Tag: punk

The Round Up Tapes // Volume XIV

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Couch Slut – Contempt

Couch Slut aren’t taking any prisoners on their follow up to 2014s My Life as a Woman and on Contempt they continue to mine the terrifying real situations the band members have found themselves in. On first glance their music is a mind-melding mesh of noise, old school hardcore and even some nods to second wave black metal, but Couch Slut introduce increasingly off-kilter moments to create an atmosphere of dread and unnerving fury. Front-person Megan Osztrosits wraps her harsh, visceral tones around opener “Funeral Dyke” and its bizarre segues from raging punk to weirdo black metal and even a subtly beautiful riff that soars suddenly over all before fading into groove-laden guitar and screams.

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2012…it was the best of times….it was the blurst of times.

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This last year has been pretty great in terms of music, but also on a more personal note, 2012 was actually pretty decent. Good things happened and bad things certainly occurred, but 2012 was the year that I realised that I’d found what I wanted to do in life – and now starts the long, hard road to making that a reality. I’ve come across some incredible people in my writing life that have helped me out in more ways than they can ever know. By giving me chances, by allowing me to hear new records, to making sure that I get to see that all important band that I love, and for the people that might actually read the things that I put out there, thank you. This writing lark is a constant learning curve, and I don’t think it ever ends. I’m excited for 2013. I’m excited for the music that I’ve been lucky enough to already hear, I’m excited for the music I’m yet to hear. Despite the fact that my real life job might not exist in six, three maybe even one month, I can’t wait to see what happens in other aspects of my “career.”

Here’s a picture of Darkthrone hanging out to break up the seriousness. Oh, you guys!

Darkthrone

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The Catalyst – Voyager

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Following hot on the heels of the recently reviewed Unholy Thoughts, comes another Virginia based Forcefield Records band (is there something in the water there?) – a group going by the name of The Catalyst – who have Voyager to offer the world and also the universe. These guys are kinda wonky and definitely enjoy the odd trip or two (take that phrase however you like) into the outer reaches. Evidently this is the first records sans a second drummer – you thought Kylesa had the monopoly on that? Think again. But that loss does no harm to the sound The Catalyst manage to produce over the forty minute running time. Throwing in punk influences, touches of sludge and even the odd dual vocal, The Catalyst are pretty darn devastating considering.

1. (The Final Voyage Of The) Spaceship Catalyst
2. King of Swords
3. Square Waves
4. Occult Blood
5. Septagon
6. Jupiter Brain
7. Breathers
8. Big Bend
9. Open High
10. Voyager

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Kvlt Albvm Ov The Weak

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This edition of Kvlt Albvm Ov The Weak is a little different to others. Don’t be alarmed, it’s still totally dark but not in the way you’ve come to expect.

This time around….it’s AFI. OK, it’s not “trve kvlt grimmmmmmmm” black metal (deal with it); but this record is incredibly dark and twisted and there’s a depth to it that I appreciate more and more as I get older and older. I guess I should explain.

I love AFI.

They are the first band I really and truly fell for. I mean, I liked bands before that and Metallica were the first band I really got into, but there was something about AFI that spoke to me a on level I hadn’t experienced before. And I was fourteen. What the hell did I know?!?!

Black Sails in the Sunset still sounds as good today as it did the first time I heard it. The record after this, The Art of Drowning continued on the gothic path forged by it’s predecessor and then came the magnificent Sing The Sorrow. What happened after that….no one likes to talk about. So let us relive the glory days of one the most vital punk bands of their day.

1. Strength Through Wounding

2. Porphyria

3. Exsanguination

4. Malleus Maleficarum

5. Narrative of Soul Against Soul

6. Clove Smoke Catharsis

7. The Prayer Position

8. No Poetic Device

9. Weathered Tome

10. The Last Kiss

11. At a Glance

12. God Called in Sick Today

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