2014 Best of List...

In no particular order... Missing some solid releases... It's a list. Nothing more, nothing less...

*Blut Aus Nord--Memoria Vestusta III: Saturnian Poetry
*Impetuous Ritual--Unholy Congregation of Hypocritical Ambivalence
*Falls of Rauros--Believe In No Coming Shore
*Whirr--Sway
*Taurus--No/Thing
*Agalloch--The Serpent & Sphere
*Nothing--Guilty of Everything
*Coffinworm--IV.I.VIII.
*Godflesh--A World Only Lit By Fire
*Old Man Gloom--Ape of God
*Krieg--Transient
*Wovenhand--Refactory Obdurate
*Have A Nice Life--Unnatural World
*Young Widows--Easy Pain
*Alraune--The Process of Self Immolation
*Atriarch--An Unending Pathway
*Blut Aus Nord/P.H.O.B.U.S.--Trinity
*Waldgefluster--Meine Fesseln
*Horseback--Piedmont Apocrypha
*Ritual Howls--Turkish Leather
*Shellac--Dude Incredible
*Yob--Clearing the Path to Ascend
*Woman Is The Earth--Depths
*We Are Hex--Bleach Brigade
*Saor--Aura
*Swans--To Be Kind
*The Body--I Shall Die Here
*Panopticon--Roads To the North
*Fossils--Flesh Hammer
*Death Fortress--Among the Ranks of the Unconquerable
*Book of Sand--The Bees and Butterflies
*Sun Worship--Elder Giants
*Boddicker--Crime Upheaval
*Death Blues--Ensemble


Indiana bands that rule(d) in 2014:
*Scared Leather
*Boddicker
*We Are Hex
*Coffinworm
*Nuclear Hellfrost
*Conjurer
*Kvlthammer
*Black Goat of the Woods

One of the best ever... Ice Nine.

In case you are unaware, one of the greatest hardcore bands was spawned from Indianapolis' early to mid 90's hardcore punk scene. That band was Ice Nine. Blistering, pummeling, intricate. Ice Nine ripped their way through the scene with a ragged world view and intensity that has hardly been matched. They pulled no punches other than those intended for all those in their path. Less political, Ice Nine used ingenious musicianship to breath fire into hardcore as their vehicle of self expression and distaste for the environment around them. Hardly apathetic, Ice Nine pounded, hammered, and in general abused their instruments into submission as they raged with barely contained anger and chaos. Their live show was a mass release of flowing energy, both positive and negative, as the music filled all those in range with dissonance and discord. Fuck you, Ice Nine were determined to do what they wanted both musically and personally. You were either with them or against them, often the former. Noisy and chaotic, the men of Ice Nine delivered an intensity that was addictive and inscrutable. Ice Nine were less about being understood, but more so a band formed around a working knowledge of an ever-contorting and often hopeless world birthed on a local midwestern level. The band was a release from every day life and personal problems. Ice Nine were a shredding embodiment of catharsis. When they were active, Ice Nine were one of the most vital bands. They didn't have fans. They had followers. Youth slammed into a cathartic need for release and relatability, and Ice Nine delivered on all fronts. Nostalgia has it place, but when dealing with Ice Nine nostalgia has no place. Respect is all that matters. And Ice Nine, after all these years, still garners all the respect a band of their power and presence should. No band did it better during their active years than Ice Nine. And with all great bands, their music is just as relative and powerful as it was originally. Through their now rare 7 inch releases and a cd discography on Happy Couples Never Last Records, Ice Nine still continue to invade eardrums with their brand of furious hardcore. Recently, their three year discography appeared on the band's bandcamp page. It would be wise of you to spend some time listening to Ice Nine's bestial brew of hardcore punk and know nothing has really changed. Complete respect.


icenine2.bandcamp.com

Ritual Knife Records...

You like underground bands bringing forth malice and spite. You like the grime and filth of the underbelly of humanity. You like the boot to the back of the head of normals and posers. You like your blades sharp and thirsty. If this sounds appealing, then Ritual Knife Records is sure to have a release or two for your eardrum evisceration. Focusing on local Indiana bands and quality distribution of like minded bands, Ritual Knife is poised to spew some much needed sacrificial blood on the underground tape scene. With releases from Boddicker and Scared Leather out now, the future looks devastating as the label demands its collective blood lust be satiated.

ritualknife.storenvy.com

Do Yourself a Favor...

Make ever attempt to see Sacred Leather. Indy's newest and trvest rippers are here to punish your ear canals with a knife wound metal assault. Dripping venom and blood soaked, Sacred Leather scour gutters and desecrate altars of the false on their conquest of ultimate metallic supremacy. Be ready. Be warned. But don't sleep on a band prepared to extract your soul via a blood bath of aural shrapnel and whetstone honed machetes of ripping sound.

Catch them at their next show:

November 7, Melody Inn, Indianapolis, Coffinworm, Conjurer, and Scared Leather.

sacredleather.bandcamp.com

The Goat is Dripping Blood...

