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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.

Double post today since I vacationed for a couple days…Unit Pride’s 7″ fits the characterization of “second rate but still straight” perfectly. They can’t really stack up to heavy hitters like UC, Youth Of Today, etc. from the ‘88 class of straight edge hardcore, but they still deliver everything you need. Fast catchy riffs give way to crew back ups and some solid mosh parts. The lyrics are about as sesame street posi-core as could be possible (”friendship means the world to meee”), but the songs keep a fast clip and the vocals are rough enough that it never leaves me feeling too silly. All the other tell tale late 80’s low rent edge core characteristics are here too. Drums that sound like buckets and boxes, clean bass, mosquito-buzz guitars. Arguably this is one of the first records of note from the genre that wasn’t influenced by early 80’s bands like Minor Threat, SSD, etc., and instead was modeled on (then) current bands like Youth Of Today and Gorilla Biscuits. Obviously when this kind of thing starts happening, it tends to signal that a particular musical strain is plateauing, and though the well was probably dry by the time this 7″ actually came out, it still offers some memorable riffs and sing alongs.Track 2 is Wide Awake and I think this song is the best on the record. Its got the most urgent delivery, the hardest sounding riff, and probably the best breakdown, which is really all you should be looking for in something like this. There’s nothing to intellectualize, and you can’t justify this to the Brooklyn crowd. It’s like trying to sell a Kung-Fu movie to a serious movie critic. “Well the part where the hero fights with one hand tied behind his back on a roof-top has some awesome jumpkicks”.  In some ways this endears the style more to me. No jerk-off who has to use annoying/pathetic qualifiers like “raw”, “inept”, “blown out”, “psych-punk”, “later-flag”, “monster-riff”, is going to be able to rub their stink on this wonderful little slab. No, songs like Think About It are only for people like me, who can differentiate pressings of the Side By Side 7″, and who have a collection of live sets from WNYU’s Crucial Chaos, which Unit Pride performed on btw. And speaking of pressings, you’ll notice this is the original pressing on Step Forward records.

What’s to say about Agnostic Front “Victim In Pain”? It’s probably the best New York Hardcore record ever. It may be the best American Hardcore record ever. It’s definitely one of the most universal in the entire genre. No matter what micro-division of Hardcore/Punk/whatever you’re into, if you have even half a clue you dig Victim In Pain. It’s maddeningly perfect. AF never sounded like this again, before or after, and I’ve dug through live sets of the day and rehearsal tapes just trying to hear a few more minutes of the level of brilliance seen on this 12″. There are 2 comp tracks on Urinal Records “Message To America” comp that come close (one a re-record from their 1st 7″, the other got added to their subsequent lp), and an ‘84 studio rehearsal (I believe for their tour with Crucifix) that isn’t far off either. Still the fact remains this album stands alone.

If you were someone who’d never heard hardcore music before, and I only had 15 minutes to give you a basic idea that could approximate the entire genre, I’d just play you Victim In Pain. It’s hard, it’s tuneful, it’s rough, it’s anthemic - it’s everything. When I talk to people who are interested in playing drums or guitar in a hardcore band I suggest learning to play Victim in Pain straight through. It has only a few different drum beats overall, each one relatively simple and economical, but you should be able to do basically anything you want with them with a little ingenuity. The bass and guitar take a similarly simple approach but they surge with energy and nearly every riff sticks in your mind thereafter. Basically it’s all the proof you need that skill is secondary to a good riff and an energetic delivery. But let us not forget the recording, which is the perfect template for any band worth hearing. Tight snappy drums with a natural sound, no funky effects no wild reverb, just power hits. Guitars that sound like buzz saws but are bright and defined. Vocals front and center, no effects, no studio magic, just balls out yelling. Best of all, peanut-butter-thick bass with the fuzz up to 10 and the tone knob down to zero. The antithesis of the over polished, twangy, thin ”Sans-Amp” bass sound popular in “modern hardcore” (you know the shit I mean). I challenge you to find a better hardcore compass. I absolutely guarantee this album CANNOT lead you astray. It’s fucking impossible.

The tracklist might as well be a greatest hits list. Victim In Pain the song is probably the most recognized AF song ever, but Last Warning, Your Mistake, and Power could all compete for that title, and all are featured on here. I’d go so far as to say this is one of very few hardcore full lengths were probably every song has been covered by a band at some time. Speaking personally I’ve performed no less than 6 (out of 11) of these tracks in tribute to the perfection found in the grooves of this slab.

