bidhardcore.com

Whoa sorry for the hate fest yesterday. See what happens when I don’t get enough sleep folks? In the end, it probably did more good than bad for yesterday’s seller. But that was yesterday. What have I got today? More like, what haven’t I got? The answer to that question, is most of the records this dude is selling. SHAMEFUL on my part.

These listings are not ace, and it makes you wonder about the validity of a few items like the NA 7″, Urban Waste 7″, 7 Seconds “Skins” 7″, especially because the labels are not visible in the photos. On the other hand the seller obviously knows the value of these items, and they seem to be in the company of many obviously legitimate pressings (you can’t fake a Floorpunch on gold people).

How about a top 5 ?

1) I gotta take the Urban Waste 7″here. Presuming that everything is legit about it, this is a hell of a clean copy. Contains an instert, the cover looks nice, unfortunately you have to speculate on the vinyl due to the photo which at the least may keep the price down. It’s kinda strange you know, Urban Waste is at this point just shy of a $500 record. If this one actually had a classy listing I think it could break it, but it’s not hard finding an Urban Waste E.P. It hits ebay seemingly weekly. With only 1000-ish pressed it seems like a large number have survived so it’s kind of surprising the price has been able to climb steadily over the past few years.

2) Even if it’s 2nd press, a clean copy of the Negative Approach 7″is a good investment and I really doubt the price is ever coming down (barring global economic disaster). You’d have a tough time arguing this isn’t the best hardcore E.P. ever, even people outside hardcore can appreciate this one. Best vocals in a punk/hardcore band ever maybe? Contender for greatest lead off track - without a doubt. NA is a band that I would argue outshines their influences (S.O.A., Blitz, 4Skins) on this record. Been listening to it for 9 years of my life now and it hasn’t worn out its welcome in the least. Too bad I’ve been listening on a dumb CD. Gotta change that this year…

3) Either Minor Threat7″ here could, in my book give the NA 7″ a run for its money. They’re both later pressings, but I guess could fetch maybe 2 bills each. There’s been a LOT of Fillers popping up lately, although it shouldn’t surprise anyone. Even blue covers are going for 150-200 now, and there’s plenty to go around. I think pretty much only the red sleeved ones go for more than 250-300 though. Btw, anyone that wants to trade a Red Sleeved copy, I hereby offer my Dogs - Slash Your Face (stock copy) in exchange for one. Maybe we could workout the difference after that, but the thing has been played twice ever so consider that. I love some Detroit Rock n Roll, but I grew up w/ the White House in my backyard, and I’m straight edge, so Ian and the boys will always be my first love.

 4) Antidote without an insert is still an Antidote 7″, so eff it. I give this my number 4. Probably will still go for more than the Minor Threat recs, and the sleeve looks better than some I’ve seen. Why are these things always trashed? At least there’s no handwriting or water stains on this.  Please lord someone put together a better Antidote release than the junk currently available.

 5) Last Rights 7″w/ a mic-stand-throwing cover. A riff like Chunks really only comes once a career, and a record this legendary probably not much more than that. No matter how much embarrassing shit Choke has pulled over the years with Slapshot, it can never diminish this single. HARD HARD HARD skinhead HARDcore. If there were oi bands that actually sounded like this I’d get a pair of boots and a razor shave on my dome.

See you folks on Marathon Metal Monday…

Holy F’n Schnikes. I don’t know where to start with this. Obviously the “buy-it-now or best offer” links are set high so that people will just make their best offer, but $2200 for some Uniform Choice lps. Good lord. Nevermind that this dude claims he owns 3 complete sets. I know I’ll sound like a hater saying this, but I feel like this is one of those people who isn’t even into music and just fetishizes the same 2 or 3 dozen bands. Proof’s in the pudding that they’re looking to buy a copy of Nirvana - Love Buzz, I mean Aneurysm is a jam, but anyone willing to shell out a few grand for one of their records, probably has kinda bad taste. Yeah I said it. Total hater over here. I dunno, Big Cheese is 3th tier Nirvana, and 4th tier Melvins worship. I love Screaming For Change though. Realistically that lot is probably worth $1,000-$1500 maybe as low as $800 actually, although money is certainly no object to this person (which makes them better than the rest of us btw). What a great album though. I wouldn’t mind owning 4 copies. Tell you what, I’d probably trade in half the Nirvana song catalog for another EP of Uniform Choice songs in the vein of Screaming For Change.

