HARD CORE MAFIA

Pounding, borderline industrial hardocre from Gokuaku which means 'very evil', and their subtitle is HARD CORE MAFIA, so you know these guys mean business.

Hikari

Foojitsu : Streamline English

Don't know too much background at all about this Russian band, except that I think they share members with the previously posted USSSY / Kruzer Ken and maybe also WJW.

Anyway, on this (2002) album, Foojitsu were playing some kind of noise rock/hard-core/electronic admixture (later releases are more or less straight up noise rock), long on eclectic, short songs, blasts of guitar noise, electronic effects & spoken world samples. Mostly on the noisier side of things despite the somewhat poppy tune below.

STREAMLINE ENGLISH

Wait, I Still Function...

And here are one and a half excellent 7-inches from ORdER, of Japan's Aichi-ken. Their recently re-released full-length is solid, but their singles and splits my favorites. Space Junk from the Warhead (whose song is also good) split is an overdriven romp, while the Sex 7"'s songs are hookier, less distorted and include a slammin' Japanese language version of 'Stepping Stone'.

SEX 7"


SPLIT w/ WARHEAD

Wrench

Wrench have been around since 1992, playing various combinations of hardcore, electronica and industrial groove. They've always been a bit of a hit-or miss band for me; I like some of their songs but find others rather meh. Anyway, the main reason I'm posting this is because the second track contains guest-vocals from one of my favorite young Japanese actors, Tadanobu Asano, star of the brilliant Ichi the Killer (above pic) among other things.





DRUB

Grind Shaft / No Value

Grind Shaft are not a grind band. They play raw-throat, high-energy, thrashy hardcore with liberal doses of harmonica.

No Value are grindcore, and sound like a not particularly large but rather angry drill.


価値のない物を。。。

Mangrove 2002

A sampler from the Mangrove label, released, as you may already have deduced, in 2002, and containing a mix of noisy punk, garage, psych & hardcore from what seems to be a collection of mostly Tokyo area bands. Some of the more pop-punky stuff isn't really my bag, but there are some excellent tracks on here.

1 Evil Hoo Doo, The - Hell-O Haunted
2 Evil Hoo Doo, The - Black Strings
3 FirestARTer - Dear My Sweet Radio
4 Private Ways - Post
5 Usuals - Wasted Time
6 First Alert - T.V.Masturbation
7 First Alert - Pinpoint Attack On My Alarm Clock
8 Barebones - Mind Breaker
9 Smash Your Face - Can't Get Out
10 Smash Your Face - I Believe In My Way
11 Delta, The - Compressed Paradox Disorder
12 Boris - Dronevil
13 Death Comes Along - Death Comes Along Part Ⅰ
14 Death Comes Along - Death Comes Along Part Ⅱ
15 Deride - I'm Making My Future With The Border Patrol!
16 Foodchain - Naka-No
17 Nine Days Wonder - Bleach Away
18 Man Friday - Last Destroy Dawn (Live)
19 Man Friday - Hesitate To Have My Share (Live)

MANGROVE2002

(p.s.- medifire's been wonky as fuck for me: let me know if you fine people are having trouble dl'ing)

Not The Face

Hyperactive, over-driven rockin' HC. Smash Your Face have been around for 20 years and have consistently torn shit up. This is a 1996 release, from the now defunct (I'm pretty sure) Mangrove records, and its title is right on the money.

DIRTY NASTY FUCKIN' HIGH ENERGY

Rapes

Metal drenched hardcore unit from Kansai (they re-located to Tokyo later on) who were active from the late 80s to 90s. Rapes had a reputation for violence and mayhem, which, as usually seems to be the case w/ these older Japanese underground bands, is probably wildly exaggerated. Good stuff with the kind of guttural barking vocals I like in my Japanese hardcore.

These songs originally appeared on comps and were later released as a mini-cd.


FLY AGAIN (mini cd)

Smashing Odds Ness

Just a quickie collection of some solid Japanese hardcore punk from the late 80's.

Death Side naturally do the business, and I also rather like the Don Don & Idora tracks.

