This one you could probably see coming. Not that I was exactly contractually obliged to include Disease in Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life, but let's say there would have been potentially lethal consequences including the revelation that I once owned skacore albums back in the mid-90's, the names of which are best forsaken to the realm of eternal darkness. Hard stuff that might induce mental stupor and leave the listener's psychic balance into a state of disrepair. So as you see, what choice did I really have?
I have been a Disease believer for quite a while now and I strongly recommend you read the great interview I did with Alex a few years ago called At Ease With the Dis. I have grown to love the band's pious and solemn love for the d-beat philosophy and their fervent tenacity to explore, again and again, ways to express their adoration for Disclose and the significance of keeping their legacy alive for the very concept behind it (beside the pleasure to play distorted hardcore music, of course). Disease is a total d-beat band striving to embrace all the characteristics that could be approached the same way as Dispose - already tackled in this series - who have been an influence on the Macedonians (although the latter have certainly proved to be more prolific in the last years).
Their Disclose worship appears to be both the means and the end. They undeniably belong in the die-hards category that I found impressive and intriguing; inspirational too; heroic definitelu; quixotic almost. Like the endless repetition that defines d-beat music, d-beat as worship and system of references cannot know an end and will never reach a conclusion like the tragic, very real wars destroying the world. It is an unstoppable train running on passion and precision, a deceptively simple clock powering itself, a timeless compass always pointing in the same direction, a story meaningfully repeating its own plot through a single beat and breath.
Damn I'm feeling smart today. Neverending War Crimes stands as the record that, in my opinion, saw them fall in the "great d-beat band" category, a position they have further cemented since. It showcases the band's strength, especially the relentlessness they manage to infuse their music with. The hard-hitting drumming and the crispy distortion targeting the evergrowing audience of Disclose fanatics really work. I like how upfront and primal the vocals sound like, with neither effects nor filters (I have said it before but too many bands opt for drowning their voice in reverbs which might attenuate the sonic aggression), and how fast and intense the record is, with only "Why must we?" slowing things down a bit with a rather odd pace. As prophets of the Disclose cosmogony on a mission to spread the Word, Disease tend to work on different moments of Kawakami's inspirational journey and Neverending War Crimes is all about Disclose's faster "Swedish period", namely the mid-90's (Tragedy and of course The Great Swedish Feast) back when cavekäng bands like Shitlickers were still significant influences and it is obviously no coincidence if Disease also display a crude "dislickers" feel here that highlights the brutality and "wall of noise" effect that won't fail to discourage and disincentivize posers craving to boast the d-beat raw punk costume.
As a point of entry, this record - released through Rawmantic Disasters, Black Against Night, Crucificados Pelo Sistema and Grind Your Mind - will prove difficult to listen to for the inexperts as the music might make them feel like they are besieged by a noise plague. However, d-beat raw punk lovers must see them standing at the top of the pile, a feat not to be discarded, not just because of the harsh albeit friendly competition, but because hailing from Skopje it is significantly harder to tour in Western Europe than for Swedes. In the end this 11 minute long 12" Ep will delight Tragedy fanatics but the disbones-era believers will enjoy the wonderful Death Is Inevitable 2020 Lp more. Both sides have been reported to be at peace with each other but you never know what the future holds. Is a d-beat schism to be?
And we're back to Sweden for the third time already. Thank you for flying with D-Beat Airlines, the only planes where you can safely play Death From Above while oboard without getting distressed looks from other passengers. But is it surprising really? Where else would you go if you had to visit a Discharge theme park? Bloody France? Exactly, you go to Sweden, a country where even the pigs know the lyrics to "Spräckta Snutskallar" and where an actual Ministry of D-Takt responsible for regulating the national population of d-beat bands was founded as early as 1983 because said orchestras were starting to threaten and overrun the fragile Swedish rock ecosystem. I hear some Dis-bands even had to be put down.
War is still... stands as one of my favourite d-beat records of the 2010's, a decade replete with bands who tried to get the D right and, as honourable an endeavour as it might be, sometimes failed. I am struggling to know how Horrendous, from Malmö, will go down in Distory, whether in 10 years time they will be seen as what I would call a minor classic or just "that side project with members of Herätys or Infernöh" (the latter option would probably mean that you'll still be able to get the record for cheap). When talking about the early/mid 2010's and about Malmö hardcore bands - or indeed just Swedish hardcore bands - who haunted the period, Infernöh and Herätys would definitely be mentioned in the conversation. And for good reasons as they still prove to be quite loved, if not influential, and the people involved in these bands went on to play in many more good bands. Were these better bands than Horrendous? From an objective standpoint, I suppose so. They managed to produce a decent and coherent discography and were just more significant. All my mates would undoubtedly and vehemently support that assertion. But were they as fun? Or, to rephrase more accurately in the context of this D-beat series, were they as keen on serving narrow-minded fans? Or even, to be more specific, could they make me headbang as vigorously as Horrendous did? I think not.
What immediately strikes the listener on this Ep is the power and thickness of the production. Heavy shit man. The record has a storm-like quality, like a tsunami taking everything in its path of destruction, it pounds and pummels its way toward Discharge paradise, leaving the punks happy and craving for more. War is still... belongs to this category of d-beat records that I can play and genuinely enjoy several times in a row. With a length of about 11 minutes, given the niche they chose to inhabit and the power they achieved to unleash, it is pretty much a perfect record (let's just say for the sake of caviling that it still could have done with another song). The name "Horrendous" might have done them disservice as it spontaneously makes one think heavily of Sore Throat (off-topic, clearly) or some gory death-metal band rather than good old Discharge worship. . And yet at the altar of Discharge they do bow, especially their Hear Nothing era, when the Potters were at their heaviest, and the cheeky bastards included a parody of the iconic Discharge face with what I think could be the singer's own mug. As I told you: self-aware fun!
Contrary to a lot of bands, Horrendous did not go for a distorted d-beat raw punk sound and listening to it again on a rainy day, it does make me glad they did not and chose the hard-hitting, impactful way of the D. I am reminded of Warcry in their prime - especially with the gruff, raucous, very aggressive vocals but with more of a British scansion (Pancho being of course from Yorkshire) - and Discharge-loving classics like Disaster or Meanwhile are obvious influences. What makes the record stand out are the two mid-paced scorchers "Ain't no worthless scrote" (a song that appears on both sides, at the end of the first and at the start of the second, linking both in a pretty smart, albeit disconcerting at first, move) and "War is reality" that sound incredibly energetic and, rare thing, can actually have you dance, with moderation for those of us who have bad backs. Ace stuff.