Let’s see… then there’s this Fear Of God 7″ on clear, on Temple Of Love records, an In My Eyes test press of their best lp, Demise - Furnace of Tension test… you know this is stupid, all of these are good items and I could talk at length in a normal post about them, but I’m just dumbstruck by the spectacle and absurdity of this listing. I might as well mention the Youth Of Today “Can’t Close My Eyes” 7″ on orange vinyl with the Batman stamp… priced at $700.

It truly never ends with this stuff. Every time you think you’ve seen it all on ebay something pops up that just fries all the logic-circuits in your brain, and you’re sort of left wondering, “What am I doing with myself? Is this what I’m into? Where is this going to end? Who owns at least a dozen copies of Screaming For Change? How can I steal them?”

Do you think the seller even feels fulfillment with any of their vinyl acquisitions? “Yea I have these 2 complete sets of Uniform Choice lps… but it’s just not enough, something’s keeping me up at night. I need to do it again. It’s the only way I can truly live.”  Hey don’t forget about his multiple Chung Kings, he’ll be listing one soon.

I hereby promise to be more coherent tomorrow.

Good lord this is already at $40? I guess that doesn’t touch even a hair of what it’s worth content-wise. Citizens Arrest started in NYC in 1989, originally with the now semi-famous singer/songwriter Ted Leo on vocals. They produced a solid demo tape, and started playing shows, mostly at ABC-No Rio with other new (at the time) bands like Born Against, Rorschach, and a lot of others that are less cool (sorry Bad Trip). If Born Against became known for their political rabble rousing, and Rorschach became hallowed for their experimentation with metal and noise in a hardcore context, then Citizens Arrest were the band for the purist. Hardcore for the hard-core. I’m getting slightly ahead of myself though. Right after the demo tape, Ted Leo split, forming Animal Crackers, then Chisel. Daryl Kahan, who played drums for the demo phase of the band then took up the mic, previously having sung in the forgotten, but awesome True Colors (check their demos and song on the New Breed comp), and this is when things really popped off. The band recruited a new drummer, Pat Winter, previously of Our Gang and True Colors, and went to the studio to record 2 songs for the Evacuate records sponsored “Look At All the Children Now” 12″ compilation. From there on out the Citizens Arrest sound was fully formed.

What makes Citizen’s Arrest awesome to this day is that they always had a pure hardcore side that grounded any eccentricities. At the root of it all you could tell they were into early SS Decontrol, DYS, Youth Of Today, Ripchord, Void, AF, Negative Approach. The essentials to meat and potatoes HC. But there was something more. For one the riffs and guitar playing were occasionally colored by melodic passages, something that was explored in more detail by Born Against, but which still helped to shape the CXA sound. Most bands that deal in brutality do so in the most complete way possible. It tends to be a monochromatic picture, and while I’ve got no problem with that, I think part of what makes Citizens Arrest’s brutality stand out from the pack is that occasionally they counter balance it with the melodic aspect. The other part of the picture is Daryl Kahan, the band’s vocalist. Daryl was seemingly the most extreme member of the band, and since Citizens Arrest, he’s gone on to play in several pure grind and death metal bands, and at least one black metal band too. You can tell that he’s already aware of these fledgling styles, and he uses his knowledge in some of the harsher portions of his vocal delivery, and in some of the more esoteric lyrical passages on CXA’s recordings. Seriously, on the “A Light In The Darkness” 7″, you’re hearing one of the best hardcore vocal recordings ever. It’s like some unholy alliance between the first Bathory lp, the Void split, and John Brannon. My description does it no justice whatsoever. You just have to hear the way Serve and Protect (the lead-off track) hits a guitar break, only to be brought back together by the vocals shouting “I thought your job was to SERVE…AND…PROTECT”. It’s goosebumps every time, I swear.

