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.
It is with great enthusiasm that we are announcing the 2013 speaking tour for anthropologist, unschooler, and anarchist Layla AbdelRahim. Layla will be touring with her new book Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams through various communities in the Cascadian Bioregion.
We are still booking dates. If you wish to organize a speaking engagement with Layla in your community please get in contact: prideandunity@hotmail.com
Tour dates so far:
Tuesday October 8, 5:30-7:00
Kwantlen Polytechnic University Surrey BC, Unceded Coast Salish Territories Crime and Reward from an Anarcho-primitivist Perspective.
Saturday October 12, Venue TBA
Vancouver BC, Unceded Coast Salish Territories The Insidious and Resilient Narratives of Domestication: Pitfalls to Watch for in Autonomous Learning Zones.
Tuesday, October 15, 7pm,
Camas Books – 2620 Quadra St,
Victoria BC, unceded Lekwungen Territories What’s in a Class? On Reproduction of Gender, Species, and Ethnicity as Categories for Labour and Consumption.
Friday, October 18, 7pm
University of Victoria Victoria BC, Unceded Lekwungen Territories The Ship of Fools as a Place of Spectacle, Healing, and Education where the Wild are Sent to Die.
Still seeking dates in Portland, Olympia, Eugene, and Seattle.
Full presentation descriptions:
——————————————————————————
Crime and Reward from an Anarcho-primitivist Perspective.
George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the shooting death of Black teenager, Trayvon Martin, this summer came as a surprise to many mostly because the civilised believe words and focus on language rather than on praxis and consequences. Namely, civilised people see the judicial system with its verbose process of trial as a system of justice and in the eyes of those involved in Zimmerman’s trial, there was “no evidence beyond reasonable doubt” that Zimmerman acted within the confines of the American law. The question thus was not whether killing someone was wrong, the problem that was to be resolved in this system of justice was whether the killer had the right to kill.
In this lecture, Layla AbdelRahim discusses the civilized premises that construct the human animal as predatory and thus centers murder in anthropology itself and reinforces the predatory narrative. Furthermore, this predation is structured by the classificatory system of civilized epistemology that categorizes groups of living and nonliving beings, whether human or not, as “resources” and “consumers” thereby excluding whole groups and immense suffering from the public discourse on justice. And as discussed in her book, Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education, this predatory narrative is reinforced by both the medical sector and the system of education.
The Insidious and Resilient Narratives of Domestication: Pitfalls to Watch for in Autonomous Learning Zones.
Not only has the hierarchical project of domestication and civilization existed for the past ten thousand years, it has been expanding globally, engulfing more and more territories and bringing the world to a state nearing the brink of collapse of biodiversity and self-sustainability. This colonizing project has not been accepted passively. It has met strong ideological, epistemological, socio-economic, and physical resistance on both individual and social levels. Nonetheless, civilization has reached an epidemic level largely owing to its misconstruction of “knowledge” about human nature and the world. In her research, Layla AbdelRahim applies concepts from biology, anthropology, ethology, and sociology to examine the mechanisms by which socio-cultural narratives and material cultures reproduce themselves through domesticated bodies, minds, and desires. In this workshop, Layla will identify these mechanisms of perpetuating domesticated “unknowledge” and will engage a discussion on resistance to its narrative.
How do we know the world? How do we relate to the world and to our knowledge of it? Today, most people around the world believe that we cannot learn how to live in the world without having gone to school and received an “education”. However, what is this “education”? What is its content, its method, or its purpose?
Education is a systemic production, reproduction, and transmission of specific socio-economic constructs about humans, society, and the world. These constructs are then passed on as “knowledge”, which ensures the coexistence of epistemological classes as socio-economic classes in a hierarchical paradigm. Civilised science prioritises Cartesian thinking that divorces “reason” from “emotions” precisely because empathy with the exploited, the suffering, or the consumed will interfere with the project Civilisation.
In this conversation, Layla will discuss the underlying premises in scientific thinking about the world as a system of domestication of human and nonhuman resources for production, reproduction, consumption, and ultimately devastation.
The Ship of Fools as a Place of Spectacle, Healing, and Education where the Wild are Sent to Die.
