Japanese CRUST (compilations) Against the Millennium (part 2): "Mie City Hardcore 2 - Howling Noise Crusties From Gates of Hell" Ep, 2002

This will be an interesting record to review because I actually wrote about the first volume of Mie City Hardcore more than 7 years ago, in May, 2018 (you can read it here if you haven't delved into this masterful piece of writing yet) and in fact, when I did some research about that Ep at the time, unbeknownst to me until then, I realized that a second volume, a Mie City Hardcore 2, had come out 8 years after in 2002. What is particularly arresting about this follow-up is that it is a very very different one. You cannot really do more different than that. Of course, your uncle Bob will still find that it's still exactly the same bloody racket and that it's nothing compared to real music like Dire Straits or The Police, but people who listen to rather than just hear music will be unquestionably flabbergasted and drop on their knees. While the 1994 compilation largely focused on traditional Japanese hardcore (often referred to as "Burning Spirit", perhaps wrongly), the 2002 opus was all about noizy crust with a crasher major. Wow.

Alright, I might get a little overexcited here, in the end it's still hardcore punk I guess, but the shift remains impressive. You could argue that, beside the bands' similar town of origin, the most significant parallel lies in the very crust-oriented artwork on both Ep's. I noticed it at the time but it stroke me as rather odd in the first installment's case because, beside Carnage's excellent song, the Ep was crust-free, whereas Mie City Hardcore 2 visually appears to be an ode to crust. The subtitle refers to a subspecies called the "howling noise crusties", apparently native to Mie and very well-represented on the 7 songs, so you've definitely been warned. The artwork was the work of Jhonio from Osaka's crasher crust pioneers Gloom so it is a heavy clue to be fair. The cover looks like classic Japanese crust or what has become associated with this concept anyway. Rather naive and chaotically drawn crusty punks often with instruments and studs, this time with the skeleton option, it can be said to be a variation on the Bristol school of Disorder and Chaos UK, one revolving around punx drawing punx doing punk thing for a punk audience. Many non-Japanese bands have been using this sort of aesthetics since the 2010's and it almost always indicates that you're going to get served Japanese crust worship. But in 2002 it was still very much the preserve of Japanese crusties (I don't see the Doom/Sore Throat visual references quite in the same light although they're cousins of course). The punk penis on the backcover does not exactly win me over however as it just feels very awkward to have a dick (a literal not a metaphorical one, the latter being far more common in real life) with charged hair seemingly looking at you. 

But yeah, Japanese crust it is. In case you're supremely thick, the caption "Mie Crusties Raw Punk!" has been added to make it clear that the Ep is crust-appropriate. The three bands included on the Ep are thus all from Mie City: Contrast Attitude, Alive and Deceiving Society. Let's start with Contrast Attitude, undoubtedly the most famous of the bunch, a band I have discussed for their split with Acrostix from 2004 and their appearance on the Crust Nights compilations. Mie City Hardcore 2 was the band's first endeavour into the world of records (along with Crust Night 2: the War Being For Them !! I reviewed before). Throughout their rather dense career, the band has not changed that much and has kept playing what they poetically coined "Dis-noise attack survivor" on their first full Ep and if I haven't been able to listen to their brand new album yet, I am sure it graces the world with their apocalyptic raw assault (the rumour that they had turned into a 90's skacore revival band was, of course, a hoax created by a rival d-beat raw punk who remain anonymous).

