Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 21): REGIMEN DE TERROR "S/t" Ep, 2023

This is going to be the last part of this wonderful series and I won't probably be writing about d-beat for a good few years because I have officially run out of epithets and attributes to qualify this peculiar emphatically and crucially redundant punk subgenre. And to wrap this all up, I would like to introduce you to what was undoubtedly my favourite d-beat record of 2023: Regimen de Terror's second Ep. 

A couple of years ago I did a compilation entitled The Beat to End All Beats (that was incidentally removed from youtube for "inappropriate content" which is pretty hilarious considering all the turds floating around on this platform) illustrating the explosion of the d-beat trend from the early 90's to the mid 00's. Well, if you will pardon a self-reference, this Ep could be considered as "the d-beat to end all d-beats". From all the records that I tackled in this series, Regimen de Terror's is not just the one that sounds the most just like Discharge, as it can be argued that it is not humanly possible (I shudder at the thought of what AI could do to our D) to sound closer to Discharge (in the present case to Why). The quest has never been deprived of contenders, some very talented ones getting undeniably close to the Holy Grail, but this two-piece might take the cake and have almost achieved something that is both the ultimate goal to reach and yet an unthinkable taboo: actually sounding just like Discharge. Do we really want a band that actually sounds just like Discharge? Or just love the idea of it? Do we just want bands who strive and crave to achieve the unachievable, something both romantic and rather unreasonable that cannot and must not be achieved? Isn't the journey and the struggle, the process, the cult, the quest the whole point? What happens if the coyote finally catches the roadrunner? A feeling of pointlessness or the sentiment of victory and satisfaction? 

In any case, Regimen de Terror is a two man operation run by Mikel from Spain and none other than Janne Jutila, a d-beat legend (he's on the drums obviously) who played in Time Square Preachers or Dismachine and owns D-takt studio. He was in charge of the mixing and mastering and you can tell he knows how to express his abundant love for Discharge. I mean, the man lives and breaths d-beat, he probably had "Decontrol" as his wedding song for all I know. To be fair, strong, energetic and dynamic is the actual Discharge beat on this Ep and he does not stray from the canonical path (the one and only "undischargy" moment is the Japanese style opening roll on "Visiones del futuro" but I am being picky). The riffs are straight out of Why and are played with conviction and aggression. The vocals are in Spanish, which, because of the sonorities and scansion of the language, brings some classic local dis-bands to the table, but to be honest, they sound a lot more like Cal holidaying in Barcelona than MG15. The accentuation is superb and confers to the songs a genuine and almost disturbing Discharge vibe. Inside the paroxysmal restrictive obsession of d-beat, Regimen de Terror manage to create an even narrower path, almost touching the last pint glass that Cal drank out of during the last gig of the Why lineup (the d-beat equivalent of the Holy Grail for Christians). The quest might be a shibboleth but if it were to be achieved, would the gates of Hell actually open?

This very fun, very angry, very energetic raw d-beat Ep was released on La Vida Es Un Mus (because Paco deep down loves his "just-like-Discharge" d-beat) and I am sure you can find it easily. 

Regimen de d-beat terror 

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part ): SMELL CORPSES "5 track" tape Ep, 2022

If there is one thing that punk taught me - beside the fact that poor hygiene can be considered a proof of one's dedication to the movement by platinum punks (to my mother's eternal despair, I must say) - it is that it's an international movement. One that we should value for it. While the random wanker on the street will probably only listen to popular mainstream American pop music and its local equivalent (because who doesn't want to be American?), the proud punk, the one who cares, who connects, who is blissfully oblivious to basic tuning and fiercely unbothered with dodgy musicianship, will fearlessly strive to discover noisy music that most people won't listen to anyway, done by fellow punks all around the planet. The knowledge that we are part of a worldwide DIY underground movement always felt quite glorious and vertiginous at the same time. Sycophantic me, I know.

But how is that possible in a world that looks so fragmented, polarized, dislocated, dangerous, rooted in prejudice, fear and high shipping costs? There is no easy answer to this but I am sure clever people who have been provided with grants from official institutions to explore this issue as part of their PHD program and publish a thesis that no actual punks are going to read will come up with something major. In the meantime here is my pissant take on the subject: punks basically share a common language. In spite of all our differences, we understand the language of punk. Because of the tremendous diversity of backgrounds, we all have specific stories to tell and there is no denying the very real impact that historical processes, to be understood materialistically, have had on all of us. Living conditions, gender, race, poverty, national origins, all define and sometimes divide us and even I am not enough of a naive zealot to believe that owning a Doom patch suddenly makes everything alright. And yet, we share a tacit common language, a common set of cultural references, shared DIY practices, a penchant for spiky hair and the habit of being chased down the streets by hard blokes on mopeds. And we all love Discharge, right?

Whenever I hear the average vapid Joe (or Olaf or Carlos or Piotr or Jean or however dull people are idiosyncratically known as in your area) claims that he listens to "a bit of everything" when what he really means is that he listens to any old crap that he is subjected to when shopping at Asda, I feel like getting my Smell Corpses tape out of my pocket and make him listen to it while patronizingly explaining that this is my version of listening to a bit of everything: the usual d-beat raw punk formula tastefully done by a punk band from Thailand. I'm sure this was what Marx meant when he claimed that workers of the world should unite.   

