unveil - destruction wherever i go

this is the last of the three 7"es i bought together from one and the same seller on ebay. it became four actually, but this will be a different story. this unveil 7" was actually the very reason i was on all of the other auctions. the main point among them, so to speak. i wanted this more than the rest, the other records were just bonus. so i put in a pretty high bid, but unveil doesn't seem to generate much interest these days. i won it for a very decent price.

on the one hand that is understandable, because unveil simply never was much hyped at any point of their short-lived existence. but on the other hand there is the music. just listen to the songs and tell me you don't have to nod with your head along to the music automatically. the four songs here are that strong! the 'hypnopaedia' 7" was good and the full length 'a flame with nothing to feed on' was even better, but this first 7" is the shit. go listen to it! and listen to the lyrics as well. next to the obvious vegan straight edge theme, they also deal with the chinese oppression of tibet. a largely disregarded subject in western media.

you can download it in full from the start a fire website for free. 'destruction wherever i go' completes my unveil set. and what i was able to snag on the bay is the following: start a fire did a release show edition on clear vinyl. 77 in numbers. 27 of these came with an extra cover and fifty of them with the regular cover. i got one of the fifty. don't know why they came up with this strange procedure, but it is what it is. another fifty on red vinyl as pre-order edition and 300 on black vinyl. start a fire records. 2009.

sink or swim - in one piece split 7"

back on track. the summer, the sea side, barbecuing and kicking on the beach with friends ate up all of my free time. and right so! i wasn't really in the mood to sit down at the comp and writing about records at a thirty two degrees celsius, while i could rather take a dive into the northsea. but temperature cooled down a bit here, and so i'm back with a record sitting on my shelf for a very long time. since october last year, if memory serves.

the vinyl in front of me is listed as start a fire records #01. this lovely little d.i.y. record label from germany had put out some great stuff in the past five years (read about them by clicking the 'start a fire' tag below). furthermore 'sink or swim' were the predecessor band of a group now known under the name of wolfxdown. so i didn't have to think much about bidding on this thing on ebay. the sink or swim part is great and if you like wolfxdown, then this will be right up your alley.

in one piece, the other band of the split, plays some similar stuff. angry metallic hardcore. according to discogs, this is their only release and i doubt the band still exists today. this baby is long sold out but you won't have any problems tracking one down via discogs. you can download the whole split from the start a fire website. 1000 copies were made in total. 500 on black vinyl, 100 on clear red vinyl (fifty of that as pre-order edition and another fifty as record release edition) and 400 on clear green vinyl. start a fire records. 2009.

as we were - survival songs

since i bought the wolfxdown ep's from start a fire records and the first two unveil 7"es were also co-released by them (i already posted about 'hypnopaedia', 'destruction wherever i go' will land here soon. check the start a fire tag here), i use to check out what new releases they have in stock. so i checked their shop and what was staring back at me was the new as we were 7", called 'survival songs'.

as we were is a young band hailing from burlington, vermont, usa. this is their second release of which all have been put out by start a fire. the first release was a tape that goes by the name of 'a reason'. it appeared in late 2012. 'survival songs' dropped only a few months later in 2013. you can check their stuff on the as we were bandcamp page. they play some melodic hardcore in the vein of verse. solid all around!

i bought one of the pre-order 7"es out of only 50 copies. if it wasn't for this nice alternate cover with the 80's skater kid on the front, i don't know if i had bought this in the first place. the usual cover, which lurks underneath the pre-order cover, looks so boring that it really puts me off. but the pre-order presentation with the stamped dust sleeve and semi-translucent orange vinyl looks pretty nice. go get it! start a fire records. 2013.

unveil - hypnopaedia 7"

start a fire records is a small d.i.y. label with a small string of releases yet. in the past i wanted to buy a bunch of them over at disamare distro (when i bought the two wolfxdown 7"es) but they were already gone. luckily the second unveil 7" was co-released by start a fire and take it back records. and take it back had some in store left. even the coloured version.

unveil was a band from switzerland. they called it a day in early 2013. they played some great mid-nineties hardcore with a metallic edge. not only because they were a vegan straight edge band, they remind me alot of earth crisis. they released a 7" before 'hypnopaedia' and a full length afterwards. i have both of them by now so expect more unveiling in the future (word play!).

the whole 7" and the predecessor are for free download over at the start a fire website. this lovely coloured version comes on a nice clear green w/ black smoke vinyl. looks real good. additionally there is an insert and a download code, which you don't need indeed... you know, because of the free download. 152 made on green (as pre-order and record release version) and 367 on black vinyl plus 22 test pressings. 2010.

wolfxdown - stray from the path

after i really enjoyed their last two 7"es, of which i posted before, i was really looking forward to their upcoming release. as i'm not taking part in any social network, i sometimes may not be the first one to recieve the latest update. but to be honest, this didn't work to my disadvantage in the past, except one time where i missed the pre-order for the latest heaven shall burn record. in this case however, i was close to miss out if it wasn't for a little flyer that i got from somewhere.