Back in 2002 when the songs were recorded, and in spite of the strong similarities between their young self and their current self, Contrast Attitude had a very different lineup. In fact, between 2002 and 2003, guitar player and singer Yasuomi was replaced with Gori and bass player Hidehiko with Sin (who also played in Acrostix), the only original remaining member until recently being drummer Hirotsuna (the lineup on the recording from the 2004 compilation The Time of Hell still had Hidehiko on bass so there would have been some sort of transition). Stylistically speaking, the new members kept the sound and built on it to become a truly unstoppable noizy d-beat machine. In 2002 the band was a bit rawer than on the subsequent releases with the classic lineup, the aforementioned split with Acrostix and the Sick Brain Extreme Addict (a genuine must-have), but was already working with the same tools, namely Disclose and Gloom, to create that relentless wall of noise they are known for. I suppose the new lineup quickly stopped playing the three songs from this Ep although "All sea all sky and all war" appeared on the 2013 Stand Up and Fight Now Ep. That the first version of Contrast Attitude as a d-beat raw punk machine was already so impressive is not that surprising since the band has been playing since 1998 and their 1999 demo tape was a much more primitive raw discore affair and they basically had the time to train before reaching this level. Solid numbers here and I love the introduction of the first song with all the guitar layers. You already know if you like it I suppose.

Let's go to the other side of the Ep with the rather obscure band Alive with two songs that are their sole recording to my knowledge. The drummer Kaziyan also played in LIFE at the time and in Frigöra before so it gives you an idea of what he's capable to do to a drum kit. Just looking at the band's Celtic artwork you would be entitled to think that Alive's sound must be influenced with Sedition or Scatha. And well, not really. They still play fast punishing hardcore and I can hear the singer is trying to go for that high-pitched screamed tone (almost emo-ish at times?) but in the end it is still very much in line with classic Japanese noize crust, not unlike what crusties were up to in Osaka or Tokyo in 1994. Well executed and I love the raw thrash introduction to "Mind" before it explodes into pummeling fury. I wish there was more.

Finally here come Deceiving Society, certainly the most established band on the Ep at that point in time with two songs of quality raw crasher noize hardcore cruster punk. Something like this. Deceiving Society belongs to the category of "minor classics" of the crust genre. They are basically a band that is respected and whose value is correctly recognized but has not reached the upper level, the so-called collective canon. Often bands like Deceiving Society will be loved - rightly - by people that are well into the (sub)subgenre and seek to dig deeper and strive for comprehensiveness (the geeks' grail) but people with only a liking to the whole Japanese crasher hardcore and crust sounds will be quite content with Gloom, SDS, Zyanose and Framtid (I suppose) and not necessarily crave to stuff themselves with the bulk of the horde or think too much about it (well I bloody do). In the end, only people genuinely into the Japanese crust subgenre will see Deceiving Society's Detonation Cruster as a classic but from a wider crust perspective it can only be a minor classic. A crasher crust classic but a minor crust classic. Know what I mean? A matter of perspective and all that.

I find their highly energetic and aggressive blend of dis-loving raw punk and fuzzy Gloom-ish crasher crust very endearing indeed, very well-executed, solid, kind of a blueprint for the style. You won't find the weirdness of Defector, the madness of Zyanose, the relentlessness of Framtid or the crust versatility of LIFE but Deceiving Society has everything you can expect from a competent Japanese crasher unit, classical in a good way, tasteful, solid, very much like what Contrast Attitude would quickly turn into in terms of quality. The drumming is manic, the guitar is distorted, the bass is thundering, the singer shouts like a mad bastard and it is saturated with punk references (whether sonic, lexical or visual). The music is done by the book and since it's a novel I really enjoy rereading and re-exploring, I won't be one to complain. The way "Because freedom" accelerates instantly and bursts into speed at the start always impresses me, not unlike old CFDL on this song actually, especially with the dual vocals.

According to the liner notes written by Jhonio for the Lp, the band started in 1997 with the guitar playing only joining in early 1998 and a new bass player getting recruited in early 1999. Apparently the band made quite an impression on the Osaka crusties when they played their first Final Noise Attack gig in 1998 (there would be more, the flyers in Inferno Punx attest it). Drummer Daigo and Kinochi also played in Ability, a Japanese-styled d-beat raw punk that existed at the same time as Deceiving Society between 1997 and 2001, and the two bands did a split tape together in 1999 with some demo recordings. Ability's can be found on the Reality Was War cd but I haven't been able to find Deceiving Society's but then I presume it would have been some sort of more primitive version of the noisecore-sounding Cruster 16 Minutes Shock!! released on tape in 1999 (or early 2000, it's unclear). The aforementioned classic Detonation Cruster would be the band's parting glory, something of a shame as I would have loved more recording from the band. Daigo and Kinochi went on to play in Radio Active (with a member of Dropend and Zodiak) and the former recetly joined Contrast Attitude, 23 years after the release of Mie City Hardcore 2. 

