Sunday, September 14, 2008

Todd - Purity Pledge


Year: 2005
Label: Southern

By request, may I present the debut full length album from England's Todd. Of course, you must preface all Todd related post's with the ubiquitous, "ex-Hammerhead" mention, but goddamn if Hammerhead aren't one of the most underrated hardcore/noise rock outfits ever. They deserve to be mentioned at least once a day. 
So the lead singer/guitarist of Hammerhead moves to London, gets married, and starts a new band with his wife and three other (what one must assume to be) degenerates. They proceed to write and record some of the nastiest, heaviest, hardcore/punk/noise rock ever. Repeat...EVER!  Wave after wave of distorted noise-wrapped powerchords spill out of the speakers. The vocals are hideous growls, blunt shouts, and modulated washes. There are some keyboards added, but only to heighten the dymensia and further confuse the listener. 

I cannot recommend this any more highly. 

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11 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 15, 2008 at 12:41 PM

    thanks brother.

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  2. pintoSeptember 15, 2008 at 4:11 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. pintoSeptember 15, 2008 at 4:15 PM

    This guy was never in Hammerhead. You're thinking of Paul Sanders who's post Hammerhead projects were More Ram, Fly Republic and now he's currently playing with the Heroine Shieks. Purity Pledge is still a good record but I'm pretty sure about this.

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  4. pintoSeptember 15, 2008 at 4:20 PM

    Actually I think this may be the guy who replaced Sanders after he left the band for a short period. So yeah, you're kind of right. Although they never recorded with him and the one time I saw them play with this guy I don't recall him ever singing. At that point Paul Erickson had taken over full-time singing duties.

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  5. AnonymousSeptember 15, 2008 at 5:13 PM

    I love this band. good live show.
    btw, isn´t one of the guys from Todd in Shit and Shine too?

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  6. GraySeptember 16, 2008 at 6:17 AM

    nice fact-checking...give this man a set of steak knives. you are correct on both counts mr. pinto. the hammerhead connection is craig clouse who was in the tail end of the band. his "real" band before hammerhead was crown roast, who i don't think many people (myself included) have ever heard. he never appeared on any of their recordings, but did tour with them.

    thank you sir.

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  7. GraySeptember 16, 2008 at 6:20 AM

    oh, and pinto...i checked out your blog...it's awesome, we should get together and link sometime. or whatever you call it. buttfuck?

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  8. ipecacSeptember 16, 2008 at 7:36 AM

    oh i'm all over it

    literally

    we're all linked up

    it's called a "train" for a reason,son

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  9. pintoSeptember 16, 2008 at 1:19 PM

    Yeah, this blog is great to by the way. Here's link to Paul Sanders' "Fly Republic" record: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=X5KM0MGN I just posted it on COD-Music if you want to get more of the story behind it. So keep up the good posts!

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  10. clintJune 17, 2009 at 11:47 AM

    holly fuck i can't stop listening to this one. it's like potato chips for my ears.

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  11. Gooboy666July 27, 2010 at 3:03 PM

    Holy Mother Of Fuck this is heavy! You hear many reviewers say something like "aural rape" but this is definitely the ONLY way to describe this disc.Thanx for turning me onto this tuneage Gray!

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