5X5 FRIDAY #1: A Short Breakdown Of What I’ve Listened to This Week
If you follow me on Instagram (@playboircgerm) you know that most weeks I post a 5x5 on the records I’ve been listening to each week. The tradition started when I was very active on the Hardlore discord and every Friday the server would host a 5x5 Friday thread. As I grew closer to my peers in the server and followed them on Insta I realized they uploaded their 5x5’s to Instagram as well, now I’m taking it a step further. We’re gonna go from my least to most listened to records and I’m going to give a brief description of each one.
#25: Hot Show - Prozzak
This is odd for me but even though this blog is primarily based on alternative culture and heavier underground music, I fucking LOVE dance pop and disco. Prozzak has a very unique style that I fell in love with and this is them at their peak. My favorites have to be “Europa”, “Strange Disease”, and “Sucks To Be You”
#24: Kyuss - Blues For The Red Sun
Goddamn this record is amazing desert/stoner rock. If you by any chance love QOTSA please give this a listen, my favorite track by far is “Green Machine”
#23: First Blood - Killafornia
I’ll be honest I only really enjoy one song from this record. But that song is insanely hard, it’s none other than Victim. Everything from the riff, the verses, the Rambo sample, and that breakdown hits like crack every time. Go play that song right now.
#22: Comeback Kid - Turn It Around
This album as my colleague Scotty D said yesterday, is impossible to hate on. It’s hard, it’s melodic, and it’s positive as hell. If you’re in a bad mood throw on “All In A Year”
#21: Blacklisted - Heavier Than Heaven…
A band I’ve had the pleasure of seeing on their reunion in October. Seeing them live was pretty scary, everyone was moshing hard but it was pitch black so stepping into the pit was a gamble on if you’d get an elbow. My favorite song from here is Touch Test by a mile, but we’ll get to my favorite Blacklisted song soon.
#20: Balmora - Prologue
I don’t even remember throwing this on. Let alone over Heavier Than Heaven. I can’t be mad though because these guys are bearing the torch of moshcore like OBW and 7A7P into 2026.
#19: Botch - We Are The Romans
My favorite record of all time. Enough said, your homework is put this on start to finish and just get lost in the sauce. So many amazing riffs in this record right here, great drum patterns as well that are just as infectious as they are complicated.
#18: Throwdown - Haymaker
For better or for worse this changed hardcore history forever. After this Throwdown would shift to Pantera from Temu, but this is certainly a great swan song for their HC period. Listen to “Forever” or the intro track.
#17: Overanalyzed - Whisper To A Deaf Heaven
Perhaps a review will be out soon on this record. This is some 2000’s throwback metalcore while also blending elements of the metallic hardcore revival we’re currently in. Please check this out as they are repping South Jersey very well, and go see their show in Long Branch tomorrow!!
#16: Kids Like Us - Outta Control
I’m so happy this band is back. I just need Bob Wilson or Joe Hardcore or R5 or anyone to book them here in Philly. This record changed my life, I know it seems like I use that term loosely but over the past few days I’ve just been gushing about my favorite records. The closer, Gator Smash, changed my trajectory from being a punk guy to being an HC kid. I fucking love Kids Like Us.
#15: 18 Visions - Obsession
A solid record by an amazing band, now despite the fact this isn’t my favorite 18 V record (trust me we’ll get to that one soon) this definitely features their best song in Tower Of Snakes. I love how it sounds a lot more ETID influenced than the rest of their discography, and the way it shifts from a pretty poppy metalcore song to having one of the hardest breakdowns makes me go wild every time.
#14: Blacklisted - Eye For An Eye (single)
Speaking of breakdowns this proves that a great build up is all you need as long as you deliver. This breakdown only lasts about 13 seconds (26 if you count the 2 step part) but it’s the perfect example of less is more. Joe Hardcore’s feature had more abrasive growls than the rest of the vocals in this track and it makes the breakdown way more heavy hitting. Easily one of the best PAHC songs ever.
#13: The Mongoloids - Time Trials
I just have one question for everyone still reading, “IS ANYBODY FEELING ME?” The hidden track at the end of Established alongside other songs on this record such as the legendary Mongo Stomp, Alive and Well, the title track, cement this album as one of my favorite HC releases and it pains me that I had to leave it off my Top 5 Thursday.
#12: Wrong Answer - Circle Of Blood
A very controversial band to say the least, but their style of “Naughty Youth Crew” is undeniable. The second you throw on their big hit “The World Is Empty” you instantly get sucked in by that riff, and the bust it mosh callout is one of my favorites.
#11: Balmora - With Thorns Of Glass…
Now we have a record by Balmora I remember I popped on. I’ve said it a couple entries ago and I’ll say it again, they’re bearing the torch of moshcore formerly held by 7A7P and OBW into the modern age. If you don’t “get” Balmora throw on this EP and you’ll understand why they’re getting that opening spot for Turmoil.
