Michael Hawkins's Blog, page 2

Axis - "Badgelicker"

Lookin' pretty cool, huh?

Axis - "Badgelicker"
I will never be able to talk about these dicksips in a serious manner. After being in this band for the first three years of its existence - a fact which certainly sounds like a brag, but I mean, they're one of the greatest bands ever so yeah, I guess it is - I know too much about their particular brand of stupidity. Even though the Axis LP will literally crush all notions of what a hardcore band can be, Tommy is still a moldy hobo and Pat is a socially-paralyzed praying mantis. I'm honestly surprised that Dylan hasn't strangled the both of them in their filthy beds.

Nevertheless, in the years since I was lucky enough to count myself a member, Axis has gone from being a great band to a band that defies any and all description. The line-up is the best it's ever been and Show Your Greed is an unstoppable force that you absolutely cannot understand. You can listen to the new song "Badgelicker" at the link above and then go ahead and pop all your limbs back into their sockets.

Yeah, how cool does this look?

Or this?

Filth.

Bishop - Everything In Vein

Everything In Vein @ Bandcamp
It's been a while, but South Florida's Bishop is back with a brand new full-length entitled Everything In Vein. If you liked Bishop before (I did) then there's no reason you shouldn't love this shit. Unless of course you threw your back out the last time you moshed (what was it, like six years ago when some band covered Strife?) and you're so old now that your body can't repair itself. Nevertheless, you have no excuse for not at least sitting in your wheelcahir and shaking your fist to these sixteen new tracks of pure hatred. Whether the topic is drugs, religion, corporate greed, or just good old fashioned, fat-assed American bullshit, these guys hate it and want it dead.

You can order a physical copy of Everything In Vein from Dead Truth Recordings and/or pay $666.00 for it on Bandcamp.

And just for shits, here's a tasty little bonus: Bishop covering Most Precious Blood's "Less Than Zero."

Vatican - Drowning the Apathy Inside

Pay what you want @ Bandcamp
I was positive I wouldn't like this because the cover art looks like some goth girl's high school art project. But I don't know shit and I ended up more than pleasantly surprised.

Vatican play extremely well-executed, intense metalcore that sounds like it belongs to the year 2000. I don't know how young these guys were back then, but I was still in my AFI phase so it doesn't really matter because I would've been clueless.

Regardless, I'm blown away that Vatican isn't charging for this record. I mean, it is pay what you want, but it sounds like you should have to pay for it. As far as pinpointing the band's influences or exactly what they sound like, I'd say these guys share common ground with bands like Morning Again, Culture, and even Buried Alive. And of course with newer bands like Discourse and Deathbed (Geoff from the latter does some guest vocals on the final track).

What I like the most about this record is that the songs are interesting without being overly technical. And they are also extremely heavy and musically/vocally - I'm using the word a second time - intense. Unprecedented quality from this brand new Savannah band. Get into them now so you can rip people off for their shirts in two years. Wait, do people still do that?

Clean Break - Face Value

Pay what you want @ Bandcamp
Absolutely killer youth crew from Faro, Portugal. Fast, punchy, and above all, fun and moshable. Released in March of 2014 on the great Straight and Alert Records. Head over to the label's Bandcamp so you can get the band's 2013 demo too.

Drug Control - ST

Pay what you want @ Bandcamp
Superb straight edge hardcore from San Diego. I was a little late on this band, but regardless, they rip. Another great release from Straight and Alert Records. Go visit the Drug Control Bandcamp and you can grab their 2014 demo for free.

The Worst Doubt - Demo '15

Pay what you want @ Bandcamp
Parisian metallic ignorance - not for the faint of heart. Reminds me a lot of Merauder and Kickback, The newest release from the always reliable Straight and Alert Records.

Grudgeholder - "Downward Departure."

Grudgeholder - "Downward Departure"
Grudgeholder is a band of mine that I've already covered on here (back in October of 2014). I don't like to belabor my own musical endeavors too much on this blog, but we just finished recording the music for a (sort of) full-length. Above you'll find a link to a brand new song, albeit the unmixed version. I'm excited for everyone to hear the new record, which we're calling Only Grudge Can Hold Me. We'll be finishing the mixing/mastering process and adding the final touches in mid-August. Then we'll have it up on our Bandcamp for pay what you want. For fans of No Warning, Madball, and Murder Weapon.

