Outstanding Split Albums

I was just thinking about split albums. In hardcore and punk, it is a very common thing to see, bands doing split albums, pretty much collaborating in exposing their music.

There are a lot of split albums out there, but most of the time, these go forgotten pretty quickly. But there are always those that still remain over there as famous, or notorious splits. Sometimes bands release their best songs in some of these, or simply some are that good, that they become well known.

I am gonna mention some of the ones I really enjoy, and like listening to a lot. Not saying these are the best ever, because to be honest i don't own a lot of split records.


The Suicide File/Hope Conspiracy split "Dead Man's hand #1"

This was the first of the Dead Man's Hand series that Deathwish Inc. was releasing back in the early 00's (which actually the 4th one never came out). Anyway, this split has only 3 songs. Two Suicide File songs, and one Hope Con. Probably the best Hope Con song I ever heard, and some of the best songs by the Suicide File. This is the first time you hear the song "Ashcroft" by Suicide File. I mean, I really love this one because at that point they were pretty much my favorite hardcore band.


The Bouncing Souls/Anti-Flag split

This one came also in a pretty good era of splits. This was when BYO was releasing splits with awesome bands, for example the NOFX/Rancid, Hot Water Music/Leatherface splits also came out during this time. But this one for some reason is the one I really loved from these series. Although I admit I haven't heard the HWM/Leatherface yet (and I really want to). Both bands in this split do covers of each other, and Bouncing Souls is so outstanding that they play Anti-Flag songs better than Anti-Flag themselves.



Tropiezo/La Armada Roja "Mal Caribe"

This is probably one of my favorite split albums all time. Tropiezo, one of the best hardcore bands in Puerto Rico, and La Armada Roja, Dominican Republic's best band by far doing a split together. I still remember when my friend Javi introduced everyone in PR to La Armada (although other people claim it was them). They took the Island by storm on their first P.R. tour. La Armada's songs in this album kinda remind me of like Sick Of It All meets DRI. It's fucking insane. And Tropiezo up to this point never failed to deliver. Still listen to this one in a regular basis.



Terror/Ringworm "Dead Man's Hand #2"

This is the second in the Dead Man's Hand series. This one marked the return of Ringworm, when everybody pretty much thought that Ringworm was dead. I mean, they did use the same songs of this split for the next album, same with Terror, but I remember I was waiting for this one to come out like no one's business. I have an orange copy, and I dont really care about "collector's vinyl" but this one was just sick looking. I don't listen to this more often, for 2 reasons. One: I don't own a record player right now. Two: My copy of this one is in Puerto Rico, almost 3,000 miles (almost 6000 Km) away from me.




Juventud Crasa/La Experiencia "No Funciona/Precios Bajos"

One of the first split albums I ever got. Two of my favorite punk bands growing up. This is one of those records that almost everyone that's involved in punk or hardcore in Puerto Rico, you know of this record, even if no one ever mentions it, everyone listens to these two bands in a regular basis. The songs from La Experiencia in this recording happen to be even older from the one's in their first album. But they still own. La Experiencia is pretty much the band that got me into punk and hardcore from Spain, but also introduced me to the whole world of hardcore and punk in Puerto Rico. I really get bummed out these guys don't play as much anymore, but they are amazing. And this album owns. For some reason I don't have this in my Ipod, but am going to get on this A.S.A.P.

EN MI DEFENSA / AGAINST ALL MY FEARS CHILE TOUR

Two of Chile's best bands are going to be doing a 5 day tour in 5 different cities of the South-American country. This is the first time these two bands get together to tour different parts of the country. So if you live in that area, and happen to read this blog. You better make it to one of these shows. If not, just go to all of them!

MAINTAIN, OUTRAGE, UNRESTRAINED, REIGNITION @ Burlington, VT

Well, it took me like 3 days to finally put this one up, but I have been busy. Anyway, this show was fucking awesome. There were a lot of problems, because from what I recall, this show was originally supposed to be at 242 Main. Which is this little club there that always holds shows. I've played there a couple times before. Anyway. The next place it was supposed to be at, was at one of the Unrestrained dude's basement. But then there was a noise complaint before the show even started. So It got moved to like this office space in "Downtown" Burlington. I always thought Vermont shows were sort of weird and awkward. But I think it was the bigger spaces that make them awkward. At a small venue. They can be rather fun!

