Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 17): DISABLE "...Slamming in the Depths of Hell" Ep, 2020

Surprisingly, only two punks bands, to my all-encompassing knowledge, went for the name "Disable" despite the very punk-compatible implications of the meaning and the presence of the crucial dis prefix: one from Łódź and one from Atlanta (which we will cover today). It is unlikely the latter ever heard of the former since the Polish Disable were mainly known locally and only released a cdr demo in 2003, although they were also active for a little while in the mid-90's (it had members of Homomilitia and Lost so it's quality stuff and was recently reissued if you are not a poser). Therefore our Americans must have felt pretty good about themselves with this apparently still available moniker. And if you will allow a cheesy dad joke I take full responsibility for, Disable are definitely able to Dis.

I don't know whether the Atlantans are still going strong - they hopefully are - but their first demo was released as early as 2010 so that they can be said to have been relatively experimented in the D-game when this Ep came out. Arguably, Disable is a perfect example of a typical 2010's d-beat band. They could never be said to be main-eventers - like a Physique for instance - but they certainly belonged to the upper-mid-card if I may use a wrestling metaphor. This might have to do with their town of origin, Atlanta, which, from an outsider's perspective at least, cannot really be said to have a "punk town" status and nowhere as authoritatively cool as New York or Portland or Richmond these days. In any case, they enjoyed some nice records and notably a split with the ever prolific Warvictims from Sweden but I see ...Slamming in the Depths of Hell as their crowning glory, and not just because of the unsubtle Discharge reference in the title.

The past decade saw a formidable shift in the d-beat subgenre and the roots of this evolution that took this hardcore punk philosophical praxis by storm can be found in the 00's, with bands like No Fucker or Contrast Attitude for instance. This transitional decade was not particularly rich in strict "just like" d-beat bands, possibly because everybody had gotten bored with the 90's d-beat wave that had heavily lost steam by the 00's and I suppose people just did not see much point in mimicking Discharge beside a couple of nerd-focused exceptions like Warcry. The glorious comeback in the 2010's was different because, whereas bands mostly concentrated on Discharge imitation before, the new breed went heavily for Disclose's and distortion and a cult for the band and Kawakami rapidly developed. They became a legend. A band whose d-beat style was once rather unique suddenly turned into a significant source of inspiration and I believe Disable illustrates this move (they don't use not one but two different Disclose fonts for nothing) along with bands like Disease or Aspects of War which we have already tackled in this series.

Disable started out as a much rawer and primitive affair and guitar player Jeremy (who left the band at some point) originally handled much of the vocals while on ...Slamming in the Depths of Hell bass player Ben is in charge of the shouting and screaming during and possibly after the gig. To be honest, I prefer Ben's voice to Jeremy's as it is lower-pitched and sounds closer to the original Discharge impersonators and bands like Cracked Cop Skulls and even Hellkrusher or Final Warning or maybe Varukers (a British vocal vibe, but I could be going deaf too). And you know I am a sucker for doubled vocals in my d-beat and in this case it confers an old-school feel to an otherwise pretty modern take on the distorted d-beat style. There is a lot of Disclose in the mix ("duh" as Gen Z's would probably agree) but Disable do add some dis-crasher influence as well, especially in the drumming and the use of pedals and Japanese bands like D-Clone or Contrast Attitude are lurking in a quite visible background. I like it a lot and the mid-paced "False flag" is a wonderful idea although it might have been wiser to put it on the other side. A very solid Ep released on Brain Slash and Audacious Madness, a then very young label I am very fond of.  

Finally this writeup would be incomplete if I did not mention the split with Warvictims. It did sound odd when I listened to it for the first time and for good reason (so I am not completely deaf after all). As the band explained on bandcamp "the songs were all sped up in order to compensate for the excess length of the tracks" which is one of the punkest I have ever read about a record. Noise not music indeed.

Slamming in the depths of dis

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 16): DECLARATION "What is the reason for tomorrow?" tape, 2020

This lot definitely declare it, but whether it is a declaration of love or a declaration of war is up to the level of belligerence that the listener can muster in 2025. Absolute, uncompromising and uncompromised Love for the Dis or indomitable war on the world? Possibly both? Revolutionaries used to claim that there was a new world in their hearts which sounds romantic indeed and remains a great title for any emocrust album (points are to be gained through the addition of a screenprinted booklets providing translations of the lyrics into at least three languages). What no one really predicted was the (grave) new world growing in the dark heart of the old one, a brutal universe where power no longer even bothers to hide its inherent brutality under empty phrases. 

