black veins - the cycle will cease to end

so this is my last speedowax release post of the bunch. last but definitely not least. on the contrary, so to speak. black veins' 'the cycle will cease to end' is my personal favourite of the lot. the band comes from birmingham, england, or better they came. while doing some research for this post i came across the band's facebook page. the last entry from march this year stated the split up of black veins. a shame.

reading the previous entries the band posted to have a full length in the works. we will probably never see this material unearthed from the black veins vaults. another shame. but back to what the band left for the world on physical format. 'the cycle will cease to end' is a chaotic journey into punk, crust, metal and hardcore. will most likely appeal to fans of trap them or early converge. as for my part i really like it.

you can check the whole e.p. at their bandcamp page and download it for the price you are willing to name, a.k.a. for free. for the physical format speedowax pressed 100 copies on black and 200 copies on grey vinyl. the speedowax pressing info page states that there are 100 grey sleeves, 100 green sleeves, 10 blue sleeves for 10 test press copies and 80 red sleeves. if i can count, there are 20 sleeves missing. anyone a clue? speedowax records. 2013. 

deathbed / douglas - split 7"

another day, another speedowax release. this time it's about a split release of two bands i never heard of before and ever since. deathbed and douglas. i threw this record into the basket on a whim, to add something interesting just because i was able to. deathbed plays some heavy straight edge hardcore, which every earth crisis fan should get happy with.

douglas on the other hand plays something pretty different. i fail to catgorise their style becuase it's something i usually don't listen to at all. it reminds me of jimmy eat world's 'bleed american' (reminds me that i really love this song, check the video!) or something i heard of at the drive in. unfortunately i couldn't find any youtube or bandcamp for these two songs here. still the band has some tube videos and you can check some other stuff instead.

and yet another vinyl colour and sleeve versions crossover going on with speedowax. if the information is correct, speedowax pressed 97 black vinyl copies with blue/orange sleeves and all numbered. then there are 150 copies on orange wax. 25 copies of these were given green sleeves and another five copies got a record store day '12 sticker on the front. that means i have a copy out of 120 orange vinyl copies with blue/orange sleeves. speedowax. 2012.

hardships - too fast to slow down

the next speedowax release in line will be hardships' 'too fast to slow down' 7" from 2013. the vinyl delivers some raw and heavy hardcore at the metallic end of the spectrum. pretty much up my alley. since then i heard nothing new from them. so in preperation for this entry, i searched the almighty oracle, known as the internet for information concerning this band from england.

i found a facebook page and discovered that these guys are hailing from leeds. but wait, the logo of the band at the top of the page looked somewhat strange, more like a metal band logo. a bandcamp page was linked but it didn't mention the 'too fast to slow down' record. ok, maybe a different band with the same name. some more research revealed a review to this 7" with a link to the band's facebook page.

well, it's the same facebook page and the band seems to have evolved into a thrash metal band. how times have changed. jake, these dudes are homies from ya neighbahood, you know anything about the change in musical style? of course speedowax didn't just press different colours of vinyl, they also made a bunch of differently coloured sleeves. 200 copies on clear red and 100 copies on black vinyl - plus four versions with the crowned victory-hand coloured in. 75 sleeves for each colour. i seem to have the silver victory-hand with clear red vinyl. speedowax. 2013.

will to die - mass grave

today's post will mark the beginning of a little series. back in late 2013 i ordered a bunch of seven inches from the u.k. and now i feel ready to clear them from my to-blog-pile. furthermore i believe that my favourite u.k. dude jake will most likely dig this string of posts because they are all speedowax related. first is a band called will to die with their 'mass grave' compilation. this releases puts the first two e.p.'s of will to die on one handy seven inch disc.

on display is the 'iron fist' e.p. from 2010 and the 'don't tread on tennessee' e.p. from one year later. if you wonder what these guys sound like, their facebook info page has you covered. they state hatebreed, all out war, sepultura and strife as their influences, well, that pretty much sums up their sound. if you want to get a shot of their metallic hardcore then i advise you to check out their bandcamp page with all the band's releases so far. i read that they have a full length in the works. might be interesting to invent some time checking it out.

speedowax pressed 200 copies of 'mass grave' in total. 100 on black and 100 copies on clear yellow vinyl. then speedowax came up with five differently coloured sleeves. 40 for each colour which are purple, red, green, black and blue. i saw a numbered black vinyl copy with a blue sleeve out of 40. so i don't know if speedowax threw in the vinyl randomly or if there are 20 black and 20 yellow copies for each sleeve. my copy, however wasn't numbered. speedowax records. 2012.

the catharsis big cartel pt 2/2

the catharsis - no control split 7"

ordering from the band's big cartel i was able to obtain their first output too. it's a split release with another u.k. band called no control. for the no control side i cannot say that i like their stuff. solid hardcore - check. more of the same - check. but just not my cup of tea. in case you want to form a different opinion to mine, you can check their bandcamp page.

the songs from the catharsis are way better. sadly both are featured on the 'romance' lp also. so nothing new actually. so i only bought the record for completion's sake. the cover art they used for their side is from the same artist who did the 'romance' front

at first i was a little puzzled with the 'no control' lettering. on my version it is written in purple. jake's copy has it written in green. the black versions come with more colours. but fortunately speedowax.co.uk has a solution. check for yourself. pressing information is as follows: 100 on black vinyl, 200 on lime green vinyl and 10 test pressings. speedowax records. 2013.

the catharsis big cartel pt 1/2

the catharsis – romance

i wasn’t aware of the excistence of the catharsis since i one day opened my mail account and had a new mail by jake, telling me that he had come to love this up and coming u.k. band and that i should check them out, simply for my own sake. well, i did so. i listened to the song ‘o’recluse’, and, let’s face it, it’s a damn good song. so much energy going on. it was all i needed. i searched for a digital place to buy it. i came across the band’s big cartel. unfortunately they didn’t have the clear green rsd version in stock, which i’d really liked to get my hands on. so i took clear vinyl instead.

it took quite some time to arrive and as it finally showed up, man, i was frustrated. the fucking sleeve had two big fucking seam splits. and of course one in the spine of it so it can ruin my shelf perfectly. i hate that! why didn’t they pack it seperated from each other, record and sleeve. easy thing to do! man, fuck that! ok, ok, i need to calm down. probably it was just that wrath inside me that made my relation ship with the music somewhat difficult. the first couple of listens were in passing. it just didn’t click. i thought it was assembled too chaoticly. then i concentrated more on the tunes with reading the lyrics along. it got better and better.

then i took the little book that came with the record written by the singer. basically it contains the lyrics plus extended liner notes and explanations. before that i thought the singer was some pseudo intellectual wannabe-art-dude, throwing around with some vague, sophisticated lyrics just to impress. now i think pretty much the same, only now i understand what he intended to tell the listener, haha. no, forget that, this guy has some deep going stuff to offer and it’s written very good and i’m just an emotionally cold wreck. the music grew on me along with the great lyrics and here we have a damn good record. check their bandcamp page and show some love for the catharsis by buying their records. don't know how many were made on clear vinyl. speedowax records/enjoyment records. 2013.

and jake, dude, you were right, i love the record!