Reversal of Man - This Is Medicine (1999)

Classic late 90s screamo/hardcore. Listened to this LP twice in a row on Saturday while doing one million pushups, still hits. There was a moment, during "Butterflies", when I realized I was listening to a song about a friend who had died, that I had listened to a bunch of times with my friend Danny who died last year, in the very room in which we had probably last listened to it; and I felt like my heart had migrated to the front of my skull and was about to explode. But I breathed, got a good clear picture of Danny in my head, said "Hey, it's great to see you, I love you," and did some more pushups. My therapist would be proud.

Track listing:

1. January Twenty Second

2. Enoch Ardon

3. Fashion Cowboys

4. The Houngen

5. Butterflies

6. Mittens and Muzzles

7. Bless the Printing Press

8. The Lottery

9. Dying on Cue

10. Conjecture

11. Hills Have Eyes

12. Transfer Zounds

13. Hand Me Complaints Please

14. Rubberneck Telepathy

15. Idle Adolescents

16. Twenty Second Example of Repetitive Nature

Friends

Let's go dig some oil

And destroy some country

You should also listen to:

pg.99 - Document #5 (2000)

Crestfallen - Streaks of Terror (2003)

Monster X - Indoctrination (2003)

Grind-y straight edge hardcore. I first discovered Monster X back in high school via their split with Spazz, when I was still young enough to be blown away by the mere existence of guttural vocals. Rediscovered a few years back while re-organizing my records, and shit, those gutturals still rule. They're more expected over the grind parts, but there's a really cool dissonance to hearing them over more traditional hardcore. Great band.

Also, I stopped drinking recently -- didn't really 'quit' so much as noticed that I wasn't drinking anymore and decided to embrace it -- so if you don't count my prescription speed or my openness to microdosing psilocybin every now and then, it's almost like I'm straight edge, too.

There's 45 tracks on this thing, go look at the track list on Discogs.

Live fast die young was just a fad for fucking losers

You should also listen to:

Chicken Bowels - Chicken Bowels (1987)

Kill the Man Who Questions - Sugar Industry (1999)

Flux of Pink Indians - Strive to Survive & Neu Smell (1989)

Unsurprisingly, I've been tripping down musical memory lane. This comp is a real formative punk classic for me that I've somehow managed to miss posting all these years. Strive to Survive... is easily a top 5 anarchopunk album, and Neu Smell is arguably the best Crass Records 7" that isn't by Crass. From an era in which it probably felt, for a second, like punk might actually amount to something resembling a political movement.

(I haven't actually listened to this rip, I'm listening to my physical copies, let me know if the rip sucks.)

Track listing:

Strive to Survive Causing the Least Suffering Possible

1. Song for Them

2. Charity Hilarity

3. Some of Us Scream Some of Us Shout

4. Take Heed

5. T.V. Dinners

6. Tapioca Sunrise

7. Progress

8. They Lie We Die

9. Blinded by Science

10. Myxomatosis

11. Is There Anybody There

12. The Fun Is Over

Neu Smell

13. Sick Butchers

14. Background of Malfunction

15. Poem

16. Tube Disasters

17. Poem End

Build up some speed, don't shut your eyes

Make sure that everyone in the train dies

You don't get no prize, no time to say goodbyes

Just smile everyone, you'll be on TV tonight

That's right

More peace punk that we would listen to in our cars driving around suburban Maryland:

Lost Cherrees - All Part of Growing Up (1984)

Toxic Waste - Belfast (1987)

Left Behind - No One Goes to Heaven (2019)

Punishing, sludgy metalcore. Groove-heavy, Down-inspired riffs as filtered through beatdown chugga-lugs for husky boys. Sounds like half of them wants to smoke blunts, the other half wants to beat up the first half for polluting their body and minds. But make no mistake: No One Goes to Heaven is no joke. It's a fucking killer album, whether you wanna maximize your gains or sit around wondering where it all went wrong.

Track listing:

1. Hell Rains From Above

2. Eternity of Empty

3. Throwing Stones

4. Peeling Wax

5. Shadow of Fear

6. Staring at the Sun

7. God Calls Out

8. Smoke and Pain

9. Outside the Body

10. The Mirror

11. Prisoner of Mind

12. What Makes Your Hurt

Heaven is a place down in the fucking dirt

You should also hear:

Breach - Venom (1999)

Empire of Rats - Empire of Rats (2013)

Crestfallen - Streaks of Terror (2002)

Related:

Wildildlife - Six (2007)

Screamo/skramz from a then-thriving Delmarva scene. It's not exactly a lost classic, but my high school screamo band played a show with them, Charm City Suicides, and Dead Blue Sky on March 10, 2001 (I'm looking at the flier) and their vocalist did that thing where he was writhing around on the ground screaming without a mic, and I loved that shit back in the day, so I fucked with them heavily from that point on.

