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I feel like I have to blog Articles of Faith “Give Thanks” on Thanksgiving day. I mean the relevance ends with the title of the record, but still I’m doing it, whatever.

Give Thanks is the first Articles of Faith lp, although it came to be four years after their inception. It’s a dense slab of wax, this was at the point when they’d started incorporating 3 guitar players into their live set (vocalist Vic Bondi doubling as axeman #3). It’s a fairly transitional release, and despite the fact it’s produced by Bob Mould, it does not go down easy.  The first song, the title track, opens with an ear splitting scream and jarring guitar riffs that shock you right into the chaos. It’s an anti-religion tirade, and it starts on your typical 84/Reagan era punk attack on middle-America and the value system that accompanies that. It’s kind of depressing and it can also be kind of over-wrought. But even when they lay it on thick (the redundant “5 o’clock” for instance) Articles of Faith don’t even touch the obnoxious moralizing they begat just a few years later.

Articles Of Faith were a big band in their day, but for me it’s somewhat dwarfed by the impact made by, by far their biggest imitator, a little band called Born Against. Unknown to Bondi and co, they basically laid the groundwork for the Nathanson/Mcpheters partnership that annoyed so many. Yes it’s not fair that I shit on Born Against in an Articles Of Faith write-up, or that I blame AOF for the travesty that is Born Against’s public persona. I even feel a little weird because I actually like both of the bands. What I’m trying to point out I think, is that the Born Against sound originates PRIMARILY here, on this album. The dead serious politics, the sombre melodies, the dramatic and impassioned delivery — all of this was copied, albeit without the precise musicianship seen here. Everyone can please save it  by pointing out shit like “Well Fed Fuck” being a copy of Godflesh’s “Dream Long Dead”.

Anyway, now that I’ve got all that out… I think this is sort of the beginning of the end for Articles of Faith, at least for me. While I do like all their material, this shit is just so heavy handed, and they throw a really dated sounding proto-emo track in the middle called “Every Man For Himself”, complete with piano and introspective lyrics. The band still fire all cylinders on most of the tracks, In Your Suit and American Dreams are still powerful discordant hardcore, but they also don’t reach the heights of earlier songs like Buy This War or What We Want Is Free. It is somewhat interesting to hear them trying to break out of the confines of what was normal hardcore for the time. Working on slower sections, using feedback and unsettling interplay between the guitars to convey mood. It’s an effective white guilt statement by children of relative privilege, but it’s also hard to swallow for me personally at this point in time. I’d rather jam their 7″s & early comp tracks.

For the record this is not the original pressing, which is on Reflex records and has a red cover. This is ‘92 Bitzcore reissue which contains two bonus tracks tacked on the end, although at this point, this version isn’t exactly easy to come by either.

…and now back to this Twin Peaks marathon. Enjoy your leftovers.