Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 15): BOMBARDEMENT "S/t" Lp, 2019

France has long been known for a number of things but d-beat and, by and large, hardcore punk have never been one of them. Abstruse philosophical systems, cryptic sociology, pompous arrogant twats shit at foreign languages are however commonly and traditionally associated with a country that has, pertaining to our microcosm in recent years, also been largely responsible with the progressive normalization, if not the invasion, of oi music in the DIY punk scene. Only ten years ago one could have perfectly healthy and rectitudinous conversations with a foreign comrade about how tedious the 2010's postpunk revival was becoming or what the numerous reissues of UK82 bands said about the current scene while oi-related subjects mostly revolved around Hard Skin's banter. Nowadays, you're lucky if the name Rixe does not pop up in otherwise totally righteous chitchats. Being a fourth-generation Parisian, it was not something I expected and fell outside the scope of the imagination. I have exhausted many a shrink because of this unwelcome phenomenon.

But enough typical Paris moaning and whining. Thankfully we have Bordeaux. And sure, there have been, and are, solid punk bands everywhere but when it comes to d-beat or loving Discharge, the town has been delivering steadily for the past twenty years. The precise trajectory of this part of the scene is not the topic at hand (although it would make for an interesting read) and I will thus focus on a band that, to me, stands as the best this scene has had to offer so far: Bombardement. At the time of writing, Bombardement, despite not being Swedish (some of the members probably wish) or from Portland, have become something of a well-read reference in the global d-beat world and its immediate vicinity rich with its own language, quirks, idiosyncrasies and furious protocols. I assume people reading these lines (or liking the post on social media for the lazy bums) are already well familiar with the band and I will not question inconsiderately their knowledgeability or besmirch their good names by assuming the opposite. I mean, how many French hardcore bands are invited to play on other continents? 

But enough praises already, let's examine what makes Bombardement such a widely enjoyed d-beat experience. Taken as its substantial own subgenre centered around the imitation of life, d-beat has often been a boy club. Since the inception of its regulations in the early 90's, women seldom partook in this nerd-oriented stylistic endeavours so that the presence of a female singer in a Discharge tribute band is still of note and singer Emilie (who sang in the vastly different Monarch) does an amazing job here through an impeccable and conscientious rendering of the canonical d-beat scansion, flow and accentuation. Although not an element I particularly put an emphasis on, the vocals in such a narrowly construed genre have to display as much accuracy as possible. You cannot just shout at any given points in a proper d-beat songs, it'd just be unruly and a grave breach of the Law of Cal. But as respectful to the code as the vocals are, they still sound quite unique, raspy but high-pitched and passionate standing as a definite asset on this first album.

As for the music itself, it sounds absolutely massive, like a rhino charging rhino unstoppably, determined to get a job as a grey horse of the apocalypse. Experience speaks here with people previously dicking around in bands like Gasmask Terrör, Warning//Warning, Shock or the aforementioned Monarch. While a young spotty band would still be looking for its sound, with crucial conversations about "how many studs do we need to sound like Disclose?" running wild, Bombardement are naturals. They may no longer have perfect hairlines but they know exactly what they are going for and more important they know how to achieve their goal. On their 2016 demo tape, they covered Meanwhile's "The road to Hell" which is a big key of entry into the band's music (basically keeping with the spirit of first-generation d-beat bands). Of course, Discharge is always lurking but the prevalent influence is indeed Meanwhile's second Lp, a work that saw the band adopt a more rocking, guitar-led approach while still doing their daily prayers facing Stoke-on-Trent. Meaningfully, Bombardement have two guitar players so that the riffing never stops and the use of rocking leads does not impair the overall power of the music. To achieve this you have to recruit people who can actually play even if they don't wear the traditional d-beat robe. 

The Lp works on all levels because, beside the purposeful songwriting, they found the right balance between a heavy production able to highlight the details and pure hardcore punk aggression, and I am also reminded of early Warcry. I love the fact that they included two groovy mid-paced Dischargey numbers here that can even have you dance (yes, you) even though the last time you tried was in 2008 with the notoriously ass-grabbing Emma from Accounts at a colleague's leaving due. But let's not get into that. This is a pretty recent release and one of the strongest d-beat albums of the 2010's. Bombardement went on to release an Ep and an even better second album Le Futur Est Là with new singer Oriane whose lower pitch is as potent albeit more raucous and with lyrics in French, therefore illustrating once and for all that you can do the Discharge thing in Sartre's language (Emilie went on to - actually - sing in Faucheuse). 

Good news for you the record released on Symphony of Destruction and Destructure is still available and it looks brilliant and, dare I say it, pretty original for a d-beat record with a die-cut sleeve like 90's techno records you needed drugs to listen to. The road to Dis starts here.

Bombardement > Oi   

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 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

 

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Morbid Scum / Ascidie "S/t" split tape, 2019

This writeup will be the last one of Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust. Not the last one ever, obviously, I will resurrect the concept at some point, I am as the saying goes "in it for life", which is both a blessing as it makes me feel more important than I probably am and a curse when I look at the space occupied by the hundreds of black shirts adorned with skulls, nuclear explosion or devastated cities I own, space that could be used to store much more important things like a collection of German philosophers' writing or vintage World Wrestling Federation figurines (my mum would rather have the first one but she was never much of a fan of my childhood hero and role model the Ultimate Warrior). After more than a year of reviewing recent crust recordings, inspiration is dwelling and while it would be an overstatement to claim that writing about new crust music is extinguishing my carefree enjoyment of living, I think we have seen too much of one another lately and need some personal space. I am not breaking up with new crust music I just need some "me time" whatever that ignominious barbarism actually entails. So the next series will definitely have tunes, harmonics, people who actually sings and may even understand, free from bestial growls and guitar wankery. Maybe.

