WAR PRAYER: Demo

Don't know much about this band other than that well over a year ago this was sent to me by a reader who wanted to have the cassette ripped into Mp3 and for it to be shared with people. All I can say is sorry for the delay, brother ... but here it is. I make good on my word but sometimes when I'm at the mercy of a third party (studio, in this case) ... things get delayed.

Anyhow, check this out ... it's pre-Undying.

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CIPHER: Discography

This post has been a long time coming. Almost two years ago now I enthusiastically posted about finally tracking down the first two Cipher demos entitled Serial and Clockwork. This is on top of tracking down all of their OTHER fairly obscure releases over the past decade or so. Finally this fully-deserving band can have their full discography posted.

Cipher was one of the more unique bands I stumbled upon when I first delved into the world of hardcore. I believe it was 2001 when I first saw the band live at The Hangout in Edinboro, PA. At the time they were primarily playing material from the Protoculture EP (1999), Burnthalos 6" (2000) and their most recently released Antidote EP (2001). Despite only knowing the track "Reaching Higher States" from the music video I had somehow came across at the time ... the set definitely raised the creativity bar for what I wanted and expected out of hardcore at the time.

The intensity exuded by the band was what I always knew Cipher to be. Unbeknownst to me at the time, however, the band had several DIY releases under their belt already from the late 90s. Two demos (Serial and Clockwork, respectively) and a full length entitled Recognize which featured most of the demo tracks being re-worked and re-recorded. It took me several years to track these down but I eventually did (much to the chagrin of the band itself haha). While the earlier releases lack the perfection of the aforementioned EPs, they were still vicious in their own right. The songs played out a bit longer than perhaps they needed to, but these extended lengths only allowed for Moe to further illustrate his always poignant lyrical stances.

Speaking of which, despite the progressive and technical musicianship; Moe Mitchell, the band's vocalist, always managed to take a focal point in the band. While this was always the case, the lyrical content was truly pushed to the forefront of the band on their final two full lengths entitled Children Of God's Fire (2005) and The Joyous Collapse (2010). In an effort to further highlight the message of the band, Moe even would partake in self-sustaining spoken word tours in which he would have small groups of people gather for a night of socio-political conversation surrounding some of the topics covered on their upcoming releases (not to mention a sneak peek at some of the new tracks). The emphasis that the band put on teaching tolerance, respect and reverence towards each other and the world as a whole will never be matched.

Throughout all of the years of relentless touring and undeniable self-promotion, the band always considered Pittsburgh to be a home-away-from-home ... playing multiple years of the Sincerity Fest that I book annually. In fact, the band is nearly solely responsible for the fest even continuing after it's first (and failing) year. It was through the motivational and encouraging words of Moe and Danny that I decided to trudge forward to build the fest into the success that it is today. One of the cooler live videos I've found posted of the fest can be seen here as Moe shot the footage while performing.

Unfortunately, however, tragedy struck in the summer of 2011 when founding member and personal friend of mine, Daniel Bobis went missing while on vacation abroad with his wife. The incident received mainstream press coverage all across the country as efforts were made to search and rescue. Unfortunately the news came about that Danny's body was found washed ashore as he had apparently been a victim of a surfing accident. Danny was no amateur surfer and, in fact, had coordinated, coached and founded a surfing club for the students at his local high school. In return for all of his efforts to both the hardcore, surfing and general community at large, Danny Bobis Beach was named in his honor. His memory lives on strongly to this day through all of his efforts; both musically and personally.

The band's legacy lives on as well through the efforts of those who's minds were sparked through the works, actions, and efforts of the band. Danny was honored at the Long Island Hardcore Fest in 2012 with Moe joining Tripface on stage during their reunion set for a cover of Reaching Higher States. I'd post a video but that would be the third video of the same song in this post haha.

We remember the efforts of Cipher quite well here in both Pittsburgh and at the Path To Misery blog.

And always remember ... MOSH IN THE MIDDLE!!!

DOWNLOAD: The First Era (Serial demo, Clockwork demo & Recognize full length)
DOWNLOAD: The Second Era (Protoculture EP, Burnt Halos 6" & Antidote EP)
DOWNLOAD: The Final Era (Children Of God's Fire and The Joyous Collapse)

PAST GLORIES: Demo 2001

Thanks to posting my distro list online I came into contact with a lot of awesome people. One of those people is Henri from Finland. Any time I meet a hardcore kid from Finland I always ask for information about a band called Past Glories. Back in the Napster days, I randomly downloaded a 10 song recording from this band and instantly fell in love. Ranging somewhere between the Scandinavian stylings of Disfear and the NYHC sensibilities of Sick Of It All at their peak, this is an extremely unique release ... especially considering I just now found out it was technically released as a demo!

