Song of the Day - Faith Resigned

Yautji - Faith Resigned from Songs of Descent (2014)

More Heavy stuff!

Yautji are a mix of all sorts of pissed off sludgy hardcore and metal noise all tangled up in a big sharp clump and ready for you to step on it late at night as you quietly-as-possible walk to the bathroom. Your foot will bleed and you will be shouting, waking your girlfriend up and her drunk roommate. In this short yet excruciatingly painful moment you will confess your hatred for your shitty job and your mundane life. The next day you will buy a motorcycle and drive it far, far away. Eventually, you will ride it into the sun and mesh your skin and bones with the motorcycle's shiny metal and leather, becoming apart of it as much as it will be apart of you and you will ride the solar system from there on out as a mecha-humanoid motorcycle bounty hunter.

Never to return.


Yautji are also three guys from Coliseum, Nameless Cults, and Gnarwhal respectively.

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Song of the Day - The Thinker

Locktender -  The Thinker from Rodin (2014)

Some excellent new material from the post hardcore meets post metal Cleveland outfit, Locktender.

Always different, always heavy.



Along with their new 4 song LP, Rodin, Locktender also have a new 7" split with Amber out now!

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Song of the Day - Lost in the Hive

Mutoid Man - Lost in the Hive from Helium Head (2013)

Supercharged metal from Ben Koller (drummer of Converge/All Pigs Must Die/United Nations/Acid Tiger) and Stephen Brodsky (Cave In). The project is essentially were the two left of when Koller was in Cave In for a brief time.

Check it out!

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Song of the Day - Empty Vessel

Bastions - Empty Vessel from Bedfellows: The Forgotten Daughter (2014)

New stuff from the melodic hardcore band from "the most northern point of" Wales, Bastions.


Love it or hate it, there's passion behind them pipes.

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Song of the Day - Vägledningen

Ignominy - Vägledningen from Come Abuse (2013)

Swedish hardcore punkers turned post metal sludge-goers

Let it consume your soul.

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Song of the Day - Frontal Lobe

Harm's Way - Frontal Lobe from Blinded (2013)

There will be samples.

Chaotic hardcore from Chicago, Illinois. Blinded EP was released by Deathwish Inc. and should be checked out whether you like hardcore or not. Why? Because There Will Be Blood that's why.

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Match of the Day - The final Mike Awesome/Masato Tanaka encounter

Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka - ECW One Night Stand (2005)

It's my birthday, so here's one of my favorite matches.

The Mike Awesome/Masato Tanaka match from ECW's One Night Stand show in 2005 is not the two's first outing together. These two had been fighting each other for the sake of fighting since the early/mid 90's from ECW to FMW in Japan with little to no remorse for each others well being. What makes this particular encounter so special is really pretty much random other than the fact that the crowd was red hot for them and the atmosphere that night was incredible. The two just go out to the ring and continue where they left off from their last match like it was still Heat Wave 1998. There's unprotected chair shots, a brutal Awesome bomb from the apron to a slanted table, an almost 300 pound man continually diving to the outside like this was a PWG All-Star Weekend, and, of course, Joey Styles' nonstop bad-mouthing of Mike Awesome on commentary.

This match might be remembered most for Joey Styles "shoot" on Awesome for being a terrible human being business-wise and the line after Awesome completed his first suicide dive to the outside, "...and it's unfortunate he did not succeed in taking his own life"; a foreshadowing of Awesome's demise as he would actually take his life 2 years later. That's not what makes this match special to me, but it is something that always gets brought up.

Regardless of all Joey Styles stuff, this match and the whole Awesome/Tanaka feud is really a sight to see from their days in FMW to this final battle at One Night Stand. These two put on simple yet brutal matches together that required little to no explanation. Destroying each other was just what they did.

Song of the Day - Reading Youtube Comments

Drug Church - Reading Youtube Comments from Paul Walker (2013)

Do it!

Punk rock 'n' roll from No Sleep Records.

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Song of the Day - Mr. Black

Dope Body - Mr. Black from Nupping (2011)

Spastic yet heart-pounding noisiness from Baltimore.

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Song of the Day - VI (Worms Fear God // God Fears Youth)

Code Orange Kids - VI (Worms Fear God // God Fears Youth) from 4-way Split (2013)

New Code Orange Kids is off the chain.

Off the brand new 4-way split featuring Tigers Jaw, Self Defense Family, and The World Is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die. Out now courtesy of Topshelf Records.

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Song of the Day - The Battle of Marathon

Fire Team Charlie - The Battle of Marathon from Discography (2004 - 2008)

At least we can say: today was better than yesterday.

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Song of the Day - Goin Down the Bar (Blood For Blood version)

Blood For Blood - Goin Down the Bar from Wasted Youth Brew (2001)

I really don't have any good songs for St. Patrick's day...

So here's some angry Bostonians singing about going to the bar.

It's a Wretched Ones cover.

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Song of the Day - Today We Stand

The Phantom Carriage - Today We Stand from Falls (2013)

Not your daddy's black metal.


Read my lil review for this French black metal/hardcore act's new release, Falls - here.

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Song of the Day - Keep Your Opinions To Yourself

Host - Keep Your Opinions To Yourself from Split w/ KYOTY (2012)

Just learned that this quite angry hardcore outfit from New Hampshire will be playing a show in my neck of the woods real soon (Portland, Maine)! These guys put out a very solid but much too short split with KYOTY, this song is named after the abbreviation, which features my favorite Keep Your Opinions To Yourself track and, after a long time thinking it out, my definitive song of the year 2012.

KYOTY might not be playing with Host as far as I know, but these guys seem to be a well-oiled wrecking crew of good times all by themselves from the sound of 'em!

I'm pretty pumped for all the awesomeness still coming Portland's way...



