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If you’ve ever been to a punk show where there was someone with patches on their pants or jacket, you’ve probably seen a Rudimentary Peni logo. I’m not quite sure how a band that hardly has played any shows in 25 years, and as such dense and unfriendly recordings can appear on the backs of so many teen’s garments, but I guess it’s probably because they had a Crass endorsement during a certain period of time, and are thus linked to the early anarcho/punk activist scene.  Rudimentary Peni, despite some members personal politics aren’t really a political band though, at least not in the way that most people think of a politically minded band, with giant slogans and rallying cries. To them, Zach De La Rocha owes nothing. It’s true a lot of their songs even on their first single, which is pre-Crass affiliation, address political issues and themes, but these issues are addressed in personal ways from behind a wall of isolation and obliqueness, it’s like you’re hearing a man’s conversation with himself on issues like religion, or political candidates. The idea that it might be impenetrable isn’t an issue because why would a conversation with yourself need to be? What’s most surprising about that fact is that the lyrics are actually written by two different members in the band, bassist Grant Mathews, and guitarist/vocalist/visual artist, Nick Blinko, but they seem to all flow from the same source.

Both of Rudimentary Peni’s first E.P. offerings, 1981’s s/t 7″, and 1982’s “Farce” 7″, are early hardcore classics, but it’s their outsider sound, and also look, that set them in their own little world. The artwork found on these records is a perfect match for the creepy and hypnotic sounds on the vinyl. Thin lined, highly detailed, black and white chicken scratched drawings of deformed people and distorted objects, often made of hundreds of tiny dots or scratches that were obviously the result of hours of hypnotic repetition. This too is a good match for the sound of the records. While a lot of the songs begin as seemingly ordinary early hardcore numbers, most eventually erode (if they last much longer than 40 seconds) into trance-like circular patterns. The vocal delivery is constant and rhythmic, and as Rudimentary Peni’s records progress song to song, they tend to become increasingly oppressive because of these qualities on the listener.  The songs do blend together as one, but I think in this case that’s a benefit. Occasionally there are breaks in the madness with songs like The Gardener on their first 7″ which crawls along like a psychotic nursery rhyme. If anything it sounds more isolated and nightmarish than the more straight forward numbers. Many punk bands make a lot of noise about being close to the audience, being one with the audience. On the contrary I think Rudimentary Peni build a wall between themselves and the listener, and for that matter the entire outside world. If you use these songs to look at the world through their eyes, it’s something like looking out through a black shroud. It’s cold, it’s lonely, and I personally find it affecting.

Shortly after these records were releases Mathews began a battle with cancer (eventually he won), and a few years later Blinko was diagnosed as “delusional” and institutionalized. Some people might theorize that the blackness they immersed themselves in brought on these horrible episodes. Some other people might say that they were born into that blackness though, and that Rudimentary Peni was just their way of making sense of their own world, where they felt like outsiders. When not stricken with debilitating mental and physical illness, Rudimentary Peni continues to sporadically release records. They just had a new album come out and the first half, if not quite as sublime as their early stuff, is still pretty good 3 chord punk, though by the second act it begins to meander with itself.

If all this is maybe too much, and you just want a fist pumping hardcore song, check out the song Sacrifice off the Farce E.P. (it’s the first song). It should give you the fix you need.

oh, and please CLICK

Rudimentay Peni - s/t 7″ 

Paintbox: The Door/Provided Railroad 

Paintbox is a band that by all rights shouldn’t have been as incredible as they are on record just based on the fact that they used the world’s most unlikly instruments to achieve their sound. Then again maybe if anyone could do it, it would be them. When I heard last summer that their guitarist Chelsea (formerly of Deathside, Poison Arts) had passed away, I found myself rather blindsided by devastation. I didn’t know this man, and there are bands I’ve spent more time listening to than Paintbox or Deathside, and as they say, “people die every day”, but something about the knowledge that I’d never see this dude play in the flesh had an adverse effect on me. I wasn’t quite sure how to deal with the feeling. How do you really mourn the death of a stranger? I moped around most of the day, and then ended up laying on a river bank in the Nor. Cal. sun playing back most of the Paintbox discography on my headphones. Later on someone mentioned to me that when Paintbox was asked what they wanted to do and see when they were in the USA, they would always say “see beautiful nature”, and so maybe this was a fitting way to remember Chelsea.

