Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 14): HELLISH VIEW "Reaper's hand" Ep, 2019

I like Hellish View. I think what they do is good and they are good at what they are striving to do. With them picking a Disclose song as a moniker, the only punters they are likely to attract and entice to spend a tenner on a record are the ones already converted to the D, the risks of one being fundamentally disappointed with the band's work are therefore slim. They can't be said to promise the moon but at least they are not lying about the menu.

Unless you conceive the warmest passion for d-beat raw punk, not just for the music but also for the foundational web of references, the lexical articulations and the visual semiotics, Hellish View will probably sound like a bear family trying to play musical instruments for the first time (not an unpleasant program in itself, for me at least). Reaper's Hand provides the casual d-beat listener, the passerby of the D, with a decent slice of "noise not music" gruff primitive d-beat while still accommodating the aficionados with the validation of the genre's prerequisites. The style's specifications are respected, the crucial boxes proverbially ticked. To switch to a language even the dimwitted among us are capable to understand (there can't be many here, Terminal Sound Nuisance is definitely a high-brow, if ineffably highfalutin, reading experience), this Ep is a scorcher or, like old-school American punks would say, "rad".

Hellish View are from Minneapolis and like a lot of the most fanatical d-beat bands (the Disease and Dispose of this world) are quite prolific with two demo tapes, three Ep's and three split Ep's since 2017. I like the idea of obstinate inflexible bands who keep recording and producing against all odds, especially in such a confidential genre. They are doing it for the love and lovers of it. Or maybe they just lost a bet in high-school and the local bully ordered them to play d-beat until the end of time or else. Minneapolis stands as a legendary punk town with absolute classic bands like Misery, Destroy!, the fanzine Profane Existence and some solid contemporary bands like Hope? so emerging from such a place could be an advantage for a band since you are bound to find like-minded people who know what you are on about when raving over Disclose for way too long. They probably do not tend to run away over the fallacious pretext that walking Ben Sherman commercials are getting on stage like in Paris. However, even amidst the plethoric offer of Minneapolis punk-rock, there have never been a proper d-beat band, one relying solely on the the strict cannon so that Hellish View can be seen as something of a novelty in this context.

This young and studded three-piece do love playing, cheekily and affectionately, with the traditions. While it would be too long to analyze thoroughly the evolution of their sound - but let's just say that they went from a cave d-beat raw punk to a more Disclose-infused d-beat raw punk but I suppose it's just because they learnt to play better - I still have to give credit for some song titles from the disbones-ish 2021 demo tape that illustrate my point like "Protest and revive" or "Assholes (of the fucking leaders)". But what about Reaper's Hand in particular? 

The Ep does a perfect job at blending Aspects of War-era and Disbones-era Disclose (which it does say on the cover) with Decontrol's primal fury (the gruff vocals tonally sound like the perfect mix of both) and something of Shitlickers and Anti-Cimex as well. It has that galloping unpolished distorted d-beat quality that I have grown to love when it's done well. The songwriting is classic indeed but the opening APOD displays some adventurousness as it is a slow-paced but groovy number that made me think of Discharge's vintage mid-paced moments but played at the wrong speed, which is, bizarrely, a compliment here. If the lyrics deal with the usual "wars, death and destruction" trope, it has to be said that the two songs on Reaper's Hand are about Gaza and the plight of the Palestinians which has never been as tragically relevant. 

This slice of delightful fan service done with heart and dedication was released on the very fine local Desolate Records in 2019 and can still be found floating in some tasteful distros I suppose. Did I mention that Hellish View use a cracking logo with a reworking of the Discharge logo but with a crow instead of a face? Now that's creativity.

HELLISH VIEW              

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 13): DESPAIR "Visions of the Inferno" Lp, 2018

I sometimes find myself caught up in my own moral principles and therefore do not practice what I vehemently preach, namely to not judge a book by its cover (to be applied metaphorically as from my experience most novels, especially North-American, can be judged by their cover which makes the phrase rather odd) or its reputation. As vaguely bothered as it makes me feel in terms of the petty values I insist upon holding, I do happen to love bands before I actually play them just by reading the "ex and current members of" list. It goes without saying that I am sometimes violently proven wrong but let's not engage in an excruciatingly exhaustive excursus about the culprits as not only do I not want to find horse heads in my bed again, but more importantly I have been told on several occasions that it bores readers. In fact my brother once suggested I indicate the time it'd take to read the full review for busy readers, which sounds like encouraging laziness to me. It's like asking how long will the Sore Throat song be. Are you really that busy mate? What are you, a banker? Does this keep me from being waylaid by swarms of admirers on my way to buy baguettes? Does it fuck.

