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.
Das KING LUI VON BEETHOVEN are from Germany and play a very good and catchy pop-punk. That sounds like something that FAT WRECK CHORDS would have put out. Recently playing with Minnesota’s own MANIX and playing countless other shows, this is a brand of punk you could compare to THE SLOW DEATH or NOTHINGTONS with a little punk rock attitude of THE BRIGGS. With 11 tracks in total this is a really solid release hopefully I’ll hear more from these guys. The only thing I didn’t like was the artwork for this album. Doesn’t fit the bands sound the cover art makes it look like a cheesy punk band. But don’t judge a book by its cover (XbezerkerX)
Finally an new album from Doom it’s been quite a while, so it’s a nice start to the year. There is no need for any introduction with with a band like Doom. If your looking at Profane Existence your damn familiar with with them at this stage. Here we have 14 songs of great variation with each one packing a great punch. Once again they play that heavy crusty punk we love them for. In our ever changing world Doom remain constant, their message has not changed throughout the years but remains as relevant as it ever has been.
‘Corrupt Fucking System’ opens with heavy distortion, then goes straight for the jugular. Lyrically shitting on the vile conspiracy that is the Catholic church which goes straight to your cerebrum senses. This is crust punk the way it should be, belted out, loud, bass heavy and takes no prisoners. That filthy monolithic buzzing guitar has not changed since the beginnings of the band. The only difference is that it is now just way better produced. This isn’t a song-by-song analysis as you can check out their bandcamp page and see how good it is for yourself. This album won’t change the world, it just says it how it is. Let’s leave the review with a quote from ‘Corrupt Fucking System’
“We are all victims of their system. A system created to protect the powerful ruling elite. A corrupt fucking system, that thrives on people’s acceptance & silence. We are all sick with society, a capitalist nightmare disease which infects us all. We are all forced to play the game, which perpetuates their control. We are all guilty but who will voice their opposition? Who will hold these corrupt bastards to account? & who will just be silent? Who will just be a silent drone too afraid to stand up? And who will ridicule anyone who speaks out & assume we must live in fucking caves before we can speak out against this corrupt fucking system. They are the perpetuators not us. We are all stuck in this corrupt fucking system and we all must utilise the technology and advancements this system has created against itself & ‘byte’ back. Fuck those people and their acceptance for a quiet life.”
(SFitzgerald)
ATTENTION P.E. READERS, MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR THIS ONE!
this summer, 2014, the eastern regions of Amerikkka and Canaduh will be presented with yet another great band from the UK. The band in discussion at this particular time is CRESS, an anarchist squatter punk band from England, that had a limited yet high quality output of material in the mid 90s – early 2000s. Perhaps you’ve heard of them, perhaps not, but I’m sure you would be interested to know they shared a split 10″ with DOOM, which should be sought out immediately, cuz its a fuckin rager!
APPALACHIAN TERROR UNIT is an incredibly talented band from W. Virginia that play a mix of thrash and crust punk, heavily influenced by SACRILEGE with the lyrical prowess of AUS – ROTTEN, BEHIND ENEMY LINES, CRASS, etc. ATU were lucky enough last year to grace the stage with legendary CONFLICT in Chicago, and Pittsburgh (?), which must have been an incredible time. in my opinion, one of the best on PROFANE EXISTENCE RECORDS
The tentative dates at the moment are for the month of July, starting July 2nd, and ending July 21st, more information will be provided on ATU’s facebook page, so check there. Also you can find all sorts of recent political / social actions on their page, so definitely check that out. This will be CRESS’ first time in the USA, so check out their music, and get with the program; they’ve got a damn good and very unique sound. They need as much fan support as possible so that they have a good time this side of the ocean!
If you are looking for a DEVO type band from Japan then ULTRA BIDE is for you. Here you have a dual bass and drums on every track with some synth on it. This is there first U.S. release in 10 years and the almighty Alternative Tentacles puts it out. Here are 11 new tracks to jam out to, nice bright cover stands out for me since it’s very bright but these tracks are really something to listen to. Apparently these guys are heading out on a U.S./Canadian tour for 2014 and with the sounds of this CD. I’m going to try and see these guys. (XbezerkerX)
URBAN HEAD RAW hail from JAPAN. They play fast metal with amazing guitar riffs that are ear splitting. On this CD effort you have 8 brand new tracks from these heavy hitters. This band features members of other Japanese punk,hardcore and metal bands that have come together to form one super group. Very fast and thrashy riffs . Get your thrash hats out and your high top nike’ and start a circle pit with your best buds while drinking a beer. If you are in the Minneapolis scene think LOCKGNAR or PLAQUED INSANITY (but less goofy) (XbezerkerX)
There is a rich history behind this release , this is a collective of different individuals in the North Suburbs of Chicago that got together and started making the sounds that they grew up with. So here is a CD with 12 tracks of punk rock, and rockabilly. This isn’t a bad release at all it’s just not something I typically listen to but if you’re into old school punkabilly then this is for you. Look this album up and read about it’s history, also cd booklet is a nice little comic book that deserves a quick flip through. (XbezerkerX)
SALVICTION is a new crusty metal band from Poland that incorporate cold atmospheres via keyboard and depressive melodies and harmonics into their doom metal influenced crust. Comprised of members from previous bands such as FILTH OF MANKIND and well, other bands from Poland. This album starts up with rhythmic industrial noises, and changes quickly into guitar and drums driven crust metal with massive amounts of depressive melodies, clean bass lines, cold atmospheric keyboards and hoarse dry throat vocals. Incredible drum talent from Paweł Szymański is just off the wall with tom fills, time changes, and interesting tribal rhythms at times.
