Outasight - Further

This is really cool Hip Hop from New York. I suppose it's indie rap...and I mean indie rap as in: it's got more in common with Bloc Party than Atmosphere. And that's not a bad thing (he actually sounds nothing like Bloc Party, it's just the first band I could think of).

I guess it's kind of a funky, soulful, indie band. There's some great stuff on here. Track number 3, "Don't Say Anything" is really good.

The more I write the more I think that it's something that I like right now, and it has some serious "fame" potential, at which point I'd get bored with it. If I read this I wouldn't listen!

Download

Myspace

Dire Wolf - Gloom

This is slower metal influenced hardcore. There's some fast driving drumming on here. Imagine if Iron Lung got rid of their super fast parts. You'd have something similar. His voice reminds me of Harm's Way, inasmuch as it's scratchy and real, he obviously hasn't spent a lot of time trying to figure out a "perfectly polished" scream, Dire Wolf is much better than Harm's Way, in my humble opinion.

They're from Michigan

Download

They have a myspace, duh, what band doesn't besides trendy indie bands?

They also have a link for their first EP that I haven't heard yet, but it should be cool: S/T EP

Ratwheel - To Vermin

This hardcore band is from Kelowna B.C. I know of Kelowna because they have/had a hockey team that used to play the Spokane Chiefs!
Hardcore that uses a downtuned bass that creates a bit of a "sludgy" sound, not disimilar to maybe Ritual or Modern Life is War (I'm bad at this comparison game), they call it 'Grimy' that's a good way to put it. Whatever, it's bad ass!

I really dig the cover art here. It's pretty intense

Download it here:

Download

Check them out here:

Myspace

One Clean Life - Demo '09

This is pretty fast driving hardcore from Utah. This demo from the dual-singer straight edge band is pretty rough around the edges but it sounds way fun. Think something like Stay Gold.

Download

Myspace

Burning Ghats - Demo

Burning Ghats is another Vancouver band. Don't let the "unintelligible metal logo" fool you, it's actually pretty cool. It's fast, similar to Trap Them. I dig this.

myspace

download

Burn In Hell - Demo 2009

Burn in Hell is a band from Vancouver B.C. They play thrashy chaotic hardcore; similar to maybe Graf Orlock, but with more emphasis on the bass lines and a deeper growl. It's the kind of thing I could really get into, especially live!

myspace

download

Oblivion - MMX

So I'll go for two today, start off with a bit of a splash I suppose (though not really).

So this band is from Tacoma Washington. They play downtuned really heavy hardcore, their myspace has this quote about their sound: "a dude lifting weights doing slam poetry over a disembodied instrumental track." Here's a myspace.

The album cover is being cut in half. Ignore that, I'll figure it out later.

Here's a download

Rise Ascend - Divine Compositions

Rise Ascend's newest LP is called "Divine Compositions." It's meant to raise awareness of the Falun Dafa movement and the persecution they face in China. This is interesting for me, I've seen Falun Gong awareness campaigns in Vancouver, London, and in New York City.

I found this on the best website for hip hop info: Hip Hop DX

It's pretty good, I'm not a huge fan of the generic "let's make a change" calls to action, I think if you aren't mentioning specific issues then it doesn't really mean anything. Youth of Today did it and it annoys me, as cool as they are. Rise Ascend does this too. The other thing I dislike about this is that he thinks that Falun Dafa can actually eradicate evil. It's as good as any other religion, meaning it won't do much.

The music in this is pretty cool, though I think the lyrics will ruin this for me and I won't listen to it too much after this.

Here's the download