The original pressing was run twice on Ratcage Records with a gatefold sleeve. The second pressing has an Important Records Distribution logo added to the back cover. Later it was licensed to Combat records but the violent cover art was removed in favor of an all black cover.

Technically I should be listing this on a metal designated day, but somehow there’s never any copies for sale on Mondays, and I think a case can be made that Repulsion’s “Horrified” is basically an accidental hardcore record anyway. Repulsion were a band of metal heads in the wrong time and the wrong damn place - early 80’s Flint Michigan.  I really can’t think of a worse place to be in the USA then. These guys were born and bred metal heads, but they had punk and Hardcore sympathies so while they were following the progression of bands like Slayer, Possessed, Death, and Celtic Frost, they were also catching onto the extreme sounds of Discharge, Siege, C.O.C., NYC Mayhem,  and D.R.I., as well as the tasteless shock punk of G.G. Allin. Repulsion were ahead of their time because they could make the connection between something like Siege and something like Possessed. That the brutality and delivery were different, but still similar, and related to each other.

When they recorded their Horrified lp it was actually supposed to a be a demo called, Slaughter Of The Innocent. The idea was they would produce the best possible sounding demo they could with their entire current set list, and then use the recording to secure a record deal. Apparently tension ran high with the band and the studio engineer who not surprisingly, found their punk metal hybrid to be trash, and gave very little attention to detail during the session, but in the end I think that may help make this recording what it is (godly). The 2 guitars are panned hard right and hard left, the vocals are shouted hoarse and without any echo or sign of overdubbing, the drums are a blasting racket, and the bass… whata bass sound. Apparently there was some screw up when they were recording forcing the band to record a second track of bass over top of the other one which was too faint on most of the tracks, so it was decided it would be run direct into the board through a fuzz pedal. Easy on the ears it’s not. Saturated, blown out, and fucked up it certainly is, and it helps to cement the entire thing as a distorted “shit-fi” whirlwind of a recording. The style of recording alone sounds more hardcore than basically any of the bands Repulsion was influenced by. It’s abrasive even by today’s standards. The songs themselves are possibly the fastest recorded up to that point in time in metal, and are stripped to the bone for maximum speed potential. Only 3 even break the 2 minute mark and there’s not a high note or attempt at singing in sight. Repulsion may not have intended to be, but for all intents and purposes they were as hardcore as anyone else in 1985, or now.

Sadly, and not surprisingly this demo wasn’t exactly a hit with any labels. The band say they sent it everywhere, hoping to get some money to record what they saw as a proper album, and at best they were told, send a copy of the next demo. No one got it because they were all looking for another Slayer. The band dejected, depressed, and out of steam, fizzled later in the year. But like the zombies that adorned the very flyers they were billed on, Repulsion was soon exhumed from their own coffin… well kind of. Less than a year later Napalm Death had recorded their debut lp, and it became a novelty success in the UK. John Peel loved it, parents hated it, kids had to have it, and everyone was asking “where did you come up with this shit”. Pretty much the whole band credited Repulsion as one of their main influences and suddenly people were busy tracking down copies of their demos (some of which were issued under their previous name Genocide). When Carcass exploded onto the fledgling grind-core scene soon after there was no stopping things. Soon Carcass front man Jeff Walker had his own imprint subsidiary on Earache (who released Napalm Death and Carcass’ albums), and his first project was basically remixing the Slaughter of the Innocent demo and releasing it as the 18 song Horrified lp. Retribution. It was strictly for the diehard, but finally the planet had caught up to where Repulsion had been, and grind-core mania was on.So this is that original pressing released in ‘89 that I’ve linked. Since then its been issued a few different times. Most recently with a bonus lp containing most of the band’s other demos on Southern Lord that’s worth every cent if you’re unfamiliar.

Note - if you’re a little uptight about your hardcore, and don’t wanna get kinda touchy feely, DO NOT READ THIS POST. Instead, look at this: CLICK 

Some of the most intense and difficult conversations I’ve had about punk and hardcore and other signifiers like “post” and “emo” have stemmed from Moss Icon. They were a great band in their day. I know because they have one of the telling marks of great bands: that all of their imitators horribly SUCK. It’s not that you can never imitate great bands. The number of wonderful Discharge or Minor Threat imitations that the years have given us aer numerous, and plentiful. But sometimes there are bands that no matter how many people attempt to liberally borrow from them, are always done no justice by the gesture.

