welcome the plague year - s/t (cd) (2004)

welcome the plague year is a band that i've always found myself drawn to, not sure if it's the name or their relation to other screamo bands, but i've always had a fascination with them while not frequently listening to their material on its own. welcome the plague year featured members of joshua fit for battle, neil perry, and you and i, and they put out splits with ampere and funeral diner, both of which feature great tracks from both sides. this lp is no different, i revisited it yesterday in preparation for posting this and found it to be very enjoyable all the way through, with some nice more punk/hardcore influences incorporated throughout the record.

listen to the record here

das oath/total fury - full circle thrash tour

not screamo, i know, but the adjacency is there and close enough for me. plus, i love the oath and spazz so whatever.

das oath was a hardcore/thrashcore band featuring mark mccoy of charles bronson & youth attack fame on vocals, as well as nate wilson from monster x and devoid of faith on bass. fantastic band through and through, and overall a great example of the style of hardcore that i personally enjoy the most.

total fury was a hardcore band from japan that showcased a style very reminiscent of 80s and 90s DC hardcore. fast, well composed, and fun as hell. they do an ssd cover (glue) at the very end of the b side of this record that is great.

i cant find a rip of this online so here's spazz's final set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r9GQq1BLKI

combatwoundedveteran/scrotum grinder split (1999)

one of my favorite splits of all time, not just limited to the screamo genre. combatwoundedveteran is far and away one of my favorite bands to ever do it in this style, and the scrotum grinder tracks on this split are also really solid. this release in peculiar when it comes to splits because the bands go back and forth between tracks, sharing both sides of the record and contributing four songs a piece in total. this, in addition to their similarities and very comfortably chaotic attitudes really work together to make this a very fantastic split and fun listen overall, albeit expectedly short.

highly suggest checking out scrotum grinder's other material in addition to this. they have a full length and an ep as well, and both are great. combatwoundedveteran's repertoire goes without saying, however i still will recommend giving their material a listen. one of the best to ever do chaotic type shit.

listen to the split here

reversal of man/enemy soil split (1997)

this split is a fuckin good one. enemy soil and reversal of man both had very impressive lineups in regards to creative output outside of just those two bands. enemy soil featured members of agoraphobic nosebleed, pig destroyer, pg.99, deceased, and city of caterpillar, while reversal of man shared members with another great band by the name of combatwoundedveteran.

enemy soil was a grind/powerviolence band from virginia that broke up not too long after this split was released (their last record was a split with pg.99, doc #2). reversal of man fell a lot closer to the likes of orchid, cwv, jeromes dream, etc.

this record was released by fist held high, a primarily hardcore focused label that released a handful of records between 1995 and 2002, notably the hoods/lockjaw split, and the split between disbelief (members of 86 mentality and no justice) and outcome (members of turmoil). rhetoric records handled distribution, a wisconsin based label that also handled releases from spazz, phobia, corrupted, bastard noise, crossed out, dropdead, and many other bands, both in that realm and outside of it (i think they did a couple early less than jake releases as well). anyways, this is a really solid split with an interesting mix of abrasive shit.

listen to the split here

anonymous v. anasarca (1995)

great artwork on this split as well as a nice nod to slaughterhouse five. anonymous was a screamo band with dischord records-esque post hardcore influence very prevalent in their sound, particularly in the first track on this split. aaron, the bassist of anonymous, later went on to play in a ton of sludge/doom metal bands, and does most of the art for southern lord records now. nick, who did vocals for anasarca, also ran planaria recordings up until around 2011 when the label stopped doing releases. he also did artwork for a lot of bands including q and not u, appleseed cast, von bondies, and bloc party.

listen to the split here

the red scare/orchid split (2000)

this record was one of the handful of releases by hand held heart, who also released the orchid s/t ep, a few other red scare records, and had a few releases from bands such as chromatics and pretty girls make graves, much before their later success on idib and matador, respectively. founder of the label, brian roettinger, was also known for his part in the screamo/hardcore band this machine kills, who released splits with yaphet kotto, envy, and sissy spacek, as well as featuring now world famous dj, steve aoki. kip from trs, alongside jayson and geoff from orchid, also played together in the blues rock band panthers.

this split features 3 tracks from orchid and one from the red scare, and overall i think this is one of the better of the splits that orchid ever did (i think the cwv one is my personal favorite).

listen to the split here

puritan/reversal of man split (1996)

this split has some of my favorite writing and artwork in the insert that i have ever seen. also happens to be one of my favorite splits of all time as well. puritan was a hardcore band from pennsylvania featuring chad from hassan i sabbah and demien who was in the band otesanek, who did a fantastic split with the band coffins in 2007.

since this is a split 12", it totals out to be 11 tracks (5 from puritan, 6 from reversal of man) and ends up right around 37 minutes long. overall it is a fantastic record, and an early-ish release in screamo/hardcore canon.

listen to the split here