Ramallah - "But A Whimper" bonus tracks and Dirty Water demos.

Ramallah - "But A Whimper" bonus tracks
Dirty Water @ Bandcamp
I've always been a huge fan of any music Rob Lind puts out. I heard Blood For Blood for the first time when I was in the ninth or tenth grade and I had never experienced anything so unapologetically angry and mean. I also dug Rob and his younger brother Mark's band, Sinners and Saints. Plus most of Mark's work with the Ducky Boys and Dirty Water. But then came Ramallah out of left field and kneed me right in my unsuspecting face. I remember a lot of people making fun of But A Whimper when it was released because Rob's singing voice sounded different. But I loved the record from the get go. The band had the same ferocity of Blood For Blood, but with a bigger emphasis on the metallic hardcore influence. And Ramallah's follow-up LP, Kill A Celebrity, is still one of my favorite hardcore records. Last month, after a long hiatus, we finally got a follow up to both Ramallah's and Sinners and Saints' very limited catalogs in the form of a split EP, Back From the Land of Nod. I've listened to it a few times. My verdict right now is that it's okay. I'm hoping it grows on me because I just don't get the same feeling from this material that I did from the older stuff.
So in the spirit of both bands' return, I've uploaded these two bonus tracks. They come from the vinyl release of But A Whimper. One song is an early version of "If I Die Today" (called "If I Die") and the other is - oddly enough - a Smiths cover. Yeah, you read that right. You can actually listen to "White Trash" Rob Lind sing a Smiths song ("What Difference Does It Make?"). And honestly, I hate the Smiths (well, I hate Morrissey), so to me the cover sounds way better than the original song.
They may not be can't-do-without album cuts like "Oscar Cotton" and "Shock and Awe," but they're a fun listen. Also head over to the Dirty Water Bandcamp page to listen to some previously unreleased demos intended for the band's full-length that never materialized. You can order physical copies of Back From the Land of Nod (as well as digital) from State Line Records' Bandcamp. Be sure to listen to the orignal Dirty Water EP (it's great), as well as the newest Ducky Boys releases (Chasing the Ghost and Chemicals) while you're there.

Loving Lady Death and Angels and Demons.

Christ.

In relation to my previous post on Of A Divergent Blood, here are the other two bands I mentioned that were formed after Divergent broke up: Loving Lady Death and Angels and Demons. Thanks to Matt at What Are Blood Wings? for the links. As with Divergent, the music doesn't exactly hold up now; we're talking some real niche, metally hardcore. But nevertheless it's fun to listen back and hear what a lot of people were into over a decade ago.

Loving Lady Death is my preference of the two bands. When they started playing I was already on my way out of paying attention to music like this so subsequently, I completely missed Angels and Demons. Nevertheless, LLD played a lot of fun shows and kids did indeed go bananas during their sets. As for Angels and Demons, I only remember that the two twins in the band both looked like Wolverine and I guess they went on to be in the laughably bad Catalepsy.

Loving Lady Death @ WABW?Angels and Demons @ WABW?

Of A Divergent Blood.

"Byurn! Byurn hyur!"

Of A Divergent Blood - demo(thanks to Johnny Juicebox for sending me this)
Of A Divergent Blood. OADB. Divergent. Of A Detergent Sud. The Bortles. Bortle Metal Hardcore. Bortallica. The list of names goes on, but I won't belabor the point any further. Suffice to say back in the dim days of 2002, when everybody except me wore girl pants and neck armor, Of A Divergent Blood reigned supreme. Locally at least.

Back then, there were a lot of bands coming out of Daytona. The most popular was the Autumn Offering, who actually went on to have quite a following. They eventually signed with Stillborn and toured with Hatebreed. But by the time they made it to Victory (what we thought was the holy grail) they had gone the way of Throwdown: a complete sound change with no original members.

Then there was the least popular band at the time, my band: Every Waking Moment. I tell our story in great detail right here, so there's no need for me to go into the whole thing again.

