Thunder and Glory - As the Ocean Churns (Stratum Records - 2014)

Yet another american band this time, Thunder and Glory from the city of Philadelphia. If i'm not wrong, the band is kind of new, but includes an ex member of The Boils (which you should check if you don't know them, really good band).
So these guys are a five-piece band and play a mid-tempo ("To Kill and Conquer", "Out of the Night") to faster-paced Oi! ("Attack and Kill"), with raging vocals, shouted choruses (that sometimes sound kind of hardcore to me), driven by battle drums, powerful guitar solos. Compromiseless, in your face but still melodic. I don't ask for much more. Though I had a hard times with the voice on the first listening, these songs grew on me and now I appreciate them as they are : awesome battle songs.

Because yes, that's what this record is all about. War, battles rage and fury. Just to give you an example, the first song, "To Kill and Conquer" is about some kind of a viking raid (they talk about the fjords, so I guess it must be that) coming to storm your land, conquer you, burn your wifes and rape your churches. Basically these guys are here to fuck you up. And the same goes for the two next songs, the record being closed by a cover of "Soldier 76" by... Soldier 76. Nicely done cover, even though I like the original better (hard to beat the singer's Combat 84-like voice). Me still being into my Battle Ruins madness (this is not gonna stop soon, know it), these battle anthems are pretty much all I want right now. Great !
That record, which was released earlier this year, came out in 300 copies, 200 being in blue/yellow colors with a Philadelphia flag-like based artwork, and 100 copies in black with a different - and very japanese- artwork which is a falcon holding a katana (that's the one I have). Lyrics are included, with a painting of Odin's Wild Hunt in the background (this viking raid thing that I have been talking about becomes more and more obvious).
Really nice release, if my review didn't convinced you, you can listen to the whole EP on the band's bandcamp. But trust me, this is a solid record !

Sun City Skins - Viejo Orgullo, Nueva Gloria (Vinyl 4 Bootboys Records - 2014)

Alright boys and girls, let's head back to the other side of the ocean. But this time (and for once) not to the USA. We'll go a little further south, to Mexico and the city of Hermosillo, and we'll go loco with the local band, Sun City Skins.
First I have to say that it's probably the only record of a band coming from Mexico that I own. I own and have listened to many other latin american bands (mainly from Argentina, Chile or Brazil), I had heard about the mexican scene before (especially when the italian band Asociale went there to play, in 2010 if I remember well ?), but this is, in the end, a pretty new scene to me.
Back to the band itself, Sun City Skins are a three-piece band coming from the city of Hermosillo, as I said before, and started to play in 2008, but that's actually their very first release. They play some kind of melodic up-tempo Oi!, with a lot of nice rock'n'roll-ish guitars, powerful vocals (in spanish, of course) and a lot of gang choirs. You could think that these guys would sound more "american" (by that I mean hardcore-influenced Oi!) given the geographic proximity with the USA, but to me they sound pretty European, you can clearly make a connection between their sound and bands like Decibelios, Zakarrak, Ultimo Asalto or in a greater extent, 80's/90's european Oi! influences.

Here you go with a sampler of what that record has to offer

On this EP the band offers us an intro plus three songs, "Tu Realidad", "La Vieja Escuela" and "Frente in Alto", dealing with the pride of being a skinhead, the way of life, etc... Nothing revolutionary but all in all in nicely written and really well played.
The artwork of this record is kind of... special in my opinion, I'm not a big fan of it. But never judge a book by its cover, as they say, and especially for this record you shouldn't, because you would be missing a great band. So, back to the thing, it's a gatefold cover, with, inside, the lyrics, band photos and a thanklist. 300 hundred copies were released (100 in black and 200 in gold, the golden version being particularly nice according to me).
If you don't want to miss a great band, then you should give Sun City Skins a try, I'm sure you will like it, I was very surprised by these three songs, really good ! I hope I will have the occasion to hear more things from them, and actually I will because I saw that the would be releasing a split EP with the great italian band F.A.V.L. soon. That's good news !

