Makara

Makara were a five-piece screamo/hardcore band from Cupertino, California that formed in 1996 and ended in 2001. In typical screamo fashion, their recorded output was pretty limited, though thankfully all compiled in one anthology collection at the tail end of their tenure. This band played an incredibly noisy and discordant brand of screamo, with distorted, throat-tearing vocals and harsh, grindy guitars. Members of this project were also involved in a plethora of other incredible bands, namely Yaphet Kotto, Mohinder, Jenny Piccolo, Welcome The Plague Year, The Anasazi, and Ruhaeda. Enjoy.

Makara (1997)

1. Broken Arrow To Everything

2. Bane

3. Ascension

4. Unchosen Strings

5. To The Undenied Hopes

You Are Cordially Invited To An Evening With: Shahrazad/Makara (1998)

1. Shahrazad - Time

2. Shahrazad - Sunshone

3. Shahrazad - Abandonment

4. Shahrazad - Felt Through You

5. Makara - Missing Green

6. Makara - Anemic

7. Makara - Shining Venus

8. Makara - Amical September

The Antique Dream (2001)

1. Untitled

2. Untitled

3. Untitled

4. Paper Cuts

Discography (2001)

1. Broken Arrow To Everything

2. Bane

3. Ascension

4. Unchosen Strings

5. To The Undenied Hopes

6. Improve

7. Missing Green

8. Anemic

9. Shining Venus

10. Amical September

11. Aerial

12. Paper Cuts

13. Forever Friends

14. My Friends, My Urn

15. Four Hearts In A Can

16. Home

17. First Demo 8.96

18. Missing Green (Live on KZSC 4-7-97)

19. Unchosen Strings (Live on KZSC 4-7-97)

20. Bane (Live on KZSC 4-7-97)

21. To The Undenied Hopes (Live on KZSC 4-7-97)

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Be Well

Be Well are a five-piece melodic hardcore band from Baltimore, Maryland that formed in 2019. This project was founded by vocalist  Brian McTernan, who was previously best known as a member of the legendary Battery and as a producer, working with bands including Thrice, Hot Water Music, Bane, and a ton more. Rounding out the line-up of Be Well are fellow hardcore veterans, including bassist Aaron Dalbec (Bane, Converge), guitarist Mike Schleibaum (Darkest Hour), guitarist Peter Trsouras (Fairweather), and drummer Shane Johnson (Fairweather). Based on the pedigree of their previous work, you can anticipate the excellence of Be Well right out the gate. Though certainly rooted in hardcore energy, this band's sound is more melodic and introspective, blending the sounds of all previous acts mentioned into more matured and nuanced instrumentals and lyricism that benefits from its hindsight perspective. Highly recommended, enjoy.

The Weight And The Cost (2020)

1. Meaningless Measures

2. Magic

3. Strength For Breath

4. Tiny Little Pieces

5. Morning Light

6. The Weight And The Cost

7. Each Passing Day

8. Frozen

9. Aperture

10. Longing

11. Confessional

Hello Sun (2022)

1. Treadless

2. I'll Leave You With This

3. An Endless Loop

4. Hello Sun

5. Only One Wish

6. In the Shadow Of Who You Thought I Was

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Government Warning

Government Warning were a four-piece hardcore punk band from Richmond, Virginia that formed in 2004 and disbanded in 2011. They knocked out a slew of releases in that time, including two full-lengths and several EP's. Sonically, they harkened back to the classic sound of hardcore in its original era, taking cues from bands such as the Adolescents and Zero Boys' rambunctious energy to knock out stellar songs in 60 to 120 seconds. If you're new to this band, Arrested is probably my personal favourite from them, though No Moderation is probably the essential entry point. Enjoy.

