BURIED ALIVE: Demos

I did a post a while back on The Death Of Your Perfect World. It is quite possibly the best hardcore full length of all time. Everyone knows this and many blogs have made posts about it. Therefore, I've decided to do something no one else has done to keep things interesting.

You may or may not be familiar with the Last Rites "full length" that came out both after The Death Of Your Perfect World AND after the band had broken up. Essentially, the album served as a means for Victory to continue to cash in on Buried Alive after their demise. Apparently the band still owed Victory another release or two and the label took it upon themselves to release a collection of pre-production demos that the band was readying in preparation for their sophomore full length which obviously never saw the light of day.

The release annoys me for several reasons. First and foremost, it doesn't contain the tracks from the Reach The Sky split 7". Those are two of my favorite Buried Alive tracks. Secondly, Last Rites fails to offer up the songs in a chronological order. The nine studio tracks included on Last Rites are actually from three different recording sessions that were laid down throughout 2000. For whatever reason, Victory chose to put them in a random order; robbing the album of any sort of cohesion or continuity. Finally, only half of a live set is present on this album; with the rest of the set making its appearance on the poorly distributed New York City Takeover comps that Victory put out around the same time. I have taken it upon myself to fix these shortcomings.

In this upload, I have taken the Last Rites album and sorted it out to the best of my abilities in hopes that it sheds light on the final days of Buried Alive. I sorted out the songs into the separate recording sessions and put them in chronological order so that one can hear the "progression" of the band throughout the year 2000. If anything, this realization somewhat substantiates the claims made by certain members that other certain members wanted to make the band "sound like Papa Roach". In summary, the songs recorded in May of 2000 are drastically different than those recorded in October of the same year. Listen to the tracks and judge for yourself.

Also, after finally tracking down a copy of the New York City Takeover comps nine years after their release I decided to match up the Buried Alive tracks in order to piece together a complete set. I put them in order of how I think the set went and needless to say, it is quite a solid set. Of course I also included the tracks from the Reach The Sky split, which were actually from the same session as one of the tracks on the Last Rites album.

I hope you enjoy. I'm also re-posting the live video I have of an unreleased Buried Alive track that I uploaded to Vimeo a while ago. Any information about this track would be great.



Last Rites was anything but a suitable farewell to such a legendary band. If Buried Alive would have ever released another full length, I am sure it would been every bit as intimidating as The Death Of Your Perfect World.

Just for the fuck of it, I'm throwing in the original Six Month Face 7" (master CD rips at 320 kbps) as well as the 1998 demo. PIT!!!
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Huge Collection Score!

This past weekend I decided to take my first show road trip in quite some time to see Disembodied in Syracuse, NY. Needless to say, they fucking killed it. The promoter of the show (syracuseshows.com) was gracious enough to allow me to set up my distro to offset some of the gas costs to get up there and back. You'd be surprised at how rare something like this is becoming amongst "hardcore shows" in 2010. Either way, Architect was also on the bill (also a large factor playing into my road trip) and they also managed to play the best set I've ever seen them play. My friend Keith from Architect (or maybe Keith from Hell Fest if you're out of the loop) approached me at my distro and offered to donate "some" CDs for my distro and/or blog as he is a strong supporter of both endeavors. I followed him to his house after the show only to find that "a few " CDs meant over 200 discs of pure metalcore gold.

If any of you know me, you know that my CD collection is an equally respectable entity (humor). There are times when I feel as though there is nothing else left for me to acquire. Well, Keith's collection proved me to be nothing more than entirely wrong. It was almost as though his collection was the missing piece to mine. Despite having very comparable musical tastes, there were very few discs that overlapped amongst our collections. His collection of obscure Syracuse acts was rivaled only by his gathering of "Hell Fest demos" (aka demos of bands who I saw at Hell Fest 2001 in which I have never been able to track down since). As we all know, Hell Fest 2001 remains to be the single greatest show in which I've ever witnessed; and these demos brought back quite a few fond memories.

Some of the most notable CDs donated to me include: Dissolve's Graverobber EP, a pre-Godbelow band called The Last Season's full length album, the original EP and split CDs from xMaroonx only released internationally in 2000 & 2001, Ebony Sorrow's demo (the band who opened up Hell Fest 2001 in which I entered the room and immediately started moshing), Andromeda's self-released full length album, and just hundreds of amazing albums which I will be posting up here over what I'm guessing will be over the next month or two.

