The long awaited debut LP from NYC’s FLOWER “Hardly A Dream” is finally set to arrive.
FLOWER’s tedious approach to writing/creating/drawing their debut LP was carefully thought out and the result is a monumental anarcho punk /crust record.
“Hardly A Dream” Takes us on a bleak journey through the dark side of society. As soon as you drop the needle a dark atmosphere is immediately created with a slow intro featuring arpeggio guitar work that builds into pummeling d-beat crust. The albums vocals then leave you with a feeling of being crushed by the ever-present weight of living through our modern world of late stage capitalism that was built on the falsehoods of the so called American dream, religious hypocrisy’s, nationalism, and the greed of humankind.
FLOWER take many cues from predecessors and are most often (and rightfully so) compared to NAUSEA but they also take a heavy influence from ANTISECT, SACRILEGE & other greats. The artwork has a very RUDIMENTARY PENI feel and the record comes with an amazing 24.5 X 34.75 CRASS style poster jacket. All art work was meticulously hand drawn and overseen by the guitarist Willow in true DIY style and spirit. Willow was also cool enough to draw up a special shirt for the record release featuring an alternative PROFANE EXISTENCE backprint!
Dark, heavy, galloping crust from the streets of London. AGNOSY is back to present us with a ferocious beast of an album that can only be forged by the anger and frustration of living in today’s world. “When Daylight Reveals The Torture” aggressively attacks evils such the current rise of fascism and animal abuse. It intelligently and passionately touches on the Afrin invasion and the revolution in Rojava and shows nothing but utter disgust toward the arrogance of humankind’s lust for greed and power that will inevitably lead us down paths of war and environmental devastation.
AGNOSY – Live at SCUMFEST in London. 2011
While lyrically AGNOSY are much more politicly straight forward this time around than on previous releases, musically they have expanded on their sound to create a dark and moody atmosphere while at the same time staying crust as fuck. To say they know what they are doing would be an understatement from this band of vets whose members have played in HIATUS, HEALTH HAZARD, and BEGINNING OF THE END.
Long galloping intros are followed up by traditional d-beat, fierce solo’s are then meet with vicious vocals and pulverizing bass in a brilliant recording captured by Lewis Johns at The Ranch Production House and was mastered by Brad Boatright at Portland’s legendary Audiosiege. We then pressed on deluxe heavyweight 150-gram vinyl, printed on reverse board jackets, and included an 11in x 22in gatefold insert to bring you a high quality and truly epic record.
PROFANE EXISTENCE – PO BOX 647 – HUNTINGTON WV – 25711 – UNITED STATES
The legendary crust classic is now available once again!
Authorized and released in cooperation with MISERY, S.D.S., & MCR Japan & Remastered by Jack Butcher at Enormous Door Studio we are beyond proud to make one one the most rare and sought after crust records available once again.
Fuck the scavengers charging punks exuberant amounts of cash on ebay and discogs. We worked meticulously with both bands and with Jack at Enormous door to bring you an updated version that kicks major audio ass while maintaining the original authenticity.
Released on deluxe 150 gram vinyl. With an 11×11 inner sleeve. Black Paper Jacket. Reverse Board Jacket.
Earlier this year we re-issued this legendary LP and sold over 950 copies in just 4 short months. For this second pressing we pressed 490 copies on Krystal Clear & 485 on Grey Vinyl with Black Mist.
Crystal Clear (Bullet belt no included) Grey With Black Mist (Bullet belt no included) PROFANE EXISTENCE – PO BOX 647 – HUNTINGTON WV – 25711 UNITED STATES
Stench crust the way it was meant to be played!
The UK crust scene of the 1980’s inspired band after band but no other band has ever reincarnated the sound of that time as well as SWORDWIELDER. Quite simply if you like crust, then this the album you have waited decades for.