 Case In Point = Moss Icon. This is probably one of the first bands that you could classify as “emo-core”, they have a lot of sonic similarities to groups like Rites Of Spring & Ignition, later Articles Of Faith even. They grew up and entered the scene in Annapolis Maryland, near Washington DC, but removed far enough that at best you could call it a satellite. Annapolis is a weird town I visited a few times growing up. It’s home to the Naval Academy, and by my personal recollection, numerous antique shops. There’s something positively isolated about the approach to their music and delivery, and I think it coresponds in some way to the fact that they were an Annapolis band. I can’t explain it but I sense it there. Maybe I only feel this way because I know more about the band and their location. In interviews members talk about their lack of interest in many of the DC bands. They liked Void, and Beefeater, but felt indifferent towards Embrace and Marginal Man.

One reason Moss Icon has proven so inimitable for this might be that vocalist John Vance was a perma-stoned literature/poetry freak, and while his stream of consciousness yell/talk/shout style was earnest, and has been imitated by boatloads of horrible “emo” and “screamo” bands, he seemed to have some place in an actual literary and philosophical tradition. I feel kind of stupid bringing this up because:

1. Even though I write on this blog 5 days a week, I rarely read anything, and when I do, I prefer escapism.
2. This is a Blog about hardcore, punk, trading records, stage dives, leather jackets… not college term papers.

However, I think that this is important to understanding why Moss Icon worked, and above all they were a good hardcore band on this record. Whereas your average band imitating this style of vocal basically delivered a high school/coffee house level poetry reading riddled with disjointed imagery about ex girlfriends and distant parents, Vance was able to evoke imagery of solitude and nature. He is probably one of the only singers I’ve ever heard that could effectively empathize with, ahem, The Plight of the Native American. He could also relate, brilliantly, feelings of suburban anomie, and anxiety like no other. He quoted Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a distinguished philosopher and poet whom I know nothing about.

In some ways Vance is an American/Americanized answer to Ian Curtis. It’s filtering the same kind of sentiments of disconnection and melancholy through a different but similar cultural starting point. As a band Moss Icon has similarities to Joy Division too. While they don’t particularly sound alike, and are coming from different moments in history there’s a connection, especially as Moss Icon developed an approach of dirging, echoy repetition in their career. The first real example of that comes on this record, with the song “I’m Back Sleeping Or Fucking Or Something”. As the bass drones on one riff and the drums skitter and bang behind it, Vance rants a semi abstract tale of childhood, painful and agonizing in his delivery. Guitarist Tonie Joy squalls feedback between massive power chords and has a pretty good sense of when to play and when to hang back. You know that pretentious ol’ “he knows what NOT to play”. It’s a panic attack with a drum beat maybe.

Elsewhere the record finds the band less chaotic, but just as effective. The other 3 songs, all have a more typically hardcore tempos and composition, but with more intricate guitar playing, which is why they often get compared to the Rites Of Spring lp, although Joy is adamant that he had not really listened to them at the time. Some of the influence then, can at least be pinned on their peers The Hated, who in turn were sort of what would happen if Husker Du weren’t popular nationally, and got really into Simon and Garfunkel. Back to Moss Icon though, what sets this apart and makes it superior from Rites Of Spring to me, is that there’s still the anger and frustration of Hardcore’s past noticeable in the music (at least at this stage of the Moss Icon catalog). Rites Of Spring spent so much of themselves trying to escape the machismo that they felt was “ruining the scene”, that I believe they lost a lot of the anger too.

Moss Icon eventually took a more reserved approach, but never lost any of their emotional complexity. This 7″ though, often referred to as “Gretta Garbo” for the photo on the cover of the early movie star, or as Hate In Me for the first song on it, is still my favorite. It’s a clash of sloppy hardcore anger, and subtle melody, hoarse screaming, and thoughtful poetry…or something. Look I just think if you ever feel like listening to “emo-core”, this record beats them all. A scant few have been able to tread the line like Moss Icon did. There’s only 500 copies of this record pressed on the band’s own Vermin Scum label, and I suspect it may go for a lower price (under $40) because it has a high starting bid. Usually these top out at $60.

