Weekend Updates

September 01, 2023 by David Norman

Crowning ‘Survival Sickness + Friends’ 12” sold out in like 30 minutes! Fret not, for we only had 35% of the pressing! That means there are 65 copies (minus whatever sold in Cleveland last night) pingin’ around the Eastern U.S.A.. If you are a few hours out and have a means of transportation then snagging one is very much in your grasp. Catch the homies/the bafoons on tour with Niboowin now!

Speaking of tours, Hexis is coming to North America again and dropping by Victoria for their 2nd show of the tour and CanaDave is putting it on! Not only that, but we were able to secure Jisei to open the early/fast night! Music starts at 7pm sharp on September 23rd at Victoria Events Centre. Click on the picture above for tickets or this text for the facebook event page. Poster by Alexis <3

Mexico’s Satón and their fiery new full length ‘a la espera del momento’ releases on October 6th, 2023 and here’s a reveal of the freakin’ most excellent cover. Jam the music videos below and be on the lookout for another new jam next Friday!

Social Caterpillar’s first official single from ‘Alphabet Crown’ is premiering over at (((((OPENmind/SATURATEDbrain))))). If you missed their last record, you are missing out. Beautifully orchestrated folksy indie rock from members of Scowler, Alta, and The Great Redneck Hope. A music video for this song will be released next week via Idioteq.com and the full album comes out October 7th, 2023 on Softseed Music via tapes and 12”s. Click on the picture above or this text to go to the full premiere with lots of additional text from the band.

Johnny’s Reco-mmendations: No band today, just the entire battle set including encore from ZBR Fest 2023 between Crowning and Eyelet on May 5th at Empty Bliss. Hot. Loud. Amazing.

2023 - 08 - 30 /// Crowning 'Survival Sickness + Friends'

August 30, 2023 by David Norman

Crowning ‘Survival Sickness + Friends’ 12” releases tomorrow!!! These are but a small pressing of 100, and ZBR only has 35 of them (the band will have the rest on their tour that starts tomorrow in Cleveland!) so they won’t last long. Side A is their full length LP with the B-side housing all of the cassette tracks (aka Maree Noire split + ‘Funeral Designs’ EP) completely remixed and remastered! They sound fucking huge. 9am PST / 11am CST / 12pm EST on Thursday August 31st. Tour poster below!

Massa Nera’s newest 12”LP ‘Derramar | Querer | Borrar’ is officially dwindling and our numbers (as well as the band’s) are getting low enough for most variants to warrant this post. Congratulations my friends!

ZBR Canada/Bandcamp final count:
4 splatter 12”
4 green 12”
2 white 12”
7 frosty/grey tapes
2 test dip tapes
SOLD OUT swirl tapes
SOLD OUT cds

ZBR U.S.A. final count:
18 splatter 12”
1 green 12”
3 swirl tapes
7 frosty/grey tapes
SOLD OUT white 12”
SOLD OUT test dip tapes
SOLD OUT cds

MASSA NERA final count:
22 splatter 12”
8 frosty/grey tapes
8 cds
SOLD OUT green 12”
SOLD OUT white 12”
SOLD OUT swirl tapes
SOLD OUT test dip tapes

The California five-piece known as Widowdusk went on CanaDave’s (((((OPENmind/SATURATEDbrain))))) podcast. Good times were had. Definitely 1) Check them out. 2) Check out the podcast. 3) Jam their split with Ihuntmonsters. 4) Buy their upcoming EP on Larry Records. 5) Buy their upcoming 12”LP on Zegema Beach Records. Cllick on this text or the picture above to go the full podcast post w/links.

Johnny’s Reco-mmendations: I’m too tired, not today.

2023 - 06 - 12 /// The Vault and more Nuvolascura tapes!

June 12, 2023 by David Norman

The Vault updated w/shirts and cds with the final round coming tomorrow with the last load of cds, tapes, and vinyl stragglers. The Vault closes this Thursday at 6pm PST and will not reopen. Click on this text to go to The Vault.

Speaking of June 15th at 6pm, the Faffle ordering closes and the raffle starts! So many amazing things to win! Here’s another reveal…the least surprising but perhaps best one. Order tickets above!