Sadly Horrendous did not play for long and this wonderful record was to be their only release. This is the European version on Skrammel Records, the Yanks getting theirs from Brain Solvent Propaganda. The members would go on to play in a lot of good bands and are very much active. Does any of these bands are as fun as Horrendous and can have you rock as hard as on "Ain't no worthless scrote"? Well, I'll leave you to that thought.
Already the sixth part of Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life and only the first band to have the "dis" prefix in its name. The trend of this prefix as a sign of d-beatness, about as subtle as a oi band having the word "skin" in the moniker, has remained pretty stable since its explosion in the 90's with only a small drop in the early to mid 00's. You would think that by now bands would have run out of existing words starting with "dis" but as Disattack and iconic discore band Disfear proved, you do not even need a proper word to make one, a philosophy that the remarkable and sadly underrated Disclone were only too happy to follow (a lot of average-to-mediocre d-beat band did too but I am too much of a coward to rat them out). Dis may have been getting pathetic for a while but at least it is still alive and kicking, claiming its relevance. But then you could say the same about nu metal (the epitomy of tastelessness and a style even scarier than shoegaze) so that's not necessarily a good thing.
Dispose, from Norrbotten County, I got into relatively recently, I must admit. Caught into the constant maelstrom of hardcore novelty it seems that I did not take the time to give them a proper listen. The band was very prolific between its inception in 2007 (says bandcamp) and the mid-10's (one full Lp, two split Lp's, one full Ep, 5 split Ep's and I am not even mentioning the tapes and cdr's) and bands that release materials every 3 months are fundamentally hard to keep up with. It feels like a losing battle that you may not even want to engage because you're lazy, which is ok, you can always justify it by being a real punk-rocker. This kind of things. I remember listening to the 2016 split Lp with our national treasure Bakounine, liking it well enough and thinking to myself that I should give Dispose some attention. Still a bit late to the party I suppose.
This proud Swedish d-beat band belong to the radically DIY part of the hardcore scene. This ain't no fancy hardcore band parading on social media, these are Disclose maniacs keen on having material released on a label called Dis Before Dishonour. Dispose have been running on passion, dedication, resolve, at the expense of quality at times but d-beat needs punks them to keep the flame of raw and ugly music alive. Is the very name polysemous? Of course the phrase "to dispose of" makes sense for a d-beat band and one might stop at this meaning, but you could very well understand it as "the pose of the dis" in a positive sense which would basically suggest a "dis identity", a way to conduct yourself and stand in life, "dis" as "oi" if you wish except you don't have to shout it three times.
But let's crash the pose of intellectualism and fancy postmodern theory, Dispose play straight-forward d-beat raw punk, with a focus on the raw. I love how emphatic the drumming sounds, very much like Diatribe, and how spontaneous and honest it feels. However simple the formula is, you can tell the guitar sound has been worked on and it certainly displays aggression and grooviness, I like it a lot. The vocals are of the raspy variety but not low-pitched, giving it a raw punk edge. The real hit to me is the song "Horror revival" with its alternation of early mid-paced Discharge and fast d-takt moments, creating a nice contrast. The faster Disclose style remains the main influence here, whether it is the Tragedy or the Disbones periods, and I am definitely hearing the 90's Uppsalla d-takt käng bands as well like Dishonest, Harass or Cumbrage. Visually, everything is in order with the band using the same font as late Disclose and a very similar skull logo too with the "noise not music" symbol replacing the good old anarchy symbol so that even without looking at the picture of the famous Norii gate that survived the bombing of Nagasaki on the cover. Pretty close indeed.
Horror Revival is a great starting point if you are looking to discover Dispose and I see it as their most accomplished work but their split with Kranium is also solid. This was released on D-Takt and Råpunk, a crucial and influential label run by a passionate man responsible for some great records since the late 00's.
In all this global mania for Discharge, it would be fun to make a list of bands that picked a Discharge song as their moniker. Well, "fun" might not be the right concept here. To some, this very activity would sound like a continuing nightmare that could involve the possibility of a relationship's destruction while to others it would be the most romantic thing ever. I can think of Fight Back from Croatia; two Decontrol from England and Canada; Protest and Survive from Poland; two Realities of War, from England and Japan; one Visions of War, obviously; Mania For Conquest from the States; Hell On Earth from Slovakia; Final Bloodbath from Japan and even one Four Monstrous Nuclear Stockpiles, from France, a rare band that managed to blend d-beat and humour without being corny. And did I mention bloody Meanwhile? You see, we're having so much fun together! Yay.
And of course there is Anger Burning from Sweden. They did not go for my favourite Discharge song (by far, I think "Anger burning" should have been called "Requiem for good taste") but on the When Lp they could be considered as one of the best Discharge imitators of the past 20 years, a much coveted spot indeed. If you want to be very anal about it, and you know I do, When is one of the best tribute to Why, a sentence that when spoken aloud sounds either like the ramblings of a very drunk man or some brilliant comment on postmodernist literature that will make academics scratch their chins in awe and type frantically on their Macbook. But when a proper punk hears it, s/he just knows and this knowledge is precious and makes one feel part of a worldwide conspiracy or a soap-dodging sect as my mum would rephrase it.
Unsurprisingly Anger Burning were from Sweden - land of Discharge love where the government forces innocent children to sing the whole Fight Back Ep at school in defense of their future - and played between 2007 and 2016 (a respectable run) with its members arsing around in other hardcore bands before and have been since. Ernst and Simon were together in Assassination (a traditional rocking käng band), with the former playing subsequently in Panikattack and recently Bombardement and the latter fronting grindcore veteran act Infanticide and Parasit (up until 2016 I think) and dicking around on the bass (like with Anger Burning) with noisepunk loonies Sex Dwarf. As for Vidar and Cederick, the former would go on to play in Anti-Metafor and Svaveldioxid and the latter in a lot of bands that I have never heard of but must belong the metallic hordes judging from the covers (or they could be Russian ska bands in disguise, who knows?). Resumes do not really mean anything, fortunately for me, but they at least indicate in the present case that the listener is dealing with a serious band who does not take the worship of Discharge lightly and if Anger Burning's discography is pretty solid (the Warcharge Ep on La Vida Es Un Mus and the split Lp with Discover come recommended), When stands as the dischargiest work, the apex predator of Discharge love's foodchain in the early 2010's.
