18 Visions.....What happened?

Lifeless is arguably one of the heaviest vegan hardcore albums of all time. Yesterday Is Time Killed is in my top 5 favorite hardcore albums, ever. Until The Ink Runs Out was amazing and probably the last great album they ever will write. Then they release a best of, fitting because nothing was worth listening to after.

That being said, I say they play some shows, forgetting that anything after their best of ever existed. Drop all the eyeliner and make up, forget Hot Topic ever carried their music/merch and play Until The Ink Runs out all the way through or throw in some Lifeless. You see where I'm getting at. Please, it would rule.

Mark

marktheshark wrote:Lifeless is arguably one of the heaviest vegan hardcore albums of all time. Yesterday Is Time Killed is in my top 5 favorite hardcore albums, ever. Until The Ink Runs Out was amazing and probably the last great album they ever will write. Then they release a best of, fitting because nothing was worth listening to after.

That being said, I say they play some shows, forgetting that anything after their best of ever existed. Drop all the eyeliner and make up, forget Hot Topic ever carried their music/merch and play Until The Ink Runs out all the way through or throw in some Lifeless. You see where I'm getting at. Please, it would rule.

Mark

oh man. where do i even start?

first, 18v was NEVER a vegan band. on lifeless, everyone was vegan except ken, who was vegetarian. this went all the way until Keith Barney got in the band, who was probably not even vegetarian. in fact, i have tried to contact Kurt Catalyst TWICE to get the story straight about the ADL comp he was supposed to put out... i have seen ads in zines for it, and then i read an interview in a Belgian zine where i said that we were not allowed on the comp because Ken wasnt vegan. and then the comp never came out.

Lifeless was awesome at the time. we got a lot of attention (good and bad) and already had a bit of a following. it was recorded at Selah studios in Los alamitos, which is a total christian studio, but i guess the guys didnt know where else to go. XchorusX had recorded the Italian 7" there, and we got the engineer to say "seed of pain, take one" and we were all super stoked.

Yesterday... was recorded in TWO days for 850 dollars. nothing digital. that, to me, is still inspiring. you hear about bands spending weeks and months in the studio, and in one weekend we cranked out something that people still talk about ten years later.
similarly, Until... was recorded in TWO weekends, for around the same amount of money. the 7" is in there somewhere, which although was re-recorded on the best of, remains some of my favorite material as well. kind of a forgotten release, and ive never heard a GOOD rip of it on the interwebs. would love to track down the master.

anyway, i left the band as they were writing the first song on the best of... i saw them play at the release show for that record, one time in Santa Cruz with PTW and then one time at Warped and their last show. it was WEIRD to see such a dramatic change. james and i had a HUGE falling out, mostly due to my not being sXe anymore, and because i talked shit from stage one night about the whole bunch of bands like 18V, a7x, atreyu, who i felt were tarnishing our scene. that tirade even garnered a phone call in the middle of the night from 18V's manager, telling me that i basically "fucked up"

i can honestly say ive never even OWNED an 18V record after the best of (and even when given one by the band, i gave it to the drummer of Brothers Keeper before i even listened to it). even the title THE BEST OF was SUPPOSED to be a joke. kids got MAD that we had the "balls" to make a best of.
i remember watching the video for "you broke like glass" and thinking the song was about me! but no, it was about this kid named Jeff that had been in our band at one time, and James fought him in the mall in the parking structure outside of Armani Exchange. the band had been going in the.. i guess you could say "glam" direction, but it got weird after a while.

i tried VERY hard to get 18V back together for those Disembodied shows last june, and everyone was down except James. i thought it would have been the whole christianity thing, but turns out he was just too busy with his new band. he was very cool about it, just kinda like "hey im not into it because i got this new thing goin on, but if you dudes want to do it with Brandan singing go ahead". nobody else wanted to do it, everybody else was disappointed.

i still listen to Yesterday and Until semi-frequently, although i admittedly had to download Until from the Path To Misery blog because i had lost mine. in fact, all i have left is a hoodie, a Yesterday cd in a cracked case, a couple of the 7", and a legacy that wont seem to leave me. while i do openly talk about my time in 18V (because i AM proud of what i did), and im sure ive typed much of this before, its fucking MIND BOTTLING to me that ten years later, people still refer to me as "that guy from 18 Visions". i guess it could be worse.

i do miss playing bass, and i would love to play in a heavy hardcore band similar to 18V, Bloodlet,, Overcast, Disembodied, etc. 1998-2001 produced the best stuff for that as far as im concerned.

i remember the first time my roommate mike childers played lifeless for me. those first few releases are some of my favorite albums of all time.

I still hold those releases by 18v in high regards as some of the heaviest hardcore ever written.

i most certainly still listen to about 5 songs on "yesterday is time killed" and hold them in the greatest esteem. i remember at one show i got the mic for like 30 seconds of my favorite song off of that album (raping. laughing. tasting. temptation.) lifeless is an important piece of nostalgia to me, i remember when it came out i thought it was the most killer ep i had ever heard. mental repression was my favorite track off of lifeless, which i remember jav thinking was quite strange. i cant listen to until the ink runs out anymore, the vocals and the lyrics are just too ridiculous to me, however flowers for ingrid is absolutely fantastic. no time for love is one of the best 7"s to ever come out of southern california in terms of intensity and song quality (though im certain people who know it would balk at the idea that i cant take the lyrics of until the ink runs out but can take "if you're not gonna ride the rocket..." but hey, thats just one chorus.) that 7" was so fucking good and it is over so fast, which is ideal because it leaves you wanting just a bit more. excellent band.... for a while. i was lucky to be able to go to as many of their shows as i did.

The material after The Best Of is every bit as good ... just in a completely different dimension.

i thought everything they put out was mediocre to lousy...

but the recent old/lost tracks (the nothing) are good.

i think "vanity" is an awesome, adventurous and overall bizarre sounding album. i love it. and that tower of snakes song off "obsession".......

old shit is da bomb, too, of course.

just another case of rock star syndrome and in 2005 they almost made it to. soon as i saw the topics title i started humming "I Let Go" in my head. can't blame them.. eveyone wants to do what they love forever and being big time could have afforded them that luxury but that's just human nature and maybe they really just wanted chicks and to be drunk and high 24/7 idk.. i remember back in the day when the huge internet buzz was when the singer wore a pink t-shirt and john poncherello flight sunglasses to a show haha people are so fickel. think that's actually about the time the term fashioncore was coined.

It was all over once James covered up his sick hardline tattoo with roses.

Could anyone blame a man for covering hardline tattoos with flowers? Shouldn't we be applauding him for this?