The third installment of the Split Hits the Fans series is different than the rest. The first, second and fourth editions pair an established punk band (The Queers, Sloppy Seconds, Dwarves) with an up and coming Midwest band (BassAmp & Dano, Dangerbird, Against The Grain). Volume three crams four relatively unknown Midwest bands on a seven inch record. The lack of name recognition doesn’t make it any less worthwhile.
No/Breaks start off side A with three short blasts of chaotic hardcore. They’re the band on this brief comp that I was most familiar with. The now broken up quartet was from southern MI. I had seen them live, and have (I think) all of their other releases. (I believe that their entire discography is made up of splits. Two seven inches, a CD and this four way 7”.) No/Breaks’ three songs are the punkest and angriest songs on the record. “Endure”, “Judgement” and “Dabhead” are all killer tracks. No/Breaks are the only band to contribute more than one song, and are the only band from Michigan.
Hailshot, The Mound Builders and The Lurking Corpses are all from Indiana (as is Failure Records & Tapes). I recognized their names, but that was about the extent of it. The Hailshot song, “Slow Moving Shadows”, closes side A and might be my favorite on the EP. The music is classic metal with some guttural death metal vocals, and also some soaring Joey Belladonna (Anthrax) type singing. It's good stuff.
Side B kicks off with The Mound Builders’ thrashy and catchy “Sun God”. Things end on a fun note with The Lurking Corpses. This horror metal band come across as a strange mix of King Diamond and Ghoul. All the songs are good, and they definitely make me want to dig deeper into the bands I’m just being exposed to. There is a lot of great music coming out of the Midwest, and I appreciate the hard working labels who are trying to bring it to the world's attention.
Like the other Split Hits the Fans records, this is limited to 500 copies on random colored vinyl. (Mine is a dark pink.) The artwork on this thing is really cool too. (I’d credit the artist, but I can’t find their name.) I must admit that I am obsessed with this series of records. It brings me back to my glory days of serial 7” collecting in the mid ‘90s. I can’t wait to find out what’s coming next. Check it out.