But enough self-pitying bollocks and let's get into the last part of this glorious series, tedious too, to be sure, but one that opened doors as I wan this year's Grammy Award for Best Crust Reviewer last week with Beyoncé coming second (she did scare me for a second when I read her smashing review of the Realm of Terror's Accelerated Extinction Ep). I did prevail but I was a little bummed when I was told that it was off-air. Did that keep me from nicking the beers from Turnstile's gigantic fridge? Well, yes, actually it did as they are actually significantly bigger lads than me so I just ended up putting one of their Mars bars in my pocket before leaving the building. But there's no small victory. To wrap this one up I chose to write about a crust band from France called Morbid Scum with their split tape with another French band, Ascidie.  

As I regularly point it out, I am not exactly a fan of French punk music and that's putting it lightly. If you play some "classic" French bands to me, I will probably scratch myself like a zoo animal infested with lice before throwing excrements at the speakers. I mean, I am not sure I even like my own bands. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, significant ones, and with me putting on gigs regularly, I enjoy inviting local bands to play and supporting the scene and all that crap. When it comes to music, I do reserve my amorous glances to places where they play proper music like Sweden, Greece, Japan or the International Stenchcore Confederacy. However, when a genuinely good band miraculously emerges from the national chaos, I am always very excited and Morbid Scum was such a band. Lately, the French scene has been massively associated to so-called oi music (I have to say some reviewers were pretty lazy or opportunistic with the tag), a genre overrun with muscular instagram addicts looking well hard while wearing clothes that are about as expensive as the minimum wage or a mint copy of State Children's flexi. It's a giant prick volcano. Again, significant exceptions and all that, but still when a solid crust or d-beat band suddenly appears, my little heart beats faster.

We have seen that there were meaningful amounts of scum in crust during the 2010's. After the moribund and the nocturnal scums here come the morbid kind. The band was from Montpellier in the South of France, home to the legendary punk band Les Sheriff (if you have never heard them they are basically the least crust-sounding band in rock history), and they were around and very active for a couple of years between 2018 and 2020. I first came across they excellent demo from 2018 and was favourably impressed, first because their brand of old-school metallic crust is right up my street and second because I had no idea that such a specific subgenre - namely stenchcore - still had a contender at that point. Our national metal-crust heroes Lust For Death folded in late 2018 which was a real shame because at the end of their run they had become a powerhouse so that witnessing the birth of a new band working on a similar blueprint was marvelous. With three songs and a very sweet raw but powerful production, the demo was promising indeed and reminded me of a late night piss-up between late 00's Against//Empire, Anguish and early Effigy with a primitive old-school extreme metal feel and dual vocals. The prospect was exciting. A few years later, I was able to grab a copy of their subsequent release, the present split tape. The two songs were better, heavier with a groovy stenchcore influence more prevalent reminiscent of the mighty Cancer Spreading and of Instinct of Survival in some transitions. My one minor complaint is that there were only about seven minutes of music. I did not even realize that it was actually a live recording until I heard the audience cheer at the end. I mean, I did not notice any mistake during the gig which came as a bit of a shock. Morbid Scum were a tight unit. Needless to say that the potential was there but the band sadly folded before they could release a proper vinyl. 

On the flip side are six songs from Ascidie from Grenoble, close to the Alps where fancy wankers go skiing and take selfies. If you are not a massive science nerd, the word "ascidie" means "ascidian" which is the name of a marine invertebrate that eats its actual brain in order to survive. Now, that is fucking nasty if you ask me, Nature's equivalent to Tik Tok challenges (#betterinmydays). This tape was not Ascidie's first adventure into the world of physical release as they did a split tape with MatraK AttaKK from Belgium (truth be told this band tours so much that it feels a little pointless to mention their point of origin), a band Morbid Scum's guitar hero joined on the bass afterwards. The songs on this first tape were very rough and I was not quite sure what the band had in mind. This second effort was much stronger. Former Parisian and singer for Décombres was on the guitar and former singer from Lille's great notorious Traitre lent some of his growling shouts. Ascidie played dark and depressive hardcore punk with a very raw production that almost reminds me of black-metal, the harsh menacing vocals (like The Black Hand's or something?) and the very bleak lyrics reinforcing that vibe. In terms of intent and songwriting, the band played direct hardcore punk, mostly fast paced with a primitive d-beat and some slower, beefier moments as well. I am reminded me in parts of a gloomier primal version of early Discharge-influenced bands like Warwound, MG15, The Iconoclast or Subversion but with the addition of a genuine 1-2-1-2 stomper on the tape and US-styled mid-paced moments, calling Ascidie a dis-band would be inaccurate. And as mentioned, there is a feeling of bellicose despair and violent sadness pervading the music, not unlike Bombraid perhaps. Like Morbid Scum, Ascidie could not have a proper vinyl release, which, given what they were able to produce with these six songs, is a proper bummer as I do wonder what they would have come up with next.