Reconquesta - S/T 7" (Disco Nightmare/See You - 2014)

The only european country which is not from Northern Europe present on this blog so far is Spain, and it's not gonna change. Well actually it might change, because Reconquesta (do yourself a favour if you look for the band on internet and write their name right, if you write it Reconquista you will only find a shitty spanish WP band, and by shitty I mean that this made me want to burn a paella plate, yep, it was that bad) are from Catalonia, and I know that catalonians are pretty touchy about their own national identity. So let's say it's not Spain.

These guys were, as a matter of fact, more or less uknown to me, I bought their 7" (which is also their first vinyl release, even though they seem to have started the band in 2012) pretty much randomly, given that I only had heard some demo songs on youtube before.

Well, that was a good random purchase if you want my point of view. Now those who know me (and those who have read the KnockOut review) know that spanish Oi! is not really my cup of tea, even if the catalonian scene is kind of an exception given that one of my favourite record of 2012 (and probably my favourite iberian band) is Secret Army's Crush the Remains. But anyway, I'm open to new bands, and giving a chance to Reconquesta was everything but a mistake. These guys are playing a melodic but still hard hitting Oi!, with great bass and solo guitar all the way, topped by  equaly melodic but still in your face vocals. Through and through it is really strong.  From what I can read on their Facebook page, they list their influences as english, french and american Oi! from the 80's/90's. Well, you can't go wrong with these (especially with the french one), but to me they sound actually much more modern than this, even if you can obviously hear these influences in the two songs on this single.

For some reason Blogspot decided to be a piece of shit and couldn't find the studio version of their song "Gloria". But look for it in Youtube. Believe me, it's worth it.

These two songs, to name them, are "Gloria" and "Reconquesta". I must admit that I am actually not familiar at all with the catalonian language, but reading the lyrics of "Gloria" on internet (they were clever enough to write them in the description of the song) helped a lot, since catalonian is pretty close to french (more than I thought actually). So basically, this song urges you to be proud and to never look down. The lyrics are not going to change your vision of the world, but is that what you expect Oi! to do ? Probably not. Instead they make you feel proud, strong and free (to quote Stars and Stripes), which is, to me, pretty much all I want to hear. Their second song, "Reconquesta", is not as melodical as the first one, maybe more straight forward, but is still great. It actually gives you a balanced single, with a melodical song and a more in-your-face one.

All that comes with a great artwork, which is the logo of the band (a feather and a sword) in a shield with a dragon in some kind of parchment style (it's the brown tone of it all that gives me this feeling I guess). The only thing I regret is that there's no insert but that's only a little disappointement given the quality of this release. Note that this record comes with a big central hole, which is kind of unusual nowaday I guess given that the only records I have like that are from the 70's to the 90's. 300 copies of that record were released, 100 in black, 100 n brown and 100 with a different cover. My advice is that you should buy this record, because by doing that you will not only get 2 great songs, but you will also support a young band which deserves it. So you know what you have to do !

Edit : you can now listen to both songs of the 7" on the band's bandcamp and download them (as a name your price download) ! 

Out of the Darkness on Facebook

Out of the Darkness in now also on Facebook, give the page a like here

Battle Ruins - S/T LP (Rock'n'Roll Discgrace - 2014)

Finally the waiting is over. It's here. I'm obviously talking about the record I've been the most looking forward to get this year, namely Battle Ruins' LP. And it does not disappointed me, even if there were no surprises listening to it, since it had leaked on the internet some times ago, but still, hearing these songs on vinyl is even better.
You might remember that I reviewed Battle Ruins' 7" some times ago so you should know them (in fact, if you don't know them that's kind of a problem because these guys just kick asses). They play that Boston Oi! I've been talking about in my Hammer and the Nails/Butcher Boys split 7" review, but they had to it a nice dose of heavy metal. And they do it even more on that 12", which makes it even more dark, powerful, violent, straight out of the dark times of the Middle Age, and, basically, awesome. You still have epic lyrics about battles, violence, vengeance and all these stuffs, they still use these going-up back vocals/doubled vocals/vocals in general, and it still makes you want to destroy everything and slay your enemies with a morgenstern while wearing a plate battle armor. Nothing more nothing less. I won't talk more about how they sound, because I already talked about it (and tried to define it) in my previous review about them.