No Way Out E.P. (2005)

1. Railroaded

2. Blank

3. Government Warning

4. Walking Dead

5. Ghost Town

6. Self Destruct

No Moderation (2006)

1. No Moderation

2. Jocks And Cops

3. Cutting Room Floor

4. Fat Nation

5. Self Medication

6. Trend City

7. Slave Labor

8. Powder Keg

9. See The Truth

10. Sick Of Home

Arrested (2007)

1. Arrested

2. Maniacs

3. Killing For Fun

4. Safe And Sound

Paranoid Mess (2009)

1. Rot And Decay

2. Nowhere To Go

3. Urban Warfield

4. Endless Slaughter

5. Stop Again

6. Revolving Door

7. Blurred Yellow Line

8. Disengage

9. Hour After Hour

10. Glued

11. Factory Line

12. Shot Full Of Holes

13. (Global Warming)

14. Paranoid Mess

15. Enough Is Enough

Executed (2009)

1. Executed

2. Shirked Obligations

3. Modern Day

Violent Reaction/Barge/Night Birds/Government Warning (2016)

1. Violent Reaction - Victim In Pain

2. Barge - Stabbed In The Back

3. Night Birds - Haunted Town

4. Government Warning - Deny Everything

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Endpoint

Endpoint were a five-piece hardcore/emo band from Louisville, Kentucky that formed in 1987 and broke up in 1994, with reunion shows occurring in 2010. They were pretty prolific, releasing four full-lengths and a handful of other releases. Throughout their tenure, they clearly evolved, going from a fairly straight-forward hardcore punk to adopting melodic elements, angular rhythms, and slower tempos, which is why they're often cited as a precursor to midwest emo. There's a great article here that dives into their history more if you're interested. If you're new to this band, Catharsis is probably their best release, and a good starting point as it's a nice blend of their early and later sound. Enjoy.

If The Spirits Are Willing (1989)

1. Thought You Were

2. Mirrored Image

3. Dignity

4. Ignorance Downfall

5. Label Me

6. Wool

7. Final Stand

8. Way Back

9. Axis Crew

10. Face

11. Wrong

12. Stick Around

13. Wopner

14. Shattered Justice

15. Rungless Ladder

16. Religion Crisis

17. Exit

18. Blank

19. Promise

20. Priorities

21. Endpoint Outro

22. Stick Around

23. Ignorant Downfall

24. Invent A Law

25. Label Me

26. Death Watch

Note: CD reissue version from 1994, includes Sunspring split and early demo from 1988

In A Time Of Hate (1990)

1. Endpoint

2. Model

3. Face

4. Valerie

5. Fairweather

6. Rebirth

7. Final Stand

8. Way Back

9. Black Skies

Endpoint/Sunspring (1991)

1. Endpoint - Promise

2. Endpoint - Priorities

3. Sunspring - Don't Just Stand There

4. Sunspring - Silver Spring

5. Sunspring - Kendall

EP2 (1992)

1. Iceberg

2. Stone

3. Guilty By Association

Catharsis (1992)

1. Caste

2. Remember

3. Iceberg

4. Promise

5. Inside

6. Stone

7. Days After

8. Guilty By Association

9. Maturity

10. Last Song

Idiots (1992)

1. Building (Embrace cover)

2. Attitude (Misfits cover)

3. Circus Of Pain (Malignant Growth cover)

4. Persistent Vision (Rites of Spring cover)

Circumvent / 26 Seconds (1993)

1. Circumvent

2. 26 Seconds

After Taste (1993)

1. Force Fed

2. Circumvent

3. Decision Maker

4. Keating

5. Beggar Song

6. Lowland

7. Passive

8. Witness

9. Dirge

10. Myth

11. After Taste

12. Survival Song

The Last Record (1995)

1. Chalk

2. Pencil Break

3. Strings

4. Mather's Point

5. Brown County

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Zippyshare Update

Hey guys,

I just wanted to give you a quick heads up that Zippyshare will be shutting down at the end of this month. We've been using Mega for a few years now, and a lot of the earliest posts on here are still up on Mediafire, so this will only affect posts done between mid-2013 to early 2019, which of course is the vast majority of them. I know a lot of those links were down already, but a fairly large portion of them were still active. That is, until March 31st. 

I've already been reuploading old links, which I will continue to do, but this is a very tedious (and admittedly boring) process. So, if there is anything from the archives you might be interested in, now is the time to go back and grab them, because I don't know how long it will be until they'll be available again. This kind of thing was inevitable, especially as file-sharing usage dwindles. However, as long as people keep coming back here, this site will continue, no question there!