A Light In the Darkness was originally supposed to be Draw Blank #2 after the first Infest 7″, but instead came out on Fred Alva’s Wardance label (Killing Joke reference?). There are 2 pressings of 1,000 each, I think you can differentiate them based on the record matrix as they were done at 2 different pressing plants. There’s also 100 copies on red vinyl, good luck getting one. I didn’t hustle when I could have got one reasonably cheap and am going to have to pay the price for that sooner or later. Some copies also come with the Citizens Arrest Eyes logo screened on the inside such as the one up for auction here.

FUN FACT: Daryl Kahan can also be seen in Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan as a skinhead in the times square scene.

Everybody knows Void, DCHC’s infamously atonal acid-thrashers (read in Jackie Chiles voice). By far they’re probably the most championed DCHC band after Bad Brains and Minor Threat, and they receive considerable attention from enthusiasts of the non-punk world, which I guess in some way validates them in the larger musical tapestry. What I’m trying to say is even non-punks know Void shred. The same cannot unfortunately be said for United Mutation, who never get the same kind of credibility affirming praise that the likes of Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, The Melvins and other stone-aged, well respected indie rockers have willingly doled out for Weifenbach and company. Please don’t be angry reader; I’m not suggesting that Void sound the same as United Mutation, but they’re hardly far removed. Maybe they even had the same drug dealer?

United Mutation was founded by 2 brothers with the last name Fox, sometime in ‘81 or ‘82 I think. By 1983 (when their first 7″ came out) almost every band in DC owed a debt to Minor Threat in their sound, and were pushing towards an increasingly melodic delivery. United Mutation are one of a short list that were doing the opposite. This is sick, sick, introvert music. For a reference point see the first Die Kreuzen lp or the Scam 7″ (both of which were released after this but are similar). In “Banned in DC” there’s a quote that’s always stuck with me that, to paraphrase, says United Mutation just hung out in the basement everyday practicing their songs, but only left once or twice a year to play a show. It makes total sense when you hear them. They sound isolated, and unsociable.

Their chronology is confusing at best, but I think they did a demo or two, some of which were recycled into comp tracks (like the AWESOME Mixed Nuts Don’t Crack compilation), and then they delivered their first 7″ Fugitive Family a split release on Dischord, and their own DSI records. Let it be noted that this wasn’t deemed even significant enough to be a a half release, being relegated instead to being catalog #10 & 7/8th. What the fuck? It couldn’t get #11 1/2 or something? Whatever. Growing up in the DC area has left me with a soft spot for most of the bands of the time, even the less interesting ones, but for me, United Mutation transcend that. This is disgusting, fuzzed out noise that’s way ahead of the curve, cutting almost at a Siege-like speed, and dear lord the vocals! This may be the most inhuman vocals used in any style up to that point. 100% predicts the kind of things you’d be hearing on records by G.I.S.M. and Bathory records a year later, even though neither were probably aware of this record. This is a perfect example of a band refitting an established genre to their own twisted vision - it’s imaginative and stands alone.

