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Pre-orders went up on Amazon for Anthony Papparlardo’s book: Radio Silence: A Selected Visual History of American Hardcore Music.

Can you believe the dude who put out the Deathwish 7″ and Slaanted Enchanted does the best sports blog online? http://www.cantstopthebleeding.com/

A couple worth noting:

• Cold World “Ice Grillz” 7″ test press - $127.50
• Breathing Fire 7″ test press - $62.50
• Antidote 7″ - opening bid at $500, unsold
• Nihilistics s/t LP - opening bid at $45, unsold
• Judge shirt - $172.50
• Turning Point - $100
• Judge discography test press - $580

Pushead had his fingers in the global hardcore scene from the get-go, and so it’s pretty logical that he released one of the earlier compilations that does a pretty good job of covering several different areas of the earth. This comp - Cleanse The Bacteria - in addition to that though, also has pretty much the limits of extremity covered for hardcore in that era. Power hits from the likes of Mob 47, Inferno, Civil Dissident, Corrosion Of Conformity, The Execute, and Pushead’s own band Septic Death. There’s also some 7 Seconds songs that are pretty good, but not extreme in any way.  Oh and there’s a little band I happen to live very much by the name of Siege making their only vinyl appearance ever (excluding numerous reissues of their demo). The Siege songs on here are ragged, blasting proto-grindcore insanity. Probably the best music I know of to come from Boston in 1985 without any doubt. For the inclusion of that material I consider this comp particularly indispensable. The Pusman was one of the few who actually got how earth shaking what Siege was doing was - and the tracks actually sound best on the actual comp as opposed to numerous reissues where they’re EQ’d to sound more seamless with Siege’s demo tracks. Aside from my personal bias, and interests, just take a look at this tracklist:

Side 1.
7 Seconds: Regress No Way, We’re Gonna Fight
Civil Dissident: 20th Century Holocaust Pt. II, Death for a Buzz
Instigators: 53rd State, The Blood is on Your Hands, Free(You’re Not)
Siege: Sad But True, Cold War, Walls
Corrosion of Conformity: Kiss of Death
Crude SS: Nazi Go home, Sprang Alla Komunhus
Akutt Innleggelse: Tenk Na!
The Execute: Slash(Live)

Side 2.
Part 1: Black Mass
Poison Idea: Typical, Die on your Knees
Genocide Express: Genocide Express, Factory
Inferno: Wir Sind Schon Tot, Freited
Mob 47: Fred & Rattuisa, Sjuk Varid, Nedrusta Nu, Snuten Styr
Septic Death: Terrorain, Change
Enola Gay: Grav Et Kul, Enola Gay
Holy Dolls: Beast of the Apocalypse
Zyklome A: People Die, Angry Face
Extrem: Nazi Raus

Anyway this copy is a blue vinyl edition which is relatively hard to come by. There’s also some on orange vinyl that include a poster and a bonus 12″ of out takes - good luck grabbing that. I’m not gonna break this down track by track, but pretty much every band that’s not Part1 (ugh) brings something good to the table.

What’s to say about Agnostic Front “Victim In Pain”? It’s probably the best New York Hardcore record ever. It may be the best American Hardcore record ever. It’s definitely one of the most universal in the entire genre. No matter what micro-division of Hardcore/Punk/whatever you’re into, if you have even half a clue you dig Victim In Pain. It’s maddeningly perfect. AF never sounded like this again, before or after, and I’ve dug through live sets of the day and rehearsal tapes just trying to hear a few more minutes of the level of brilliance seen on this 12″. There are 2 comp tracks on Urinal Records “Message To America” comp that come close (one a re-record from their 1st 7″, the other got added to their subsequent lp), and an ‘84 studio rehearsal (I believe for their tour with Crucifix) that isn’t far off either. Still the fact remains this album stands alone.

