Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Just a quick update

As you may have noticed, I haven't posted in a while. I'm not dead (at least I don't think so), so don't worry. Your Japanese music fix will continue shortly. I've gotten quite busy in my personal life and I'm clearing some things up before I come back to blogging.

In the meantime, you can check out this interview I did with Phil at Just Try Catching Up Myself blog, where they post about a lot of cool Japanese stuff. But, it's all in Russian! So, tread lightly.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

[Bandcamp] T.C.L - Demo 2011 [2011]


Some damn good fast, loud hardcore here. Again, don't ask me for what this sounds like (my brain is fried and inoperable at the moment), but it's really well played, heavy as shit and totally great.

Okay, I'm back (took a week long break). So, this has a lot of the feeling from 324 or some other crusty grind bands. But, they never go quite into the grind and take it more to a NYHC kind of place. Like I said before, heavy and fast. Totally free download, so you're not losing anything from getting down to this.

1. Burst & Rise
2. Start It Up
3. So Why?
4. Weapon

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Community Trust - Is It Contradiction, A Mistake Or Necessity? [2006]


Community Trust is sort of like post-Japanese metalcore. That's the only real way I can describe them. They definitely have a strong State Craft influence, but they take it to a really innovative melodic place that sets them apart from all the other State Craft clones. This album was released from the now-defunct Hong Kong label, God's Child Music. Towards the end, the label started going strictly metalcore, but this was released during their days of focusing more on screamo stuff (ie. Nitro Mega Prayer, Mihai Edrisch). It totally fits, but also doesn't. It's pretty much impossible to talk about Community Trust without talking in oxymorons.

What I can say is that Community Trust is really great. Their whole sound scratches all sorts of itches. Brutal parts, purely melodic and beautiful parts, technical stuff, breakdowns, weird time signatures, etc. They pretty much cover everything and do it amazingly well. The video I found below was kind of disappointing, but to be expected. The album has such a rich sound, I would imagine it would be rougher live. So, don't let the video below dissuade you by its roughness. After listening to the album, the video makes more sense.



1. Untitled
2. Battlefield Without Glory
3. The Snow Which Fell On That Sunny Day
4. You Stand On Hand
5. Just After The Rain, The Start In New Life
6. Four Seasons
7. Trust & Strong
8. The Diamnds
9. Dilemma