I hear you ask: why and where is When so close to Why? I won't even mention the title because I (mostly) respect the intelligence of my audience. But let's take a look at the song titles, most of which refer directly to Why: ""Leftovers of war" instead of "Visions of war", "Ain't no war without bastards" instead of "Ain't no feeble bastard", "Is this a solution" for "Is this to be", "What can you do about this system" for "Does this system work" (and "You take part in creating this system" off Fight Back) and of course "When reprise" (duh, I know). There are a lot of plain nods to Dischagre lyrics as well that would be too tedious to list. The golden nugget might be the song "Where are our rights" that could, or rather must, be referring to that elusive Discharge song entitled "Where's our freedom" that appeared on an Ep bootleg called Live in Preston that included an early live recording from 1980 with this mid-paced song that never made it on vinyl. This one is really for the nerds.
Stellar is the production, primal but very dynamic and angry, highlighting the speed of the early dis beat. The guitar possesses the exact right tone but it had more reverb on Warcharge for instance so I suspect the guitar player toyed with his setting so as to sound as close to 1981 Bones as possible and as for the bass lines, they snake their way through the whole 13 minutes (Why was 14 minutes and 21 seconds long so Anger Burning are a little short). The vocals however are very different to Cal, a man whose barks have always proved to be difficult to resurrect as many a shower can attest, and the singer went for his own raspy style, closer to the traditional käng style, which probably confers more aggression to the songs than if he had forcefully "Cal-ified" his voice. Of course the band went for the classic Discharge font and put the moniker and the record's title in the same spots as Why. The war-themed black and white cover itself reminds me of Disgust's The Horror of it All... but there might be a close comparison.
It doesn't seem relevant to drop names of other d-beat bands who tried hard to sound just like Discharge in the 90's and 00's but I cannot think of any that sounded as close to Why as When does. Here we have to think in terms of record instead of band and try to isolate When and take it on its own. Therefore if Anger Burning may not be the absolute Why-era Discharge clone, When might very well be the aptest copy of Why ever. This wonderful album will speak to those of us who love the worshipping, idolizing side of d-beat, the meticulousness of which would impress the best 17th century oil-painting copyist. This was released in 2012 on Rawmantic Disasters (the label's fifth release) and Truemmer Pogo and can be found for a very decent price.
There are a number of things that all d-beat bands agree upon, elements crucial to the genre without which you just cannot qualify as a proper believer. Things such as disliking bombs but still using them as a main topic. In a subgenre based on the imitation and the emulation of a strictly established formula, there is obviously very little room for originality. The stakes are elsewhere. D-beat in its most orthodox Discharge-loving form (I'm not talking about the legions of bands that are merely influenced by it) can be described as "a tribute made genre". It fundamentally relies on a web of signifieds and signifiers, the meaning and implications of which are understood and accepted explicitly and implicitly among a group of listeners sharing common knowledge. To an extent all subgenres revolve around these dynamics but none as much as d-beat. Referentiality is intrinsic to the "D", to its basis and its end.
It doesn't mean that bands cannot play with conventions. A band like Thisclose, the ultimate self-aware meta d-beat band, was a comment on this peculiar phenomenon and brought tasteful humour to obligatory bleak aesthetics (quite the tour de force, few bands were able to successfully blend fun and the D without falling in the trap of awkward metalhead jokes about "rock'n'roll life"). But the genre cannot be said to be prone to changeability as it values predictability and how accurate and intertextual a band manages to be (No Fucker being a great example). Basically, the covers of d-beat records, as part and parcel of the tribute and of the web of references, seldom lie to the punters. You must be able to spot a traditional, orthodox d-beat record and the church it belongs to from afar. It is all a matter of subtleties.
It would be dishonest to claim that Desperdicio tried to mislead the honest d-beat fan but I have to admit that I was not really expecting this style of D when I grabbed ¡Impulso De Destrucción!. I owned the Acceleration to Destruction compilation Ep (an oft overlooked, good little record) when I got this one but could not quite remember what they sounded like with precision. In my mind, judging from the cover, the error margin was but non-existent: Desperdicio must sound just like Destruccion. The Ep cover is a copy of their split Ep's with the equally raw Sida: it has the same setting, the same composition, the same style and the same intent to produce a naive but punk-as-fuck representation of d-beat as "hardcore radical" as the locals put it. The visual copy was so enormous that it made me curious of how close Desperdicio were to Destruccion, especially as a Japanese bandhaving a go at singing in Spanish.
Such linguistic endeavours are not rare occurrences in the Japanese punk scene. Indeed, local bands aiming for a highly specific language-based hardcore genres would sometimes adopt the foreign language to make the music sound closer to the original (which is both daring, admirable and more than a little extravagant). Distorted käng fanatics Frigöra or Ferocious X sing in Swedish, Laukaus and Poikkeus in Finnish, Isterismo and Tantrum in Italian and Voco Protesta in Esperanto (and Corrupted sing in Spanish too of course). This trend is actually fascinating as it implies that languages make and create national genres as much as the music itself and the idea emphasizes the importance of linguistics (with the scansion, accentuation, tonalities, flow and so on) in punk. And well, Japanese punks are crazy enough to try to sing in a language they know nothing about. What about French then?