If you were someone who’d never heard hardcore music before, and I only had 15 minutes to give you a basic idea that could approximate the entire genre, I’d just play you Victim In Pain. It’s hard, it’s tuneful, it’s rough, it’s anthemic - it’s everything. When I talk to people who are interested in playing drums or guitar in a hardcore band I suggest learning to play Victim in Pain straight through. It has only a few different drum beats overall, each one relatively simple and economical, but you should be able to do basically anything you want with them with a little ingenuity. The bass and guitar take a similarly simple approach but they surge with energy and nearly every riff sticks in your mind thereafter. Basically it’s all the proof you need that skill is secondary to a good riff and an energetic delivery. But let us not forget the recording, which is the perfect template for any band worth hearing. Tight snappy drums with a natural sound, no funky effects no wild reverb, just power hits. Guitars that sound like buzz saws but are bright and defined. Vocals front and center, no effects, no studio magic, just balls out yelling. Best of all, peanut-butter-thick bass with the fuzz up to 10 and the tone knob down to zero. The antithesis of the over polished, twangy, thin ”Sans-Amp” bass sound popular in “modern hardcore” (you know the shit I mean). I challenge you to find a better hardcore compass. I absolutely guarantee this album CANNOT lead you astray. It’s fucking impossible.

The tracklist might as well be a greatest hits list. Victim In Pain the song is probably the most recognized AF song ever, but Last Warning, Your Mistake, and Power could all compete for that title, and all are featured on here. I’d go so far as to say this is one of very few hardcore full lengths were probably every song has been covered by a band at some time. Speaking personally I’ve performed no less than 6 (out of 11) of these tracks in tribute to the perfection found in the grooves of this slab.

The original pressing was run twice on Ratcage Records with a gatefold sleeve. The second pressing has an Important Records Distribution logo added to the back cover. Later it was licensed to Combat records but the violent cover art was removed in favor of an all black cover.

It was the best of times…it was the blurst of times. It was 2002, or actually it was 2001, which soon became 2002 when I first heard this weird dude Greg from Cape Cod had a new band with Justin from Down But Not Out, and 2 other guys I didn’t know. I could have never guessed the number of times I would end up seeing this band over the next 3 years, but I thought their name, Mental, was really cool.

I got the first tape they did from Greg at a show and when I took it home I was pretty sure it was recorded on a boombox. “I think they’d be good if they recorded in a studio, but I can’t hear any of the songs on this“. The titles were stuff like “Fuck Responsibility” and “High School Sucks” which seemed cool considering how over-serious most hardcore bands were at the time. So in the spring of 2002 when I heard they were going to the local Dead Air Studios, I was eager to see how things would turn out.

I rode out with some friends on night in May ‘02 to do the crew backup vocals on Mental’s first studio recorded demo (affectionately known as demo 2).  When we got there, they were finishing up guitar tracks. I recall thinking it would be a late night because they hadn’t even started the vocals yet, one of the many times in my life I’ve been so very wrong. Greg laid the vocals down for 9 songs in probably 40 minutes. Mostly first takes as I remember it, and he sounded great. Brash, angry, youthful and confident. The tunes sounded great too. I was shocked actually, at how awesome it sounded for such a young band. I knew this would be a new favorite. It sounded a lot like old New York hardcore bands, maybe with some other stuff thrown in, or perhaps just the hindsight the 90’s provided. I’ve never quite put my finger on it, but it sort of always reminded me of the first Sick Of It All 7″. Maybe with some Straight Ahead and Token Entry too. It didn’t really sound like one thing or a particular band to me, I just thought it was good, and at the time it pretty much stood alone. Logos for straight edge hardcore bands had got really scratchy and lyrics quite serious and wordy. When Mental came along they had big cartoon letters and seemed like they were having fun on their recordings (even moreso live). It kind of just took an unnecessary chip off the shoulder of Hardcore for a little while, without ever being too jokey or goofy. It’s not really easy to walk that line, and it was sort of how I knew they were something special. A breath of fresh (”fresh”) air.

