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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”.

Amebix - Who’s The Enemy? (Spiderleg)
Who the hell thought of The Amebix? Was it their singer (who has the greatest punk name ever) THE BARON? To me this band makes absolutely no sense. Basically some dudes living in abandoned buildings were into Joy Division, Killing Joke, and Discharge and somehow mixed those together. I don’t understand it. Later they sort of started combining some metal in the mix, and the whole enterprise isn’t so confusing, but I threw on the new Alt Tentacles “Spiderleg collection this weekend while setting up the new crib, and it just hit me, this is one of the weirdest bands ever. 

Listening to early Amebix offerings it’s clear that they’re really into atmosphere and rhythm which are defining characteristics of all of the aforementioned bands. On Who’s The Enemy, opener “Carnage” is pretty much a mash-up of Joy Division’s “Dead Souls” and Killing Joke’s “War Dance”. The bass guitar and tribal drumming leads the charge, while the heavily treated guitars are used more to provide texture than carve out riffs. The Baron delivers his shouts heavily treated in reverb while phasing synth and guitar lines weave in and out of the mix, filling in the gaps with white noise (not music). Curfew starts with more ambient synth noise and distorted speech before kicking into a full on “Decontrol” style ripper, but with the production style of this record, it emphasizes a really different side of it. Well actually it kind of just sounds like it’s at the end of an airplane hanger. The amount of echo they’re using, on a song at this speed gives it kind of a weird hazy feel with the guitar just washing over everything other than the cymbals. Belief on side B takes things back to the more tribal drum attack, it almost reminds me of Joy Division’s “Glass”, but of course taken to a much noisier extreme. The closer is the signature tune “No Gods No Masters”, which is relatively sparse for being such a well known t-shirt slogan. Most of the time the guitar and bass are just working an E-Chord in various rhythmic patterns, often grating against the circular drumming. Vocal effects start to get more extreme as the song pulses its way to an end and the guitar begins running up and down the frets liberally.

So as I said before I can’t imagine what the thought process was in starting this band, and why you’d think to combine the elements of early hardcore, and early post punk in this way, but I suppose these things weren’t quite as far apart in those days. This is the og pressing w/ a wrap around sleeve on Spiderleg btw.

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.

In my view, Inepsy are the best French Canadian band to exist since the classic lineup of VoiVod. When I first saw them they had snuck into the USA because of some kind of problematic criminal records. They all wore black leather and had spikey hair, and sounded like a punked out Motorhead. Every song raged. When their 7″ single finally came out it confirmed the promise of that first gig I caught. This was first rate punk, but also exceptionally good as rock ‘n roll. The See You In Hell e.p. has a deceptively simple formula. Take Motorhead circa Overkill-Iron Fist, season liberally with GBH and Discharge (lots of D-beats),  tune to Venom (C I think), and toss in a  couple of Hellhammer’s breakdowns… basically you get the catchiest music imaginable. It all makes sense, and it’s not hard to play “rocked out punk”, but Inepsy just had a really good knack for it starting with this record - “See You In Hell”. Germ Warfare kicks off and it’s kind of perverse a song with such atrocious subject matter be so toe-tapping. I mean, it’s not a huge deal for me, I like music that sounds like tv static, so to my ears this is tuneful. There’s some Hellhammer flavor in this one where they hit the low notes and there’s a heavy Tom Warrior style mosh part too. A rea. It’s a Time Bomb comes second, and its been a live staple since the time of this record, straight up Motorhead style riffing distilled to fit with punk drumming, but without losing the tendency for great choruses, and driving power-riffs. Hammer Hearth moves along an almost identical structure but why fix what isn’t broken. Finishing things up is The Reaper Watches The Game, which gets back to a little more Hellhammer style approach but also echos some Clay-era GBH in the start and stop moments. Its a fine beginning to a band that has provided 3 exceptional lps of punked out grimy rock n roll (at least one of which is a perfect 10). This is an early release on the always high-quality, Feral Ward. Hey Yannick, if you’re reading this, this record has been OOP for long enough. How about a 12″ pressing with the 4 added songs from the tour CDR the band had a little before the 7″ had come out. Someone out there’s gotta be able to engineer this into happening…

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.

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″.