Music

At the apex of Fury’s short and startling rise, from a providential birth in late 2013 through era-defining performances at America’s Hardcore fest in 2014 and 2015, the Orange County five-piece has delivered Paramount, a debut full-length album of grace, erudition, and effortless virtuosity that guarantees Fury’s induction into the tiny fraternity of epochal hardcore bands — e.g., Embrace, Unbroken, Mental — in whose sonic singularity and aesthetic intelligence the best minds of successive generations have seen themselves reflected. Paramount is impossible to characterize in the usual terms of A-meets-B direct influence: maybe you hear Burn, maybe you hear Outburst or Beyond or Supertouch, but no combination of such references conveys the subtlety of the songwriting, the precision of the musicianship, or the ferocity of Jeremy Stith’s vocal performance, by way of which one encounters the best written and most cleverly phrased hardcore lyrics in recent memory. Paramount is, as they say in the groves of academe, sui generis. And yet to apprehend the lyric sheet’s overt intertextuality (no less than Shakespeare, Don Delillo and Praise’s Andy Norton, among others, are given co-writing credit), to hear the multiplicity of guest vocalists, to spend the 12 minutes required to read the voluminous thanks list — all this is to know, as the band itself surely does, that Paramount belongs no more to the individuals who recorded it than to the entire roiling, loving, terrifying, inspiring, hateful, romantic, literate, ignorant, fantastically dynamic culture that gave rise to it.

Tracklisting:
1. Danse
2. Thin Line
3. Novo
4. Damage Is Done
5. In Extremis
6. The Fury
7. Death Yellows Life and Reason
8. Leviathan
9. Duality of Man
10. The Feeling

PRESSING INFORMATION

Test Press (out of 17)
1st Press Black (out of 300)
1st Press Clear Purple w/Black Streaks (out of 500)
1st Press Opaque Purple (out of 1200)
2nd Press Opaque Pink (out of 500)
3rd Press Metallic Gold (out of 300) *Run For Cover Exclusive*
3rd Press Opaque Blue (out of 500)
Royal Blue Cassette (out of 500)

The debut LP from London UK thrashers BIG CHEESE!!! 

Track List:
1. Penine Scrubs
2. Mad At The World
3. IFMB
4. Heartbreak Ball
5. Tired Children In D Minor
6. Punishment Park
7. Write-Off
8. Tower To The Sun
9. Identity

PRESSING INFORMATION

Black (out of 500)

Starting in the mid 2010s as an emo-rock revival outfit, Amends have expanded to incorporate a sound more focused on alt-country, heartland rock and folk-punk. Building their style across EP’s and their debut album ‘So Far From Home’, led them to support acts such as Lucero, The Menzingers and Luca Brasi. The strong development of the band’s style and sound is evident in their new record, ‘Tales Of Love, Loss and Outlaws’.

Joining in on the record are Murder By Death Cellist Sarah Baillet and Against Me! leader Laura Jane Grace. The former contributes strings on the ballad “I Gave My Heart Away A Long Time Ago,” while the latter duets on “Walking Backwards.”

‘Tales of Love, Loss, and Outlaws’ demonstrates and solidifies Amends status as one of Australian music’s most unique and endearing prospects.

Track List:

1. Fighting a Losing Battle
2. Walking Backwards feat. Laura Jane Grace
3. I'm Not the One That's Lost
4. This One, for Example, Is About Grief
5. The Only Medicine Is Drink
6. It's Been Heaven Knowing You
7. White Bear Lake
8. Everything Is Gone
9. What Else Would I Do With Myself
10. I Gave My Heart Away a Long Time Ago feat. Sarah Balliet
11. Willingly Return to Darkness

Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, the members of Iron Mind have been torchbearers for hardcore from down under for almost twenty years. The band’s first release came to fruition with 2009’s The Sun Has Set EP, followed by their 2011 debut album Hell Split Wide Open, and 2014's self-titled LP. Building up a global name for themselves with intense live sets, they toured with bands such as No Warning, Backtrack, and Harm’s Way during that time. Shifting down a gear in terms of a full tour schedule and releasing new music, Iron Mind opted to simply play an annual show in their home scene for a number of years, the band returned in 2023 with Assume Your Ultimate Form. Controlled, collected, and motivated, the band soon entered the studio to record their forthcoming third album, Test Of The Iron Mind.