01. Idora - Double Bind
02. Idora - Absent Time
03. Don Don - Satisfy
04. Don Don - Destraction
05. Mink Oil - Heartbreak
06. Mink Oil - Youth of Hate
07. Crück - Stay
08. Death Side - Stick & Hole


SMASHING ODDS NESS

Noisepunk

Newish band from the former guitarist of the Bacillus Brains and Exclaim (from whence the drummer also came), with bass and vocals from the awesomely alliterative Nagasaki Nightmare (of Nervs and Breakfast) and produced by the Less Than TV guy.

This is furious noise-ridden, hardcore punk. Recommended.

(sample lyrics: 'from the asylum, find him, kill him, drag him out, kill him, kill'--not that they're trying to sound thugged-out, more 'smash the rotten system and hang the capitalist running dogs from lampposts' sort of stuff)

This is their second 7", released a few years back.

buy (1st 7")

RAVENS

Eye of the Thrash Guerrilla

This comp came out in '88 on Selfish and contains a good chunk of what was right with Japanese hardcore at the time. Death Side had awesome/utterly ridiculous hair (see below), SOB were not yet crappy, and while Crow hadn't quite evolved into the crusty smashing machine of later releases, they still played some good hardcore/punk as do all the bands on here.

1. DEATH SIDE "Black Lie"

2. DEATH SIDE "Mirror"

3. DEATH SIDE "Fool, Fool, Fool"

4. DEATH SIDE "Mass Media's Pets"

5. TETSU ARREY "No Machine Trouble"

6. TETSU ARREY "Dangers Latent"

7. TETSU ARREY "Sassy"

8. RAISE CAIN "Lost Child"

9. RAISE CAIN "Price of Trade"

10. RAISE CAIN "Nothing! Nothing!"

11. RAISE CAIN "S.D.I."

12. S.O.B. "(Just a) Nightmare"

13. S.O.B. "Mental Attitude"

14. S.O.B. "Humanity of Stupids"

15. NIGHTMARE "Positive Fact"

16. NIGHTMARE "お前"

17. NIGHTMARE "Keys to Mind"

18. NIGHTMARE "Give the Low to You"

19. CROW "Disgust"

20. CROW "Give Up All Hope-The Day of Annihilation"

21. CROW "I'm Looking Out Over"

22. CROW "Dance of Death"

23. CROW "Bloody Earth

EYE OF THE THRASH GUERILLA

Knucklehead

　

Furious grind-inflected Sapporian hardcore. This is the former band of ctr's lead singer, Ozawa, and while the slurred, barking, Sakevi-esque vocals are instantly recognizable, Knucklehead were a much heavier proposition than ctr.

They were fixtures on the Sapporo (often associated with SLANG) and Japanese hardcore scenes, active for more than ten years, and and favorites of, among others, 324's Masao. The guitarist went on to form grind band Motiveless.

This was a 2001 release and, like Knucklehead's other releases, ctr stuff and many other tasty treats, can be bought from HG Fact.  A lot of their stuff is also available from HC Holocaust (a great distro).

GOUON

Brutal Extractor

Dominating hardcore noise: Death Dust Extractor play brutal punk beneath a monstrous bass-loaded wall of distortion; More or less like a crustgrind band being sucked through a giant vacuum cleaner of death.

Credit to Mad Blasts of Chaos where I snagged this. (I'd like to buy it, but it isn't in stock anywhere that I can find.)


SLAY YOUR MASTERS OR SLAVE IN CHAINS

Finnish Genius

The heart of the New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal (also see Pharaoh Overlord & the superb Steel Mammoth), Circle sound different on every release of theirs I've heard. On this one blown-out electronics hum and ambient blips segue into glitch-shot, raging 80s-ish (check the bleak apocalyptic cover) hardcore punk and then back again over the course of 11 tracks; as always, Circle's take on a genre is weird and very enjoyable.

(due to my neanderthal-like incomprehension of moviemaker, the video is 1:00 longer than the actual song.)