Sorry to all the BidHc loyal to get “emotional” here, but as the date of Chelsea’s passing is only a few weeks away, I couldn’t help but think of this (there’s also a big memorial show coming up for him in Tokyo on August 17). The leads that this man could lay down are some of the most staggering I’ve ever heard, fluid and searing the way Pig Champion (who I feel lucky to have seen play twice), or Eddie Clarke could be. There aren’t a lot of guitar heroes in this day and age, and I’m sad to say for the last year there’s been one less for the likes of me.  When you play the B-side of this single, Provided Railroad, and in the middle of the chaos you hear him tear a solo on a classical guitar it’s just obvious the man is operating on another level. What? Oh you’re not familiar with Paintbox’s affinity for non-standardized hardcore punk instrumentation? Well on this particular release, in addition to the usual Scream/Guitar/Bass/Drum set up, you’ll hear a horn section, some wood blocks, a harmonica, and that classical guitar. While this may have disastrous results with any other hardcore or punk band, it pays dividends here, and mixes well with the kind of bizarrely tuneful riffs that Paintbox were able to cook up. The A-side, “The Door” opens with a blast from a brass section that sounds like they’re announcing the arrival of a king, which they basically are, and then proceeds to swoop you up in a whirlwind of speed-picking fury and rough throated shouts.  Only Motorhead and the aforementioned Mr. Clarke have reached this simultaneous level of brutality and popiness before. Or if maybe Poison Idea had recorded with a Mariachi band as accompaniment.

I’m sure a lot of people reading this are probably shaking their heads like “how can this be good”, so let me invite those people, and also anyone who doesn’t like riffs, to please leave the room and don’t ever call me again. Go home and listen to whatever idiots listen to these days. I think the band is called No Age.

Through their whole career Paintbox were a band that delivered riff after riff that only could have come from them, they’re sort of eastern-tinged, kind of Iron Maiden-ish, and there’s this undeniably poppy undercurrent. To me, trying to boil down the sound of their recordings is like trying to give reasons why the Sun is bright. Their second lp (and possibly last depending on the state of on their third), Earth Ball Sports Tournament, finally received vinyl treatment (after 8 years of being a CD only Japanese release) on Prank Records this June. If you have any class you’d do well to pick it up (as well as the Prank repressing of their first album “Singing Shouting Crying”). I firmly believe it’s one of the 10 most interesting and rewarding lps of the last 10 years.  

The Door b/w Provided Railroad is out of print now, and is about 8 or 9 years old, so it shouldn’t be too much. Maybe like $20-$30.

Ps. thanks.

Here’s one of the weirder comps ever: End The Warzone. It’s probably most remembered for containing 9 (of 12) songs from Straight Ahead’s demo tape, thereby making it one of their 2 vinyl appearances.  Additional to that there’s also 2 live PHC tracks (was this necessary?), 4 Larm songs, and 2 Attitude Adjustment songs.

The Larm stuff is pretty solid for them, not their best stuff, but pretty much sounds like everything they ever did (out of tune, scrappy, thrash). I really like the Attitude Adjustment songs on here. I think they’re both from their ‘85 demo. Both were later re-recorded for their American Paranoia lp on Pusmort, but I think I prefer the demo versions because the vocals have more fire. The PHC songs are total nth tier junk. A bad Negative Approach cover, and a so-so original. Either way it’s kind of hard for this stuff to not be over shadowed by Straight Ahead’s contribution just based on the fact that it’s way bigger than anyone else’s. Even though the 9 songs probably only run 5 minutes, it’s still the fact that there are 9 complete compositions.

Straight Ahead at this point had just converted over from NYC Mayhem, who started as an early deathrash style metal band, then evolving into proto-grind core, and finally becoming almost a hardcore band, before changing their name and declaring themselves the full-on hardcore band you’ll find here. Most of the songs they contributed to End The Warzone, are actually modified versions of NYC Mayhem songs from their unreleased 7″ E.P. They owe a lot to Agnostic Front’s “United Blood”, as well as D.R.I.’s “Dirty Rotten E.P.” Most tracks don’t even take the time to repeat any of the parts, just delivering blast beats seasoned with tons of snare rolls and guitar breaks, and then occasionally slowing down for an awesome mosh part. I actually mapped out the structures of each song on this session once and they don’t make any sense. The riffs change to something new every 4 or 5 seconds and by the time you blink, 2 songs have gone by.