The Medieval European allegory of the Ship of Fools was more than a metaphor or a literary ruse to critique the Church and the state. In Madness and Civilization, Michel Foucault argues that this trope was also a real socio-political tactic used to cleanse the civilised space by isolating the “mad” or the “unreasonable” from “society”. For civilisation, “reason” has two constituents: raison d’être and sanity. The sane are here defined as those existing for the purpose of domestication in a “natural” food chain hierarchy. In this sense, “society” consists of those working for the “reason” of domestication and socio-economic hierarchy, exploitation, and consumption and those who cannot or refuse to abide by the domesticator’s definition of their reason for existence are either sent to sanatoriums, hospitals, or other correctional facilities to be cured or killed.
Drawing from the research conducted for her book, Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams: Civilization and the Birth of Education (2013), Layla AbdelRahim discusses schools and children’s culture as spaces of such isolation and “correction”: where the wild raison d’être to dream and to exist for one’s own, known or unbeknownst to self purpose is extinguished and where the child is taught to exist to serve as a human resource in the chain of exploitation of nonhuman resources.
From the underground basements and bars in the seedy parts of the Pacific Northwest comes this new 7″ on STRING BREAK RECORDS. This is the 8th release for the label, so check out the catalog from this up and coming organization. BALSA are from the rainy streets of Seattle, and bring forth 3 songs of “angular post-hardcore” rhythmic noise. Chaotic dual guitar arrangements over steady bass melodies and post-hardcore style vocals with off the wall drum patterns loaded with rolls and fills.long sentence, but you get the idea. SEI HEXE play 2 rather long multi-genre spanning songs with “symphonic arrangements and vocal rage”. They feature a tight song structure with wierd breakdowns and shouted yet scratchy vocals. The first song ends with a lot of laughter whcich is kind of creepy in a death rock way. The second song, Synapses Crawling, seems way more earthy with tribal rhythms and chanted almost gothic vocals at times. There’s a great guitar solo toward the end of SEI HEXE’s side, which at first soundded like the guitar was not being picked, but rather played with a bow like a cello. This all girl band spew forth so many elements of bands past, and from the wreckage create something new and refreshing. They have an 8 song album available via their bandcamp page. Record is on raspberry splatter (so-called ox blodd splatter), and is in a very earthy colorful package with an anti-gloss finish. Artwork done by Sean Schock. comes with download card.
On this new 7″ co-release between REALITY IS A CULT RECORDS and PROFANE EXISTENCE RECORDS, KATA SARKA bring the blackened crust while BODDICKER plays aggressive grindcore influenced crust punk. Recorded by Carl Byers in Detroit April – May of 2012, this one is highly recommended if you like your crust with lots of blast beats. Both bands currently reside in the Indianapolis / Detroit areas.
KATA SARKA’s first release was way back in 2010, an EP called Riding a Wind of Knives. Via a prodigious recording schedule, theyve released 5 eps / splits and one LP in 3 years, the DAVID LEE GORGOROTH split being the 5th. With black metal song structure / riffage and crusty vocals, this band slays all standing in their way. Im not able to understand everything being said, and there is minimal info about them on the record, but in the song Mired in Spleen (which also appears on their newest 7″), they chant “liberation”, perhaps referring to animal lib. A great guitar solo is also buried in the song. Poaching The Boar is non-stop intensity from start to finish, and some of the guitar riffs feel a bit introspective like good black metal does. If KATA SARKA toured out to Victoria BC and played a show with ISKRA, Ive got a feeling the PA would melt by the time the night was over! according to their bandcamp page, their full length endeavor title Existential Oblivion was released March of 2012.
BODDICKER unleash a powerful fury of blazing guitars, amped up bass, gruff vokills, and fast as fuck drums. Plenty of good grooves from these bong heroes and socially conscious lyrics to boot. This is Boddickers 2nd recording, and have released 2 more split 7″s since. Theyve released 4 songs on this one, all brutal with an in-your-face aggression. Insert comes with recording information, and lyrics, and gangland style band photo. Very Intense!
