little experience of actual RPG’s. Being the only member of the group familiar with 5th Ed D&D I grudgingly found myself sitting in the DM’s chair and after a few clumsy sessions we have found our feet and really got stuck into it. The natural rapport that already existed between Boardy, Max, Ager, Tom, Connor and I translated well into creating a comfortable and entertaining gaming dynamic. It soon occurred to me that this gang of cocky dungeoneers could perhaps serve a dual purpose and so I revived the idea of starting a podcast with the rest of the crew as my conspirators & co-hosts and lo, Dungeonpunx was born.
Continue reading

Band Of The Week: Allfather

13413_474870599331274_322883935686994312_nHaving binned my label off, I still love to trawl Bandcamp for new music, so when Allfather bust out of the speakers I was into straight off the bat. So, why not use the blog to shout about new bands, and hear what they have to say? Have a listen, check out the little review, and read what they have to say.

What do I think of them? Basically, take the best Black Sabbath riffs, add in a crunchy metallic hardcore stomp, with a punk boot to the throat, and you’re somewhere there. A real melting pot of ideas. If you’re looking for that lazy pigeonhole, then I guess the easiest comparison to make would be Hang The Bastard, who like their peers Crowbar, easily cross the divide of metal and hardcore. Allfather wear their influences on their sleeves, they’re not re-inventing the wheel, it does what it says on the tin, but it does it really well. So head over to Bandcamp, and if you like what you hear, chuck a few quid in the pot and have one less spiced pumpkin latte or whatever bullshit people drink these days. Headbang, raise a fist or go wild and do a Bushwacker in the pit!

Continue reading