But yeah. Reading, accidentally, about a d-beat project involving ex and current members of pretty classy bands got me interested: Despair had Cordie on guitar who by then had already played with drummer Bryce in Raw War and Kaiten, Chris also on guitar from the mighty Decontrol, Foat from Limb From Limb, Fear of Tomorrow and Total War and John formerly of the underrated Dödsfälla on vocals. The thought that "it's gonna be a good one that" did accost my mind, never to really leave. This more or less justified belief is a bit like morning drinking: it sounds good on paper but can end up to be a disaster (pun intended). Despair can be said to be a band that I loved before listening to in spite of a generic moniker - in addition to the Osaka crusties you will unsurprisingly find three black-metal bands with the same name on Discogs but also a ridiculously cheesy Russian power-metal band that comes highly recommended if you're having a bad day) that still makes sense considering the genre. At least they did not go for Dispair (not a bad band by the way but you know...).

As mentioned, I was a little late to the party and only heard about the band when they had presumably already passed (their final gig took place in June, 2015), which I felt a little upset about but then it happens to me often with obscure family members so I didn't make too much of it. Upon playing the album on youtube (unglamorous I know), Despair instantly revealed themselves as a cracking "just-like Discharge" orchestra, a restrictive but ultimately fulfilling and engrossing sub-category of d-beat, not unlike what the saltwater crocodile is to its Nile cousin: the subtle difference is in the details.  

Before Visions of the Inferno Despair thought wise to record a self-released demo tape in 2015 that illustrated emphatically what the band had in mind and several songs from the demo would be rerecorded and vastly improved for the Lp (released a good few years after it was recorded). The demo of Despair must be seen as an antechamber to their album as the Lp magnified the real qualities and traits exhibited on the first recording. Despair's demo was, well, essentially a punk demo, that is to say an allusion to what would come (admittedly it is easier to say in retrospect). This maniacal Vancouver unit is particularly enjoyable because they partake in the difficult task to replicate the philosophy of the first 90's d-beat generation of Dischange, Disaster or Disfear, not just in terms of sound but also in terms of their original praxis, one that is as close as possible to Discharge itself. This is Discharge-loving d-beat instead of d-beat loving d-beat, if you know what I mean. It even looks like a 90's d-beat record. The direct Discharge references may overwhelm some (who will gently and mercifully be called "posers") but I am not one to flinch at open Discharge love, especially when it has song titles like "...and they still ignore", "Life's massdestruction" or "Visions of the inferno". 

The interplay between the guitars impresses, the guitar players do not step on one another's studded boots and while I am conservatively not in favour of two guitars in an orthodox d-beat band, Despair stands as one of the very few modern examples where you can actually hear that it makes sense (I am reminded of Anti-System on that level at times). The bass has that old-school dirty reverb sound instead of the usual grinding tone and I love the fact that the vocalist does not rely on pedal effects or forcefulness (two common flaws in contemporary d-beat bands) for the Discharge rendering, he just goes hoarse and angry but still understandable, not unlike on the Discard Lp (possibly a relevant reference in terms of conception when it comes to Despair's Lp) which confers a genuine hardcore punk edge to the whole. The Lp does have imperfections here and there but they are meaningless because Visions of the Inferno succeeds in doing exactly what it set out to: absolute Discharge worship with a taste refined through solid knowledge of the D word, an ear for the good aggressive riff with a cracking guitar sound and a sort of contagious "charged punk" collective drive. Beside let's not overlook that it is a full album, not a mere Ep, so that it is harder to make it sound coherent and whole, the story is longer to tell. The fact that it was mastered by Kenko kinda goes without saying and is the icing on the nuclear war.

     

This album is rather difficult to find these days but if you do happen to see it, don't dick around and jump on it (and do elbow your way to the distro if needed). As you can imagine all the lads kept playing in bands after on a more or less permanent basis with John joining the excellent and already discussed Genogeist, Bryce currently doing Reaktori, Foat Dead Hunt and Malakili while Cordie (also referred to as "the riff machine" in some quarters) just started his thirteenth band since 2015 last month, a formidable feat that got him to be nominated for the Vancouver Punk of the Year award this year.