Declaration recorded this very fine tape only a few days before the Covid lockdown in Singapore in April 2020, this supremely odd time which we are all trying hard to forget and generally succeed in doing so (in the First World at least). On bandcamp, Declaration add: "Currently witnessing and experiencing the collapse of capitalism, the state and its people. The world will never be the same again". In the end, capitalism and states are doing quite fine indeed although you could argue that the people have a much shittier time remaining on their own two feet. What is the reason for tomorrow then? Does tomorrow really need any reason? It cannot be said to belong to us, as Cal's words once claimed, but I have faith that men, women and children will one day fight back in defense of our future and that punk bands will still be cosplaying as '82 Discharge and charge the best part of a twenty for an album you already the songs of and still gladly buy. That would make a great epitaph, right?

Upon first hearing Declaration, a radiant feeling of joy and warmth immediately took over my brain. The first minute of What is the reason for tomorrow? confirms what your inner self hoped it would to be: pure d-beat, unadulterated, untouched by influences foreign to the Discharge scriptures, an unsoiled oeuvre of mimicry and worship, a soundalike, like a band that had been frozen alongside a mammoth since the 80's and somehow emerged from their slumber in the 2020's. This humble tape was the quietly prodigious child of a bunch of Singaporean punks also involved in established bands like Pazahora, Siäl, Vaaralinen or even Life Lock (which would come as a surprise only to posers). As the saying goes, they know their shit and how to achieve it. There is no ounce of originality in the tape and its perfection originates from this absence. It is the most immediate d-beat language you are likely to find, it speaks directly to the D inside all of us (it is a little known but easily verifiable scientific fact that the D lives in each and everyone of us and can only be unlocked through repeated listens of Discharge, pretty much the punk equivalent of Illumination). If you think d-beat should only be the imitation of Discharge - a form of fundamentalism called dischargism - then Declaration is for you and I am glad to introduce you to them. 

As usual had they emerged from New York or Tokyo or wherever "cool" happens to be these days people would have been more curious and probably touched by their raw sound deeply rooted in early Discharge (somewhere between 1980's Ep's and 1981's Why if you know what I mean) using all the expected tricks to perfection (a special mention goes to the delightful mid-paced numbers). Cracked Cop Skulls (especially with the doubled vocals, which I personally am a sucker for) and Dischange also deserve to be summoned by the court as fellow comrades and students of the Discharge arts. I love that the drums are really upfront and provide that galloping vibe that allows d-beat to sound dynamic. Eleven minutes of plenitude.

This tape was released on Full Force Hardcore Destruction and might still be available somewhere. I suppose Declaration was only to be a studio project from the start and if it did not, Covid forced it to be. In any case, and even if the bands shall remain a mere footnote in punk history, they will alway have a special place at Terminal Sound Nuisance tower and that's a good enough reason for my tomorrow as far as I am concerned. 

What is the reason for d-beat?        

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Neverending Mind War "S/t" one-sided Lp, 2020

I will try to keep this one short and sweet in accordance with the bloody racket that this ill-humoured three-piece is bent to unleash on our tragic world. With everyday life sometimes feeling about as exciting as a dad dancing contest or a a mobility scooter race, bands like Neverending Mind War sound strangely fresh and invigorating. They remind you that, if there may be no light at the end of the tunnel, there is always the slight hope of getting battered by shock waves of noisy grinding stenchcore from times to times.

I have already written enthusiastically about Philadelphia's brilliant bursts of crust/mangel/d-beat in the 2010's on three occasions in Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust (for a Pollen Ep, the Mortal War demo and an Alement tape) so there is little point in showering everyone with praises once again. Just know that NMW was (I don't know if that one survived the pandemics) made up of members of the aforementioned Pollen and Mortal War, but also Arseholes, Weald and possibly others that I have not even heard of. It is a common phenomenon but you will notice that, if the number of good band has been solid in the past decade, they were often created by the same limited group of people so that the impression that Philadelphia is overrun with tasteful punks might be misleading. I mean, it's not like their mayor wears crust pants or anything. But you could say that the said bunch of punks was motivated and keen on getting up their arse to play good music, which certainly contrasts with some local scenes that are made up of admirably lazy and morose bastards whose sole purpose seems to get a discount on the entrance fee because "the bands only play short sets so it's not value for money" (true story that).