Review by Craig Hayes from “Your Last Rites”… Swordwielder – System Overlord Heavyweight punk fanatics take note: System Overlord is a fucking triumph. The long-awaited sophomore album from Gothenburg stenchcore band Swordwielder is a brooding behemoth, constructed from the filthiest and heftiest strains of punk and metal. System Overlord shimmers with apocalyptic visions, and it’s overflowing with all the grim atmospherics and intimidating intensity that defines consummate crushing crust.
Too much hype? No way… And no apologies, either. Swordwielder deal in definitive stenchcore on System Overlord, and much like their full-length debut, 2013’s Grim Visions of Battle, the band’s latest release is a knockout. Swordwielder’s harsh, gruff and dark sound owes a significant debt to old school icons like Amebix, Axegrinder, Deviated Instinct, and Antisect, and they mix and mangle their influences and leave ’em to rot on the battlefield.
Plenty of hammering rage drives System Overlord tracks like “Violent Revolution,” “Savage Execution” and “Cyborgs,” and thundering epics like “Corrupt Future” and “Northern Lights” exhibit subtler strengths, mixing guttural growls and clean vocals with crashing percussion and dirge-laden riffs. Connoisseurs of corpse-dragging crust will love the brute-force belligerence of “Absolute Fear,” “Nuclear Winter,” and “Second Attack,” which rain down like merciless mortar barrages. As a rule, all of System Overlord‘s mammoth tracks chug and churn with grinding muscle, while reeking of squalor and decay.
Swordwielder exudes tightly coiled aggression from start to finish here—songs rise from the ashes of desolation, and resounding calls for action and resistance ring loud. If you’re a fan of heavy-hitters like Fatum, War//Plague, Carnage, Zygome, Cancer Spreading or (insert your favorite hefty crust crew here), System Overlord‘s trampling tempo and strapping sound are bound to appeal.
WILT combine old school metal and crust in a perfect hybrid that very few others have ever achieved. Prepare for a LP thats equal parts galloping d-beat crust reminiscent of bands like HELLSHOCK, and INSTINCT OF SURVIVAL, meets old school death metal in the vein of BOLT THROWER, MEMORIAM (old) SEPULTURA.
Here is a track from the upcoming LP
“Sermon for the Bootlickers”
Despite the inculcation of helplessness within each there remains great power. Ill at ease with such makes us ill. Learn to see the hand that feeds for what it is. You’ve been fooled if you think you’ve got no power. Refuse to be reduced to a consumer you’re a human being. Define yourself by more than wealth. Define yourself as a human. You don’t need what you’re being sold. Bend your knee to no authority but your own mind. You have the power to avoid the gilded trap. Avarice is what you’re conditioned for. Break the mold discover what’s really valuable to you.
WILT will be on in Europe this July / August will ELECTROZOMBIES From Chile
Wed, July 12 Hanover / Germany / Confirmed Thu, July 13 Bremen Fri, July 14 Mulhem / Germany / Confirmed Sat, July 15 Gent, Belgium / CrustPicnic / Confirmed Sun, July 16 Paris / France or Amsterdam / Nederland July 18 North-East France or West Germany July 19 Freiburg / Germany TBC July 20 Winterthur / Switzerland Fri, July 21 Zurich / Switzerland Sat, July 22 Biel / Switzerland July 23 Lausanne or Geneva / Switzerland
July 24 Geneva / Switzerland or Grenoble france
July 25 Treviso (or Milano or Bologna or Verona) / Italy
July 26 Ljubljana Slovenia Confirmed
July 27 No Sanctuary chilling day
Fri, July 28 NoSanctuary Confirmed
Sat, July 29 NoSanctuary Confirmed
July 30 Ilirska Bistrica/Slovenia or Vienna/Austria or Budapest/Hungary.
July 31 Wiena / Austrai or Budapest or / Slovakia
August 1 Brno / Czech Republic.
August 2 Prague / Czech Republic
August 3 Finsterwalde / Germany TBC
Fri, August 4 Leipzig / Germany TBC
Sat, August 5 Berlin / Germany / confirmed
August 6 Dresden
August 7 Wroclaw / Poland
August 8 Warsaw / Poland
August 9 Poznan / Poland
August 10 Szczecin/Poland TBC
Fri, August 11 Rostock / confirmed
Sat, August 12 Hamburg TBC
For this in the Seattle or surrounding area you can catch WILT this Saturday April first at Highline Bar with NOOTHGRUSH from Oakland.