3 of the songs that appear here were later rerecorded for the Spirit Of Youth E.P. the band issued a year later, but the combination of a different drummer, and a more burly singing style on that release ensures that they almost sound like different songs here. Where Spirit Of Youth had gruff marbles in the mouth style vocals, singer Tommy Carol delivers a much more youthful and clear shouted style on this recording. By the way he also handles the drumming, which is amazing. Definitely some of the fastest blasting up until this point in time (I think the recording is from ‘85). If anyone has audio of any of the shows he played on drums with Youth Of Today (a band plagued by drummers I don’t care for) PLEASE COUGH IT UP.

All in all, Straight Ahead is one of my top 3 NYHC bands ever. It probably isn’t something you’d guess from this write-up because there’s really nothing I can even say about them at this point. From ages 18-21 I don’t think there was any band I was more obsessed with, seeking out live sets and videos, and replaying their brief output again and again. Eventually I sort of hit a wall with live sets and unknown info about the band because there is a finite amount of all that stuff, but still, this is basically one of the best bands ever in life. Maybe the only hardcore groups from NYC that can match them are V.I.P. era Agnostic Front, and the original phase of the Cro-Mags.

As far as I can tell this is the original pressing, I think the bootlegs all have blank labels. There are 500 originals w/ red labels like this, and 500 more with blue ones.

Young at heart, out for fun…

…oh and don’t forget to visit me here…

Metal Monday is back, and I want to make up for neglecting it lately.  This entire post stems from the fact that I’m selling an extra copy of the first Vio-lence lp “Eternal Nightmare”. Don’t be mad  I’m mentioning my own ebay auction here, I’ve been posting yours for 8 months! So, for some reason that I can’t figure out, Eternal Nightmare is now routinely selling for over $50. Who’s to say whether my copy will or not, but nevertheless, it’s a regular occurance. To me this reeks of ignorance on the part of the new crop of thrash-rockers taking the underground by storm, no doubt having been converted into metal maniacs by bands like Municiple Waste, Toxic Holocaust, and Merciless Death (uhhh, the new one not the old one), and maybe not totally aware of the many thrash classics that beat Vio-lence at their own game.

Vio-lence grew out of the fertile bay area scene in the mid-80’s, there’s a rehearsal demo from ‘86, but I believe their first real release is a promo recording that came free with some metal rag at the time for subscribers in ‘88. This had a couple of songs which were later recorded for their first proper lp Eternal Nightmare on Mechanic records which was a distributed imprint of MCA. So yes, in essence Vio-lence was on a major label. I can only imagine the look of horror on the faces of the A&R dept when they heard the finished recording for this album. I’m sure these geniuses thought they were going to get another Master of Puppets, or at least Peace Sells But Who’s Buying. Oh boy were they wrong. Now I can sort of  understand why you would want to bank on Vio-lence. There are definitely heavy riffs, and the songs work a variety of tempos that keep it from becoming the soundtrack to a narcoleptic episode. In addition the actual playing and exectution from the guitars is tight and some would even say technical. The drumming… well it’s lazy but so is Lars Ulrich. By far the most offensive aspect of Eternal Nightmare is the vocals of one Sean Killian, which I think are best described as yelping. Oh, how they yelp! They’re sort of falsetto, frequently off-time, and sometimes completely non-sensical, but ALWAYS yelping. They’re actually worse than the afformentioned ‘88 promo tape on Eternal Nightmare, which is something that I would say is unusual.Yet still, the love for Vio-lence persists to this day.

People wear shirts, bands do covers, and their guitarist Rob Flynn continues to look like a total buffoon in Machine Head. Rather than berating the folks who have turned this pile of stink into an in demand record (after all I’m selling it to make money), I’ve listed below 5 records that mine the same tech-thrash territory as Vio-lence, but with FAR better results, and of course, much better vocals.