 Also I have to give some credit to Zac and Bobby Busch, as the observations in this post are at least partially inspired by a long Moss Icon thread we participated in on a message board.

I’ll try and post about something pertaining to skinheads tomorrow to make up for this.

Let me put it to you like this: I don’t care how uncool Victory records is (extremely), I don’t care about the controversy that has always surrounded the band (plenty), or the horrible tours with horrible bands they went on (Strife I think?). I don’t care about the crappy 90’s looking cover art (eww), I don’t care about the section of their fans that are basketball jersey wearing, plugs in the earlobe douchebags… I don’t care about any of that. The bottom line is Systems Overload will crush you. Every time. This is one of the most brilliant and inspired pieces of “extreme music” ever recorded. Think what you want. I know there’s people too uptight to really sit down with Integrity and give them an honest listen. I know there’s some who don’t go past their first album because it’s not on the worst label of all time, and because of the rule in HC that “first albums always the best”. I’m confident this is the best Integrity album though. It outshines all their previous efforts by leaps and bounds, it set the bar for their next 2 almost as perfect releases, and it should make the pale imitation of the band that has been around since 1998 (’99?) in various forms, downright ashamed.

Systems Overload blends a variety of hardcore, punk and metal sounds into a seamless whole. I know when I’m slipping into the banality of hyperbole, and I know it’s happening now, but there’s no other group that can borrow from the Cro-Mags, Discharge, Metallica, and Entombed (the “classic” releases only by those bands) and make it count like this. It’s a generic list of influences, but upon hearing the album it obviously makes sense. You take that driving British tempo and muscle, temper it through the “behind-the-beat” NYHC crunch, mix in sombre melodies and solos of Burton and Hetfield, and give it the dark horror vibe and deranged delivery of Left Hand Path. It’s amazing working off influences that cast shadows so big can work this well, but the 1-2-3  punch of Incarnate365/No One/Systems Overload ought to be all the proof you need. I don’t know how to explain the kind of power riff that opens Incarnate. It’s so basic and simple… almost triumphant sounding. When the song speeds up and the main verse takes over, guitarist Aaron Melnick lays down a wild run of Kirk Hammett inspired shredding that fights for supremacy with the growling screaming vocals. Everything is emphasized by the juicy drum sound, led by a saturated and booming bass drum (with double kicks used for maximum effectiveness), and a primal echoing “roomy” sound on the kit. No drum triggering in sight. Just “THUD CRACK BOOM”.

With the bombast and in your face metal licks that dominate Incarnate, it’s a bit of a surprise that the next song, No One, is the most no frills hardcore song on the album. At only 45 seconds or so, there’s no time for finger tapping or even a proper breakdown. These 2 songs are a template for the majority of the rest of the album. A handful of the songs work to expand on the kind of meat and potatoes hardcore approach that No One takes, while the others juxtapose guitar acrobatics with slower moody sections and pseudo death metal crunch. A couple of songs, like Armanien Persectution and Salvations Malevolence also find the instrumental sections stretched out, and see diversions into ambient noise which both help to heighten the dark atmosphere as well as break for a couple minutes from the otherwise constant bludgeoning.Systems Overload can never truly get the recognition I want it to have. It’s in every way superior to the plodding, dated sound and style of Integrity’s debut lp “Those Who Fear Tomorrow”, and recorded hundreds of times better. Unfortunately by 1995 Integrity had already eclipsed their achievements with their infamous reputation as trouble makers. They had problems touring because they couldn’t keep a steady lineup and were often getting in fights, and with the rising attitude of 80’s revivalism in hardcore, they were increasingly labeled as “just a metal band”/”not hardcore”/ too thuggish. The record was well recognized at the time, make no mistake, but even if it was superior, in hindsight it wasn’t the career maker that “Those Who Fear Tomorrow” was able to be, (due as much to time and place and attitudes about the band as the songs on it). But where Those Who Fear Tomorrow sounds so stuck in its time and place now, Systems could be a contemporary album, even though its roots are firmly in 80’s hc and metal. For me I think that’s why it endures.The edition I’ve linked is on clear vinyl, it says 100 pressed, but my pressing info says 500. It’s still pretty hard to track down, so grab it if you can.