Track listing:

1. Nine to Five RSVP

2. Beyond Recognition

3. Never Say Never!

4. Scouring for Any Signs of Life

5. Seen and Not Heard

6. Pecking Order

7. Biting Your Tongue Off

8. Disappearing Act

9. Eternal Nightmare [Vio-Lence cover]

I can't hold my breath for that long

Same scene:

pg.99 - Document #5 (2000)

Majority Rule - Interviews with David Frost (2001)

Disclose - The Aspects of War (1997)

A chaotic, careening 4-track practice space recording from the great Disclose. As noise-fucked and raw as they ever sounded.

Track listing:

1. Volkssturm (National Storming Party)

2. Courage

3. The Cause of War

4. The Aspects of War

5. Why Isn't There War?

6. Heartless

7. In Fact

8. The Grief

9. Smell of the Rotten Corpse

10. After an Air-Attack

Futility and lawlessness

More like this:

Gloom - 撲殺精神破綻者 (2003)

D-Clone - Creation and Destroy (2013)

Forensics - On a Bridge Atop the Heap of Friends Who Jumped (2003)

Related:

pg.99 - Document #5 (2000)

Great 3-song EP from a band that, for me, never quite lived up to their potential from here. I saw them right after this came out with an old friend and bandmate (who sold me on them as a pg.99 side-project, which is kind of a stretch in retrospect -- sure, one of their guitarists is in there, but it's essentially the brainchild of Brent Eyestone, founding member of Waifle [and a bunch of other bands] as well as owner of Magic Bullet) and they blew me away. See, this was back before post-rock had been absorbed into virtually every genre of music, and it was still novel, even a bit confrontational for a hardcore band to open their set with a long, pretty, slow-building instrumental. And their style was pretty unique, taking cues from the melodic end of skramz, riff-y metalcore, and sludge/post-metal. But their full-length just didn't quite land -- the recording was awkward, the song titles were even more obnoxious -- and my interest fizzled. I still rock this one, though.

Track listing:

1. Boat Day at the Marina

2. So There's This Movie "Corvette Summer"

3. Pulling Rank

If we were raised as vultures

I'd torch my wings to light up the sky

If you like this, try:

Majority Rule - Interviews with David Frost (2001)

Envy - Insomniac Doze (2006)

Grimlock - Crusher (2003)

Starting my week by blasting out a bunch of pushups to some groove-heavy Boston metalcore/beatdown. If you want a record full of irresponsibly hard breakdowns precipitated by a yoaked-out Masshole saying stuff like "I'm a brand new man" or "I'm king of the fucking jungle" or "I will rise forever", you can't do much better than Crusher. But, statistically speaking, you probably don't.

Track listing:

1. Ritual of Steel

2. Mad Titan

3. Crusher

4. The Last Holy Fool

5. End of the Dream

6. Revolution (Return of the Power)

Yeah, I can feel it pumping in my veins

More like this:

Turmoil - The Process Of (1999)

Empire of Rats - Empire of Rats (2013)

Medusa - En Raga Sül (2008)

Raw sludge/noise metal from Bloomington, IN. A potent mix of punishing locked grooves and dissonant yet weirdly catchy riffs that I'm guessing won over every crowd this band ever played for. Somewhere between early Melvins and early Today Is the Day. Members of Racebannon.

Track listing:

1. Rain un Thunder

2. Mediatrix

3. En Raga Sül

4. Back to Dust

5. Transform

6. Destructor

7. Bruier

8. Throne of God

9. Inflict the Venom

10. Snakebite

11. Soldiers of Death

12. Body Count

13. Alucarda

14. Fresh Fly

15. Wicked Father

My burning mind

Also listen to:

Gorch Fock - Lying and Manipulating (2005)

The Catalyst - Voyager (2012)

Disfear - Everyday Slaughter (1997)

"But DEAR SPIRIT," I hear you say, "if you're so busy, surely your pushup regimen must be suffering!" Not to worry, my caring, inquisitive reader, it's not. I'm still shupping like a madman. I've even taken to shutting my camera off and busting out a quick 50 when a classmate in a Zoom lecture asks a question about something I already understand. Today, I did pushups #200-300 to Everyday Slaughter, arguably the greatest straight-up d-beat record ever recorded.