PANIC

V.A : A Farewell To Arms

Another Japanese comp from 1986, this one featuring several O.G. hardcore bands. Awesome stuff all around (ps, those who are interested in the originals from the 'Tribute to Masami' I posted a while back will find some here- he sung for Outo as well as Ghoul).

1. LIP CREAM "Kill Ugly Pop"
2. LIP CREAM "Back In the Anger"
3. LIP CREAM "No Rule"
4. OUTO "Cops"
5. OUTO "Junk"
6. OUTO "Distortion Faith"
7. OUTO "Like Cola"
8. GASTUNK "The Eyes"
9. GASTUNK "Alfa In 201"
10. GAUZE "Pa Pa Pa"
11. GAUZE "I I Nari"
12. GAUZE "Shot"
13. GAUZE "Pressing On"
14. GHOUL "Judas"
15. GHOUL "Jerusalem"
16. EXECUTE "Angel Bitch"
17. EXECUTE "Ghost Candle"


A FAREWELL TO ARMS

V.A : Devil Must Be Driven Out With Devil

A 1986 comp featuring various Japanese punk/metal heavyweights of the day; ranging from Casbah's stomping metal and City Indian's Lemmy worship to the raw hardcore of Lip Cream and Ghoul. This is a nice snapshot of the early Japanese heavy music scene and packed with bands which have influenced the sound of most of the Nipponese stuff posted on this blog (except for the Saber Tiger tracks which, like all other things X-Japan related, are incredibly fucking cheesy--I've just been never been able to enjoy castrato heavy metal vocals.)


1. DEATH CITY／GHOUL
2. POSITIVE WAR／UNITED
3. TOP FIGHT／LIP CREAM
4. DEAD ANGEL／SAVER TIGER
5. 8・9・3／CITY INDIAN
6. ROCK THE PASSION／CASBAH
7. BITE YOURSELF／UNITED
8. RADIMENTAL TROUTH／LIP CREAM
9. DESPERATE WAR／CASBAH
10. MAD SISTER／CITY INDIAN
11. EMERGENCY EXPRESS／SAVER TIGER
12. FLASH BACK／GHOUL


DEVIL MUST BE DRIVEN OUT WITH DEVIL

Miyama Gt : Shoot The Invaders

I got to know this band via their split with Chuugakuseikanoke (which I'll post on the by-and-by). Heavy, theatrical punk/hc/bunch of other stuff which reminds me a bit of Hi Technology Suicide & QP Crazy (the former bassplayer of legendary band The Stalin plays in QP, and Miyama show their Stalin love with a cover (track 4).

Miyama Gt, in their own words:

There was a dispute in Planet Miyama. Some decided to leave their mother planet and came to the planet earth. They disguised themselves as human and identify themselves as Ginshiro (Vo, Gt),Robert (Ba) and Momojiro (Dr) in order to invade the earth, taking noise as their weapon. When Miyama guitar shoot you with Miyama beam, all you can do is counting your rest of days till you get brainwashed from your head to toe.

(Good work, but not quite there: these guys could learn from Steel Mammoth and Ultraphallus)


SHOOT THE INVADERS


(Being lazy, I haven't tagged this is Engrish so here's a link)

Presto? : Atentado Sonoro

A 2004 release: Minute-long blasts of grinding, thrashing, multi-vocaled chaos from Brazil; pithy like short kicks to the head.

Check out Presto? here.


ATENTADO SONORO

Don't send me flowers 'cause I ain't dead yet...

Just busy with work, vacations and other life-related stuff. Will try to post more in August.

For now here are two EP's from Japanese psychopunkers Masterpeace, whose split with Strike-Out I posted a little while back; lots of furious energy and balls out screaming here.






CHASE THE IDEAL MYSELF & WORLD IS ONE

Bacteria : Hate All

2005 mini album from Bacteria. Hate All opens with pounding, monotonal hc/noise/industrial, but the last two tracks are a combined 20 minutes of spacey, drawn out, quasi-industrial post-rock. Good stuff. Get their stuff here.

HATE ALL