From the pine covered hills of Portland Oregon comes this 6 piece powerhouse right off the busy busking corners of the Pacific Northwest. Playing a kind of punk rock thats not quite gypsy, and not quite crust, but totally anarchist, this is a great adition to the PROFANE EXISTENCE label. Instruments such as accordian, 2 mandolins, and a washboard accompany the more conventional RnR instruments, and everyone in the band sings the songs. There is a ton of different influences prevalent in DIRTY KID DISCOUNT ranging from acoustic gypsy to ripping crust. The drums hit a double time sequence in the song Solomon’s Circle, and vocal style ranges from olde timey ballads to “cookie monster” gruff. Lyrically, this record covers two very obvious issues prevalent within punk rock; that is religion / ignorance caused by such, and green activism / environmentalism. The EP title is a reference to the song “Argoth”, a ballad about the horrors of the logging industry. I would call this style GYPSY CRUST, and recommend for those who like such bands as: MISCHIEF BREW, RUM REBELLION, ABSINTHE ROSE, etc. Limited Edition color vinyl is coke bottle clear. this is the 9th installment of the PROFANE EXISTENCE LIMITED EDITION 7″ SERIES.
A cackling intro with a Scandinavian radio voice over gives an inexplicable uneasiness, you just know it’s going to kick off any second. By the time we get to the track ‘Rapport till himlen’, all hell has broken lose. Think Misanthropic Generation era Disfear, later Skitsystem or a massive amp explosion. Real bass driven fury, relentless drums, dirty super-charged guitars and pure gravel yelling vocals storm through nine songs in over twenty minutes. This is 100% proof rowdy crusty swigging kängpunk-rock ‘n’ roll with plenty of attitude.
Passiv Dödshjälp could only be from Sweden with the uncompromising style of music they play. Cranking the tempo up with every song, I can only imagine a real manic crowd reaction to them live. The guitars frantically rip through a constant barrage of riffs and solos. Taking all the best elements from hardcore, metal, crust and punk. Then fucking everything into a high-powered dose of aggression. Lyrically I don’t know what they are singing about, but the band’s name translates as ‘Passive Euthanasia’, so it fits in rightly with their energetic sound.
Pure fire energy from start to finish, all wrapped in a sickly cover with either heavy black or swamp green vinyl. Co-released by Distro-y Records, Phobia Records, Halvfabrikat Records and Embrace My Funeral Records. (Sean Fitzgerald)
The cassette has really made a cult resurgence in the last while. To me I remember growing up fixing unspooled cassettes with a biro or joining ripped bits of tape together again with cellotape. So when tapes faded out I thought good riddance. But now all these years later I get Autarch’s cassette release of “Death of Actiacus” in the post and I think bollocks I must dust off the old cassette deck which has been sitting in a cardboard box full of other old crap all these years. So after a slight dusting off I pop the Autarch tape in, then the nostalgia of eighties tape trading comes back. And I get to thinking, you know it wasn’t a bad release format at all. Once a CDR gets faulty that’s it, it’s knackered. Whereas a cassette can be fixed normally no matter how bad it gets, and they look far cooler than a crappy looking CDR.
Anyway all that is completely besides the point, let’s talk about ‘The Death of Actiacus’. To me Autarch represent that new wave of bands who have completely reinvented hardcore. Bands like Fall of Efrafa, Vestiges and Downfall of Gaia who play eerily dark, emotive heavy music but at times add bleak spacey atmospheric soundscapes. Yet with each one of those aforementioned bands being equally unique.
The opening track “A Message” has a gradual chugging build up with a great eerie lead throughout, which then breaks into heavy fast downstroke riffs with real impassioned vocal screams. Then ends with that great spacey sound I mentioned earlier, real chilling echoey uneasiness. At times these ambient parts could be a movie soundtrack that Clint Mansell would be proud of. It is accompanied lyrically by a real legendary saga type of narrative. “Come to the altar of the sun. Lay your hands on the chest of the mighty. Your mind will deceive you, your body is a puppet for the autarch”.
The songs run really well into each other through nice guitar picking parts. With that distinct twisted eerie lead accompanied by three vocalists each different but gruff, with a real sense of urgency which is the bands unmistakable sound.