Integrity - Systems Overload LP (clear)

G.I.S.M.’s “Detestation” lp is one of those records that is nearly impossible to judge in a vacuum. Its been subject to 25 solid years of mythologizing and collector worship. Its one of the few records that can still get an extreme reaction from people listening to it for the first time so long after it was first conceived. It’s one of the harshest most brutalizing rock records ever made. It’s also one of the strangest. It’s a landmark intersection point for punk, hardcore, and metal, doing its something to muddy up the gene pool of each. “Greater than the sum of its parts” is not even the half of things here. People who know G.I.S.M.’s  music already know all about this, and those who don’t can’t really understand what it’s all about until hearing them.A lot of people were unknowingly exposed to G.I.S.M. for the first time via the “P.E.A.C.E.” compilation on R Radical records, where the first song from Detestation, “Endless Blockade For Pussyfooters” was given the prominent position of 2nd song on side A (right after Articles Of Faith’s “Up Against a Wall” no less). This song not only typifies everything about Detestation, but it was given visibility of the unavoidable sort in the lives of thousands of “punks” world wide. The guitars have a saturated “direct line”/”tone-knob-at-zero” sound, somewhere south of AF “United Blood”, but are played with the kind of dexterity you’d expect from Judas Priest’s K.K. Downing circa Stained Class or British Steel. There’s absolutely no concession for punk rock conventions made by guitarist Randy Uchida AT ALL. He plays speed metal riffs, he just happens to be in a raw hard core band. The rhythm session if less remarkable, is exactly what it needs to be, as much as they parallel the Rainy/Tez team of Discharge (who are certainly an influence here), they also are supporting Uchida the way Kerslake and Daisley did on Ozzy’s Blizzard of Oz. They’re the rock solid foundation. It ain’t about every member being in the spotlight, it’s about each one shining in their own way. Sometimes that means playing your bass like Micheal Anthony.Enough of that…It’s all forgotten the first time you hear the vocals, by the respected and feared, Sakevi Yokoyama. There’s dozens of tales of his insanity, of how he can kill with a look, of how he is the most feared man in Japanese punk. The Flannegan and Mcgowan times ten. Well, this is a music blog, and frankly when you hear the man’s vocals, you’ll know he’s crazy. I don’t need to recite tall tales. There’s talking, shouting, screaming, and gurgling. There’s echo, and phasing, and distortion. It’s unlike anything else from the time period, and pretty much still completely on its own as a musical statement. As far as hard core nothing even comes close in terms of unhinged mania. In metal the only thing close might be Bathory, and Quarthon was always much more 1-dimensional. When you put it all together G.I.S.M. is kind of like listening to Iron Maiden during a really bad acid trip with Discharge playing really loud in the next room. I don’t know how anyone thought to combine driving hardcore with NWOBHM and these unholy vocals, I just know it’s good. This is the original legit pressing of Detestation on Dogma label. My man on the street says you can tell by the tip-on jacket and because subsequent bootlegs removed the swastikas found in the art. Please no body get scared, this isn’t music for fascists, just music confronting them.

Marathon Metal Monday part II (aka Metal Tuesday) All logic dictates that Dark Angel ought to have gone into severe creative decline following Darkness Descends. Observe:

• Strike 1) Any band playing an extreme derivative of “rock” (Death/Black/Thrash Metal, Grindcore, Crust punk, etc.) without significant evolution to their sound will probably enter into a state of diminishing returns starting with their 3rd lp. This rule applies most often to bands below the first tier in their chosen genre, but often afflicts the best of them. There are ways of dodging this slump, but it’s difficult ground to tread. As Dark Angel were playing basically the same style of thrash they began with, albeit increasingly more technical, it follows that they probably were not going to improve their song craft significantly now that they were most likely spending more time distracted by road life, (more drugs, more women, long bus rides), and probably trying to take breaks from road life.
• Strike 2) Loss of key members. A loss of key members integral in shaping a band’s sound can spell disaster for obvious reasons, especially when the remaining members choose to make a new lp. Following Darkness Descends, Dark Angel had to fill not only the former guitar slot of Jim Durkin, but also the dreaded replacement vocalist position. Brett Erikson of Viking stepped up as the new guitar player, and the always bloated looking Ron Rinehart stepped into the vocal position.
• Strike 3) Playing a style that has already reached a plateau in popularity and/or general creative possibilities. It’s pretty well accepted that thrash metal was a spent force by the end of the 80’s. To loosely quote Blade Runner “The light that burns twice as bright, burns twice as fast, and you have burnt so very, very bright”. After Reign In Blood and Master Of Puppets, thrash was in a tricky bind. Generally bands tried to play even more brutal than Reign In Blood (and also Kreator’s - Pleasure To Kill), at which point you’re going to be pushing into early Death Metal territory, or more progressive and technical than the Master Of Puppets template, at which point, shit gets tedious.

