S/D: Hydra Head Records

Pyramids - Self Titled/Nadja Split
5ive - Hesperus
Helms Alee - Night Terrors/Weatherhead
Keelhaul's Triumphant Return To Obscurity
Nihil - Grond
Bergraven - Til makabert vasen
Zozobra - Bird of Prey

sorry but: early Cave In > late Cave In

Agree with historyyy re Cave In. Also, that Melvins disc is on Ipecac, not Hydra Head. Also, Knut. Swiss post-hardcore/noise-math band. Check out Bastardiser, Challenger, Terraformer and Wonder. Avoid Alter, which is a remix album.

Also, that Melvins disc is on Ipecac, not Hydra Head.

vinyl version on Hydra Head :)

All of your destroys are searches.
Also, add:

* Mare EP
* Harkonen "The Grizz" EP
* Keelhaul "II"

destroy early converge??

wtf

DESTROY:

Cave In (early)
Converge (early)
Pelican

I've never heard much Cave In, but that Pet Genius album by some Cave In guy is pretty nice.

The first Pelican ep and Australasia are searchable. They got worse as they shed the metallic stuff IMO.

Not sure how I feel about Nadja in general anymore, but I enjoyed the Pyramids w/ Nadja album recently.

Meanderthal and Life... are my favorite HH releases by far.

Oh, also - there's more here:

S/D: Hydrahead Records

The first Pelican ep and Australasia are searchable. They got worse as they shed the metallic stuff IMO.

i can kinda get on board w/ this, i remember Australasia being alright. didn't like the album after that... they kinda started turning into exPelicans in the Sky, amirite?

missed that other thread! i searched before i started mine but didnt find that one.

They make for good companion pieces! I think it's because the other one was spelled as one word - yours was spelled right!

yup! precisely why i missed it.

from the likes of that other thread, sounds like i need to check out Keelhaul, Mare, and Pyramids.... think i have that Nadja/Pyramids thing around somewhere......

super search: Cavity, Craw, La Gritona, Austerity Program and Keelhaul

more or less destroy everything else excepting a few albums here and there like Botch We Are The Romans and Cave In Jupiter and The Boris/Merzbow

especially La Gritona, the best unsung noisy rock band ever

yours truly,
a reformed HH fanboy

oh yeah, and definitly search Knut, the most intimidating live band I ever saw

I was never sure about LaGritona, thanks for the rec.

You're welcome Aldo. They're kind of like a really really really pissed off jesus lizard with an even more demented singer and wilder guitars - circa 1995 Steve Albini engineer job and all.

pretty sure Big Business are my favourite band of the ones who have consistently recorded for HH - just so perfectly realised in so many ways

I've never thought of myself as a 'fanboy' of this label rly but I like or have liked something by nearly every band mentioned in the OP, although not necc the releases mentioned

The Austerity Program should be bordering on my ideal band but they always just fall short for me

if we can bring the Tortuga sublabel into proceedings, 'American Cloven Hoof Blues' by Scissorfight is one of the three best things they've put out

OLD MAN GLOOM

i actually discovered isis and converge thru old man gloom, bizarre i know, but its true.

Keelhaul was the first show I ever put on, about seven and a half years ago

they were really good

It's true Old Man Gloom is totally fucking awesome except for perhaps the first album before they became the Hydrahead allstars. I forgot about them.

I'd count Tortuga stuff. They do/did operate out of the same office and the Tortuga guys is/was a HH employee.

Keelhaul are awesome, saw them play here in Dublin earlier this year and they put on a kick-ass show. Also I gave their most recent album by number one in the year-end metal poll here a couple of years ago.

As for stuff not mentioned here yet, Cable's 'Northern Failures' is good stuff.

'my' number one, excuse me.

Good call on Northern Failures! Almost like a noisey stoner rock pop album, great tunes. The Cable album before that one is pretty cool too although more chaotic and less catchy.

Also along those lines and also pretty great is Milligram who had 2 Tortuga releases

The Cattlepress cd is cool too, sorta minimalist metalcore. I guess there are really quite a few good releases I tend to forget about.

