bidhardcore.com

Got everything under the sun one the auction block here, but since this is bidhardcore, it’s kind of easy to filter out a lot of it. First of all let me apologize to Scot Oxholm (if he’s reading this), I am not going to talk about the Green Rage 7″ for sale. Moving on, here’s some items you might want to know about:

1) Naked Raygun “Throb Throb” test pressing. In truth I’d like to own this but I am probably not dropping the loot. From what I can tell this would be from the original pressing because it has a promo sheet attached from ‘84. Naked Raygun to this point had released a 12″ E.P. a three song single, and a few compilation tracks, and this was to be their first proper lp released through some Dutch East sub label (Homestead). I think it’s really their first great release, although I’ve heard it disparaged by some. Raygun were truly a one of a kind band, much greater than the sum of their parts. At times they would drop the most straight forward rockin punk tunes with numerous “oh’s” and “whoas”, so tuneful and melodic you never forget them, like the CLASSIC opener Rat Patrol. Just as quick though they’d turn out something with a rolling bassline and guitars that were more akin to Big Black while pounding a 50’s style rockabilly drum beat. By the way vocalist Jeff Pezatti played bass on the first couple Big Black 12″ E.P.s, and while, by the time Throb Throb was released he’d already been replaced by genius John Haggerty, original guitarist Santiago Durango (who co-wrote much of Throb Throb), was a member of Big Black as well.

2) …Speaking of Big Black, we’ve got a Pig Pile Boxset here. While they’re probably most famous because they were Steve Albini’s first well known band, Big Black is also quite remembered for being able to work up quite a miserable racket of guitars that were self described as going “schhiinkkkkt” and “vrooooooooom” against a pulsing atonal backbeat of a Roland 808 and an interminably drunk bass player. In all honesty this band was by my calculations, one of the heaviest, and most exciting of all time. The most interesting thing about this boxset is actually that it comes with a 5″ flexi record with a cover of In My House, which hasn’t ever been reissued. The record itself, which is live is actually a little disappointing in how clean it sounds compared to their studio recordings where they managed to make an ungodly racket. In addition you get a pretty cool video of the band playing live, and a pretty stupid shirt and poster, in a nice looking 12×12 box.

3) Finally, here’s something that’s not by a Chicago band revered by the aging indie elite: Chain Of Strength - Chain Crew record. Personally I’m not really impressed by this record at all, and I know it’s not as rare as it purports to be (100 copies), as I’ve known of more than a couple individuals who’ve obtained a separate cover, and then matched it to the corresponding vinyl. Just saying. Second, I don’t really like the 2nd Chain Of Strength 7″ a whole lot. The first one is totally bare bones straight edge HC just raging it up start to finish, but this one injects a significant chunk of Turning Point (lp) style melody, much more “emo” type lyrics, and a significant increase in hair-gel. Lastly I always found this particular edition to be kind of a bogus rarity because it wasn’t even made by the band, but by a friend of theirs, I believe posthumously. It does look REALLY cool, much better than the normal edition of the record, and the inserts w/ green toner are cool as hell (it sucks they don’t make colored toner for xerox machines anymore), but I’d rather own a silver sleeve edition of the first record and a studio recording of Til The End.

Still kind of rolling with the 90’s here, at least for a minute… A message board I post on ended up having a huge thread of “cool HC from the 90’s” kinda focusing on forgotten/hard to get releases and at some point it just degenerated into anything decent that doesn’t get a lot of face time nowadays. Eventually conversation turned to Devoid of Faith, which had me busting a bunch of their stuff out of my collection over the past couple days. Pretty much every DOF record is good, and with the exception of one split, they can all be had for like $2-$7. It’s actually kind of surprising how little interest in them there is right now, and I hope at some point the interest returns because revisiting has been a treat. I guess if you mixed up some classic New York stuff like Citizen’s Arrest, Agnostic Front (V.I.P. era), Life’s Blood, Born Against (1st 7″), Trip 6, and Nausea (demo era), you’d start to get an idea where they were coming from (although DOF was from Albany NY not NYC) — just pounding stuff with good tempo changes.

There are two particularly collectible records by Devoid of Faith, both issued on Pushead’s Bacteria Sour Label in the 90s. This is one of them, a 10″ album called Purpose: Lost, issued in a number of only 222 copies. It has since been repressed on a different label with alternate artwork but this version is still desirable to some collectors, and one of the best recordings by the band. If you’ve never heard them I suggest checking out their songs from the split with 9 Shocks Terror, the repress of this 10″, their earlier self titled lp issue as a 10″ and 12″, the Slow Motion Enslavement 7″, or the Denial By Machinery 7″. All of these are first rate and pressed in large quantities making them easy to find cheaply.