Songs can be minimal and melodic, then switch over to pure aggression with heavy riffage, and back to an atmospheric ambiance before even a single song has finished, making this an interesting listen that is anything but stagnant / stale. The length of these songs ranges from 5 to 10 minutes, and allows enough time for such an organic progression within each of the compositions seem natural. My favorite song is Killing Yourself To Live, because the drums are so complex on this one, and the lyrics are an ode to the working class in factories around the world. Lyrical topics are just as depressive as the music, and cover issues of a dying world taken from a truly misanthropic perception. With 6 great songs in the span of 42 minutes, and past band experience, SALVICTION is a band of accomplished musicians and deserve international attention. for fans of bands such as COUNTERBLAST, NEUROSIS, and AGRIMONIA.
First known house raid in connection with last summer’s Animal Liberation Front fur farm campaign.
The following is a report of a house that was raided this week in San Diego, apparently in connection with the recent wave of mink releases.
Since July, anonymous activists have raided 10 fur farms in Idaho, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, and Montana. In every instance, the raids followed the classic Animal Liberation Front model of releasing (wild) animals from their cages directly into their native habitat. (Read a recent New York Times article on this campaign here.)
From what can be gleaned from this report, the woman targeted seemed to do the correct thing and did not speak to the FBI.
Also of note: The FBI used a classic “divide and conquer” tactic by attempting to entice cooperation through spreading disinformation (in this instance, telling a target that a person they have an involvement with is “seeing other women.”) While this tactic is almost cliche in the FBI’s attempt to create divides in movements, they wouldn’t use it if it didn’t (occasionally) work.
I am posting the report in full.
Note: I took the liberty of adding paragraph breaks to the original post where it seemed appropriate.
“My name is Nicole and my house was raided By the FBI, JTTF, and local sheriffs.
The agents shouted FBI opened up we have a search warrant, as we (my mom and I) got pulled outside they stormed the house, we also have three companion animals, luckily the dogs were with us, but the cat was upstairs. As soon as we got back inside I said I want to see the warrant, one agent told me that I would have it momentarily.
The two main agents that I could tell, were agent Debbie Fry and agent Kyle Bremersiemeu. Those were the first two agents that talked to me and said they wanted to talk to me. Before we went upstairs I again asked to see the warrant and they again said I would have it momentarily. They introduced themselves and then said that they were both from the FBI offices in San Francisco. I told them as soon as they started talking that I would not answer any questions without my lawyer present.
They started with Nicole we’ve been following you for a little while now, showing me pictures of myself getting gas. She told me that she knew I moved to Portland with another friend that they have been keeping an eye on.
She showed me pictures of different incidents and told me that it was me. She showed me a picture from a surveillance camera of a car that looked like mine and said that it was mine. She said that yes these are just surveillance camera pictures but the FBI has better pictures of the incidents and can tell that its my car. Then she showed me another picture of two people in black and she told me that one of them was me.
I was not being responsive and kept looking at the ground. Than agent Debbie said you and this other persyn have been going on a lot of trips and when you were back in Oakland, we searched your car. She showed me pictures of what she told me were bolt cutters, and muriatic acid found in my car. She also said she had attained mink hair found in my car and brought up two animal activist that were recently arrested in Illinois. I kept looking outside and agent Kyle and Debbie kept bringing up the other persyn.
They told me that when said persyn was still with me that they were seeing other womyn behind my back. Agent Kyle noticed I kept looking outside and said why are you looking outside, you cant runaway now.
Finally they stopped and we were taken back downstairs. While downstairs I asked to see the warrant again and again they told me I would see it momentarily. So we sat in the living room while they conducted the search.
Then they told me I also had a warrant for my finger prints and my DNA. I told them I didn’t want to do that and then one agent womyn told me that she would force me to do so because it was ordered by a judge.
So they finally left my house around 12:45 pm and upon leaving I asked for the agents cards and they ignored me and kept talking to my mom. I said again I wanted their names and they told me they would write it on the back of a card.
IN Solidarity with everyone of us that they are trying to silence. Nicole
The warrant was for anything relating to businesses of animal industries, mink, clothes, books/ zines pertaining to mink, bobcat, and animal rights, maps, and for my car.”
