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Here’s my numero uno pick for 80’s Crust-Metal hybrids, or UK Crust Metal… Sacrilege “Behind The Realms Of Madness”.  A bit of a no-brainer really, get a band full of guys that used to be in the Varukers ripping of Slayer, Onslaught, Metallica, Celtic Frost, etc. but filtering through their UK82 sensibilities. Then get this tall chick with charged hair and a super rough voice on the mic and wah-lah, a classic. Most of the songs work mid paced thrash type riffs against powerful epic mosh parts, kinda comes off like if after Hear Nothing, Discharge had got into Kreator instead of Van Halen. 

The music is great raw thrash style, with enough hardcore and crust in the mix to make it really stick out, I guess it’s similar to the Antisect lp, English Dogs and Amebix Monolith, but every track just nails the sound so well that I think it surpasses those. I think vocalist “Tam” contributes a lot to the songs being so catchy, she’s one of the best female punk/metal vocalists I’ve ever heard. Really gritty and expressive sounding, stronger than most male vocalists actually. The guitar solos that color a lot of the sections are of the sub Kirk Hammett variety, semi melodic but basically all variations on one theme. The drumming is crunchy and has a lot of cheap echo on it, but that’s part of the sound for these kind of bands, and so with that in mind it doesn’t disappoint. The bass is basically inaudible under the thickly layered guitars which I think are in D-Flat and make the most of the riffs with lots of accents. I dunno, just imagine some punks trying to copy Ride The Lightning and you’re pretty close.

I don’t know why this copy is going to high, maybe some sketchy bidding is going down. I’ve never seen one go much over $50 before so I’d be wary of that. There’s also a pressing on Pusmort, and a blue vinyl version on COR.

Still pretty ‘tied down’ today but I’m taking a small break here to make note of one of my favorite full-tilt “D-Beat” albums - DISGUST “Brutality Of War” lp. I know it’s on the very un-punk label Earache, who subsequently put them on tour with Morbid Angel, but the deal is basically that Dave Ellesmere (you might know him as Bambi on Discharge’s “WHY”) decided to throw his hat in the ring with an old style Dis-clone band, in part because he was so ashamed of the path Discharge had taken in their later years (after his departure). Who better to hire as the singer than Dean Jones of Extreme Noise Terror? I mean cred-wise they may not be at the top of the heap, but sonically I’ll hold this up with any of the big boys of the era. I mean it basically sounds like Extreme Noise Terror circa Phonophobia, maybe digging into the beat a little more but it beats the hell out of anything they managed thereafter (not saying much I guess but whatever). You won’t find an moment of innovation, but a track like Mother Earth is just perfectly constructed single minded War Punk. Almost every song goes VS/CH/VS/CH/solo/VS/CH, it couldn’t be more deliberately one dimensional but I think that’s part of what makes it. You take it as one whole, not individual songs.

BTW- this has been out of print since it came out basically and I doubt Earache cares to repress it. You can find the CD all over amazon and ebay for like $1-2, but the vinyl doesn’t pop up all that much.

…and now for a quick “conflict of interest”.

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.

I like this seller’s spread a lot. Basically it’s a bunch of British hardcore, but with the Septic Death lp and Age of Quarrel thrown in. All hot pieces. BTW the Cro- Mags lp is a GWR pressing which I see a little less. The ills of society painting on the inside is black and white and without a censor bar.The Axegrinder lp, Rise Of the Serpent Men on Peaceville for sale is a cool chunk of OG Crust, or “Stench-Core” as they called themselves. I believe 3 of the 4 members have dreadlocks on the back cover. Axegrinder are a less subtle Amebix when you get it down to it. Remove the Killing Joke influence, add some doom metal, simplify your riffs a little bit, and you’re almost there. Axegrinder loved interludes and atmospherics and at times these parts sound almost black metal in tradition, delivered in minor keys sounding hopeless and sombre and occasionally embellished by cold synth lines. The songs themselves run on simple mid-paced chugging patterns, with ultra processed sounding drums (possibly a drum machine w/ overdubbed cymbals), and guitars, and though it’s maybe a bit to clean at times, the tunes manage to hold together fairly well.  It sounds like it should be the music during the future scenes in the Terminator movies.One thing that sticks out a lot to me about Rise Of the Serpent Men though is the title and cover art, and their significance to the band. The cover depicts some kind of reptilian-human hybrid reeking havoc on various humans. This together with the title leads me to wonder whether the members of Axegrinder were turned onto conspiracy theories positing that there are a sect of the ruling class that are actually ruthless reptilian overlords disguised as human beings planning to enslave the human race. Even with hard core conspiracy theorists these views are considered to be laughable. Princess Diana was supposed to be one of them, and there’s a passing reference in one song to the belief that the Reptoids invented Christianity as a tool to enslave humanity. So where does that leave this album? I guess it just kind of makes for a semi-interesting angle for an overly dramatic, post-apocalyptic crust band. As this is their sole lp and vinyl release (other than their track on this comp from the same seller), Axegrinder never managed to flesh out their worldview beyond this album (although they did have a previous demo). I would have liked to see them go into more detail about the Serpent Men, if for no other reason than the sheer comic-book absurdity, though I wouldn’t mind more of their brand of sludgy crust metal either. You’d be better off with the first Sacrilege lp, Amebix “Monolith”, or some of the earlier Hellbastard or Deviated Instinct offerings, but Rise of the Serpent Men at least sits comfortably in the 2nd tier of Crust’s first wave.

