Ben gets asked what he thinks of the SOPA & PIPA bills and Internet Piracy…

…and true to typical form waffles on longer than all the other contributors. This makes for a good read though, musicians, writers and artists all throw something in to the debate. Talking about these issues and debating their pro’s and con’s is the only way informed decisions are made at the end of the day. Have a read and throw your two pence in in the comments…

Dose of Metal – SOPA, PIPA and Internet Piracy

Raw Nerve Forums run a competition to win a copy of Split Roast

The title says it all really! Not that you should need the draw of free stuff to go check out what they do over there, it’s a treasure trove of music related news and opinion after all. Go over to the Raw Nerve Forums and type some words in a sentence in that thread. Paulie P the evil overlord Owl extraordinaire will choose a winner on FRIDAY. You will receive a copy of the Split Roast record if you WIN. So get posting!

Condate Records & Dose of Metal…

When you run a small DIY outfit like ours it can be hard at times to fit it all in around life. We don’t make any money from this and it is done purely out of the love of the music we are involved in and as a consequence of that the business side of things can get a little lost! It came to Ben’s attention recently that through various mis-communications and forgetfulness that we had pissed off the Dose of Metal site. Ben immediately contacted Guido who produces the site to see what had gone on and what he could do to make things right. The result is this frank and open interview where he gets to discuss the issue and then talk a bit about the label and what to expect from each of the bands this year…

Click to read on…

Condate Records count down to christmas begins…

So it’s that time of year again where people make lists, check them twice, figure out if they have been naughty or nice or whatever. Here at Condate Records we have begun compiling some lists. The first one is provided by Ben and is a standard “Top 10 Albums of 2011″.

These are the albums that have been making Ben tick this year…

Mogwai – Hardcore will never die, but you will

Trap Them – Darker Handcraft

Wolves in the Throne Room – Celestial Lineage

Will Haven – Voir Dire

All Pigs Must Die – God Is War

Bastions – Hospital Corners

Radiohead – The King of Limbs

Ulcerate – The Destroyers of All

Battles – Gloss Drop

Wormrot – Dirge

Ben says: “These albums have been selected based on being musically brilliant and emotionally relevant to me and my experiences this year. Each of these has affected me in different ways throughout what’s been a year of ups and downs. I don’t know about you but the music in my life at any given time will time stamp that moment, that memory. Some I’ll continue to listen to over and over, with others it will take time before I’m comfortable listening to them again, all of them hold special memories and thats what music should be about.”

We are sure that people familiar with our roster will think there are some curve balls in there, but then again we did do a french hip hop tune under the Condate Projects banner called “The Gardens of Shit” this year. So it’s not so unexpected that it is not all metal…

Colonel Blast’s Post Split Roast treat…

Those of you astute enough to pre order the Split Roast CD from us will have got a sneaky first glimpse of this. Now you common plebs, not acting with the full use of your logical brain, who didn’t pre order the Split Roast get the treat of seeing it for the first time. Self produced by the band. Go easy on them it’s their first time…

…and you’re back in the room.

It’s been a while. We use the word “while” because it is kind of the softest way of saying “it’s been too long”. The months in between our last update about the release of Split Roast and it’s subsequent excellent reviews, and this one have been taken up with things such as appearances by Colonel Blast and Diascorium on the latest Zero Tolerance cover mounted CD, Scott the guitarist in Face of Christ getting married, an idea for an FOC split EP with fellow Deva hardcore monsters Horrorstruck being conceptualised, the bassist of This is Turin leaving, being replaced and then guitars already recorded for their debut album being scrapped and the recording process starting over, Colonel Blast starting writing their follow up to “For the Greater Good”, new tee-shirt designs, new merch ideas, Condate Audio getting a lick of paint, some other things I forget as I type and illness.

Without going in to the messy details, one of us has been pretty ill this last month or so. A fair few things hit at once and it’s had an effect on the amount of output the label has had the most. One thing we will say is that now he’s on the mend things will slowly start to pick up again. We started this thing with so much energy, that energy was taken from us for a little while there but it’s coming back and coming back stronger.

With that in mind and because we are sorry for making you wait for us to get back on top of this we thought we’d give you a little treat from our vaults. We recorded the audio of each bands set from the Split Roast release show. Click the following link for a download of the whole thing. 6 tracks. Each track an entire set. We can’t remember all the names of the tracks so thats a little game you can play yourselves. Please download it. If you were there let us know, if you weren’t here is your chance to hear what you fucking missed out on

Split Roast Release Gig – Live @ Retro Bar, Manchester, 5/6/11

Thanks for your patience and enjoy some free underground bootleg shit!

Condate Records

Split Roast is GO!

People have pre-ordered and received. Now is the time of the release day of the mighty Split Roast. Driving hard into the sweet vulva of the metal underworld this mighty musical tome has been receiving home run reviews all over the shop! There is something for everyone and for five English nuggets you can purchase one too. If you don’t believe me check out what these lovely people had to say…

Scum Feast Metal 666

One Metal

Sonic Shocks

There are loads more and they all say you should buy it. So buy it. Support it. Spread it like a prison pussy.

Cheers

Condate