As You can see the cards are stacked against Dark Angel circa the late  80’s and they’re stacked TALL. I never had any interest in hearing their 3rd lp, Leave Scars until recently when I read about how good it is on the aforementioned (yesterday) Metal Inquisition blog, but once I did, I had to hear it. So it came to pass that Leave Scars is now my favorite entry in the Dark Angel catalog. It’s the album Darkness Descends wants to be, and frankly if they could have dreamed it up sooner, the world might have had an entirely different view of Dark Angel. Gene Hoglan’s drumming is more ferocious and speedy than ever, absolutely no disrespect to Paul Bostaph (:Rodney Dangerfield voice:), but Hoglan should have taken over on the kit during the Slayer/Grip Inc. era. Thank God/Satan he’s got that cartoon network deal paying the bills.Besides the ferocity of Gene Hoglan though there are 2 things that make this album work better than the last.

• 1) Serious increase in dynamic song writing.
• 2) Moderate increase in dynamic vocal  delivery.

In other words, the song-writing and vocals are stepped up a couple of notches. The songs have a huge increase in the number of tempo changes, and because of that it follows that the individual sections stand out better because they have something to contrast against. A great example of this is the epic jam “No One Answers”. You get some serious octopus styled drum action kicking things off, before going into the grooviest mosh part to date in their career. The kind of thing I don’t think the band would have taken the time for in their earlier days. A side note, the double kick in this section sounds awesome. Heavy and boomy and not typewriter-ish at all, which is because Gene Hoglan is legit and doesn’t need drum triggers. The riffing when the song takes full speed is practically at a Forced Entry/Vio-lence style level of difficulty, that is, about as technical and flashy as straight thrash metal can get. The riff-fest continues for almost 8 minutes with muscular narration by Rinehart who has a deeper delivery than Don Doty ever managed, and a more consistent one as well. Maybe the Hetfield to Doty’s Bauloff (R.I.P.). Not as wild or crazy, but with more of the necessary power and control. Leave Scars brings it all together. The speed and power of Darkness Descends, the crunch and bludgeoning mosh of the best Slayer, the technical prowess and ambition of Metallica (but with obviously much better drumming), a few brief melodic passages, everything is in place. Unfortunately, between 1986 and 1989 a few things had happened. Specifically:

• 1987) Scream Bloody Gore, Scum
• 1988) Reek Of Putrefaction, From Enslavement To Obliteration, Leporacy
• 1989) Slowly We Rot, Alters Of Madness, Left Hand Path, Symphonies of Sickness

In short, metal-heads invented Death Metal. Even if you write the heaviest Thrash album ever (and Leave Scars is a legitimate contender), it’s going to sound like Thin Lizzy up against debuts by Morbid Angel, Obituary, and Entombed. People had been talking about the rising Grind-core  and Death Metal trends since John Peel started playing Carcass and Napalm Death, and ‘89 was the year it really became impossible to ignore. There just wasn’t a lot of room for a band that had always been considered second class when a whole new crop of infinitely more extreme groups had stepped into the spotlight. Oh and, in case you forgot, this is the 2nd Dark Angel lp to have horrible crappy artwork. This one has a little kid in a room full of stuffed animals with an ominous shadow cast over the room like there’s a monster coming out of the closet. The Dark Angel logo is in 3D and the room seems to be bathed in pink neon light. God this record cover sucks so much. Any hope they might have had of being noticed for an outstanding achievement must have gone down the tubes with this one.When we meet Dark Angel again the year is 1991. Things are looking BAD. Thrash is dead. Like really dead. Metallica and Megadeth are playing A.O.R. rock versions of their old sounds, Slayer now has vocals that are screamed on key, Exodus is a distant memory, Death Metal is massive, and worst of all “Grunge” is breaking (or at least about to). I’m sure there’s pressure from the record label to do something commercial, and I will say Ron Rinehart’s vocals take on a little bit of a “…And Justice For All” type Hetfield quality on Dark Angel’s final lp, “Time Does Not Heal”, but other than that, there’s no concession for any popular trends of the day in heavy music. Actually “…And Justice” is a pretty good comparison for the music on here too, because it’s just endless riffing, and endless long songs. I can’t say it’s as good as the 2 lps that precede it, but I can respect it for being wildly self indulgent and hopeless of having any commercial appeal. How self indulgent you ask? “Time Does Not Heal”is infamously known for being comprised of 246 different riffs.  For a 9 song lp, that averages to a little more than 27 riffs per song. To say this is a challenging work that can only be taken on its own terms would be a cliched understatement.Commercially this album fared most likely worse than the previous ones, and again it has a terrible cover that could have only hurt sales, this time it has some C-grade model in a fuchsia turtle-neck trying to escape some kind of evil alleyway lair type thing. I can only wonder why. But horrible cover aside, I find it admirable that Dark Angel goes out with both guns blazing here, making the most complex, and over the top album they possibly could without changing their sound really, which is something few Thrash bands could lay claim to when all was said and done. I think that’s more than enough. Apologies for 2 bloated posts about a bay area thrash band, tomorrow it’s bidHARDCORE.com again. PEACE.

