Below - "St. Anthony's Fire"

Here is some ultra-crushing doom, once again from the hills of Kentucky, and this one is some heavy shit indeed, my friends. I saw them and Tombstalker at the Hideaway a couple of weeks back and they absolutely destroyed everything. These three guys, excellent chaps all around, lay waste to these four tracks, including a Saint Vitus cover, and any fan of bands like Noothgrush, Sleep, etc, would be wise to check this out. Did I mention that this is almost an hour long? Get real stoned for this one. I know I did.

Below - "St. Anthony's Fire"

Samurai John - "Integrity" EP

I'm delving way back into the local and regional archives for this post, folks. If you are from around the area I live and were into punk rock/hardcore or just going to shows in the mid-late 90's, there might be a chance that you remember Samurai John. If that name doesn't ring a bell, perhaps you'll remember Truth Be Known, the band that S.J. evolved into after releasing this tape, the "Integrity" e.p. This is six tracks of melodic, sing along hardcore with a slight Pennywise feel to it, and even if upon reading that sentence you don't want to check it out, you really should check it out and think to yourself that this is from Norton, Virginia, in the mid-nineties, and think about what a small, enclosed little town that is and think that a band like that could exist there. I have been to Norton many a time, and it boggles my mind. When asked about his reminiscences of Samurai John, vocalist Steve Shell, who is currently in a band called JUST DIE!, had this to say:

"SJ was a band that was all about doing the best it could given where it was from. With literally zero local influences, we wanted to be Pennywise and a few other bands pretty bad. We probably took ourselves way too seriously, but it was fun."

And in the end, why else would you be making music in the first place? Listening to this while I was ripping it was the first time I had heard it in almost 14 years, and I'm willing to bet there are those out there who haven't even thought of this band in that long. And for those of you just stumbling upon it for the first time, check it out. It's nothing life changing, but a great example of what the TN/VA/KY regional scene was like in the mid-late 90's. The tape insert is included with the file.

In case you were wondering why they chose the name Samurai John, well....

Samurai John - "Integrity" EP

Mannequin Hollowcaust - "Over Her Dead Body"

Mannequin Hollowcaust is my good friend Patrik, who has been involved in various local musical endeavors over the years, and this tape is a short little two song excursion into his world: noise, cults, serial killers, and just plain scariness. Track one is the title track, and it was recorded on July 27th, 2010, on the grave of Lizzie Borden, in Fall River, Massachusetts. Track two was recorded live in Blacksburg, Virginia, during the same tour. Patrik has been gigging under the M.H. moniker for a while now and sometimes I don't think he gets enough respect and credit where credit is due, but the dude is a staple of whatever little "scene" this area may have, and I intend to give him props. This tape was released by his own tape label, Head Destroyer Tapes. Hopefully sometime soon he will bequeath me a motherload of M.H. and other stuff, which I will then gladly share with you. If you are interested in older bands he was associated with, go here, as both bands in that post feature Patrik. If you like what you hear I'm sure he wouldn't mind you letting him know, and his contact info is included in the .rar file.

Mannequin Hollowcaust - "Over Her Dead Body"

Asadachi - February 2011 Demo

After months of weird weather, work, inactive social interaction, and spurious internet activity, I am back with the Asadachi demo, as promised. Asadachi are a four piece punk band from Lexington, KY, and while I have yet to see these guys rip shit up live, if this tape is any indication of their live set, then I bet they kill. This tape is 4 songs in just under 7 minutes, and the mp3 is one track with no divisions between tracks...I think it sounds better that way. cover and lyric scans are also included.

Pure Punk Mind, Pure Punk Spirit

Tombstalker 7" EP

Hello everyone, sorry I haven't done anything on here in a while, life has been hectic the past 2 months, but I'm back and I do have some goodies in store for you all. First up is a brand new 7'' from Lexington, KY's TOMBSTALKER, who play vicious black death thrash. This EP is 4 songs of total fucking awesomeness. It is available from my friend Josh May's KARMIC SWAMP label and I highly suggest you get one. Imagine if members of Dissection, Dismember, and Iron Maiden started a band and you have a pretty good idea of what this band is all about. The production on this is killer, the drums are perfect, the guitars are very audible with that swedish death distortion we all love, and fuck, this just rips and you will be all the better for checking it out. If these guys play around wherever you live, be sure to check them out, because they will probably destroy whatever venue they're playing at.

Supreme Veneration Of Death

coming soon to the blog:

The Cold Beyond - Unofficial Demo

Asadachi - 2011 Demo

Samurai John - Integrity 1997 demo

and more.......

Dempsey & Eleven Shot By Two Split Tour Tape

This tape is a mystery. I have had this tape since June 24th, 1998, when I saw both bands at the Commerce street show space in Johnson City, along with a band called God Hates Computers that I recall having a record by at one time, and local favorites Kakistocracy. Why is this tape a mystery? Simple. I have lost all the packaging to this tape, I don't know any of the song names, but what I do know is that this split is awesome. I have listened to it many, many times, and now here it is for you.