From the death of Indianapolis' Casque arises Sacred Leather, and they are here to remind you what metal is. Sacred Leather drop Night Hunger ( a two song banger of scorched venom) to bludgeon ear canals with a stripped down and ripping riff drenched vehicle of the damned and doomed. All the greats are smashed together in a blood soaked amalgam conjuring elements of thrash, d-beat, doom, and early black metal. The guitar is a writhing serpent of chaos of straight ahead face smashing riffs and blast furnace solos. The drums are the collective galloping of the four horse men: unabashedly caving in the weak's skulls and furious in the pursuit of the apocalypse. The bass is the undercurrent of torture seeping from the depths of the abyss. The vocals are gruff and wailing, spreading the seed of the damned and sinfully indulgent. Sin fueled and casting their collective spell over listeners, Sacred Leather have conjured a two songs peek into the fiery hunger of all woebegone sinners with Night Hunger. Indulgent and armed by the beast, Sacred Leather are coming for the souls of the willing and unwilling alike. Burn all the temples and run wild with Sacred Leather. Bleed the goat and fornicate in its spilled blood. Sacred Leather would be proud.

*Good luck finding Night Hunger... Be prepared to catch Sacred Leather whenever or wherever live as the live show is the only way you're liable to hear their songs anytime soon.

New Kvlthammer Song...

Here's a fresh jam from the men of Kvlthammer. Kvlthammer drop a four minute assault very much akin to a Craft-ian jam of fuck you with Hate is Not Enough. Downtrodden and mid-tempo at its fastest, Hate is Not Enough is an early taste of the forthcoming full length from these Indy veterans. Plodding drums and those collective down strokes... The song is dragged through the gutter and slowed to a crawling pace at its midpoint from a tolling bell. Kvlthammer is a band that's served their collective time in multiple established bands: Demiricous, Coffinworm, Skeletonwitch, Lair of the Minotaur, Suicide Note, and Deadmen to name a few. With this much dirt and grime under their nails and on the soles of their boots, Kvlthammer will surely produce a molten slab of hate and venom on a full length release. Hate is Not Enough is a black bile teaser of the bands potential.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5iKwNv0U-g

Overpower 7"...

It's been almost two years, but Indianapolis' Overpower still provide a churning boot to the head. You need a brief foray into violence summoned through hardcore, well this is it. Overpower weren't around long at all, but a beat down is usually finished quickly. This 7" is three songs of hate, spite, and vengeance rolled into a bare knuckle brawl manifested aurally. Fast, aggressive, angry, and austere: Overpower were bent on devastation via social unbalance and a raw hardcore fuck you attitude. There are only so many ways to accept an ass kicking, but once upon a time Overpower were willing to find how many there were. Dead and gone, these three songs bash skulls and bloody knuckles.

overpowerxxx.bandcamp.com/

Old Detroit Falls...

And so will you. Boddicker--False Flag...

You want violence. You need violence. You sustain your shit-stained existence on indignity and conflict. Your life is the pursuit and actualization of criminal intent and endeavoring. Your psyche is eroded by a crumbling civilization and a social disconnect that leads to a lawless reality of self awareness. The streets and back alleys are your home. You are the rusted blade in the side of a society of normals and squares--all sheep. Their rules are your toilet paper. Their laws are meant to fall in a hail of bullets, and you're the leading edge of the impending firestorm. You grind and shift effortlessly in your attempts at subjugating the status quo. Everything is a weapon. Every loose brick or rock is hurtled towards the nearest target. Every cocktail is Molotov. Your knuckles are a cycle of healing scabs as they become your personal wrecking balls. Smashed faces and collapsed chests are they're primary goals. You feed on the carnage. Your targets will fall. Flesh is weak, and your amorality is of the highest value. The down beat of your steps signals the arrival of death's accomplice. Run for the hills, crash the borders; it will not save the false or your intended targets. You are a war party of destruction and disaster, willingly taking and pillaging whatever you desire. Raise the False Flag, and set your senses and enemies aflame.


boddicker13.bandcamp.com

Boddicker will be on tour this June. Their next show in Indianapolis is 6-12-2014 with Eyehategod at Birdy's.

Kvlthammer rehearsal demo...

Mid-tempo-y... Reminiscent of Fuck the Universe era Craft... It sure sounds promising from the vets (Coffinworm, Skeletonwitch, Demiricous, Deadmen, Whiskeytits...) in Kvlthammer. Catch them live, if you can, before they drop anymore music on the pit of the internet. Otherwise, let this vocal-less song demo wet your appetite for further destruction.

soundcloud.com/carlbodies/kvlthammer-track-02-practice

New Year, New Casque...

2014 has commenced with a polar leveling of the midwaste of the U.S. How appropriate for Casque (black metal rippers from Indianapolis, Indiana) to drop Furious Machine of Perpetual Disgust. This fucker is a no nonsense blast of spiraling chaos hacked up from the void in the form of pissed off cave dweller black metal. The goat is indeed damned. The death machine is unleashed. It's a filthy ten minute excursion in to the depraved head space of Casque's members. Ever punishing and wretched, the guitar work is swarming with tremolo speed to wailing solos. The mid-tempo parts are still furious but held in check by the hammer forged drumming. The bass is the ever distorted low thunder of an invading horde. And those vocals... The trills and wails of the tortured and haunted are channeled and captured as throat decimation spewed forth from the fleeing souls of annihilation. Casque conjure the cold isolation that is harbored in the disgust of a decaying society populated by a viral and parasitic species. Carl Byers of Clandestine Arts Recording effectually seizes Casque's unbridled brutally, as the mastering work of Geoff Montgomery of The Ensomberoom polishes the frost covered peaks and valleys in the most suitable sub-zero haze. Casque are relentless with their venom and filth. It's the only way. And if Furious Machine of Perpetual Disgust is any indication, then Casque are sure to commit aural genocide of all the false and weak standing before them.

casquescum.bandcamp.com/album/furious-machine-of-perpetual-disgust