And there you go, Desperdicio sing in Spanish and yet do not sound as much like Destruccion as you would expect by now. You would assume a d-beat band en Español to be all over classics like MG15 or Destruccion or Mobcharge but Desperdicio are a little more (or less) than that. There is a delightful simplicity and straight-forwardness in the riffing that do point to the Spaniards, but the enjoyable balance of distortion and aggression reminds me of Disaster or indeed Deadlock, a Japanese Disaster tribute band of sorts. We are not wandering in fast and filthy rabioso d-beat land here but the music pummels its way through a well-paced d-beat with an almost hypnotic quality. Beside the slower number "Pesadilla" that I don't really get, the three other songs are ideally predictable but some details point to that characteristic sense of epic songwriting that you find in a lot of traditional Japanese hardcore like the opening guitar lead on "Tomar un futuro", the Bristol-crasher drumming on "La ciudad portuaria pequeño" or on most of the energetic and mean backing chorus, although this may partly have to do with the heavy and highly signifying Japanese accent. The vocals can be seen as the Marmite effect in Desperdicio who are pretty easy to appreciate on the music alone. Recognizing the Spanish language straight away can be a little difficult because the flow and accent patterns are so different to Japanese but I don't dislike the band's choice as I think it does make one pay attention, which, I admit, is not necessarily a good thing in some cases. Beside the vocalist does not growl or yell like a nutter, he is of the shouting variety with a reverb (bands using the effect were still few in 2011) so that you can actually make out what he is on about (although you will have trouble actually understanding). On that level Desperdicio are more in line with a band like Final Bloodbath, even though the intent is different, and I can enjoy this type of vocal style for the duration of en Ep. It makes me think of a man lost at the top of a snowy mountain crying for help.
It is not a masterpiece but it is a fun and well-executed humble d-beat Ep and the inspiring longevity of this clearly passionate and still active band who believe in their recipe is inspiring and other recent Japanese raw punk bands in Español like Stimulus, Consocio Sentencia and Povlacion owe as much to the national tradition of singing in foreign languages as to Desperdicio. ¡Impulso De Destrucción! was released on the emblematic label Overthrow Records who would also take care of their two subsequent Ep's.
Kylmä Sota is a band I know I have seen twice but that I have absolutely no recollection of. They had been booked at the sadly defunct and almighty Play Fast or Don't festival in Czech in 2009 and even though I was indeed parading that year in Hradec Králové and despite always making a point to check out all the bands on the bill (I still do), I don't remember seeing them at all. They apparently did play in the afternoon but I was nowhere near pissed enough to use intoxication as an excuse. Maybe I should have been drunk. They also played in Paris in 2013 and I do remember well seeing the opening bands but my memories of the Finns are blank, a tragedy made even sadder by the fact that, by all accounts, they were great on stage.
The brain works in mysterious ways. Whereas I have crystal clear memories of abysmal bands making fools of themselves 20 years ago (the list includes some of my own bands), I am unable to remember some good bands I specially went to the gig to see. I try to pretend I do most of the time just to keep my notoriously high level of punk points safe. Sometimes repeating to others a story of how superb the band was, even if you can't remember fuck all, is enough to convince yourself that you actually do remember. You basically have to fill in the blanks and create a believable story based on more or less reliable outside reports and voilà.
It has to be pointed out that Kylmä Sota - meaning "cold war" in Finnish - is a band that is still remembered in the grand collective punk psyche and indeed I see them as one of the best Finnish bands of the era and quite possibly my favourite one (which makes my memory loss even more frustrating). The band released a number of good records and lasted ten years, between 2005 and 2015, a very decent run at a time when bands' lifespans were growing shorter and Kylmä Sota's existence happened at a pivotal time. When they formed in the mid-00's, social media and youtube were not around and the punk scene, its inner workings and its representations were still very similar to those of the 90's. 10 years later, things were very different and punk and its codes had changed drastically. But the reason why Kylmä Sota are still mentioned in elders' discussions is that the band were precursors, unintentionally, as it is often the case, as they brought the uncompromising distorted d-beat style to Europe.
Kylmä Sota is the only band on my list that does not strictly abide by the holy d-beat scriptures. Don't get me wrong, they undeniably stood as a d-beat band. But they were not as orthodox or monomaniacal (mean people would also say as unoriginal) as the rest, although not by that much (according to these same mean people). I felt I had to include them because, beside being a great band, they brought something new or rather they brought something that already existed to a new place. From their humble beginning until the end, their use of a layered super fuzzy Japanese-style distortion applied to traditional Discharge-loving käng hardcore was just not done in Europe. Listening to this wonderful Lp - their strongest material in my opinion - I sometimes have the impression of vintage Disclose covering Diskonto and Dischange with a Finnish hardcore singer and this distinctive Suomi flow and sonorities. The riffs abide by the Swedish d-beat tradition but textures differ and if the aforementioned heroes from Kochi are obvious influences, classic Japanese noisepunk acts like Confuse and Gai or even crasher classics like Collapsed Society or Gloom.
I am not forgetting Lebenden Toten who used that piercing Kyushu guitar distortion as early as 2003 but they did not partake in d-beat and very much remained in the (then not quite construed) noisepunk category (like the Wankys shortly after). By the start of the 2010's more and more bands worldwide would take to the "wall of noise" approach (Japan has always had its own dynamics so I'm not taking it into account here) but none were total d-beat bands like Kylmä Sota were as even the excellent Giftgasattack (other pioneers from Sweden) were not as Dis-oriented as the Turku punks. Kylmä Sota's music was very energetic, galloping and intense, with a definite punk edge emphasized by the fast-paced shouted, but not growled or harsh in any way vocals. In spite of it being a 10 song album, not the easiest format to pull for d-beat, the listener is grabbed by the throat from the start and never set free. Intensity-driven hardcore punk. It has to be pointed out that it was not the members' first (nor last) band as they had played in acts like Stumm, Selfish, Khatarina and others I am not really familiar with and right from the band's demo indeed, you can tell that they know what they are doing (when sober at least).
A very strong record that appealed to the d-beat fanatics, scandicore lovers and just old-school hardcore audiences that at the time had not been overfed the "distortion and echoed vocals" hardcore trend. It was released on Feral Ward in 2010 so you know it's quality stuff. Do take a listen to the rest of their discography, you are going to be disnoised.
As I remember, hazily I have to admit, in my tiny 00's mind, a large part of the Spanish scene very much revolved around neocrust. It would be easy, tempting, to blame Ekkaia and, well, the state of thing had a lot to do with Ekkaia's emotional take on Tragedy's music. Was it always for the best? Fuck no. Interestingly there is a still an "emocrust" scene in Spain so that the style never really went away over there whatever one might think about it. But there was something else brewing in Barcelona and, although I only paid limited attention to it at the time - what with being busy keeping track of all the booming stenchcore bands - it proved to be highly influential, if not pivotal in a lot of respects.