Reignition:
This is a Pennsylvania up and coming band. They are sort of that band trying to go for the Mid90s sound. They were good, but the only thing I found about this band, which is not a bad thing, is that they are still trying to find their sound. So they have potential. I heard some of the stuff on their myspace like a week or 2 before the show and was quite impressed. But yea, they are still looking for their particular sound.

Unrestrained:
I am gonna say it straight. I used to hate this band. I thought they were horrible, but they made the exact changes I always thought about when I saw them. "Change your drummer please!". And now they sound amazing. I was really impressed with their set. Another thing is that the singer at least didn't spend 3 hours after every song saying the same thin of every show. He actually said cool stuff that night, and wasn't like saying it too much. Although, I do not agree in everything that he said.

Outrage:
I always liked this band. But I never could really see them play a whole set. They completely blew me away. The new songs are ill as fuck. Simple, heavy, awesome. Definitely this band is gonna be the next big thing. Mark my words. They are going to be touring non-stop this summer, and that will just make them better, tighter, and people will get so into them. It's gonna be insane.

Maintain:
We just had the best show we've played as a band. It was fun, and the crowd was fun. I need to fix my snare drum.

Sepultura "Roots" vs. Sepultura "Against" vs. Soulfly "Soulfly"

Ok. I have been listening to this albums recently. Although I know a lot of poeple that consider the Sepultura after Derrick Green joined on vocals, some sort of "It all went downhill from there" thing. Plus they are the 3 albums that marked that point from where they were 2 different bands now.

I have to completely disagree. Let's take a good look at these 3 albums. So this is my analysis about why Against is a way better album than both Roots and Soulfly.




Roots, is the last Sepultura release featuring Max Cavalera on vocals.


Against, is the first Sepultura release featuring Derrick Green on vocals.


Soulfly (also called self-titled) is the first Soulfly release from Max Cavalera's band after leaving Sepultura.

The thing is simply this. When you listen to Either Roots or Soulfly (2 albums I really love, don't get me wrong), you sometimes find that you want to skip through certain parts. For example in Roots, I still don't know anyone that listens to that song "Lookaway", which features dudes from Korn. What the fuck?! Same thing in Soulfly, even though it's a good idea, but really bad execution is that song "Soulfly", which they try to keep putting in every release just like adding a Roman numeral after. At the same time, Max just has way too many guest vocalists. Including Fred Dust. That's really low, although I really like his part. It's like a guilty pleasure.

In Roots another thing that you find is a lot of those instrumentals, that later Max started using a lot with Soulfly. There's two songs that I think would be so much better if they didn't add some stupid "tribal" bridge. Like the songs Ambush, also Endangered Species. Those fucking songs are fucking amazing. But then you have like a 2 minute "tribal" interlude in between that makes you want to kill the band because they managed to ruin some of the best riffs they had ever done with some stupid "tribal" shit.

Anyway. I don't know if someone agrees, but I see Soulfly pretty much as the continuation of what Max wanted Sepultura to go.

Now. I am going to talk about Against.

Against, pretty much starts with a fucking sick drum intro, the only way Igor Cavalera can do it. Then it jumps right into the title track of the album, which is pretty much a hardcore punk song. And I love that. To be honest I had been waiting all that time for Sepultura to finally show their hardcore punk background. You can hear some little hints in Chaos A.D.'s "Biotech Is Godzilla" but it's a shorter song. The next song "Choke just pretty much unleashes Derrick's vocals, who by the way is one of my favorite singers in hardcore/metal/punk.

This album, obviously had to stay in the "vein" of what Roots was because of the obvious change in the band, so they needed to prove they could continue doing that. At least that's what I think. The only difference between this album and the other two mentioned earlier, is that this album is way more thought. You can see that in Soulfly it's pretty much like trying to do something as fast as possible because Max found out that Sepultura had already a new singer. That's why there are some members in the recording that I don't think ever played a live show.

Against tends to flow way better, and better songwriting, and better lyrics. Pretty much they did what they were going to do, instead of trying to come up with stuff in the last minute. But I am not gonna say, that I hate the other two albums, because I don't. I love them. They are just not as good as Against.

One thing. If you like Soulfly, and Roots. Well, the only thing I recommend to do is listen to Against. But listen to them as another band. Don't think of them as Sepultura. Then you will understand what I am saying.