More pals, more tours, more tapes. Nuvolascura is currently running around Europe with Barabbas, Du Fortappade with these new cassettes. Grab’em on June 14th from us or from the band on tour!

This Distro has been heavily updated with Dingleberry releases, mostly 12”s. Here are some personal standouts but you can access them all right here.

BARABBAS, DU FÖRTAPPADE - Discussions on Existentialism (12")

CA$20.00

For fans of: Saetia and Letterbombs.

Awesome new screamy/jazzy Euro screamo. Released on Dingleberry Records.

12” on transparent red vinyl with lyric insert. 12 songs.

Listen here:
https://barabbasdufortappade.bandcamp.com/album/discussions-on-existentialism-3

Quantity:

ERETIA - Quietud (12")

CA$20.00

For fans of: R.Josef and AmenRa.

Dark, sludgy, and full of awesome chord progressions. Somewhere between blackened hardcore and post-metal. Released on Dingleberry Records.

12” on transparent red vinyl with lyric insert. 7 songs.

Listen here:
https://eretia.bandcamp.com/album/quietud

Quantity:

Sold out

RHA. - Refugium (12")

CA$22.00

For fans of: Trainwreck and Zann.

Fucking unbelievable single song (18 minutes) with no lulls or filler. This thing slaps. Released on Dingleberry Records. ONLY 1 COPY IN STOCK!!!

12” on white vinyl with silkscreened b-side. 1 song.

Listen here:
https://rhamusic.bandcamp.com/album/refugium

GROS ENFANTS MORT - Gros Enfants Mort (12")

CA$20.00

For fans of: Yarostan and Daitro.

Gorgeous, emotionally draining, post-hardcore/screamo from Europe. Released on Dingleberry Records.

12” on transparent red vinyl with lyric insert. 7 songs.

Listen here:
https://grosenfantmort.bandcamp.com/album/s-t

This Noise Is Ours reviewed the Desolate Hands Move The Hour split 10”. We’ve still got some!!! Click on this text to go to the review.

What’s this? Just ZBR’s first ever Battle Set at the pre-show between Eyelet and Crowning. You know we’ll be doing this every year now :) We will continue posting the single videos for each band that played ZBR Fest 2023 in the order that they played, so there’s more coming!

Johnny’s Reco-mmendations: POOLSIDE AT THE FLAMINGO = We got some of these on tape for the first time and it’s bananas.

2023 - 06 - 09 /// .gif from god and Nuvolascura tapes next week!

June 09, 2023 by David Norman

Our pals in .gif from god asked if we could make more tapes for 'their ‘Digital Red’ tour as their Prosthetic Records versions sold out. Obviously we said yes and got the okay from Prosthetic, so on June 14th at 9am PST / 11am CST / 12pm EST we’ll release the tapes alongside the streaming-only digitals on our bandcamp. Check out the variants above and please go see the band on tour if able to.

More pals, more tours, more tapes. Nuvolascura is currently running around Europe with Barabbas, Du Fortappade with these new cassettes. Grab’em on June 14th from us or from the band on tour!

First off, THE VAULT OPENS TOMORROW!!! Then just over a week until the Faffle concludes and the raffle draw goes down! All of CanaDave’s extra mage, handmade, stupid fancy, and test press 12”s will be raffled off for the last time on June 15th at 6pm PST / 8pm CST / 9pm EST live on Instagram! Every other day or so we’ll update with pics of stuff that will be in the Faffle…like the pictured Lower Automation nebula 12”! There’s more comin’, but snag some tickets below if you’re already starting to salivate. Each ticket gets you one step closer to winning an item on the Faffle wheel, and if you win your remaining tickets are taken out. We’ll start with the crowdpleasing mages, followed by hand-mades, stupid fancies, and then the last couple test presses (one of which hasn’t been released yet!). Winners have to pay shipping.

CanaDave is workin’ his ass off getting The Vault ready for it’s June 10th opening (it closes June 15th at 6pm PST, same as the Faffle deadline). Like last time, it will house a bunch of personal copies of tapes, vinyl, t-shirts, cds, stickers, and posters that have either been sold out for a long time or were never posted for sale. These products will appear in a “The Vault" tab which will become visible one June 10th at 9am PST / 11am CST / 12pm EST at the top navigation column of this website (up there with ZBR News, Canada/International Store, U.S.A. Store, etc. Remember this happens tomorrow!!!

