Long-running New York Hardcore legends Madball have been added as the direct support on the highly anticipated UK tour from Korn and Limp Bizkit. More details below:Continue reading
Tag Archives: NYHC
This Is Hardcore 2016: Part 1: Live At Union Transfer And Electric Factory
There’s always that one destination festival people call home. For metal heads it’s Wacken Open Air in Germany. For cruise enthusiasts it’s 70,000 Tons Of Metal. For hardcore it’s This Is Hardcore. Many people I’ve talked to love this festival and call it like a place they can get together with friends and see bands they love.Continue reading
This Is Hardcore 2016: Part 1: Live At Various Venues
There’s always that one destination festival people call home. For metal heads it’s Wacken Open Air in Germany. For cruise enthusiasts it’s 70,000 Tons Of Metal. For hardcore it’s This Is Hardcore. Many people I’ve talked to love this festival and call it like a place they can get together with friends and see bands they love.
Sworn Enemy – Living on Borrowed Time
If there’s one maxim that will always apply to the world of hardcore, it’s that it will never let you down. Long tied to notions of unity and loyalty, both within the actual music and surrounding scene, the bands who live by this creed know how to deliver the goods and rarely make mistakes. New York quartet Sworn Enemy are one such band and with their new release Living on Borrowed Time (Rock Ridge) they are eager to remind everyone what hardcore is all about.
In case you were wondering, hardcore in this case seems to be about sticking as rigidly to convention as physically possible. The early Slayer influences that peppered the bands’ early work have largely been flattened out in favour of adherence to a rigid, almost militaristically enforced formula of racing Sick of It All style riffs n’ chugs, divebombs and of course the ubiquitous breakdowns that give all the tough guys in the pit a chance to show off their kung-fu skills. Make no mistake, it’s a largely effective formula as tracks such as ‘Broken Hope’ and ‘No Mercy’ push all the required buttons with ease; they’re catchy, full of beans and will have you up and two-stepping in no time at all. But is that enough in this day and age?
Put simply, Sworn Enemy is the archetypal hardcore band. They have no interest in variety or innovation, they invoke images of muscled neighbourhood toughs posing with pitbulls, getting inked, jumping around in the pit as seen in early Agnostic Front videos. The lyrics are all about respect, staying true to yourself and similar well-worn clichés. The truth, as so often is “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” and the only thing broken here will be bones in the pit when the songs from this record are dropped live.
7/10
JAMES CONWAY
Helmet Announces Betty: 20th Anniversary Shows in Europe
Seminal 90s New York metal band Helmet is doing a UK tour this fall in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of their album Betty (Interscope). The band will play the album in its entirety, as well as other hits from their illustrious career. Coming from New York City in the same late 80s avant-garde music scene that gave us Swans, John Zorn, pre-metal White Zombie, Prong, Band of Susans, Sonic Youth, and Unsane; Helmet melded raw NYHC with the pummeling grooves of metal, but with the artistry and intelligentsia of post-No Wave aesthetics. Led by Page Hamilton, Following their stellar hit albums Strap It On and In The Meantime, Helmet released Betty to their highest charting success ever. The band also toured the world constantly and released videos for ‘Milquetoast’ (also heard in the movie The Crow), ‘Biscuits for Smut’ and the memorable ‘Wilma’s Rainbow’. In the process of becoming on of the most important bands of their time, Helmet helped influence the growing post-rock/post-metal genre that is still being felt today.
Helmet : Betty: 20th Anniversary Europe Tour Dates
11-Sep- Czech Republic Prague Lucerna Music Bar
12-Sep- Poland Krakow Fabryka
13-Sep- Poland Warsaw Hydrozagadka
15-Sep- Germany Berlin So36
16-Sep- Germany Leipzig Ei
17-Sep- Germany Munich Feierwerik
19-Sep- Germany Frankfurt Batschkapp
20-Sep- Germany Cologne Underground
21-Sep- Germany Hamburg Knust
22-Sep- Denmark Copenhagen Vega Jr
23-Sep- Norway Sandines Tribute
24-Sep- Norway Oslo Bla
25-Sep- Sweden Stockholm Debaser
27-Sep- Finland Helsinki Nosturi
29-Sep- Germany Bielfield Forum
30-Sep- Netherlands Groningen Vera
1-Oct- Netherlands Eindhoven Effenaar Kz
2-Oct- Belgium Brussels Ab
4-Oct- France Montbeliard Ateliers Des Moles
5-Oct- France Paris La Marouinerie
6-Oct- France Vennes L’echonova
7-Oct- France Bordeaux Le Krakatoa
9-Oct- Spain Barcelona Apolo 2
10-Oct- Spain Madrid Copernico
11-Oct- Spain Hondarribia Psilocybenea
13-Oct- Switzerland Zurich Plaza
14-Oct- Switzerland Geneva Usine
16-Oct- Italy Rome Circolo Degli Artisti
17-Oct- Italy Ravenna Bronson
18-Oct- Italy Romagnano Rnr Arena
19-Oct- Italy Cagliari Fabrik
21-Oct- Austria Dornbirn Conrad Sohm
22-Oct- Austria Salzburg Rockhouse
23-Oct- Austria Vienna Szene
24-Oct- Slovenia Ljubljana Kino Siska
25-Oct- Hungary Budapest Durer Kert
27-Oct- Greece Athens An Club
29-Oct- Uk Glasgow Cathouse
30-Oct- Uk Manchester Sound Control
31-Oct- Uk London Islington Academy
Death Ray Vision – We Ain’t Leavin’ til You’re Bleedin’
Fancy a bit of thrash, NYHC, Boston HC, Hard rock and American (proper) punk all balled into one and spat out via 12 no-nonsense songs in 29 minutes? Then We Ain’t Leavin’ til You’re Bleedin’ (Bullet Tooth) by Death Ray Vision could well be right up your darkened alley.
Led by Shadows Fall front man Brian Fair and backed by Killswitch Engage bassist Mike D’Antonio amongst a cast of long-term brothers in arms, WALTYB has the balls and confidence of a band who know what they’re doing but are doing it with the injection of energy of people with a passion and a love for the type of music they’re producing.
Influences are worn high on the sleeve, but rather than there being one or two reference points for example ‘Over My Dead Body’ whirls by with nods to Discharge, Sick Of It All, Skid Row and Anthrax, while ‘Live Fast… Never Die’ tornados a punked up take on ‘Helpless’ (Metallica Garage Days version) and ‘Poison Was The Cure’ (Megadeth, but with the polish well and truly blowtorched off) before hitting a Pantera groove. Elsewhere Agnostic Front, Poison Idea and Terror spring to mind.
The thing is, though, this is no homage to a list of bands, or no retro-thrash/HC bandwagon jumpers, the above are just snippets of some of the influences to give you a flavour. ‘This is Progre$$’ stomps to the Boston beat, ‘Barfly’ kicks off with a rumbling bass before launching into a mid-paced thrash lesson in violence and ‘Forest (of Kegs)’ brings things to a close with an Overkill doom-intro before letting loose the old skool thrash.
Riffs, breakdowns (the mid-section of ‘Your Shallow Grave’ is massive) and mosh-sections fly by in a flurry, with each track, despite their average 2 minute length, containing 3 or 4 strong parts. Fair’s vocals are aggressively delivered, but the right side of shouting rather than screaming, and backed up with a smattering of gang-vocal choruses.
This thrash/HC mutant is nothing new or innovative but is blisteringly collated and delivered and foretells live mosh-pit carnage.
7.5/10
Steve Tovey