THE EFFORT, OUTRAGE, BRAINDEAD, LATE NITE WARS, MAINTAIN, ALL STAR ME, ROADRAGE @ URI

Another weekend, another show. This time it was at URI, in the middle of nowhere, Rhode Island. I really don't know how got there, even though it was pretty easy top get there, but this place was literally like in the woods or something. Anyway, because of the lineup, this show was more of a MVHC show than a RIX show. I mean, apart from The Effort, and that band Braindead, it was a Mass show. Even most of the people I remember seeing there were from MA.

Although, I have to admit, this was a special show. The night before this show, Michael, the younger brother for the bassist from my band xBillx passed away. Personally I wouldn't have played the show. But I know xBillx wanted, because hardcore is pretty much everything that takes him away from a lot of shitty stuff in life. I don't blame him. In January '08 we played a show, and I found minutes before we went on, that my grandfather passed away. So I gave my all, and let my rage on that drumset that night, I know somewhere he was watching me, so I played my best for him.

Roadrage:
Well, I was on my way to the show, because of work schedule, while they played, so I pretty much missed their set. I hope they played well. I know Briggs played with them, even though he arrived from Seattle that morning from being on tour with Have Heart. Anyway, this band grows on me everyday. I can't wait for the May 7th show (I think they are playing, if not, to the next time I see them).

All Star Me:
I got to the show right like in the middle of their set. To my surprise and amusement, they were covering Carousel by Blink-182. Actually, that is my favorite Blink song, so I wanted to go nuts and sing it, but everyone was doing the stand still dance, and it was sort of awkward, so I didn't do it. I don't really know their songs, but they play pretty well. But it doesn't matter what people say, in my opinion, they are not in the "vein of Saves the Day". Even because of them being names after an alright Saves The Day song.

Maintain:
We played a very emotional set, because of the before mentioned situation. We kept it short. But I thought we played alright. We did cover Unbroken, because we know how xBillx loves Unbroken, so we played it, so he could let it all out.

Late Nite Wars:
This band, at first, I hated them. Not last night, but before, I mean. They are another band from the MVHC area that is starting to grow on me. Even though they dont play like them that much, it reminds me for some reason to Taking Back Sunday in the "Tell All Your Friends" era. They played a real tight set. And that dude that was supposed to leave the band to be in The Real World, is still around, so I don't know what happened. He may have been kicked out of it or something.

Braindead:
I stayed out the door for them, because I was a little tired. But I did listen to them. They were sort of heavy. I think they were from Pennsylvania. I mean, I listened to it as background music, and stuff. But it wasn't that bad from what I can recall. I am not going to say, they were bad or awesome, because I really didn't see them play, so that's about it.

Outrage:
Right before they played, Jordan from The Effort (he also booked the show), gave a speech. It was a very good speech, actually better than all of The Effort's speeches I have ever heard combined. Anyway, it was about vegetarianism, gay rights, religion, and about his family (who were in attendance). The he sang No Spiritual Surrender by Inside Out. I went crazy, found out I am very out of shape, so I went to the little room next door and took a breath. Outrage played awesome. I like that band, but for some reason, I can't see them play live. I go to their shows, and I always stay outside the door when they play. I just like listen to them. Not even look at the stage. They are intense, and in Checkers' words "Ignorant awesome metalcore."

The Effort:
I love the dudes. Hate the band. So that's my review for them.

I RISE, MAINTAIN, PITFALL, TROUBLEMAKER, BLACK TEETH, FOREIGN OBJECTS @ UMass Amherst

So last night, we (Maintain) had this show in Amherst, MA. At the UMass down there (notorious for having that awesome Final Four basektball team which included fellow Puerto Ricans, Carmelo Travieso and Edgar Padilla, and a collegiate version of Marcus Camby). Anyway, first I have to say that university is probably the biggest one I have ever seen in my life. So, yea, the show was at this place called the Cape Cod Lounge, which was a bigger version of the UML MPR at Fox Hall. As for the show perse, it was good, despite being a midweek show, in the middle of nowhere with relatively no bigger bands playing.

Black Teeth:
This band was the first band, they jumped into the bill late, because one of the bands that was supposed to play dropped out or something. They were from Illinois, I found out later, but then it made more sense seeing the singer with a White Sox hat. Anyway, this band was really good. Pretty heavy hardcore, even though they didnt play a longer set because they broke some strings they managed to impress me. The drummer is really good. But yea, their set got shortened by equipment failure.

