Most Precious Blood, Demo (Trip Machine Laboratories, 2011)

From Trip Machine Laboratories comes this vinyl reissue of Most Precious Blood's six-song demo from way back in 2000. The digital download also includes the band's cover of Slayer's "Necrophobic", the original version of "So Typical My Heart" (their last recording with Tom Sheehan on vocals, from early-2003), and a 33-minute live set recorded at CBGB's in 2002. The core of the release is the demo, which contains six short songs (all under two minutes) of unique metallic hardcore that draws from a wide range of influences—where you've got tracks like "The Knot", with its slightly more discordant take on fast-paced traditional hardcore; the midpaced post-hardcore dissonance of "Carry the Lantern High"; and the rhythmic grooves and winding bass runs of "Song of Siren". "So Typical My Heart" is my favorite track, though. A little more melody but still really heavy, raging energy... it's just an incredible tune. As expected the live set has pretty raw sound quality, but it's fairly listenable considering. When they're running full-on the guitars can get lost a little bit, but it's not bad. The set consists largely of Minor Threat covers with about 10 minutes of Most Precious Blood material towards the end. The sleeve contains old photos, lyrics, and brief song explanations for the six tracks from the demo, plus some liner notes by Tom Sheehan, reflecting on his time with the band. Good stuff. I hadn't listened to Most Precious Blood in a while when this showed up, and I've been reminded that I should really pull out their albums more often...

Most Precious Blood "Sincerely,"

As mentioned above, the vinyl includes a digital download with tons of bonus material. The 7"s are limited to 1,000 copies in various combinations, and clear/black haze and straight black vinyl are still available...

Get It

• Trip Machine Laboratories