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

gospel/kodan armada - a split 10" (2004)

great split by two of the best screamo bands of all time imo. coppers is probably my favorite kodan armada track, possibly tied with "no has never had three letters". the gospel side of this split is fantastic as well, everything that band did is gold imo. moon is a dead world is an incredibly impressive record both musically and emotionally, and i highly suggest it to anyone (two of the tracks on this split are also featured on that full length.

i love how in depth kodan armada always went with their inserts and lyric sheets, the amount of time that went into some of the stuff they put out is very impressive, particularly the pretty faces split from 2004 that has close to 30-50 pages worth of art and lyric stuff + various other inserts, which i will be posting scans of in the future, more than likely broken up into 4 or 5 posts.

kodan armada - cops

kodan armada - death wears a necktie

kodan armada - say something

gospel - congratulations... you've hit bottom!

gospel - ghost & gun

gospel - what means of witchery

portraits of past/bleed split (1994)

portraits of past was one of the first, and imo, one of the best screamo bands of all time, releasing a fantastic full length in 1996, and later on, releasing another solid ep in 2009. while their material is fairly limited for as important and influential as they were, it is definitely a case of quality over quantity. bleed was an incredibly intense and fast band, and like their frantic and spastic songwriting, only existed for a couple of years in the mid 90s. on this split, each band offers two songs a piece, with the total runtime of the ep ending up at just a little over 9 minutes. fantastic split with some really interesting inserts, something that you can expect from any ebullition release.

listen to the split here