looking more closely, the text above the wolfxdown lettering says record release show. damn me, it hit me like a sledge hammer. hectically i was browsing the world wide web to gather information. thankfully i didn't miss out. power trip records from leipzig handled the pre-order and it wasn't even upped at that point. of course i had my order in as soon as it was available. what i really liked about the pre-order, similar to the 'deathrite - into extinction' pre-order at per koro, was the little tease of not giving information about the colour of the vinyl. it was just colour #1 to #3 with the limitations given. so i opted for the most limited - the pre-order colour.

as it came around i was really excited to find out. and look, it didn't disappoint. great colour scheme. musically wolfxdown went one step further. the whole thing sounds more elaborate. great straight up hardcore. reminds me a bit of expire or the latest no turning back record. finally a good new and proud vegan straight edge band from germany. next to the tight tunes, the lyrics are pretty good. straight to the point, just the way political hardcore should be. topics like animal liberation, the role of girls in the scene, anti-fascism, sub-culture and, of course, straight edge get addressed. thumbs up!

this lovely white w/ cream swirl vinyl record is housed in a gatefold sleeve with great art work. furthermore you get a lp-sized booklet with all the lyrics and explanations along some nice pictures of the band. love those booklets! there are 500 copies on grey vinyl as regular press, 300 splatter vinyl copies as band press (never saw one of these) and 200 copies on my swirl vinyl as pre-order version. plus some black copies that went on record release shows. get your copy today! co-release between start a fire records and power trip records. 2013.

disarmare: wolfxdown, fallen into ashes

i'm not quite sure on what occasion i bought this nice german fanzine at burnout record store, it must have been the time i bought dead swans+naysayer but anyway i picked up 'project print 4#'.

i mainly got it because my uncle's band isolated is featured (if you like straight foreward hardcore punk check them out here). as you can see on the cover wolfxdown got the lead story. i read it and things took its course...

wolfxdown - MMXI 7"
wxd are a political vegan straight edge band from the ruhrpott area. they are active since last year and they released this cracker in the same year as the name indicates clearly. the article in project print was interesting, the answers of the female singer were very sophisticated. sometimes a little bit over the top but definitely encouraged. they caught my attention.
i checked their bandcamp site and followed the link to their e-shop hosted by disarmare, a german d.i.y. distro.

i was pretty lucky to grab one because disarmare said that they had only a few copies of the third and final press left on red vinyl. it has sold out by now.

love the artwork and the colour scheme of the whole layout. four songs on this e.p. and the song 'rot' with a massive breakdown that i feel an urge to see them live just to be part of that pit ;)
150 made on clear bordeaux red vinyl. a co-release of germany's start a fire records and america's xcatalystx records. 2011.

wolfxdown - renegades 7"
buying their first release i couldn't resist getting their sophomore release too. 'renegades' may not be as strong as 'MMXI' but i think it needs a bit more time to grow on me. it's still forceful hardcore metal with a nineties edge to it and real good lyrics which are worth spending some time with them.

money talks but i'm not listening

i fucking bite the hand that feeds

so if you always thought that walls of jericho's older stuff is way more preferrable and if you can dig sophisticated socio-critical lyrics you have to check them out!

the cover is a nice fold out poster with the lyrics on the flip side. a download drop card is included which is pretty senseless because 'renegades' is for free download on the start a fire site anyway, by the way 'MMXI' too. 

clear marbled orange vinyl. 200 made and still available! start a fire records. 2012.

fallen into ashes vs. zero tolerance split 7"

after i pressed 2x the add to card button for the wolfxdown 7"es i checked the rest of disarmare's stuff. i came across a name that sounded quite familiar to me - fallen into ashes from hungary. around 2006 i bought a lot of cd releases by a eastern europe label called deadbutcher records. bands like abhorrence, action, crowley's passion and fallen into ashes of course. i have their '04 e.p. 'laments for lost victories' on cd.

i liked it and so i picked the 7" up, just for the hell of it.

it comes with a nice silk screened cover, light blue with golden ink. additionally you get some sort of download dropcard. it says you should write a mail to the label's address, stating your copy number and in return you get a digital copy. i did so two weeks ago but no reply yet. this came out in 2009 and i don't know if the label, dzsukhell records namely, is still active. so maybe i'll wait for the reply forever ;)

i found the following pressing information: 333 copies in total. 125 with a black cover, 108 with a red cover and 100 with a blue cover. the blue cover copies are on clear vinyl and i've seen the black cover copies are on clear w/ black smoke vinyl. don't know about the red cover copies.

the fallen into ashes side is superb! slightly chaotic hardcore with metal influence throughout. the zero tolerance part (they're also from budapest, hungary) is not really my piece of cake.
dzsukhell records. 2009.