November 5th, 2008 by cc
So this here is an early 90’s bootleg of the Abused demo but it’s a great example of how to make a cool bootleg. Most of the songs on here aren’t found on the Loud and Clear 7″ that the Abused recorded after this. The stuff on here isn’t quite as hardcore as their 7″, and while it’s still definitely in that camp, some of the vocals remind me of Fear’s Lee Ving (see: We Need A War). Some of the riffs mix in a bit of Fear too, although maybe a more apt comparison would be NYC’s The Mob. The riffing is just a little bit more simple and punky.
- I Don’t Know You is a great example of this with a couple of simple 3 chord riffs, that pummel along for about 30 seconds or so. Maybe unremarkable compared to some other Abused songs, but still pretty good.
- Rule On You opens with a total rocked out guitar solo that could come right out of a Dictators song, just thuggish NYC rock ‘n roll style. After a few seconds though, the boys switch to the hardcore speed and the chanted choruses of “rule on you /rule on you/rule on youuuu”.
- Senseless has an frantic start stop beginning and when the full song comes in works an atonal Discharge type progression. Driving, hard, and just power loaded to the max.
- Psycho Lies has random noisy runs up the frets of the guitar and rips off some Minor Threat lyrics too (I Don’t Wanna Hear It - Nothing But Bullshit). This makes me wonder if the rumor that The Abused first heard hardcore by stealing a car with a Minor Threat tape in the front seat is true. Probably not…
- We Need A War as mentioned before is basically just Fear’s Let’s Have a War devolved into a straight hardcore number. Hey WHY NOT right?
There’s also a song that I’ve heard on a different bootleg of this session called Kill and Destroy which is pretty ripping, thrash. Almost YDI/SOA style but it seems like it’s not on this one. This has a cool glued sleeve and a couple good photos of the band if I recall correctly. One of my favorite boots from the 90s.

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