Aptly titled, the ten tracks on Test Of The Iron Mind nod to Iron Mind’s history while creating through a contemporary lens. Groove-driven riffs, stomping breakdowns, and confidently delivered lyrics make up the bulk of the record. Produced by Otis Bennie (AWOL), recorded by Sam Johnston at The Black Lodge, and mixed by Taylor Young at The Pit, the raw energy found on Iron Mind’s past releases is transformed into a massive, crisp sound that still instills a heavy conveyance. Those familiar with the band’s discography will find callbacks in the new tracks - opener “More Pain” to 2012’s “Look Into My Eye,” eponymous track “Test Of The Iron Mind” recalling 2009’s “The Iron Mind.” These are full circle moments for the band who set out to create their best material yet, and there’s still plenty for newcomers to latch onto.

With pragmatic lyrics, a sonic fury, and bridging their past and future, Iron Mind have created their definitive album with Test Of The Iron Mind.

Track Listing:

1. Intro
2. More Pain
3. How You Get Down
4. Terrified
5. Dog Will Hunt
6. No Fate
7. Test Of The Iron Mind
8. Paid In Full
9. Eye To Eye
10. The Crucible
11. Solitary Realm

This is a pre-order item with a release date of June 27. Anything else purchased in the same order will not be shipping until this in stock and ready to ship.

In the spring of 2019, a new rock band made up of four otherwise ordinary Okies emerged seemingly out of nowhere, swiftly turning heads with a grotesque new take on noise rock—one fueled by the existential anguish that has defined the 21st century. Taking its name from the towering mounds of toxic waste that stand as monuments to capitalism’s cruel hubris across its home state, Oklahoma City’s Chat Pile made an immediate impression. That momentum culminated in the release of its landmark 2022 debut album, God’s Country, and its expansive 2024 follow-up, Cool World.

While the massive success of God’s Country propelled the quartet from underground favorites to international sensation, Chat Pile’s mission to push rock music to new zeniths of intensity was part of the plan from the very beginning. In fact, during the first few months of its existence, the band began writing and recording some of the heaviest, most hellish, and harrowing material in its entire catalog—laying the foundation for the themes and sonic traits that would later define their debut LP. The result of these early sessions was a pair of EPs: This Dungeon Earth and Remove Your Skin Please, released in the summer and winter of 2019, respectively.

Originally issued by Reptilian Records in 2020, The Flenser is proud to present a special reissue of Chat Pile’s pivotal first two EPs, now compiled onto a single disc. This dual-EP compilation captures the earliest moments of the Oklahoma City quartet’s discography—a snapshot of the band’s pre-Flenser days and the eight tracks of noxious, nihilistic noise rock that helped propel them from local oddity to globe-spanning underground heavyweights.

Track Listing:

1. Face
2. Rainbow Meat    
3. Rat Boy
4. Crawlspace
5. Dallas Beltway
6. Mask
7. Davis
8. Garbage Man

Formed in 2015, Chicago hardcore band Kharma pack a pummeling, rhythmic style made to get you moving. The four-piece band is directly influenced by their city, from the forebears of their scene to the daily circumstances that inform their lyrics and unrelenting aggression. On the upcoming full-length album, A World Of Our Own, due out in 2024 on Flatspot Records, Kharma is taking the listener through the ebb and flow of life.

The band gave the first glimpse into their world on 2016’s self-released EP, Survival, followed up by 2018’s Moment of Violence EP, leading to their 2020 EP, Most Dangerous Game, out through Flatspot Records. On each release, Kharma has delivered uncompromising, reality-driven hardore and A World Of Our Own expands on that vision. Working with Jon Markson at The Animal Farm (Regulate, Jivebomb), the band set out to record their most personal and colossal material yet. Lyrical topics range from finding community to experiencing oppression to coping with everyday emotions.