Everybody knows Void, DCHC’s infamously atonal acid-thrashers (read in Jackie Chiles voice). By far they’re probably the most championed DCHC band after Bad Brains and Minor Threat, and they receive considerable attention from enthusiasts of the non-punk world, which I guess in some way validates them in the larger musical tapestry. What I’m trying to say is even non-punks know Void shred. The same cannot unfortunately be said for United Mutation, who never get the same kind of credibility affirming praise that the likes of Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, The Melvins and other stone-aged, well respected indie rockers have willingly doled out for Weifenbach and company. Please don’t be angry reader; I’m not suggesting that Void sound the same as United Mutation, but they’re hardly far removed. Maybe they even had the same drug dealer?

United Mutation was founded by 2 brothers with the last name Fox, sometime in ‘81 or ‘82 I think. By 1983 (when their first 7″ came out) almost every band in DC owed a debt to Minor Threat in their sound, and were pushing towards an increasingly melodic delivery. United Mutation are one of a short list that were doing the opposite. This is sick, sick, introvert music. For a reference point see the first Die Kreuzen lp or the Scam 7″ (both of which were released after this but are similar). In “Banned in DC” there’s a quote that’s always stuck with me that, to paraphrase, says United Mutation just hung out in the basement everyday practicing their songs, but only left once or twice a year to play a show. It makes total sense when you hear them. They sound isolated, and unsociable.

Their chronology is confusing at best, but I think they did a demo or two, some of which were recycled into comp tracks (like the AWESOME Mixed Nuts Don’t Crack compilation), and then they delivered their first 7″ Fugitive Family a split release on Dischord, and their own DSI records. Let it be noted that this wasn’t deemed even significant enough to be a a half release, being relegated instead to being catalog #10 & 7/8th. What the fuck? It couldn’t get #11 1/2 or something? Whatever. Growing up in the DC area has left me with a soft spot for most of the bands of the time, even the less interesting ones, but for me, United Mutation transcend that. This is disgusting, fuzzed out noise that’s way ahead of the curve, cutting almost at a Siege-like speed, and dear lord the vocals! This may be the most inhuman vocals used in any style up to that point. 100% predicts the kind of things you’d be hearing on records by G.I.S.M. and Bathory records a year later, even though neither were probably aware of this record. This is a perfect example of a band refitting an established genre to their own twisted vision - it’s imaginative and stands alone.

Still, I can only lavish so much praise on Fugitive Family, because the crowning achievement of United Mutation, is their Rainbow Person 7″. Sadly if their first 7″ can be called under-appreciated, you might as well call this one unknown. I guess without the minimal Dischord endorsement people just aren’t as interested. There are some people in-the-know though, and they can tell you what a demented piece of psycho-core this is. It’s been a major influence on some of my song writing over the past couple of years, and is one of the most bizarre of its time. Between each song is a recording of a clearly mentally unstable person, speaking about time travel, setting the mood for the creepy music that follows. The band are slower now, the guitar is drenched in reverb and chorus giving it a psychedelic quality (and I’m sure there were plenty of drugs consumed of a similar classification). The songs are mid-paced, but still punk, with creepy echoing solos, and sections that start to break apart under the slowing tempos. The vocals are as rasping and demented as before, though at times they come close to singing on key, they only do so in the same demonic voice, often while being echoed and phased into oblivion. The weirdest and most eccentric aspects all come together on the song Zone, the only song on my ipod with the lyric “My eyes have laser vision to the sky”, as a circular bass riff creeps along with spare guitar guitar accenting before kicking into a total temper tantrum of psychotic rage. Right before the song starts the rambling mental-case declares “Reality makes me fucking sick, because it’s disgusting it’s perverted, okay. Obscene… okay. This reality.” It’s a good way to sum up the underlying sentiment of all United Mutation music.