These are my favorite Heresy releases. The Never Healed flexi, and split lp w/ Concrete Sox. Heresy are well known as being part of the britcore explosion that happened in the mid 80’s with bands like Napalm Death, Ripcord… extremely fast bands that were as influenced by USHC as they were by British bands.

Heresy started off ripping things up pretty raw around ‘85 (I think), they had a lot in common with the sound of early SSD, Minor Threat, even the first Youth Of Today record, but rawer recordings, and an unmistakably British sounding vocalist. There’s also something like an early Cryptic Slaughter vibe going on which I guess accounts for how much speed and blasting the songs have and the touch of metal as well. ‘86 saw their first vinyl release, the Never Healed flexi. The sound on this one is a total mess and I love it. Hi-hats and snare are clipping into the red right from the get-go, the guitars sound a bit clean, but have a little bit of echo added and together with the distorted drums give things a big sound, which is emphasized even more by the vocals being a bit buried in the mix. Deathbiter has awesome frantic energy with tons of start/stop cymbal chokes and guitar noise that leads up to a good metallic skank part. At this point the band were a three-piece with their guitar player providing vocals and I have to say, I think they never sounded better than on this record.

In ‘87 their first hard vinyl release came in the form of a split 12″ w/ fellow thrashers Concrete Sox. While they still are ripping pretty hard on this one, the more professional recording is something of a detriment to their sound. The drums have a muscular gated-reverb type sound, the guitars and bass are clear, and the vocals are much more audible, which all goes to make the band sound a bit more ordinary. Also at this point they became a four-piece, adding a stand-alone vocalist into the mix. While he does hold it down pretty well on this recording, I feel this move did contribute to the band’s diminishing returns in the future. This is also the last time they had their original guitarist and I think that ultimately had something to do with it as well. Nonetheless, this is still pretty good straight ahead thrashing hardcore. There’s more in common with the likes of Cryptic Slaughter and DRI at this point, and less straight up hardcore,  but things still move along pretty well, though at nearly 5 minutes, the song Nausea could have used some trimming. BTW I always have liked the colorful sleeve on this record, not exactly sure why, I just think it looks pretty cool.

Following the split lp Heresy did a couple full albums and some E.P.s and comp appearances too, but I honestly just don’t think that stuff has the same power as these earlier recordings. Some of these guys are playing in Geriatric Unit now, a current band based in the UK, which deserves a tip of the hat for sure.

WARNING: If you are my parents or future (or present) employer;  this posting is semi-gross for the first paragraph!

From Enslavement To Obliteration is sort of the gold standard for “shit-grind” (along with the first Carcass album). There’s literally thousands of horrible records modeled off the sound of this good one. It’s not that this is really truly shit grind, but taken out of context it’s really close. What is shit-grind? Unlike “Shit-Fi” which we apply affectionately around here, shit-grind is kind of like shit-punk in that it’s applied pejoratively.  Basically if the record sounds kind of like someone recorded an episode of Diarrhea over a backing track of drums, you are probably listening to shit-grind. So much grindcore falls into this trap, and has literally nothing redemptive or interesting about it, mainly because it’s a horribly executed copy of this record, and the aforementioned, “first Carcass lp (that being “The Reek Of Putrefaction”). While it’s true that part of the reason grindcore came to exist was to annoy and gross out squares, there’s also a reason why John Peel didn’t give a fuck about Agathocles, and why he did risk his rather sizable reputation as a DJ and music critic, championing bands like Napalm, Carcass, ENT, Unseen Terror, etc. The reason of course is that this stuff is ground breaking, and considering the way it sounds, actually really catchy.