Still, I can only lavish so much praise on Fugitive Family, because the crowning achievement of United Mutation, is their Rainbow Person 7″. Sadly if their first 7″ can be called under-appreciated, you might as well call this one unknown. I guess without the minimal Dischord endorsement people just aren’t as interested. There are some people in-the-know though, and they can tell you what a demented piece of psycho-core this is. It’s been a major influence on some of my song writing over the past couple of years, and is one of the most bizarre of its time. Between each song is a recording of a clearly mentally unstable person, speaking about time travel, setting the mood for the creepy music that follows. The band are slower now, the guitar is drenched in reverb and chorus giving it a psychedelic quality (and I’m sure there were plenty of drugs consumed of a similar classification). The songs are mid-paced, but still punk, with creepy echoing solos, and sections that start to break apart under the slowing tempos. The vocals are as rasping and demented as before, though at times they come close to singing on key, they only do so in the same demonic voice, often while being echoed and phased into oblivion. The weirdest and most eccentric aspects all come together on the song Zone, the only song on my ipod with the lyric “My eyes have laser vision to the sky”, as a circular bass riff creeps along with spare guitar guitar accenting before kicking into a total temper tantrum of psychotic rage. Right before the song starts the rambling mental-case declares “Reality makes me fucking sick, because it’s disgusting it’s perverted, okay. Obscene… okay. This reality.” It’s a good way to sum up the underlying sentiment of all United Mutation music.

Pressing info is as follows:

United Mutation - Fugitive Family 7″:

• 1000 copies on black vinyl w/insert
  Dischord 10 7/8 / DSI 1, 1983
• 500 copies on black vinyl w/extra track, xeroxed sleeve, no insert
  Dischord 10 7/8 / DSI 1, 1989

United Mutation - Rainbow Person 7″:

• 800 copies on black vinyl w/foldover cover and insert
• 225 copies on black vinyl w/pocket cover
• 75 copies on black vinyl w/xeroxed pocket cover
  DSI Records 4, 1985
• 500 copies on blue vinyl w/foldover cover and insert
  DSI Records 4, 1989
  

Here’s a slammin’ lil slab for your Metal Monday consumption. Exorcist - Nightmare Theater. This is a super catchy record of dirty power-thrash, pretty similar to Venom in the heavy riffs and huge choruses, with just a touch more speed and technical ability similar to the “German Thrash” sound . The difference is these guys are actually pretty good musicians, and by these guys, you may be shocked to know that I mean, the majority of Virgin Steele. Check out this little blurb from the ever-popular Metal-Archives:

Here’s the alleged story… in 1985, Jack Starr (Burning Starr) was on the way out of Virgin Steele, due to disagreements with the rest of the band. To let off creative steam, David DeFeis did some songwriting for Cobra Records artists like Piledriver, and also the band jammed with a new guitarist, Edward Pursino. Finally, they decided to record an album but could not release it as Virgin Steele since the name belonged to Jack Starr. They put out the “Nightmare Theatre“ album in mid-1985. They then kicked out Jack Starr and one lawsuit later, the name Virgin Steele was Dave’s and Edward was in the band. But part of the settlement was that Exorcist would remain Exorcist and not be associated with the Virgin Steele “Noble Savage“ lineup that wrote it!

So there you have it, even a Piledriver connection. Of course one thing about this lp is that it’s way better than anything Venom did in ‘85, the chorus to the opener “Black Mass” is big, dumb, and awesome. One kind of weird aspect of this album is there are a lot of interludes, usually they’re weird skits, sometimes they’re ambient keyboard stuff, and sometimes a combo of the two. The skits are all pitch-shifted either higher or lower to sound like weird creatures, and they’re kinda funny, and they actually keep things moving better than you’d think, and keep things from getting overly serious, although a lot of them are nearly impossible to understand. All jibber-jabber aside though this is one of the catchiest thrash records out there, and it sells pretty low frequently. Essential to check out IMO.

All who know me are aware of my absolute admiration for the music of Infest. For me, only Minor Threat and the Bad Brains ever made more of an impact on my mind. The first time I heard Infest was in art class senior year of high school. My friend James had bought a bootleg CD discography and I popped it in while doing classwork. It was one of those moments of total paradigm shift. I’d seen plenty of shirts and patches with the Infest logo on them, but I really couldn’t have been more blindsided by how they sounded. The singer sounded crazy, like the burliest thing I’ve ever heard, the music was blindingly fast but definitely hardcore, and with constant changes of tempo. Actually it was the tempo changing that stuck out to me early. I’d heard bands play at hi-speed before, but introducing new riffs and constantly stopping and starting again every few seconds was new to me. Break The Chain (the first song on the CD which had the Slave lp first) managed 5 or 6 different parts in about 25 seconds. At the time this seemed so impressive.