So besides a couple more less interesting 90’s releases, this seller also has a good smattering of 80’s classics, that are already canonized into the hall of fame. A clipped corner copy of This Is Boston Not L.A. which you might be able to obtain for cheap, a Pusmort pressing of Poison Idea’s Kings Of Punk (it’s missing the sticker and poster though FYI), Finnish standard: Rattus “WC Rajhtaa” 12″(with Pushead art on the sleeve, making this the most Pus-heavy post ever), basically everything here is worth your interest. The Crude SS - Who’ll Survive 7″is a serious jam right up in the upper echelon of Swedish classics, and also one of the first from there to get heavy exposure in the USA, and before you ask “how?”, just re-read this post again and look for a reoccurring name: Pushead. Well at least in part anyway, due to his inclusion of Crude SS on his Cleanse the Bacteria compilation.

Uh oh, more 90’s HC, this time from my buddy Mark Hurst. I feel confident this is quality stuff though. Mark has made roughly 1.5 billion dollars selling all his records off over the last few years when not playing drums for Wound Up & Punch In The Face, and he has spent every cent on live DVDs of Blur and Ride. SELLOUT!

1st: he’s got 4 Despise You E.P.’s up for sale.

• Their 7″ entitled PCP Scapegoat
• Their split 7″ w/ Crom
• Their split 7″ w/ Suppression
• Their split with Stapled Shut

The Crom split and PCP Scapegoat 7″ are both the same recording session and sound kind of shitty IMO (still good stuff though), the Suppression split is better, but their split with Stapled Shut is some of the best material by both bands. Despise You were all kind of more grind-core dudes doing a “secret” side project that was more HC/Power Violence, circa the mid-90’s. They used a lot of Hispanic gang type imagery associated with bad parts of L.A. and kind of tricked a lot of people into thinking they were a bunch of criminals. When they hit their stride musically it was on this record and the Left Back Let Down 4 way split, sounding like a battle between the Terrorizer demos & Crossed Out’s vinyl output. That’s a rather generic description, but if you’ve ever listened to Despise You, you’d know it’s pretty accurate. They tuned their instruments to A, which almost put them musically into Carcass territory, but the vocal delivery was pure violent American hard core, just spitting hoarse out of breath shouts. By the way the best Stapled Shut song is on this split as well, Resin Heaven. I think almost every Stapled Shut song has a pot smoking reference in it, which is weird because most of them are pretty fast. This one works a real groove for about 5 minutes though, and is surprisingly catchy. They also had this cool sound to their instruments that sounded like they turned all the tone and treble knobs to zero, and ran everything directly into the mixing board. It gives it this absolutely impenetrable Wall-Of-Fuzz sound that I really like. Totally killer band whose releases can all be had very cheap.

Now to the other side of the globe for every D.S.B. record produced through the 90’s and into the early 2000’s. Chronologically:

• No Fight No Get 7″ original press on Devour/Bloodclot
• Radical Sharpshot 7″, red vinyl, on Overthrow
• Wings Continue To Strive With Unchanged Mind lp on Bloodsucker
• split 7″ w/ Deathreat on Mangrove
• Pure Cultivation 7″ on Partners In Crime
• Battle Into The Invisible Zone on Kangaroo
• Wait Tremblingly on Partners In Crime

The last 3 are pretty easy to still find new, but the others are some of the best straight up hardcore to come from Japan in the last 10 years that I’ve heard. D.S.B. did a weekend of shows on the east coast, kind of at the height of the early 2000’s Japan-core craze, and I managed to take in two of the shows. They were absolutely the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever witnessed. These guys just 100% went for broke, jumping and thrashing off everything, playing a boatload of catchy jams, and just generally proving what all the fuss was about to anyone who was there. I think the general consensus is their best work is the first 2 E.P.s, and I’m inclined to agree that they’re as good as classic records by greats like Outo, Nightmare, etc.

Well…. like an idiot i just lost the stuff I’d just written today about Floorpunch. I found all these editions of their 7″ for sale by one seller:

• Red vinyl #’d 200
• Blue vinyl (of 800)
• Black vinyl - 1st press
• Black vinyl w/ Green lettering on sleeve - 3rd press
• Euro tour edition w/ Judge sleeve
• White vinyl farewell edition

as well as a copy of their lp on white vinyl, and the In My Blood Records shirt.

