Tag Archives: hardcore

The Slugbait Rumor Mill and Other Stories

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Author Nick Baran:

The start of my true love affair with miniature wargaming started with this box.

In 1994 I was part owner of a gaming store with some older, more mature, gaming friends of mine. I was in my early 20’s and playing in a straight edge hardcore punk band called, Halfmast. We were an unlikely group of game store owners: a chemical engineer (our chief investor), a mid-sized retail chain store manager, one of his employees, and myself – an irresponsible punk rocker. We opened the store on the tails of the first big wave of Magic: The Gathering hype. With all of the money we made selling M:TG in our first 6 months we had paid off the chemical engineer’s investment and had a pile of cash `to be invested into another game line. The distributors were pushing a game called Warhammer really hard, and we threw our all of our nested profit into it. Then we did it again with 40K. I started an army for both systems but didn’t fully fall in love with either until a new game dropped called, Necromunda…. Continue reading →

Danger, Dissent and Unfinished Business – Mosh Round Up

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For my money Youngblood have been the dons of the ‘traditional hardcore’ (I hate that phrase) game ever since they dropped the Rancor 7″ back in 1995. That was a seminal record for my circle of friends, a breath of fresh air amongst the poe faced metallic chugga that dominated the sxe scene of the time. If you’ve never heard Rancor I’ll do you a solid and include a link at the bottom of the page, thank me later. Anyway Pimlott switched me onto Line Of Sight after his band True Vision did a stint with them and Insist around the USA year. Youngblood continue their unbeaten run with the Line Of Sight Dissent EP in which this DC quartet manage to breathe new life into that most tired of formula’s Youth Crew Hardcore. How do they manage this? Just like Rancor they got that ENERGY my friend.

See I really only listen to hardcore when I’m involved in some kind of physical activity. Chopping wood, running, pretending I know what I’m doing at the gym etc.  That’s when I subject music to my rugged criteria….‘does this record make me want to smash up this stack of wooden pallets in record time?  or Does this song make me want to throw a barbel through the ceiling? and so on.  I was out jogging when the Line Of Sight record rotated into my playlist. Holy shit when they open with Raze and that floor tom build up/ mosh part comes in after like five seconds, well damn it made this old man inadvertently pop the hood up on his C cuff reverse weave and sprint all the way home like I was missing Youth Of Today at The Anthrax in 1986 or some shit.

I stole that pic above from Jeff Lasich of Start Today fanzine/Bottled Up Records. He’s a cool guy and gave me some nice Firm Standing Law pics for my zine, so go check out his most recent issue for free HERE
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Drifts Get Deeper- December Mosh round up

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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 →

Firm Standing Law – Unashamed 7″

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South East straight edge outcasts Firm Standing Law follow up last years Unforgiving X demo with a new 7” entitled UNASHAMED on Carry The Weight Records. With a veteran lineup that boasts former (and current) members of Cold World, Repentance, Coldsnap, Never Again and many more, FSL may come with a nigh on flawless pedigree of straight edge hardcore but with that also comes the burden of expectation.
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COREHAMMER FEST 2016 Review – Swinton so much to answer for

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This is an article nominally about my trip to Stockport to attend Corehammer Fest 2016 in October. If you can’t be bothered reading the whole thing, it was a great time and you should go to the next one if you can. If you can be bothered slogging through my ramblings, hopefully you come to the same conclusion.

Corehammer Fest Flyer

“Come to the fucking North”

This was the response I got when I floated the idea that I’d be over to London in early 2015. Not exactly the warm welcome I was hoping. You see, for Americans, the UK wargaming scene is often seen as a sort pilgrimage to be made. The motherland where the hobby in a modern sense was launched, where the biggest and most influential companies are based, and where every field and lane probably has dead soldiers from some medieval armor wearing era buried beneath. But on this trip in 2015, I saw none of that. I did manage to meet up with one very special Stevie Boxall, who took a couple Californians to a British Mexican restaurant and a walking tour of brutalist London architecture, cheers. But that was the start, when I returned for work almost a year later I finally made it out of London and to the wonders of GW and Wargames Foundry (covered in a previous DungeonPunx Podcast, you should listen, but probably won’t) and was shown an incredibly warm welcome by a bunch of good dudes. That experience planted a brain worm that burrowed deep, and ensured I’d be coming back again, and would make gaming a priority when I did. So, when the dates came out for the October 2016 event, I said fuck it and plotted a way to make it happen.

