Abandon All Life

Well, that didn't take long did it? No sooner had I caught up and finally picked up the first Nails record I pick up the second record too. I just can't blog in order, I was talking to Tino about this very subject only days ago, I've bought loads of records before this one but man I'm loving this band at the moment.

After the raging assault of the first record I actually wondered if Nails might have calmed down a bit this time out, especially with the addition of another guitarist. NO is the answer, not one bit, in fact in some places they seem even more crushing. Crushing is probably the one word needed to describe Nails as they smack the shit out of you in the 14 minutes or so it takes them to blast through this LP.

 



After being a tad disappointed I'd only scored a black version of the first record, the fact that black was the only pressing of this record means I'm actually fine with it.  I can imagine and understand the disappointment though not to get a cool colour pressing of the record despite the bands intentions on not creating a more sought after and expensive edition. Awesome heavyweight packaging as usual from Southern Lord

 

 

'Ard as Nails

Nails are a band I've been meaning to check out for ages and I just kept forgetting about them. Granted I could have downloaded some songs at anytime or listened to them on their Facebook or something but what can I say? I like to check bands that I think I'm gonna really like out in good old vinyl format.
I'm so late to the party that Nails are on to their second full length record now. Ah well, if I have to arrive late then I can at least try and arrive in style right?

 

I got some rare alone time (for a dad of two) at the weekend and obviously used the time wisely to go hunt out some records. There wasn't a huge amount that caught my eye so when I saw this Nails record finally looking back at me I knew it was time to strike (I also bought a jazz record from the same store - bit of a weird mix).

 



So this is the bands debut LP Unsilent Death and this is the Southern Lord reissue of the record. It's only on black vinyl but as it's heavyweight 180 gram vinyl and the black kinda goes with the look of the rest of the record I'm OK with that. Of course I'd have preferred a clear version but beggars can't be choosers.

 Honestly I don't know if any label puts together record packaging better than Southern Lord, this think looks awesome. Great gatefold sleeve once again on a really thick card like the two Black Breath records I have from them.

For anyone interested Nails sound like Chaos A.D era Sepultura meets Entombed meets Converge. It's heavy as fuck stuff that whistles past in no time and is over before you've had time to change your pants - 14 minutes to be exact. I'll be grabbing the newer record now for sure.

Razor To Oblivion

A month or so ago I was reading hardcoreshirt and noticed a post about some new merch Black Breath had at their big cartel when something in the bottom corner caught my eye. You can keep your new long sleeve and new joggers I'd just realised that Black Breath had repressed copies of their debut E.P Razor To Oblivion.

I'd not heard this previously, I'd been avoiding it on purpose as the record was long out of print by the time I discovered Black Breath and I wanted to hang on for a repress knowing that with the bands growing popularity one must come sooner rather than later. Glad I did as it's excellent.This band just don't have bad songs, everything they have released I love. They just get the metal hardcore balance right. Black Breath are a metal band make no mistake but they have a hardcore influence that sits nicely in the mix of their music and gives them an edge, they don't shoe horn it in like so many Metal-Core bands to make their tired metal sound more contemporary and 'cool'.

As a band they obviously hit the ground running as the songs on here sound exactly like what comes later on the bands full lengths and just as polished. The cover art on this thing is awesome too. In fact each of Black Breaths releases has a great cover. This picture looks like it comes from some historical piece from the crusades or something.

I haven't had the greatest of luck with mail from the U.S recently though as the one downer to this coming through was that like the Rival Mob record it has a ding to the top right hand corner. It's not that bad though and I can live with it.

This was pressed on Translucent Urine (gold) and black vinyl so obviously I had to go for the gold version. I don't know the numbers or which of the two if either is more limited however and both still seem to be available from the bands big cartel.

"You've Got Enough Records!!"

"Where are we going?" asked my daughter, conveniently forgetting the deal we'd made not ten minutes ago that saw her get a go on a fairground ride for her co-operation in venturing with me without complaint to the record store we were in the city centre to visit. On being reminded again she added with some annoyance "You've got enough records!". "Well I'm just going for a look" I said...So a, I'm telling lies to a child and b, I'm feeling the need to explain myself on the record buying...what's wrong with me??

Anyway, child complaints aside here's what I picked up along with the Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats record I already wrote about.

First the one record I actually went to buy (or 'look at'), Death Grips - The Money Store.

 

I picked up Ex Military the 'experimental' Hip-Hop trio's debut recently and wrote about it in my Today Was A Good Day post, it's awesome and I needed to get the major label follow up as soon as possible.

 

 

I've only given it a couple of spins but I'm not as initially taken with it as the previous album, I'm not sure if it's because I know what I'm getting now and aren't as surprised by the disjointed madness of rapping, samples and electronic beats, or if this is slightly more watered down and less erratic. It's certainly missing something. Still that opinion will probably change on next listen.

Next I picked up Botch - An Anthology Of Dead Ends

Great album. I'd meant to pick this up previously but never got round to it. I actually thought I'd missed the boat or would have to pay over the odds as this was a Record Store Day release wasn't it? I think 750 were pressed in total but I'm not sure how many of those were on this clear vinyl.

 

I also spotted Doomriders - Black Thunder relatively cheap and as a band I like decided I finally needed to add some Doomriders vinyl to my shelf. This came out a fair while ago now but it's all good.

 

This is the second press of which they made four or five different colours and pressed 100 of each. This is the rather nice purple marble version.

 

Lastly, it seems to have been quite a while since I bought a record based purely on the record label alone, but I saw this 7" from From Ashes Rise and noticed it was on Southern Lord Records that released the Black Breath records amongst others and thought I'd take the gamble.

 

 

It's pretty much what I was expecting from Southern Lord, more doomy metal. It's not at all bad.

 

 

Heavy Breathing

I just can't stop listening to this band at the moment.
I talked about Black Breath's second album Sentenced To Life in my today was a good day post after it had been recommended to me by a couple of friends. I honestly didn't know what to expect other than I'd heard "It's a bit like Entombed". Well after the first spin of Sentenced To Life I thought it was bloody great. How had I not heard Black Breath sooner? Subsequent plays only went further to cement the fact that this was an excellent release.

Obviously this meant I now had to go find a copy of their debut album too, especially as I was now being told that this first album 'Heavy Breathing' was even better. Now that I liked the band though and wasn't just purchasing on a whim there is no way I was gonna be content with a normal black vinyl copy of Heavy Breathing. Luckily for me I'd bought a few things off a guy a few months ago and seemed to remember that on his list of sale items was Black Breath. Was it Heavy Breathing? Was it a non black vinyl copy? An email later and it was yes on both counts. Fuck yes!

Clear vinyl to be exact which given the ghostly image on the cover I think actually works quite well with this LP. I believe this was the European limited version of the release with the limited U.S version being blue. No idea of pressing numbers though. Both these Black Breath releases have great covers and packaging. Southern Lord have done a great job here. The whole thing just feels solid and quality.

Is this better than Sentenced to Life? Yeah probably. The second album is more of the same really and by that I mean quality heavy music, but I'd say Heavy Breathing is maybe slightly more consistent, there ain't a lot in it at all though, Black Breath have released two absolute scorchers. Think Entombed meets Converge meets Doomriders and your in the right kinda area.