That's how epic this record is.

I have to say that there's actualy one bad thing with that record. It's too short, mainly because the seven songs on it are all great. I mean, I can't think of any bad song on that record, I don't even think I've skipped a single one since the day I first downloaded it. If I had to choose my favourite songs on it, it would be pretty simple : every single fucking one, and probably twice. That's how good this album is (more seriously, "The Coming of the Beast", "Hate Wheel", and "Slaughtering the Wolves like Sheeps" are my absolute favourite ones on that record).
And not only the songs on it are good, but the whole artwork is awesome. I mean, that front cover fits perfectly to what the band is all about. Bloody fucking dark age violence. This come with an insert including the lyrics for "Regain and Conquer" and a picture of what is, I guess, a proper battle ruin. 413 copies came in a white/grey cover with black vinyl, and 111 came in a red cover with clear vinyl plus a poster (and are handnumbered). This record is obviously sold out since the day it was available, but Rock'n'Roll Disgrace said that they would do a second pressing. You don't want to miss that repress, believe me, because this record is nothing less than 2014's best record. Period.

Hammer and the Nails/Butcher Boys - Split 7" (Spirit of the Streets Records - 2013)

Remember last time when I said that you'll get some moer exotic stuffs than usual soon ? Well the time is now. As a matter of fact, I still had to go with an american band in that review. Again. And it's Hammer and the Nails. From Boston. Again. Yep, I definitely have something with that Boston Oi! thing (this is how it will be called here from now on. By that I mean bands like them, Revilers or Battle Ruins, that share some similarities, like HxC influences, but not sounding like that New York 90's Oi!, melodic, dark and absolutely fucking brilliant). But on the same time some Crocodile Dundee skinhead rock'n'roll will be involved as well, thanks to Sydney's Butcher Boys. So that's what you'll get with exoticism (if you were waiting for something like north korean RAC or pakistanese powerviolence, well no, that's not gonna happen, but that would be pretty exotic too).
Hammer and the Nails are, for those of you who don't know them (shame on you, you probably missed one of the best Oi! band from the U.S.A.) are playing powerful melodic and hardcore-influenced Oi!, with pretty agressive but not too tough vocals, always with great solo guitars. They actually have a sound and a style that is pretty easy to recognize (I don't think any band play like them), and you end up with a perfect cocktail of aggro and heavy Oi! with still an awesome melodical sound. Here they give us two new songs : "Kept Alive", which is probably one of their strongest song, and a cover of Straw Dogs' "Justice", played in the Hammer and the Nails style, which makes it even more powerful than the original one (and it's not easy, given how brillant Straw Dogs were). Good ones, as always in fact.

"Kept Alive" by Hammer and the Nails. As you can see, both of their songs are dealing with justice. And not a nice form of justice

On the other hand, the Butcher Boys are a two men band composed of two guys from The Corps, which is also a great band, playing what you could call Rose Tattoo-inspired Oi! (you can't go wrong with that). Spirit of the Streets described the band as a mix of Condemned 84 and Chiswick style. That's a pretty good description, and even if the singing is pretty close to The Corps, the music played is not the same. Much more '77 punk I guess (think early Skrewdriver, Slaughter and the Dogs and band in that vein), and even if I prefer The Corps, Butcher Boys give us two solid songs, and it's their first release (if I'm correct, they will do another split with the almighty Hard Evidence soon). I'd gladly listen to more things by these guys.
All that comes in a two-sided cover (one side per band, with their logos) and an insert (once again one side per band) that, unfortunatly, includes only the lyrics for "Kept Alive" by Hammer and the Nails. You'll also get a download code (I actually could only download the Hammer and the Nails songs with mine, no idea if it's the case for everybody or if I just had a fucked up code), which is always good. Oh yeah, 250 copies only, 125 in black splatter on clear vinyl and the other 125 in black splatter on clear red vinyl.
A pretty solid release, plus it's always nice to get some new songs by Hammer and the Nails (who have the best songs on that split EP), but you should also give a listen to the Butcher Boys, they're worth it. You can still find that record on the major european distros, so do yourself a favor and get it !