I first became aware of NMW's existence because of an internet rumour. Words of a new American hardcore punk band replicating the raw sound of Scum-era Napalm Death were circulating among the most prestigious and elite crust circles. Not that the open worship of Scum or the 1986 demo is original in itself, far from it, as there are probably tons of grindcore bands trying to do exactly that, but NMW was said to be significantly different as the band did not sound like a grindcore act and instead focused and built on the 80's UK hardcore aspect of Napalm Death. That immediately caught my attention since I am a sucker for the '86-'87 period of the band. I cannot claim that early grindcore is my forte but to me the pioneering Brummies were originally a thrashing noisy crust hardcore band, an approach that is relevant if you do not take into consideration what they did from 1988 on. If they had not grown to be this legendary and well-respected extreme metal band, I am convinced that ND would mostly be talked about as a proto-grind noisecrust hardcore band in the same breath as Sore Throat or Electro Hippies and would be thought to be a perfect illustration of the early Peaceville/Earache sound. And this vision centred on hardcore instead of metal of the early ND sound is the specific foundation of NMW since they don't go beyond 1988 and stick to the pre-grindification of the band.

But anyway, once I got the confirmation of the name (which sounds like the title of a Prophecy of Doom song or perhaps a nod to the little-known Psychotic Mind Battle?) and understood that the workforce was made up of people from Pollen and Mortal War, the aforementioned approach made sense and I knew I was going for a treat. The two demo tapes (from 2017 and 2018 respectively) were very limited pressings and therefore I was unable to get the physical versions and had to make do with the bandcamp streams. So when Regurgitated Semen Records (I think I will never get used to that name which is really not a bad thing) reissued the two demos on one Lp, I was quick to act and jumped on it like a hungry vegan spotting a generous discount on some overpriced and usually unaffordable soy-made cheese, only without the disappointing outcome. 

The Lp looks gorgeous with a red obi strip, pretty much the equivalent of honey for hardcore nerds. The two demos last about ten minutes in total and fit on one side, which is convenient, although I suppose the whole thing would have fit on an Ep. The first demo is a bit noisier and more blown-out, with more distortion, which makes me think that Zyanose could be an influence too, especially when the Osaka nutters go full speed, but it could also just mean that both bands worked on a similar materials (given the popularity of Japanese noisecrust in the States, I would personally vote for the first option especially with the typical crasher-styled introduction to the first recording, "Nightmare"). The second one is a little clearer but also rawer, but I am splitting hair here. Dare to face a relentless and vicious noisy proto-grind hardcore crust tornado. 

I love the harsh gruff vocals and the old-school stench-oriented mid-paced metallic breaks while the guitar sound is perfect, aggressive, thick but filthy and with just the right amount of distortion for the style, more would not work as well. The earlier era of fast Napalm Death (the From Enslavement to Obliteration '86 demo especially beside the legendary Scum Lp) is clearly the band's obvious basis, but the first punishingly savage steps of Heresy (the '85 demo) and the great Electro Hippies definitely have to be mentioned here and I am also thinking about other lesser-known vintage UK raw fast crust like Mortal Terror or Senile Decay, not an irrelevant comparison either but it has more to do with the creative context of UKHC with bands sharing similarities at the time than a probable influence on NMW's music. As mentioned before, the faster side of the Japanese crasher school is my final ingredient to the recipe but there could be also be elements that I don't recognize because of I'm lacking in crossover hardcore. In any case that should undoubtedly be a success at your colleague's leaving do. 

Given the chosen template, NMW were perfect, I would not change a thing to those recordings.   

Neverending Crust War

      

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust (2012-2021): Instinct? "Pray to death" tape Ep, 2020

So I have been thinking. 

