While driving home tonight, I gave the Milligram ‘This is Class War‘ CD a solid play: perhaps the first & only attentive listen I’ve given it since its release in 2003. I had originally purchased two copies of the Traktor7 edition (the one in the sewn, camouflage fabric bag)…and then when I later saw the Small Stone label re-release (with all those bonus tracks) I bought that one, too.
The stuff is great…no doubt. And, I kinda have to admit it took me awhile to understand what it was all about. And, yes, I’ve got the ‘Hello Motherfucker’ CD and the ‘Black & White Rainbow’ disc.
You see; I was an Only Living Witness fan from way back when you guys were the ‘oddball’ melodic band on Century Media, who – in those days – mostly provided me with guttural Death Metal (Morgoth, Unleashed, Grave). That was also a good number of years before the whole Massachusettes metalcore scene would happen. Shadows Fall, by the way, did right to pay homage via their cover of “December“.
After ‘Innocents‘ completely redefined the possibilities of crushing hardcore with melodic vocals, the Miltown era made sense. I played that self-titled EP endlessly during that summer following its release; simply brilliant aggressive music that was both refreshing and nostalgic – and a Cure cover to challenge the skeptical.
I ended up finding a few Miltown tracks online that weren’t on the EP (“Unravelling” and “Esperanto“), and then I paid a buck to download the song “Can’t Leave Home” from the Up the Dosage! V/A comp, via Amazon.com.
As a fan, I am still regularly checking Traktor7 for updates on the status of Tales of Never Letting Go: I guess “available eventually” is a rather hopeful prospect.
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