Enter Invasion (renamed Destino Final in 2008) from Barcelona, something of a cult hardcore band whose influence, sonic, inventive and aesthetic, can still be felt to this day. My roommate at the time was a massive fan (he also overplayed Criminal Damage, No Hope For the Kids and Lebenden Toten, bands that truly left a mark on those years) and, if I was not as enthused as he was, I could get the appeal: mean, snotty, raw hardcore punk with a distinctly raging Spanish feel, both old-school and yet modern, or rather a modern vision of old-schoolness. It opened a lot of doors well beyond the Spanish confines (and certainly helped putting La Vida Es Un Mus on the punk map) and I see today's band Atentado as a spawn of that same spirit and creative intention.
It was however not the only context the band grew from. A very raw primitive brand of Discharge-loving (noise not) music appeared in the early 00's whose most significant representatives were Destruccion. They are something of a legendary band these days (we all have our own self-created legends I suppose) for their famous song "Te amo d-beat" that everyone knows and loves or at least pretend to not to lose any punk point in my presence. At a time when Swedish discore had lost most of its contenders and when most bands were looking for a more polished, heavier, "metal" production (because neocrust), Destruccion, possibly as an answer, went in the exact opposite direction carrying the torch of the primal rabioso noisy hardcore sound that Spain was renowned for in the 80's.
Destruccion was d-beat raw punk at its most literal. The most obvious reference was MG15, one of Europe's most convincing - and stripped to the bone - love declaration to Discharge from the 80's but the band more globally owed to the Spanish hardcore wave of Shit SA, Atack, Antidgmatikss or the unlistenable Delirium Tremens. Destruccion, and shortly after the even more minimal Firmeza 10, epitomised a primitive d-beat sound that suited perfectly the Spanish language and it is barely a surprise that many Spanish-speaking hardcore bands would be influenced by these bands, not necessarily their music but at the very least their concept. To be honest, I cannot say I was totally taken by Destruccion when it came out at the time but I was probably missing the point or just lacking in knowledge to really "get it". In the 90's there would be acts like Angry Mob and Mobcharge that worked faithfully on the d-beat (both of them had the Becerra brothers from Violent Headache at the helm), the former flirting with the "just-like-Discharge" philosophy while the latter were clearly very close to what we have to come to conceptualize as "d-beat raw punk" in the wake of Disclose and can be seen as modest precursors in that respect.
So to summarize, Atentado grew from the same hardcore scene as Invasion (Guillem played in both bands), in terms of drive, in Barcelona, and went for that brand of 80's inspired d-beat raw punk en Español revived by Destruccion with a significant Disclose influence in terms of distortion and groove and a delicious Discharge-loving retro feel. Todo está oscuro is a solid short and sweet Ep that is often forgotten although I personally think that it is a significant example of d-beat raw punk done right. Old-school d-beat love done right with a chaotic vibe and a thought-out minimalism inherent to the national style. I love the raspy angry female vocals, a nice change because the strict d-beat genre proves to be mostly populated by males (Atentado's drummer is also a woman by the way), and the simplicity of the compositions (the band throw a brilliant early Discharge mid-pace number that had a terrific old-school vibe). If you are looking for a good illustration of what d-beat en español is all about, it is a perfect choice, but it is clearly a niche band that is unlikely to convert anyone to the D. A modern vision of old-schoolness as I wittily pointed out earlier.
This Ep was actually the first release of Discos Enfermos, now an established label expert in offering top notch raw punk (notably en español), as a co-release with Crust As Fuck Records. Atentado would release a full Lp in 2012 on La Vida Es Un Mus that was something of a disappointment as the Ep format proved to be far more suited to their primal d-beat approach. If you have five minutes to spare and you enjoy Discharge Todo está oscuro should delight you during your fag break.
In a world ruled by chaos, people have always needed some semblance of stability to cope with life without falling into madness, despair or shoegaze. Some choose religion because absolute truths construed as eternal and transcendental are reassuring and because it is looks like a logical, if lazy, choice. Others choose the footie because the love for your club is immortal and thicker than blood. Pets can be a solution because a dog's love is unconditional, comforting and stable. Punks would go for d-beat because not only has the genre not evolved much throughout the years but because it is not supposed to, it is seemingly unaffected by time, immutable. You can't get much more stable and anchored than this. Of course, there have been evolutions in terms of production, music does not exist in a technological vacuum, some bands did bring new elements as far as textures are concerned and others played with the degree of referentiality (aural and visual), an essential part of the genre in itself. But still, the potential for change is limited indeed. And well, I need stability right now and d-beat appears to be a pleasant way to indulge. And to be honest, it is fun.
To make things clear, I will only be talking about orthodox d-beat and "just-like-Discharge" bands here, just like I did in the two previous d-beat series The Chronicles of Dis in 2016 and Sonatas in D Major in 2019 (and needless to point out that I also wrote about such bands in transversal series). It does not mean that all the bands will sound exactly the same. Well, it will if the genre does not particularly appeal to you or if your don't know your Disclose from your Dischange. But the idea is to focus on the variations or absence thereof, the details, the context, all the tiny things that make a band stand out and draw the lines between absolute Discharge clones, proto-d-beat raw punk lovers, orthodox d-beat and even "just-like-Disclose" bands, a category that did not exist in the 90's and 00's. The selection was particularly difficult this time because I decided to cover a long period, from 2008 to 2023 (Sonatas on D Major tackled the 1991-2006 span), and there have been literally hundreds of d-beat bands, or rather bands claiming to play d-beat, in the past 15 years and I had to settle for 21 (obviously the length of the reviews will vary). Punk changed drastically between 2008 and 2023 with the scene becoming irremediably and vitally dependent on the internet and social media. Playing traditional d-beat in the mid 00's and today are two very different sports. With youtube, you can have access to every one of the most obscure dis-influenced bands of the 80's and as a result it is much easier to play specific "niche" referential hardcore punk. Not so much in the 00's.