I've never been able to find any information on the band other than the fact that they were from Finland. Thanks to the knowledge and efforts of Henri, however, I finally got linked to not only a track listing of the album (which I also didn't even have for these 10 songs) but also a short review from the Unity HxC online webzine from over ten years ago. Here is that "review" in all of its broken-English-glory.

"With member of Down My Throat, Helsinki hardcore is very well known today all over the globe by quality bands like Bolt, Down My Throat and Cutdown. Among those more known bands there's of course also a whole bunch of smaller bands who aren't that well known, to add, even in our country. One of those bands who never did much more than few recordings and played some shows was Past Glories. This band featured Down My Throat's guitarist Antti, who is known as a quite genius when it comes writing songs and a from vocalist from another not so known band, now defunct, The Unloved. By the way Unloved had three vocalists, but in Past Glories vocals are done by one of those three, specificly a man known as Kalle BTBC. Drums were played by Lauri from Bolt and bass dutied were handled by Jukka, who at that time also played in Down My Throat. I just have to stop and wonder how one man can write so many darn good riffs, cause Past Glories does not fall behind even if compared to Down My Throat. Past Glories only did one demo and was featured with fellow Helsinki band, Cutdown and on a 4-way split cd titled Fuck The World (Superhero Records).

I actually managed to track down a physical copy of the 4-way split but it features the same recordings as this session here.


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THE HANDSHAKE MURDERS: Discography

After completing my most recent post on Coalesce, it made me remember a band from Arkansas who went by The Handshake Murders. I first crossed paths with them in a firehall in Johnstown, PA in 2006 ... but not long after they came back through with a new album in a direct support slot for Emmure in 2007. While The Handshake Murders drew some obvious inspiration from Coalesce, they took a more simplified, accessible take on the style; not far off from the idea that A Life Once Lost had when they decided to simplify, to an extent, Meshuggah for hardcore kids with their A Great Artist album.

While I have their second EP and their final full length (Usurper), I am missing their debut EP and any demos they may have. Any help piecing this together would be much appreciated.

DOWNLOAD THE DISCOGRAPHY

The guitarist who played in the final incarnation of the band apparently started up a band right where The Handshake Murders left off called Bloodworm. You can check out their BandCamp if The Handshake Murders does it for you.

COALESCE: Out-Of-Print Discography

When I started doing my research on this band to iron out some details on the discography (due to all the re-recordings and re-releases) ... I realized I have not much in common with these guys. It's cool though because their riffs shred. I did, however, spend about an hour reading THIS rather comprehensive AP article that Ryan Downey wrote on them. While the word "idiot" crossed my mind multiple times whilst reading, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing their perspective on the history and impact of the band.

Their two latest offerings entitled OXEP and OX are still readily available via Relapse Records. For everything else, check the links below.



PS - Anyone have Mp3s of the split with Converge?

1994 - Demo (thanks to Joe Eternal Sleep for these Mp3s which eluded me)
1994 - self-titled 7" on Chapter Records
1995 - 002 (Original Recording)
1996 - Splits with Get Up Kids, Napalm Death & Boy Sets Fire
1997 - Give Them Rope
1997 - A Safe Place (002 Re-Recorded & The Edison Records 7")
1998 - Functioning On Impatience
1999 - 0-12: Revolution In Just Listening
2007 - Salt And Passage

BEYOND THE SIXTH SEAL: The Relevant Material

This band has always remained somewhat of a mystery to me. Despite releasing potentially my favorite melodic metalcore EP of all time, I never really knew much of this band. In the past several months I've managed to piece together a somewhat full story on the band. Below is a combination of quoted and paraphrased material I've tracked down on various sites. Apologies if anyone is offended by me using their work.


