Sunday, January 17, 2010

YOU, YES YOU! TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!

I could have also called this post "the Ivan" post cause it all started when I was chatting with him a while ago and we ended up talking about RINGWORM quite a bit. in that conversation Ivan said that in his ears their demo would be THE ultimate definition of the sound that people would later refer to as HOLY TERROR HARDCORE (most likely after they came across that term in a zine called INSIDE FRONT or in an interview with the vocalist of CATHARSIS who published that zine in the mid and late 90ies) and I pretty much agree with him. other bands might have gained more popularity over the years, released more records, etc. but I always considered RINGWORM's THE WORMS WILL GET IN demo to be the foundation for the whole genre since I heard it for the 1st time. I openly admit that I'm nearly 100% sure that the records of other HOLY TERROR bands like INTEGRITY or CATHARSIS got played a lot more than RINGWORM's demo or their 12" in my place which may or may not have something to with the fact that RINGWORM seemed to feel quite comfortable within the patterns they (helped) define(d) and with continuing to base their songs on sheer brutality while INTEGRITY and CATHARSIS tried to push the envelope while still sounding brutal at the same time. oh, and I'm well aware that a lot of people would slap/tried to slap GEHENNA with the HOLY TERROR label but I wouldn't file GEHENNA under HOLY TERROR. anyway, back to RINGWORM and to what the title of the post means. in 1995 the RINGWORM demo was pressed on vinyl and came with the 4th issue of a zine called BLOODBOOK that was published by INTEGRITY's vocalist Dwid. now that 7" contains the remixed or remastered versions of the 5 tracks on the demo in a different order and without the movie soundtrack styled parts that were between the tracks on the org. tape which I didn't know back then as had neither seen nor heard one of the actual tapes and haven't seen or heard a physical copy of the demo till today (but I hope to get my hands on an org. copy of the tape soon) and I don't think that it would have any influence on my love for this 7" if I would have known. fast forward to 2009: RINGWORM's THE PROMISE 12" is re-issued on A389 RECORDS and the pre-order version came with a GLUTTONS 7" (which have Human Furnace on vox) and a 2nd 7" with a, I think remastered, version of the RINGWORM demo. this time it comes with the track order of the tape, the above mentioned soundtrack styled parts between the songs and also with the artwork that was used on the tape if I'm not mistaken. I decided to prefer the vinyl color and the darker cover of the INCISION pressing above the vinyl color and the cover of the A389 re-issue (which also doesn't display the band's name and the record title anymore) but the re-issue scores points for having a foldout cover and for coming with a booklet while most of the INCISION 12"es not even came with a lyric sheet. now, as the music on the 12"es isn't really that different enough about the full-length and back to the 7"es cause what I want you to tell me is which version of the demo you prefer. to simplify that task a click on the cover on the top will enable you to d/l an archive that contains mp3 rips of both versions and scans of the artwork.
as already written above the INCISION pressing had RINGWORM and the record title on the front-cover which also wasn't as bright as the cover of the re-issue plus the marbled vinyl didn't look like an abortion which I can't say about the red & yellow vinyl of the re-issue...

6 comments:

  1. i've been trying to collect as much of this kind of stuff as possible lately including gehenna's stuff . even if you wouldn't consider gehenna holy terror i could see why somebody would especially after looking at their lyrical content, the bands they toured with / repped in interviews, and the labels they've put out records on. either way awesome post and i'm def looking forward to snagging up more of those a389 reissues!

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  2. on the contrary - GEHENNA's lyrical content IS what separates the Men (= GEHENNA) from the boys (= what is called Holy Terror)...

    don't get me wrong I still love most of the bands commonly referred to as Holy Terror as much as I did 10 years ago but their lyrics are world's apart from GEHENNA's lyrics

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  3. I saw this a few weeks ago and couldn't find it again. I need to get one for myself now.

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  4. @ Shantera:

    what couldn't you find again?

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  5. The demo tape is the best(the grainy priest looking cover)...I had the bloodbook version and thought it was much weaker...without the soundbites and the remastering,I didn't dig it as much. I have the demo tape in my Dad's garage back in Clevo.

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