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To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Horror Business Records Dave put out this Sampler with the whole line-up from the current Horrorbiz roster, two international known bands as well as some additional Horrorbiz related artists. The charge for this 37 song sampler is only 2,20 Euro (ppd inside Germany): apart from these freebie cds this is the lowest priced sampler I have ever heard of.
Nevertheless while listening to the sampler every prejudice I got about this release gets confirmed. Out of 37 artists there are only two outstanding ones: Vitamin X and Yacöpsae. I don't think there is much left to say about them. The two crust/trash/grind/diy punk veterans seem to be around forever, constantly play shows and release high quality records on international labels. Not surprisingly both of them aren't part of the Horrorbiz roster.
The remaining 35 bands are associated to all the wide variations in the hardcore context: ranging from punkrock to metalcore. Either the bands are part of the labels current roster or they are still unsigned bands. Without any exceptions this is a collection of third- and fourth-classed bands trying to imitate their north-american examples. Seemingly every cliché of a bad hardcore band out of a small town could be found on this sampler. There are lots of unreleased songs. However this doesn't make them better. If I really overlooked a great song this might be because i was not able to listen to the whole CD.
The parcel from Horrorbiz also had a poster included showing all the 57(!!) Horrorbiz releases of the last ten years. I really can't believe my eyes. How can a small label release such a shitload of records? I've listened to at least 2/3 of the whole catalogue over the years and I can't remember any good release on this label. Maybe there were one or two average releases but that’s it! What especially astonishes me is the fact that I have never seen a Horrorbiz band live on a show not even as a support act. I mean I constantly go to shows for nearly 10 years and not only in my home town. I can't remember any Horrorbiz band that had at least a small hype within the scene, I can't remember any Horrorbiz release that was ever talked about in the scene and I've never noticed an interview with a Horrbiz band in a fanzine…
I mean it's great that there are people doing stuff for the scene without making money out of it. I know that Dave also sets up tons of diy shows at the JZ Yellowstone in Bergkamen (near Dortmund, Germany). But how could this work? I mean how do you fund Horrorbiz? Do you have a great 9 to 5 job apart from your label? Are you selling drugs at the local schoolyard?
This is value for money. And this is quantity instead of quality…
[benni]
www.horrorbiz.de
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