I went to the recording for their 7″ later that year, again at Dead Air and I remember being at least a little surprised how much more they had their shit together already. They did 11 songs in a day I think. There might have been an extra half day to finish up vocals and do the mix, but I still remember being in awe at how fast the band had moved, even though they were releasing a 7″ they had enough material laid down to make a 12″. All of my bands up to that point had struggled just to get demos together. After demanding that someone yell “bust!” prior to a breakdown in one song, it was put on me to be the one to do it, although I think someone from the band could have done it better.

Once their 7″ came out it seemed like things never stopped for Mental. The record came out in the winter of 2003, but by summer 2003 they’d recorded a demo of the absurd side project Dumptruck, and another E.P. to be out by the year’s end. Tours and endlessly colorful t-shirts followed, as well as a couple more records. The first time I saw the whole USA from the window of a van was with Mental, lifting guitar cabinets and drums on a nightly basis. I guess it’s weird to write about stuff that is so recent, but it was good times, even when it wasn’t good times, and I still play these tapes (and 7″) pretty often.

An Insted test press - hmmm. Can’t say I love ‘em, or really even like ‘em. It’s like someone took 7 seconds, made the vocals even less threatening, made the songs longer, and then put a picture of 3 kids skipping down the road on the cover - how does this even qualify as hardcore? It’s too Boy Scouts Of America.  I’m not saying you need to be in full on GG Allin mode, but I dunno, where the hell is the anger? It’s like Crucial Youth only they don’t know it’s a joke.  Choose For Yourself, Live and Let Live, Be Someone… I feel like I’m watching that Stuart Smalley sketch on Saturday Night Live. I will admit that We’ll Make The Difference is a pretty classic Straight Edge Anthem, but a whole album of this stuff is just too much.

Shout out to Gil who is the only non-straight edger ever in history to like Insted. To me this is insane. It’s like going to confession once a week but not being Catholic. Gil you’re one of a kind buddy.  This one’s for you.

It’s the 25th Metal Monday which is sort of a milestonish number. The first real “Metal” song I consciously remember hearing was Metallica’s “Creeping Death”on the playground in the 5th grade. It was on the walkman of a fellow student who of course, had borrowed it from an older sibling. I remember being positively frightened and enthralled by it. This was for sure, the only song I’d ever heard with a backing chorus of voices chanting “Die…Die…Die…” over and over. It was menacing and heavy and strange from all the echoing. As a 20-something I eventually came back to the song when Ride The Lightning became the number one choice to play on repeat for computer lab all-nighters. I’m not sure how the other students took this, but they probably just kept listening to Dark Side of The Moon and The String Cheese Incident on their headphones.

Music For Nations of course had a deal with Megaforce to issue Creeping Death as a 12″ single in Europe adorned with cover art of an ominous fantasy landscape in greens and blues which was painted on the back of hundreds of denim jackets in the state of New Jersey alone. The 12″ was issued of a few different collectible colors, 3 of which I’ve linked here, which are fairly tough to find. The b-side of course is the original Garage Days Re-Visited E.P. with the fairly well known covers of Am I Evil (Diamondhead) and Blitzkrieg (by the band of the same name),  both middle school favorites of some of my friends.

Technically I should be listing this on a metal designated day, but somehow there’s never any copies for sale on Mondays, and I think a case can be made that Repulsion’s “Horrified” is basically an accidental hardcore record anyway. Repulsion were a band of metal heads in the wrong time and the wrong damn place - early 80’s Flint Michigan.  I really can’t think of a worse place to be in the USA then. These guys were born and bred metal heads, but they had punk and Hardcore sympathies so while they were following the progression of bands like Slayer, Possessed, Death, and Celtic Frost, they were also catching onto the extreme sounds of Discharge, Siege, C.O.C., NYC Mayhem,  and D.R.I., as well as the tasteless shock punk of G.G. Allin. Repulsion were ahead of their time because they could make the connection between something like Siege and something like Possessed. That the brutality and delivery were different, but still similar, and related to each other.