- Kevin/Sophie

Shoulder

Shoulder were a four-piece emo/post-hardcore band from London, Ontario that formed in 1994 and ended in 1997. They only released one LP, 1995's Touch, which is an underrated classic in the world of 90's emo. Sonically, they bridged the gap between the intensive angularity of Dischord bands such as Jawbox, Hoover, and Rites of Spring with the emerging melody of the midwest emo scene pioneered by bands like Split Lip and Endpoint. It's passionate, vulnerable, and energetic, while being dynamic enough to remain engaging. What more could you want from a band? The LP also features multiple interludes of fingerpicked acoustic guitar, which provides a unique flow not found on any other record of its time. Following the band's end, three of its four member regrouped in 1999 to form Constantines, a very well-known and well-renowned band in Canadian indie rock.

I highly recommend checking out this post on Abridged Pause. It delves deeper into their history, with changing members, release information, and more. It's also what provided a ton of the downloads here, as they also shared a ton of the band's discography, which was sparing before (songs from some sessions only ended up being released sporadically across various compilations). So full credit to them, and enjoy!

Demo (1995)

1. Burning The Day

2. Surrounding

3. Positions

4. Outlive

Basement Recordings (1995)

1. Funny Shit

2. The Woods

3. Twenty-One

Touch (1995)

1. Touch

2. Old School Falling

3. Unlisted

4. Buried Deep

5. Unlisted

6. Water Level

7. Dry Eyes

8. Unlisted

9. Burn Away

10. Unlisted

11. Stained Glass

12. Chipped Paint

13. Unlisted

14. Second Hand

Kindling Recording Session (1996)

1. Kindling

2. Body

3. This Is Not An Exit

4. Progressive Movement

5. Flower Drum Song

Shoulder (1996)

1. Kindling

2. Body

Morning Again/Shoulder (1996)

1. Shoulder - Flower Drum Song

2. Morning Again - Cradle Of Empty Promise

3. Morning Again - Martyr

Last Show (1997)

1. Progressive Movement

2. Body

3. EastEnd

4. Flower Drum Song

5. Old School Falling

6. Kindling

7. Water Level

8. Owned And Operated

9. Outlive

10. Chipped Paint

11. Second Hand

Abridged Pause

Apple Music

Roosevelt

Roosevelt were a five-piece emo/hardcore band from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida that formed in 1994 and disbanded in 1995. They evolved out of another project by the name of Platform, whose demo I've also included here. Roosevelt formed in late '94 and recorded a demo cassette that same year. Their first official release was a split with Culture, a band they had close ties to in their brief tenure. Their final release came in the form of a 7" that was put out posthumously by Boxcar Records, after its members had moved on to a multitude of other projects. There's a fantastic interview on Abridged Pause with members of the band; it goes into great detail regarding their history and influences (Split Lip, Unbroken, and Texas Is The Reason, to give you a sonic reference point). It's worth a read, and also where these downloads were found from, so full credit there. Enjoy.

Platform Demo (1994)

1. Watch It Burn

2. Damnation

3. Cleanse The Soul

4. Within

Demo (1994)

1. Citizen

2. Stale

3. Runner Up

4. Shroud

5. Wishing Well

6. Gender

Culture/Roosevelt (1995)

1. Roosevelt - Smile

2. Culture - Exchange

Roosevelt (1996)

1. Spine

2. Parade

3. Ugly Truth

Abridged Pause

The Lazarus Plot

The Lazarus Plot were a four-piece emo band from Elgin, Illinois that were active from 1997 to 1999. This gem of a band's output was limited, but what they did put out is absolutely incredible and severely underrated. They often utilize clean, melancholic arpeggios, and spoken word that often build into crescendos, which can either stay clean and become sweetly sung, or occasionally burst into heavy climaxes with shredding screams. It's a formula tried and true; fans of bands as vast as Eldritch Anisette, Plunger, Endive, The Little Rock Nine, Rainer Maria, Indian Summer, or Don Martin Three should absolutely be checking this out. I do want to emphasize that this isn't a direct comparison, as this band brought something truly special to the table, thanks in part to the dejected lyricism and raw, almost lo-fi production quality. It encapsulates a plethora of viscera and a spectrum of mood, or something along those lines. This may be slightly off-topic, but if you're a Bright Eyes fan, the singer of The Lazarus Plot is Laura Laurent (Lifted... track 12).

