The Mongoloids/Broken Teeth Split

6131 Records
2014

The Mongoloids are a straight edge band from New Jersey while Manchester, UK-based Broken Teeth are (As far as I know) just Broken Teeth. Still, they share one glorious thing in common. They both play smash-mouth hardcore and they both do it damn well! On this Split (100 Black, 300 Seafoam Green
and 600 Grey Marble-see link below) they each get two stabs at it with the Jersey lads up first and the UK bunch following their lead. Oh, and each set features new songs! And did I mention that it's also a digital release? No? Well, it is and man alive but do these tracks ever rage! The Mongoloids have the better overall sound (In my most humble opinion of course!) while Broken Teeth hands down wins the prize for most brutal delivery (Especially when it comes to "Path of Conviction"! Wowzers!). Not that you can go wrong either way as this is top of the line hardcore from two remarkable bands!
 
Buy it here in vinyl form:
https://store.nosleeprecords.com/product/6948/split-7-quot



Buy it here in digital form:
http://music.6131records.com/album/split-4

The Infernal Sea/Old Corpse Road - Insidious Art And Serpentine Rites (Split 7")

Three Sword Records
2014

Limited to a mere 250 copies on orange vinyl, "Insidious Art And Serpentine Rites" is a spilt 7" featuring East England's The Infernal Sea (who are no strangers to splits having just released one back in 2013 with Belgium's Disinterred) and Darlington, Co Durham, N.E. England-based Old Corpse Road (same thing back in 2012 only with U.K. act The Meads of Asphodel). While I have previous experience with the first (having covered both their 2012 full-length output, "Call of the Augur" and their 2013 EP, "The Crypt Sessions") it sure seems as if this is/was my first taste of Old Corpse Road....and it was a good taste. More on that later though as let's start with The Infernal Sea. For those of you that don't know the name then let me be the first to introduce you to what is undoubtedly one of the more vile and evil black metal acts out there! The Infernal Sea, whose contribution "Tannis Root" takes it's sweet time building up the tension before finally kicking things off around the 2:04 mark(!), play (old-school, somewhat crusty) black metal with overtly satanic/demonic lyrics and an ear fine-tuned towards crushing riffs and grizzly vocals! At more then six minutes in length it's fairly unrelenting and most certainly unrepentant! Meanwhile Old Corpse Road, who come with the promise of  "folk metal leanings with epic tunes focusing on British folklore" waste no time at all with their number "The Sockburn Worm". Right from the start they end up bum-rushing the listener with UTTER-BRUTALITY disguised as music and while (as promised) there are moments of (somewhat) clarity in which folk metal comes into play, overall this is one NASTY piece of black metal violence! Of the two cuts it's most definitely the stand out number as it brings something different to the picture with it's inclusion of folk metal while simultaneously keeping the listener on edge thanks to the unnerving aspect of the song's construction! Kudos to Three Swords Records for having the initiative to stack (back-to-back) two very distinct black metal acts onto what will most certainly be a collectors item! Due to be released in April, and (as previously mentioned) on orange vinyl to boot, "Insidious Art And Serpentine Rites" is one split 7" that I will be looking to add to my own collection and one that I most certainly recommend to black metal enthusiasts!

http://threeswordsrecords.bigcartel.com/product/the-infernal-sea-old-corpse-road-split

Crucified Mortals/Exorcism-Split 7" EP

Hells Headbangers
2013

This 7" split EP, which features" ultra-clear vinyl with a heavy black splatter"(see cool pic below!), actually came out back in October but I'm just now getting a chance to hear it. Having covered Cleveland, Ohio's Crucified Mortals (their 2011 self-titled debut album, which I reviewed way back in the day, was also released on Hells Headbangers) I was pleased to see that the same kind of 80's Slayer/At War/Dark Angel/Rigor Mortis worship that made that album so much fun is present on their two tracks, "Crippling the Will of Faith" and "You'll Wish You Were Dead". Both cuts are exclusive to this release and keep with the band's attitude that eighties death and thrash metal was the real deal. Meanwhile Germany's Exorcism also offer two exclusive cuts to this split in the form of "Through the Eyes of the Dead" and "Failed Exhumation". And, just like Cleveland's Crucified Mortals, the past is alive and well with this German band's take on death metal. Sounding like they could have been made on cassette tape in someone's garage, "Through the Eyes of the Dead" and "Failed Exhumation" are two down and dirty, rotten to the core slabs of death metal that sound as if they could have easily slipped through the time-stream from 1980 something to 2013! In other words they are simply fantastic! And really all four numbers on this split 7" are just great. Especially if you're a fan of eighties thrash and death metal! You can pick up a copy of this one right here: http://shop-hellsheadbangers.com/crucified-mortals-exorcism-split-vinyl.asp

