TOP FIVE EULOGY RECORDINGS RELEASES
On this installment of our label dives with a Top Five, we will be looking at the highly-regarded Eulogy Recordings, founded in 1997 and merged in 2018 with Stay Sick Recordings. Despite being known primarily as a hardcore label, Eulogy Recordings was also a major seedbed for easycore and had some strong metalcore and even deathcore releases as well. Given how stacked the back-catalogue is, I had to make some difficult cuts of releases from artists such as On Broken Wings, Evergreen Terrace, and many more. That speaks volumes. I would’ve put Bury Your Dead-You Had Me at Hello on here, but from what I could find it was a German label Eulogy had a distribution deal with that originally put the album out in 2003 and it was the 2005 re-issue that came out on Eulogy proper. I always stick to releases that were originally put out by the label in question with these lists. There might be a couple hot takes here depending on your disposition, but here we go:
5. Thick as Blood-Embrace (2009)
Some of the best ignorant, belligerent basketball short and flatbrim hat moshcore of the 2000s. Made for the pit and the squat rack, I revisit these guys whenever I need to imagine a Nike Airmaxed foot flying toward my face.
4. Catalepsy-Bleed (2011)
Absolutely filthy downtempo/deathcore release that just punishes the listener. Very, very heavy. Fans of that Demolisher-World of Hatred-type deathcore in particular will find a lot to like on this one.
3. Kids Like Us-The Game (2009)
I discussed this album on The Southern Metalcore Bands Draft episode, but I’ll discuss it further here. This is a really interesting album that picks up where the track "Gator Smash" left off in infusing this style of hardcore with a heavy Southern rock flavor. The riffs really add a memorable wrinkle to what Kids Like Us is doing on here; with a small handful of exceptions such as Swamp Thing’s self-titled 2011 EP, I haven’t really heard this approach applied to straight hardcore the same way it absolutely swept through metalcore in the mid-2000s. As I love that style of metalcore with a passion, perhaps I’m blinded by that same passion here but I don’t think so. This is just an exceptional album front-to-back that brings humor along for the ride with airtight songs and a continued leveling-up from the band’s previous material. They sound tighter and nastier here while producing the best and most memorable batch of songs of their career. The bass and snare sounds on this record really pop, and Lars’s vocals sound more gravelly and pissed than ever. I come back to this one all the time.
2. A New Found Glory-Nothing Gold Can Stay (1999)
Before they dropped the "A" and became one of the biggest and most influential pop punk bands of all time, the creators of easycore New Found Glory got their start on Eulogy with Nothing Gold Can Stay. While this album isn’t at the level of, say, their next one (which I would put at probably the second-best pop punk album of all time), it is still exceptional, including an early version of their break-through single "Hit or Miss," as well as songs like "Third and Long" and "It Never Snows in Florida" that stack up with the best of their material.
1. Set Your Goals-Mutiny! (2006)
If you were to make a Mount Rushmore of easycore, I would say Set Your Goals would belong on it with New Found Glory, A Day to Remember, and Four Year Strong. Along with their Epitaph debut This Will Be the Death of Us, Set Your Goals wrote some of the finest easycore you’ll find. They did not have the longevity or quite the breakout success of the others, but their live show was fantastic, they brought real heart and passion to the music, and songs like "Mutiny!" and "Echoes" from this record are some of the best ever written in the genre. Much more influential than they’re often credited for, Mutiny! rightfully belongs atop this list.