On another side-note, I just want to quickly shout out this fantastic new blog, Canadian Wasteland. It's incredibly comprehensive, and if you're into what I share here, you'll definitely find something to love there. Enjoy!

The Lew Wallace Compilation (1998)

1. Quatro - 5th Grade Diet Plan

2. Twelve Hour Turn - Two

3. The Vidablue - '87 Yankees

4. The Lazarus Plot - Unmarked

The Lazarus Plot (1999)

1. Friday The Thirteenth

2. Confessions To An Early Summer Nightmare

3. Dissolving Substance

4. Sleepwalker

5. Ending Time

6. Goodbye, Again

The End (1999)

1. Charmed, I'm Sure

2. Eyes Like Sticks

3. Asleep/Awake

Long Live Nothing/The Lazarus Plot (2000)

1. Long Live Nothing - Selbstmord

2. Long Live Nothing - Untitled

3. The Lazarus Plot - Something Good Has Got To Come Out Of All These Goodbyes

Zulu

Zulu are a hardcore/powerviolence band from Los Angeles, California. The band was conceived by Anaiah Lei in 2019 as a one-man project, with him performing all instrumentals on Zulu's two debut EP's. They have since rounded out their line-up as a five-piece, with Lei taking on vocal duties. The project also signed to Flatspot Records, who re-released the aforementioned EP's, and have just recently dropped the band's stellar debut full-length, A New Tomorrow. Out the gate, this project set itself apart by elevating the confines of hardcore, managing to seamlessly blend ferocious powerviolence bursts alongside soul and reggae influence, whilst interpolating samples from major figures in Black culture. This full-length was one of my most anticipated albums of this year, and it did not disappoint. I say it a lot, but this band is one of the finest in the scene at the moment, both in terms of originality and impact, and I would not advise passing this up. Enjoy.

Our Day Will Come (2019)

1. We've Only Just Begun

2. I Sit Alone In My Four Cornered Room Staring At Candles

3. Things Ain't Gonna Change

4. Watching From The sideline

5. 52 Fatal Strikes

My People... Hold On (2020)

1. Blackcurrant

2. Now They Are Through With Me

3. Straight From Da Tribe Of Tha Moon

4. On The Corner Of Cimmaron And 24th

5. Do Tha Right Thing (And Stop Frontin’)

A New Tomorrow (2023)

1. Africa

2. For Sista Humphrey

3. Our Day is Now

4. Music To Driveby

5. Where I'm From

6. Fakin’ Tha Funk (You Get Did)

7. Shine Eternally

8. Must I Only Share My Pain (Interlude)

9. Lyfe Az A Shorty Shun B So Ruff

10. From Tha Gods To Earth

11. Crème de Cassis by Aleisia Miller and Precious Tucker

12. We’re More Than This

13. 52 Fatal Strikes

14. Divine Intervention

15. Who Jah Bless, No One Curse

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Subliminal Excess

Subliminal Excess are a four-piece hardcore punk band from Chicago, Illinois that formed in 2019. Their debut demo come out in January of 2020, and gained some traction thanks to its raw, loose, and noisy take on hardcore that brings it back to its punk roots. Its poignant aggression takes aim at a broken social system, which comes through in both the lyrics and  snarling instrumentals. They've now returned with a brand new EP, which captures the unfiltered energy of their demo while speeding up their already fast-paced sound. This is the kind of punk that I personally love, so of course this is highly, highly recommended. Enjoy.

2020 (2020)

1. Unified In Pain

2. Wild Spiral

3. Temporary World

4. Psychotic Break

5. Burning Feeling

Witness (2023)

1. Cope With Reality

2. Paranoia

3. Identity

4. Excess

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