Dempsey is first up (at least for me), with eight tracks of some great noisy, chaotic hardcore containing a healthy dose of atmospheric keyboards. The keyboardist also has a few solo piano pieces, including an old rag-time piece and a song about his hatred for computer nerds. I recall their set pretty well, they played a short, loud, intense set, the keyboardist joking between songs with the other band members, and at one point he put aluminum foil down on top of his keyboard, setting little plastic army men and other small toys on top of it, pouring lighter fluid on it, then setting it on fire, continuing to play. I was impressed.

Eleven Shot By Two offer us some more chaotic hardcore, even if the beginning of the first track does throw me a little because I think it's going to sound like early Dinosaur Jr., but then it's raging hardcore. I always listened to the Dempsey side more, but the 11SB2 side is awesome as well, it's definitely grown on me more over the years. Some of the tracks on their side segued into each, so I left those tracks as one mp3.

I'm putting this up because there is absolutely NOTHING about either of these bands online except for a shitty review of their show on my old show reviews page. I hope somebody in either of these bands comes across this and helps me fill in the blanks on this great tape.

Anyone who wants to hear some really good, unheard punk rock would be a fool to not download this.

I hate fucking computer nerds.

Desolate Anguish - "Trainwreck Sessions" Demo

Here is a six song demo from Desolate Anguish, a two piece black/doom/punk band from Knoxville. These dudes played with my band Hex Hammer last night in Johnson City, and I thought they were great. This is six tracks of primitive, dirgy, punk influenced black doom metal that (in my mind) brought comparisons to Hellhammer and early Graveland (without the NSBM connotations). These guys ripped it up last night. This is raw, nasty, grimy, filthy, repugnant, with no pretense of production, just hateful scraping guitar, torn throat vocals, and very punk drumming. I think it fucking rules. If these guys play around yr area, make sure to check them out. Visit their website and ask for a copy of this cd demo, they give them away for free.

Desolate Anguish - "Trainwreck Sessions" Demo

Suicidal Tendencies - "S/T"

What can I say about this record that hasn't already been said in the 20+ years since it came out...Love 'em or hate 'em, S.T. was ALWAYS a force to be reckoned with. Before they started doing their crossover shit (and hey, I think that shit kills too...) there was this album....voted Worst Band AND Biggest Assholes in the '82 Flipside reader's poll, they still rocked the fuck out of the tracks on this album. Everyone at least knows "Institutionalized", the "hit" from this album...but what about "Memories Of Tomorrow" or the blatantly antagonistic "I Saw Your Mommy"? What about "I Shot The Devil"? Let me just tell you that EVERYONE should be familiar with the greatness that is this album.....break out your skateboards and your bandanas, it's time to get CYCO!!!

SUICIDAL FOR LIFE

Holy Terror - "Mind Wars"

Back in the very early days of this blog, before I really knew what I was doing, I posted this album.....in wma format, and on rapidshare. Well, sorry about that. Here it is again, Holy Terror's criminally underrated "Mind Wars", which to me is nothing short of a masterpiece. Holy Terror was formed by Kurt Kilfelt, formerly one of the guitarists for american speed metallers Agent Steel, playing on their first album "Skeptics Apocalypse" before starting Holy Terror. They also recorded a demo and an LP before releasing this, their final album, and a metal album unlike many others. It has everything that a metal album should have...it is full of amazing riffage, top notch rhythm work, a vocalist who sounds like at any second he could lose his shit, and lyrics that are thought provoking and intelligent and very much against religion, but in a very theologically probing kind of way, not your typical anti religious metal lyrics. Whatever, I fucking love this album. It is a crime that a band like Metallica got huge (especially that piece of shit black album), and this band got relegated to near-obscurity when they could outriff and outplay Metallica any fucking day of the week. I found this copy in a small, fledgling record store in Richlands, Virginia, for ten bucks, still shrink wrapped, but one of those "cut-out" cd's you so often see. The guy in the store was amazed that I had even heard of Holy Terror, and said that the cd had been sitting in the store since it open fourteen years ago. This album is still available, but on a disc that has their first album also and omits a track. This is at 256k, in mp3 format (like I said, early days post, didn't know what I was doing), and scans of the lyric sheet are also included. I highly recommend this.

Mind Wars

The Malignmen - "Southgate Sessions" 7"

Here is the second 7" from Knoxville's own Malignmen (first one is here), released by themselves on Plague Records, and as I remember available only to members of their mailing list. I have no clue how many of these were pressed or anything. A reader of this blog in the early days of the Northeast Tennessee Punk and Metal Archives sent me this record, since my copy of it (originally bought through the mailing list) was long gone. It was recorded by the band with a "borrowed four track in their practice space" and according to them, "this record's got balls"...whether or not that's true is up to the listener. I like it, the songs "Villain" and "The Closest Encounter" being the standouts. Once again, not the best rip in the world, but I can't find this anywhere else online.

The Malignmen - "Southgate Sessions" 7"