1. Dark Angel - Leave Scars — There are 2 things I know. a) This has one of the 10 worst album covers ever. b) This is one of the greatest thrash albums ever recorded. Peep my previous write-up. Lost Classic status.
2. Forced Entry - Uncertain Future — Basically if you improved all the things that suck about Vio-lence you’d get this lp. Percise as hell, much harder vocals, some progressive mosh parts, and a killer drummer who is ready to go DEEP in the pocket. Sleeper hit.
3. Holy Terror - Mind Wars — I’ve made a post about Terror and Submission on here in the past, and that’s a great album. A really inventive combination of neo-classical Mercyful Fate style elements and heavy mid-period Kreator style thrash. Mind Wars ups the ante a lot. It’s a lot thrashier, but also more progressive. All the songs are extremely dense, and the vocals are top notch. The dude can sing or scream and sound convincing doing either one. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that this phase of Holy Terror featured one of the guitarists from Agent Steele (the classic power metal band). Really does sound like a war in your mind.
4. Death Row - Raging Steel — Okay this is my only German pick, which maybe isn’t fair but feel free to argue. This is definitely their finest hour. Like a cleaned up early Kreator with lots of lyrics about fantasy and battle. Some campy but good neo-classical interludes, and awesomely retarded sleeve art. Lots of crunch and good production. Much better than their first lp, a little goofy, but a lot of fun. Btw anyone got the first lp w/ banned sleeve for trade?
5. Forbidden - Forbidden Evil — I have a special place in my heart for Forbidden. I picked the lp up on a whim once and played it a lot for a few months. This is the band Paul Bostaph (who later replaced Dave Lombardo in Slayer for about 10 years) got his start. For that reason the drumming is sickly detailed, and the guitars aren’t far behind. This one mixes a bit of Helloween power thrash with a lot of Exodus and Hell Awaits era Slayer. Rob Flynn of Violence actually did a little time in this band too. WELCOME TO THE CHURCH OF LIES.

 

• Cool looking Inepsy set list from Condenses Fresh Blog.
• Cool Hunting blog gives a sneak peek of Anthony Pappalardo and Nathan Nedorostek’s soon to be released book: Radio Silence.
• A while ago CC made a reference to Terminator music in his post about Axegrinder’s Rise of the Serpent Men.  Here is Brandon Soderberg from No Trivia writing about the Termintaor sound track in response to J. Dilla’s referencing it, “Reminds me of some ol’ Terminator shit”.
• Abbreviated round up:
  • The Dogs - “Slash Your Face” finished at $416 
  • The Fix - “Jan’s Room” finished at $431
  • Cerebral Fix “Life Sucks and Then You Die” LP finished at $16
  • No For An Answer - “You Laugh” (I Spy Sleeve) finished at just over $200

PS - check the muxtape (bidhardcore.muxtape.com), and leave a link to yours in a comment.

Stuart Schrader of www.Shit-Fi.com returns with a write up of the alltime classic Jezus and the Gospelfuckers demo tape.  Read on!

Jezus and the Gospelfuckers’ cassette, released in 1982, offers everything the discerning punk of today could desire: over-the-top Discharge-influenced lead-driven raging hardcore, song titles like “Kill the Police” and “Live Fast Die Young,” a crucifix-ejaculating skeleton crucified on a penis as a logo, a cassette-only release of course, and, the name, oh, that name!

As is rarely the case today, the music matches the reputation (and vice versa). J&TGF were a rowdy group of nihilistic leather-jacketed misanthropes who drugged, fucked, robbed, and stabbed their way from the ho-hum closing days of the 70s punk scene into the 80s and the by-the-throat musical inferno that exploded after Stoke-on-Trent’s shot heard ‘round the world, “Realities of War.” Yes, J&TGF’s anti-everything stance may not have neatly fit in with the politically engaged Dutch punks of the late 70s, but the music they played circa 1979 was above-average snotty pogo punk. Then, they heard Discharge and their attitude found its sound. But J&TGF were no clones. They used their own rabid energy and formidable musical chops to produce a sound no other band has quite matched. It is metallic insofar as, unlike so much hardcore, it does not eschew lead guitar. In fact, the lead guitar is wild, aggressive, and nonstop. It feels less like an indulgent, boring, predictable rocknroll solo (which is what hardcore meant to decry by avoiding solos altogether) than a Gatling gun stuck on kill. The nine songs on the tape are distinct, memorable, and drenched in adrenaline (or is it amphetamine?).