FETO is Napalm Death, on their honeymoon basically. They’ve been spending, the last 20 years trying to recapture this last bit of actual magic.  Those last days of innocence and wonder, before Napalm Death became a life sentence. There’s actually a fair amount of stuff they’ve done since then that I think is good, but none came as naturally as this, and I doubt it ever will again. Their first lp, Scum is really just 2 demos, of almost 2 completely different lineups, comped together, and issued for what was presumed to maybe be “after the fact” in summer of 1987. But while some would argue it was “after the fact” as far as the band’s creative juices would extend, it turned out to be like the initial period of flirtation and infatuation, to my previously used marriage metaphor. The record got picked up by BBC radio, and by the already named John Peel (world famous DJ & record collector), who likened it to free-jazz in terms of intensity and ability to break music apart. He played the song You Suffer, which is something like 1.5 seconds 4 times in a row on the radio during that first encounter, and through persistent plugging, Scum became something of a novelty record in the UK. Though it turned a lot of people on to a new and extreme sound that had been cultivated in “the underground” it was also treated by a lot of people, like a William Hung cd. When FETO actually came out it was released to a flood of press and discussed as being the most extreme record ever, the logical end of “punk”, “hardcore” and “metal”, and all this other shit that I wasn’t really there to see, and few people remember now.

Napalm really didn’t change their attack much from Scum to FETO, but the recording process was refined, and Lee Dorrian’s voice became even more guttural and heavy. A good comparison to use would be “Ramones” to “Leave Home” (stole this from allmusic.com). There’s not really much that’s actually different about them, one is a tad cleaner, a tad more refined, but is basically just a crystalized streamlined version of the original statement. It was released to more initial fanfare, but it can never equal the kind of impact and landmark status of the original. In its’ time though the press ate it up, it was raw and bizarre and interesting after all the Morrisey and Sundays type music that was big in the indie press at that time in the UK. It’s been said that part of the appeal for music journalists of the time (aside from, or in addition to the Peel endorsement) was that Napalm Death were working class kids making a horrible ungodly racket, and it was a welcome change from all the brainy college rock that was commonly lavished with attention by the UK’s music press. Napalm were for the most part the happiest they would be for quite a while. They were cult celebrities, they were top of the heap for Earache records, and they were about to tour the world.

The next time they delivered a record (the Mentally Murdered E.P.) pretty much everything would have changed in the extreme music universe. Married life is never much like that magical honeymoon, and so they began their 20-year slog of being married to the name Napalm Death, and turning out more death metal influenced offerings every year or two, never really going back to the sound of their first 2 lps. Maybe this was something they felt had to be done. Earache was signing more pure Death Metal bands, Carcass was becoming increasingly technical, ex-member Justin Broderick’s new project Godflesh was getting ready to sludge everyone into oblivion, I assume it seemed like the natural thing for the band to do, in order to be taken seriously and stay relevant. I guess it’s a stretch to assume they should have known the only reason they were taken serious was because skill and structure were irrelevant to their music, and that as soon as those things got added they became just another metal band, although really, Utopia Banished has a lot going for it as a Death Metal/Grind hybrid album.

By 1990 the band had shed most of its members for the 3rd (or 4th depending on how you look at it) time, and had a new singer, and new guitarists, essentially becoming an entirely different band. Even with the relative triumphs of the 90’s & 00’s Napalm lineup (and really there are some), they can never escape Scum and FETO. These are the things their entire existence stands on, and these are the songs most people are waiting to hear at any of the half-full Napalm Death gigs you’ll find yourself at now. Well you probably won’t, but I do every year or two… they were really limp in Texas recently.  Sorry boys, I still love you anyway.

Here’s a first pressing copy of the album on ebay. Note that it includes the bonus 7″ which was only mailed out with first pressings. It’s kind of funny that they made this because they totally could have fit another 4 songs on the album, and it totally just sounds like 4 more songs from the same album, but I understand basic marketing principles, and this gave an incentive to purchase the album right away. By the way the bonus 7″ looks to be in above average condition as it was just issued with a thin cardstock foldover cover, and is often kind of weathered.