When they recorded their Horrified lp it was actually supposed to a be a demo called, Slaughter Of The Innocent. The idea was they would produce the best possible sounding demo they could with their entire current set list, and then use the recording to secure a record deal. Apparently tension ran high with the band and the studio engineer who not surprisingly, found their punk metal hybrid to be trash, and gave very little attention to detail during the session, but in the end I think that may help make this recording what it is (godly). The 2 guitars are panned hard right and hard left, the vocals are shouted hoarse and without any echo or sign of overdubbing, the drums are a blasting racket, and the bass… whata bass sound. Apparently there was some screw up when they were recording forcing the band to record a second track of bass over top of the other one which was too faint on most of the tracks, so it was decided it would be run direct into the board through a fuzz pedal. Easy on the ears it’s not. Saturated, blown out, and fucked up it certainly is, and it helps to cement the entire thing as a distorted “shit-fi” whirlwind of a recording. The style of recording alone sounds more hardcore than basically any of the bands Repulsion was influenced by. It’s abrasive even by today’s standards. The songs themselves are possibly the fastest recorded up to that point in time in metal, and are stripped to the bone for maximum speed potential. Only 3 even break the 2 minute mark and there’s not a high note or attempt at singing in sight. Repulsion may not have intended to be, but for all intents and purposes they were as hardcore as anyone else in 1985, or now.

Sadly, and not surprisingly this demo wasn’t exactly a hit with any labels. The band say they sent it everywhere, hoping to get some money to record what they saw as a proper album, and at best they were told, send a copy of the next demo. No one got it because they were all looking for another Slayer. The band dejected, depressed, and out of steam, fizzled later in the year. But like the zombies that adorned the very flyers they were billed on, Repulsion was soon exhumed from their own coffin… well kind of. Less than a year later Napalm Death had recorded their debut lp, and it became a novelty success in the UK. John Peel loved it, parents hated it, kids had to have it, and everyone was asking “where did you come up with this shit”. Pretty much the whole band credited Repulsion as one of their main influences and suddenly people were busy tracking down copies of their demos (some of which were issued under their previous name Genocide). When Carcass exploded onto the fledgling grind-core scene soon after there was no stopping things. Soon Carcass front man Jeff Walker had his own imprint subsidiary on Earache (who released Napalm Death and Carcass’ albums), and his first project was basically remixing the Slaughter of the Innocent demo and releasing it as the 18 song Horrified lp. Retribution. It was strictly for the diehard, but finally the planet had caught up to where Repulsion had been, and grind-core mania was on.So this is that original pressing released in ‘89 that I’ve linked. Since then its been issued a few different times. Most recently with a bonus lp containing most of the band’s other demos on Southern Lord that’s worth every cent if you’re unfamiliar.

Hey the Celtics won the finals - so here’s a classic Boston punk record from the days of Larry Bird. Gang Green - Sold Out on clear vinyl with a MEGA RARE acetate cover. I could tell the story of Gang Green’s “Sold Out” 7″ in my own words for the uninitiated, but this excerpt from the reissue cd does it so well, that there’s no need. Read on…

By 1983 GangGreen were a memory. They did not play out anymore or record. But their popularity seemed to grow to epidemic proportions. Meanwhile: Hardcore was at its peak in America and Boston was the breeding ground for such bands as Negative FX, SSD, DYS, The FU’s, Last Rights, Jerry’s Kids, and The Proletariat. But the GangGreen tracks on “This is Boston Not L.A.” led them to legendary status. There was a postumus release called, “Unsafe at Any Speed.” The track by GangGreen was called “Selfish.” Their only other recordings were known as the “Sold Out Sessions.” Three songs were recorded during that session: “Sold Out“, “Terrorize” and a song that was never finished called, “America.” The bill was $275.00, unpaid, overdue and threatened to be taped over.