Here is the first entry to a journal that I kept when I attempted to ride my bike across the state of Oregon. Over the next 10 nights I’ll be posting a new entry from this trip on the Profane Existence blog. This was originally meant to be a zine (just meant for a few friends to enjoy), but at the request of others I’ve decided to share it with a larger audience. I feel incredibly honored and grateful that PE asked me to post it here, as they’re a publication that I’ve looked up to since I was a young punk.
I want to state first that this journal is in no way a “how to” manual on how to do a bike tour. You’ll notice that I did this trip without a helmet, a cell phone or an itinerary to leave with someone in case I went missing so they’d know where to search for me. If you have the means to attain these things, please do so! Be safe out there and look out for your friends! I was lucky my lack of safety gear or a way to reach folks didn’t prove to be fatal, so please don’t follow my example in that respect and take chances that you don’t need to.
I’ve tried to capture this experience as accurately and as honestly as I possibly can. I’ve omitted some small details here and there, mostly for space reasons, but I’ve documented every significant event that happened along this ride. I think that the entries explain themselves well enough, so I won’t go into much detail about what you’ll read here. I appreciate you taking the time to check this out and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I would say as much as I enjoyed living it, but that unfortunately isn’t possible. I want to incentivize you to go out and create your own adventure, and I hope that in some small way this journal helps. There are a lot of amazing things out there just waiting to be experienced, and some times all it takes to make it happen is a 30 year old bicycle, a backpack and an overly ambitious attitude. Stay curious and inquisitive, my friends. Sometimes it’s the only thing that helps me feel truly alive.
“Bet you are tired of being upset / always wanting something that you never can get” – Buzzcocks
alright, where is this dude.
I think to myself as I’m circling the JC Penney parking lot in my housemate’s car. I’m supposed to meet some guy out in Beaverton, OR at this giant mall to buy a bicycle off him. The problem is though is that he’s not standing where he said he would be and I don’t have a cell phone to call him. Finally, after circling the parking lot twice, I spot a Prius with what looks to be the old Schwinn strapped to the back, judging from the Craigslist photos. I park and hover around the car for a few minutes to wait for him, all the while feeling like I look pretty sketchy in this moment. I can feel eyes on me from all over the parking lot in this suburban mall, and just like I’d do if I was confronted by a wild animal, I don’t make any sudden movements. It’s just a tattooed punk guy in a sleeveless shirt staring at a bike in a suburban mall, everyone just try and calm down. The thing is, almost everyone in Portland has tattoos, and nearly everyone commutes by bicycle and frequently checks out someone else’s ride. Should be no surprise.
After a few minutes I finally see the guy emerge from the double doors of the department store with his son in tow and I go to greet them. “I had to get my kid some shoes, thought you’d be fine to wait a few minutes.” uh huh, yeah whatever cool-dad I think as I give the sandal and classic rock band shirt wearing dude standing in front of me a once over.He then does the honor of taking the bike off the back of the car and I begin to inspect it while he jaws on about how rare the bike is and how well maintained it was for being 35 years old etc. etc. I hate to be sold on things so I’m trying to drown him out while I take a cursory glance at everything. I don’t know a ton about bikes, but obviously this thing has a few minor issues. It definitely has two different wheels on it, the pedals are cheap plastic and definitely need to be replaced and a lot of the hardware is loose, rusted and mismatched. All in all it’s really not a bad bike, but I’m still not willing to pay what he’s asking.