Track listing:

1. With Each Dawn I Die

2. Anthem of Agony

3. Crimescene: Worldwide

4. A Race for Power

5. Spectre of Genocide

6. Everyday Slaughter

7. Subsistance

8. Totalitarian Control

9. Frustration

10. Aftermath

11. 101 Overkill

12. Captured by Life

13. In Fear

It's all death

More d-beat:

Disgust - Brutality of War (1993)

Framtid - Under the Ashes (2002)

Discard - Four Minutes Past Midnight (1994)

By request, here's some old-school Swedish kång to smash your head against. Raging d-beat filled out by wild speed metal soloing.

Track listing:

1. Intro / Resist and Exist

2. Death Race

3. Sounds of War

4. I Won't Surrender

5. Never Ending Nightmare

6. Four Minutes Past Midnight

7. Nuclear War

8. Why Should They Die?

9. Nuclear Sunrise / The Final Dawn

10. One Day

11. Armed Revolution

12. Lights Out

13. Stand Up and Fight Back

14. Fear / Take a Look at Tomorrow

Ough!

More:

Disgust - Brutality of War (1993)

Totalitär - Sin Egen Motståndare (1994)

Kill the Man Who Questions - Sugar Industry (1999)

Philly political hardcore. I first heard Kill the Man Who Questions through the great Punk Uprisings Vol. 2 comp, on which their song "Your Backlash Against a P.C. Hysteria Is a Fucking Joke" was a personal favorite. I tracked down Sugar Industry via mail order, and it became something of a formative record for me. One track in particular felt like a revelation to me: "You Say It's Your Birthday", a haunting, seething spoken-word piece about the brutal hypocrisy of the pro-life movement delivered over an uneasy, stuttering instrumental. Also, I put "Good Cop, Bad Cop" on a bunch of mixtapes. It's the kind of vaguely arty, anarcho-90s-hardcore that at this point is hopelessly unfashionable, but fuck off, I'm old.

Track listing:

1. Sugar Industry

2. A Study in Elitism

3. White Face

4. You Say It's Your Birthday

5. Where's the Alternative

6. I Apologize for My Hunger

7. Coatrack

8. And You Say You Own It

9. Senior Portrait

10. Census

11. Work Ethic

12. There Will Be No Amnesty

13. Because I'd Probably Fucking Wet Myself

14. Good Cop, Bad Cop

15. Preaching to the Converted

Squeezed out of a crotch, slapped twice on the ass, and cut from the womb. Nine months after conception, you'll start to learn that the political vigilance paid to your so-called rights is now lost as an abstract idea in a sea of hectic human shit. Those that rallied for your birth now offer their sincerest "who-gives-a-shit"s in all your post-natal endeavors. You may not learn the names of those that bravely fought for your rights as a fetus. Perhaps one day, forget the selfless men and women who through prayer, blockade, and clinic harassment you owe your life. So will they conveniently forget you when you're starving in government housing? No, better yet, jail? No, better still, abused by foster parents, totally unemployable with a $200 a day addiction? No, best yet, bleeding to death in a bathroom, clutching a coat-hanger while their war wages on.

Records that had a similar impact on me around the same time:

Born Against - Nine Patriotic Hymns for Children (1991)

Aus-Rotten - The System Works... for Them (1996)

Empire of Rats - Empire of Rats (2013)

Heavy, ridiculously pissed-off metalcore. Ignorant breakdowns, thrash-y solos, gang vocals, and a hoarse screamer going off about everything and everyone he's ever laid eyes on. I have spent so much time pumping iron to this, my muscles practically have a Pavlovian response to start aching when I put it on.

Track listing:

1. Leeches

2. Another Minute in Hell

3. Bottomless Pit

4. Untitled

5. Society's Zero

6. Rats Reign

7. Sinking

8. Little from the World (Cold as Life)

9. We're Dead

10. Exposed

11. Early Mourning

Why are you still alive?

If you like this, listen to:

Harms Way - Isolation (2011)

Benchpress - Stay Hated (2012)

Everybody Gets Hurt - The Dark Seeds of Man (2002)

NYC beatdown with a surprising melodic streak and crisp, beefy production. In case you were wondering if I'm still pumping iron on the daily and getting fucking diesel.

