Major double bass and monotonous vocals. At least this album from HOW IT ENDS is pretty heavy and has some crushing breakdowns. Beloved, however, sounds like one gargantuan song. If HOT IT ENDS could tie in all the songs to each other it would be just that. Beloved is in dire need of some variety [...]

According to an article in the Denver Westword, more than just a stolen laptop lead to THE BLACKOUT PACT calling it quits. Not surprisingly, given the band’s rep (and repeated pleas over myspace for painkillers) excessive drug and alcohol use helped play a part in setting the band off its track. The group released its debut full-length in 2005 on Astro Magnetics Records.

- HIMSA has left Prosthetic Records and has signed a worldwide deal with Century Media. The band released their third full-length Hail Horror earlier this year.

- THE HAUNTED have canned part of their own headlining tour in Europe to provide direct support to KILLSWITCH ENGAGE.

- Between December 1st and January 15th, Vagrant Records will have all 65 of its full-length releases on iTunes priced at $7.99. For those not yet inclined to embrace digital distribution, the label is offering a 2 CDs for $15 deal at their online store.

- Download an MP3 of the brand new LOVE ME DESTROYER song “Things Around Us Burn” here. The band’s new album will be a guaranteed rockfest.

- SICK OF IT ALL is looking for video footage for a DVD it is assembling. Here’s the word from their label: “Sick Of It All are currently compiling material for a DVD that will be released early next year and are inviting fans to be apart of it by submitting their own video footage of the band. Sick Of It All continue to have one of the most energetic and engaging live shows in music today and your live footage of the band will help capture that on their DVD! If you have high quality live footage of the band, specifically from:

20th Anniversary show in NYC @ BB Kings

CBGB’s Last Show w/ Agnostic Front

The Roxy in Los Angeles, CA May 2006.

Santiago de Chile in September 2006

Any other recent shows from 2006

Please email info@abacusrecordings.com for more information on how you can submit your footage and in return receive limited Sick Of It All vinyl, and other product that will make it well worth your while!

- The Washington Post has a story today about House of Blues plans to move into the Washington DC market. Quoted in the article is Seth Hurwitz, owner of the beloved 9:30 Club, who discusses the ramifications of a Live Nation property coming onto the scene. From the article: “He [Hurwitz] and other concert promoters say House of Blues, which typically operates venues with capacities between 1,000 and 2,300 people, could lure performers with more money, edging out independently run venues that can’t offer similar pay. The chain has even deeper pockets since being acquired this year by Live Nation, they say.”

- DARKEST HOUR guitarist Kris Norris recently had 19 teeth removed!. The necessary procedure cost him $7,000, and he’s selling some DH related stuff to raise the money to pay off some debt. Check out the above article if you’re interested. 19 teeth… holy schmoly…

- Release of the day: THE ESCAPE ENGINE – Celebrity Role Model — this came out on Fidelity Records in April 2004. I thought this band had huge things ahead of them, but they quietly went away. Still, this disc is a tremendous mix of TAKING BACK SUNDAYish pop-rock, and more traditional post-hardcore. Track it down now before it’s out of print.

From the inbox:

PureVolume, Ferret Music and QLM present another exclusive brand new LoveHateHero song.

From now until December 9th, you can stream the song, “Red Dress”, from their forthcoming Cameron Webb-produced release entitled White Lies.

link: purevolume.com/Exclusives

Also, the band will be joining THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, CHASING VICTORY and THE HUMAN ABSTRACT for a short run of pre-Christmas dates in the Midwest. Keep on the lookout for January dates with BLESS THE FALL and ALASANA, and you can find the December find the routing below:

Dec 16 2006 My Space Internet Cafe(Show 1) – Roseville, Michigan

Dec 17 2006 My Space Internet Cafe(Show 2) – Roseville, Michigan

Dec 18 2006 Headliners – Toledo, Ohio

Dec 19 2006 Downtown Records – Lafayette, Indiana

Dec 20 2006 Underground – Indianapolis, Indiana

Dec 21 2006 Creepy Crawl – St. Louis, Missouri

Florida’s MAKE OR BREAK sound like they’re having the time of their life on Think About It!, the band’s 11 song, 15 minute, debut full-length. With an old-school sound that’s comparable to northern hardcore influencers FASTBREAK (before they went ‘boy-band’), FLOORPUNCH, and GORILLA BISCUITS, Think About It! handily rips through its songs with little time [...]

New Metal Blade signees PSYOPUS have posted an mp3 of the song ‘Insects’ from their upcoming album Our Puzzling Encounters Considered right here.

The best word I can think of to describe this song is “swirly.” Enjoy.

I couldn’t let Kerrang’s idiotic “Top 50 Punk Albums” list go without mention on Pastepunk even though it’s already been blogged to death in a mere 48 hours. You can find the list here (via punknews.org). We’ve got a thread going on our message board debating some of the more braindead moves… like ranking BLINK 182′s Enema Of The State ahead of BAD RELIGION’s Suffer. Contribute or lurk to it here.

From the inbox:

“After a couple of months on hiatus, we are finally back into the swing of things and are ready to rage once again.

Two original members of the band, former bassist, now drummer Drew Olsen and guitarist Greg Santoro have rejoined the band to replace Andrew Jones and Shawn Gardiner. We’re super excited to have two of our best friends back in the band that we all started together.

We have a new song posted at both purevolume.com/upthefury and

myspace.com/upthefury

The new song, “Alan Jones Wins” (named after former drummer Andrew Jones’ dad) is a contribution to the “Smithtown & Friends Volume 2″ compilation released on Pride Recordz (Rick from THIS IS HELL’s label) the compilation is the second volume of the original Smithtown & friends which was put out in 1999. The new comp features unreleased songs by UP THE FURY, THIS IS HELL, THE BACK UP PLAN, SOLDIERS and more.