So Sick It Hurts: Disfear / Doomriders - Split 7"

When I first got my grubby hands on this 7", I was happier than a frat guy with a garbage can full of jungle juice. Disfear is one of my favorite bands, and Doomriders never disappoints. Bellions, this is a marriage than can not go wrong.

The split contains one song from each band, and both are top notch. Disfear delivers a little number called "Fear and Trembling," and it is one of the best songs I have heard from the band. The Swedish D-Beat group decided to add a good amount of melody to this track, and it adds a new dimension of emotion that sits pretty with the usual urgency these guys are known to project in their music. Fantastic song on all counts. Any fan of the band needs to hear it.

While Disfear represents with ONE of the best songs they've ever written, Doomriders presents THE best song the band's ever written. "Crooked Path," which is also available on their latest release Darkness Comes Alive, is everything you could possibly want from these fellows. It too introduces a bit more melody than usual, but keeps the same edge you would expect. The first time I played this song, I had to listen again. Then I listened one more time. I'm sure this will rank in your top three Doomriders jams. If it doesn't, the Spleen will mail you ten bucks.

This record is a limited pressing, so pick it up as soon as you can. You can thank me later.

Disfear playing "Fear and Trembling" live:


Doomriders "Crooked Path" with a picture of the 7". (I hate it when people do this.)

So Sick It Hurts: Doomriders - "Black Thunder"

What's not to love about this damn album? If you're not sucked in right off the bat to support Nate from the mighty Converge, you're just a plain dum dum... Or if you don't like albums that make you wanna take your shirt off, flex your wife-beater tan and beer gut, display your bled-out and faded bald eagle tattoo, grab a Daisy Duke type broad in cut-off jean shorts, smash some empty Old Style beer cans on your skull, and toss 'em out the window of your primer gray Camaro, shifting gears with your stainless steel skull shifter, while you patch out onto old Route 66 after sticking up a Mom and Pop roadside convenient with a snubnose pistol you lifted off your buddy named Rickets.... you are a dummy, and a jerk.

That being said, this is Doomriders' first full-length LP on Deathwish Inc. And I have to admit, after hearing their split with Boris, I was anxiously awaiting this record's release. There's just a fuckin' spirit that this record captures that feels like a breath of fresh air. I don't know if its the 80's hardcore punk ethos, or the 8 inch thick slab of sludgefuzz on every track, or the knod to balls-to-the-wall rock and/or roll of days past, or the fist-pumping anthems with hooks so hooky you'll be married to them for weeks, or the album art that screams radness to the tenth power. Whatever it is, this record's got it all... and it fuckin kills in the process. Do yourself a favor and pick up this album, like, yesterday... bring it home, make love to it, comfort it, and caress it... then in the morning, just plain eat it... fuckin ingest it... and hope some of its radly gnar powers of awesomeness rub off onto you through osmosis.

Doomriders - "The Long Walk" (live in Visalia, CA)