Enter Taang! Records:It wasn’t until Dave Collins, drummer of DYS, showed up at a Bad Brains show with a copy of the GangGreen tape known as the Legendary Sold Out Sessions. The reason Dave Collins got a copy of the tape was because DYS were recording at Radiobeat studios and he managed to get a copy of the most eagerly awaited unreleased tape in Boston history.Meanwhile at the Bad Brains show:For this particular Bad Brains show there was a seven hour wait because the Bad Brains needed to score weed. The crowd that gathered in The Channel parking lot did not enter the club. They remained outside due to the no remittance once entered rule. That day the lot looked like a HARDCORE WOODSTOCK. Skate ramps were built that day, graffiti was sprayed on naked buildings, children were even conceived… but most importantly, a record label was born.Dave Collins searched the lot for the Motorhead Mobile, an all black ‘67 Camaro which was a listening haven for many. He spotted the car and found members of GangGreen, Negative FX, SSD and most of the Boston hardcore scene huddled around the car blasting Discharge. DC aka Dave Collins held the tape high above his head in victory yelling, “Hey crew look what I’ve got.” The Discharge tape was exited out of the tape deck & GangGreentape slid in. After several repeated blstings of the tape there was nothing but praise. The bands nodded in approval but Curtis, a D.J. at the time, who plagued radio with hardcore (especially Boston hardcore), could not contain himself. “This is fucking great!” he shouted, “It should be on X-CLAIM!“Doherty whispered to Curtis, “We’re not straight edge.” “That’s fine,” Curtis replied, “Springa & Chris Foley never were either. X-CLAIM is Boston & this has to be on a Boston label!” demanded Curtis. X-CLAIM was thee Boston label at the time. Known to most for straight-edge hardcore and releasing albums by great Boston hardcore bands.

The X-CLAIM situation was this:  No one ran it.  Bands used the name and there were four different addresses. DYS got SSD’s mail and The Fu’sthrew out Jerry’s Kids’ mail… get the picture? So it was time to start fresh. Curtis was handed the tape and it was up to him to do something about it. Doherty, Dean, and Curtis are all friends and X-Claim was X-Claim.Curtis got some help from people he had helped; Al from X-Claim/SSD, Ian from Dischord/Minor Threat, Glen from Plan 9/Misfits, Jon Loder from Crass/Spiderleg, Mike Stone from Clay. These five people were a great inspiration and direction for this new label. TAANG! Records was born with the release of “Sold Out” by GangGreen in March ‘84. The record took off, word got out all over the world. The label was on its way.As for GangGreen: They reformed for the release of “Sold Out” (TAANG! #1) but shortly thereafter Bill decided not to play music anymore and the band played their last show with the Minutemen at The Channelin Boston. Doherty passed out face first on the floor due to a long day of drinking with Dicky B. at a nearby bar.

There you have it. History, as it happened before the eyes of those who were there. Gang Green have been consistently one of the worst bands in Boston for about 20 years now, but because of the Sold Out 7″ single they will always have a place in the hearts of punks and hardcore kids in this town. The cover is an all time classic. The 3 members, probably under 18, with a mirror that has the band name spelled out in cocaine. It wasn’t exactly hard to predict it would be all downhill from there. The song sold out is a great one - clean guitar starts the song off sounding like some pre-hardcore Boston bar rock/power pop as Chris Dorhety warbles off key “All we want is money and to be on every station” and so on, before declaring “give the fuckin’ people what they want” in a teenaged scream that has been rarely equaled by anyone since it was first laid to tape. At this point of course Gang Green deliver some full tilt thrashing and lyrics no one will ever decipher. I was in a band that covered this once, and I played the song about a dozen times in a row trying to figure out what I was supposed to say. Finally I resigned myself to just singing nonsense that sounded the same has the nonsense he shouts. Song 2 is Terrorize which is a slightly more refined version of the “Boston Not LA”, basically just full on thrash with screaming backups for the chorus. Gang Green were one of the few who wrote the book on tuneless ear shredding thrash. It’s too bad they really did try to sell out later, making mediocre heavy metal records on Roadrunner but whatever.