In 2022 Terminal Sound Nuisance will be celebrating its tenth birthday. I have never really held anniversaries in high regards, even less so now that hearing "fuck me, has it been twenty years already" is steadily becoming part of the punk conversations I regularly engage in. Time flies, aeroplanes crash. I started the blog in 2012, a time when punk blogs were already either dead, largely dying or grinding into a halt that would eventually grow to be definitive. But in the late 00's there were many active blogs all over the place. Those offering a distinct take on punk music through a selection of little-known bands that reflected the blogger's tastes and approach were genuinely great and acted as points of entry to large sections of punk history that I and many more were unaware of. Others focused on new bands, promoted the immediate vibrancy of punk and reflected a dynamism and an inspiring belief in the relevance of contemporary punk music. Others were basically database with hundreds of links to download without much, if any, context so that you were left with just the music and bits to assemble on your own. But what mattered the most were the different voices, the different places, the different time periods, the different styles and tastes that you were exposed to. Not all of them were good and some were very short-lived. Running a blog is time-consuming and requires passion. It is also by essence a solitary work that is not rewarded by instant gratification, unlike a youtube link or a social media post that you "like". A blog post cannot just be scrolled down and mindlessly "liked" - well it can, but it becomes utterly pointless - and you have to connect at least a little bit with what is being said (unless it is just a download link, but this kind of blogs are near extinct). In an epoch when our insecure selves, our tastes, our looks need to be constantly and instantaneously validated, consistent blogging, and of course fanzines and punk websites, offer something different and hopefully interesting and fun.

So I have been thinking as you can see. I gathered my scattered wits, dismissed as much negativity from my mind as possible and decided that 2022 would be a little different. Not that Terminal Sound Nuisance should transition into adulthood, it will still be governed by the heedlessness of youth, but, as my well-paid business advisor suggested, I should diversify my activities. I guess that makes sense. The same old same old is alright, we all need a routine, I know I do, but new things must be tried. Therefore I intend to publish more interviews this year and curate more scholarly punk compilations in order to bring some diversity in terms of formats and contents and provide some breaks from the coming onslaught of crust. Also, I decided to focus more - perhaps even exclusively for a while - on contemporary and active bands. Although I have oft written about old bands and vintage classics and about our contextual relation to them, I realize I have not tackled contemporary bands for a long time (not since the Ashes to Ashes, Crust to CRUST series in 2017). I am very much an enthusiast for current bands and support the scene as much as I can, even if it just means hanging out and getting pissed before the venue while haranguing the public on their bourgeois lifestyle. Punk is a moving animal, an indestructible creature and while I love raving about obscure and sloppy raw crusty punk bands from bygone days, 2022 will see me raving about obscure and sloppy raw crusty punk bands from the past ten years (2012 to 2021). A groundbreakingly different undertaking. Routine, meet your death. Where will it take me? To the gates of madness? To world fame? Surfeited with crust you shall be. 

Since all the recordings we will be dealing with are recent, it will prove difficult to study them in perspective. How will they age? Future crust classics or just decent examples of the genre? From all the works I have ripped, there are some that I know are bound to eventually become part of the crust canon. Once approved by the venerable World Crust Council it will be a done deal. Others will vanish from collective memory and be remembered only by the loyal fanatics of the genre whose brains function as giant encyclopedic archives, the names of those obscure bands gloriously engraved on mental cenotaphs. But at the end of the day, my guess is as good as yours so I could be wrong about the future classics although there is a high probability that I am right as usual and that my guess is actually better than yours. So I have decided to write shorter reviews and to focus on the band and the music as much as possible, instead of blabbering about irrelevant meditations, so that I can work on as many recordings as possible. There will be exceptions because resolutions are meant to be broken - law and order up your arse and all that - and some bands are just too good and meaningful not to be properly tackled - by which I mean lengthy tirades - but the idea is to stick to a shorter format. Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust will offer a wide panorama of crust music, in all its diversity, recordings I enjoyed in the past ten years in no particular order - because law and order up your arse and all that. I intend to speak mostly about bands that I have not had the chance to deal with yet, so that great crust records from bands that already liberally appeared on TSN might not be included (I am still a bit unresolved about that though but time will tell). Finally, all the rips provided will be my own rips. I am aware that you are able to download lossless files of most of the fuckers on bandcamp but I enjoy the process of ripping my own records. Besides, it will make you feel like you listen to my own copy on my own stereo (if you close your eyes you will be drinking my own coffee and enjoy my own conversation as well). If my tape has a sound issue, you'll hear it and if there is a scratch on an Ep, you'll hear it. That's the full TSN experience for you. Let's ave it.  

