No Way I'm in Panic

Artist: Various
Title: No Way I'm in Panic
Release: 1998
Label: Mangrove Label

Track List:
1. Freaks - Faster
2. Flux Cored Wire - Keep
3. Assfort - Ejaculation Remix

This is a pretty awesome compilation featuring three Japanese bands (or is it a three way split?). Freaks and Flux Cored Wire are both fairly typical and fairly good Japanese hardcore. Assfort is too, but their track on this is some sort of weird lo-fi remix. Not a whole lot of replay value on that side. But the Freaks/Flux Cored Wire side is fantastic.

Download: Various - No Way I'm in Panic (LAME 3.98r V0) Multiupload

Download: Various - No Way I'm in Panic (LAME 3.98r V0) Mediafire

A Sleepee Mix

Artist: Various
Title: A Sleepee Mix
Release: 1997
Label: My Room Records

Track List:
1. Sarcastic Bitch - Tea Party
2. Goodnite Moon - Tummysuck
3. Make a Wish - Fifteen Traumas
4. Acetaminophen - Harriet
5. Complete Sentences - Button Forest

This is a quiet little compilation of quiet indie rock (for lack of a better description). Not necessarily my cup of tea, but I figured someone might enjoy this.

Download: Various - A Sleepee Mix (LAME 3.98r V0) Multiupload

Download: Various - A Sleepee Mix (LAME 3.98r V0) Mediafire

Empty Skulls Vol.#2 - The Wound Deepens

Artist: Various
Title: Empty Skulls Vol.#2 - The Wound Deepens
Release: 1986
Label: Fartblossom Enterprizes

Track List:
1. E.A.T.E.R. - Abort the System
2. E.A.T.E.R. - Death Wish
3. Stranglehold - She's Not Leaving
4. Half Life - Old Glory
5. Half Life - Wise Up
6. Pillsbury Hardcore - Kill Everyone Now
7. Pillsbury Hardcore - I Hate Paper Cuts
8. Pullsbury Hardcore - S.E.V.F.P.
9. White 'n' Hairy - Involved
10. Corrosion of Conformity - Center of the World
11. Corrosion of Conformity - Eye for an Eye
12. Corrosion of Conformity - Negative Outlook
13. Legion of Parasites - Dying World
14. Legion of Parasites - Boredom
15. Justice League - Looking Back
16. Colera - Em Voce
17. Colera - De o Fora
18. Pandemonium - Wir Gegen Fahren Nazis
19. Pandemonium - Sucks to This Wall
20. Crude S.S. - Svensson, Svensson
21. Ugly Americans - Buffalo Bill

How rad is this comp? Totally rad. Rad enough, in fact, that I'm not sick of it even though I've been working on this off and on for days now.

Initially when I chanced upon this record last year at a local store called Entertainmart, Corrosion of Conformity, Pillsbury Hardcore, and Crude S.S. were the only bands on this compilation that I was familiar with. They're in good company though as the rest of the bands do more than a good job of keeping up.

Ernst and the Edsholm Rebels' "Abort the System" is pretty much as punk as you can get. And I couldn't agree more with Pillsbury Hardcore, paper cuts suck. But my personal favorite track is the borderline pop punk song by Stranglehold. I really love the vocals and the guitar solo about midway through. It's upbeat and has more rhythm than anything else on this compilation.

There's a little bit of everything on this record. So no matter what style of hardcore punk you tend to favor you'll find at least a track or two that suits your tastes. I suspect most people will be most excited about Corrosion of Conformity.

Seeing as how this is from 1986 my copy has some expected amounts of scratching and general noise causing damage. I did all of the standard noise removal stuff in Audition and found it to be lacking. So I decided to take the time to go in and hand edit out as many of the audible pops, clicks, and other bad noises as I could. All told I probably removed about 200. If there are any left it is either because my shitty ears couldn't hear them or they literally could not be removed without fucking up the rest of the surrounding sound. The end result is very much to my liking. If you ignore the fact that the different bands obviously recorded on vastly different equipment at varying volume levels I'd say it sounds about as good as any new record.

Download: Empty Skulls Vol. II The Wound Deepens (LAME 3.98r V0) Multiupload

Download: Empty Skulls Vol. II The Wound Deepens (LAME 3.98r V0) Mediafire

Mandatory Marathon

Artist: Various
Title: Mandatory Marathon
Release: 1999
Label: Amendment Records

Track List:
1. Charles Bronson - So What If I Puked up McDonalds
2. Charles Bronson - ESP: Girls Love Me
3. Capitalist Casualties - Sarin
4. Capitalist Casualties - Methamphetamine
5. Capitalist Casualties - Worker
6. The Gooch - Boxbot
7. Gasparilla Day Parade - No Escaping the Almighty Wrath of Lee Ralph
8. Captain 3 Leg - Tommy G Song
9. The Gaia - 1999 Genocide Introduction Extraversion Colors
10. The Pervatrons - Spanked by the Fairy Godmother
11. Palatka - New Feedback
12. Palatka - Yours at Best
13. Palatka - Nathan Collier
14. Palatka - Choicenochoice
15. Gob - Itamae-san
16. Gob - Chapmaster
17. Laceration - Maximum Catalogue
18. Laceration - Friend Song
19. Laceration - Don't Believe in Love?
20. Last Remaining Pinnacle - Mantle Rotation

Some records have no business being in the bargain bin. And yet that's where I found this gnarly power violence (and grindcore) compilation 7". It's as if whoever put it there didn't even bother to at least google a couple of the names on the front cover.