What did I get myself into?

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Saga – Introduction to that Dark Ages Mosh

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The first time they raised her she said, ‘Behold, I see my father and mother.’

The second time she said, ‘I see all my dead relatives seated.’

The third time she said, ‘I see my master seated in Paradise and Paradise is beautiful and green; with him are men and boy servants. He calls me. Take me to him.’

That’s right folks, we’re going to do an introductory article for a 5 year old historical miniature game. Here at Corehammer, we like to be only the most current and cutting edge with our content. Stay tuned for our Warhammer “The End Times” thoughts and possibly some rumors on a shadowy new edition of the game with talk of controversial round bases. Maybe a quick review of the first Avengers movie and bitching about Tom Hardy’s Bane while I’m at it. Also, did you know women can vote now? Topical. So why am I actually spending time introducing Saga? It started with a simple WhatsApp message from the frozen Nordic lands, “Did I hear you played Saga?” I gave some quick thoughts, praise and warnings back and went on about my day. But something about that little conversation stuck with me. I started thinking about the game again, how more people should be playing it, how it is such an interesting introduction to the historical miniature hobby, and how dammit, I want to be playing again. Some weeks pass and the fad light has been switched on (not by me) and my friends group were all looking to dive in for some sweet, sweet, Saga gaming. I quickly realized there is still a lot of information out there that is either missing, or hard to find, and is relevant for someone looking to get into the game. This means that even though the game was released a little while back, and was reasonably popular for a niche wargame, there is enough of a gap out there that makes it worth my frankly pretty worthless time to write up an intro. This first article will focus on the original Viking Age flavor of the game, a part 2 with shopping and figure recommendations and a follow up to cover those Mediterranean romps in the sun from Crescent and Cross. This ultimately will be my utterly cack-handed attempt at opening the vault and sharing my nonsense ramblings on what really is a superb little game.

SF - SAGA tourney May 2014 044

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All Creation Undone- Why Wayfarer?

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Wayfarer/Rot In Hell Split cover by Glyn Smith

Wayfarer/Rot In Hell Split cover by Glyn Smith

Every so often amongst various groups of friends who are primarily into hardcore, or indeed any other harder/heavier genre of music, a common topic surfaces, best UK band. Now it would be really easy to think of other incredibly good current and defunct UK bands you could bring up at this point. Especially given that I only started going to hardcore shows in about ‘06/’07 twinned with the much more extensive years of experience in Corehammer Crew let alone the wider scene. I’m sure there’s hundreds of incredible relic demos stored in plastic storage boxes in attics across the country that would be incontestable contenders the title. Part of me toys with giving it to the soul swallowing Electric Wizard, the belligerent horror of Bradford’s Ironside or maybe the frenetic onslaught of Closure. But on this subject I always say that for me it’s got to be Wayfarer. This whole article maybe taken as some sycophantic super fan girls perfume stained love letter to any of the members of Wayfarer, or indeed anyone, that might read this and for that I apologise and also thank you for being that band. I’d think enough of my mates would know of my utter hatred for brown nosing.

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Feeding Chain – Parasites

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Four new songs from the South Easts Feeding Chain and once again they don’t disappoint. Feeding Chain only have two modes of function: fast and furious or slow and dirgey, an experience that’s not unlike moshing to Confront whilst wearing iron boots. Ponderous bone crunching intros drenched in ear splitting feedback crash into fast sections with pugnacious breakdowns pinched straight from the first couple of Think I Care records.
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Blistered – Soul Erosion EP

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PrintI’ll be the first to admit we’ve been really slack on the music coverage this year and frankly there’s not been much that’s really inspired me enough to commit opinion to page. That all changed however when Blistered’s new Soul Erosion EP on 6131 records unexpectedly landed in my inbox and proceded to kick my back doors in. Continue reading →