Troublemaker:
From Jersey. I was kinda looking forward to play with this band, not in the sense that I liked them, but more in the sense that I wanted to see what they were about, plus the band name sort of rules. They were totaly different from what I expected. I wasn't that really into them, but they did cover Integrity. No one moved though, cause it was one of those awkward sets. The singer was pretty funny though, and I wanted his Puma jacket. haha.

Pitfall:
I haven't seen Pitfall in the longest time. But they are pretty much super generic hardcore that's sort of cool. With cool heavy parts here and there. They play super tight which is kinda good for bands their style, because too sloppy makes it totally awful, but tight makes it good. I am not a super Pitfall fan, but it's way better than their last band Defiant Hearts (which in my opinion, totally sucked). So yea, they played a really tight set.

Foreign Objects:
This is a band I have never heard of at all. But they had a chick singer, a chick bassist, and a chick guitar player, and a dude drummer. The way he set up his drumset, had me thinking that they were gonna be like one of these super annoying stuck up indie band. But no, they were pretty punk. Not my style of punk I guess. It wasn't bad, but they did bore me. Although I have to say that singer chick was sort of hot. Loved her tattoos. Anyway I lasted like 2 1/2 songs, then went to the back to warm up for our set. I heard they covered Stiff Little Fingers.

Maintain:
From my perspective, we played a good set. Not our best, sort of faster than we usually play, but good. Kids liked it a lot for being our first Western Mass show. Kids loved the Refused "Rather Be Dead" cover.

I Rise:
I seriously haven't seen this band since the day we started recording our full length, and before that, the last time I saw them was like january 2008. So more than a year. I know they had that new record, and I wanted to hear some of those songs. They played them very well. The new drummer is better than the guy that played after I left them (sort of, cause I was in the band just for tour). They seem more slowed down than before. And Alex loves pedals.. They had a good set, all I can say. At this point mostly everyone had left. But it was a good close up set.

I hate college life.

TRAP THEM, FURNACE, THE_NETWORK, HIVESMASHER, MACHINE LANGUAE @ Anchor's Up.

I went to this show to see my friend's band Hivesmasher. And still, I don't recall the last time I went to a straight up metal show. So for that, I felt a little bit out of place, since I didn't really know a lot of people. Little by little, i started seeing familiar faces. It was a good show, not packed, I thought there was going to be more people, then i realized it was a Tuesday night show. So it made more sense to me after that.

Machine Language:
I still don't know if this is the name of the band, but that's what I think, so I am gonna call them like this. They played a very good set. Very heavy stuff, the drummer was really good, but the only thing I think killed this band's set was that one of the guirar players should revise his tuning. But it wasn't bad apart from that. I am really looking forward to seeing this band again. They said they are recording at Dead Air soon. Then I overheard one of the guys in the band saying it was only going to be one day. Hope they do a lot in that day.

Hivesmasher:
One of the reasons for me going to this show was to see this band. I mean, I have seen them before, and really enjoyed it. Kinda like grind core, and now add some keyboards to the mix. It's weird, because I usually don't like keyboards in bands, but you can't really tell there is a keyboard in this band. They played a good set. But there was this really long-haired metal dude that kept telling one of the guitar players to turn up his amp, and that masked the whole sound of the drumkit. So you couldn't really hear the drums. I think it took a lot away from what the sound would have been.

the_Network:
This is the first time I see this band, I have heard a lot about them in the PRHC board, and seen their cd's at Newbery's and stuff. But from what I noticed, I mean, everyone did, they played a lot of new stuff. So it's very, very heavy stuff. They played a couple old ones, and they were good too. New stuff is different from what I had previously heard, and the drummer is nuts.

Furnace:
The first time I ever heard of this band. Didn't even know they existed. And they blew me away. I just stayed the whole set looking at the drummer play. He was nasty. That's all I can say. I did forget to get their cd, well, I didn't forget. I didn't have the money.

Trap Them:
After all this time, this is the first time I get to hear what this band is all about. I kinda didn't pay attention to them because of the Image that came to my mind when I hear of this band. I mean they played well, lots of blast beats, technical drumming stuff, even though the riffs weren't that technical. Heavy shit. Even though I really, really enjoyed seeing them. After all it was exactly how I pictured them to be like. I mean, lately I have been getting into more metal and bands that style. Maybe I'll download their stuff, becuase it's stuff I like, but don't think I'd actually pay for their stuff. I mean, I would have last night to support the touring band. But I didn't have money.

Above all, it was a good, show. I just think I am like not used to the whole metal show where bands play longer sets, than hardcore bands. But can't wait to see some of these bands again!