Howling noise crust to the max.  

Howling noise crusties in Mie

Japanese CRUST (compilations) against the millennium (part 1): "Crust Night" cd's (2001-2004)

Summer is here, the heat is here, shirtless obnoxious twats are back too like wasps bent on ruining your lunch (they extra points if they are on mopeds) and the shitty job is (tragically) still here as well. Isn't this the perfect, ideal time to take a look at some Japanese crust compilations from the 00's in order to get inspired and pick the right shirts for festivals, the ones that will have the rest of the audience stare at you in awe and envy? You have to enjoy these little moments in life even though the said precious shirt might eventually and unexpectedly "disappear" from your tent only to "reappear" on another bloke's back the next day (true story that, I still mourn for that missing Electro Hippies shirt I never had the guts to reclaim because, to be fair, the other guy was definitely harder than me). But anyway, I have been toying with the idea of just chatting relaxedly about some nice Japanese records, nothing I haven't said before I guess but then isn't life structured around repetitions aimed at reaffirming and confirming what our inner selves are all about? It's a bit like connecting with your inner crust pants instead of your inner child. Crusties not hippies or something.

This will be a short four-part enterprise but the opening one is pretty massive it includes three records that were part of a series of compilations called Crust Night. There were four volumes of these compilations but we will only deal with the first three because I was never able to find the last one, Crust Nights 2005. A small discrepancy that will not impact your reading and listening pleasure I'm sure. Beside, a lot of bands appeared on the four volumes so that there were not that many newcomers on the last installment anyway. The Crust Night's were released on Tribal War Asia, the Tokyo-based label run by Masaki from the band Power of Idea - which accounted for the band's inclusion on the four compilations despite not being actually crust - and by Shige from Crocodileskink and engineer at the infamous Noise Room studio. The label released records from Japanese bands (some excellent ones like AGE's Four Wings and the very underrated Social Crime and Answer Crying) but also Japanese versions of European or American bands (like Warcollapse or Döm Dar). At the end of its run, Tribal War Asia started to work with hardcore bands from Malaysia or Singapore and I wish it had been able to go on and develop further in that direction but it was not to be.

Can the Crust Night's be considered as classic Japanese crust compilations that all soap-dodging foul-breathed Disclose worshippers should own? Well, in my opinion, the answer is mixed. First and foremost, to be blunt, the curation was quite uneven, if not patchy and even the sound level between songs is not always on par. While you could find some absolute gems that should be appreciated by punks loyal to the crust doxa and while it certainly provides a relevant snapshot of parts of the Japanese crust scenes, there were also very rough and rather forgettable songs. However, this might have to do with the philosophy behind the compilations too. The label ambitiously strove to release one volume a year so that I think he may have had to work with the songs that were sent to him, whether it was a scorcher or a band dicking around in the practice room. Not unlike a 00's Japanese crust version of the Bullshit Detector? I wish some sort of introduction to the compilations were included in order to describe what the Crust Night was all about beside being a record that your mum hates. All this is therefore very much left to interpretations. Second, well, they are cd compilations and outside of Japan this format has been ignored by most and is deemed to be about as uncool as your dad's pager that he's been keeping since 1998. Fortunately for me and you, it means that you can get these for cheap. This is not to say that the Crust Night's had nothing going for them. They were a great way to discover largely obscure bands that I would have never come across otherwise, especially in the pre-youtube years (also referred to as "prehistory" by people under 25). I got to become familiar with classic bands like Reality Crisis, Abraham Cross or Contrast Attitude through these. If you were to trim the compilations a little and select the 20 best songs, you would undeniable have a classic 00's crust compilation. 