CanaDave also received a hefty box of distro from Dingleberry Records of new records and sold out stuff, so that’ll all update in the New Items/Distro section of this store on Sunday…but some stuff is already up now! Click on this text to check them out!

CanaDave’s blog (((((OPENmind/SATURATEDbrain))))) recently posted a podcast with Justin Smith of Graf Orlock, Ghostlimb, Sweat, Dangers, and Vitriol Records. If you wanna hear Dave in constant awe check it out by click on the pic above or this text. Stream it directly below.

Gossip traveled a long way to play the pre-show, and holy moly am I glad they did cuz they were incredible. Super supportive people to boot. We will continue posting the single videos for each band that played ZBR Fest 2023 in the order that they played, so there’s more coming!

Olth got an excellent review from our pals at Borderline Fuckup. There are two backup tapes that will go on sale tomorrow in THE VAULT so if you missed out def jump on those. Click on this text or the pic above for the review.

Johnny’s Reco-mmendations: BARQUE = We’ve been following this band for years so their dissolution comes with great sadness. At least we got pre-production demos of their final work!

2023 - 05 - 11 /// The Aftermath

May 11, 2023 by David Norman

ZBR Fest 2023 exceeded our wildest dreams. Truly a next level weekend bursting with incredible bands, beautiful/compassionate humans, and even a few life affirmations. There is so much to say but I’ll save it for my eventual blog post on (((((OPENmind/SATURATEDbrain))))) as right now I’ve got to push our new stuff coming out…like ZMAR which came out yesterday! And Yuki (foreverwewillmissyou) which comes out tomorrow!

So Zmar from Prague have created a truly wonderful, powerful, and beautiful album by way of seven excellent screamo/black-metal/post-rock jams. Part Tropical Ice Land, part Vi Som Alskade Varandra Sa Mycket, and part Nulajednanulanula (no North American comparisons for you!), the band explores the issues of war, racism, hate, anger, and a myriad of other concepts plaguing our planet. We’ve only got 70 copies between our stores, all with gatefold jackets and screen-printed outer sleeves.

Our friends at Stereogum picked up on it immediately and posted a nice little review reminding you to, at the very least, jam those first two songs. If that doesn’t catch your attention you probably stumbled onto this post by accident. Click on this text or the pic above to go to the review.

Perfumed Saturnine Angels releases on May 22nd so it’s probably about time to show you the variants of this beast. 75 copies exist, 50 with full-body UV screen-printing and 25 swirls which go on sale at 9am PST / 11am CST / 12pm EST via Zegema Beach Records and Santapogue Media. This album features members of Cara Neir, Gonemage, Apostles Of Eris, Our Future Is An Absolute Shadow, etc. and deals with addiction as the original vocalist passed away prior to recording. Kinda PG.99, kinda Envy, kinda Cara Neir.

Yuki (foreverwewillmissyou)’s ‘Time doesn’t heal all wounds pt.2’ cassette releases tomorrow via Tomb Tree alongside a decent distro update in the Canada/International store (aka this one). This project brings to mind screamo not unlike People’s Temple Project, Eyes Of Verotika, Pique, and A Paramount A Love Supreme. 9am PST / 11am CST / 12pm EST on Friday May 12th! You can stream the single below.

Crossed Letters reviewed two sick Tomb Tree releases that we still have a few left of, there’s the Amber Daybreak cassette as well as the Mis Sueños Son De Tu Adiós + Burial Etiquette split. Definitely read the review and check out all three bands! You can go to the review by clicking the pic below or this text.

This Noise Is Ours did another review for us, this time removed from the Roster Review series, as it focuses on newly released and almost sold out Life ‘demo three’ 12”LP. Click on the pic above or this text to go there, and you can jam that sucka below.

Softseed Music released the Amid The Old Wounds and No Action split 7” a few days back. If you like Duct Hearts and softer emo stuff this 7” is for you! I’ve only got 10 copies spread across the SSM store and this Softseed Distro (in the store tab). Hard recommend!

Johnny’s Reco-mmendations: Jota = Holy shit what the fuck is this? Incredible!!!