In case you haven’t noticed, WE RELAUNCHED THRASH HITS. This week on the podcast, Raz and Hugh talk through the fancy new changes that we’ve made to the site (we’re pretty proud of it FYI), as well as giving the lowdown on our team-up with Songkick Detour (help us bring American Nightmare, SikTh, and a load of other awesome bands to London!), as well as talking about the only news story that’s mattered over the last week – Tim Lambesis of As I Lay Dying being arrested and charged with attempting to hire a hitman to murder his estranged wife.

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We saw the power of Songkick Detour back in February when, in conjunction with our big sister, DrownedinSound, Desaparecidos played their first UK show. It was impressive and it was powered by the crowd. They wanted to see Desaparecidos play live in London and they put their money where their mouths were. We want to do the same thing with some bands that we like.

Let’s see if we can get American Nightmare over to the UK. Let’s see if we can show SikTh that people want to see them live.

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We went in-depth with reasons as to why 2011’s American Nightmare reunion was an excellent occurrence but there’s been a spate of reunions in the punk & hardcore scene. Whether it’s about the money or the acknowledgment of a great band, some have gone down wonderfully. Others… less so. This weekend in Downtown LA there’s another festival going in. It’s called Fyf Fest and it features a number of these reunited bands.

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Another day; another shedload of FREE MUSIC for you to download. Today it’s the turn of Deathwish, Inc., the label co-founded by Converge’s Jacob Bannon, as they’ve just released a free “Summer 2012” label sampler. When you take a look at the tracklisting – featuring the likes of Narrows, Oathbreaker, Heiress, Whips/Chains, Rise And Fall, Give Up The Ghost (aka American Nightmare), Single Mothers, Self Defense Family, Cursed, Touché Amoré, and Deafheaven – you can see that this is no piddly compilation of also-rans and lightweights.

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Refused reformed. “Waaaaah, they said they’d never, ever, ever get back together,” you moaned. “Waaaaah, if you’d gone to see them the first time round, your opinion might be valid,” we replied. Yeah, the Swedish punk legends were criminally under-appreciated back in the last century. They’re finally on the pedestal they deserve to be on these days so, ahead of their Main Stage appearance at Download Festival 2012, let’s have a look at how good their New York City return was.

Six things we learned when we saw Refused play in NYC for the first time in over a decade

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When Touché Amoré tore up London at the end of last month, Alex Andrews caught up with Jeremy Bolm to talk about the anxiety that comes with playing bigger venues and supporting a reformed American Nightmare. 

Jeremy Bolm sits perched on a sofa, devouring what’s left of a sauce-covered chicken leg. Having only been introduced to Nando’s the day before by the boys in Basement, the Touché Amoré frontman appears as fascinated with the restaurant as the flocks of professional footballers and celebrities who ironically dine there.

Shovelling chips into his mouth, Bolm talks excitedly about opening up a franchise in Los Angeles. Softly-spoken and remarkably friendly, it takes a moment to get your head ahead around the fact that this is the same man who pens such intensely tortured verses and will later perform front flips off the cramped stage of the Camden Barfly.

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You must have heard that Give Up The Ghost né American Nightmare reformed for two shows in the USA late in 2011, right? Maybe not. . It was a very exciting announcement, by all accounts. AN/GUTG are one of the seminal hardcore bands of the past decade and if you’ve never heard about them, here’s Tom Doyle telling you why and how you should and could.

Luckily, our man on the ground on the Eastern Seaboard, or whatever those Yanks call the Greater New York area (maybe that?) was there. Yeah, Dan Pelic went to the show in Revere, Massachusetts and he actually saw Ryan Gosling. He also saw American Nightmare or Give Up The Ghost or whatever you want to call them. He didn’t make a funny Tumblr about either thing but has written a review telling it how it is…

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We had the news that one of the great hardcore bands of the turn of the century, American Nightmare were reuniting for two shows at the end of December 2011. The band’s name became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter so exciting was the news. Conversely, however, there seemed to be a great number of music fans who were unaware of who this band was or why they should care. Tom Doyle wants to talk about American Nightmare.

When Gallows kicked the doors open with Orchestra of Wolves in the summer of ’06 and became the gateway band for the relative mainstream, it was with great sadness that many of us noted that one of the finest (and most influential) modern hardcore bands were not around to enjoy the success. That band was American Nightmare.

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Well, this is exciting. One of the classic hardcore bands of yesteryear have reformed and are playing shows. American Nightmare (or Give Up The Ghost, as they came to be known, due to legal wranglings) are BACK and are playing shows in Boston and LA before 2011 is out.

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