Early on I noticed Infest was a band that anyone could like. Dirty punks, straight-edgers, grind-core dudes, you could see any of them repping the same Infest gear at any given time - a rare occurrence in the segregated worlds which each inhabits. Within a year I picked up the Slave lp and Mankind 7″, which were easily findable on Deep 6 at the time. Freshman year of college I used to mosh around my room to Mankind when my roommates were out, or jam along on guitar. Some of my more purist straight edge friends occasionally gave me shit for listening to some “crust punk grindcore shit”, but it never held much water with me. Sick-O nullified any possible criticism that someone might level, anyway their logo had some positive dude in sneakers and a flat top breaking the chains.

I was pretty confused at first what the deal with the first Infest 7″was, but in a nutshell, they recorded an lp’s worth of songs, issued 10 of them on a s/t 7″ (also referred to as the Machismo 7″) on their own label (Draw Blank), and then around the same time licensed the whole session to Off The Disk records from Switzerland who issued all 18 songs as the Slave lp. Same songs, same recording, just one has more. Machismo was run off in an edition of 1,000, with clear and purple vinyl copies being extremely scarce variations. Even the black vinyl though goes for around $50 nowadays. It’s been bootlegged a few times, but some changes were made to the layout so that it’s easy to tell. This copy also seems to have a couple stickers included which is pretty cool.

Typically when I find myself in New York City, I’m concerned with one thing: getting out of it. Yes, for all my love of NYHC, all the long praises I’ve written about the bands, the city itself makes me sick. Sick with anxiety, and disgusted by the piss stench everywhere I turn. Excuse my misanthropy please. It’s all good though because there will always be a song that perfectly sums up how I feel. I’d even say it’s one of the best punk songs, no… one of the best rock songs ever written. I’m not talking about the well liked Fear classic “I Love Livin’ In The City” (”NY’s alright if you like saxophones”), I’m talking about The Randoms - “Let’s Get Rid Of NY”. I can play this song over and over and over again. I can listen to the two minutes and thirty seconds of pogoing perfection for hours with the only pause being the time it takes to push the needle back to the beginning. I’m like a teenage girl in 1964 with a copy of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, absolutely mesmerized. When this perfect tune plays, it’s the only song in the world. When the chorus kicks up with that scrappy Chuck Berry on 78rpm’s riff and I hear the declaration of “Let’s Get Rid Of New York”, I think it’s the way a devout church goer feels each time the congregation shouts “hallelujah!”

I want everyone to know, as I’m aware many readers of this blog are from the NY area, I have nothing really against the people of your city, I certainly love many of the associated musical traditions, but there is something about the city itself that I hate. It’s not because I live in Boston, it’s just the way I feel. Like the way you might feel about mayonnaise on your food. Please don’t take it personal New Yorkers (although I know you will).

So you see, when you combine the perfect punk music, with the perfect lyrical sentiment, it makes sense that you can only declare such a composition, one of the greatest rock songs ever written (beyond all criticism etc.). Why in the name of everything holy and unholy then, is this song on the B-Side? I can only imagine it’s a joke, because even though “ABCD” is a fine song in its own right, it’s the “Let’s Go Away For A While” of this package. Now let me just shock you and say, after all that praise… this is only my SECOND favorite single on Dangerhouse.

