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.
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.
This week I'll be posting some more "hardcore" releases. This is one of the CDs I got when FC Five was doing their US tour a few years back. I guess the guy from Alliance Trax was one tour and brought some of his releases. I grabbed this and a couple others just because they were Japanese. And Believe plays old school, fast, youth crewish hardcore. I'm not sure the best comparison, but it's pretty good.
Debase and Degrade were a short-lived band from Tokyo, most notably known for Hirotatsu (from 3cmtour, Killie) playing drums. Besides their band connections, Debase and Degrade play emotional hardcore with some subtle hints of those Japanese screamo melodies. 5 songs here, and they're all pretty good. And... that's about it. Enjoy!
Jukeboxxx Records started out as a primarily thrash label. The preeminent label from Nagoya release a lot of Nice View's early recordings, as well as several critical Japanese thrash compilations. This is one of them, and it's pretty dang good. There's a pretty good mix of thrash/hardcore bands that cover a wide swath of different styles.
The standout on this compilation is the first track, from Turtle Island. I saw them in Kyoto in 2002 on a bill with Naiad and The Futures. I had no clue what I was in for, but after setting up kodo drums, flutes, and even a sitar, they totally blew me away. I've never been a fan of "tribal" punk. It usually ends up pretty boring and hokey. Kind of like a drum circle gone awry. But Turtle Island is super tight, and all of their wild instrumentation packs the energy and excitement of punk and hardcore. The entire band is just so into the music and the songs are so well written, you can't help but get into it. I was instantly smitten. Since that time, they've even added the amazing George, from Bluebeard/Naht fame, on guitar. Not sure how he fits, but that's pretty interesting. To taste what Turtle Island is doing, here's a live video from 2008. So amazing:
The Last Place are an emotional hardcore band from Saitama. They just dropped a new demo for 2012 on bandcamp and it's pretty dang good. Let me explain what I mean by emotional hardcore though, cause that means a lot of different things to different people. These guys take a line from Endzweck and Nervous Light of Sunday. Maybe melodic metalcore is a better description? Ah, who cares; it's really good. There are two songs here, as well as 3 songs from their 2011 demo. Really good tracks with good melodies. Did I mention the free download?
I could only find one video on youtube, which is pretty unfortunate because it has HORRIBLE live sound. It's drums and vocals and nothing else, and these guys melodies are one of the best things about this music. Just listen to the bandcamp while you watch this video on mute. That might be the best thing.
Here's an odd little compilation that I got from Nitro Mega Prayer when I did a trade with them. It's a weird amalgam of metalcore bands, with Nitro Mega Prayer and Enforce thrown in the mix. At the time, both bands weren't too far from that genre, but still sound different. The Nitro Mega Prayer tracks are sort of between their first split and their first album. The Enforce track is my highlight on here, though. They only released 3 tracks that I know of, on compilations, but they prove themselves as one of the best bands from Japan.
If anybody has any information on Enforce, please let me know!
