incendiary - change the way you think about pain

crisp, no frills hardcore from these new york dudes. really good album, i'm impressed. 500 copies pressed of this red, violet and white merge variant. closed casket activities. 2023.

incendiary - thousand mile stare

alright, alright, this record is not really recently released as it saw the light of day in december last year, but at least it is the recent album of incendiary and therefore fits into my little july series of new albums. i was late to the incendiary party when i bought their sophomore full length "cost of living" a few years ago when it was already three years old. i didn't need that much time this time around but still, to wait for the fourth press of a record i wanted seems a bit phlegmatic.

by the time i bought the bleeding through "love will kill all" record from per koro mailorder, i was in search for another record to add to the order. this new edition of "thousand mile stare" was just what i was looking for. i gave the record just a few spins by now but i can surely say that their third album is a killer. the four years of waiting paid off. they took the basic notions of their preceeding records and added a new level of anger and inner anxiety. utter heavy and utter intense. check it out.

again the band released this album on closed casket activities and the label did the musical part justice in terms of physical presentation. the record comes in a sturdy gatefold sleeve which has a nice matte finish to it. the whole cover artwork ties in nicely with the album title and the colour tone of the layout is well thought out. the vinyl colour is a winner as well. the white blob in the centre looks so cool because of its unevenness. 500 copies made. closed casket activities. 2017/2018.

incendiary - crusade

i was wondering if incendiary got some fresh tunes in the works, otherwise it seems odd that closed casket activities was re-issuing both of their albums successively in such short time. maybe i am just underestimating the demand of incendiary material. whatever the reasons may have been, i was happy to open my wallet and add the band's debut to my collection.

taking "the cost of living" into consideration, "the crusade" is no surprise to the listener. the band plays their straight forward, metallic hardcore with no frills. they create a dark and aggressive atmosphere that reminds me quite often of nineties hardcore á la earth crisis or morning again, only the energy level feels higher. check out the whole almost twenty five minutes of relentless long island hardcore for yourself.

"crusade" was originally released in 2009 by a label called eternal hope records. said label released a vinyl edition of 500 copies total. out of these 500 came 250 copies on black vinyl, 150 copies on white vinyl and 100 copies on some white/black mix vinyl with fifty as record release version. closed casket activities decided to re-press even a thousand copies and to alter the artwork a bit. in my humble opinion i think the eternal hope version looks a bit nicer.

check out the original here. i think it had more depth to it. a pretty cool alteration though is the change from slip sleeve to gatefold sleeve. the inner gatefold shows a collage of old band pictures and flyers from back in the day. the break down is as follows: silver and clear split out of 200 copies, silver with oxblood splatter out of 300 copies and my silver out of 500 copies. closed casket activities. 2016.

incendiary - cost of living

i actually knew the band incendiary only by the name. i read about them at lenny's now defunct the emerging addiction blog. lenny praised them a lot and as we usually have a similar taste in music my interest grew. furthermore incendiary released a split together with xibalba and if i like one band from a split, it is likely the other band could be up my alley as well. the problem was there wasn't any vinyl available. only expensive second hand copies.

so this liaison between incendiary and me never came to be. not until closed casket activities decided to give this fine record a re-press. i heard news of this enterprise through my mailorder of trust per koro. i spotted it when glancing through the new additions section and happily added it to my cart. after it arrived and i dropped the needle on it, i was blown away.

"cost of living" hits you like a sledge hammer. it is a mix of some beloved european metallic hardcore like arkangel or congress, groove laden nyhc crossover and their own ability to create some heavy, dark and intense music. a monsters that spits venom, angst and rage right in your face and still leaves you wanting more. check out the full twenty six minutes of constant headbang at the tube.

closed casket did a formidable job on the presentation of this bad boy. it comes in a gatefold sleeve of nice matte cardboard and with fantastic artwork all around. this is the third pressing by now. it comes with 1.000 copies in total. 300 on a black-white-red tri-colour edition and 700 copies on my clear red with black splatter vinyl. the record is cut at 45 rounds per minute for perfect sound. closed casket activities. 2013/2016.