Number ONE: the untouchable “We’ve Got The Neutron Bomb” by The Weirdos. As a package it nudges out the Randoms just barely for having what I think is the stronger A-Side (the title track), the real treat though is inexplicably on Side-B again: “Solitary Confinement”. Maybe it’s the angry boy in me, but all the bouncy pop fun of “Let’s Get Rid Of NY” is easy to forget when you hear this proto-HC slash ‘n burn job. I know I’m drowning in my own hyperbole right now, but try to listen to Solitary Confinement without playing air-guitar — I guarantee you will fail without the aid of a handful of sleeping pills (and I don’t do that shit so I’m screwed). I’m sorry to 2-Time the Randoms like this, I really am, but this is also one of the greatest rock songs of all time. It’s one for the books folks. Take “Search and Destroy”, strip off the silver pants and make-up, and proceed to rip it up at full volume with a chorus roughly the size of one of Jupiter (the planet).

I don’t have all day, so I can’t even talk about the raging screams of Alice Bag, or 2 of the 4 good Dils songs. Likewise I’m gonna have to skip explaining why the Deadbeats suck, and I’d rather listen to Howard Werth. Another day, although since everyone in New York and surrounding areas has abandoned me, that day may never come.

It might be forgivable if you’re not familiar with New Jersey’s Chronic Sick. They were unpopular in their day, panned by most reviewers as reactionary, and their records were pressed in minuscule quantities on the hard-to-come-by Mutha Records. That said they’re one of the most consistently beloved “Killed By Death” type hardcore bands, or as it’s now okay to term bands like this, “Killed By Hardcore”. A perfect example of a band no one cared about when they were around, but now considered to outclass many of the more popular bands of the day from anywhere in the world.

Chronic Sick eschew the typical expectations for a cult/unknown hardcore band as they’re as tuneful, well rehearsed, and professionally recorded, as most of the big acts of the early 80’s in the United States. The sound of the music owes a heavy debt to DC bands like Scream, Marginal Man, Double O, and at least in some ways predicts some of the chorus drenched guitar work Dag Nasty delivered a couple years later. Before anyone protests (and I know you will), this is hardly the self-conscious emotive, good-time core that all of those bands are, at least in part known for, (no disrespect to the godly Scream). Rather the lyrics and vocals come at you with plenty of snot and bile, hardly sticking to safe topics (as the middle finger on the picture sleeve should let you know), and keeping things firmly hardcore even in during fairly poppy guitar lines. On this record, which there’s probably 500 or less of, (probably way less when you account for 20-some years of record collections thrown in the trash by New Jersey moms), they take the time to attack “Reagan Bands”, lament the transmission of venereal diseases (Crotch Rot), and I’m not sure what the third song (Blood Type-X) is about, but as the MRR review of the time noted, it might be better that way.

Like yesterday’s Death Wish entry, Chronic Sick aren’t just good for a “rare record band”, they’re just good. They may have been reactionary townie losers, but they were a good hardcore band first. It’s really kind of a shock no one has been able to negotiate a legitimate reissue of their output, and maybe even more shocking that it hasn’t been bootlegged (although let’s face it, it’s only a matter of time til some eastern European schmuck takes care of that, unfortunately it will probably made off shit MP3’s and pixelated JPG’s).

Worth noting, there’s a Send Help 7″, also on Mutha Records, for sale by the same person. One of the better and more hardcore releases on the label after Chronic Sick & The Worst.

Deathwishshould have been a big name on the Boston Hardcore scene in ‘83. I have no idea why they weren’t really, although presumably it was because they never played a show. Eventually guitarist Jordan Wood (R.I.P.), went on to form Slapshot, but the Deathwish single is legitimately at least as good as Back On The Map. I know a lot of people think “oh a cult record” (i.e. not a big name), “people only like it because it’s rare”. I swear to you, and if you’ve heard it you know: Deathwish could have been considered first tier. This record has 3 tracks on it which are taken from a longer demo session. Until recently it was questionable as to whether there were actually more songs, but a mysterious myspace profile of the band appeared, and it contained clips of other songs from the same session which, frustratingly, were not full songs. There’s also a less regarded demo from a few years later with some different members and a more rockin’ metallic sound. In other words - you’re not interested, because it sucks.

