Black Kites & Convulsions Split LP

Here we have two east coast bands in Black Kites and Convulsions pairing up for this split release out on Glory Kid/Adagio830. This would be the first time for me hearing Black Kites, which plow through six tracks of max effort heavy hardcore on the a-side of this one, or five if you want to get technical about it. If fierce/passionate hardcore in the area of Disembodied, His Hero Gone, etc. is your thing, then I imagine these guys are already part of your record collection that features numerous copies of the same album on different limited colored vinyl. I kid, I kid…if they aren’t, you’ve likely missed out on the limited blue copies anyway by this point so try and keep it together. Anyway, in all seriousness, it’s probably worth poking around the discography of these gents. They’re obviously into it, and not too shabby of musicians either.

Last heard from Convulsions when Glory Kid passed along their debut 7-inch a year or so ago. Enjoyed it then and probably made some Deadguy or Botch comparisons at the time, no clue. Anyway, these six tracks provide a far better representation of the band I imagine. There is a lot more variation, that’s for sure. They make an odd decision in kicking off their side with a cover, of “Gasoline” by Karate no less. The tune itself is fairly true to the original, obviously dirtied up some however. They follow it up with a track that sounds like it could have been on a split single or comp put out by Clean Plate or Bovine in the 90’s, cool stuff and sort of wish there was more of this out of the tracks they have here. Don’t think anything else approaches the level of “heavy” showcased on that tune. From there the band sort of retreats back into the comfort zone of vaguely mathy groove hardcore with a larger sludge sounding thing going on than I’ve heard before from them. Nevertheless, dug their side quite a bit.

Black Kites - Used (stream)
Convulsions – Decompression Sickness (stream)

For those interested in picking up the split here in the US, Glory Kid has it covered. For those overseas, Adagio830 has copies available. Enjoy!