rise & fall - clawing

the same seller who had the debut lp of seven sisters of sleep on offer, also had a bunch of other records for the taking. among them was this rise and fall 7" from 2007. this came in between "into oblivion" (2005) and "our circle is vicious" (2009) and marks their first release on deathwish records. this one came for a good starting bid of six bucks and since nobody else wanted to take it, i embraced it with open arms. it was something like just a bonus to the seven sisters of sleep record, but i love to add a cool seven inch here and there.

musically this is more of the great stuff this belgium band is able to produce. to me, they play this dark, sometimes bulky, sometimes beautifully melancholic and a little chaotic kind of hardcore best. right behind converge indeed. just listen to the title song and know the score. the second song "bottom feeder" isa re-recorded version from their debut "hellmouth" and "them bones" is a good alice in chains cover. so, all in all not essential but cool to have.

as i already said this was their first deathwish records release. all together there were 2.000 copies pressed of "clawing". quite a lot and therefore not really difficult to get a grip on via several second hand markets. the presentation is very basic. a fold out piece serving as sleeve and plain white dust sleeve. my pink copy is next to a blue vinyl version out of the most common press. 850 copies made. jake and willem have, aside from a special gig version, a copy of the most limited press. check them. deathwish inc. 2007.

rise & fall - hellmouth

so i have walked the path from most recent rise & fall record, which is 'faith', to the furthermost record, which is 'hellmouth'. actually i bought this copy right here before i obtained 'our circle is vicious' and 'into oblivion' but i found the retroverted chronological order somewhat cooler. anyway, i bought this slab of wax at my favourite physical record store in hamburg, burnout record store.

it was one of that records that were sitting there for a long time collecting dust on the shelf. i meant to pick it up several times before but always other stuff was more important and blew the financial frame i set. but eventually good things come to those who wait. musically this is really good stuff. it's a more raw version of their future deeds but with that feeling for energy driven, dark melodies already.

2004 the album was initially released by germany's join the team player records consisting of eight songs. anger management records, also from germany, took care of the vinyl version. jake and willem have copies of that version. 2009 rise & fall signed to deathwish inc. and two years later 'hellmouth' got re-released on some nice colour vinyl plus three bonustracks. this is what we have here. lovely opaque orange out of 756 copies. deathwish inc. 2011.

rise & fall - into oblivion

last month i was snagging the third rise & fall record 'our circle is vicious' from ebay. the same seller also had their second full length 'into oblivion' on offer. while i got a second offer on 'our circle...' because the initial buyer didn't pay for the item, i simply won the auction for 'into oblivion'. i felt lucky because it's a first press on reflections records.

all subsequent pressings came on deathwish records. the cool thing here is that the reflections pressing came with a gatefold cover, while deathwish produced slip sleeves with an insert. the record was released in 2005. wow, that's ten years already. time flies. well, musically this isn't obsolete at all. these belgian dudes just know how to write a fast and dark hardcore-punk record.

the converge proximity can be heard all the way through the album, but it's damn good executed. just like the two following records, 'into oblivion' knocks you off your seat at the first tunes. the album was recorded in belgium but the mix was handled by kurt ballou at his infamous godcity studios. also the cover artwork was again made by jacob bannon and is looking sharp.

reflections pressed a limited colour version and a black vinyl version for 'into oblivion'. i can't say how many black vinyl was pressed. there is also a limited tour edition that came on black vinyl, i believe. anyway, my clear red with black splatter vinyl is out of 250 copies. the record comes with a printed inner sleeve with all lyrics and credits. looks really good. reflections records. 2005.

rise & fall - our circle is vicious

i really like rise & fall. this belgian crust/punk/hardcore band has a great feeling for energy, haunting melodies and ferocious heaviness. it's hard to sit still while listening to a rise & fall record. i actually had a copy of 'our circle is vicious' since last year. it was a second press copy on 'bronze' vinyl that i bought from per koro. as i was looking for pressing information on discogs, i read about the first pressing's breakdown. all the colour-ways of the first press sounded way lovelier than mine and i started to feel a bit unsatisfied.

when i saw some pictures on the net, including the post of jake's copy and adding the factor that the album is pretty slick, i knew i couldn't live with my boring bronze piece of wax anymore. so i made a mental note to pick up a first press whenever i'd get the chance to. subject to a reasonable price, of course. two weeks ago the chance was there and i pulled the trigger on this lovely slab of vinyl on ebay. it came with an album sticker. don't know if it was part of the original package, or if the seller threw it in.

however, i finally came to peace with 'our circle is vicious'. as already mentioned the album is superb. check out 'in circles' and 'harm's way' and convince yourself that this band rules. the art work for this baby is, again, crafted by jacob bannon, vocalist of converge. looks ace! the album was recorded and mixed at god city studios by kurt ballou, converge's guitarist by profession. with so much converge interweaving it only made sense that 'our circle...' was released on deathwish inc. 300 copies on white and bronze merge vinyl. 2009.

rise & fall - faith

rise & fall are that typical deathwish band. either way i would suspect them to be on a389 records or on said deathwish records. the sound, the images - very deathwish-like. they are a band i came across quite often in the past. may it be on other blogs, newsletters, fanzines or physical stores. i always declined to check them out just out of self preservation - a man just can't listen to them all. but that one faithful day in february 2014 saw me giving in to the permanent lure.

it must have been one of willem's or jake's rise & fall posts that made my curiosity win over. i saw this baby sitting at saturn store hamburg and took it from the racks, put it back, looked for the cd to take a listen, took it again and them finally decided to take it home. don't regret that move in any way. 'faith' is such a strong record.

it's a record full of emotions. angry as fuck, desperate and lonely, melancholic and slow, quiet and supporting. a masterpiece formed from the full pallet of human experiences. the only thing which is a tiny downer, and probably the fact they aren't even more popular, is the hefty converge tinge at times. there are parts which, without any knowledge of them, i would buy as converge songs without question.

love the record anyway. check out the last and best song of the album, 'faith/fate'. the packaging concept is pretty cool too. based on the four elements there are four matching vinyl colours. clear light blue for sky, orange for fire, clear blue for water and brown for earth. all out of 750 copies, so 3000 in total. quite a lot. along with the colours there are four inserts with respective motives to represent the elements through a die-cut cover, so one can decide which element to show on front. cool idea! deathwish inc. 2012.