I'll start this off by telling a short story related to my trip to Syracuse. I ran into Ryan Hex who I hadn't seen since Sincerity Fest 2007 when his current project Mistletoe was playing. He had his distro set up from which I picked a few gems up from. We got to talking about one of his past projects, The Funeral; and subsequently their elusive 4 song demo. I used to have this as Mp3s from my SoulSeek days. I lost that computer full of Mp3s; most of which I recovered without problem. For whatever reason, however, The Funeral's demo has eluded me for well over 4 years now. If it wasn't so fucking awesome I probably would have forgotten about it by now.

It was no longer than 15 minutes after Ryan and I concluded our conversation about combining efforts to try and get this thing back into Mp3 circulation that I had it given to me by Keith Architect. Life is strange sometimes. Anyhow, here is this perfect fucking demo in its four song entirety.
DOWNLOAD THE DEMO

If this demo gets you as hyped as it does I, go to my previous post I did on the band almost exactly a year ago HERE and check out their full length efforts.

THROUGH THE DISCIPLINE: Demo 2003

As with my post on Palehorse, I had the pleasure of getting to book Through The Discipline many times throughout my hardcore career. Luckily for me (and Pittsburgh in general) however, Through The Discipline were consistently one of the most reliable bands I've ever booked. Showing up despite snow storms and anything else you could think of that would deter most bands, Through The Discipline ALWAYS made the extra effort to ensure playing in Pittsburgh; and that is why they were treated as though they were a local whenever they'd play here.

While they had released an EP prior to this 2003 Demo (and a full length afterwards), this 3 song effort remains unrivaled as my favorite material from the band. Through The Discipline brought an entirely new level of professionalism to our little hardcore world. The live performance and equipment was obviously always top notch; but even the simple things such as the release and packaging of their demo was new to us. Fully packaged, shrink wrapped, and pressed came this 3 song demo. I won't even speak of the recording quality as it will speak for itself upon download.

Through The Discipline truly had a unique style. Blending elements of legitimate 80s thrash metal such as Cerebral Fix (lifted a riff or two), Cancer, Sepultura and other Roadracer Records bands along with the worthwhile elements of NYHC (the over the top dance breaks), they managed to craft a style of metalcore all their own. As with mostly every band featured on this blog, the deserved recognition was never received for this outfit and they prematurely broke up not long after the release of their one and only full length.

I'm continuing to hold out hope for a reunion show at some point.

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KILLSWITCH ENGAGE: Demo

Killswitch Engage's debut full length is perfect. I'd post it but I'm pretty sure it is still in print and I don't feel like getting my blog shut down. I'm thinking it is OK to post up these master copy rips of their 1999 4 song demo, however. These are pretty much my favorite songs from the album anyhow.

There is a reason that Killswitch Engage took off above all of the other countless metalcore bands who were experimenting with this style at the time. The musicianship is rock solid even on this self-recorded demo. The riffs somehow blend some of the most beautiful melodies known to man seemlessly with parts which would evoke mosh from even the most timid of show-goers. The emotion shown amidst the vocal tracks are outshined only by the lyrical content which focuses on spirituality, individuality, and human empowerment. The percussion work somehow manages to be catchy within itself; everything from the galloping beats to the syncopated double kick riffage.

There is not enough that can be said about this band's early work. They genuinely changed my perspective on music at the time. I won't even get started on my thoughts on the band post-Jesse Leech; we're just going to keep this thread a nice and positive one. Do yourself a favor and pick up their self-titled debut on Ferret Records that came out back in 2000. Metalcore perfection.

DOWNLOAD THE 1999 DEMO

ANNE GOHRA

So I know of at least one person who is going to get upset that I posted this, but that's fine because this band legitimately ruled. Well, the final two songs they recorded ruled, at least.

In 2004, when I was still doing Drain This Blood, we played with a lot of really bad bands who played a similar style to us. It was always kind of expected for us to automatically enjoy or be down with bands who had a mutual inclination for ripping off Terror. I usually tended to be moreso into the metalcore bands we would occasionally get to play with; especially the polite christian ones in their early teenage years. During the multiple times we got to play with Anne Gohra, I was always quite excited. They started in 2003 when they were ages 14 & 15 I believe and I remember watching them consistently getting better. Metalcore in 2004 is metalcore the way I like it. Melodic, swedish metal knock-off riffs, syncopated open chug mosh parts, gang vocals, passionate guitar leads ... the works. These guys nearly perfect the style with these two songs. Of course they were christian and one can only imagine the pile-ons whenever they would play Cancel The Debt (who's lyrics consisted of the Our Father prayer) at the local christian venue. The song structures are damn near perfect as well; very consistent flow to the songs that don't allow room for boredom.