I ask him if it’d be alright if I gave it a ride around the parking lot and his jaw clenches and his eyes immediately widen. He probably watched some local news exposé about bike thieves and craigslist scams or whatever and I probably fit the profile. He starts to stammer and spurts out fragmented sentences like “Umm… well.. I don’t…” and I finally interrupt him and offer my car keys to hold while I bike just within eyesight. Plus, I remind him that the car I drove here in is still parked right next to his if that eases his mind at all. If I wanted your bike it would have been gone by now, take it easy cool-dad. Lucky for him stealing bikes is a big “nuh uh” in my book, as it would be for any person that had even a shred of decency. To all you bike thieves out there: beware. Have the courage to rip off people who actually deserve it.
After circling the parking lot a couple times on the bike I’m satisfied with what I learn, and I try not to take too long because I want to get this whole awkward transaction over with. The bike shifts and coasts well, and even though it needs some work I’m confident that I can make my 400 mile bicycle trip next week on this thing. I pull up to where cool-dad is standing, and I begin to explain what I like about the bike and what I don’t, to give him a better understanding of where I’m at. It’s also just a more polite way of saying “I’m not paying your asking price for this”. Upon hearing my explanation he immediately fires back about how much character the bike has and how he wasn’t even that interested in selling it, so if I didn’t want to pay full price he’ll just load it back up and take it home. Apparently he looked up “how to haggle” on wikipedia before he got here, as if feigning disinterest in selling the item will get me to panic and pay whatever he wants. If that’s how you feel why are you even here then? Just as I’m about to respond, his son, who’s about 10 maybe, turns to me like he wants to join the conversation and says “Well, if you just want to pay..” and is immediately met with an overly aggressive shushing hand from his father and the typical “THE ADULTS ARE TALKING” speech. Ok asshole, just for that I’m definitely not paying full price.
I christen thee “Ugla”. Meaning “Owl” in Norwegian. Too complicated to explain why, it just seemed to fit.
So our conversation is a short back and forth, as I try my best not to roll my eyes at him, and I end up talking him down $40. I then shake his sweaty, cool-dad hand and load my bike up in my housemate’s car. I’m eager to get out of this suburban mall and away from all the corners of Multnomah County I go to great lengths to avoid visiting. Plus, I want to get home and jump right to working on my new bike, since I’m supposed to start my bike tour in a few days. My plan is to leave this Sunday, bike from Portland to the Oregon coast, turn south on Highway 101 and eventually ride into California. This weekend is coming up on me fast, and my stress levels are rising with each hour that passes, but I’m thinking if I don’t set a timeline for myself that forces me to get my stuff together then I’ll just keep putting this trip off like I have been for years. Knowing myself I’ll get lost in another project before this one even gets off the ground. I still don’t even know exactly where I’m going, what routes I’ll take to get there, what I’ll see or where I’ll stay, or even how realistic it is to use a bike like this for a trip this far. Really though, the uncertainty is all part of the appeal for me. I mean, does it still count as an adventure if you have a rigid itinerary and a nicely feathered nest to fall back on if things don’t work out? The only solid idea I have for this trip so far is to just do this in the most cost-effective and punkest way possible. I’m working with what I’ve got, so it’s going to be on an ancient Craigslist bike loaded with a combination of old camping gear that I’ve had for years, borrowed items and (dare I say) “liberated” food from the local mega-store.
Ugla and housemate “Berryeater” brandishing plastic gun. We don’t fuck around.
As difficult as they can be, “do or die” type situations are a common occurrence in my life and have always carried their appeal. People tend to underestimate what they’re capable of and what they’re able to survive through, and sometimes it’s nice for me to remind myself when I suspect that my stoicism is starting to fade. When you’re thrust into a harsh environment with no option but to finish what you started and persevere through tough times, you generally come out on the other end with a different perspective on other aspects of your life. Typically the volume gets turned down on things that might have troubled you greatly before, which is what I’ve come to understand from having been through some shit in my lifetime. So with that said it’s time for me to cast aside these cozy last few months, get myself in a tough spot, see some danger and start living again.
There’s groundwork to be laid, but I’ll make this work. See you soon.
Profane Existence 
Thank you for sharing your trip with us. Really enjoyed the read. Looking forward to reading more of your journal entries!