To go along with this post on Corgeasm, I present Tuscon, Arizona’s Groundwork. Typical of many bands of that time, they lasted a few short years but had a large impact on hardcore in the mid-1990s. Their brutally heavy yet emotional style set them apart from many bands.
This record, along with Unbroken’s life.love.regret, came along at just the right time for me. I was looking for something a little heavier than bands like Indian Summer, yet not the tough-guy, straight edge, moshcore of Earth Crisis and 25 ta Life. When A Prayer for the Dead finally kicks in, it still sends shivers down my spine. The bass is so heavy. Bands like this make we want to start bands of my own, just so I can make music that might touch others the way this touched me. Cheesy, I know…
As usual, I don’t know much about this band. I heard that some of the members went on to another band called Absinthe. This CD is an incomplete discography release, combining the Today We Will Not Be Invisible Nor Silent LP, their side of the Unbroken Split, the Living in Fear and Lay Down 7 inches, and their track from the Lacking Mindset compilation. Missing is their tracks from Land of Greed… World of Need, a split with Undertow, and possibly more…
Groundwork - Today We Will Not Be Invisible Nor Silent (1994)
14 comments:
Awesome, thanks. I really like them, but for never reason never got a hold of their lp and other stuff (I just have the split with unbroken - which has the song live.love.regret on it... do they also have an album with that name? - and living in fear, and I thought I had the split with undertow, but I'm having trouble finding it). They also have a song on the XXX comp.
After Absinthe, the singer was in Bury Me Standing. The bass player (I think... the one with the mega-christian tattoos) of Groundwork sang, and I think played guitar, in 400 Years. The Absinthe 10" is totally great. The 7" is good, too.
Anyway, glad to have this.
Oh yeah... I forgot about the 400 years connection.
The song on the XXX comp is also on the LP. I don't know if it's the same version or not.
I might have the Absinthe 7", purchased b/c it was ex-Groundwork and I remember enjoying it... Never found the 10" though.
Unbroken does have an album life.love.regret. It's kind of amazing, though the playing is a little sloppy at times. Totally essential though. It was re-released with their first album Ritual on one CD.
I looked at the unbroken/groundwork split, and I was wrong: their first song, Final Expression, contains the lyrics, "Life...Love...Regret." So that's what I was thinking of.
I really liked the first 400 Years lp. But it's been ages since I've listened to it.
absinthe is amazing, especially the 7". The thing mat posted is the CD version, which has all the bands songs until 94 (aka there are some songs not included)
Mattack, i have the Absinthe 10", but the rip i did wasnt that great.
heres the link:
Absinthe 10"
http://www.mediafire.com/?7ujttp3xmnt
One day i will re configure my turntable setup and hopefully get a better rip. but this doesnt sound too bad for the time being...
awesome blog. i linked you up to Zen
@blend77
Cool. Thanks for the linkage. I'll give it a listen.
Please Bury Me Standing!!
Thanks for Groundwork.
I don't have any Bury Me Standing... sorry. I'll keep a look-out for it though.
Sorry,but...which is the Absinthe 7"?
Only have the 10"..from the blend77 post.
Classic album! The Absinthe stuff was definitely a good follow-up but this record just has so much power. I got a split 7" from Bury Me Standing a couple of years ago, but it was (unfortunately) totally forgettable mid-tempo mosh stuff.
Also, to the best of my knowledge there is no Groundwork/Undertow split 7". Web searches say its on Bloodlink but if it does exist it would be on another label. I believe the songs missing from the CD are from a split 7" with another AZ band. Both sides were god-awful hence their absence.
great record (cd)...i remember not likign them after the 1st 7inch came out so i never listeed to teh cd...then out of the blue for some reason i got the discography and went nuts for it again.what is the singer doing now? it has been a bit since the bury me standing cd... i totally dug the 400years stuff...
this is the best record to come out of 90's hardcore - by a long shot. they were way ahead of the curve soundwise and the energy captured on here, along with solid production, makes it a complete fucking beast. it was the most honest with no fucking shitty glam elements like Unbroken had to shit around with trying to look like Elvis retards and jacking a couple slayer riffs. The lyrics are 100 times better on here too other than maybe "in the name of progression".
Groundwork is the shit.
Second, the lyrics and energy on the Absinthe 7 inch TORCHES the 10 inch by a mile. "pork-fed and smiling, you fucking slobs have nothing but twisted spines and iron lungs as your legacy of freedom... those arent the bells of freedom, those are your death tolls - and you cry for more."
i believe someone was in the band NEMA also.
Absinthe were killer. Some definite similarities to Groundwork.
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