Get a Stop Snitching Shirt from Black Powder Press
Poet and author Max Wolf Valerio recently reviewed one of my poems; I had asked for feedback from a few people I knew who were themselves poets who I respected. Max’s review was so thorough and interesting I asked him if I could share it. So with his consent, here is the review of my newest poem Killing God. The poem being reviewed will follow at the end of this post.
This is a skilled rendering of your beliefs and perception of the world, and of the divine, and our present situation. I mean, you lay it out coherently and with precision – with craft. The line breaks are skillful, leading the eye from one place to another carefully. I like how you use parking lots, and museums to illustrate your ideas, and even bring in the number of years that civilization has been in existence and — Christianity (2,000 years). The idea that civilization is “killing God” is an intriguing one, and it is also interesting that you use the term “culture of death”. Seeing the term used here in this way is intriguing to me as the other place that one sees “culture of death” is in the writing of social conservatives, often Catholic social conservatives, who see the far left as a “culture of death” (abortion, euthanasia, movement toward less reproduction or no reproduction, the breakup of the family into smaller units — single mothers and the subsequent marriage of women to the state and not a man). BTW, I am not, of course, a social conservative, though I share some of their concerns and grapple with all these issues, as do you– obviously from this poem and what I know of you. I mean, you grapple with reproduction, death, technological interventions… etc. Your use of this term “culture of death” is not ironic, but is your take on a world that is increasingly artificial and alien. Now, I think you’ve done a good job here of rendering your beliefs, and carefully making them manifest in the use of actual objects and places: museums, parking lots, shopping malls, desecration of burial grounds. I think there is another step however, and I challenge you to go farther. I can see this poem as a statement to either preface a book of essays, even “poetic” essays or better — a kind of manifesto to a book of poems that take each one of these ideas, separates them, and really brings the experience alive to the reader in an actualized, concrete way. Or you don’t need to separate each idea, but show how they work together. Well, you can get creative as you write… Poems that make these ideas really come alive — that’s what I mean. Poems that leave less room for disagreement since they feel less like opinions. Possibly, they feel more like dreams or visions? You can experiment.
Now, one problem with political or ideological poetry is that it is the poet’s opinion. Often, political poems are turgid and each thing they say is entirely expected so the poems are not as “alive”. However, they can be instructive… But there is that issue… I mean, I can read a poem like this, and agree or not. There is space created for my agreement or disagreement that is easy to enter. There are poets who excel in this type of poem, and while he is not a leftist radical, to say the least — Rudyard Kipling comes to mind. He has that poem “The Gods of the Copybook Headings” which is ideological or a poem of ideas. It uses metaphors liberally, and is attempting to convey ideas the poet believes are important. This is a poem that conservatives love, and for good reason since it makes their cardinal points quite vividly. I mean, it makes them plain and is persuasive. While you are in a whole other place ideologically, look to this poem for clues as to how to proceed. I’ll link to it. Also your ideas, while very different, are also talking about a returning, a refusal of present values. In your case, it is not principles that are eternally true, but a return to some kind of elemental and pristine wildness that you believe is more essential and good and holy (you identify it with “God” in the poem) than the present morass. If you want, you can use the poem you presented to me as the first, and build a whole book from these ideas. Take each one, take the poem apart, and find ways to animate these ideas. My own approach to ideological poetry is that I try and make it less about my “opinion” and more about SHOWING the reader why my perspective is persuasive. You know, that old adage, show don’t tell. That can be applied to poetry as well. Even in Kipling’s poem, he shows the consequences of each set of wrong ideas and links them to his refrain of the “copybook headings” and finally to the copybook headings themselves like “the wages of sin is death”. The examples he posits, bring those crusty adages to life. This can be done with your ideas as well. ..Possibly really take us into each idea, show me the ceremonial burial sites, and what desecration is — don’t tell me, but show in image, metaphor, or — detail. I like detail, and a concrete detail can be imaginary, but must be entirely feasible. Because it is feasible, when the detail can be heard, felt, seen — it is persuasive.
Also the idea that “God is dead’ is not a progressive anthem, but a rallying cry for actual death, is interesting as it takes a conservative theme I’ve seen, that we have killed God, and either takes it further or – to another place entirely. I mean, in some ways, you are very, very conservative since you want humanity, I think, to return to something very ancient and before language. In that way of thinking all human revolutions or “evolution” that appears to have created “progress” are not progressive at all. In this worldview we need to go back, very far back — and things have to be brought back to extreme basics. Of course, that makes you more of a revolutionary, but in an interesting way. Anyway, show more, tell less. Try different voices or ways of showing, and maybe when you do tell, try something playful also. Anyway… thanks for showing me this poem! Very interesting. Here’s that Kipling poem, ironic I would think of him — but there you go. Poetry is a place of strange coincidences and odd conflations. Any way, take care — have a great day – Max V.
Profane Existence 