Under City Records: February 2013

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Miami Florida Sludge Kings: FLOOR - S/T - Review/ Download

In 2002 the heaviest band to hit the face of the planet since Sabbath, Floor, unleashed their self-titled album FLOOR. This seismic behemoth is a timeless legend in the world of Sludge. The album begins with "Scimitar". With no hesitation, the song jumps right into the ultra heavy free-fall that is the FLOOR tone. If you have not heard this band before, the FLOOR tone is one that elicits a trans that should be illegal it slams so hard. Riff by riff, the album trudges along with all of its doom and glory through tracks like "Return to Zero" and "Downed Star". Finally, the slack tuning destruction of "Night Full of Kicks" emerges. This song sets the pace for the direction of the rest of the album. As the album creeps towards the top of this Goliath mound of doom that is has formed around your head, we are presented with "Figured Out". This song acts as a necessary prerequisite to the best track on the album which is grounds enough to make it the second best song. "Tales of Lolita" is the heaviest most melodic single song, ever. You cannot listen to this track enough. You cannot listen to this album enough. This shit is too fucking heavy. Finally, when the last track "Song" presses through, and the final destruction offered by the slack gripped artillery of the guitar makes you realize it is time to stop, you start the album over and begin again.

It is with great honor and excitement that Under City Records be allowed to continue the legacy and help others fall straight through the FLOOR.

Thanks Anthony.

Floor is a sludge/doom metal band from Miama, Florida formed in 1992

Monday, February 25, 2013

Friday, February 22, 2013

All These Years and Nothing! - S/T Album Review

If you ever step foot into the Midwest music scene at all, you are bound to run into a familiar face or two. This is because the real Midwest scene only exists because of these few familiar faces. The times may have changed, but the faces have only aged. Band in and band out, the NWI has seen many changes but a few solid chords still get struck right when it matters. These are not just your average punk-ass chords, these are the go-fuck-yourself riffs of All These Years and Nothing. If you took all of the lyrics that Right Arm Death Threat never wrote, and all of the energy that Nowhere Bound had, and all the bands that these guys were a part of since that time, and then ashed your cigarette out on that, you would wind up with this bad ass, eleven-track punk album that finally decided to show its worthy face. Do not think of this as a re-hashing of any of those old bands or a redundant example of what has already been done. But if you do like OFF, Pennywise, Dillenger Four, and old Offspring, this one is for you. This is the time to turn a new page and to keep the hearts pumping. With tracks like "PC Load Letter", you are ensured by the lyrics that there is more to come: "Forget today. Forget this day. Tomorrow needs to get here so I can breathe. Fuck today!" Track number 10, Fly-Over States, could have been released as a single and it would have earned just as much attention as the whole album. Acting almost as an Ode to the Midwest and how, to a nation, the region can appear to be of little significance. I mean seriously, what good ever came out of Indiana? The final lines of the song sum it up:

"We don't care what is said. We follow no leaders cause we set our own trends. We're still here. We are always here."

Beresith Interview with Louder Than Hell

Louder Than Hell is an online news and review website for metalheads and they just recently cranked out a one-on-one with Taylor from Beresith.

"What's the most brutal place you can think of? It is probably not Michigan City, Indiana. However, the raging monstrosity known as Beresith causes this midwestern US city to be much more brutal than one might expect. The band has been ripping it up around the local scene and has now released its crushing debut, Lurker, on the indie imprint Under City Records. Taylor Patz tears drums apart with his powerful hammering and supplies growls for the group. Here, the skin assailant speaks to Louder Than Hell about what it's like for a band to singlehandedly deprave Normaltown U.S.A."

Read the full interview here.

Walk A Mile: Creek-Side Kill-Core

Remember when metalcore was good? No?! Well we do, and this band is a prime example of that nostalgic endeavor. Walk A Mile, a now defunct metalcore band from Trail Creek, Indiana, allowed us to host their kick-ass three-song demo from 2004. This band wasn't another run of the mill generic like the huge majority that made up their genre, these guys were good musicians and they knew good music. No whiny vocals parts, no emo guitar riffs, no bullshit like that. Walk A Mile played good melodic metal with tasteful breakdowns that were not easy to forget, not because they were cliché, but because the were NOT. At the formation, the band was inspired by an array of bands ranging from Propagandhi, down to Nehemiah and Coma Eternal. As the band grew, they definitely took on their own sound as they built the era of WAM. These guys did Indiana proud, especially on this last demo. Do not let the negative connotations that are normally associated with the word "demo" keep you from trying this one on, the recording quality is as awesome as the music is!

Black The Sky: Peoria's Murder Militia

The death metal marauders of Peoria, Illinois' Black The Sky have been long time friends with UCR. After the band split in 2009, they decided to let us help the legacy live on. Coming from Dying Fetus and Suffocation-eske influences, but still leaving that homegrown after taste, Black The Sky took an old school sound and revived the youth of the death metal scene. With a screaming crowd and pile ups that the hit the ceiling, if you ever saw the band play live, it was very clear that they knew how to get everyone's blood flowing, if not totally spilling. The guitar riffs had a good balance of choppy and melodic parts that stalked lyrics that sound like they were written by Harmony Corrine. Upon reading the words to some of the songs, or even the song titles, it is apparent that at least one member of the band has seen a snuff film or two. It is very easy for bands of this genre to have ultra-shitty sounding recording quality, but Black The Sky delivers with a super clear and damn heavy album all around.

Listen to the entire Under City Records discography on thewebsite.