The tape can probably be found on some French distros and you can always try getting in touch with some of the members as they are still busy making noise. 

   

Morbid Ascidie

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Sow Threat "Hate & Love" Lp, 2019

If you hit the bottle too hard the weekend past (after all, New Year's Eve is still fresh), then I would not recommend trying to listen to Hate & Love right away. You might still feel a little damaged and nauseous from the night, especially if you are not exactly getting any younger but still wants to prove you can drink as much as when you were in your twenties and a hangover never lasted more than a couple of hours. The thing is that, with such an album, you need to keep focused on the job, straight and alert so that if your head is pounding as if there was a deranged pack of dogs running around inside it, you will probably end up vomiting (again). It is not just that Sow Threat are trying to crust the shit out of you despite your headache, that would already be bad enough as you are slowly remembering that you did dance the macarena stark-bollock-naked at 5AM in order to impress your very embarrassed mates. You don't really need to blast this rough Doom-loving Japanese cavecrust sound during such a process that does requires you to be a bit clever or at least not as thick as you proved you could be. But why grandmaster Crust, I hear you think, would one need all his or her mental capacities on the deck to be able to comprehend, never mind enjoy, this humble album. Well, that is what we are going to explore.

First, I would like to wish you a happy new year, by which I mean one that will not be as shit as 2022. As far as crust music was concerned, 2022 proved to be an excellent year with many brilliant recordings (from Terminal Filth, Cimiterium, Repression Attack, Warkrusher, Slavery, Tormentum, Flower, Decomp, and these are just from the top of my able head, only Hellshock proved to be a relative let-down) to prove that this subgenre is alive and kicking and Cancer Spreading and Swordwielder will release records in 2023 so that the new year will not be a total catastrophe. In fact 2022 was a pretty good year for punk in general. But if we get out of the hardcore punk ghetto, stop browsing Discogs for a minute and take a look at the world, needless to say that there was no shortage of shit parades. On a personal level - and for once I will drop the persona and reveal my true, sensible, vulnerable self that sometimes listen to Terrible Feelings - one of my closest friends passed away, not a totally unexpected death since he was ill, but he was like a mentor to me and was responsible for a lot of what I think of as "my punk education" without which I might have become a smug SUV-driving yuppie with a premium subscription to a men's lifestyle magazine and an addiction to selfies. Worst, I could be listening to shoegaze. What a ghastly perspective. Let's just say that the past months have not been the cheeriest. 

With a new job starting up in March and my joining the Maximum Rocknroll review team, I vowed to myself that I will try to be more concise in 2023, which is precisely what I have not been doing in the first two paragraphs. Quality analysis and cheeky banter will still be my focal points but there be less arsing around. I think. So let's get to Sow Threat.

Sow Threat are from Okinawa and formed in 2010 which makes this album recorded in 2018 the careful and thought-out work, the premeditated murder-through-noise of an experienced band. From the start, ST can be said to work in a typically Japanese field of expertise: gruff Doom-worshipping crust. I have often been writing about the absolutely endless, obsessive love that Japanese punks have expressed for the Brummies' early Peaceville years for the past three decades. Doom's primitive music, riffing and vocals (especially) along with the stark imagery and aesthetics have deeply informed the Japanese crust style and Doom-style cavecrust can be considered as a national staple along with its evil twins crasher noize crust and Antisect-ish metal stenchcrust. What a happy family. Right from the very name "Sow Threat", a not so subtle pun on Sore Throat whose legacy could be just as strong in Japan and closely tied to Doom's, the listener with even a half-functioning brain will know that the three-piece is going for the classic late 80's worship gruff crust like their illustrious national predecessors Abraham Cross, Battle of Disarm, Mindsuck/early Reality Crisis, Disdomestic Violence and the original Doom worshippers, the mighty Macrofarge who pioneered that type of crust music in the late 80's. The first demo of ST from 2013 is quite good and everything you can expect from a traditional band working on such a highly specific basis and does not want to stray away from that sacred path. 

The subsequent record was a self-titled Ep released in 2014 on the solid Imminent Destruction Records and confirmed what the band intended to create on the first side (the focus on Sore Throat is significantly stronger on this one, very close to early Asocial Terror Fabrication too), but with the other side made up of just one song reminiscent of 00's epic neocrust. A little surprising. But then ST is a band that, despite their very classic take, manages to surprise, which sounds paradoxical at first but eventually makes sense. Their following work was a cd called Why? (it somehow reminds me of something but I cannot quite put my finger on it) that would exemplify the band's evolution with the addition of noisy techno songs (from one DJ Soft Kill) and sonorities into their thick crust sound. I am not big on electronic music and if you are not conversant in Japanese crust you might find the cross astonishing. But then, just think about the harsh techno influence in Death Dust Extractor, about the Tokyo Sound System compilation that included classic bands like Abraham Cross or Disdomestic Violence, but also super harsh noise "music" and noisecore acts like Bakteria, and also dark electro/techno music and Exithippies, the uniquely noisy - to the point of the intentionally unlistenable - band that, from a crasher noize crust basis, also works on noisecore, harsh noise and techno. And before that let's not forget Truth of Arise's extreme harsh noise cavecrust album. So basically, Japanese crusties are not afraid to experiment with other types of noise while remaining faithful to the source material at the same time. 

