Still Believing in ANOK: Counter-Attack "Laments and Skulls" Lp, 1999

Counter-Attack were amazing, extraordinary, phenomenal, unique. And Belgian. To quote the mighty Brob Tilt Tapes blog (read it here), a genuine goldmine of rare DIY punk recordings and a formidable effort at documenting and preserving our common history and stories, C-A played Crass-inspired anarchopunk "in a time when everyone was into crust". And don't get me wrong, I personally loved it when everyone was into crust and Terminal Sound Nuisance is a pathetic attempt at reconverting punks to crustianity and the utter annihilation of shoegaze. Although I tragically only caught the tail end of the 90's wave, to be understood here more as a wave than mere chronological markers, in the early 00's, people still liked crust, even in such a crust-reluctant town like Paris (a bit of a paradox when you consider how bloody filthy it is), or at least liked it enough to support the touring crust bands and not give me too much shit for having far too many patches on my black jacket (most of them progressively disappeared, not unlike my hair sadly). But in this general context, taking into consideration the overall production of the global DIY punk scene in Europe, C-A can be said to stand out, not like a sore thumb (although the personal hygiene of the participants is unclear), but rather as a band that at that point in time were quite original and worked on a sound that had almost completely vanished. 

In retrospect, this disappearance can seem very odd since crust and a certain brand of DIY political hardcore punk owed a lot to 80's anarchopunk and people love the old-school anarcho bands or claimed to, and yet very few bands tried to build on that sound. It may have to do to some extent with the idea that the early 80's sound was behind us and the drive, the craving for new things in the 90's and 00's implied that the Crass-ish sonic take (like UK82's) just did not fit in with the following decades. I have always been a massive fan of the old anarchopunk sound but, despite some significant exceptions (A//Political, Stracony, Cress, Life's a Riot! for instance), contemporary bands just did not want to play that style. Beside, the whole trend of reforming had not really kicked in yet, and apart from a couple of bands like Icons of Filth or Lost Cherrees, the dinosaurs were clearly extinct and had not come back from the grave (for the better and the worse). As a result, one really had the impression that the traditional anarchopunk completely belonged in the past. The unstoppable wave of nostalgia, fueled by social media, technology and a new relation to music, had not hit us and the thought of an Alternative-worshiping band was as incongruous as wearing sandals at a Sick of it All gig or asking a Frenchman not to smoke in a closed venue. 

With my groupe of friends in the early 00's, we definitely listened to a lot of crust, of the neo and stench varieties since those were hot at the time, and we did not mind playing screamocrust bands with singers sounding like they just fell into an industrial press at 2am. I remember getting a copy of the Masters and Jesters and it deservedly got a lot of airplay. We were young, inexperienced, some of us still spotty, and we couldn't help but think that a band doing that Conflict style of punk in 2000 was a little odd (and we loved Conflict). We all agreed that C-A were the dog's bollocks and whenever I play this album, memories of us dissecting the music while drinking the cheapest lager from the off-licence instantly rush back. We did not own that many records at the time so we often ended up playing the same ones again and again. Needless to say I know Masters and Jesters by heart.

Before Laments and Skulls C-A had released a demo tape called Demonstrate or Demolition in 1996, a recording that meaningfully hinted at what they would become. While rawer, this demo is a jewel of energetic and intense snotty anarchopunk with male and female vocals (the band's original configuration) reminiscent of DIRT and especially bands such as Symbol of Freedom or Crude & Snyde (and Toxic Waste of course from whom they liberally borrow some lyrics). Top drawer, close your eyes and you're back to Thatcher's Britain. Laments and Skulls was recorded in late 1998 and it was a monumental first effort. The work keeps that punky, dynamic and urgent production while also highlighting the many details and hooks that makes the album so compelling and memorable. This was an ambitious undertaking as C-A went for a 43 minute long Lp which by today's standards is like a rock opera (for comparison purposes Bad Breeding's Exiled Lp is 32 minute long, Dogma's Lp is 28 and Subdued's only 24). However, Laments and Skulls never sounds like the band just stuffed as many songs as possible on the record, on the contrary, you can tell that a lot of thought was given to the selection, the order, the transitions, the flow and, above all, the plot. 

The is a proper ALBUM in the sense that it sounds like a cohesive narrative whole, it tells a specific story and literally makes sense. To be honest, without this storytelling quality, it would be near impossible to pull out a 43 minute modern anarchopunk album and not lose the listener's attention (there were no smart phones to doomscroll on in 1999 though). Here is the vegan menu: delicious guitar hooks, memorable tunes, dynamic bass lines, always smart and spicy change of paces - from the fast 1-2-1-2 UK82 beat to the Crass-like tribal one -, epic Conflict-like introductions and intense spoken words, wisely used samples and psychedelic transitions, a climactic sense of songwriting, some of the snottiest punky trade-off dual vocals you will ever hear (with such brilliant British accents that you'd think you are in Hackney) and a seriousness and an honesty that go with the style and lyrical content (this is punk for the anarchist revolution, brothers and sisters). There is even an enjoyable - and fortunately short - ska part. 

What a band, what an album. Conflict is the most pregnant influence here of course. There are more than a few nods to classic Conflict and the vocal flow and tone are close to Colin's but what Laments and Skulls do with perfection is the meaning-creating synthesis of 80's anarchopunk. I can distinctly hear Flux of Pink Indians, Crass, Alternative, Stalag 17, Anthrax, Chumbawamba, some UK82 too as C-A were a rather fast band on the whole but they used mid-paced songs, dissonant moments, samples, moody or psychedelic introductions to make the speed angry. I wouldn't change anything on this album and any self-respecting anarchopunk fan should know and revere this band. 

Members of C-A also got to play in Visions of War and Katastrophobia as well as a band called Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat and I can't help thinking what my mother would say, apart from "for fuck sake", if I came to my nephew's birthday wearing a shirt of that band. As I mentioned the band went on to record the equally good Masters and Jesters released in 2000 on Nabate Records and there was a final recording entitled Culex Pipiens (I believe) with three songs displaying a mode modern heavier production. I cannot find information about this session so perhaps the band did not do anything with it. That'd be a story for another time. Don't be a dreary arseholes and get into Counter-Attack.    

This review is respectfully dedicated to drummer Ivan, who went missing in 2016. 

Laments and skulls