Upon second listen, their first demo was rather forgettable ... their 2 song, 2004 demo however still gets played pretty often around these parts. I won't mention which band the lead guitarist went on to join, but I WILL say that I recently made a post about them (the best band currently in hardcore).
DOWNLOAD THE 2004 DEMO

PALEHORSE: Discography

I recently realized that there seems to be quite a bit of confusion surrounding the band Palehorse. Thinking back, I was barely familiar with their releases myself. I had the pleasure of booking and seeing the band more often than most can say. You see, Palehorse was always a considerably unorganized band. While I did actually get them down here multiple times, I had them booked five or six times, I think; with them showing up for maybe half of those. The same confusion carried over with their releases. I'll try to sum it up as best as possible.

I initially got their demo CD from my friends in Swear To God back in 2003. I was blown away instantly whenever the demo kicked off with the infamous track Mayday. Amongst The Flock and Forty Eight, the successor tracks, did not let up in the slightest. Luckily for me, it wasn't much longer that I'd have to wait to see this band. Coming down from CT along with Swear To God, Palehorse brought one of the most intense sets of their career in the small town of Charleroi, PA. It was from then on that I would become obsessed with this act and would continue to bring them to Pittsburgh at every opportunity possible.

Apparently only a very small quantity of this demo CD-R was ever produced. Years down the road (after their full length was out), it would be pressed to a 7" record by Get IG! Records. No clue how many were made, but I had some LIMITED COVER out of 25. No one seems to know about this one, so yeah ... your guess is as good as mine.

It wasn't long after the release of their demo, however, that the band released their debut EP entitled Secrets Within Secrets on Martyr Records. The recording on this record remains to be topped by any of their other releases in my opinion. Regretfully for the band (and the hardcore scene in general) there was something along the lines of a "buy out" of Martyr Records by some larger label. I don't remember the details other than knowing that Dave from Palehorse rambled for an hour about it and I didn't understand a word of what he was saying. Either way, this EP never really received the distribution or attention that it deserved. The intro rings of mid-tempo, mid-nineties hardcore along the lines of Outspoken or Mean Season. It is not long after, however, that the band once again kicks off with the effort with Mayday. The recording sounds even better than the demo version. The band carries on the intensity throughout the release and leaves you wishing it was more than a five song effort.

The band recorded another set of three songs for a split release. I'm not sure which of the releases was the original intent, but the same three songs appeared on splits with both Under One Flag and Colin Of Arabia. While neither band holds a candle to Palehorse, both releases are both having due to their different formats (UOF on vinyl, COA on CD). I remember the split with Under One Flag being delayed well over a year, which makes me think it was the original intention. This recording session is the only one to feature possibly their best track, Martial Law. Actually, picking a favorite Palehorse track is next to impossible, I might just be partial to Martial Law considering it contains THE breakdown from my old band's demo, haha.

Following the release of the Colin Of Arabia split, Bridge 9 Records decided to hold onto Palehorse for a full length. For whatever reason, some of the best tracks were never re-recorded for their debut full length (most notably Martial Law and Broken Cross). Nonetheless, the album contains a few gems of its own. While I am not personally a fan of the recording of the full length, the song quality remains flawless. Witch Hunt starts off with one of the most unique and flawless drum parts of all hardcore time.

Rumor has it that Palehorse has started playing again intermittently. They have played several benefit shows in Connecticut but have yet to traveled outside of their hometown. I'm hoping that the band decides to reform as a fully functioning unit.

DOWNLOAD THE PALEHORSE DISCOGRAPHY

MUSHMOUTH: Discography

As you may already know if you are a follower of the blog, I did a write-up on Mushmouth for the blog several months ago. I was unhappy with the post for several reasons; mainly due to a lack of completion and a serious case of writer's block. Thanks to the efforts of Henrik at the Bring Honour Or Walk Away blog combined with my recent USB turntable acquisition, I can now post up a full Mushmouth discography. Here we go again...

For whatever reason, Mushmouth seemed to remain relatively unknown outside of the Pennsylvania Hardcore scene during the tenure of the band. While the lack of label support could definitely be argued, there have been bands represented by much smaller labels who have managed to attain attention for themselves while writing music that doesn't even touch what Mushmouth was putting out. Mushmouth's lack of notoriety certainly was not due to a lack of talent, sincerity or any other reasons that usually keeps a band unknown. Whatever it was, Mushmouth/Out To Win are arguably one of the most underated hardcore bands of all time.

