this is beltaine's second lp, which, for whatever reasons, went unreleased. i think this was recorded around 1996-1997 (just guessing). anyways alot has changed, but the framework of the music remains.....the vocalist seems to have traded in his mushmouth rob hicks (ordination of aaron) type vocals for something a tad different.....and all over the map.....at best his vocals seem to be on the verge of accquiring a weird british accent, at worst, theyre bad karaoke......musically theyve tightened up the ship and expanded upon the framework laid on "crowning the caged kid", making more complex and interesting songs this time around (thats not to say "crowning the caged kid" was a bad record by any means) the sound is what id call dated, if only because no one is/has played the melodic yet powerful empathy/shoulder/beltaine style hardcore in several years (closer to a decade) if boy sets fire were ever a good band at any point (they werent) they would have been making songs like this......anyways i expect at least some of you reading this to enjoy this as much as i did =)
I was from the Westerly, RI area where these guys were from. Played with them at a VFW in CT as well. Good guys, and a good band.
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Wow how'd this turn up.. my name is Way, I was in Beltaine up until a little after this recording was made and then left the band before they did the Crowning the Caged Kid stuff. So this actually pre-dates the Atomic Action seven inch. The Jordan brothers (or one of them) was working at Columbia and got them to pay for us to record a demo (?!!?). This is that demo, recorded at Triad on fucking two inch tape! It is unreleased for reasons I will not go into here but I will say we were extremely happy to go back to Keith Souza for recording from then on.
ReplyDeletewow! nice to have band dudes turn up and set the record straight! this definatly sounds more polished that "crowning the caged kid" so i thought it might have been recorded after that album.....its still really good!
ReplyDeleteHi, this is James. I sang for Beltaine.
ReplyDeleteThe story with the unreleased recording is simple, it was unreleased because the majority of the band members didn't like the way it turned out. I'm proud of what we did together those days but I have to admit, I was happy that most folks hadn't heard this particular recording.
The band had been together for less than two years. Jason Jordan who ran Watermark Records started working for Columbia Records and offered us money to record a demo. We were young and very impressed with the opportunity to record at a "big" studio. Unfortunately, the engineers were considerably older than us and very out of touch with the kind of music we were making. They seemed to be used to working with more seasoned musicians, or it felt that way to me. The bottom line is that we were doing fine by recording with our friend Keith Souza who we returned to shortly after to record a 7" on Atomic Action.
I only heard the unreleased recording recently for the first time -probably since soon after we recorded it. Our attempt at polishing our sound by recording with a couple of guys in their early 40s at the best studio in Warwick, RI didn't hit the mark in my opinion.
Way's right, we should have recorded with Keith.
Things were obviously different in 1995. It's interesting to me to hear comparisons made between Beltaine and bands such as Ordination of Aaron who none of us listened to. Our music tastes as individuals was very diverse. I think that upon listening now, the inconsistency within and between these songs reflect that.
During the years that Beltaine existed we tried to be unique. By the time we recorded the unreleased stuff, the band members were very close friends. We were strongly DIY because that's how it had to be. Hardcore shows in clubs in New England were either dominated by the imitators and remnants of the NYHC thing and by kids who dressed like they were in House of Pain. Shows were still fairly violent, there were crews, lots of fighting, and ignorance. The early stages of Beltaine were very reactionary in that context. We were not popular locally, we wanted to be different and we were.
What allowed Beltaine to gather enough confidence to play out were the basement shows, VFW halls, and the amazing Studio 158. The days of 158 had so much influence on our sound because it welcomed creativity and exposed us to playing with other bands who embraced the same ideals.
Thanks for taking the time and interest to listen to the band.
always glad to have band members add their input!
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