Lyrically the band sing about existential catastrophe, ecological collapse and morality all in a very poetic way. It is mastered by Brad (From Ashes Rise) at Audiosiege who has mastered some of the best releases in the last few years. Pro-duplicated cassette with lyric sheet, vinyl sticker and screen printed J-card for $5 from http://headfirstrecords.limitedrun.com Take a listen for yourself on their bandcamp page.
(Sean Fitzgerald)
Lighthouse Farm Animal Sanctuary is based in Scio Oregon and they do their part in ALF providing a home for neglected / abused farm animals. Fully one third of bands on this comp are from Portland Oregon, and the list includes such greats as RESIST. The other bands either come from the USA, or as far away as Ukraine, making this an international release. Most bands featured are poppy street punk, but definitely not the kind yer gonna hear on the radio. BURNT CROSS from England coverthe CRASS song “banned From the Roxy”, which sounds absolutely perfect. Like a blast from 1978 and with better production than what they originally had. Other bands that do covers are the Young Turks and Raw Nerves, both of which are from Portland. Raw Nerves cover the Negative Approach song “Ready To Fight” perfectly, and Young Turks cover Bruce Springsteens song “Im On Fire” providing the necessary punk sneer, because the original really sucked! RESIST release a song which was originally recorded for their 7″ Profane Existence release back in 2009. It’s by far one of the best on this comp, straight classic style American hardcore. I recommend buying this not just for the CRASS song or the RESIST one either, but also because of the fact this benefits a grass roots organization that needs our help while they help those without a voice. Limited to 50 copies, and released by 1859 Records, and NXNW Recs.
Florida… what do you think of? I’ll tell ya what I think: disneyworld, crowded beaches, swamps, alligators, old people, staunch conservatism, heat / humidity / sun, come to think of it, nothing good. But then I live in Minnesota, nowhere near the tropical state. Ive heard from several people that Florida has got a surprisingly decent scene. And Im not talking about death metal, but hardcore punk. To be honest, I didnt really believe them. god’s retirement home being the local spot for some good punk rock? But that actually makes sense because punk is fueled by rage not comfort. So evil staunch politics geared to the old and conservative could make for some really great furious punk. I went out on a limb and bought Baker Acted from some guys at the recent Grind Your Dick (or CLIT) Off Fest in Minneapolis. when I got around to putting this 7″ on the turntable, I was pleasantly surprised. Baker Acted released their record in October of 2012, and is the first release on All We Know Records. Hailing from Miami FL, this new band brings us 6 songs of punk rock with great bass lines, dual guitars, angry as fuck vocals and stop on a dime drums. The vast majority of songs on this record are sung by a womyn with a great vocie, which my wife and I both really enjoy. A few of the songs feature dual male / fem vocals, which brings an element of anarcho- style into the mix. This style has been done before, but this feels fresh and unique, not recycled at all like some bands do. A really good record from the underground of southern Florida, and highly recommended. By the way, the band name baker acted refers to a Florida bill passed in 1971 that allows mentally ill people to be committed to a mental health facility for 72 hours, against the will of the mentally ill person. Quite a fitting name for an angry fem led punk band. Other bands from Florida on AWK Recs are Recreant (Tampa), and Landbridge (also from Tampa)
A three piece pop band with a pretty terrible name but the songs are very poppy and catchy at that in there letter they compared themselves to MASKED INTRUDER and that isn’t a correct match at all I’d say more like THE GATEWAY DISTRICT. All the songs basically have the same drum beat and female/male fronted vocals. If you like your pop punk generic and trying to sound like other bands then this is for you. I don’t like to be negative about bands because at least they’re trying so follow the links and form your own opinion. (XbezerkerX)
First thing you’ll notice is the cover art work of this album look like a knock off well it sort of is. Ramones-AcidEater is a classic cover so you can only guess what they try and make there songs sound like. DUMBS are a punk rock band from Poland and mainly perform there. Here on this full length you get 15 tracks of pure snotty RAMONECORE jams but not nearly as good as the RAMONES. But they do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. There really isn’t much to say but sounds like a less better version of the RAMONES. If this interests you follow the link and check them out. (XbezerkerX)
Profane Existence 