And what better example of this shift than No Fucker from Utica, a band that I thought had been dead for years but actually toured Europe this spring. They formed as early as 2002 and Conquer the Innocent is the last record they released in the 00's. At a time when neocrust and stenchcore dominated the punk airwaves (with Japan being the usual exceptions), No Fucker were a very different scruffy animal, a proper d-beat raw punk band, one of the last of their kind in that decade. The 90's d-beat wave was long gone in Sweden by then and the few survivors like Meanwhile, Disfear or Diskonto no longer relied on the primitive raw aggression of the genre. In North America Deathcharge had turned into an excellent dark punk act, Decontrol had split up and Holokaust's raw hardcore period was short-lived. Tragically, Kawakami, and with him the immensely influential Disclose, passed away, turning him and his baby into a legend and probably the most appreciated d-beat band ever. The late 00's were a peculiar transitional time.
It has to be said that Disclose were the inventors of the concept of "d-beat raw punk", a specific take that relied as much on Discharge as on the proto Discore, the pre d-beat bands, those raw hardcore bands that predated the actual "genrification" of Discharge-worship of Disaster and Dischange (which is when I personally placed the real birth of d-beat as its own genre). They were significantly influenced by Discharge, sounded like Discharge to an extent, but did not crave to sound "just-like-Discharge" as their work on textures underlined. And No Fucker belonged exactly in that philosophy. They were not the only ones to bow at the altar primitive and raw d-beat bands at the time, and Spanish bands like Destruccion or Firmeza 10 were even cruder in their "hardcore radikal" approach (an ambitious aesthetic choice in a time of overproduced neocrust and metal crust that certainly alienated many listeners).
That is not to say that there were no Discharge-influenced bands in the 00's, there were tons of them. After all, who doesn't use a dis beat? And let's not forget that Portland's Warcry, a serious "just-like" band were going strong. But No Fucker were one of the last of the d-beat raw punk of their generation and although they are mostly remembered for their splits with Disclose (their major modern influence, undeniably) with whom they toured in States, they are not necessarily looked at in depth. No Fucker is a band aimed at fans of Discharge, fans of Discharge-influenced bands, fans of Discharge-mimicking bands and (all euphemisms for nerds).
Their music is as much a display of great raw hardcore as it is a loving reflection and a comment on the Discharge phenomenon itself. The name of course refers to the notes on Discharge's first Ep that said "thanks to no fucker" so from the start, if you do not get the reference, you can be a little left out of the fun, not that it is the band's intention (I assume) but you will not "get the ref" as Gen Z's say. The band's label is called No Real Music, a line taken from the song "But after the gig" and a song from the Ep is called "Realities of the war" (let's not even mention the Discharge font, that was already very common and a prerequisite of the genre and the last words of the Ep "svart framtid" like the 80's Norwegian hardcore band). You can see this in two ways. You can either find it ridiculous, a proof of the absence of creativity and "dis is getting pathetic" like Active Minds would claim, or you can say that it is a way to engage the listener in a network of common reference and a genuine demonstration of love for punk culture. And really, that will be a central aspect Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (as if you had not already guessed).
But let's talk a bit about the six minutes of music you will find on Conquer the Innocent, shall we? As I mentioned No Fucker are not a d-beat band in the same sense as Warcry or Meanwhile, they build on the rawness of early Discharge, on the Dis-inspired 80's bands that immediately followed and on a band that had already worked on such a synthesis, namely Disclose. The sound is perfect for the genre, raw, evidently, but still with a lot of energy (I love how the drums are really forward). The guitar sound is dirty and distorted but you can hear that it has been thought out and purposefully created and the vocals respect the old-school scansion, flow and accentuation. I can hear Shitlickers, early Cimex or Subversion on the first side, brilliantly executed, the second side is a little faster and include some Bristol-by-way-of-Japanese-style "crasher" rolls, adding some punch and on the whole Disclose's Tragedy is a close point of comparison (in fact they can be said to be as influenced by the actual record as they are by the influences of this record) but the distortion is not as prevalent here and I am reminded of the vastly underrated Decontrol too (dislickers pioneers I suppose). By its own standards, it is a flawless record.
The band released a discography for their recent tour and it is a good way to get all the band's material but the new Tombs Ep.
No idea why the previous scribbled on the record...
I am finally back after an unusually lengthy break from the blog. Not that I was insanely busy, although I'd love to pretend to. I just needed some time for myself, not unlike a distraught parent leaving his children alone in the wood for a couple of weeks in order to sort his life out or a wrestler who gets injured after attempting an elbow drop from the third rope. I even toyed with the idea of stopping Terminal Sound Nuisance altogether and find another hobby that would bring more attention to my once ravishing greatness and undeniable charisma, like food influencer or a shark whisperer, something contemporary. I even took a pretty pricy but eventually useless selfie class in July (I was unable to pass the test though, something to do with me being the antithesis of photogenic or something). What is the relevance of running a punk blog these days beside making you feel prematurely old? Maybe the quest for relevance is itself irrelevant in this day and age when quantity largely prevails over quantity. The term "content creator" is remarkable in this sense as modern "creators" are not even able to qualify what they offer and resort to the generic and vague term "content" and as pop culture gluttons we stuff ourselves with forgettable but mildly enjoyable shit. Oh well.
The thing is, despite investigating a number of alternative options, I could not quite figure what I could replace the blog with, which must mean that Terminal Sound Nuisance has to be kept alive. The absence of answer was the answer. And so here I am again, ready to rock (reasonably because of my bad back) and entertain the punk masses, something I was born for although my mum would disagree firmly.
All this blabbering to say that I am back with a solid CRUST and to get things going again I have something special for you: an anthology of Polish crust. As even the least discerning readers will have noticed (they are few, I am well aware that Terminal Sound Nuisance's readership is notoriously class and well sound), I have a soft spot for Polish crust and, because the genre has never ceased to be not only popular but also strong in this country, working on retrospective compilations made a lot of sense. Fun was had.
I have already written quite extensively about crust and punk in general in Poland throughout the years and re-reading my elegant prose for egotistical inspiration made me realize how prolific, vibrant and dynamic the scene was in the 90's. Indeed, the claim that Poland was a major punk stronghold during that pivotal decade (in terms of bands but also of touring destination) is true and even a quick superficial glance at classic bands like Infekcja, Homomilitia, Sanctus Iuda or Filth of Mankind (to stick to my initial plan) can prove enough to illustrate this. If the crust genre became less popular in many parts of Europe, Polish punks faithfully, loyally kept producing quality crust bands to this day. Many of these bands' reach does not go beyond the country's borders but if you bother looking for information, instead of waiting passively for information to look for you, you will make some new friends. But since you are most certainly a lazy bum, I am more than happy to take on that role.
