Saturday, 28 November 2015

Night Of The Vampire

I don't know a lot about the New Bomb Turks, years ago in college a friend of mine pushed a CD of theirs onto me, a week or so later I brought it back and said it was 'decent', truth be told though I never bothered listening to it.

Entombed / New Bomb Turks - Split


I've seen this before and loving Entombed thought I'd pick it up at some point if not for the great cover art alone. When I saw it on eBay a few weeks ago it was time to strike.


Entombed contribute the awesome Night Of The Vampire here which is a cover and originally by Roky Erickson. The video for the song sees the Scandinavian rascals larking about in the snow with fake vampire teeth and Elvis glasses. It's that sense of humour that I've always liked about Entombed.


The New Bomb Turks track isn't bad here either truth be told, maybe I should have listened to that CD way back when?
There's a limited blue vinyl version of this release too by all accounts. I also like the little insert that is promoting Coalesce's 002 release.

Thursday, 26 November 2015

Coalesce Sets Fire

Is it really only myself and Marcus over at The Endless Quest that care about Coalesce in 2015? 

Coalesce / Boysetsfire Split


I'm slowly working on my Coalesce collection, this cost a massive 99p from eBay and I was the only bidder. This is just the black vinyl version of the release. Marcus has an impressive colour vinyl and alternative cover collection.


I've never been a huge boysetsfire fan but coincidentally to picking this up a friend of mine has sent me a few links to live bits and pieces by them recently which has made me appreciate them a bit more.


Tuesday, 24 November 2015

Forced Hand

I've written about The River Card on here before, they are a much overlooked UKHC band from Stoke. So overlooked that I didn't know they had a new release out until I randomly checked their big cartel out a while back.

The River Card - Forced Hand


This is the bands third EP I believe and follows on from the full length they released a couple of years ago nicely. Each new release sees The River Card get better in my eyes and this 7" is probably their strongest collection of songs yet.


I picked up the clear and white versions of the record, both out of 200. There was a baby blue version out of 100 too but I missed the boat. Staggeringly the band are selling these for £2 a pop and both of these versions are still available at their big cartel site. Check them out!!


Monday, 2 November 2015

Slaves Beyond Death

Ah, the difficult third album, some people say the second record is the tricky one but I think history will point to the third full length as always separating the men from the boys.

Black Breath - Slaves Beyond Death


I bloody love all of Black Breaths previous output, heavy with a hardcore tinge and an an energy and perhaps even a tongue in cheek that seemed to separate them from the rest of the pack. The last two records have had some serious play in Screaming For Records Towers let me tell you. So that brings us on to the new record Slaves Beyond Death. The band have taken quite a dramatic change in style on this record with some grander ideas and longer more slow building songs. I can understand why they wanted to have a stab at mixing it up a bit but so far I'm not really feeling this record, it just feels like a jump too far too soon. The vocals have changed dramatically to a more generic death metal roar and some of the energy and rawness has been lost completely. There's nothing bad here, it's just not really what I wanted from Black Breath, they seem to have lost some of that individuality and kinda just sound like another Death Metal band, albeit a good one.


 I say this a lot but in fairness I've not exactly listened to this a huge amount just yet and maybe over time some of the intricacies of the record will jump out more, but at the moment I'm just kinda underwhelmed. That's not to say I wasn't banging my head in places when listening but I could do that to any metal band.


Black vinyl only on display here as I bought this from an actual store rather than buying on line. I'm not sure what colour options there were but I think I've seen a sandy brown type colour version online. Even the cover I'm not feeling as much as the previous releases which all had great covers, especially Heavy Breathing which I always think is a great record cover.