Only 100 copies of Sold Out come on clear vinyl with this transparent acetate cover, probably all of them were hoarded by the notoriously unscrupulous Curtis Taang. I assume a lot were traded as his early releases sometimes include copies of his tradelist, but i suppose it’s possible some were sold for coin too.  

Doug Moody. Oh Doug Moody… The Roger Corman of American Hardcore.  On the wikipedia entry for Mystic Records you’ll find the following information:

Mystic was founded by Doug Moody who wanted it to be a platform for America’s youth to voice their opinions musically. The label attracted Hardcore Thrash and Speed Metal (a term Moody is credited with coining) bands. In its heyday (between 1983 and 1985), Mystic released over 100 different records with several hundred artists. Moody was assisted in his efforts by Philco Raves (who assisted in recording and production) Bill Karras (sales and distribution) and Mark Wilkins aka Mystic Mark, (Record and Tour Promotion)…

There’s no doubt this was written by one of the people it mentions, but it’s at least somewhat informational. Now way back a while ago I’d heard Doug had a career in the recording industry prior to Mystic, and after some internet clicks, I found a record of that on this blog: Selections From The Punk Vault. If you scroll to the bottom and read through the comments you can see Moody and a couple of his associates chime in and give the full picture of how the Mystic empire came to be. I’m not going to excerpt it at length here, but suffice it to say, the dude was in the music industry working with everything, from Classical, to Gospel, to Doo-Wop, it’s insane that for some of us  he’s most known not for the dozens of Gold records of 50’s and 60’s artists that he A&R’d, but for releasing records like this comp: We Got Power.

In practice this is probably the best Mystic compilation and, in the classic Mystic style it’s seriously filled to the edge of the record with songs; 40 to be exact. One big difference is that it’s got a lot more “big names” than most other releases on Mystic. As explained through the comments in the above link, the folks at Mystic did not start a punk label because they were a part of the scene, they were just looking for a niche. When you look back at the insanely large 80’s Mystic Catalog it becomes obvious that it was just about producing a product quick and cheap for basically, any hardcore band (so it seems). The same way Roger Corman was basically just throwing together whatever he could on a limited budget looking for a returned. Quality and ability generally don’t seem to be concerns once you start to sample the Mystic back catalog.  It’s like a hardcore junksale. If you wanna get down on your hands and knees you might find something cool, but it ain’t gonna be much. Still it’s hard to argue with this particular tracklist:

1. THE AUTHORITIES “I Hate Cops” / 2. THE NIP DRIVERS “Tang” / 3. JFA “Middle America” / 4. DR. KNOW “Savior” / 5.WHITE FLAG “Celabate” / 6. WHITE CROSS “Nuke Attack” / 7. FUCK-UPS “Bacon and Eggs” / 8. PUTRID GIRLS “1 2 3 4″ / 9. ILL REPUTE “Count the Odds” / 10. STALAG 13 “Selfish” / 11. REBEL TRUTH “Monkey’s Paw” / 12. WILLFUL NEGLECT “E.M.S. & D.” / 13. TAR BABIES “Confused” / 14. MECHT MENSCH “Might Makes Right” / 15. GRAVEN IMAGE “My World” / 16. THE VACANT “Caught by the Mafia” / 17. ADRENALIN OD “World War 4″ / 18. THE CLONES “Conform to the Norm” / 19. THE BIG BOYS “Brick Walls” / 20. SIN 34 “Not” / 21. MINUTEMEN “Party With Me Punker” / 22. DAYGLO ABORTIONS “Scared of people” / 23. CAUSTIC CAUSE “Look to the Left” / 24. DON’T NO “Blind Ambition” / 25. S.V.D.B. “Flames of Hell” / 26. PATRIOTS “Cavity” / 27. HATED PRINCIPLES “Survival At All Costs” / 28. CRANKSHAFT “New Wave Homos” / 29. URBAN ASSAULT (S.F.) “Night on the Town” / 30.URBAN ASSULT (Tahoe) “Rock’n'Roll Burnout” / 31. 7 SECONDS “Wasted Life Ain’t No Crime” / 32. JACK SHIT “Follow the Leader” / 33. ATHEISTS “Music I Can’t Stand” / 34. ROMULANS “Judgement Day” / 35. NO LABELS “Ego” / 36. ARMED RESPONSE “Too Gross for Comfort” / 37. DERANGED DICTION “Crooning” / 38. FALSE CONFESSION / 39. MANIMALS “Things Under My Bed” / 40. RED CROSS “Pseudo Intellectual”

