Another Friend To The End

Gathering ex-members of Left For Dead, Chokehold, Cursed, and The Swarm, Haymaker is guaranteed to be good. Taking cues from the previously mentioned bands whilst adding an extra level of hostility and uniqueness, a heavy, punishing sound is forged. After releasing a handful of splits and EPs, Haymaker unleashed "It Only Gets Worse", a twenty-five song assault that featured one of Pushead's better pieces on the cover.

As prevalent as the LFD/CH sound is, there is equally a mix of Infest, Negative Approach, and MDC. The lyrics are straight to the point, no bullshit attacks on American policies, gun control, cops, and most notably religion. Make no mistake, there is no tolerance. Their distaste for organized religion, particularly Christianity, is clear and reinforced with tracks such as "God Can Fuck Hymn Self" and "Team Jesus Is Losing"; t-shirts show Jesus surrounded by shotguns along with other 'sacrilegious' designs. There is no middle ground; they hate and they do it well. Yet as aggressive and downright hateful the lyrics can get, there is a limited amount of cursing. Some bands fall into a nasty habit of using cursing as a crutch, often transforming a possibly decent song into something juvenile and uninspired. Not Haymaker though.

My favorite release is "The Lost Tribe" 7", which was released by Deranged Records. From what I've gathered, this material was supposed to be on the second LP but it never saw the light. So, I take it this is a demo of sorts? In any case, there needs to be a second LP.

You get the heavy hardcore 'take no shit' side of the band with perhaps a tinge of Motorhead . By that, I mean the six tracks have a little more melody with some rock n' roll touches. Is it a rock album? Absolutely not. But it does have its moments. For example, "Another Friend To The End" breaks the cycle of under a minute hardcore numbers and in a strange way is catchy. It also happens to be one of my favorite songs, no matter the genre.

The other five tracks hit the usual topics: politics and religion and 'scenes'. To my ears, this is Haymaker at its finest. I really dig the vocals. They dominate the sound-scape - earlier recordings muffled or muddied Jeff's vocals. From the preview of Pick Your Side, Jeff's new band, it sounds the same.

Haymaker embraced hatred for... damn well everything except skateboarding. That aggression often carried over to live performances in the forms of broken glass, fireworks, fire-extinguishers, sofa couches in the 'pit, and in Baltimore's case, flying garbage cans.

So, crack open a cold one and prepare to thrash. In their own words, "Wreck Shit"!

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Pre-Order Pick Your Side's (ex-Haymaker) debut 7" over at A389.

* From the Seven Sisters Of Sleep Post: The Gehenna/SSOS/COG/CF show has been canceled, unfortunately.

Fuck Your Popularity Contest; I Want To See A Murder Contest

If you don't like Left For Dead, I don't want to know you. LFD were around a short while but influenced a whole generation of hardcore bands. It's kind of like the Velvet Underground - not many people - at the time - bought the records, but those who did went out and started bands. "Splitting Heads" is their discography CD, courtesy of No Idea. Chris Colohan's vocals are just full of hate and frustration (It's fun listening to his later bands such as Cursed or Burning Love and then going back to LFD and hearing how young he is). The CD is full of classics, such as "Skin Graft", "Eight Floors Above", and "Who D'You Know", and even contains live tracks as a sort of bonus.

The thing I love about this release and the band is simply the lyrics. They're catchy without seeming contrived and juvenile. For example, during "Skin Graft"

"Why don't I cut off your head and we'll call it negative reinforcement"

Left For Dead disbanded, leaving behind a couple of splits and other releases. Alumni went onto form such bands as Cursed, Ruination, Haymaker, Burning Love, and the newer Pick Your Side. As bold and hyperbolic as it may seem, Left For Dead is without one of the most important bands in hardcore in the last twenty years.