Out To Win was formed under the name Mushmouth during the Summer of 1995 in Reading, PA. After gaining a loyal following in the regional area, Mushmouth released a demo entitled "Look Ahead" and began playing shows all over the Northeast. Guitarist Chris Mahmood was also in charge of vocals on this debut demo which was apparently recorded as a three piece. Three of the five tracks were featured on the infamous East Coast Assault Volume 2 compilation put out by Too Damn Hype. You can check out a blog on this compilation posted by Edwin on the Stuck In The Past blog HERE. This compilation also featured early tracks from All Out War, Hatebreed, Indecision, Comin Correct and Stigmata amongst many others.


Things were continuing to look up for Mushmouth with the recording of their second demo, "Thick As Thieves". They once again returned to Gamut Recording Studios in Latrobe, PA which was responsible for the recording of the infamous Passover/No Retreat split as well as the equally legendary Pensive/Seasons In The Field split. The second recording effort saw bassist Dave moving to vocal duties as well as the addition of a second guitarist named Mike. While I am quite a fan of both of these earliest demos, it wouldn't be until their next release, a 1997 Demo, that Mushmouth would truly come into their own with both a new line-up and sound.

It was with the release of this 1997 Demo that Mushmouth added what would become the signature vocals of one Chris Henzel. The rage heard within these vocals are apparent even through the low quality cassette rips in which you'll be hearing this through. Three of the six tracks (Abrasion, Uncertain & Steppin' Out) would go on to be re-recorded for their monumental debut full length entitled Out To Win. This recording session revealed a sense of bitterness that fails to develop on some of the most produced albums. In a similar fashion to their earliest demos, the band lent two of their 1997 demo tracks, "False Belief" & "Uncertain", to the infamous Call For Unity compilation put out by Rick Ta Life in 1997. Another two tracks (Abrasion & My World) would make their way onto a split 7" with Livin' Proof.

The debut album, Out To Win (which would later become the band's moniker), was preceded by a split 7" release with Skarhead featuring a preview track entitled Fearless. When the album was finally released, it contained 11 tracks of pure hostility which far surpassed the efforts of all three demos combined. Produced by AJ Novello of Leeway, the album had a feeling of both relentless pessimism and boundless rage. Not to be outdone, the band successfully followed up their debut full length with a fitting sophomore album entitled Lift The Curse. As with the all previous efforts, the album's lyrics tend to focus on hatred and disgust towards most people encountered in daily life. Songs of betrayal and revenge are in abundance. More ofter than not, said subject matter becomes quite mundane and over done in my eyes; not in Mushmouth's case. Vocalist Chris Henzel seethes a sort of genuine disgust that rings true, even throughout over two albums' worth of venting on the subject.

Somewhere in between the release of Lift The Curse in 2000 and the release of their follow up EP in 2002, the band decided to change their name to Out To Win due to the surprisingly high number of other bands using the name Mushmouth. Coinciding with the name change, the band released the Persist And Destroy EP. While still maintaining their sound, the band started to lean a bit more metallic with this release; at times being reminiscent of Arkangel's "Dead Man Walking" album. Being recorded at Trax East Studios in NJ and then mixed at Atomic Studios in NYC on top of that, the album was by far the group's most fierce sounding effort. While there were no guest vocals by James Ismean on this album (a first), Sal from Sworn Enemy contributed vocals which were more than sufficient. Ironically, the band also chose to re-record the track "Out To Win" from their "Out To Win" album released back when the band was still considered to be Mushmouth. I've included the Lift The Curse and Persist And Destroy albums together in the same upload as they are both equally necessary listening.

The band also released a final album before breaking up in 2007 entitled Beg For Life. I'm not uploading it due to the fact that its still readily available through Thorp Records. While I personally don't feel as though it is as strong of an album as any of the ones I have uploaded, it definitely contains two of their best and most original songs in the form of "Ghost Army" and the title track, "Beg For Life". Yes, James Ismean does guest vocals on this album ... and this time its about bringing the wrath of the lord down on your ass.

As previously stated, the band has regretfully parted ways with their final show taking place at the Earth Crisis reunion show at Sonar in Baltimore, MD in early 2007. The band is known, however, for their surprise sets of two or three songs whenever they manage to get to the same place at the same time. One can only hope the band decides to pull their efforts together once
more.

DOWNLOAD - Thick As Thieves, Look Ahead & 1997 Demos
DOWNLOAD - Out To Win
DOWNLOAD - Lift The Curse
DOWNLOAD - Persist & Destroy