To be honest this is somewhat of a mixed bag. There's some real gems on here and some real head-scratchers. But I suppose that's sometimes part of the charm of this kind of music.

I've included scans of the insert which has more information on all the bands and the release itself.

Unfortunately my copy has some slight crackling and popping that I wasn't able to fix. To be honest though that really doesn't matter since nearly all the songs are so poorly recorded anyways. In fact, as with other recordings of this nature it might be a result of the recording process rather than the playback process.

Download: Mandatory Marathon (LAME 3.98r V0) Multiupload

Download: Mandatory Marathon (LAME 3.98r V0) Mediafire

Under the Influence

Artist: Various
Title: Under the Influence
Release: 1999
Label: Vicious Circle Records

Track List:
1. Where Fear and Weapons Meet - Glue
2. Ten Yard Fight - Forced Down Your Throat
3. Committed - Get It Away
4. Fast Times - Under Your Influence
5. Time Flies - Nothing Done
6. Kill Your Idols - X Claim

If you're a fan of SS Decontrol or Boston hardcore in general then consider this a must download.

Download: Under the Influence (LAME 3.98r V0) Multiupload

Download: Under the Influence (LAME 3.98r V0) Mediafire

Anger Management Session 1

Artist: Various
Title: Anger Management Session 1
Release: 2002
Label: Martyr Records

Track List:
1. Kill Your Idols - All Those Wasted Calling Cards...
2. Holding On - Turn the Screw
3. Close Call - Left in the Dark
4. My Luck - Just Friends
5. Diehard Youth - Scene Vampire Killers
6. What Feeds the Fire - Without the Weapon

I somehow ended up with two copies of this 7". I don't remember where I got the first one. Either way Kill Your Idols and My Luck are both really awesome. The rest of the bands on this compilation are pretty generic 2000 to 2009 American hardcore. In 2002 I might have been excited about every band on this compilation, but in 2010 I can't help but roll my eyes at most of them.

That being said this is really worth it for the Kill Your Idols and My Luck songs. I've posted My Luck here before, so you might have already heard them. If not think Carry On or later Champion.

600 DPI scans of the artwork included.

Download: Anger Management Session 1 (LAME 3.98r V0) Multiupload

Download: Anger Management Session 1 (LAME 3.98r V0) Mediafire

As I Look to the Future

Artist: Various
Title: As I Look to the Future
Release: 1997
Label: Solution Records

Track List:
1. Capgun - Take a Hint
2. Bane - Lay the Blame
3. Driven - Fear
4. The Rolemodels - Messy

I bought this solely because of the track by Bane but I was surprised to find that The Rolemodels song was actually my favorite on this. From what little I can gather this compilation was put out around 1997, it may have been 1996 but I'm gonna go with 1997 since that's when someone on a certain message board says they remember buying it.

The Capgun song isn't anything special, pretty typical 90's hardcore. If you've heard anything from that era you've probably already heard this. Bane's offering to this compilation is apparently some of their earliest recorded output. It definitely sounds more youthful in comparison to "Give Blood", and that was nine years ago now! I'm not really a fan of the song by Driven. It's got some dude from Killswitch Engage on it, vocals I think. Not my style at all.

What is my style though is The Rolemodels. When I was looking over the inside of the sleeve I noticed that the address given for them was Denton, TX. I thought this was pretty weird since the rest of the bands were from the North East so with a little help from google I found out that their drummer was actually the drummer from The Marked Men and their bass player was one of the early bass players for The Riverboat Gamblers. It seems the drummer started The Rolemodels not long after moving to Denton from Connecticut. I guess it makes sense that I found a copy of this in Carrollton, which isn't too far from Denton. Pretty interesting connection between two far away (especially in the 90s) places if you ask me.

600 DPI scans of the sleeve included.

Download: As I Look to the Future (LAME 3.98r V0) Multiupload

Download: As I Look to the Future (LAME 3.98r V0) Mediafire

Hakodate City Hard Core

Artist: Various
Title: Hakodate City Hard Core
Release: 1997
Label: Straight Up Records

Track List:
1. Crude - No One Gave the Right Answer
2. Crude - 義勇 (Giyuu, Heroism)
3. etae - Protect Oneself
4. etae - Proof of Truth Proof of Power
5. etae - 絶望の時 (Zetsubou no Toki, Hour of Despair)
6. Mustang - 箱館 (Hakodate)
7. Mustang - 馬 (Uma, Horse)
8. Mustang - ヒエロ (Hiero)
9. Grass - 意識 (Ishiki, Consciousness)
10. Grass - 痛みの向こうに (Itami no Mukou ni, Beyond the Pain)
11. Grass - Humanity
12. Bad Trip - Fuck Religion
13. Bad Trip - Junky
14. Bad Trip - 矛盾 (Mujun, Contradiction)
15. Bad Trip - Impostor
16. Bad Trip - Decided Life

More on this later.

Download: Hakodate City Hard Core (FhG 192 kbps)