Hate & Love is something of a marmite album as you will either love it or won't really care for it. The simple and direct songwriting is unchanged as we are still both feet deep into muddy and fuzzy Sore Throat and Doom worship with a distinct nod to early Extreme Noise Terror and a firm Abraham Cross worldview. However the chaotic intro to the album was recorded by the aforementioned Exithippies which gives an idea of what is to come. The production from DJ Soft Kill can be considered as the possible bone of contention as it gives a deliberately blurry texture to the sound which creates a certain organic rawness and emphasizes the conceptual fuzziness of the whole. It is still undoubtedly Japanese-style cavecrust but its point is not merely to punish and pummel you to dust and bury you under grizzly growls. I see it more as an atmosphere-creating ambient crustcore work, not in the sense of Neurosis-inspired dark and heavy epic metallic crust, but because Hate & Love has to be listened to in its entirety in order to get the right vibe of the music and get used to its textures and aggressive fuzziness. You have to feel the groove and the mood of these "extreme brutality stench thrash punks" baby. 

It sounds both like an old tape that you just excavated from a forgotten box that had laid dormant in your damp attic since 1993 and like a smartly crafted and elaborately noisy mean tribute to the tradition of Doom-loving sore filth noizecrust. I personally love the very old-school sounding atmosphere and the distinct cavemen vocals that certainly bring back to the UK greats but with more rawness-inducing fuzz. It almost sounds like your roommate is blasting the Lp in his room while you are hoovering yours. Something crusty in the air. The icing on the cake is the cover of Salon Music's "Spending silent night", which ST turns into "Spending silent nightmare". Confuse had already covered this rather odd pop hit with "Spending loud night" and I am not sure why Japanese punks are so keen to slaughter this charming song. In any case it brings a different pace and note as a conclusion to the album which works well. 

The Lp cover reflects the mood of the record with a bunch of kawai-like punks wearing Sore Throat, Confuse and G-Anx having a laugh and drinking next to a bloody pile of bodies with a statement saying "Don't forget your present lives are made of their sacrifices". Pretty grim. I am not too sure whose sacrifice they are talking about though (the lyrics are in Japanese). On Hate & Love, ST had Kiku from Assfort and Conquest For Death standing on the drums and the album was originally released on cd with a different artwork on Reallife Recordings and Straight Up Records (more traditional Japanese hardcore labels). The vinyl version was released on SPHC, a well-established hardcore labels that does like noisy treats (like the Wankys, Detësto or the terrifying Shitnoise Bastards) and works with a lot of "foreign bands" (the term US punks use when they talk about non-US bands). Following this Lp, the band recorded a couple of songs for a split tape with Portland's Suss Law with whom they toured the States in 2019.

Sadly the guitar player and singer Yasumoto Tamura passed away in 2020 so this humble silly review is dedicated to him, his family and friends. Rest in punk.

Sow Threat                        

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Step to Freedom "The Rotten Era" tape Ep, 2019

This is going to be the last writeup of a pretty hectic year for Terminal Sound Nuisance. Initially, I intended to complete the Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust series by 2022 but I clearly overestimated my capacities - the malevolent would say it is not unusual - since, beside this one, there remain (at least) eight recordings I would like to tackle. And I actually had to trim off the overambitious original list which included even more records than I could chew (the files are ready so that they will be used at some point, like in 2027 or something). 

From the start, I considered this gargantuan series as a bold experiment that social scientists around the world were too scared and cowardly to undertake: how much crust can the human body take? For a year, I only wrote, thought and dreamt about crust music. Even for a music genius like myself, I have to admit that it has been a challenging experience and there have been times when I was only able to speak crust gibberish (basically a blend of band names and neanderthal exclamations) because I almost overdosed on the thing. But survive I did and I came out stronger, as I became a crustcore übermensch, the Captain America of stenchcore, the Goku of crasher crust, the hero you must call if a crust record has to be analyzed urgently because the future of the world is at stake - to facilitate the process I've had a crust signal installed on the roof of the building (I'll grant that, if you ignore that one time when a pigeon accidentally sat on it, it has never been used yet ). So yes, it has been a busy crust year for Terminal Sound Nuisance. 

The last of these smug homilies will be about Step to Freedom from Nizhny Novgorod (or Нижний Новгород if you want to impress your mates with some linguistic skills), a town East of Moscow. Let's be real: it makes sense to end the year with a Russian punk band. I am not going to get into the war that has been raging in Ukraine this year, as complete media saturation was quickly achieved. It seemed every punter suddenly became pub-level geopolitics experts even though they probably could not place Kharkiv on a map in February. A lot of them (and us sometimes) should probably stick to discussing football, spitting death threats to referees, grumbling about the new government reforms or, if that's your thing, the price of Japanese flexis. The current war(s) aside, Russia has been further turning into a war-mongering conservative authoritarian state that shits on human rights, LGBTQ rights, workers rights and protesters and I believe it is not always easy to be a punk band with something to say over there (to be fair, there are many other areas in the world where it is not either). And now young poor bastards are being sent off to war to fight for a political fiction - the Nation, God, Honour, Glory - as it always has been the case. Generals and ministers die in bed. So yes, not the cheeriest year over there and being called Step to Freedom in this context of stepping away from freedom and to tyranny is beautiful. Solidarity with punks in Ukraine, Russia and wherever life is hard because of delusional lunatics with military might and unlimited funds. I realize it is rather insignificant to say this on a music blog but the feeling is really there. 