So Smell Corpses are from Thailand, from Phisanulok to be accurate, in the North of the country (not that I would initially have known since I have never been) and this delightful recording of d-beat raw punk seems to be their first gift to the Gods of D. Or is it? The band also appeared on a DVD compilation released in 2018 entitled Kawakami Forever 2017 and including Singapore-based bands like Lifelock or Braincëll who have already been dealt with on Terminal Sound Nuisance. Of course, I am going in circles but who isn't? As for the present recording, it was originally self-released as a cdr in 2018 and reissued on tape first in 2021 on the Japanese label Harimau Asia (who also released material from The Rebel Riot from Burma) and then in 2022 on Full Force Hardcore Destruction, a reliable label responsible for tapes from Lifelock or Declaration, both bands that already paid a visit to this series. As I said, going in circles.

With such honourable connections, the careful reader will have understood that Smell Corpses deal in noisy d-beat with a taste for distortion and for the Japanese style. The production is, indeed, quite raw and unpolished but it conveys a sense of urgency and direction that fits the genre. I am reminded of the early days of D-Clone and Contrast Attitude in its most primitive form (the vocals do not lie) but the band still keeps that nightmarish hypnotic vibe that characterizes the Disclose sound or indeed that of Disease. Of course I like it a lot. The last two songs are sung in the Thai language and I have to say it is the first time I hear a punk band in this language and it sounds great and completely d-beat compatible. 

This tape is for the d-beat raw punk diehards, for people who like it noisy and genuine and who support the international d-beat mafia. If you are brave enough the band the Thai label Inhuman Assault released Smell Corpses' second tape Slaughter Still Continues in 2023. Trigger warning: it might harm posers.

SMELL CORPSES

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 19): BURNING//WORLD "Peace is no reality" 12'' Ep, 2022

Great men, when faced with uncertainty and chaos, are know to take hard but just decisions while staring mysteriously into the horizon burdened with a truth only they know. This kind of shit. I cannot be called great by any stretch of the imagination, unless you are weird enough to associate greatness with owning a massive albeit rather childish amount of Antisect shirts (unsurprisingly my mum does not belong to that category), but when I dived into the substantial d-beat section of my record collection - it does take at least half of it - in order to select works for this series, tough choices had to be made and I stood tall and made them, cold-hearted, with unshakable resolve. So in a sense, I was kinda great I suppose. However some picks were easy indeed and Burning//World might have been the very first name I wrote down on my list for several reasons upon which I shall presently elaborate.

Peace is no reality, for all its d-beat brilliance (it didn't win the D-Beat of the Year award in 2022 for nothing), did not enjoy the same publicity as other bands dicking around in the same school yard and therefore it felt like a logical choice to rave a bit about the band on Terminal Sound Nuisance what with it being the blog of the underdogs and all. This said, and this is very interesting and revealing, Burning//World still attracted enough attention to garner a number of dithyrambic reviews, actual reviews with arguments, with points being made, analysis, genuine narrative description and unbridled passion (one of them by none other than Jackie Crust War and he knows his shit). In a world where people can't usually be arsed to communicate with much more than memes or emojis or, on the contrary at the other end of the spectrum, offer ridiculously pseudo-intellectual descriptions of punk records "reinventing the punk narrative" in order to sell them at high prices, it was nice and, yes, fun to read decent punk reviews that felt honest in their enthusiasm and read as both very earnest and yet not deprived of ironic self-awareness. I mean, we're dealing with a "just-like-Disclose" band not a Debussy-inspired free jazz orchestra. The label Blown Out Media compiled them on the bandcamp page of the recording so you can take a look for yourself. This very relative abundance of thought-out praises for a simple and very niche d-beat record only confirmed what I instantly knew: Peace is no reality is bound to become a minor d-beat classic in the years to come and not just because the world will actually burn.

I am for once not going to delve on the specifics of the music because others already did it with accuracy and I basically agree with all the terms of endearment. Burning//World go for the Disclose-covering-Disaster-with-Framtid's-intensity-and-Disease's-boundless-fanaticism and they hit very hard, so hard that this might be what set them a little above the friendly and non-hierarchical competition. Heavy riffs, superb distortion, pummeling drums, Kawakamish vocals, this is an artfully made relentless barrage of noizy d-beat raw punk that mirrors the horrors of a world that never stopped burning, it has the ideal length and the songs tell a great story together. 

One does not just stumble upon Burning//World's sonic attack of perfectly executed homage to Dis culture while casually looking for the latest fancy hardcore band online. There is no hype just pure love and anger. You already knew what you were looking for, no need for surprise, there was a hole in your heart that needed to be filled with D love and this is your therapeutic dose. This record is something one seeks for militant confirmation and cultural affirmation, there is no coincidence here. Peace is no reality is a dog whistle for Disclose fans, it is both perfect and cryptic in its reiteration and if it is to become indeed a classic for the initiates, it will be one that unites an already close circle. It is always perfectly in control of what it aims at achieving and for whom (I assume it is a studio project precisely for that reason) and I cannot find any flaws to this record. I mean, it even has a bloody obi.

This crucial confidential record was released on Blown Out Media, a label from Albuquerque I have been following very closely for a couple of years (I mean, they do use the Disaster font and I am an easy man to please) that displays taste for passionate niche raw hardcore punk like Svaveldioxid, Krash or Forclose (yes). If you ever bump into this jewel, grab the fucker immediately.

Burning//D-Beat World