Track listing:

1. Weightless

2. Nice Place to Visit But You Wouldn't Want to Live Here

3. Redemption

4. By All Means

5. Homefront

6. Bringing It Back

7. C.C.R.B.

8. Self Reliance

9. Sad Sickness

10. Inside the Hurt

11. Hymn of the Fallen

In this age of love, I ain't finding none

But I ain't going down, I ain't going out

You should also hear:

Turmoil - The Process Of (1999)

Benchpress - Stay Hated (2012)

Judgement - No Reason Why (1996), Haunt in the Dark (1997), Process (1997), Night Brings (1998) + Just Be... (2000)

Related:

Chicken Bowels - Chicken Bowels (1987)

Five EPs of god-tier Japanese hardcore. As raw and raging as Judgement could get -- check the phenomenal ending of "Kick Them Over" -- they always had a kinda melodic, (to my ears) crusty/metallic edge. (Couldn't figure out a way to make 5 covers look nice so Just Be... is not pictured above, but it's in the download.)

No Reason Why

1. No Reason Why

2. Kick Them Over

Haunt in the Dark

1. The Mad Dog

2. Haunt in the Dark

Process

1. Process

2. The Situation

Night Brings

1. Night Brings

2. Heart of Darkness

Just Be...

1. Saylove

2. シンプル

3. Just Be...

4. ドライヴ

Laugh til you die

Also listen to:

Lip Cream - Lip Cream (1989)

Rocky & the Sweden - Total Hard Core (1998)

Deadguy - Fixation on a Coworker (1995)

Classic early metalcore. Dissonant, gnarled, and very, very angry. The sound of frustration and stress boiling over into pure contempt.

Track listing:

1. Doom Patrol

2. Pins and Needles

3. Die with Your Mask On

4. Baby Arm

5. Makeshift Atomsmasher

6. The Extremist

7. Nine Stitches

8. Riot Stairs

9. Apparatus

10. Crazy Eddie

You can't kill yourself

You're already dead

And you'd do it again

Also listen to:

Breach - Venom (1999)

Gob - The Kill Yourself Commandment (1999)

Total Abuse - Mutt (2010)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Total Abuse - Prison Sweat (2011)

Gnarly-ass hardcore with strong noise rock leanings that sometimes completely take over. One of my first posts on here was this band's next LP, and I have no idea why I went with that one, as I have always been way more into Mutt. Time to right yesterday's wrongs.

Track listing:

1. Eunuch

2. Buried

3. Caligula

4. Discipline

5. Secret Passage I

6. 14 Years Old

7. Fluid Exchange

8. Pure

9. Flashing

10. Mutt

11. Secret Passage II

The same mistake since birth

Also listen to:

Creeps on Candy - Wonders of Giardia (1999)

Organized Sports - I'm So Proud of Him (2011)

Framtid - Under the Ashes (2002)

Red-lining Japanese d-beat. Total fuck. Probably the band that I tried to ape most when I was briefly in a generic d-beat band.

Track listing:

1. Intro

2. The Total Arse

3. Over Population

4. Scapes of Tragedy

5. Tomorrow

6. Consuming Shit and Mind Pollution

7. Centuries of War

8. Death Protest

9. Curse

10. No Installation

11. Life's Hard

12. We Must Impart

13. Bomb Blast

Pictures of starving children sell records

More like this:

Gloom - 撲殺精神破綻者 (2003)

Kriegshög - Hardcore Hell EP (2008)

Chicken Bowels - Chicken Bowels (1987)

Japanese puuuuuuunk. 6 songs and 11 minutes of full-tilt, spazzed-out hardcore, plus a yolked chicken.

Track listing:

1. Keep Our Fire Burning!

2. You Live in Dream

3. Real Beauty

4. No Control

5. Lie and Truth

6. Fuckin' Crime

Have a wild and sexy weekend

Also:

The Lewd - American Wino (1982)

Lip Cream - Lip Cream (1989)

Struggling Harsh Immortals - 死 (2015)

Anthemic, thrash-y Japanese hardcore colored by programmed drums and serrated industrial noise. The brainchild of Katsunori Nishida, who's been in a bunch of notable Japanese punk/hardcore bands. I'm too lazy to do another "new records that I've been listening to" post, but if I did, the new S.H.I. record would definitely be on it.

Track listing:

1. Theme

2. Green Horse

3. Rejection

4. Empty Inside

5. Lucifer Rising

6. Suicide Solution

7. New World Order

8. Enter the Hell

9. Suicide Solution (Dub Version)

The reaper is you and the reaper is me

Also listen to:

Chaos U.K. - Chaos U.K. (1983)

Rocky & the Sweden - Total Hard Core (1998)