While selecting and compiling the songs, I wondered with a Sartre-looking expression if Polish crust could be described as its own subgenre, like the Greek or Japanese schools of crust, or if it was merely crust sung in Polish. While I would argue that its identity is not as strong and peculiar as its aforementioned two cousins, there are enough common recurring traits among all the bands to hypothesize a "Polish crust sound". First, with almost all the bands singing in Polish, the language with its sonorities, dynamic accents, its flow and pronunciation has an impact on the overall sound and gives it an aggressive edge. Second, more often than not, right from the start, Polish crust has displayed a heavy, crunchy, dark metallic influence, not in the apocalyptic sense like the Greeks (with some exceptions) but faster, thrashier and keeping a raw intensity. It should be pointed out as well that, originally and distinctly, more than in any other countries, Polish crust bands must be said to have been some of the best examples of fast and pummeling 90's eurocrust, far more Hiatus than Doom if you wish and if the genre evolved along with the rest of global crust scene (Japan being the usual exception) these are the basis and basics.
Do these can justify and potentially cement the "genrification" of Polish crust? Probably not, such elements can be found in other scenes abroad, however they still stand as meaningful, defining traits running through a large enough body of works for me to offer cohesive and coherent compilations. By no means has Polish crust been undisturbed and insensitive to the various international crust waves as the comps can attest. Some bands are more progressive, to the extent of neocrusting at times, others are heavily infused with death, black or doom metal, but the similarities are sufficiently present and relevant. I chose to leave out bands that, I felt, as good as they might be thought to be, did not totally qualify as crust although they certainly had crust elements like Silence, Deczcz or Evil or some of the faster 90's anarchopunk bands. Or as my sensei would sometimes tell me when he was teaching me the way: "it ain't crust enough my little lad". On the other hand, I did include some bands that are often seen as pertaining to the early grindcore scene, like Toxic Bonkers or Grossmember, but shared enough common points with their crusty contemporaries at some point. Subjectivity, yeah?
I tried to be exhaustive without but I probably missed out some bands, either out of sheer forgetfulness or because they were either just too obscure or because Alzheimer arrived early at the party. In any case, you are more than welcome to mention bands that could have made it here or to point out mistakes. The more the merrier like my gran would say, although she was mostly referring to wine I guess. There are 2 compilations with 43 bands and songs in total ranging from the proto-crusty year of 1991 to our fetid modern time. Thanks to the people I borrowed (well...) the pictures from.
In bimber there is no choice
PART ONE:
01. HOMOMILITIA "Intro + To możliwe jest tylko tutaj" from Twoje Ciało Twój Wybór Lp, 1996 (Łódź)
02. HELLISHEAVEN "Sedes sapientiae ora pro se" from S/t split Lp with CREEPIN CORRUPT, 2009 (Lublin)
03. DRIP OF LIES "Lies" from S/t demo, 2009 (Warszawa)
04. SOCIAL CRISIS "Zachowaj spokój" from S/t split Ep with WOJNA, 2018 (Biała Podlaska)
05. FUCK FINGER "Zdrajczynie" from S/t tape, 2002 (Łuków)
06. S.O. WAR "Mili chłopcy z policji" from Bullshit Propaganda tape, 1998 (recorded in 1993), (Strzelce Opolskie)
07. UNDECIDED "Pokoj W niebie jak i na ziemi" from S/t tape, 1996 (Bartoszyce)
08. PATROMONIUM DEL PUEBLO "Pliczy się tylko muzyka..." from Pustka tape, 1999 (Dąbrowa Górnicza)
09. HUFF RAID "Insect" from Euro Tour Tape, 2017 (Toruń)
10. CEASELESS DESOLATION "Jutro" from Nicość Lp, 2013 (Lublin)
11. BURN THE CROSS "Thirteen" from S/t split Ep with HOLY EXTERMINATION, 2013 (Jasło)
12. FILTH OF MANKIND "The foundation" from They've Taken Everything - A Tribute to Icons of Filth double cd compilation, 2007 (Gdańsk)
13. SORROW "Black crow" from Black Crow Lp, 2022 (Poznań)
14. MITRĘGA "Przelana czara" from Kraina Wpływów split Lp with NON PRESIDENT, 2015 (Lublin)
15. CHORYGEN "Ścierwa" from S/t Ep, 2014 (Łódź)
16. DISABLE "Wojna 1" from S/t cdr demo, 2003 (Łódź)
17. STRADOOM TERROR "Kapitalistyczni hipokryci" from Głuchy Głos Protestu?... split tape with NON TIBI SPIRO, 1996 (Rzeszów)
18. ALCHEMIK SENDIVIUS "Cholerny sen" from Przeciwko Wiwisekcji demo/live tape, 1993 (Grudziądz)
19. GROSSMEMBER "Fucking pigs" from 4-way split tape with AGATHOCLES/DISCHORD/OPC, 1997 (Warszawa)
20. MIND "Full of dark memory" from S/t split Ep with DISTRESS, 1998 (Łódź/Berlin)
21. PIEKŁO KOBIET "W Pułapce Dziedzictwa" from Wyzwolenie Kobiet Wyzwoleniem Mężczyzn = Liberation Of Women, Liberation Of Men 10", 1998 (Łuków)
22. DISGUSTING LIES "Administracja" from Rich Man/Poor Man Ep, 1996 (Łódź)
This review will be the last one of the I have no gun but I can split series (for the illiterates among you this was a trivia-worthy reference to the mighty Exit-Stance's "I have no gun but I can spit"). Because the 2010's are still fresh, it is difficult to think critically about what it spawned punk-wise and formulate what it will be remembered for, for better and for worse (I already have a pretty definitive opinion about the latter and it starts with an "o", ends with an "i" and often has an exclamation mark). Thinking in terms of decades is not always relevant but I do believe the 2010's marked a radical shift in the scene with the unstoppable rise of social media and streaming. I have already written about the topic at length and repeating myself again will make me sound like a basement-dwelling incel type (basically the least sexy thing you can think of) who dislikes bands that emerged thank to this epistemological earthquake. I should do a series about brilliant young contemporary bands that I love with members who have luxurious hair and never watched a VHS non-ironically.
