Versklaven are just like my friend Tom (the name has been changed as I do not want to upset anyone, especially since I am about as hard as a twig). I never think about Tom and until I came across him last month, I had completely forgotten about him and the crazy night we had in 2014 at some festival where I promised that I'd send him a brilliant mixtape full of obscure and tragically under-appreciated punk bands, maybe not in the coming month but definitely before winter. Of course, I never did make the mixtape and the drunken promise slowly (well not that slowly actually) escaped my mind and I never saw or heard of Tom again. Which was a little disappointing as I had had a jolly good time but then I - what with being busy lip-synching to Antisect before the bathroom mirror - did not make the effort to do it and he must have forgotten about the whole thing anyway. Which is not as bad as it sounds since I am pretty sure I owe him a tenner.
Well, Versklaven are like Tom. I really enjoyed their outputs when they came out in the early/mid-10's, we had a good time, we bonded quite a bit but the constant flux of quality crust and the subsequent split of the band resulted in their music slowly fading from my memory, not utterly vanishing though, more like sharing a flat at the back of my skull with other worthy but half-forgotten crust bands like Dödsfälla, Massakro SS or Minds Continue. There are worse but also more glamorous roommates. But doing some research about 10's crust bands for this ambitious series, the modern music equivalent of the the Homeric Odyssey, I came across Versklaven again and I remembered that they were quite good indeed even if I had not played the Lp for ages and upon spinning the thing I quickly realized that they were, in fact, much better than I remembered or can even be said to be, if I may be quite bold, the dog's bollocks.
Versklaven certainly do not pop up in many conversations these days and even yours truly has to plead guilty on that one which proves that I as outstandingly smart, sharp and witty as I may look to my readers, I still have not reached perfection yet. I'll probably be there next year though according to my astrologist. Fingers crossed. To get back to our Houston lot, that's in Texas I reckon, the fact that they are not part of the conversation when it comes to solid old-school crust from the 2010's is unfair. It may have to do with their German name - it means "to enslave" - but then when one considers how difficult it is to find a good name that is still available, the decision to pick the German translation was wise, especially since there was already a Japanese hardcore band called Enslave (and it worked for Aus-Rotten after all). Perhaps they should have picked a fancier punk language like Swedish, Finnish or French (just kidding for the last one unless you are a cheesy emocore band in which case you basically must pick a French name).
I have already written about Sacrilege-loving bands in my review of Terminal Conquest's demo tape and a lot things I said about the practice of Sacrilege worship as epitomized by Portland's Terminal Conquest are also valid for Versklaven. Formed in 2011 and disbanded around 2013 (or 2014?) as prehistoric live videos on youtube suggest, the Texan group was short-lived but came before bands like Terminal Conquest or Lifeless Dark. The only example of total Sacrilegious metal-punk I can think of at the time was Death Evocation, who got a lot more attention and exposure than Versklaven probably because of the resumes combined with the experience of the persons involved (basically they played in cool Boston bands before, bands I have never heard but that my mates wearing Van's or New Balance trainers and shirts with live shots of angry people jumping around seem to love). DE were more on the metal-side of Sacrilege though, somewhere between Behind the Realms of Madness and Within the Prophecy while Versklaven are decidedly on the first album, so much so that they had no scruples borrowing, more than just a couple of times, Sacrilege riffs and transitions for their own songs.
I suppose you could claim that this self-titled Lp is the perfect rawer, punkier (and overall faster) version of the first Sacrilege Lp. Some anarchopunk-styled spoken parts reminds me of Nausea or Potential Threat and bring an additional vibe to the songs by connecting to the genre's anarcho roots. Otherwise, the riffs are crunchy examples of 80's metal-punk worship and Sacrilege cosplay, thrashing and dynamic without falling in technical wankery. Similarly the songwriting does not mess about and goes for the throat with moshing crust power. I personally have no issue with respectfully borrowing from classic bands but, since some do, be warned that there is a lot of Sacrilege in Versklaven. The vocals are different, raspier, growled rather than shouted - more Nausea's Amy than Detestation's Saira a bit hoarser than After the Bombs' Janick - and I think they work great as they give some supplementary aggression and anger to the music.
This album is rather short, about 16 minutes, which is not actually a bad thing as a longer work would have probably pointed at its main flaw, the lack of narrativity and storytelling. A 30 minute Lp necessitates more work on transitions, climaxes, atmospheres, plot which the relatively short length of Versklaven's work does not really. Released in 2013, the recording was actually done in 2012 and was made up of seven songs in total as two songs were used for a split Ep with Abduktion (it also comes recommended if you want more Sacrilege-flavoured metal-punk). The album was put out by Torture Garden Company, a local Houston-based label but whose catalogue I am vastly unfamiliar with. I am not sure what the Versklaven members have been up to since the split. Guitar player Tom was also involved in the metallic crust band Dissent and the excellent Bolt Thrower-inflenced War Master before he moved to Portland and took part in Iskall Regn and more recently in Decomp (the new album is ace, check it out), while bass player Mark now plays in Lace.
Enjoy this piece of crust history.
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