 I am afraid our instinct is war indeed...

I had never heard of Instinct? before the tape hit crust's dancefloors during the spring 2020, back when Paris was about to experience it first lockdown. Good times. The year 2020 had its fair share of solid records, although it is far too early to claim that any one of them are grand cru or that some will eventually be seen as minor classics (some labels will have you believe that every one of their records is bound to be come "a classic" but who are they trying to con?). Pray to death still proved to be one of my favourite of the year. With five songs in about seven minutes, you can imagine that Instinct? are not fucking around. There are bands that enjoy taking their time in order to set up a mood, an atmosphere that will inform the story they are going to tell. Instinct? are not one of those bands. At all. From the very first riff until the very last growl, this Philadelphia noise unit unleashes hell without any restraints nor thoughts for the innocent and unsuspecting passerby who might just find himself within earshot of speakers. Tough shit mate. 

It is a short but furious ride. as there are only five songs on this tape (discogs says it is a tape Ep but I see it more as a demo tape, a first ferocious draft if you will). In terms of style, I would locate Instinct? at the intersection of three schools. The most obvious one is the heaviest style of käng (that's the initiated lingo for Swedish hardcore, try to remember it in order to shine) especially its 90's incarnation. It is fast, relentless, pummeling, riff-driven and I am reminded of top shelf bands like 3-Way Cum, Discontrol or early Genocide SS. There is also a distinct cavemen crust influence with the emphatic, gruff vocals and some of the arrangements that nod lovingly toward classic Doom and Sore Throat (especially the cavecore song "Gozpelfuckers" which also cheekily refers to Jesus and the Gospelfuckers). Lastly, some frantic drum parts and the overall hyperbolic noisy chaos - and some vocal intonations too - sometimes point to Japanese käng (Framtid) and crust (Reality Crisis). But then those three branches very much grow from the same tree so that Instinct? sound like a seamless synthesis in the end. The sound is deliciously raw indeed but the heavy pounding power and the intensity of the delivery are such that they completely make up for any potential weakness (although I feel the last song does not sound quite as aggressive as the rest because of the production). The tape looks alright albeit quite unoriginal. A typical war picture and a collage of crusty punks in action and not much else. Some details about the recordings, the lyrics and a thank list would have been welcome I suppose.

 

The band is from Philadelphia, a town that has been delivering some excellent crust bands since the mid-10's, arguably some of the best of the decade actually. We will definitely be coming back to Philly in this series. As I understand it, even though there have technically been a lot of bands, the people involved in them are very much the same, not unlike in Portland or Halifax I suppose, so that we must have five punks playing in as many different bands. It is by no means an uncommon phenomenon and it sometimes feels like telling the story in terms of groups of people rather than bands would be more relevant. Incestuous scenes. Discogs tells me that someone from Instinct? also plays in the primitive and poetic d-beat käng act Arseholes but I am sure the rest of them play in equally brutal bands too. My copy of Pray to Death was released on tape in 2020 on Sickhead Records, a brilliant Malaysian tape label specialized in international käng and crust music that is worth your attention, and there is another version of the tape released on the prolific Kiev-based No Name Label, an entity that focuses pretty much on similar noisy things. In 2021, Bunker Punks Discs & Tapes reissued the tape and a vinyl reissue also exists since Regurgitated Semen Records (the infamous grindcore label from Germany with a questionable moniker) put out a single-sided 12'' last year, an odd choice given the current prices and since Pray to Death easily fits on a 7''. Oh well. 

 

In any case, if you see the tape or the vinyl looking lonely on a distro table, jump at the opportunity. As for me I certainly look forward to the next Instinct?'s recording, I think a 15-20 minute long 12'' with a better sound, in the raw and heavy sense of the term, a couple of mean mid-paced anthems, some more Peaceville worship and an ace-looking poster will do nicely, thank you very much. I expect it on my desk by the end of the year.            

Instinct?