The ever-expanding Hurry Up Records empire has signed Ireland melodic punk/hardcore dudes STARTERS. The group plays speedy, catchy, sincere-sounding music not unlike early SAVES THE DAY and NEW FOUND GLORY, and cites contemporaries TITLE FIGHT as an influence too. An eight song CD is planned, which will contain four new songs and four from the band’s demo (which at the time being can still be downloaded here).

- Really into this. Grab that demo!

- Thanks to reader Brett Iwamoto for the recommendation. Fast + Technical + Melodic = winner!

DIAMOND are a pop/rock band that features members of Baltimore’s TRAPPED UNDER ICE and Richmond’s DOWN TO NOTHING. Don’t much stock into those references though, since the band sounds nothing remotely close to hardcore. The falsetto/gentle vocals work well with power-pop guitars, giving the whole thing a bit of a NADA SURF feel. You can download or stream the band’s demo from their MySpace page.

Dispirit is a three song EP for Six Feet Under Records that rides the swelling momentum developed by the band’s 2009 Sinking release. DAYLIGHT have stretched out their emo influences on Dispirit while still peddling some SMALL BROWN BIKE influenced punk/post-hardocre rock, especially on the first half to the third song “Two of a Kind”. [...]

- I should keep the song’s title in mind when one of the sports teams I follow actually starts winning a few games…

Boston thrashers RAMMING SPEED are working on a split 12″ with fellow Texas speedsters ANS. The effort is expected to be out this Winter on Tankcrimes Records. An unmastered song titled “Message In A Bottle” from RAMMING SPEED has surfaced in MP3 form here. RAMMING SPEED has a full US tour planned for the fall, which include some shows with thrash veterans MUNICIPAL WASTE and sludge-metallers BLACK TUSK.

I was listening to NAKATOMI PLAZA’s swan song full-length Ghosts a little while ago, and started searching through my music collection for the band’s 2001 split EP with LATTERMAN. While featuring a more raw, crude form of both bands, the release has held my interest for a long time. In remembering that Rok Lok Records has a Bandcamp page, I was pleasantly surprised to see it available for streaming. Enjoy!

Black Market Activities sludge/groove/hardcore band SWEET COBRA will be releasing their third full-length, Mercy, next week. The lead-off track, “Brux” is streaming at Metalsucks.net. Mercy was recorded in early 2009, but has taken a long time to come to light since the passing of guitarist Matthew Arluck in late 2009.