bidhardcore.com

Tetsu Arrey

I can’t front like I know lots about Hardcore from outside the USA, but I do know a couple things. I know that Tetsu Arrey have a well deserved place near the top of the Japanese HC/Punk hierarchy, and a lot of the reason for that falls on their first lp which is just a powerhouse of riffs, licks, and power top to bottom. This is POSSIBLY the most memorable song for song/riff for riff 17  song lp ever. By that I mean that for an lp with that many songs, there’s an awful lot of hum-able, stick to your ribs riffs, and not as much blurry thrash as you’d expect. As a sidenote, Tetsu Arrey are also kind of infamous as being one of the most feared groups of men in the Japanese punk scene. They’re well known to be involved in some criminal elements in Japan, and their name roughly translates to Barbell.

The opening track on this lp is called High Way To Hell. I have no idea why, because it’s not a cover song, and frankly, it takes some cajones to name your song after an AC/DC song, but goddamn this is a band that can do it. What a way to bust out on your debut lp. Huge drums start building up, and might I add, these drums sound GREAT for like 1989 or whenever. When the guitars come in its with a busy little riff halfway between Motörhead’s Iron Fist era and Kill ‘Em All Metallica. But when the song gets going, there’s a curve ball, the drummer takes marching style beat. It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever heard. Skull cracking, biker Motörpunk, all with classic growling Japancore vocals laid on top. The speed kicks in by the next song and the sound basically maintains the same Motörhead (’82) + Metallica (’83) + Systematic Deth (’86) style… or just Motörhead about 2 times faster, either way, it’s no joke. Everything about the sound and performance is serious and classy. The guitars have a perfect Marshall crunch and sound like they’re played from amps as big as a house. The bass has a pretty much identical to Motörhead fuzztone. The drums are thick and natural sounding. Perfect production, and great songs, I don’t know what’s more to say.

Anyone have the story on why this was pressed in such a low quantity in the first place? I can’t imagine it was cheap to produce. This thing is hard as hell to turn up and I expect a bidding war, especially this close to Xmas. May the deepest pockets win…