As cassette-only releases from the 80s go, this one is in the mid-range of rarity. Its sheer brilliance meant that word spread quickly and the band was able to distribute a lot of copies. But it is a cassette, so probably many fewer remain in existence than if it had been a record. The original is easy to spot because it has labels stuck on it. The j-card insert is nothing fancy, with the song titles, that logo, and the member names. For around 20 years, this cassette had the distinction of being considered by the cognoscenti the best hardcore recording never to be released on vinyl. A few years back, it was reissued on vinyl (and CD) as a split with Agent Orange (reissuing their two EPs), perhaps the only band that could be considered to have topped J&TGF at their own game—except it was pretty much the same band with some new members. Agent Orange, of course, recorded a new version of J&TGF’s anthem “Kill the Police,” though I think I prefer the slowed-down barbiturate swagger of the original. Anyway, the split LP includes a booklet with cool photos and perhaps the single greatest piece of writing about hardcore punk ever, the bands’ biography. The LP also includes a couple bonus tracks by Agent Orange and Genocide Express. If the madness of seeking out original cassettes from the 80s has not yet infected your cortex, this reissue should be relatively easy to track down. But this cassette is about as close as you can get to that bygone era, and the music it contains seems to me a pretty good justification for continued fetishization of something most would today find repulsive and frightening if encountered on the backstreets.

(This eBay seller is also auctioning some other essential 80s hardcore records, including Shotgun Solution’s lone EP, which is Southern Europe’s answer to J&TGF/Agent Orange and one of the most over-the-top records ever.) [editor’s note: there are 2 copies of the Shotgun Solution 7″ on ebay right now. wtf?]

Jezus and the Gospelfuckers demo tape

Today reader I give you an original 1983 pressing of the long forgot Malefice “Overboard” E.P. You’d be forgiven for not knowing who Malefice are, though if you ask the right people, you’re sure to hear about their wild live performances and formidable stage presence when they had occasion to play the DC area in the early 80’s.

I first discovered them a few thanksgivings back, perusing the used 7″s at a store near my parent’s house in Northern Virginia. The cover had a skeleton in the DRI-guy pose, the back, had the same skeleton (who wears a leather jacket), playing from an evil looking organ (note: there is no organ on the actual record), while a few dozen other punk rock skeletons mosh and stage dive together below him. The label, DSI, I knew for releasing both United Mutation 7″s, and the pentagrams drawn various places on the release had me pretty sure this record could not suck. I must say I have wonderful instincts.

Malefice came from the ashes of another Northern Virgina band, Media Disease, who were a straight forward thrash group that often gigged with United Mutation in their formative days. Malefice took their place as partners in gigging and they played house parties and clubs together for a couple years,  at one point even sharing a drummer.  If you’ve ever heard the unreleased Void lp this is not too far from it. If you’ve ever disparaged said lp: fuck you.

Malefice isn’t quite as metallic as Void’s lost Potion of Bad Dreams, but they’re drinking from the same well. They’re a bit speedier, and the vocals are a little more unhinged, but the guitar work is also a little less flashy and more tame. You won’t find the lost Void record by picking up the Malefice 7″, but if you’re a fan of the 80’s pscyho-core style, you should dig this. If I had to pinpoint this I’d say take some Void, some UM, and a bit of Venom or maybe 7″ era Obsessed and you’re pretty close to what this sounds like.

Side A features the track Carrion which opens up with one of those chorus-drenched feedback messes that devil-punk bands like so much (see Void, Die Kreuzen, The Scam). Eventually things congeal for a slow crawling intro and then launch into the main riff, a buzzy speed metal type part with dive bombs and scrappy solos added as seasoning. The lyrics concern some vaguely occultish stuff, but the vocals are delivered total hardcore style which sounds cool and raw.  You get a pretty gratuitous solo about 3/4ths of the way through that sounds a little more wild because there’s no second guitar to back it, just the bass.

Side B has 2 tracks the first of which is Lost Sheep. Lost Sheep opens up with another tremolo style metal riff and then breaks out with a little more rockin’ type lick as the main riff, comparable to something you might hear on the first Bathory album like Necromancy or Sacrifice, again the vocals are what keeps it footed in the hardcore realm. The last song “Overboard” is the best I think. It has a pretty good descending metal-punk riff and probably the best vocal performance of the 3. The singer just does his best to totally let loose, especially in the choruses “I’m at the edge/and outta breath”. Some pretty smoking solos get laid down in this one too.

There’s 2 pressings of this 7″. This is the original 1983 edition in a folded sleeve that has lyrics on the inside. It should also have an Amoeba Man 1 page comic that advertises other releases on DSI including the ELUSIVE “Mutopia” tape comp — IF ANYONE HAS THIS TO DUB OR AN ORIGINAL TO TRADE PLEASE CONTACT ME I WILL MAKE YOU A GOOD DEAL. The second pressing comes in a glued sleeve and all copies are on blue vinyl. It’s also got an extra song from this session added to it and is much easier to find. In fact it’s not uncommon for unplayed-stock copies to turn up here and there.