This sucks total De Ja Vu from an hour ago. Anyway all I really wanted to say is that FP’s legacy has held up remarkably well over the last 10 years. The recordings still sounds pretty hot, the songs still deliver the power-load, the shirts still look good, the records still have cool layouts, it’s all still there, not really dulled at all by time. I was pretty disappointed I didn’t make it to their reunion show last fall, especially since I only really saw them twice when they were around. One more thing I gotta give credit for was how they were able to be a serious band, while still keeping a good sense of humor in interviews and on stage. If anything, the 90’s were plagued with overly serious, self important bands in every sub-genre around, and it’s safe to say, looking back a lot of it was presumptuous and I’d go so far to say some of it was downright insulting. Floorpunch was never caught in that trap. I mean their name defined, if it were in a dictionary, essentially means “To mosh.” Right there that tells you a thing or two, but even though the lyrics and music were simple, it still meant something. The anger was still there at the heart of it, and, even if some people don’t want to admit it, the rebellion against the outside world (and the larger “scene” for that matter). Also they always picked great cover songs.

So that’s not everything I was going to say, but that’s the gist of it. BUST!

It’s Metal Monday again… Vol. 10! Today it’s back to black (metal) I guess. I’ve emailed the seller on this one to get the matrix etching for this record, and they are:

vile 28 a1 black fukkin metallllllllllllllllll

vile 28 b1 the return…

Leading me to believe this is a legit test pressing of Darkthrone’s beloved (or reviled) “A Blaze In The Northern Sky”. I remember when Lords of Chaos originally hit bookstores. I had no interest in metal music whatsoever but I picked up this book like so many other people, and was first introduced to the ridiculous world of Norwegian black metal. Obviously I’m a Pozer as I was not handed a Bathory lp somewhere in a foggy Fjord in 1984, but regardless there it was. I’d now heard of all these crazy freaks running around burning down sacred buildings and making this esoteric hell-noize, more or less for a living, and while I wasn’t interested at the time, it was still interesting, and I didn’t forget it. When I first heard “A Blaze…” (much later on) it was just a mess of treble and screeching, and echo, but there was something compelling about it, maybe the utter despair the music could convey even if it was pretty much all fantasy.

In the last couple years it seems like everyone has been bitten by the Black Metal bug again. You can’t walk ten feet without tripping over some skinny blond American Apparel looking female in a Burzum t-shirt reading a Xasthur review at pitchforkmedia.com on their sidekick. The amount of myspace pages that exist for one-man, Garageband-created BM projects by ex-hardcore kids and general interest indie rockers, is on its own, enough proof of this, and the gradual acknowledgement of at least the bigger genre names, by “reputable” (used loosely) music publications seems to say that people are willing to take Black Metal seriously, at least sonically, if nothing else. It makes it sort of weirder to look back on an album like this, all the more so when you see what a cartoon and self parody Darkthrone has consciously become. In the end it’s probably best to just view it in as much of a vacuum as possible. A heavy, harsh, Black Metal album, still with some Death Metal in the sound. Like a good Death Metal record it piles on riff after riff like a boxer who pounds his opponent ten different ways before achieving victory. But it’s the atmosphere and dank analog buzz that sets it apart as a trend setter for, what was then, a new genre (well sort of new). It’s always tough to choose your words about these milestone type records so I’m going to leave it at that. But before I go…

I’m gonna try a little Metal Monday sub-feature. Thrash Metal Sleepers. I feel like Thrash Metal has maybe come of age again with Earache and Relapse signing Municipal Waste, Toxic Holocaust, and a dozen other bands that aren’t very interesting to me either that all kind of sound like Exodus and Kreator in a round about way. Thrash Metal was so big in the mid-80s though that there’s tons of cheap, but overlooked goodies that are worth at least a tip of the hat, and there’s hardly any demand for them in the ebay world, although I feel that time is going to pass sooner, rather than later. Thrash Metal on the whole is kind of comparable (as any micro genre in music could be) to Slasher Movies in the Horror movie scene. They all follow a formula, and the ones that are lesser known are never going to top the defining classics like Psycho and Halloween, but it doesn’t make say… Sleepaway Camp, any less enjoyable if you just want a few cheap scares and dead camp councilors. Catching my drift here?

