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G.I.S.M.’s “Detestation” lp is one of those records that is nearly impossible to judge in a vacuum. Its been subject to 25 solid years of mythologizing and collector worship. Its one of the few records that can still get an extreme reaction from people listening to it for the first time so long after it was first conceived. It’s one of the harshest most brutalizing rock records ever made. It’s also one of the strangest. It’s a landmark intersection point for punk, hardcore, and metal, doing its something to muddy up the gene pool of each. “Greater than the sum of its parts” is not even the half of things here. People who know G.I.S.M.’s  music already know all about this, and those who don’t can’t really understand what it’s all about until hearing them.A lot of people were unknowingly exposed to G.I.S.M. for the first time via the “P.E.A.C.E.” compilation on R Radical records, where the first song from Detestation, “Endless Blockade For Pussyfooters” was given the prominent position of 2nd song on side A (right after Articles Of Faith’s “Up Against a Wall” no less). This song not only typifies everything about Detestation, but it was given visibility of the unavoidable sort in the lives of thousands of “punks” world wide. The guitars have a saturated “direct line”/”tone-knob-at-zero” sound, somewhere south of AF “United Blood”, but are played with the kind of dexterity you’d expect from Judas Priest’s K.K. Downing circa Stained Class or British Steel. There’s absolutely no concession for punk rock conventions made by guitarist Randy Uchida AT ALL. He plays speed metal riffs, he just happens to be in a raw hard core band. The rhythm session if less remarkable, is exactly what it needs to be, as much as they parallel the Rainy/Tez team of Discharge (who are certainly an influence here), they also are supporting Uchida the way Kerslake and Daisley did on Ozzy’s Blizzard of Oz. They’re the rock solid foundation. It ain’t about every member being in the spotlight, it’s about each one shining in their own way. Sometimes that means playing your bass like Micheal Anthony.Enough of that…It’s all forgotten the first time you hear the vocals, by the respected and feared, Sakevi Yokoyama. There’s dozens of tales of his insanity, of how he can kill with a look, of how he is the most feared man in Japanese punk. The Flannegan and Mcgowan times ten. Well, this is a music blog, and frankly when you hear the man’s vocals, you’ll know he’s crazy. I don’t need to recite tall tales. There’s talking, shouting, screaming, and gurgling. There’s echo, and phasing, and distortion. It’s unlike anything else from the time period, and pretty much still completely on its own as a musical statement. As far as hard core nothing even comes close in terms of unhinged mania. In metal the only thing close might be Bathory, and Quarthon was always much more 1-dimensional. When you put it all together G.I.S.M. is kind of like listening to Iron Maiden during a really bad acid trip with Discharge playing really loud in the next room. I don’t know how anyone thought to combine driving hardcore with NWOBHM and these unholy vocals, I just know it’s good. This is the original legit pressing of Detestation on Dogma label. My man on the street says you can tell by the tip-on jacket and because subsequent bootlegs removed the swastikas found in the art. Please no body get scared, this isn’t music for fascists, just music confronting them.