After this Malefice never had another record but they did record several sessions which were comped onto an lp called Lotus Blossom in 1990 by the infamous Lost and Found. It’s packaged to look like a singular album, but it actually spans ‘82-’85  (as I recall) and is pretty similar to this E.P. Stock copies of this are findable on ebay from time to time, and are recommended. Interest in Malefice is growing so now is the time to track this  record down as it still can be had for under $30.

Malefice “Overboard” E.P.

Here’s another pick for Michigan:

The Dogs - “Slash Your Face” . Strictly speaking, this is not a hardcore record, and I think if you want to totally split hairs they may have already been transplanted to California by this time, but I think you could fairly apply the term Detroit-proto-hardcore to the title track by this beloved early American DIY outfit. Greg Ginn talked about The Dogs as being one of his influences for the Black Flag DIY aesthetic and for that they deserve a pat on the back, but for the song Slash Your Face, they deserve a place in a museum. Slash Your Face the 7″ was recorded live at a gig and edited to sound basically like a studio release. The band released it on their own label and by the 90’s it was a sought after collectible by the KBD set. Honestly, (and I am speaking from the heart when I say this), this is the best song to ever be associated with the Killed By Death tag. It has all the ferocity of the faster Stooges tracks like Search and Destroy, I Got A Right, and 1970, and all the heaviness of Chiswick era Motorhead wrapped in one.

Slash Your Face the song opens with the same type of snare roll a hundred other hardcore bands used later on to start songs. It drops into a power riff that sounds like a fight that’s about to start. It’s just thuggish and mean. Uninviting even. When things pick up to full speed for the main verse it’s even less inviting. I just sort of automatically picture a violent slam pit full of 70’s rockers in leather and denim beating the hell out of each other to this song. Beer bottles and chains and boots all in a mess of sweat. I doubt it was as good as what I’m seeing in my minds eye, but who knows (”scientists don’t even know”). Maybe it’s the straight forward violence in the lyrics where the singer repeatedly threatens to slash the listeners face, “I gotta/I’m gonna, slash your face, slash your face”, t0 say nothing of the unleashed howls during a couple of quick drum breaks. The song runs at a clip a little faster than Nervous Breakdown, but not quite where the Circle Jerks would be in 1980, which I guess makes this single fit right into 1978. The middle portion gives way to some guitar and bass soloing thta betrays their roots in Fast Eddie Clarke/Lemmy, but it also never loses the speed aspect or sinks under its own weight.

The other 2 songs, while still great, don’t quite match the mindfuck of Slash Your Face. Fed Up is a great rockin’ stomper and Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl is a cover of the well known track by The Barbarians. All of ‘em are good to pogo around your bed room to, but when rock ‘n roll is really dead and gone and only history buffs are still listening to records with guitars, they’ll still be studying Slash Your Face.

Michigan… what the hell would you possibly want to go there for? Maybe to find some “tasty HC rippers”. The racket that started as the Stooges and MC5 in the late 60’s begot plenty of interesting hardcore and punk by the late 70s.

The Fix - “Jan’s Room”. It’s not as legendary as the Vengeance 7″, and really not as good either but Jan’s Room is still a stone cold killer. This one has the cool spray painted insert too. While originally they kind of had a vibe like 3-chord rock ‘n roll  gone over the edge on speed, this one is more brutal and less tuneful. Starting with “Cos The Elite” they kick into high gear like an Americanized factory-town Discharge. The drums lead the song off sounding percise and muscular, betraying their rock ‘n roll roots but when the guitar comes in it’s ugly as hell. They’re a thick overdriven wash that sits on top of everything else and just drills into your ears. The bass is nice and muddy (no twang) and the vocals bark a harsh monotone like an improved version of S.O.A. era Rollins. Truth Right Now continues along the same lines, but side B opens with Signal, a total pace change. First of all they’ve tuned down to C for this track, I guess in order to sound heavier as they play through a couple minutes of slow chugging dirge, building tension with an ominous circular pattern on the toms. The end of the song provides the tension release that’s more in line with the rest of the record’s icy and angry smash and bash sound, that continues into the closer Off To War (the most obvious Discharge style jam).