So for volume one, take note of Holy Terror, a real treat of a band, that managed two full lengths, Terror and Submission (1987), and Mind Wars (1989) in the late 80’s before fading into obscurity. I also found a second copy of the first lp with a 12.99 buy-it-now; a nice deal for sure. What makes Holy Terror so enjoyable is that while they can speed-shred with the best of them, they are not afraid at all to bring in some more classic heavy metal flavor along the lines of Judas Priest and Merciful Fate. At the core they’re still a thrash band, but they’re a thrash band with real hooks, and some song craft to spare. The vocal delivery alternates between screamed and sung style depending on which part of their sound the band is working, but it all feels very natural and seamless.

One of the more popular and desirable releases on the timeless Dangerhouse label is the
Avengers - We Are The One single, and one of the more collectible Dangerhouse variations is the original first pressing of this record which comes in a sleeve that is different than that of subsequent pressings. This version is commonly referred to as the “crucifix sleeve”, because lead singer Penelope Houston is in a mock crucifixion pose on the cover. It’s a very cool and iconic photo, which is typical of Dangerhouse releases (the iconic nature, not the crucifixion pose).

Dangerhouse is a label that’s fetishized like only a select few others, the gold standard of early U.S. punk, hardcore, and “new wave” (early being ‘77-’79), and is also one of the most consistent labels I can think of content-wise. We Are The One itself is known for being one of the three records on the label with a female singer, each larger than life in their own ways. Penelope Houston was the woman that sang in the Avengers, often with a faux-British snarl, and at times with the kind of self-empowered, can-do, tough-girl vibe that Pat Benetar cultivated shortly thereafter in the mainstream. Typically when you see an Avengers write-up now the writer will go to great lengths to talk about how this is the precursor to Kathleen Hannah and all her half baked philosophy, but I think that’s quite a short sell for the band even if it was. Before anything else the Avengers could write a tune and a hook, something I’ve heard few self-proclaiming “Riot Grrrl” acts do, and that’s a big part of the Avengers’ charm.

Like the majority of the bands who did singles on Dangerhouse, this is their finest hour. We Are The One itself is the kind of anthem any straight ahead punk band aspires to write. You either open or close with this song. Car Crash and I Believe in Me feel like b-sides but only because the choruses aren’t as stadium sized as the opener. Actually I think they show a little more personality at least in the vocal, if for nothing else than being a little more spontaneous and spunky.

Note that the copy up for sale here has the blacked out “33 rpm” on the label (which is common for this pressing), and the sleeve has a smooth matte finish, as opposed to recent bootlegs where the sleeve is glossy.

Yeesh, it’s been a while so here’s a whole stack of misfits rarities. In bullet (haha!) form:

• Bullet 7″ red vinyl w/ Better Dead On Red sleeve
• Halloween 7″ w/ insert
• 3 Hits From Hell 7″ 1st press w/ red label
• Walk Among Us lp w/ pink sleeve on Ruby/Slash (1st press)
• Die Die My Darling 12″ purple vinyl
• Evil Live 12″ w/ OG sleeve
• Wolf’s Blood 12″ w/ full-color sleeve
• Static Age lp purple vinyl
• Collection II lp clear vinyl
• Samhain - November Coming Fire lp orange vinyl

More or less… that adds up to a couple (a few) grand. Even though I feel Misfits collectors take part in creating and overhyping stupid things like pressing errors, and trivial variations, these are all pretty cool variations of these records to own, and there’s no denying Misfits records are awesome, and have a cool common aesthetic. I think I’ll be kicking myself for the rest of my life over a few of the deals I’ve passed up on some of this stuff, but I can’t take it to heart too much because of the ammount of time and money it would cost to track down all this stuff. I actually have to say, I’m sort of shocked that Caroline doesn’t keep reissuing this stuff in new collectible variants. I’m sure all the members of the group still need the money it would net, and I just can’t really fathom that it’s out of some “respect for the fans”. Also - is there a worse sounding live record than Evil Live? Oh wait here it is! (FROM THE SAME SELLER).