The first volume must have been one of the first - if not the first - Japanese punk compilations I owned because back in the early 00's, Tribal War Asia records were pretty easy to find and, as I mentioned, rather inexpensive. It is unsurprising that I hold it quite dearly even if it was objectively not a game changer but at the time I was just enthralled to be able to discover all these exotic unknown noisy bands. I loved, and still do, how they looked. A simple foldout Ep sleeve with all the bands providing lyrics and some artwork, pretty old-school and simple. A very striking thing on these compilations is the absence of any Osaka band (apart from Argue Damnation). There could be contextual rivalries (what with it being a Tokyo label) that I am unaware of but, from a synchronic perspective, one can only be surprised and muse at the astonishing absence of the classic and now legendary Osaka crasher sound especially since a lot of top bands were very much active during the first half of the 00's (Framtid, Defector, Zoe or Ferocious X to name a few) and that the genre is indeed represented here. Again, this is left to interpretations and as I said there are probably reasons that I am clueless about. But let's have it, shall we? 

Crust Night 2001

The first volume starts strong with a raw aggressive classic crasher crust song (like early Gloom or something) from the oft overlooked Peaceful Collapse, from Sendai up North, a band that would have deserved a proper vinyl record but that never happened for some reason. Next are Reality Crisis, this time a well-known act from Nagoya that would start changing their sound a bit later in the 00's (the synth introduction to "Times goes by so fast" kinda already gives it away I guess) but we're very much still in the cavemen crust territory of Doom, Hiatus or Abraham Cross here, with a slight more polished production. This song also appeared on their split with Avskum. Two numbers of Power of Idea follow, two covers actually, Battle of Disarm and Social Crime respectively. Not bad in itself, they are energetic and angry enough, but I don't really see the point here. Speaking of Battle of Disarm, they offer a raw live version of "Control shit" (that was unreleased at the time I believe) that is pretty much what you would expect from this iconic 90's crust band although not their best take.

Then it's the mighty AGE from Niigata follow with a live version (again) of "Invisible future". The song is brilliant, total SDS-styled dark and rocking metallic crust and you can feel the energy and power. I am usually not a huge fan of live recordings but this is really good. Käng lovers Crocodile Skink are next with two cover songs, a cover of a classic No Security hit and of Within Range, an obscure Norwegian hardcore band from the late 80's that I have never heard of and this one feels unnecessary. Then, it's a song from the classic 80's metallic hardcore punk band Asbestos that would also appear on the 2002 Ep with a riff that reminds me of Brazilian thrashing hardcore. Otherwise a traditionally executed Japanese hardcore song with an epic solo and gruff vocals that could have been recorded 15 years before. 

A band called Change from Hiroshima follows and if they were a wrestler they would be in the mid-card. Quite a good fast crusty hardcore number with yelled vocals, distortion and dynamic singalongs. It lacks a bit in intensity but it does the job here (they did a split double Ep with Agree to Differ that is of the same caliber). Next are the enigmatic A.A.N.A (or An Apology Nature Rise) from Tokyo I'm guessing, a band I wish I knew more about because, for all the relative snotty sloppiness of the song, I am always up for some old-school anarchopunk with female vocals and "Forgot things" is exactly that, somewhere between DIRT and Avaricious. The band released a split tape with Diskonto but I have sadly never heard it. Then, Screen Out play an epic 6 minute song. Like Change, something of a mid table band with a future member of Unarm that released a satisfyingly brutal crustcore Ep in 2000. The song starts with a slow emo-sounding introduction before exploding into traditional Japanese hardcore with intensity, energy and gang style chorus. Enjoyable but I prefer the raw crust aggression of the Ep (funny how the sound, the intention and the production can affect the result in this case). The only Osaka band on the cd comes after with their brand of fast thrashing hardcore punk with a message. I quite like Argue Damnation but this recording is rough and I don't really see the point of its inclusion.