Visions of the d-beat

    

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 12): LIFE LOCK "2018 E.P." Ep, 2019

Little do people know (or care to) that, beside this Singapore lot, there are two other bands with a similar name: a melodic hardcore Lifelock from Turkey and some sort of depressive and dark Bathory-Cimex metal-punk act Lifelöck from Brazil (with a tape called A Non Nuclear Nightmare which is an odd title for an evil band since it is officially the best sort of nightmare). As far as I know, none of these three bands have been sued by Doom for the use of the name of one of their top songs which is a relief (I swear this will be the only crust-related dad joke of the review). What would we become without Discogs? You can't escape record porn.

I don't suppose the Istambulis were thinking about Doom (and after all the phrase "life lock" is meaningful without being tied to a preexisting reference), the Brazilians must certainly have and the Singaporeans just did without hesitation, naturally, like a stud flying instinctively toward a punk leather jacket. Still, even though the nod to Doom must be factored in, Life Lock cannot be defined as Doom-like. Of course, lovers of the Brummies will feel at home with Life Lock - after all both share a common love for things of the D - but their respective program diverge. This review is not meant to explore the roots of Doom, that'd be an ambitious endeavour as we often tend to overlook where the legendary band's music originates from since they are more often seen as influencer rather than influencee. But let's just throw here that they initially intended to work on the gruffest side of 80's Swedish hardcore (Svart Parad, Asocial and all). Life Lock do not although they, rather cheekily, used Doom's cloud logo as the cover of the first version of the present Ep, a self-released tape (to be fair Abraham Cross played the same trick in the 90's). Life Lock have always been pretty clear about their main sources of joy: Disaster and Disclose.

Such a masterplan is straight-forward enough but it does require a songwriting flair for the simple but perfect riffs, vocal pattern, distortion level and primitive drum beat, things that Life Lock clearly demonstrates. They remain faithful to the source material with a "wall of noise not music" vibe expressed through blatant but always loving Disaster and Disclose rip-offs. Even more accurate perhaps would be the theory that Life Lock is the answer to the question "What if Disclose had been a radical Disaster-worship act?". This is an existential interrogation, the kind of which often arises after a collective boozing session at 2am. Definitely after the gig. Even if your hearing and eyesight are not what they used to be, the Ep is replete with Disaster references. Life Lock cover "Devastation" (sample included), use the Disaster font to write their own name, the first song "Our glorious(?) dead" directly refers to Disaster's "Glorious?", "Hell's inferno" to the line "Hellish inferno" in Disaster's "Inferno". Being fair play, Life Lock do indicate "Thanks to Disaster" on the backcover and the song "Grows in fear" is more akin to a blissfully obvious Disclose tribute. Who said d-beat was a one-trick pony?

This marvelous Ep was recorded in 2018 and released on Brain Solvent Propaganda and Symphony of Destruction. I haven't been able to get an idea of how active the band was or maybe still is. They did release a handful of tape, among which the quite manifest and rhetorical Who'll Make Noise Not Music?!! in 2010 (with a recreation of Discharge's iconic first Ep but with "Disaster" painted at the bottom of a studded jacket, in case you needed to be reminded of where they were heading toward) and And For What (you know what they mean, yeah?) with an even nerdier cover using the very same picture of the two armed soldiers as Disaster used, except these soldiers, instead of the perfectly acceptable gasmask faces, now have the cabbage heads of Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing. What a combo. 

The Singapore scene has proven to a new wider audience to be very dynamic and lively for the past 10 years with bands like Siäl and Lubricant being quite successful abroad and needless to say that punk 2.0 certainly contributed to that well-deserved interest. However, one must not forget that Singapore punks have been playing noisy crust and d-beat (and more generally hardcore) for a long time as solid bands like Minus, Blinded Humanity or Pazahora (members of which play in the aformentioned Siäl) can attest. For those ready to nerd out, I recommend giving a listen to the Singapore Punk Holocaust compilation cd released sometime in the 00's.

But in the meantime blast some Life Lock, arguably the Disclosest band to Disaster. 

LIFE LOCK