But Divergent was the band everybody freaked out over. At least for a while. The Autumn Offering went off and did their own thing after a while, touring a lot and seldom playing in Daytona. And Every Waking Moment - well, no one gave a shit. But Divergent was the band that everybody would come to the show for. They played fun, moshy, metal-influenced hardcore with tons and tons of breakdowns. So for the time, they were the perfect band.

Brett Bortle was the lead vocalist (his older brother Mike was the original drummer for the Autumn Offering). Brett's gone on to be someone of note in the world of film. I don't think Brett works on actual Hollywood movies, but people tell me he films things and gets paid a ton of money for it. But back then, Brett and Mike were just crusty, metal dudes. And - I'll say it - they smelled bad. To be fair, this was thirteen years ago. However, at the time, the Bortle name was synonymous with all things gross, repugnant, and metal. And I think that's how they wanted it. Brett was a good frontman, especially for how young he was during the band's tenure. He did a lot of the high screeches and low burps, probably understanding even then the comedy inherent in such an approach.

Then there was Bro Tom on guitar. I ended up being in a few bands with Tom (he's living the high life in Hawaii now with his own food truck). But he was always my favorite member of Divergent. His trademark stage move was doing the spin-your-guitar-behind-your-back thing from the Strife video. Except he never invested in straplocks for his gold Telecaster and would accidentily chuck the thing across the room at every show.

Jon Ponder handled lead guitar. Jon had arthritis and would always put his hand up for a high five, then get mad when you forgot about his condition and slapped it too hard. I took his sister on a few dates and I think he liked that even less. Sean and Justin rounded out the line-up playing bass and drums, respectively. The three of us had a band in high school that never played shows, but I went on to be in a bunch of actual bands that Justin drummed for. I also got sloshed at his wedding, which was the same night Tom crawled into the sewer outside of the reception.

I've uploaded Divergent's demo at the link above. It's only two songs: "Burned At the Stake" and "Cara." The lyrics of both have spawned a lifetime of inside jokes that only Daytona hardcore kids will understand ("...intheblisteringCOLD..."). But I don't want to pretend like the band was a joke. We all genuinely liked them. Sure, it's an outdated sound nowadays, but I'd be lying if I said I never spin-kicked a ghost during a Divergent set. They were a fun band and we all had fun watching them play.

"Burned At the Stake" and "Cara" are the only two Divergent songs that appear to have survived into the present day. I've heard tales that a lost, extremely lo-fi demo of "Blade Through My Back" exists somewhere, but I've yet to hear it. Apparently, my friend Karim - who went on to roadie for, then tour and stage manage bands like the Haunted and the Black Dahlia Murder - recorded it while he was going to school at Full Sail in Orlando. But it's been so long, the CD-R has probably crumbled to dust. Divergent wrote a lot of other songs that were never recorded such as, "You'd Look Good In A Hefty Bag," "ATV Offroad Fury I," "ATV Offroad Fury II," and a bunch of others I can't remember anymore. It's a shame they never got back into the studio to preserve their mosh metal legacy.

I honestly don't remember when Divergent split up, but afterwards Brett did a few other bands with a similar sound. Loving Lady Death came first, then Angels and Demons. Though I never thought either measured up to Divergent, neither were bad bands, especially for the early to mid 2000's, though Loving Lady Death was the stronger band in my opinion.

Listening back, I can't help but smile, even though the demo's subject matter revolves around burning witches and some girl that used to go to shows who jilted Brett. The Divergent demo reminds me of a lot of people who aren't around anymore and a time when hardcore and punk were the only things I cared about. It was a time when Daytona was synonymous with great D.I.Y. shows. And I was just finding out about all of it. There was always a band to see and my friends and I rarely missed the opportunity. I don't necessarily enjoy these songs like I used to anymore (they aren't bad though). But listening to this demo really takes me back. The kids in my town had it really good from about 2000 until 2007. And I miss those days.

So just bear that in mind if you download this demo and want to ask yourself, "Is this a wild boar screeching over a band trying and failing to combine At the Gates with Hatebreed? What the fuck is this?" Hey man. I guess you just had to be there.