Stigma - "New York Blood" video!

You all know Vinny Stigma as the guitarist from the Godfathers of NY Hardcore, Agnostic Front. After almost 30 years of paying his dues in Hardcore and Punk, this legendary personality has just released his 1st solo album entitled New York Blood on I Scream Records!

This is the video for the song NY Blood. A true NYHC flavored street-punk anthem!

www.myspace.com/vinnystigma
www.iscreamrecords.com

Live Show: No Turning Back, Eden Demise, Tardive Dyskinesia

(click on image for bigger view)

Place: An Club (www.anclub.gr)
Price: 12 euros
Time: 21:30
Pre-Sale: Nope, just go straight at the door.
Organizer: World's Appreciated Kitsch (http://wakhc.blogpsot.com)
-------------------------------------------------
Bands:
NO TURNING BACK (http://www.myspace.com/noturningbackhardcore)
EDEN DEMISE (http://www.myspace.com/edendemise)
TARDIVE DYSKINESIA (http://www.myspace.com/tardivedyskinesia)

If you listen to Hardcore, you probably know who No Turning Back is: one of the most-hard-hitting, but also most hard-working Hardcore bands in the world! Coming from Holland, they have nothing less compared to the big US bands that make the way. So it's definitely a pleasure to see them again in Athens! Last year their show was amazing: nice long set full of mosh, good vibes, nice merch... All good!

Eden Demise hails from Athens and I couldn't think of a better support choice for NTB. With their NY-influenced metallic Hardcore, they will definitely be IN THERE, wrecking shit with their beatdowns and thugcore/hip-hop approach!

When you go to a show and the 1st band is opening, things are pretty slow. Well, this won't be the case with Tardive Dyskinesia and their crazed bulldozing mathcore! Sounding like the heaviest Hardcore band but just about X10 more technical, they deliver the goods and leave you wandering WTF?
----------------------------------
All in all, this is a proper Hardcore show and it seems like everything is set for a good turn out, and a fun time for Hardcore fans! Proving that Hardcore is better, and heavier, gigs like this are just the evidence that this style of music is alive and kicking in this m/f country!!!

ZAO - Awake?

ZAO (Greek for "alive") have surely gone down like legends in Hardcore music history. Coming up in the mid-90s, they were one of the bands that formed the extreme side of what we call post-hardcore. I think they've managed to be one of the most special bands of that period not only due to their brutal sound, but also for the weird, dark spirituality and sense of unease they generate.

This is ZAO's new killer record and as the sticker on the CD says, they're back to "unnerve and provoke". And this they do: The best thing for me is Daniel Weyandt's vocals, a mix of black metal screams spat out with brutal hardcore monstrosity. At the same time, the music is dark heavy hardcore style, definitely metal-influenced but with no interludes, electronics or fake metal production. In fact, the production sounds really thick and warm, which is best-fitting for this style.

But Awake? is not just pummeling hardcore music; The album is filled from front to back with great discordant guitar work, some very well-put clean vocals/spoken parts, and constantly changing metallic drumming. In fact I don't think I heard one hardcore drum-beat going on, which is good: keep things mid-tempo and heavy!

Last but not least, the lyrics are dark, pessimistic, sometimes incomprehensible, but they so fit in well with the music (you won't understand a word unless you have the lyric sheet). But these words ooze with a sadness of the skeptic, the person who feels life and is immersed in it..

What's most important is that this record is an entity: it has 10 memorable songs that grow on you and leave you wanting more of Awake?. I personally always play the CD more than once in a row when I put it in the stereo (maybe 2, 3 times). After all, Awake? is complex enough for you to invest your time in listening to it again and again.

November 2009 update!

So.. 2008 & 2009 were 2 really a slow years for Take Your Shot! But we're back!

To be honest I personally never ever considered this mag dead, maybe more like a project that had been been stuck in the freezer for a while. What's important though, is that T.Y.S. is officially back on the map, and shit's about to seriously bust!

We've started working on the new issue, which is definitely not going to be just Hardcore music. In the last few years, musical horizons have been somewhat broadened, and I think it's definitely worth it to present more stuff than just HC. Not that T.Y.S will turn all MTV-like (as if), just that there will be other styles of music featured, as long as they are something we @ T.Y.S can dig.

Of course we're still interested in new and/or unsigned bands from everywhere, so please send all your demos and CDRs and all that, to the address written on the blog's information next to this column you're reading. We'll definitely hear that shit and feature it on the next mag or even here on this blog.

This web-page will also be more active. Many record, band, and label reviews/interviews will be posted here on a frequent basis, so keep checking back! I think we'll have some of the most interesting, energetic, thought provoking music going on here, so as Ice-Cube says, check yo self!

Take Your Shot is back!

Thanks,

Fotis

Jah People Make The World Go Round

Just the other day I was walking around checking out some record shops and by great surprise I bumped into the new BAD BRAINS Lp. Wait a second, say what!? Yes. A new BAD BRAINS record! I can't believe that this legendary rastafari hardcore band is still around making music. Being the clueless hardcore kid that I am, I didn't even know there was a new album out. Needless to say I bought it immediately and came running back home to listen to.

First things first let me say that the vinyl edition I got is a colour vinyl, so you get to see the colours of Jamaica go around while you spin the LP. I mean, how cool is that!? And then again, the music is awesome too. I was hit by the crazy production sound, really really raw and with absolutely tons of overdubs. I looked in the credits, and another surprise came: the album has been produced by Adam Yauch, one of the 3 MCs of the famous BEASTIE BOYS! This just keeps getting better and better.

As far as the music goes (the most important part, actually), this should be considered a classic BAD BRAINS album. The hardcore songs are 100% hardcore, sometimes with reggae vocals, but still HARDcore. And then again you get the mellow reggae songs, wich are sweeter and cooler than they have ever beem before. Being a fan of roots Reggae myself, this is a great treat...

So this is a record that I'm gonna keep playing for a while. I will probably tape it and play it in my car. I will probably play it to all my friends. I will probably dance around to it. I will probably say, "NATTY DREADLOCKS 'PON THE MOUNTAIN TOP"

Jah Rastafari Hardcore.