RR07 Masakari / Tempest Split Formed in Ohio in 2006, Masakari is a five-piece band from Cleveland that unleashes a devastating blend of hardcore, d-beat, and crust with their own point-blank, by-the-throat approach to these classic styles.  The band wastes no time ripping our government, corporate, and religious institutions to shreds while raising awareness for both human and animal rights amidst crushing waves of pure aural aggression. Formed in Canada during the fall of 2007, Tempest is a five-piece band from Vancouver, British Columbia that combines elements of hardcore, crust, and post-metal into a cathartic wall of thunderous riffs and searing vocals. The band's relentless brand of dark hardcore is driven by the issues of animal rights, overpopulation, and religion to create a truly claustrophobic, exhausting, and terrifying musical experience. On May 1, 2012, Masakari and Tempest released a split through Replenish Records to benefit local pit bull rescue and rehabilitation centers in the United States and Canada.  100% of the proceeds from the physical release and the digital downloads of the album will be donated to Wiggle Butts Bully Rescue at http://www.wigglebuttsbullyrescue.org and HugAbull Advocacy & Rescue Society at http://www.hugabull.com in order to help rescue dogs, provide public education, and build a community of responsible pit bull owners and supporters. Pressing Information: Vinyl [ Test | Black | 10 ] [ 1 | Black | 500 ]
“First in line on the split is Masakari, the band deciding to contribute with a song called "X. Pain Conceived As A Tool."  Press play and get pulverized in an instant, the Ohio quintet opening with full aggression and no remorse for your ears.  The song lasts less than two minutes, but it is absolutely enough to set you in the mood perfectly and blow your mind away in the process, continuing with the speed and energy for which this band is well-known for.  Tempest holds the second half of this split and they hold it firmly.  The song on this split, called "Death Rattle," is a purely excellent piece, being overtly aggressive while bearing an amazing atmospheric trait.  It paints a rather complex image in the head of the listener with a lot of various shifts in melody, interesting bridges and an omnipresent wave of massive sound crashing on you.  Overall, this is a fantastic split, both because of the bands and their performance, but also because of the action they took with the label to help the lives of others who can't fight for their rights."  Natures With No Plagues "Masakari is possibly one of the most interesting hardcore acts around today. After a only a handful of releases they have quickly established themselves as one of the genre's most progressive and forceful entities, both willing to, as well as eminently able to, blend metal, crust, grind and hardcore in uniquely inventive ways that very few, if any, other band today can duplicate. Their music is so forceful it's unbelievable; there is an edge and an exactness that is razor sharp in all aspects of their music. There are shades of Tragedy, His Hero Is Gone, and Discharge bringing both melody, aggression and dissonance to their sound; as well as huge doses of entombed-styled metal, fleshing out the writing with battering metal riffs, barely contained chaos and a sludgy, implodingly dense heaviness. On this EP they team up with Canadians Tempest, whose style differs quite a bit from Masakari, but they are nonetheless one of the more interesting bands coming out of this whole dark hardcore style that is evolving out of metal and hardcore today. Their style is extremely dynamic and is moored in lots of chaotic raging black metal-colored aggression, Botch and Converge-like chaotic twisting guitars and monolithic Neurosis-influenced post-hardcore. All of it coated with depressively dark crust-like melodies, infusing everything with an oppressive sense of hopelessness and desperation."  Sound Out The Braille