Alright then, let's get started. I am not sure when STF exactly started but their first recording, entitled Social Zombies, was self-released on tape in 2014. The musicianship being quite decent, I would venture that the band had already been playing for a couple of years or that the members had already been involved in bands before. Or just that I am not used to people being actually able to play their instruments. I have written about Russian crust bands on several occasions (Fatum, Kärzer or Repression Attack) and I have grown to be very fond of their crust style since the start of the past decade. While I would not claim that Russian crust - perhaps a more relevant terminology would be "crust in Russian" because of the bands located in Belarus or Kazakhstan - is as specific-sounding as the very particular Greek crust school (although it has to be pointed out that they both work with a unique language), even a half-witted listener will have noticed that their national style has developed several significant idiosyncrasies and has steadily become quite recognizable. As a result there are several elements (visual, sonic, thematic, the effective use of the language) expected of and associated with Russian crust, which points to a genrification process to some extent. Time will tell if it sticks but I am betting my Antisect bottle opener that it will.  

Social Zombies was a promising first effort and has a couple of solid crusty metal-punk songs (a bit like Sanctum meets late Cimex or something at times) but some modern hardcore moments do lose me. Their next effort, a tape entitled Cemetery for the Humankind released on Makima Records, only came out in 2017 so the band clearly took its time and to be honest, it was well worth the wait as it is a much more convincing powerful work. These songs revolve around a decidedly thrash metal-inspired stenchcore formula enhanced through that typically aggressive howling Russian delivery. Basically a balance of a Cimex-influenced gruff crust sound and the moshiest, thrashiest end of the crust metal spectrum, not unlike Nuclear Death Terror on a date with Limb From Limb at a thrash-themed restaurant run by the second stenchcore revival's legions (Fatum is an obvious ship captain). I love when STF go all old-school crust through crushing mid-paced apocalyptic crust but not being a thrash/speed metal fanatic, they lose me again when they rock too much the bandanas out of their back pockets. An enjoyable effort but not one I would necessarily play regularly. The Rotten Era tape Ep on the other hand is another story.

Released in 2019 on the excellent Blown Out Media from New Mexico, this four-song jewel comes close to being a perfect Russian stenchcore gem. It still has that extreme old-school thrash metal influence but mean crust is clearly the dominant force on that one (the punk side of the Limb From Limb spectrum if you will) which suits me better. It also looks crustier visually with an abundance of crust signifiers (yes I am taling about the Antisect celtic frame). This tape is a proper scorcher. The mid-2010's Fatum filthy work plan can be said to be very much in use here but I am distinctly hearing some tasteful nods to UK classics like early Bolt Thrower, Genital Deformities and Antisect and the 00's stenchcore revival is also just around the corner (some sweet Effigy and Sanctum's touches here and there). The production is direct and very energetic, it highlights the angry vibe of the songs and these punks are very angry indeed at the bleak capitalist wasteland they live in and the specific phonetics are useful tools here. At the end of the day, The Rotten Era is over-the-top pissed off metallic crust punk with a bite at its best, a concept that I have come to link with Russian crust music. This definitely deserves a vinyl version. Maybe in 2038 for the fifth stenchcore revival?

Step to Freedom

  

    

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: the Rise of Nova Crustia - Contagium "S/t" Ep, 2012 / Fragment "S/t" demo Ep, 2016/ Kaltbruching Acideath/Zygome "S/t" split Lp, 2019

Amusingly, I almost left my hometown, the city of love, compulsory arrogance and dog shit (not necessarily in that order), for Halifax. In fact, I started Terminal Sound Nuisance a little after I was told that Canada was not exactly dying to welcome yet another useless pretentious twat - another term for French people over there apparently - on its territory. So ultimately I guess humanity, because of the blog's great contribution to its development, should thank the Canadian employers who, politely, told me to piss off. I was unemployed back then and had to survive in a tiny 9m2 square "flat" (in Paris anything bigger than a toilet is called a "flat") so that when I learnt that Canada was looking for young promising workers for positions they were struggling to fill, I immediately jumped on the occasion, bought a brand new, vaguely decent-looking coat and registered to the Destination Canada forum, confident that the recruiters, in awe before my many skills and my jaw-dropping charisma, would hire me on the spot. Little did I know that the country was looking for lorry drivers and plumbers and not in the least interested in my unspectacular profile. Still, I sent a resume and a charming job application letter full of lies to a kindergarten in Halifax, although I had never actually worked with young children and you could even say without it being much of an exaggeration that I don't even enjoy being around them, in the hope that someone would be kind enough, on a whim, to give me the job. 

Fortunately for Nova Scotia kids, they did deign to answer my request and in the end I had to take a job carrying heavy crates of vegetables and working as a cashier in a foodstore. I cannot help wonder though. What if I had actually gone to Halifax? I would have become part of a terrific hardcore punk scene over there, seen and perhaps even played in top crust bands instead of living in a town infested with constipated oi bands and soft middle-class indie-rock. Blame the kindergarten. I did not know that many bands from that area at the time to be honest. Of course I knew System Shit but had no idea they were from Nova Scotia. In fact I don't think I knew of the name "Nova Scotia" before I briefly fancied moving there.

