This week, the members of New York City cult Y2K-era hardcore/screamo outfit THE LAST CRIME – with members hailing from Beyond, 1.6 Band, Vise Massacre, The Third Kind, Ova Looven, 52X, Raw Eagle, and more – will issue their final, lost recordings, The Last Crime 2, via Sunken Temple Records. The unearthed tracks were recorded at Inner Ear Studio with J. Robbins in 1998 and have remained unreleased until now. No Echo is now streaming The Last Crime 2 ahead of its release, alongside an interview with the band’s Kevin Egan and Richard Muller.
Stream THE LAST CRIME’s unearthed The Last Crime 2 at No Echo RIGHT HERE.
Newly-formed DIY cassette label Sunken Temple Records will release THE LAST CRIME‘s The Last Crime 2 on cassette featuring the two extensive songs from this session with Robbins – the nearly eight-minute-long “Operate/Medicate” and nearly seven-minute-long “Man vs. Shark” – which were mastered in 2018 by Jon Florencio at Produkt Sound and completed with paintings by Richard Muller and design by Muller and Dalton Ryan.
The Last Crime 2 will see cassette and digital release tomorrow, July 31st; find digital preorders at Bandcamp HERE and cassette preorders at the label shop HERE.
THE LAST CRIME was born in 1996 when Kevin Egan, following his time in forerunning NYHC outfit Beyond and the subsequent post-hardcore outfit 1.6 Band, recruited friends from local the Long Island and New York City scene. Formed with Egan and Steve DePalo both on guitar and vocals, Eric Svirida on bass, and Richard Muller on drums, the band erupted with a unified energy which immediately saw them playing live heavily around the region. Playing eighty-seven shows in their first year and turning through several bassists including Chris Donohue before Mike Ciasullo filled the slot, THE LAST CRIME recorded their first release with Alap Momin, a self-titled four-song 10″ and CD, released on NYC-based The Omega.
The band continued performing with bands from across the spectrum of the DIY punk, hardcore, emo, and metal scenes abroad, performing with Today Is The Day, Neurosis, and countless others, and toured with the likes of Dystopia, Half Man, and more for the next couple of years. In 1998, THE LAST CRIME made their way to record with J. Robbins (Government Issue, Jawbox) at Inner Ear Studios – the point of inception for many seminal releases from the likes of The Teen Idles, Minor Threat, Fugazi, Mary Timony, Foo Fighters, and more – for their second release. However, the outfit disbanded shortly after the sessions, and the songs never saw release until now, two decades later.
Since the demise of THE LAST CRIME, Kevin Egan is a film and television producer and has spent time with projects including The Lost Pilgrims Of The Second Plateau and more. Mike Ciasullo is a professional tattooist and has been involved with 52X, Raw Eagle, and others. Richard Muller is a professional tattoo artist, formed Vise Massacre, plays live with The Third Kind, Gridfailure, and more. Steve DePalo is a sound designer and has played in Dawn In Bathos and Ova Looven, both also with Chris Donohue. Eric Svirida currently fronts Too Many Voices.
Sunken Temple Records was recently founded by old-school New York cohorts with the intention of issuing the lost recordings of small but great New York bands from the ’90s they give a shit about. The label will start with limited cassette runs and move towards vinyl pressings and more as the label issues more titles in the months ahead.
https://thelastcrime.bandcamp.com