Through the vital sentiments A World Of Our Own comes an intense sonic execution. Pulverizing riffs from guitarists Andrew Perez and Brian Pilla meet Bryce Tollner’s menacing drumming, creating shifts between a metallic and bounce driven sound. The dynamic of Moten’s high-pitched shout and the band’s deeper gang vocals adds an extra layer of depth to the eleven mosh-ready songs.

With a no-frills attitude and fervid live performances, Kharma is eager to share these songs in a live setting where they feel most at home. Having toured across the US and Europe, Kharma has been able to share the stage with Knocked Loose, Speed, Zulu, Bulldoze, and Terror to name a few. With a new record on the horizon, expect Kharma to make 2024 their year, bringing their heavy Chicago style and attitude everywhere they go.

Track Listing:

1. By Any Means 
2. Changes 
3. Living In Vain 
4. Clip Your Wings 
5. Envious 
6. Still Seeing Red 
7. Penance 
8. Comfort 
9. A World Of Our Own 
10. Only The Hard Way 
11. Necessary… 

Midwife’s No Depression In Heaven, her fourth studio album, was written primarily in the back of vans while on tour, endlessly, over the course of the past few years. The record engages with the contemplative spirit of rock n roll from within a body in motion.

No Depression In Heaven explores themes of sentimentality, the interplay between dreams, memory, and fantasy, and a familiar subject seen throughout all of Midwife’s work: grief. Madeline Johnston takes a look at the tender and transcendent underneath a hard exterior of leather and studs, exposing a different side of the heavy music scene, where Johnston’s project has been living and evolving.

Recording at home in New Mexico between 2021 and 2023, Johnston aimed to create something that was rough around the edges, returning to a free recording process that was less focused on perfection and more attuned to expressing the spirit that lives inside of the songs. The album features collaborations with Chris Adolf and Michael Stein of American Culture, Ben Schurr and Tim Jordan of Nyxy Nyx, Angel Diaz of Vyva Melinkolya, and Allison Lorenzen.

Inspired by ephemeral moments that make up life on tour, the totemization of vehicles, outlaws, and the psyche of America’s underbelly, No Depression In Heaven affirms Johnston’s existential status as a woman of the highway.

“Vanessa” is a love song for Johnston’s dying van, while “Killdozer” is an ode to a city lost in the aftermath of gentrification. The latter centers on the story of Marvin Heemeyer, a muffler repair shop owner who went on a demolition spree in a modified bulldozer before killing himself in a small Colorado town in 2004. “Droving” is a memorial to departed souls, particularly those who in their lives were pillars of the music community which Johnston herself has helped to hold up for more than a decade. “It’s about the transient nature of what we do,” Johnston says. “Our bodies are vessels –– our bodies are, together, a vessel, a vehicle, and that togetherness allows us to become something larger than ourselves in the slipstream of the unconscious, droving.”

The fleeting moments are beads which might otherwise sit separate or scatter, but something like collective participation in an underground scene, or a series of 25 performances in 25 cities over the course of a month, has the power to string together these otherwise disparate or spectral elements.

The album’s title was inspired by The Carter Family song, “No Depression In Heaven,” which speaks about the Great Depression and the mental state of depression interchangeably, drawing a direct line between the human condition on earth and emotional depression. Johnston may or may not believe that it’s literally possible to leave depression behind in the act of passing on, but she certainly believes that to thread the string, to weave and link the memories of lost friends, scenes, songs, and experiences: one has to trace the highway.

Track Listing:

1. Rock N Roll Never Forgets
2. Autoluminescent
3. Droving
4. Vanessa
5. Killdozer
6.Better Off Alone
7.No Depression In Heaven

Caribou - Honey (Limited Indies Yellow Coloured Vinyl)

Dan Snaith's latest album, "Honey," marks an intriguing new phase for Caribou. Over more than two decades Dan Snaith has had many guises. After putting every ounce of himself into Our Love and Suddenly, for his sixth Caribou album Snaith now pulls himself away a little in search of music that isn’t about any one person and is available to everybody. Huge dancefloor tracks twinkle, shimmer and surprise in a way only Snaith’s productions can but with a freshness that defines an artist who is too excited by music-making to ever truly settle into any one sound. 

