Purity Control - Adjusting

Year: 2012

Label: Self-Released

Tracks:

1. Dear Life

2. Insect Politics

3. Swallowing

4. Light Pollution

5. Mock Suicide

6. Gag Order

Here's the one of two 7"s Purity Control released in 2012, shortly before they broke up. Purity Control started off around 2009 as the lone powerviolence band in Toronto's USHC-ridden scene. Their first demo is still one of my favourite powerviolence demos ever, and their second demo is equally impressive. Following the first two demos, the band changed the lineup pretty significantly, and became more of a hardcore band as opposed to doing more straight forward powerviolence. The band's two 7"s reflect this later sound and were disappointing to those who were into the band's earlier sound more. This is still a solid 7" though, and is limited to 313 copies, with another test press version limited to 45 and sold at the record release show (pictured on the right).

http://puritycontrolhc.bandcamp.com/album/adjusting

No Warning - Resurrection Of The Wolf

Year: 2014
Label: Bad Actors Inc.

Tracks:

1. Resurrection Of The Wolf

2. Bloodsucker

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."
 - Michael Corleone

In an effort to raise some dough for a former bandmate in need, No Warning got in the studio again for one last time to record this ripper of a single. Limited to 500 copies with no variants, and sold out the day it was released, first online and then at a pop up shop in Toronto. If you think these guys lost any of their power over the years, you thought wrong.

http://resurrectionofthewolf.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldabNfylo0M

No Warning - S/T

Year: 2001
Label: Martyr Records

Tracks:

1. A Day In The Life
2. Too Much To Blame
3. My World

4. Take It Or Leave It
5. Almost There
6. Wrong Again

The style of hardcore that people have come to associate with New York in the 90s has become decidedly ubiquitous in recent years. Even in a city like Toronto, which has been known for its unabashed worship of no bullshit 80s USHC since the early 2000s, hundreds of 905'ers with long sleeve tees, X's on hands, and serious mosh moves flock to bigger shows to get their hardcore for hardcore on.

Enter 1998 when this style of hardcore was practically unheard of, and a bunch of punk ass brats from the (b)east end of Toronto called No Warning began fucking shit up on a grandiose scale, starting fights, flirting with racist jokes, and turning the word "BUST" into a mosher's call to arms. Released in 2001, No Warning's first 7" (their only one until this year, actually) still holds up more than ever and is a powerful display of how this band ultimately created a paradigm shift in hardcore. 350 copies of this were pressed on black vinyl with blue labels, and 100 (or maybe 106?) were pressed on purple vinyl with blue labels. There's also 150 copies of the black vinyl with blue labels with a "Underdog" weekend tour sleeve that is hand-numbered on the inside of the sleeve. 400 copies are also on black vinyl with blue labels and have an alternate cover for another tour. Finally, a second pressing on black vinyl with red labels exists, and there's 200 copies on white vinyl with red labels. Life's a bitch, suck it up, buy this 7", don't fuck it up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J1Fip76xLM

Kremlin - Will You Feed Me?

Year: 2012, 2013
Label: Hardware Records

Tracks:

1. Rot
2. Anti Septic
3. Destruction Mindless

4. Will You Feed Me?
5. Forced March

Kremlin has become kind of a legend in Toronto in the North American hardcore scene more broadly both because of their incredible musicianship, and because like any band of a similarly legendary tier, they finished before they even started. The band, composed of members of Molested Youth and School Jerks, started in 2011, and put out two demos that year of devastating, skeletal hardcore that sounded like a perfect cross between USHC and Swedish d-beat. In 2012, this gem of a 7" came on on Germany's excellent Hardware Records, with 410 copies pressed on black vinyl, and another 110 pressed on white vinyl, each numbered with a stamp on the inside of the sleeve. Will You Feed Me? is an interesting release, as it signifies a departure from the sound on Kremlin's demos which was decidedly restrained and minimal toward a noisy and characteristically uncontrollable raw punk sound. Following this release, Kremlin released an LP, and certainly their most bizarre release, the Last Last EP cassette, which featured two heartstoppingly brilliant instrumental jams that sounded more akin to Hüsker Dü than the Shitlickers, and broke up at the same show the EP was sold at. Will You Feed Me? was reissued in 2013 and 200 more copies were pressed on white vinyl. Do yourself a favour and buy this record.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YtAxA3WGdY

Hacksaw - S/T

Year: 1998

Label: The Great American Steak Religion

Tracks:

1. Kick It
2. I Lied To Myself

3. Without Living
4. A Million Times









This is the first Hacksaw record, and is substantially better than the rest of their stuff. This sounds a little less like boring stoner rock, and a little more like Fugazi. Over all, not a bad record, and worth picking up if you see it in a dollar bin and want to know what Jon Sharron (of Brutal Knights, Hassler, Chokehold, etc.) was doing circa 1998. My copy of this notes that it is #169/400 for a 1998 tour, but I don't know if this is a special tour edition of if all of them have hand-numbered dust sleeves, as 400 is a big old number of records to hand-number, especially for a band that was never too huge. It also has some picture pasted on the B-side label. I've tried to find info on this but have not been successful.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfRIKXWfmTA

Fucked Up - No Epiphany

Year: 2009

Label: Matador Records

Tracks:

1. No Epiphany (Album Version)

2. No Epiphany (No Age Remix)

No Epiphany wasn't really one of my favourite tracks off The Chemistry of Common Life but here it is on two sides of a single, one of which was mixed by the dudes in No Age. 3000 copies of this were pressed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYKpi-8QxwE

Hassler - S/T EP

Year: 2012

Label: Schizophrenic Records

Tracks:

1. Asphyxiate
2. Nothing For Nothing
3. Beatdown

4. Pig Pen
5. Enlightened
6. Innocent

Don't hassle the Hassler, sucka. Hassler's a new enough TOHC supergroup featuring dudes from Reprobates, School Jerks, Brutal Knights, Bad Skin, etc. Their first EP is probably my favourite release of theirs. It sounds like fast, pissed off, no bullshit hardcore because it is fast, pissed off, no bullshit hardcore. Schizophrenic pressed 100 of these on white vinyl with an extra sleeve with different art. The rest are on black with only one sleeve.

http://hasslertoronto.bandcamp.com/album/s-t-ep