Avvikelsse is one of the bands that I missed in Osaka in 2018 because I got too drunk the night before and did not wake up on time. Truth be told I was very jet-laged but, as much as I would love to blame this unforgivable failing on time zones, I just had far too much to drink because I was so happy to be in Japan for the first time and quickly realized that the off-licence just next to King Cobra was open all night. The classic trap that only juvenile punks fall into but I was too excited to think. I did manage to finish the first night and ended up at the Konton Bar blabbering like a twat to anyone in my immediate vicinity. Of course, I got lost on the way back to the hotel because all the streets looked the same, I did not have a smart phone and was properly hammered. My saviour was Framtid's drummer Aladdin who kindly took me back to my hotel which was just two blocks away. I remember, even in my drunken stupor, being very embarrassed to have to be rescued and the day after I humbly apologized to my saviour who, like a crust gentleman, asked me if I was feeling better and that it was alright. I guess I was not the first foreign punk to get smashed and unable to find his way back but still. Let's just deny it ever happened. The worse part of this modest adventure was that I did miss some bands I has specifically traveled to see. Too drunk to crust.
Before making an ass of myself on another continent, I had studied all the bands that I was going to have the pleasure to see perform - or so I thought before fate struck - and Avvikelsse was one that I was particularly excited to see. The name means "deviation" or "anomaly" in Swedish, although it is technically spelt "avvikelse", which is, in itself, a very good choice for a punk name even more so if you happen to play hard-hitting crust punk with an eye on käng hardcore. For some unfathomable reason, this 2016 Ep, so far the only record from the band, has not yet been uploaded onto youtube. In 2022 that is just odd. I suppose this post will correct this discrepancy.
Avvikelsse are from Osaka, glorious place of birth of crasher crust and cradle of the legendary Final Noise Attack gigs (would have I get too stupidly drunk at one of those?), and it is little surprise that the Ep was released on the Osaka-based classic Crust War Records label run by Habi from the seminal Gloom and Jacky from the hardcore whirlwind Framtid and Revenge record store among other loud activities. It was CW's 53rd release and one of the last before the label went dormant. Hopefully it is just a nap and the beast will awake soon. Avvikelsse formed in 2014 but before that some members - I am not sure who - played in Abstrakt at the beginning of the decade, a short-lived, rather classic and raw noize scandicrust unit with that typically intense Japanese distorted sound and delivery, like a rough youthful cross between Framtid and Contrast Attitude. They have a mean primitive demo and contributed four stronger tracks to the Total Exposure compilation in 2013 which is where you need to start if you are interested (especially since Tilltro, a manic scandicore band are also on it).
If Abstrakt was a decent, enjoyable, good even, but generic example of Japanese crust, Avvikelsse is not the same animal, although it would not be irrelevant to claim that the new project built on the former one. I mean, it is not like they went ska, oi or anything atrocious like that. But there are enough new elements and diversity in the songwriting to make Avvikelsse's Ep a noticeable work that deserves to be explored. The band started out with a rough demo tape entitled Doomed that included three songs that would eventually make up the first side of the Ep so I am not going to discuss this particular recording as it must definitely be seen as a draft (you can listen to it on youtube though contrary to the Ep).
As the genre dictates, the band plays in the familiar blow-out noize crust category yet Avvikelsse's music is not generic. The opening number "Beginning of the end" starts out as a heavy, dark and slow-paced Antisect-ish song before unleashing the fucking dis-beat darkness fury. The next one opens as a straight-forward crasher dis-crust scorcher and then goes for some crunchy Effigy-styled stenchcore with epic guitar lead (it has to be pointed out that Avvikelsse love solos and epic leads). The third track "1945" is the ultimate peacecrust number with its melancholy stenchcrust introduction (reminiscent of Nausea) to an Antiauthorize-meet-Gloom at an antiwar protest. The other side is just as great, a balanced mix of relentless dark distorted Framtidian scandicrust and old-school crasher metallic crust with aggressive and gruff anguished vocals throughout. The Ep is long enough - a 12 minute long effort - for the band to really develop its own language and tell a good story and I think Avvikelsse have enough tricks in their crust bag to write an ace crust album.
The Japanese crust school being almost always very referential, the visual of the Ep scream "We are a dis-noize crasher peacecrust band" and even entry-level crust amateurs will be able to discern canonical visual elements associated with the practice: a massive dove, two Gloom-y Crass circles around said dove that says "Avvikelesse / Throes of lives" for the small one and "Why war / The unaccountable darkness" for the bigger, more Crass font on the back, a picture of the aftermath of a bombing, of a graveyard and even an additional dove inside the foldout cover. And of course, to reflect upon this customary referentiality I have used an excessive number of Japanese crust slang throughout the reviews, not just in order to exemplify the relation between form and content, but also because it is fun. And in these dire days it is important to find fun where you can.
A solid Ep from "Osaka Chaos Crusher Crusties" as Revenge Records said that comes highly recommended if you are into Japanese crust and, for its Antisect vibe, one of my favourites of the genre in the 2010's.
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