Crossover long-timers Beyond Description are the next in line, a band with a long resume and a certain craftsmanship when it comes to fast hardcore thrash, but this is a a pretty average live recording bound to please die hard fans but that's about it. Gotcha follow and I'm not sure what to think. This is rough and ready and sounds like the noisier dissonant Japanese version of peacepunk bands like Media Children. Primitive, heartfelt and pretty good. Information is scarce but welcome. Next up are the mighty Abraham Cross and this was my first introduction to the band and... it is a fucking ambient song, not crust whatsoever. I realized the band evolved into more experimental electronic territories by the end of their run but, being clueless at the time, I did not understand what they were doing on a compilation called Crust Night. Finally, the compilation ends with Indistinct Unrest from Chiba and a very harsh noize crust song that would make Death Dust Extractor blush. This is barely listenable I suppose but if you crave poorly recorded and barely discernible cavemen crust (I know I sometimes do), this could be your thing.

Crust Night 2002: the War Begins For them

The second installment is probably the best of the four in terms of overall cohesion and quality but a lot of the bands already appeared on the first one so that it feels like an extension of a select crust club with strict membership rather than a new volume and the difference between the two remains light. The compilation does not starts that well with an untitled rehearsal track from Battle of Disarm. It's alright but its very inclusion is difficult to understand from an outsider's point of view. The listener is then offered a short and sharp song from Voĉo Protesta from Tokyo. You've got to love their dynamic brand of distorted crasher raw punk in Esperanto. Direct and to the point. You've got Asbestos again with a fast thrashing hardcore with fast paced Japanese lyrics and a lot of energy. I like this one. As I do the next contestant, Peaceful Collapse, gracing this compilation with a solid crasher crust song that ticks all the boxes. 

Abraham Cross finally unleash their full power with a Doom-loving cavecrust song and amazing grizzli-like vocals. Are they the best to have ever done it this way? Probably. This one won me over of course. Next up are Power of Idea with a pretty typical fast and direct hardcore song with some blast beats and Answer Crying from Aichi, a highlight of the compilation, with high-energy crasher crust that is well worthy of your attention if you are into Deceiving Society or Contrast Attitude. This is followed by It's You, a Tokyo band playing hardcore punk bordering on screamo at times and it sounds a little stale after Answer Crying. Not my thing but this had an ex member of Macrofarge apparently. 

We keep going with more classic noize crust devastation with Contrast Attitude from Mie City back when the band was still in its infancy and not yet a point of reference as this song is their first official appearance on a record. Needless to say they were already brilliant and in full control. We'll be talking more about Contrast Attitude later on. Next up are Воля (meaning "will" in Russian) from Kyoto and they play straight-forward female-fronted hardcore punk with lyrics in Japanese. Not bad at all. D-beat fanatics Final Blood Bath follow with a raw song of Disaster-meets-Discharge's State Violence State Control in a basement. "Glow (!) strong" can't be said to be the band's strongest number but there aren't many strict d-beat bands on the Crust Nights so I'm digging it, brother. 

The mighty Acrostix, from Mie, are next with "Filth chain", a deliciously raw Amebix-style anthem taken from the band's first demo, well before they morphed into a more traditional Japanese hardcore band. By far my favourite period of Acrostix back when they were crustier than a bum's sock. They are followed by the always excellent Revölt from Kumagaya doing a fairly similar style, although doomier. The band was also in its early years and had a sound that was not unlike Effigy's but they were going for the Axegrinder-snogging-Misery vibe. The production here is a bit saturated but this is top shelf stenchcore. The band C.P.S (standing for Cunt Penis Sucker apparently) seal the deal with, I'm guessing, something of a joke song recorded in their rehearsal space, I'm guessing again. Pretty useless here to be honest.