There’s never been a Caribou record that sounds like the last, so change here is just as comforting as constant. They say expect the unexpected and you’ll never be surprised; well there’s plenty here to be surprised by, but then with a Caribou record you’d never expect anything less. "Honey" captures Snaith's curiosity and joy in music-making, offering a fresh yet quintessential Caribou experience.

Tracklisting

1. Broke My Heart
2. Honey
3. Volume
4. Do Without You
5. Come Find Me
6. August 20:24
7. Dear Life
8. Over Now
9. Campfire
10. Climbing
11. Only You
12. Got To Change

In a strange way, this feels like a second debut, we have the same excitement and nervousness around releasing it, like it's the first step of the band's career." While she Sleeps' youthful inspirations have taken to the forefront on SELF HELL. Drawing inspiration from an array of artists outside the typical metalcore scene, each member has brought in a different perspective so far apart in genre - from Kendrick Lamar and Aphex Twin to Janes Addiction and Placebo - that it has created a diverse and satisfying sonic palette. On past records, the weight of the writing process rested on a few members. SELF HELL is a reimagined version of the band where the combination of each member's desires and ideas created a musical fusion. The name of the album is the foundation of how the band view themselves and the world. "Everyone has a subjective experience like no other. Yet the constant that binds us, is the differences between us and the fact that we are all suffering in our own way." While She Sleeps will continue to keep the world guessing on what they will do next. "This is a spiritual venture that we have to keep alive, moving, and constantly in flux. We do this by scaring ourselves with things we are not supposed to do."

Track Listing:

1. Peace of Mind
2. Leave Me Alone
3. Rainbows
4. Self Hell
5. Wildfire
6. No Feeling Is Final (featuring Aether)
7. Dopesick (featuring Fin Power of Stone)
8. Down (featuring Alex Taylor of Malevolence)
9. To the Flowers
10. Out of the Blue
11. Enemy Mentality
12. Radical Hatred / Radical Love

Last Ride Records Australian exclusive colour of the Candy LP from Relapse Records.

CANDY return with their new album, It's Inside You. A brazen take on hardcore, metal, and disparate electronics and experimental soundscapes, It's Inside You sees CANDY take another step forward with a compelling, extreme, and one-of-a-kind take on the genre.

From the frenzied album opener "eXisTenZ", CANDY's intent is clear; It's Inside You kicks off as violently as possible. Cited as thriving in "this jumble of gothic industrial and digitized metal" by Pitchfork, the single minute, thirty-second track twists and turns as a contorted thesis statement for what will follow. Tracks like "Dehumanize Me" continue this trend, establishing an interplay between ferocious hardcore stomps helmed by guitarist Michael Quick, with pulse-pounding, electronic rhythms set against this monstrous riffing. "Dreams Less Sweet" crashes and bashes onto the record, while vocalist Zachary Quiram mourns the modern condition: "dreams laid dead/stuck grieving/how do you fight the feeling?/are we living in a world just to die?"

Elsewhere on the record, tracks like "Love Like Snow" showcase a different side of the band. Electronic, mechanical melodies are set against desperate cries for human connection. It's Inside You flexes more than just muscular Hardcore brutality. "Dancing to the Infinite Beat" and "Hypercore" also see raw emotion laid bare against frenetic, electronic punishment before crescendoing into cathartic, ear-worm choruses.

Track listing:

1. eXisTenZ
2. Short Circuit
3. You Will Never Get Me
4. It's Inside You
5. Love Like Snow
6. Dehumanize Me
7. Faith 91
8. Terror Management
9. Dreams Less Sweet
10. Silent Collapse
11. Dancing To The Infinite Beat
12. Hypercore

Philadelphia's Modern Baseball are a uniquely contemporary band. Their sophomore album 'You're Gonna Miss It All' is jammed with relate-ability and remarkable depth, which perfectly showcases Modern Baseball's brand of indie pop: equal parts witty, snotty and nervous.

A 12-track map that deftly addresses all that familiar anxiety of growing up, being grown up, and navigating this overwhelming modern world they (and we) occupy.

Track Listing: