The Centuries Broken Hymns vinyl on This Charming Man Records is one of the more important documents to come out of the early 2010s American hardcore underground, collecting the band’s scattered early output in one place before they stepped up to Southern Lord for their full-length debut.
Who Centuries Are and Why This Record Matters
Centuries operate in the intersection of blackened hardcore, crust, and the uglier corners of powerviolence. The reference points are real and instructive: the suffocating atmosphere of From Ashes Rise, the slower, more deliberate brutality of certain Converge tracks, the relentless pressure of Trap Them. What sets Centuries apart is a willingness to let songs breathe into something almost structured, almost tidy, before the whole thing collapses inward again. Gloomy, infernal, apocalyptic are not just adjectives here. They describe a genuine sonic approach built on rage and, underneath that, something closer to despair.
What the Centuries Broken Hymns Vinyl Actually Contains
This is a complete early discography pressing. You get the tracks from the debut 7 inch, the split with Homestretch, the split with Patsy O’Hara, and four brand new demo recordings. Those four songs are not throwaways. They are previews of the material Centuries would bring to their debut LP on Southern Lord later in 2013, which means this record captures the band at a genuine turning point, still raw and self-released in spirit, already writing at a higher level. The running sequence covers the full arc of how they developed from a sharp, aggressive debut single through two collaborative splits and into the material that would get them signed to one of the most respected heavy labels in the world.
Pressing Details: This Charming Man, Catalog TCM 19
Released on This Charming Man Records, a German independent with a consistent track record in heavy and underground punk, this LP carries catalog number TCM 19. The record comes with a printed innersleeve, which matters for a release like this because the artwork and layout are part of the package. This Charming Man pressed it with care. For a collector, the appeal here is straightforward: a single LP that replaces three separate 7 inch purchases, adds four songs you cannot get elsewhere at this point, and presents the whole thing in a format that does justice to music this heavy and dense. Breakdowns hit differently at 33 RPM through a decent cartridge than they ever will through a phone speaker. If you follow Southern Lord releases and work backward through a band’s catalog, this is the place Centuries’ catalog begins. It belongs on the shelf next to the records it clearly grew up listening to.