At that point in time I was still already aware of Contagium which I first heard thanks to the great Crust Demos blog, which was - and I hope will be back to being one day - an excellent purveyors of worldwide young crust and d-beat bands, through their 2008 demo. Of course, this first effort was raw (most demos were in the 00's) but you can detect rudimentary versions of songwriting structures, vocal styles and riffs that would come to characterize the "Halifax crust sound". An Ep followed in 2009 and then the Archaic Lp in 2010. Re-exploring these works today I have to say that they hold very well. I remember at the time of their release thinking that they were a little late to the stenchcore revival party - what with Hellshock cosplaying as a Japanese metal-punk band and Stormcrow napping as a stoner metal freight train - not unlike guests arriving late with bags of crisps in their hands while everyone has been stuffing themselves with specially that all night. But I am up for crisps and crust any time of the day so I really don't care much. Contagium played blazing filthy stenchcore with howling anguished reverb-drenched vocals at a time when such vocal effects were not as popular or automatic as they are today (it's what I call "Destino Final Syndrome") and the band was also much faster and pissed than a lot of others falling under the stench umbrella so that the music definitely stood out from the crust swamp. I suppose Archaic might sound a little repetitive in retrospect and that Contagium maybe worked better with the Ep format but I am not here to split hair. Their strongest recording, by far, was the 2012 Ep released on Doomed To Extinction.

Recorded in 2011 for their Terminal Filth Stenchtour (I know, right?) and originally released as a limited tape, this (second) eponymous Ep is a jewel in the crust crown. The recipe is pretty similar only the sound is heavier and more aggressive, the hooks more viciously effective and the dual vocal teamwork more focused, expressive and therefore more threateningly ferocious. You could say that it is a significant upgrade upon their already strong stenchcore foundations defined by mean and groovy mid-paced metallic bits with mosh-inducing filthy riffs and thunderously fast crusty hardcore thrash with two nutters howling screams of desperate anger. Imagine a modern more powerful blend of Terminal Filth Stenchcore and Rock'n'roll Conformity, the dirty obnoxious metallic punk catchiness of the former enlightening the fast-thrash-meets-mid-paced-stench-crust vibe of the latter, add some vintage Axegrinder and Misery, some Heresy and Napalm Death rabid madness and put it in a stenchcore revival oven until it rots completely. Then place the stew in the middle of a wasteland and wait for crows to eat and regurgitate it. This Ep is the sound of those crows attacking posh wankers on the streets after the meal. Or something. As usual the artwork is fabulous and it was Adam, from the band, who was in charge of making Contagium look good. The cover of this Ep is probably my favourite work of his as it is so grim-looking. It would be Contagium's last offering but as you must expect by now, it was certainly not the last breath of Halifax crust.

I have never been there so I was never able to study Halifax punks in their natural habitat and identify what each groups of local punks exactly did and with whom, in spite of my reputation of world-acclaimed punk anthropologist (I did get twelve likes on Facebook once, what a day). However discogs tells me that these people involved in Contagium, Fragment and Zygome have been in dozens of other bands in the 2010's alone. Just to give you an idea of the incestuousness of the Halifax scene, guitar player Adam and drummer Ben also played in Abject Pax together, the latter actually also playing in Fragment - with Cody (they also did Life Chain together) who was involved with Adam in Concrete Asylum, among many others, and drummer Mark who also played in Carcass Toss, with Cody, and Outcry, with Rosie who also played in Zygome and Abject Pax, as mentioned above with Ben and Adam - and Zygome. I could try to draw a genealogical tree of the Halifax punk scene, it would be an arduous, tedious, task but one of such I find quite fascinating. It would probably show that although there have been dozens of solid punk bands in the past ten year over there, they were done by the same ten people. But isn't it the case almost everywhere else? I have been wondering whether some of these people actually lived in the studio, or even if some of them had not been locked in and would not be allowed to leave until they did 100 bands or something. 

Crustagium 2012

Fragment is the next Halifax band we are dealing with in this superb writeup that I am confident will finally get me a work visa in Canada if the minister of Canadian Heritage reads it. Come on Pablo, don't be a dick. The band has Ben, formerly in Contagium; Cody, who seems to play or have played in more bands than I have had showers in the 00's (I know, I know, but those were crazy times); Steven from Outcry and Shitpissers (this is a definite yes for me) and Mark who does not seem to play in any other bands, which is very suspicious indeed. Fragment is a band I immediately took a great liking to even though the genre they embraced (distorted crasher cavecore punk?) has become a popular hobby for (too) many bands in the 2010's. How many average distorted d-beat raw punk projects does the world really need? This is a bit of a harsh statement especially since I would delighted to have even just one d-beat band in Paris. Anyway Fragment are brilliant at what they do, possibly one of the best distorted bands right now and this is their 2016 demo, originally released on tape under the name Hear Nothing (no idea where they got that from... any idea?). I generally don't see the point of reissuing contemporary demo tapes on vinyl but this was objectively such a potent and skillful hammering that the solid British label Imminent Destruction rightly took on the job and made the demo available to men, women, children and non-binary persons.