Carton/Alpha Cop-Alpha Cop/Carton

Negative Fun Records
2013

Even if they've only been in existence since 2012, when it were founded by by Chris DeFusco and Jon Whitney, Negative Fun Records has already started to become one of my favorite labels-regardless of whether we're talking those of the independent kind or majors. I'm sure I've probably said that before, but seeing as this label goes out of their way to cater to such a niche market (people that like limited-run singles* of  the underground and unheralded kind) it sure does come off feeling like these releases are a labor of love! This latest 7" from Negative Fun Records has been pressed on white vinyl and man, does it ever look as good as it sounds! Or is that it sounds as good as it looks? Eh, either way you've got two cool artists here in Carbon and Alpha Cop with Carbon, and their garage rock take on all things post-hardcore, just inching out Alpha Cop as my favorite. On "Fingertips", the Carton track, we find Ryan Hebert (Heavy Winged, Giant Travel Avant Garde, What Doth Life, The Jobz, etc.) and company (Bruce Black, Brendan Dangelo and Davis McGraw) playing this loud and potentially hypnotic little gem of noise-pop. With Carton their music is just like the album art above. Carton is like a raging fire, beautiful to look at and oh so inviting thanks to it's warm glow. But get too close and you know what will happen right? It will burn you. So beware. And what of Alpha Cop? Well, Alpha Cop is like low-fi pop and then again it isn't. It's oddly disorienting as it switches gears often, moving between the cold emptiness of drone and this bold attempt at merging indie rock into thrash rock and while standing knee deep in basement aesthetics. It's an interesting notion that Alpha Cop has. They set about taking in rogue rock, left cold and hungry from wandering the streets at night, before carefully performing surgery on it's cords. All of that is so that they can disassemble and then reassemble the oddity that sits before them into something that more closely looks the part of a rock band. Or at least that's how their number "The Low Flags" presented itself to me. You can find this charming 7" at the link below as well as other nifty releases from this Raleigh, North Carolina and Enfield, New Hampshire-based record label. And as always support your local scene ladies and gentlemen.


http://www.negativefun.com/catalog/nf003/

 *Negative Fun Records does offer this 7" in digital form as well.

She Rides/Dripping Slits-Crucial Fix Split 7"

Negative Fun Records
2013

I love the feel of  a 7 inch early in the morning. Especially when it's fueled by sweat and alcohol. Of course I'm taking about this new split from Negative Fun Records. Or more specifically Providence, Rhode Island act She Rides. Formed in 2006, these guys unleash dirty garage rock and roll that's 100% authentic and 100% kick ass! They have shared the stage with a slew on bands from Every Time I Die to The Bronx (Even one of my secret addictions-Valiant Thorr!) and play real rock and roll . Not some weak-kneed rock like The Stokes or something, but real "Punks and Bangers unite" rock! She Rides gives us the two raw rockers "Grease in the Wheels" and "Rage Forever" and, despite everything going on in the world today, offers us just the right kind of buzz needed to kick back and unwind. They burn up their own side on this 7". Now, before we get into the wonderfully named Dripping Slits (Seriously, I love the name) let's give a quick shout out to Negative Fun Records. They are a limited press, singles only record label. This is a limited-run (500 copies or less!) singles we're talking about and it's not like they're out there just issuing vinyl from any/every 3 cord punk band they can gather up. No, from the sound of things, or at least from the sounds of these two 7"s I got from them, it's only the cream of the crop they're dealing with. It's also worth mentioning that Negative Fun Records is not out there trying to create super-rare, collectible pieces of vinyl (Even though some of these could end up being just that!), but they're simply operating within their budget. That's a novel business approach I realize and one that our own government might want to consider! Anyway, we are not here to talk politics. Rather we are out looking for new and interesting bands to play loud and proud. With that we tackle Dripping Slits and their two tracks, "Soul Fool"  "Let's Get Rough (to Death From Above)". While She Rides are "garage rock" raw the Dripping Slits are "I just woke up under a car and have no idea how I got there" raw. There's "punk" and then there's "PUNK". Guess which one the Dripping Slits are? In a world were we're forced to endure the next "latest & greatest" Green Day this band unloads with a frenzied  "hack and slash" style of rock that makes the Sex Pistols look like a bunch of teetotalers! It's sleazy, gritty garage rock that finds you smashed out your mind with an empty bottle of MD20/20 lying by your side and your pants missing. Yeah, it's THAT kind of party. Together these two bands cause all kinds of mischief as they make their way from bar to bar crawling along as they go. I'm reminded of a great line from "Do You Remember" by The Rockafellas. It goes "We did the gig but we didn't get paid 'cause they didn't like the racket we made". These two bands are not pretty.  Both of these bands play real, it's time to get your hands dirty, rock and roll that makes amps bleed. It's raw, it's real, it's rebellious and, above all, it's the shit. Get this 7" from Negative Fun Records so that you two can be reminded of what real rock sounds like. It's good to know that bands like this still exist.  

http://negativefunrecords.bandcamp.com/album/crucial-fix-split-7