Ripcord: Harvest Hardcore 7″

Description

Official reissue of the first Ripcord 7″! Blazing US-style hardcore, but from the UK in 1988.

Our take: First official reissue of the first Ripcord 7 (The Damage Is Done was a flexi, ya dingus!) from 1988. Whenever you see the word Ripcord referring to the late 80s UK hardcore band you can bet that the word Heresy won’t be more than 20 words away, and Im here to maintain cosmic order. Truthfully, I was always more partial to Heresy. Im a smidge too young to have gotten into these groups when they were around, and whether it was that Heresys material was more available or that they maintained their back catalogin a more attractive way (I suspect both), Ive always reached for the H section rather than R when Im looking for something faster than fast. Today, though, Harvest Hardcore is hitting me right. Ripcord really were a twin-headed beast with Heresy, with both bands sharing blistering fast, dunka-dunka hardcore beats, big breakdowns, and a curated list of cover tunes that still speaks to 21st century tastes (Siege and SS Decontrol on here). The production is solid and the playing tight and locked in, never degenerating into the semi-incoherent blur of, say, Napalm Death. It feels like this era / style of hardcore isnt the most fashionable at the moment, but then again we sold quite a few copies of that recent reissue of Heresys Face Up To It, so maybe Im wrong. What I can tell you is that Harvest Hardcore is one of the better records to emerge from that scene, particularly if your tastes lean towardstraightforward hardcore rather than grind and power violence.