With an insert displaying "Distort Terror" and the Gloom reference "Devastating Noise Attack" the seasoned listener is aware that he or she will be subjected to an intense, relentless and loud assault on the sense commonly known as a wall of noise. The vinyl is eight minute long and there is no pause between songs which reinforces the impression of fierce sonic mercilessness. The obligatory ingredients are perfectly used: there are mean deafening feedbacks, textured distortion, hard-hitting manic crasher drumming with those typical rolls and howling vocals (with the traditional Halifax reverb, they seem to really love that there). Pretty much the Gloom and D-Clone school of thoughts but I would argue that the aggressive riffs in Fragment could be described as a distorted take on classic 90's käng. Beside, what makes the band stand out are the mean thrashing stenchy mid-paced moments - not quite unlike Contagium's really - that allow the music to breath and the listener to headbang while keeping that fuzzy distorted texture. Basically what I mean is that Fragment actually write songs with hooks and do not make the mistake to rely only on pedal effects and Japanese crust referentiality (although you do need that too if you want to do things properly in this exercise in style). In the end, that is what they excel at (they remind me of the superlative late D-Clone in that respect) and this perfect demo exemplifies this capacity. The band will keep noizing things up with a brilliant album, In the Dust, the following year that went on delivering the crasher goods, this time with an additional narrative style allowed by the Lp format (the one reservation I have is that the vocals are too low in the mix). Two Ep's followed and the most recent one Mind Convulsion shows Fragment going even noisier and rawer, to the point of becoming some sort of primitive harsh noizecrust unit that claims "Fuckin Noise Rich Crusties Trendy Punk Nerds Fuck Off!! We Love Damaging Noise!!!", a clear reference to the Japanese school. As Hard Skin would say: they ain't messing around. I just hope they're not talking about me.

Fragment

The last Halifax band of this post is probably my favourite of the three. In fact they are my favourite. Zygome. Now when I first heard of a band called Zygome from Halifax a couple of years ago, I spontaneously rose from my comfy armchair, walked out of my luxury office located at the top of the Terminal Sound Nuisance Tower, took a can of lager out of the diamond-studded fridge, went to the rooftop, opened the can and looked up to the sky pensively, beaming with anticipation on the inside. Zygome are a three-piece made up of Adam (from Contagium and many as we have seen), Ben (from Contagium and Fragment, the writeup is a sort of tribute to his talent) and Rosie (from Outcry and Abject Pax among others). The name can rightly be said to be, obviously, the equivalent of a bird whistle for crusties. Just like dogs can hear ultrasound, crust maniacs rose their ears when the name Zygome traveled through the air. It's not an actual word mind you although the term "zigoma" does exist (it's the bony arch of the cheek) but I guess they just insisted on leaving the last alphabetical spot to Zygote out of respect even if they sound nothing like them. Their sword logo and their self-description as a "crusher crust" band are far more significant items.

They released a self-titled four-song demo in 2018, originally as a digital only thing (if I remember correctly) but it was much too good not to be released physically, on tape on the very good label Runstate Tapes from Montreal (responsible for Rat Cage, Apärä or Inepsy releases among other strong hardcore punk works) and on vinyl on Black Against Night Records, a label located in Australia run by a former member of the Skopje-based Born For Slaughter and specialized in crust and d-beat. Although an easy analysis, I would argue that Zygome did build on the Contagium legacy and songwriting tricks (fast crusty thrash bits with filthy mid-tempo moments, reverb on the howling vocals and so on) but they added tasteful old-school crust atmospherics (synth and long eerie intros for instance) and vocal works in order to convey a more articulate sense of storytelling and narratity to their filthy stenchcrust sound. More Axegrinder, Amebix and '87 Antisect elements to the '86-'88-Deviated-Instinct-of-Survival if you will. Needless to say I was avidly watching the internet for the followup record and it took shape as a split Lp with Kaltbruching Acideath in 2019 on Doomed to Extinction.

To put it bluntly, this album might be the best crust Lp of the decade although such a claim is contingent on your personal tastes in the many shades of crust. There is a consensus among the Council of Crust Elders that few albums could match that one but the argument that Swordwielder's System Overlord, the Instinct of Survival/Asocial Terror Fabrication, Disturd's Dark or Χαοτικό Τέλος' Υπόσχεση are also the cream of the crust crop is sound indeed. Who cares about rankings anyway? Cooperation not competition and all that. On their side of the split, Zygome unleash on the - intentionally - unwashed 14 minutes of pure old-school crust gold as the band further refined their crafty recipe. The first song "The other" opens with gloomy Amebix-like arpeggios and a creepy synth melody which I am a massive sucker for. There is nothing better than opening your crust record with synth as it immediate puts the listener in the adequate mood and announces that an epic apocalyptic story is going to unfold and that is precisely what you are here for. Following that lesson in crust preliminaries, the song explodes into a perfect exercise in mean thrashing stenchcore with appropriately anguished shouts. 

The next one is a short, fast and loud number, first reminiscent of vintage early Napalm Death and then in the second part of the song of Civilised Society? thanks to some great tuneful female vocals over some heavy mid-paced crust punk. And all of that in one minute. The next one, "A thousand sun (rise in reverse)" is absolute Amebixian epics with the typical dark pagan tribal beats and the classic Baron-like flow and accentuation. It is a beautifully dark and morose song. This song is tied to the following one, "Overcome with pain", with a short interlude that is daring to say the least as it is exactly the same as the opening to Deviated Instinct's "Possession" on Terminal Filth Stenchcore. Of course, if you have never heard this foundational work, you will just think that the idea to include some quite beautiful Anglican hymn (I'm guessing) works well just before a song about depression and alienation. And on that level, it does work well and makes sense strictly in term os the story-told. On a referential level, it is a bold move of referentiality that will have stenchcore lovers nod in unison and it also works and makes sense on that intertextual, storytelling level. As for the song itself it can be seen as a wicked reinterpretation of a song that could have been lifted from Rock'n'Roll Conformity, thrashing stench metal punk with something of a mean Anihilated touch. 