Pressing info is as follows:

United Mutation - Fugitive Family 7″:

• 1000 copies on black vinyl w/insert
  Dischord 10 7/8 / DSI 1, 1983
• 500 copies on black vinyl w/extra track, xeroxed sleeve, no insert
  Dischord 10 7/8 / DSI 1, 1989

United Mutation - Rainbow Person 7″:

• 800 copies on black vinyl w/foldover cover and insert
• 225 copies on black vinyl w/pocket cover
• 75 copies on black vinyl w/xeroxed pocket cover
  DSI Records 4, 1985
• 500 copies on blue vinyl w/foldover cover and insert
  DSI Records 4, 1989
  

Typically when I find myself in New York City, I’m concerned with one thing: getting out of it. Yes, for all my love of NYHC, all the long praises I’ve written about the bands, the city itself makes me sick. Sick with anxiety, and disgusted by the piss stench everywhere I turn. Excuse my misanthropy please. It’s all good though because there will always be a song that perfectly sums up how I feel. I’d even say it’s one of the best punk songs, no… one of the best rock songs ever written. I’m not talking about the well liked Fear classic “I Love Livin’ In The City” (”NY’s alright if you like saxophones”), I’m talking about The Randoms - “Let’s Get Rid Of NY”. I can play this song over and over and over again. I can listen to the two minutes and thirty seconds of pogoing perfection for hours with the only pause being the time it takes to push the needle back to the beginning. I’m like a teenage girl in 1964 with a copy of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, absolutely mesmerized. When this perfect tune plays, it’s the only song in the world. When the chorus kicks up with that scrappy Chuck Berry on 78rpm’s riff and I hear the declaration of “Let’s Get Rid Of New York”, I think it’s the way a devout church goer feels each time the congregation shouts “hallelujah!”

I want everyone to know, as I’m aware many readers of this blog are from the NY area, I have nothing really against the people of your city, I certainly love many of the associated musical traditions, but there is something about the city itself that I hate. It’s not because I live in Boston, it’s just the way I feel. Like the way you might feel about mayonnaise on your food. Please don’t take it personal New Yorkers (although I know you will).

So you see, when you combine the perfect punk music, with the perfect lyrical sentiment, it makes sense that you can only declare such a composition, one of the greatest rock songs ever written (beyond all criticism etc.). Why in the name of everything holy and unholy then, is this song on the B-Side? I can only imagine it’s a joke, because even though “ABCD” is a fine song in its own right, it’s the “Let’s Go Away For A While” of this package. Now let me just shock you and say, after all that praise… this is only my SECOND favorite single on Dangerhouse.

Number ONE: the untouchable “We’ve Got The Neutron Bomb” by The Weirdos. As a package it nudges out the Randoms just barely for having what I think is the stronger A-Side (the title track), the real treat though is inexplicably on Side-B again: “Solitary Confinement”. Maybe it’s the angry boy in me, but all the bouncy pop fun of “Let’s Get Rid Of NY” is easy to forget when you hear this proto-HC slash ‘n burn job. I know I’m drowning in my own hyperbole right now, but try to listen to Solitary Confinement without playing air-guitar — I guarantee you will fail without the aid of a handful of sleeping pills (and I don’t do that shit so I’m screwed). I’m sorry to 2-Time the Randoms like this, I really am, but this is also one of the greatest rock songs of all time. It’s one for the books folks. Take “Search and Destroy”, strip off the silver pants and make-up, and proceed to rip it up at full volume with a chorus roughly the size of one of Jupiter (the planet).

I don’t have all day, so I can’t even talk about the raging screams of Alice Bag, or 2 of the 4 good Dils songs. Likewise I’m gonna have to skip explaining why the Deadbeats suck, and I’d rather listen to Howard Werth. Another day, although since everyone in New York and surrounding areas has abandoned me, that day may never come.