I gave props to Cattle Press in the older thread, I like it a lot.

And how could I forget Discordance Axis? 'The Inalienable Dreamless' is a stone-cold classic.

Helms Alee's 'Weatherhead' is my favourite of the most recent things they've put out.

I didn't look at the other thread yet, sorry. You're right, though, Inalienable Dreamless is unbeatable. Fucking hell, the Agoraphobic Nosebleed PCP Torpedo is killer, too. And the Atom/Phantomsmasher stuff is some of the wackiest music ever, although I'm not sure it's worth searching out.

i still cant believe ilxor said destroy early cave-in

http://www.vevo.com/watch/helms-alee/816/USALX1121691

awesome

Hopefully the embed works

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GmcX97Y3vE4

Really bummed to hear this:

http://hydraheadlines.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-imminent-demise-of-hydra-head.html

aw

yeah just saw that

in a way, them becoming a 'big' label in indie metal terms around the middle of the 00s might have been a millstone for them. like, they were obliged to operate as a pro business w/ employees etc since, but at this point idk if they have any bands with a hope of selling more than a few thousand copies

I just tried to order their big pack through Real Tomato Ketchup and remembered why I stopped ordering from them. SEVENTY TWO DOLLARS POSTAGE. Plus Aaron always puts the full amount on the postage label - a couple of cds and a shirt suddenly starting costing me an extra $25 in UK customs/VAT, so this $100 package would end up costing me at least $330.

Krakow has a similar story about trying to buy Circle shirts in bulk for his NWOFHM store.

yeah I was totally bummed to see this news.

Sorry that never happened aldo - I really should have been in touch.

In terms of Hydra Head, I'm surprised and sorry to hear this news. It sounds like there's a little bit of life in them yet though.

Don't worry about it - I had figured something had gone wrong. We'll have a beer at Supersonic.

Cool! Yeah, it was just that I was going to have to buy a large number of ridiculously expensive t-shirts myself that no-one would ever buy from me (though HH have all but sold out themselves now that I look). I ended up feeling too tired of the whole endeavour to sort it out. Sorry.

As regards Supersonic, I'm there Saturday & Sunday this year, just booked my trains last night.

Yeah, this wasn't really a surprise to me. They haven't been relevant for a while now IMO... the best thing about them has always been how consistently brave they were. They'd release a bunch of safe stuff like Cave In or Pelican which would sell decently and then they'd put out something totally left-field like that Craw record which absolutely kills... but you know it'd only sell like 100 copies and is a total loss.

I'll always be forever thankful they did release that niche stuff!! I guess we'll never get any more new Craw, Harkonen, Cavity, Austerity Program, Keelhaul and Knut records now which is a huge shame.

might be naive of me here but Craw's last album (which bangs ftr) came out ten years ago, I think bands in their sort of position could expect to sell a bit more than that at the time

I mean I agree with your general point don't mistake me

(although you could say that about the great majority of notable independent labels - they had acts that sold a lot more than the rest, and in doing so funded acts that were more of a gamble financially)

I guess we'll never get any more new Craw, Harkonen, Cavity, Austerity Program, Keelhaul and Knut records now which is a huge shame.

I certainly hope not. There's nothing particularly challenging in the music of Keelhaul and their ilk; totally a place for them on the likes of Relapse, etc.

But I guess I'm also one of the hundred or so who got that last Craw record when it came out.

Well, I was exaggerating a little! And I'm sure just being on HH gave Craw and the lower profile bands a certain added cachet. I know that Craw record in particular has gained in popularity as time passes. I guess it's really just my perspective. Everyone I used to know who listened to this type of stuff would have We Are The Romans and Jupiter in their collection but it seemed like I was the only one buying things like On The Lam and Challenger.

And DJ Mencap, your point is good, all labels do this subsidizing and HH certainly had tons of other risky one off things that I wasn't interested in like Logh and Mare or whatever. Hydrahead just seemed super consistent about it, even in recent years (a Circle record!!!) so it always stood out to me.