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!
CLICK HERE TO PRE ORDER LP WITH SHIRT
CLICK HERE TO PREVIEW THE ALBUM IN ITS ENTIRETY AT THE PROFANE EXISTENCE BANDCAMP
FLOWER will be on tour from January 2nd to the 13th
2nd New Brunswick
3rd Asheville
4th Greenville
5th Birmingham
6th New Orleans
7th Hattiesburg
9th Gainesville
10th Atlanta
11th Durham
12th Richmond
13th Philadelphia
PO BOX 7903 PITTSBURGH PA 15216
I had no idea what to think when I pulled this out of the box. Between the cover and song titles: Who Shot Ya, Notorious Thugs and Somebody’s Gotta Die, anything could happen. Well, it’s three songs of super lo-fi, dirty punk rock and roll grit that at times seemed to pull influence from TRAGEDY and possibly EYEHATEGOD with the aggression of NAILS. I dig the style and enjoyed the songs, but a few things stood out that I wasn’t into. The sleeve was interesting, being printed on “tracing paper” and the 7″ was pressed on see though light purple, but the B side was blank. Wasted space is a huge pet peeve of mine and a little more info or a lyric sheet would have been nice. Other than that, I think it’s a really fun listen. And to top it off, I was surprised to see that it was Mastered by someone my wife and I lived with when we first moved to PDX: Brad Boatright at Audio Siege. Small world indeed. (Jake)
Man, where were these guys when I was in high school? In the mid 80s I dedicated every spare moment to skateboarding. We’d go down my buddy Chris’s mini ramp and skate our asses off listening to BLACK FLAG, DEAD KENNEDYS, CIRCLE JERKS, etc. Then I discovered thrash and shit got real! My first show was ANTHRAX, EXODUS and CELTIC FROST and everything changed. Once you get a taste of punk/thrash crossover, you can’t go back. IN DEFENCE from Minneapolis is the link to my shred-tastic youth. I now this may upset the folks in the band, but some of the writing reminds me a lot of M.O.D. Sorry, dudes, but it’s true. Not in a bad way, though. Fortunately the subject matter is way more funny than it is offensive and while they love to have a laugh, they do flirt with serious politics. Each song kills it riff after riff with solos that fill the song out without being wanky and they are usually accompanied by beautifully moshy breakdowns that I realized I was unknowingly banging my head to each and every time. There’s no way to listen to this without getting stoked. It contains the second LP and 2 7″s(in case you didn’t get that from the line I wrote above the picture). Unlike some 22 track albums that seem to drag on, you’ll want to put this on repeat, flip up the bill on your hat and circle pit around your room for hours. When these thrashers come through your town make sure you buy them lots of pizza….er, um, burritos. Lots of burritos. (Jake)
At first look I would have expected this to be a d-beat band. The artwork inside and out is a great big collage full of violence, oppression and death. Obviously this is my first go around with JACKALS and realized that I was sorely mistaken. While there are some elements of Scandinavian crust, they mash a few good style together to create some unique sounding hardcore. The 7″ opens with slow plodding drums, quickly being joined by guitar and bass creating a downright dreadful atmosphere. Then the vocals sere through with an animalistic yell and all hell breaks loose. All five songs are created in a similar fashion where harsh tempo changes are used to create orchestrated chaos. JACKALS would definitely appeal to fans of hardcore and power violence alike. It’s not formulaic or predictable, though. Brutal and intense would be a much more accurate way to describe them and the slightly dirty recording adds to it, though I doubt is was intentional. Each song is very political in nature and while the lyrics are short and to the point, this 7″ comes with a printout explaining the inspiration for the lyrics and sites the sources(books, lecture, news story, etc.) which include the the story of Troy Davis being murdered by the state, sexual violence and valuing profit over people. These folks are a perfect blend of intelligence and aggression. (Jake)
Profane Existence 