Stopping in 2015 seemed like a decent idea, especially with a classically executed stenchcore split Ep. I haven't really included a full-on, orthodox stenchcore record in this series so that it felt right to discuss one for the 25th and final part, to leave on a high note, to leave the reader with a desire to ride a grizzly bear in an apocalyptic wasteland or to join a horde of pagan zombies or scare your nan with some hastily done corpse paint. I remember well where and when I grabbed this Ep as it was at Doom's first Paris gig in 2016. I was, of course, as a master of the crust craft and because it is my job to keep crust punk elite, well familiar with the rather experienced Hellisheaven and was excited about their teaming up with Weald, a band I thought was no longer (for some reason). It was a well spent fiver and this Ep does exactly what you expect it to do.
Hellisheaven were from Lublin and formed in 2008. Upon looking at their discography I realized they had been going for much longer than I thought they and in fact disbanded only last year. I must admit that I progressively lost touch with what the band was up to as the death-metal influence became a little overwhelming for me and I could never really get into their 2013 album Abyss of War. My first encounter with Hellisheaven (I always wondered if they meant Hell is Heaven or Hellish Heaven or both, such poets) was, however, magnificent. Their first record, the split Lp with Creeping Corrupt released in 2009, can be said to be one of the finest examples of a successful blend of old-school heavy crust and raw death-metal. The five songs - among which a class State of Fear cover - were recorded at the band's practice space and the result sounds urgent, filthy and aggressive and the style fits the genre perfectly. A bit like classic 90's Polish crust (think Homomilitia and Hostility) on a romantic date with Stormcrow and Bolt Thrower. You could sense that the people involved had been fucking around in bands before and indeed the members had nice resumes (three members were actually also playing in the now classic grindcore band Suffering Mind in 2009). A very underrated recording and I wish this had been a full length rather than a split album.
Following this great start, I was clearly watching for Hellisheaven's followup but had to wait three years until the release of a split Ep with Dissent. By that time the band had clearly opted for a more metal-oriented Bolt Thrower-ish sound that did not totally win me over at the time. I was expecting, rightfully I might add, an epic stenchcore Lp and got served one song of gruff Bolt Thrower worship with a crust edge. A little underwhelmed I was. In retrospect, I suspect that the band probably used the gap in time to regroup and initiate a shift in terms of intent and songwriting toward bulldozing death metal with a fetish for double-bass drumming. To be fair, it is not a bad song (some of the heavy moments remind me of Lost) and Hellisheaven proudly took that path, or rather they crawled agonizingly and growled their way through it. The song on this 2015 split Ep - while still recorded in their practice space - is a focused, unstoppable and heavy, sludgy and punishing Crust Thrower monument with some Swedish death-metal's down-tuned gutturalness that ticks all the right boxes and somehow keeps that DIY hardcore punk feel as it never get too technical. While I would certainly enjoy a full set of the genre live, it must be like being punched to death by a gorilla into Warhammer 40000 cosplay, I don't think I could take a full Lp. But "Oponenci procederu" works like a charm on a split Ep.
On the other side you have one song of the sadly short-lived Weald from Connecticut, a band that managed to split shortly after the release of the Ep. It would be far-fetched to claim that Weald will remain in our glorious History (that of crust of course) as a sorely missed groundbreaking band. In fact, it would already be a good thing if people remember them at all, beside their mates and local punks who were around during the first part of the 2010's. And, well, c'est la vie. If you really think about it, punk could not exist without the myriads of short-lived small but genuine bands like Weald. If fact, punk is by and large made up of such bands, they are our bread and butter. Those who tour and release records that actually sell are a minority. So even though the likeliness of meeting someone wearing a Weald shirt on the street is about as high as your bigoted great-uncle Paul becoming a vegan, they played their part, mattered and have their place in the grand crust narrative and that's good enough for me.
My research revealed that Weald seemed to have trouble securing a steady lineup with several changes of guitar player and the original singer leaving before the recording of this Ep. The band caught my attention when their 2011 demo was uploaded online. It was a raw affair, evidently, primitive, sloppy at times, but its roots were clear and I definitely related to them: total 00's stenchcore revival. Not reinventing the wheel but pushing the crust cart in the right direction with heart and filth. I was hearing some classic Hellshock and Stormcrow on the music and if the songwriting could be improved, I sensed potential. And then... fuck all. Nothing for years and the release of this Ep and, in our day and age when bands release a record every two years, I thought Weald had vanished and its members had all gone on to play in postpunk bands as this virus was very contagious back then. But I was wrong as the band was still active and even recorded a another demo in 2013 (incidentally it was uploaded to their bandcamp two weeks ago, talk about a coincidence) with two songs one of which, "Vengeance is mine", would be rerecorded for the split with Hellisheaven with Will on vocals and a new guitarist.
This 2015 recording is a massive improvement, undeniably, and it makes one wonder what Weald would have been capable of on a full album. The story told by the song is great, it is a perfect stenchcore number. It has that super heavy grinding bass sound with dirty guitar leads and dirty thrashing riffs and it all points to early Stormcrow of course, the dominant influence, to which you can add early 00's Hellshock and Cancer Spreading too as the Italians were one step ahead of everyone in that niche at the time. Such a shame that Weald did not get to build on the momentum. Kind of a one-hit wonder - or nightmare depending on your tolerance for grizzly crust - I suppose. Speaking of bears, the cover displays a pretty angry one and illustrates the ecological theme of the songs. I am not sure I like it but at least I remember it and there are a couple of skulls too so that I am not too disoriented. Shane would join bands like Mortal War, Neverending Mind War, Condemned or Oiltanker in Philadelphia but I am not sure about the other members.
This Ep was the result of a collaboration between many labels such as Neanderthal Stench (an important crust label then), Grindfather Production and Anomie Records. If you are a crust metal fanatic like myself, this is a split Ep you would want to grab for sure and it can still be found easily.