Today’s posting comes from the induplicable M. Colin Tappe of Life’s A Rape fanzine/label, and the rock band Crime Desire (who have a new lp you should check out). Read below:In an age when all the top shelf late 80’s UK crust monsters (Sacrilege, Amebix, Axegrinder, Hellbastard, etc.) teeter around $60, I’ve been really prompted to dig deeper and check out some of the oft ignored 2nd tier bands you don’t really hear too much about as a casual OG crust enthusiast. And I stress the “casual” angle, as I’ve only really cared about this stuff for a few years now, an important point to clarify when I’m in league with such guest posters and experts in their field as Stuart Schrader, Cooch, Rettman and Westbrook. But if you’re like me and are a bit new to the UK crust game, the two auctions I’ve plucked today might be the gateway drugs which motivate you to go beyond the most notorious groups (with the hardest to find records) in that scene.

First up is the Cerebral Fix “Life Sucks and Then You Die” LP. The Accused style cover art and the board shorts might have you believe this is some wankin’ crossover, and uh, maybe it is to some extent, but if you ever wanted a way less heavy Bolt Thrower without double bass and deathmetal vox, then this here LP’s your ticket. The band gets into that just-about-to-fall-apart-but-in-a-good-way area when they go into the quasi-blastbeat fast parts, which is pretty typical of bands who played this fast at the time (1987), and the mosh parts are as solid as they are plentiful. There’s definitely some great riffs lurking on this one if you give it the chance. Of course with most of this stuff at some point you have to ask if it should really be talked about as a crust record, or if the band has more to do with crossover or thrash, and since this is more a question of aesthetics than anything, I should note that the band had political lyrics and a thanks list filled with UK crust staples like Doom, Deviated Instinct, etc. but I think it’s that arbitrary distinction between genres that makes the records from that time so interesting. Bands like Hellbastard and Sheer Terror, who we now have categorized into two distinct and ideologically opposed sub-genres, at the time were basically just taking blind stabs at incorporating metal with the hopes of just turning out some intense and hard shit, and thankfully our record collections are a lot more interesting because they succeeded in the ways they did. Which isn’t to say there’s anything as interesting on this Cerebral Fix record as you’ll find on any of the aforementioned bands’ records, but that’s kind of the point, that if you take the time to dig deeper you’ll find that the main bands who we credit as the masters of pushing hardcore into more intense territories through the use of metal weren’t alone, and some of the peripheral bands whose records go for under $20 and you never see on a patch or shirt can still hit the spot in a pinch. I lagged on this write up, so the auction will probably be over by the time this gets posted, but add it to your saved searches, it shows up about once every two months or so.

I’ll admit that the Cerebral Fix record isn’t really my favorite style of crust, and I tend to go more for the melodramatic Killing Joke infused chugging of Amebix and the like than the stenchy blur of Bolt Thrower/ENT/etc. If you share my sentiment, then this Deformed EPis a must own for sure. Really the only reason I’m mentioning this in the context of late 80’s crust (this ep did come out in 1983, after all) is due to the fact that Deformed share the approach Amebix took on their early eps, which is to say borrowing the repetitive, tom-heavy rhythms of Batcave/Killing Joke records and adding the chugging distortion of the anarcho punk music they were perhaps more familiar with. It’s a deadly combination, as any Amebix fan can tell you, and I think Deformed might even have their shit a bit more together than Amebix had on the “Whose The Enemy?” Ep (but not quite as cohesive as “Winter”). Of course what I LOVE about this record is all the overt Satanic imagery, which was kind of a bold move for the time. There’s a pretty short list of punk bands in the early 80’s who were really pushing the Satanic/horror imagery (Screaming Dead, Criminal Justice, 45 Grave, and to a lesser extent Uproar and Void), outside of the Misfits and their fold, and thankfully Deformed hold nothing back, just littering their 6 panel foldout poster sleeve with drawings of skeletons, pentagrams, upside down crosses, goats, etc. Plus peep the song titles: “Ritual,” “Crypt,” and “From the Grave.” That has to rival the first Bathory record in terms of most straight forward collection of evil sounding song titles ever. One of the worst things you can do in hardcore is hold back, and thankfully Deformed didn’t hesitate for a second and think that maybe taking a group photo in front of an altar of candles and a plastic skull might be “cheesy,” or that putting a pentagram on the center label might be a bit much. They went all the way, and it’s that conviction, both sonically and aesthetically, that makes this record so convincing. The group has a myspace page with a fairly comprehensive bio, and a 2xCD on Poland’s Trujaca Fala label (they only had one other 7” and a song on one of the Bullshit Detector comps as far as vinyl goes) if you need more info.