Side A busts out with a good Boston style creepy-crawlin’ riff on a dirty sounding bass. Cue: echo-drenched vocals. I’m talking the same family as City To City and What You Pay for with the riff, and Nightstalker vibe on the vocal. A good thick churn that could open a slam-pit in a retirement home. Chorus comes and kicks up a good thrash part up there with any SSD, Negative FX, etc. Then they repeat everything, sometimes all you need is a good slow part, and a good fast part. Flip it over to side B. Condemned is a good thrasher almost going Deep Wound speed, but with the kind of tuneful chord progressions that Jerry’s Kids were known for. The lyrics, something about being “Condemned for life” get delivered in a typical barking Boston style; hoarse and gruff. The song is about 1 minute flat. No big surprises, just legitimate ripping. Break The Chains (track 3), basically repeats the formula of speedy and tuneful, ending around one minute as well, also it’s my favorite of the 3.

I have no idea why this stuff didn’t get released when it was actually recorded, but in fact it did not. Instead it was released in 1989 (5 or 6 years later) on the Amory Arms label, run by one of the guys who went on to found Matador. There’s some question as to whether the release was legitimate or not, a lot of people refer to this as technically being a bootleg, however most collectors are willing to pay or trade for it as if it was legitimate, partially at least, because it was released in a numbered edition of 300. It was re-bootlegged by the notorious Lost & Found records in the 90’s, however, it has a different sleeve and thus can’t be confused with the original. Also, weirdly it’s included as bonus tracks on the CD version of the Abused “Loud and Clear” demo on Lost and Found. I have no idea why as they don’t really sound alike, and have no connection other than being from roughly the same time period. What sketchy affair that label was.

BTW this seller, who’s responsible for the Flex books and website, has plenty more 1st tier stuff you should check out, and I’m sure much more to come.

Metal Monday vol. 15:
Today is Monday so here’s Bloodcum’s - Death By A Clothes Hanger lp w/ a reasonable buy-it-now price. Bloodcum were infamous for a couple of things, for one, they’re kind of the Roger Clinton of crossover-thrash. Why? Because their guitar player was named John Araya, a fact which their quasi-sketchy label, the infamous Wild Rags, had no scruples about playing up (if you’re lost here TOM Araya is the singer and co-founder of the world famous Slayer). In addition it’s rumored, but not confirmed that they insisted Bloodcum’s singer go by the name Joey Hanneman to play up the “Slayer’s Younger Brothers” angle (corresponding to Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman).

The story is that the members were also Slayer’s roadies, and would come to hang out at practice, after which they would pick up the band’s instruments and goof off. Over time they became relatively competent, recruited a couple more members, cut a demo, and then issued this album, which as you can see by the title (not to mention the band name) is about as tasteful as taking your date to Wendy’s. In terms of music most of the songs owe heavy debts to The Accused, Cryptic Slaughter, Suicidal, & D.R.I., really the only thing in common with Slayer is solos which were clearly lifted from the King/Hanneman school (or more acurratly: King/Hanneman/King/Hanneman/King/Hanneman/King) of “play a bunch of random notes as fast as you can for about 6 seconds”. Lyrically things are definitely on the Accused/Suicidal end of things. There’s a song about how much it sucks to get married, some gory murder glorifications (Son Of Sam, Live To Kill, Sike-O-Path –predating Mental), the rediculous (and kind of hillarious) title track, and my personal favorite title Belligerent Youth. This definitely didn’t win any awards for originality in the day, but if you just want some competent ripping cross-over, look no further.

By the way, this isn’t an mp3 blog, but if you want to check out a good one, and/or want to hear Bloodcum, hit up: http://truepunkmetal.blogspot.com/. It’s got tons of killer downloads and some cool “personal” stories by someone who was actually around to see most of the bands that I only get to talk about.