Power Trip - Conditioned To Death

2:33 mark.

For about 6 years now, this Dallas, TX band has been slugging and kicking, fighting their way up the pile of mid 2000's thrash revival bands. With the release of 2013's Manifest Decimation, they have finally made it to the top of the mountain. Drawing comparisons ranging from Best Wishes era Cro-Mags to the lightning speed riffing of Vio-lence's Eternal Nightmare, Power Trip have left a trail of mosh pit casualties and broken necks in their wake with this record.

The album contains everything you need to make a true juggernaut of a crossover record. They manage to cram enough  mosh parts and divebombs into 30 minutes that even Eddie Sutton or Kurt Brecht would be begging for mercy.

This riff is a straight up punch to the stomach, taking the air directly from your lungs. If the band ever embarked on a stadium tour, you would see nothing but an ocean of hard moshing and spin kicks to the jaw. Cities would begin to boycott the tour due to budget concerns with area emergency rooms and a shortage of ambulance staff to treat the multitude of injuries. Soon Power Trip casts, slings and crutches will be sold at their merch table, not as a gimmick, but out of absolute necessity and genuine humanitarian concern.

Check them out this summer with fucking Foreseen and wear appropriate protective gear.

Stream "Manifest Decimation" on Bandcamp

Dat Haiku Tho: Magrudergrind - 211

Three dudes who grind

What a weird name for a band

Steel Reserve is gross

Magrudergrind - 62 Trax of Thrash 2002-2005

Type O Negative (part 6 of 8) - Black Sabbath (From the Satanic Perspective)

Short week with one haiku entry, might as well make it another double-header with my fav group (6 down, 2 to go...)


Riff mark: 5:47 (Killing yourself to livvvvvveeeeeee!!!!)

My appreciation for this band’s generosity grows fonder with this midnight subway train for a greatest hits compilation, alternating familiarity and unchartered stops with the calculation of a seasoned conductor. Globs of new and non-studio cuts coat nearly HALF the wax, their sprawling lengths hogging the 80-minute limit. Well, It’s Never Enough and Stay Out Of My Dreams (my pseudo-optimistic pick of the lot) are the only true unreleased babes, since the Sabbath cover of Sabbath is from a Sabbath comp, 12 Black Rainbows and that Cinnamon Girl remix are from older singles. Roughly seven “hits,” all diced for packaging but still aromatic samplers for the neophytes and nostalgic, though I pray for more level-headed opinions like mine believing Christian Woman and Black No. 1 should forever be left uncut. So, a pretty resourceful venture, the Silver-and-Steele foundation building shrines of gloomy green melancholia with budgeted, but unselfish piecemeal. Oh, and all 12 minutes and 29 fucking seconds of Unsuccessfully Coping With The Natural Beauty Of Infidelity, again.

Dat Haiku Tho: Sleep - Dragonaut

Riff mark: the first riff of this song is one of my favorite riffs ever



Matt Pike, take my shirt.
No, please. It will likely stretch,
better than nothing. 

Dat Haiku Tho: Sidetracked - Is It?

0:25 to 0:31

This Is Hard As Nails

But Is It Really A Song

Yes But No Also

Sidetracked - Speed Trials Live @ 924 Gilman Street

A Perfect Circle - The Package

Riff mark: 4:54 

I can tell you how many times I’ve attempted to listen to Mer De Noms but can’t tell you how many times I’ve rotated this perfect circle. Maynard and a cluster of guys from other bands who don’t seem to mind him return after three years of head-tapping to seemingly make the most tortured, seductive, and downright fucking beautiful mainstream hard rock album to slip and crawl through airwave cracks like the banana millipede wriggling along its front cover. Just a bit of rearranging and contemplating, APC managing to shut up and dig in the dirt for resource, uprooting every emotion, and waxing them like rosin to everything unplugged. Maynard, sober, nailed to the earthly perch, un-stoned and not flying like some spaced-out Alex Grey third eye, is left relying on his gift of voice in full essence, a steady talent, pushing forward with gusto on brooding, Deftones-assimilating The Package, a 7+ minute opener that spans every dynamic and volume; a great song. Very few tracks understandably reach its forte yet by deliberate choice; most prefer to shake away leaves and hair from hushed, acoustic nudity (Blue) or echo away into the shadows of bushes (Vanishing). Some decrescendos are as obvious as name (Lullaby, performed by Jarboe of The Swans). A surprise in 2003, a major label peach not squeezed into a cup of deadline. Worth your time. Begrudging gripe: it’s too over-the-top depressing. The Disney rendition of that Failure cover makes a listen of Fantastic Planet feel like a sunshine ray. Weak and Powerless was the only radio hit, though somewhere The Outsider made waves, despite better songs existing here.

Most Precious Blood - Shark Ethic

2:02 mark.

My love for this band is born of kind of a strange circumstance. My brother showed me the video for this song and while at the time I wasn't feeling it too much, the hilarious two stepper at the 2:58 mark made for endless jokes and laughter. Several years later, I came into a copy of Our Lady of Annihilation and was floored. I then decided to revisit Merciless and MPB became one of my favorite hardcore bands.

The first minute of the song might give you the impression that you are about to hear a band cover Sisters of Mercy as the choir kicks in, but you are snapped out of that idea with a bucket of cold water as the opening riff sets the tone for the aural assault to come. Singer Rob Fusco's throat shredding delivery evokes immediate feelings of rage and prepares you to charge head first through a cinder block wall when the band takes aim with the featured riff.

Made up of former members of New York hardcore legends Indecision and One King Down, Most Precious Blood possess a flawless discography, and while their activities as a band are currently extremely limited, they are no less focused and intense. Do yourself a favor and check out the recommended listening below.

Listen to ":Nothing In Vain" on YouTube

Listen to "Our Lady of Annihilation" on YouTube

Listen to "Merciless" on YouTube

Listen to "Do Not Resusitate" on YouTube