Seriously though, shouldn’t there be some kind of definitive Misfits Re-Re-Re-Issue series on vinyl and CD. I’m not even sure how it could be done, the original singles have been chopped up and re-mixed onto the Collection lps, the Static Age, 12 Hits From Hell, and other such things. Maybe keep the Static Age disc as is, get a definitive issue of 12 Hits (if you mix Bobby Steele off this record I’m coming for you Glenn Danzig!), some kind of Collections Redux that removes the tracks from the Earth A.D. session, but adds stuff like the original Cough Cool and Night Of The Living Dead tracks, as well as other session outtakes like Who Killed Marilyn and Spook City. It hurts my head to think about, and it’s clearly more thought than probably even the songwriting here took, but at some point it has to happen. They’re a classic American Rock (Punk) band with one of the messiest back catalogs of all time.

Here’s a decent spread of NYHC style items. A lot of bootlegs but they’re all easily identifiable, and there’s a few that are actually pretty cool and nicely done.

Most interesting thing is this Krakdown 7″ with what seems to be an original insert, which is very rare. The story goes that they showed up to Kinkos to make lyric sheets but didn’t have enough money, and got sick of folding them or some such thing, so only a couple hundred were actually made. You almost never see a copy of this E.P. with an insert. Popular opinion, seems to be that their ‘87 demo smokes this recording, and though it is awesome, I think this record stands on its own for sure (even if the recording’s a little on the thin side). A jam like disappointed can’t just be written off quite that easily. If you don’t know Krakdown, well, you’re not necessarily to blame. They’re one of those NYHC bands stuck in reissue purgatory. I think their only available track is on the NYHC: The Way It Is comp, but they have a couple of demo recordings, this 7″, an unreleased split lp, and a wealth of great live sets. A real shame. They’ve always sort of been the NYHC equivalent to Void for me. They were looser and more punky than your average NYHC band with a wild and unhinged guitarist often that would break into squalls of feedback and stuttering atonal solos. Truly a cult classic.

I guess, continuing with the reissue purgatory is this Supertouch 7″ (titled: “What Did We Learn”). Supertouch is weird weird weird band, and until a few years ago they were in danger of being forgotten. I used to get made fun of for loving them in high school, I guess it finally came around though because Revelation recently repressed their album out of new interest in the band. This is their 7″ from before that though, and along with a couple of promo/demo recordings, a comp track on Revelation, and an infamous WNYU live set, it forms really the core of what the band was all about to people (besides stage diving that is). I still really can’t describe Supertouch right. Even on their earliest rehearsal recordings they mixed heavy grooving rock influenced guitar riffs, DC emo-core type melody, and NYHC attitude, delivering a really unlikely mix of all 3.

And then there’s this. Youth Of Today - Disengage on clear vinyl. I couldn’t help but see it and get annoyed. How similar it is to the Supertouch 7″, but how different as well. Disengage is a classic example of the washed-up Straight Edge record. The recording is clean and melodic. It’s a hard core 7″ but only has 3 songs. The cover doesn’t have the band name on it anywhere. The singer won’t scream anymore. While this isn’t far off the record named a few lines above here, the difference is that Youth of Today started off sounding like a bunch of Tasmanian Devils beating trashcans and stringed instruments (seriously listen to the original mix of their first E.P.), and thus it’s way more offensive to me. You’d think by now bands would have learned their lesson trying to transform their youthful hardcore band into some kind of half baked, reconfigured rock outfit, but it keeps happening. I feel like for 25 years it has been an endless cycle of youthful angry boys that make one or two good E.P.s, with a good intro or three, a couple catchy fast riffs, and then they start growing their hair, listening to Joy Division or Ride - or worse just another band of ex-HC guys like Quicksand or Into Another - and then it’s right on to the fanzine interviews where they talk about expanding their sound, how their old music is boring, all that shit. If only there was a way to tell these people that they are living out the same embarrassing cliche ending that so many bands before them have, on par with a high school football player choosing a white hat, or a Canadian citizen loving hockey.

By all means if you start a band feel free to grow, evolve, change, try new things, EXCEPT, if you start a straight edge hardcore band. If this is the path you choose please, all I ask is some good mosh parts, a singer with a powerful and unleashed yell, and at least one good t-shirt design (free of scratchy lettering, too many colors, and anything that has been on a hardcore band’s shirt in the last 6 years). This is all it takes folks. You don’t need to grow, you don’t need to get introspective, you don’t need to plagiarize that Sonic Youth lp you just bought. People have been playing rock music for a major chunk of the last century, so when you get over hardcore, please spare everyone the come-lately rocker vibe, and just quietly put down your guitar and shut up. Thank you in advance, and to all my formerly Straight Edge friends - I still love you.