Well here’s one from back in the day -
Man Is The Bastard / Capitalist Casualties split 12″. By that I mean: 1994. Possibly the worst year for hardcore. Certainly one of them anyway. This is a pretty cool record though, a career highlight for both Man In The Bastard, and Capitalist Casualties, both synonymous with so many patch distros from years past (ALL PATCHES ARE PRINTED ON RECYCLED FABRIC…specifically my mom’s curtains). This thing is starting to fetch some cash and is quite outta print. I actually need a vinyl copy if someone wants to trade. It’s one of 2 or 3 MITB recs I still need to get.

Cap Cas on this one still sound pretty good, if not much different from a lot of their other releases. At this point they’d started to lose their 80’s sound which was basically a copy of the first Cryptic Slaughter lp, and started incorporating more of the normal and expected aspects of “power violence”. It wasn’t really that much different, but I feel like stuff such as The Art of Ballistics was just more straight up hardcore. It’s weird they’d already been a band for 7 or 8 years at the point this was released. For mid-90’s Cap Cas though this is some of the best. My favorite will always be their earlier Raised Ignorant 7″ though. These guys like speed. There’s not really a whole lot I can say about them because they’re so simple. Kind of like the way Out Cold or someone is, although they sound way different. They’re just content to get fucked up and write really ripping hardcore forever. Mucho respect.

Man Is The Bastard side on this one is night to Cap Cas’ day. I’d rank this maybe in their top 5 recordings if I was going to make a list (and last time I counted there’s 19 or 20 that I know of). It’s from a time when Eric Wood was cool, as opposed to now where he’s into arbitrarily dubbing random myspace-violence bands as “getting it”… oh and he wears a Locust shirt (I’m saying the party was over when that Locust MITB split came out…what a bummer). I’m sorry I just can’t let it slide. This is why people don’t like me. What I’m getting at though, is that at one time anyway, the dude was a genius and surrounded himself with equally sharp collaborators. This release is even from the MITB phase that included No Comment’s Andy Beattie on additional vocals (you can check my previous No Comment posts to see what I think of Mr. Beattie). Foot Binding (first song) rips it out like a deconstructed PCP fueled thrash metal nightmare. The riffing is dizzying and it’s a perfect summation of the insane rage and power that the hardcore aspect of Man Is The Bastard’s sound delivered. Typical MITB protocol was flipping the shit on you just when you’d got your footing with them. Track 2, Feeding The Octopus, does just that, busting out a 4 and a half minute instrumental workout augmented by various creepy electronic buzzes and hums. As a band they’re a total exploration of “brutality” (a word dulled by its overuse in reference to HC at this point) and as such, it seems like they can’t not juxtapose a hardcore rager like the first song with this kind of sludgy progressive shred fest - they want you to make that connection, or they know you already have.  There’s 3 other “career bests” on here too. MITB wins the cup for best side of this release, and that’s not meant to be a slight on Cap Cas, but there’s just more for me to sink my teeth into here.

As an after thought, I do wanna say I have a lot of respect for Mr. Wood, I’m just not seeing eye to eye with his current interests, which is alright, such is life. Anyway, he took the time to drop The Crumbsuckers in a recent interview as a favorite record, and for that alone I give him a pat on the back, a tip of the hat, and maybe a “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” too. Love/Hate mail can be addressed to cc@bidhardcore.com.