"Boston's Beyond the Sixth Seal's roots began in 1998, when several friends who were tired of just playing guitar decided to become a full time band. After recruiting a rhythm section and vocalist, the band played a live show at a local college, and then recorded a 4-song record demo, "Genocide Empire," for about $100 dollars in their practice space. At this time, the band was only referred to as Legion, but the members were dissatisfied with the name. Legion would become Beyond the Sixth Seal after a name drawing out of a hat session. In 2000, the band would experience some line-up changes, recruiting a new guitarist, as well as a vocalist, before playing its first true show with Eternal Suffering and Breedinground. Another demo was recorded that year, and found its way to Germany's Voice of Life Records/Distro. In late-2000, BtSS would agree to release a CDEP on the label. "A Homicide Divine" would be released in early-2001, followed by a two-week stint in Germany that summer. Unfortunately, in early-2002, BtSS and their vocalist, Lawrence Kwong, would part ways and following a lengthy search, Mike McKenzie, of The Red Chord, would eventually join the band."

It appears as though not long after the departure of original vocalist, Lawrence Kwong, the band would also lose the services of guitarist Rob Devlin. Adam Wentworth, the bassist on the debut EP, would move up to rhythm guitar duties while a new bassist would be brought in the form of former American Nightmare member, Matt Woods. The band would record their follow-up full length entitled Earth And Sphere with this line-up and, in turn, would do a US tour with A Life Once Lost and On Broken Wings (which was originally supposed to make a stop at my venue, The Planet Of The Apes). This effort was initially set to be released in the US by Willowtip Records with Voice Of Life handling the European release once again. While the album would have fit in well at the time with the label's roster, I'm glad it didn't happen so that I can actually post the album without the guy who runs that label flagging my upload haha ... I digress.

It would not be long after this trek that yet another member of The Red Chord would be brought in to fill the vacant bass position left by Matt Woods. Greg Weeks went from being a "fill-in" bassist to permanent by the end of the year and the band went on a co-headlining tour of Europe with The Red Chord in 2003. It wouldn't be long after this that the band would decide to call it quits. Presumably this decision was spurred on by the heightening response that The Red Chord was receiving at the time.

For whatever reason, the "band" decided to reunite for another album in 2007. I say "band" because this time around the line-up would only consist of one original member in the form of drummer Brendan Roche along with the two Red Chord members Greg Weeks and Mike McKenzie. The album was entitled "The Resurrection Of Everything Tough" and featured an extremely un-funny gimmick about the band coming back as werewolves or something along those lines. The press release that is still featured on the Metal Blade Records site (because the band was now considered a "Red Chord side project") is wrought with mindless metal-humor rhetoric about things being "bad ass". While the album still has the remnants of some of the licks once found on their earlier releases, I'm not going to bother posting this as I'm sure Metal Blade would file a Copyrighted Material case against the upload. God knows they probably have a warehouse full of this album. I'm not sure I ever remember an album flopping as hard as this one.

Don't believe me? Watch this...



Those of you who read the blog know I'm typically not very critical of the bands I post about. In this case, however, I choose to vent on an issue that tends to replay throughout the history of metal and hardcore. A member or two of a band deciding to keep things going way past it's time ... and, in fact, even going as far to reform the band despite having zero connection to the original intent of the band. I get wanting to "just have fun with" a project (which is what these guys were obviously doing) ... but then I ask what the point is in using the name of the former project which obviously once meant something to the original members. I'll never get it but I'll also stop whining.

In summary, this band released one of my favorite EP's of all time. The follow-up full length wasn't too bad either despite some member changes. Somewhere along the line the band turned into a joke side project. It's a shame but shit happens. At least the original line-up put their efforts to tape before disbanding. In fact, I actually own a re-released version of the EP which features a "bonus" fifth song entitled Drawn From Autumn. It's sick.

I would be extremely excited if anyone would be kind enough to contact me to share Mp3s of ANY of their three original demos (one was released under the name Legion). I would be eternal grateful to have an opportunity to hear more material pieced together by the original, legitimate line-up of this band.

DOWNLOAD - BEYOND THE SIXTH SEAL: The Relevant Material

Blog Update

Apologies for the delays. I apparently had multiple attempts to hack into my account in the past few months so Google took it upon themselves to freeze everything to do with the account ... including the blog.

I'm extremely busy with my job in the concert promotion field. While the job (along with other factors) has totally ruined the fun I used to have at shows ... it HAS given me a greater appreciation for music (which is soooooo much different from concerts) than I've had in a long time. I've been geeking out at record stores,  buying higher capacity iPods and listening to an even wider range of music than I probably ever have. Of course I've also been digging deeper and deeper into obscurity and will be providing even more gems for download. Here's an example with a self-released EP from Pittsburgh's tech metalcore front-runners from 2009.

DOWNLOAD: BELIE MY BURIAL - self-titled EP