Crust Night 2003-2004: Destroy All War Bastards and We Know It

This third volume is supposed to be for 2003 and 2004 so I suppose Tribal War Asia did not have enough material for the 2003 installment and had to wait a bit. Like for the other two you will have some faces that are growing very familiar by now. And yes Battle of Disarm and their gruff crust open the compilation with a pretty solid song this time. They are followed by Border Line from Fukushima and Miyagi, a very obscure band with members of Sacrifice and Corbata doing quite well what you are entitled to expect from Japanese crasher crust bands. The now traditional Peaceful Collapse song comes next and it is an absolute Gloom-loving chaos scorcher while Power of Idea sneak in discretely as usual just after with some grinding hardcore. 

The grindcore banner keeps flying high in the crust skies with, first, two songs from Parkinson from Malaysia that are old-school and primitive and punk-as-fuck and then two songs from Little Bastards from Kumagaya, a long-running band (since 1992!) with Revölt's drummer, who deliver disgusting thrashing grindcore with an Agathocles vibe. I don't often listen to grindcore but when I do I want the bands to sound like this. The supremely obscure Calamity follow with a wonderful Doom-loving cavecrust song not unlike Battle of Disarm or Abraham Cross but apart being from Tochigi I know fuck all about them. Too bad. The band Tohchika comes next and I have no idea who they are. They deliver pretty standard 90's crustcore with groovy bass lines probably done by Shige Tribal War Asia/ Crocodileskink/Noise Room especially since the name of the song is "Noise room". Could Tohchika be a couple of friends dicking around in the studio? 

The brilliantly named Arize are up next and they did not come nothing. Great noize crust reminiscent of SDS (Arize were also from Gifu actually), early Gloom and Final Noise Attack bands. It sounds pissed, it sounds raw, it sounds like quintessential Japanese crust and it is a shame the band never got to do a proper record. The quite unique Proletariart from Aichi follow with one song (and not two as the cover indicates) of raw käng hardcore sung in Japanese and I like it a lot, like Diskonto holidaying in Tokyo and learning the lingo. The band has changed a lot throughout the years and this was their first endeavour on record. After that Revölt come crashing with their anguished metal crust and a long and (very) heavy song to mosh to and Asbestos come say hi again with a pretty solid live song although I don't really see the point of having it included once again.  

The band Baptism from Fukushima are up next. Clearly a young band at the time (in fact they never recorded anything else) that kind of announces neocrust with its dual angry male/female vocals dark but somehow melodic crust punk (like a much simpler Muga or Antiproduct maybe). I actually like this very 00's sound. Beyond Description then contribute an impressively crushing hardcore thrash number before Destruction (future members of Unarm here) provide an intense slice of crusty anarchopunk with some more melodic and emo bits (gasp). The sound is raw but I like the layers and the story told here. Of course, it reeks of mid-00's neocrust but I can enjoy some and I think it is meaningful to have this kind of crust represented on the compilation and not just your usual wall of noise. Speaking of which Voco Protesta follow with a barely listenable overdistorted low-fi raw punk. I like the band but this is silly. The last song of this Crust Night is a looooong number by Sacrifice from Sendai (members of Border Line, Little Bastards, Peaceful Collapse, small is the world of crust) that is clearly a tribute to the nationally beloved Doom. Japanese cavecrust to the max.

As you can deduce, listening to the three compilations in one sitting is not recommended because many bands are included on two or even the three of them. The Crust Nights are not deprived of fillers but if you were to take the 20 best songs off these you would end up with an absolute classic compilation so that, while I understand that they are not hailed as canonical or mandatory, I think any self-respecting crust fans keen to refine and boast their knowledge should be familiar with them as some noticeable bands who would eventually become popular started with these like Acrostix, Voĉo Protesta or Contrast Attitude. And why not use reverse snobbery if the local record bully points out that these are uncool cd compilations? Just answer something along the lines of: "The format is still very much in use in Japan, I would have thought you were aware of that. I mean, don't you own the Disturd/Ulcer split?".  

CRUST NIGHT!!!