Seller zvuk-art has all kinds of stuff up for auction, doing a pretty reasonable job of covering all the genre bases, as you can see. However this is bidhardcore, and that narrows things down pretty easily here. I’m not going to talk about the Beastie Boys “Polywog Stew” 12″, because it’s not actually a good record, just a bad punk 12″ made by some guys that got famous later. It says it’s a Ratcage OG, but it also says made in France, so I’m not sure. If you care, you’ll have to research that. A much better record, one of my Brit-core favs, and one that set a standard: Ripcord “Defiance Of Power” 12″ with bonus “The Damage Is Done” flexi (in fact this is my second favorite Ripcord release). I think one of the things about Ripcord that I like the most is that they were unabashedly influenced by American bands of the early 80’s (SS Decontrol, Siege, Youth Of Today, 7 seconds), but still maintained some Britishness in their sound. Even if they considered themselves mainly drawing from American influences, there are still shades of groups like the Varukers, GBH, Chaos UK, Discharge, etc., that I can’t escape in their sound, which for me is part of the Ripcord appeal. Not that I’m a huge British punk listener, but the cross pollination, it’s good… like a strawberry-kiwi beverage, or the ever popular chocolate and peanut butter snack. It’s also pretty cool they had a song like Drug-Shit, being that they were from an area of the world where that would put them distinctly in the minority. They took a hard line (no pun intended) on animal abuse too, I feel like probably half their songs were about vivisection/vegetarianism/other animal exploitations, which I guess was kind of new at the time. The sound is kind of a heavy blur, with thick, thick fuzz on the guitar and bass, and jackhammering, simple drum patterns. The lack of flashiness in the music actually serves it quite well I think making it heavier and more focused in some way or other. Recommended shredding here…

Got a couple selections from M. Colin Tappe’s auctions here. Nothing too crazy for sale but some good picks, check ‘em all out. Looks like he’s just selling off a few things to buy other stuff.Numero Uno:Anti-Sect: “In Darkness There Is No Choice”- I guess this is one of the big milestones in anarcho-punk and “crust” music. For 1983 it’s frankly pretty shocking how polished it is, and how many bands it was the template for, not just in style but in the sound of the recording. It’s tricky because on the surface it’s basically just a metal album taking a lot from early thrash bands but with the realist/Discharge-style approach to horror and despair that Discharge mapped out. The songs take on a similar driving and hypnotic delivery, but being stretched much longer (the opener “THEY” runs like 6 minutes at the same tempo), so that it kind of reminds me in some ways of Crass (besides the obvious politics), and in other ways of something like Killing Joke (who I think were a big influence to a lot of peace punkers). It’s a pretty important album, and also at times I find it kind of boring. There’s something about an unwavering cockney accent just shouting and shouting and shouting for 6 minutes… I keep waiting for something else to happen. Still it sounds heavy, although I gotta wonder how he kept from getting tongue-tied, i guess they do have 3 vocalists on this album. A lot of the atmospheric shit like wind blowing and abstract wooshing noises that are meant to be dramatic on crusty HC and punk records also in part originate here, and maybe haven’t aged too well. I also feel like this might be a more overwhelming, powerful, and inspirational album if you hear it at a younger age, where I only really sat down and listened about 2 or 3 years ago. So in conclusion, while this is a stone cold classic to the peace punk crowd, and a “first of its kind” type release, it feels a little obsolete to me. I’d prefer the more rhythmic churning Amebix approach, or Sacrilege’s much more refined version of the sound on this lp. Btw this is the Southern pressing, I believe there is one on Spiderleg predating it.Underdog: “Demos”- Here’s one on the other side of the coin. Gotta love that this is the original press with the classic pool skater artwork. When I was really young Underdog just seemed weird and not that hardcore to me. All the groove and singy vocals confused me which is now kind of embarrassing and probably strange to some people in this day and age where weird-hc is the bread and butter of everyone and there’s a popular band named after Into Another’s shelved trip-hop album. Forget all that BS though, Over The Edge is just a very fine well nuanced song, and if half the bands that put Underdog on their list of influences could compose a song so advanced there would be a lot more good songs, and probably less wars or something. Revelation are the current keepers of these demos, but I think it’s time someone considered re-reissuing the Vanishing Point (w/ original artwork), restoring the original mix to the demos, and tying up loose ends, like the demo with Carl Mosher, etc, all on one disc, or maybe 2. Most records like this have turned 20 or are about to, and it’s time someone do a definitive historical package of stuff like this.  Far Out records back catalog is kind of funny as I remember, I think they did the 2nd press of the Fear Of God 7″ around the same time they did this Underdog 12″.