#10/9: XBONGX/Seven Crimson Suns - Split
I feel like I forever hold a connection to this record, this is the first record I reviewed a little under a week ago. Ever since my initial review about a week ago my feelings towards this record have only grown stronger. I urge you to listen to this if you haven’t already.
#8: Mongoloids - Assorted Music
I vastly prefer Time Trials to this record overall, but I’ve been feeling this one a lot more this week. Honestly? I think this record is the perfect companion to Time Trials and looking at this record through that lens has made me appreciate it way more than I did originally. Pop on the song True Colors, the riff is so good.
#7: Ramallah - But A Whimper
If you’ve read my Top 5 Thursday at all yesterday you know I think this is one of the best HC records ever. Even if you don’t agree with that you must admit it’s overlooked when compared to its contemporaries. It has a couple skips at the end of the record but the punk songs on here are so great it balances it out. Pop on “Sleep” and you’ll want to beat up anyone who comes within 100 feet of you.
#6: Turmoil - The Process Of
I need to, and I mean NEED TO go to that reunion show. There’s few bands as legendary as them in Philadelphia. I’d say Blacklisted, Paint It Black, Kid Dynamite, and one more I’ll get to in a couple entries are the only 4 more influential. Put on the first song, “Playing Dead” and I can almost guarantee you’ll be sucked into this record.
#5: Purple Mountains - S/T
Shifting gears away from hardcore, we have a record I only just learned about yesterday from Hardlore. All I have to say is this is the greatest country album I’ve listened to since probably the first time I heard Whiskeytown’s Pneumonia. I love how heartbreaking this record is, but a part of me has some guilt enjoying this record as looking back this was undoubtedly David Berman’s suicide note. But it’s also kind of bittersweet because it’s comforting when you’re feeling like shit mentally that you aren’t alone in your struggles. If you take one thing away from this article, let it be this. “All My Happiness Is Gone” is the greatest country song ever. Put it on in honor of David’s legacy.
#4: The Virgos - Lord Have Mercy
You know, it’s an inside joke between me and my group of people I’m tight with that this record features the hardest song written about a cat. From the first full track on the record “Her Majesty” all the way down to the final song titled “Babylon (Live)” this is a work of doom metal art. This is the new project of PAHC royalty Andy fuckin Saba himself, so you know the riffs in this record are basically endless. Please go listen to this whole thing.
#3: 18 Visions - Vanity
From the opening snare hit I fell in love with this record, poppy ass metalcore normally gets shit on (and I get it, for the most part that shit sucks) but the melodic parts here coupled with the riffs. It’s no surprise this record is their best as they just found their niche mixing clean vocals with harsh vocals to a much more prominent level than their peers at the time (even PTW didn’t use cleans to this level), and this was the last record to feature Brandan Schieppati of Bleeding Through fame playing alongside Keith Barney. So this was basically an OCHC supergroup, I could go on but I’ll just make some quick bullet points of things I love from this record. The clean parts in the title track, the punk n roll riffs of I Don’t Mind, the groove of Fashion Show, and just to wrap up the ominous presence of One Hell Of A Prizefighter. Pop this record on repeat man, I know I can’t take it off repeat.
#2: Ink & Dagger - Fine Art Of Original Sin
This remaster is so great. The only dud on this is the remix of the title track but I wouldn’t even consider that a real part of this album. From the haunting nature of the title track, to the anthem of my home base in Philapsychosis, the maniacal breakdown of the 6 Ft Under Swindle, and the digital hardcore elements in the vain of Atari Teenage Riot prominently featured in Vampire Fast Code Ver. 1.5 this record is an amazing ride. I constantly go back on which I like more, this or my number 1 most listened to album this week. Which is none other than…
#1: Ink & Dagger - Drive This 7 Inch…
The reason why we have our name. From the opening song The Road To Hell crafting a haunting picture you know this is one of the best horror punk albums of all time only rivaled by Danzig era Misfits albums. But this record has been covered to death so I’m gonna open up about a personal expirence that no other blog or magazine has. The first night I saw them 13 days ago me and my dad went painted up together like Geoff Rickly and SPM respectively. My dad came out of mosh retirement for this occasion and I remember during the opening notes of Full Circle I hopped up onto the stage of the First Unitarian Church and jumped off into the sea of people, as I was up in the air I saw out of the corner of my eye my dad up on stage too, diving right in front of me. Now my dad was the reason I got into Ink & Dagger and punk and hardcore in the first place. So when we were both up in the crowds hands there was nothing more beautiful at that moment. It’s a well known fact that the goal of Ink & Dagger was to bring the Philly punk and HC scenes together, and judging by the 2 nights I saw them, I can say they did exactly that. RIP Sean Patrick McCabe, Devil children unite.
Comments
Post a Comment