I guess technically this should be on bid-proto-hardcore dot com. Once again we’ve got a seller with a bunch of clothing for sale, and a couple of interesting vinyl items. Most desirable is a decent looking copy of Crime “Hot Wire My Heart” backed with “Baby You’re So Repulsive”, their first release from 1976. I was struck with how memorable the Crime aesthetic was even before I’d actually heard their music. They have a big bold logo, they always look cool in promo photos, often in matching get-ups, and their promotional flyers always had cool looking pop-art type imagery. Something has been made of them being an early example of D.I.Y. type approach in punk music (Hotwire is a self financed/released single), and that’s worth at least a mention, but desirable records it does not necessarily make. The sound of Crime is interesting, it kicks up a mid-tempo rocking feel, not far off a solid glam band, maybe like one of those James Williamson era Stooges bootlegs, but even more rickety and loose, and with a sharp sardonic vocal delivery that’s altogether meaner than Iggs even at his most pissed. There’s something else I can’t quite put my finger on that makes the sound of Crime compelling though. Maybe it’s how it sounds like they don’t even care that the recording sounds like little more than a few mics standing in the middle of the racket, or the way the guitars seem to be getting bashed in and out of tune at various times. There’s just an intangible something about Crime that makes them cool as hell. If you’ve never checked out Crime you oughta be able to find the San Francisco’s Doomed anthology, or download their 3 singles (although the third sucks by all accounts) off any number of mp3 blogs.

1 more jam you might want up here is is this Major Conflict 7″. This is an early NYHC entry, and certainly an “also-ran”, famed partially for the fact that the group featured members of Urban Waste, and also for the movie and book, based in part on one of the member’s experiences in the band “A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints”. For NYHC trivialists, the 2nd Raw Deal demo (which was never officially released when the band was around, but is where their comp tracks come from, and was used to submit to In Effect to get signed) has a cover of the song Outgroup, which Raw Deal and later Killing Time later sometimes performed live. Anyhow, I can’t say this record is great, but it does have some cool parts. There’s only 3 songs, and they’re a little on the long side, and more tuneful and “rockin” than the sound Urban Waste were known for, but some people, including my associate AJ find the record, and it’s bizarre lyrics about walking down the street and being king of the jungle, to be endearing. Mad At The World records did a CD reissue of this 7″ along with an unreleased 12″ E.P. and some live material maybe 2-3 years back if you’re interested, but you could always just buy this very E.P.

OOPS — I almost didn’t notice this Accused/Rejectors split 12″the first Accused record (as noted), and I think (?) their only with their original singer before Blaine from the Fartz joined. I just learned he was also the singer on the 10-Minute Warning demo which is an exceptional tape trade obscurity. Can one of you hardcorepunkmetalfreaks get on reissuing that? The last song on my copy cuts off. Totally classic thrash, although it’s hard to tell the condition of the record from the photo.

Man look at that. Here we are at volume 999 of Metal Monday already. A President’s Day edition no less. No doubt somewhere Zombie Abe Lincoln, or at least someone with a Zombie Abe Lincoln tattoo is listening to Iron Maiden or something. Anyhow, I’m pressed for time today, so I don’t have anything crazy, but I found this dude from Korea (no idea how your shipping rates will be) selling a bunch of cool death metal stuff.

For one, he has seemingly original picture discs (probably limited to a few thousand) of the first 2 Dismember lps, and the Pieces E.P. Like An Ever Flowing Stream, their first lp, is one of the only instances of a Death Metal band incorporating melody into their sound that I find to be acceptable and listenable. Riffs twist and turn with sombre themes but manage to be humable and catchy beyond reason, while still being able to break into heavy crushing moments, and tuneless mosquito-buzz thrash. The vocal delivery is also surprisingly straight forward, more-so than the Dismember demos (which you should hear if you like death metal). If only their follow-up Indecent and Obscene could have followed up on the greatness and perfection of their first lp (which, honestly, I’ve not really adequately described). Instead it’s one of the more botched recording jobs I’ve ever heard, I’m unable to sit through it at all. I swear it sounds like they only got around to recording scratch guitar tracks, and it’s frustrating because Like An Ever Flowing Stream is actually a fairly brief debut. Sadly though on Indecent and Obscene, all of the melody and crushing power is lost, leaving the guitars sounding almost like a parody of the buzzing Metal Zone (guitar pedal) sound - just a toneless hum. At any rate there’s also a couple really cool looking original Dismember tour shirts (and one newer one). Have a look…