Word of who was gonna be on the bill for this year’s Scion Rock Fest, the totally free annual metal super-show, got out yesterday — hell, Wormrot even decided to just go ahead and confirm their presence at the festival. So in that regard, the official announcement of this year’s fest is a little anti-climactic.

Until you realize, holy shit — there really is gonna be a free festival with Morbid Angel, Obituary, Death Angel, Municipal Waste, Agalloch, Wormrot, Kvelertak, Atheist, Black Breath, Nails, Fuck the Facts, and tons more awesome bands. That is a fact about which one ought never to complain.

You can RSVP for the event here starting tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy the finalized poster:

-AR

In my 20+ years of listening to metal/hardcore/etc, there are few records that have made a bigger impact on me than the “Cry Now, Cry Later” compilations. For those who aren’t familiar, this series of four double-7″ compilations collected some of the mid ’90s most brutal and important grindcore/power violence bands, and I still listen to it on the regular (although nowadays that’s usually on my iPod while I’m at the gym).

Before I dig into the tracks themselves, a little background: You may know Pessimiser as the label who put out some great records from bands like 16, Despise You, Excruciating Terror, Grief and Phobia, but it was originally a zine. The brains behind the zine, label and Despise You is Chris Elder, who is not only hilarious, but among the world’s most cynical human beings (as you might be able to tell from the name of his band and label). Chris is born and raised in the sketchy town of Inglewood, which has its fair share of cholos (Mexican gangsters), and the name of the record is a parody of the famous cholo saying “Smile Now, Cry Later.”

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It was just a month ago that Scott Hull’s This Comp Kills Fascists Vol. 2 was announced, and look! It’s coming out this Tuesday, June 22 on Relapse! I think our resident powerviolence expert, Sergeant D., is working on a semi-formal review, which I am honestly waiting for with baited breath, as it’s sure to be insightful, hilarious, and enraging pretty much all at once.  And I’m sure you’re excited, too.

While we all hold hands and wait, you can now actually stream the entire album right here. Like I said, it was compiled by the great Scott Hull (you either knew he was from Pig Destroyer and Agoraphobic Nosebleed or fuck yourself) and features Drugs of Faith, Crom, Apartment 213, Owen Hart, Noisear, and a plethora of other excellent grind, powerviolence and hardcore acts. And one of the most fun aspects of a project like this is that while you may know some of the bands, you may very well not know them all, and now you get to learn about some cool bands you didn’t know before from someone awesome (that would be the aforementioned Mr. Hull). I didn’t know Owen Hart before Comp Deuce, for example, and I’m really digging them. Thanks, Scott!!!

So go listen.

-AR

A couple of weeks ago we got word that Scott Hull was putting together a second edition of This Comp Kills Fascists; that news alone was enough to make us excited, because a) we loved Comp volume one, and b) we’ll spend money on pretty much anything that has the words “Scott Hull” on it. (Pretty much anything. There are obviously exceptions.)

Now a complete list of bands that Hull has selected to appear on the comp has been released – although not a track list. I just think that’s worth mentioning because with bands like these, the songs tend to be pretty short, and on the last comp, all the bands got multiple songs – so if you look at this list and think “Gee, that’s it?”, well, it’s safe to assume that there will still be plenty of music to be had here.

Maybe even more importantly – since I don’t think this line-up is as overtly impressive as the one for Comp. 1 (which had Brutal Truth and Insect Warfare and some other “flashier” bands, at least inasmuch as there’s such a thing as a flashy grind band) – there’s now a preview page for the album, which is currently streaming tracks by Despise You, Apartment 213, Owen Hart, and Idiot’s Parade. So if you look at this list and you’re all, “Fuck are these dudes?,” well, head over there to hear some awesome awesomeness.

List of the included bands after the jump. And because I’m a swell fella, I’ve included MySpace links for all of them, so you can check ‘em out now if you’re not already familiar with them.

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2008′s Scott Hull-compiled This Comp Kills Fascists was pretty much the best thing ever; it seemed to feature half the world’s best grind/powerviolence/hardcore/whateverthefuck bands (Brutal Truth, Magrudergrind, Insect Warfare, etc.), and even introduced me to at least one awesome band with whom I was not previously familiar (Weekend Nachos). Also, the album art had a picture of George W. Bush with a swastika made out of cocks coming out of his head, so it’s hard not to get behind that as one of the greatest artistic achievements of the modern age, or possibly just recorded history in general.

Now Hull is curating (can you curate a metal comp?) a second volume, which Relapse will release in North America on June 22, and in Europe on June 28. You can pre-order a copy here. The tracklist hasn’t been released just yet, but announced bands include Lack of Interest, Noisear, Drugs of Faith, Apartment 213, Despise You, Triac, Social Infestation, and Crom. Some of those bands I already know and some I don’t, but it doesn’t matter – Scott Hull has impeccable taste. This comp is going to kill a lot more than just fascists.

No word on which political figures will be getting the genitalia treatment this time out.

-AR

16 is a fucking brutal band on Relapse that doesn’t get nearly enough coverage here, largely due to the band’s apparent refusal to embark on a lengthy tour to promote its latest collection of furious violent outbursts Bridges To Burn, which our own Satan Rosenbloom reviewed back in January. I actually dig this album way more than my colleague, and it ranks among my favorite records released this year thus far. In order to express my love for this band, in the hopes that you’ll check 16 out and become a fan of its de-motivational music, here’s an update on the group’s current goings-on.

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