“Nibiru play hardcore bone-crunching mayhem psychedelic sex-funk from heaven, and we’re here to perpetrate the funk into your anal cavity. So pay attention.”

Not my words, the words of Nibiru themselves, when they were interviewed by SWNK, at the back end of 2011. Strong words from a band featuring members of some of Ireland’s finest hardcore mobs (Frustration, Bang Bros and Famine) who play some equally strong music

This is a witch’s brew of epic proportions. Take the attitude of NYHC, the swagger of early grunge and crunch of 90s metal, and you’re someway to embracing the majesty of Nibiru. If you can’t process that, and need it be pigeon-holed, then think Life Of Agony or Twitching Tongues. You know, big fuck off RIFFS™, a massive chorus, thumping rhythms, breakdowns, there’s something for everyone to get their teeth into. Moshers and headbangers unite!

Nostalgia is selling well at the moment, with bands like the aforementioned Twitching Tongues, Daylight, Title Fight and the sorely-missed Basement tapping into that golden era of music, that’s causing dudes in their mid-30s to lose their shit when they hear it. People reminisce about their carefree younger days and how great it was, but I think it misses the point. It’s not about the times, it’s more about that feeling you had when you first heard these seminal bands. Remember the first time you listened to the Revelation Records: In-Flight Program sampler, hearing bands like Quicksand making the leap and crossing over, the sheer joy of those staccato riffs and emotional vocals? Well, that’s what I get with Nibiru. It doesn’t make me think about being at school (which was shit), it connects in a way like when I first heard Tool or Helmet.

Don’t think Nibiru are a worship and tribute act though, not at all, they’ve got a strong game, and enough hooks in their locker to keep it fresh and exciting. They pay respect to the Allfathers, but forge ahead with their own chapter. So, do yourself a favour and pick up their new 7″ on Carry The Weight from our man Pat, or the demo 7″ on Holy Roar

 Planet earth is a dying whore. Embrace Nibiru.

http://planetnibiru.bandcamp.com/
http://www.ctwrecords.com/

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A little context to start: Margate, England in the early 90’s. My friend Alan and I were basically a couple of little teenage hillbillies from a decaying seaside town in Kent who, like many others at the time, had stumbled into hardcore punk via grunge rock right around the time the members of the original youth crew bands were growing out their hair, smoking weed and rocking out. At the time I recall I was a bit disappointed that those bands were yesterdays news since it was the visceral energy in the photos on the sleeves of records by bands like Youth Of Today and Judge that really drew us in and took a hold of our imagination. But sadly we’d missed the party by a couple of years and by 1994 the sonic landscape had changed somewhat. It was bands like Undertow, Unbroken, Ressurection, Earth Crisis, Strife that were the current sound of Straight Edge hardcore so naturally we cast aside the Rev all stars and what we considered to be the Ghost of Straight Edge past and instead gravitated towards that contemporary take on things, slower and heavier and more militant than the previous generation and reflective of changing times, values and ideas…..

Meanwhile, as I mentioned earlier, the dudes who’d defined and been inspired by the Rev years were already well onto another progressive tip. Bands like Quicksand, Shift, Into Another, Stillsuit  and the UK’s own Understand were developing chops and exploring structures that were closer to the underground alternative noise rock of Helmet and Jawbox etc that I’d been listening to a couple of years earlier. It took me a while but I finally got my head around what was going on and by the time Quicksand’s Manic Compression was released, I was well on board. Apologies for the flashback intro but It’s these ‘stripey t-shirt bands’ and the feeling of nostalgia they evoke that springs to the front of my mind when listening to this weeks featured new band Fade.
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Over the last couple of weeks we have been approached by a couple of bands asking how they can be featured on the Band Of The Week section. “Can we have our manager send you a demo?” ‘We’d love to be featured on your website, we have played two shows and already have a street team’. Please vote for us to play this festival” etc etc. That kind of silly nonsense. Our policy on this is really simple. Don’t Be Shit. Be a legit Hardcore punk band. And in all honesty WE tell YOU if we like your band, you don’t tell us. I’ve been hanging around long enough and sat through way too many shitty bands that I think I know what I like by now. Having said that, if one of my mates is in the band that probably helps a bit too, as is the case of this weeks new band Controlled from Sydney Australia.

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Summer is here, the season when HC bands jump into a shitty van and take to the road for a couple of weeks to observe that fine tradition of the summer tour. Lawless living, no sleep, no money, petty theft, BBQ’s, maybe see some tits, moshing, water fights ahhhhhhh the best of times. Next week see’s Final Rage and Ego Trip, two bands from my Southern homelands heading up the M1 to bring the proverbial ruckus to the North and with both bands having imminent releases due on the prolific (and Corehammer afiliated) CTW records, I figured we’d do a bit of a 2 part special and hit’em both up. Yep one of the hottest days of the year and I’m cloistered away in my attic like a self harmer, afraid of the sun and shit, sweating it out in my custom dust sauna and writing stupid reviews of my friends band. Brilliant.

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Right I’m off on holiday for a week so you’re getting Band Of the Week a few days early. I’m sure you can cope.

Atonement Records continue their crusade to resurrect the husk of 90’s Hardcore by unleashing the debut recordings from Manchester’s BELOW upon an unexpecting scene.
Darke’s been hinting about these guys via twitter for a while but with no live shows as yet and a rumoured demo that (until now) could well have been a product of his fevered imagination, I was starting to wonder if the poor lad hadn’t conjured his very own 90’s moshcore version of Harvey The Rabbit.

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We’re trying to keep updates on this thing as regular as possible but obviously dropping knowledge and laughs EVERY SINGLE DAY can be somewhat tasking, even for legendary wits and all-knowing scribes like the Corehammer crew. To remedy potential midweek lulls in posting I give you Band Of The Week, a new weekly article designed purely to keep my contribution count up whilst demanding minimal effort on my part. As the name suggests, I’ll be recommending a new band to check out each week and berating you for not knowing all about a band that I only just discovered for myself the day before, idiots. Continue reading →