Finally their recording comes to an end with "Hammer of war", an apocalyptic crust scorcher that is not unlike '05 Hellshock. What makes the song so brilliant is its conclusion - that is also the conclusion to the side and the whole story - with the shouted repetition of "Hammer of war" over a filthy metallic crust riff, a bit like in late Antisect, until the voices and the music fade out into the void. Crusher stench rules.

On the other side of this split Lp the mighty Kaltbruching Acideath from Japan await. Let's tackle the elephant in the room straight away: it's a bit of a mouthful, an albatross of a name even, one I am still struggling to spell properly, which is somewhat humiliating since I was once a spelling bee champion - well it was more of a pub quizz but still. The name derives from a 12'' by a Canadian dark techno project called Huren (the work of one David Foster) and entitled Kaltbrüchig Acideath. Now I am utterly unknowledgeable about electronic music, I have never enjoyed it at all although I have been told it is a very diverse and fascinating world - and I am sure it is. The only tiny area of techno music I am vaguely aware of is the Exit Hippies/Death Dust Extractor/Abraham Cross harsh techno-noize turn and only out of curiosity and because of the ties to the Japanese crust scene. But anyway, David Foster, who lives in Berlin of course, is apparently a bit of an underground legend because of his participation in cult sonic projects from the early 90's on and of his role in the creation of the New York-based Zhark label, described in an article as a "High end low fi Motörhead driven squatter techno label". As I understand it the guy is a techno punk with links to the squatters movement who did dark and noisy challenging music. Of course, there is no strict sonic similarity between Kaltbruching Acideath and Kaltbrüchig Acideath. However, as unlikely as it sounds and that's where things get interesting, Foster definitely knows his shit when it comes to DIY Japanese crust. For example, a picture on his Discogs page shows a montage of him with the cover of the Natural Crust and Punk Force Noise Making compilation Ep from 1996 (it had Mental Disease, Order and Mindsuck and was reviewed on this elite punk blog here) with the caption "The system you hate is the system you support" which is a classic Crude SS slogan and there is a stenchcore-looking drawing in the background that I cannot quite identify (it's only a detail of it). On his Instagram page, there is another montage this time including a Framtid visual (as well as a picture of himself with a tired Lemmy). How unlikely is that? There must be a link that I am missing between the Japanese crasher noize crust scene and David Foster. Enlighten me please. 

Now that was a long digression. KA formed in the early 2010's and self-released two demos but I only heard about them through their first Ep Aural Carnage (a determined nod to Sore Throat's Aural Butchery since the word "carnage" is pasted over the word "butchery" on the cover) released on Hardcore Survives in 2017 and displaying a lovely Electro Hippies tribute on the cover in terms of visuals and layout. So you already know you are on holy ground. Musically KA work on a side of old-school grindy crust that is seldom explored with strong influences from the fabulous Prophecy of Doom (especially), early Napalm Death and early Bolt Thrower. Metallic, grinding and even death-metal-ish at times but keeping a dirty genuine noizecrust vibe. Their next recording saw the Tokyo-based lot improved on the aforementioned cavemen metal crust formula with a heavier, raw organic sound to die for - it sounds like you can almost smell it - and two hyperbolic Sore Throat-styled crustier-than-thou numbers for good measure. It is absolutely brilliant and I was lucky enough to see them live in 2018 and they completely destroyed it. Undeniably one of the best Japanese crust bands right now. My only reservation is the lengthy introduction that is basically the muffled sound of a Tokyo street (I presume) and does not really bring anything meaningful to the actual crust story. But it is only a minor criticism as KA are the real deal.

Revenge Records described KA as "grinding stench metal crust", Zygome as "anarcho stench crust", both bands as "total horrendous stench metal crust" and the album as a "mega terminal filth wimpcore split" and I guess that crust bingo sums it up nicely. One of the strongest crust records of the decade, easily, and one that is bound to become canonical at some point (you can be sure I will lobby for that). It was released on the ever reliable and solid Doomed To Extinction who, in merely two years, basically destroyed the crust game with the Instinct of Survival/Asocial Terror Fabrication split Lp, the IOS/Fatum split tape and this Kaltbruching Acideath/Zygome Lp. The cover of the split was drawn by Adam and epitomized what crust art is all about: heads on spike, an army of zombified punx, celtic frames, torn war banners... And an Easter egg: in this case the leader of the crust legion is wearing a ribbon at that says "crust" in the same lettering as the one displayed by Mid Deviated Instinct on the back of a jacket "back-in-the-day" and immortalised on the picture below.

On a much more serious note, this modest article is dedicated to Rosie, who was involved in Zygome, Outcry and other worthy bands and passed away in 2020. Of course, I never met her but still, the death of a committed punk, especially at such a young age, is always tragic and sad and even though I mostly rant and ramble about music on this blog in order to provide (hopefully) enjoyable reads, it is also important to commemorate our dead and not forget. 

Zygome / Kaltbruching Acideath