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Match of the Day - Sleeveless-flannel monsters ball match: Abyss versus Mick Foley

Hardcore Wednesday:

Abyss vs. Mick Foley - Monsters Ball Match - TNA Bound For Glory (2009)

Everyone's dream match, right?

Just watch.

Special guest referee: Dr. Stevie Richards.

Also features "Zombie Hot" Daffney taking a barbed-wire board bump. That was awesome *chants*.

Song of the Day - Swa Cwæð Eardstapa

Men As Trees - Swa Cwæð Eardstapa from Weltschmerz (2008)

 

Here's a perfect epic opener for a supah blizzard. The English translation for this song means "So Spoke a Wanderer" and features the voice of Bob Swerer Jr., who narrated Dick Proenneke and his amazing feats as he hunts and builds a log cabin all by himself to survive the cold winters of Alaska. This particular narration comes from the first documentary of Dick Proenneke's first voyage into the Alaskan woods, entitled, Alone in the Wilderness; one of the best documentaries out there in my opinion.

I meant to feature this song a little earlier (maybe on January 2nd - the date read in the opening minute of the song) but I figured I would wait until there was a really cold day leading into a severe snow storm like today.

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Match of the Day - Shane McMahon: which way did he go? Answer: Down part 1

Shane McMahon vs. Steve Blackman - Hardcore Championship match WWF Summerslam (2000)

This Hardcore Wednesday match has the claim to fame as that match were Shane McMahon, being the spot junky that he is, gets caned off the titantron via "The Lethal Weapon" Steve Blackman and his lethal kendo stick (it's really a singapore cane but whatever). A year later we saw the same drop at Backlash (McMahon vs. Big Show) but this time it was Shane-O-Mac jumping off the titantron rather than falling. The latter gets remembered a bit more while this match is really only remembered as that one match were Shane McMahon had the Hardcore title and the 24/7 rule was suspended so these two "marvelous athletes" could actually have a real (hardcore) match.

The contrast or Steve Blackman's use of weapons with his martial arts background and Shane McMahon's never-stay-down underdog attitude is also very fun to watch.

Match of the Day - Jeff Hardy vs. the imploding table

Hardcore Wednesday:

Jeff Hardy vs. Rob Van Dam - Hardcore Title match Smackdown! (2001)

Just four nights after their ladder match at Summerslam (this was back when Smackdown! was on Thursdays), Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam would once again face of for the Hardcore Title. This time around though it wasn't a ladder match, but Jeff Hardy being the uncontrollable showstopper that he is/was, decided that it would be in his best interest to incorporate the ladder for all the fans that didn't watch Summerslam that year. Unfortunately for Hardy, his swanton bomb spot off the ladder onto a table did not pay off for him like it has many, many, many times before. See instead of leading on RVD from the 20 foot ladder, RVD rolls off the ladder leaving Hardy to implode - and I'm serious when I say that so I'm going to say it again - implode(!) the table below with all of his weight and momentum.

Above is an abridged version of this match as the whole versions that are available online are much to grainy to watch. The version shown above best sums up this opening match on Smackdown! in September of 2001 though. Jeff Hardy explodes a table into little pieces with his body.

This is also the third Match of the Day in a row where the contest ends with no definitive hand raised, "you're the winner" outcome as Jeff Hardy was unable to come back from the drop he took onto the imploding table.

All in all, this isn't the best match between Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam, but it is one that is seemingly forgotten.

I'll never forget it though.

PS: If you'd like to check out the very grainy first half of this match, it is worth the watch as it features the old Smackdown! "Beautiful People" and the "this is not PG rated and has flashing lights program" warning. Good times!

Match of the Day - Megumi Kudo the former kindergarten teacher retires Combat Toyoda

Hardcore Wednesday:

Megumi Kudo vs. Combat Toyoda - No-Rope Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch - FMW (1996)

In what is said to be one of, if not, thee first female wrestling hardcore matches, Megumi Kudo (in the pink) takes on Combat Toyoda (the bigger one) in a deathmatch featuring exploding barbed wire rather than traditional ring ropes, and it's not a pretty sight.

For any of you at home who are unaware of this sort of "deathmatch"-type of match, it's essentially the most violent matches conceived, so take "Extreme Rules" and times the violence/weapons/bloodiness by 100%. This deathmatch in particular took place in Frontier Material-Arts Wrestling (FMW) founded by Atsushi Onita, the guy who brought the deathmatch-type hardcore-based wrestling to Japan after spending an early part of his career touring Memphis.

Japan always has a way of taking a good thing from America to the extreme whether it's hardcore-style wrestling, horror movies, reality shows, or music. So much so actually, that we go and copy them right back...

Unfortunately though, the copycats we make here in the states turn out to be The Hunger Games, Wipeout, and Combat Zone Wrestling.

Anyways, this brutal deathmatch has to be one of the most tastefully violent female wrestling matches I have seen. It has emotion, it makes sense, and it also features wrestlers - female wrestlers, I may add - that could actually wrestle. Combat Toyoda is by no means a "diva" and Kudo, who may look like a little pink power ranger, is one pretty face you didn't want to mess with... and this match proves it.

This match is also noted as Combat Toyoda's last match as she would retire right after this match. Kudo, the victor of this barbaric match believe it or not, would continue to fight in such matches until her retirement match in 1997 against Shark Tsuchiya in the longest titled match: a "No ropes 200V double hell double barbed wire barricade double landmine glass crush death match".

Also, Megumi Kudo was supposedly a kindergarten teacher before making her return to wrestling via FMW. I really don't know if this is true or not.

Song of the Day - Swimming the Channel vs. Driving the Chunnel

Botch - Swimming the Channel vs. Driving the Chunnel from We Are The Romans (1999)

It's not Aghamistam but it's mighty close...

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