"Fuck The Legion, Fuck The Lyrics, Fuck The Lot Of View! Vol.2" compilation tape, 2015

I have absolutely no idea how this compilation tape ended up in my pristine collection. Distros sometimes, when shipping prices allow for it, stick in parcels a couple of records they have been trying to get rid of, the ones that have been sleeping in boxes for too long and take up much needed space - a thoughtfulness usually formulated as "I've added extra gifts and goodies for you" - when you pass an order. I'm not blaming them and sometimes you do have nice surprises although more often than not the gifts end up sleeping in other boxes in non-distro homes. Cycle of life. This tape belongs to the first category of nice surprises. I suppose it landed here through a Greek distro (either this or someone broke into my place and planted the thing for me to write about it) but I can't recall which. If I'm being honest I had completely forgotten about it and I'm not even sure I ever played the fucker before this review. Not so long ago I still had a loyal employee taking care of the sorting for me and he selected only the most listenable material Terminal Sound Nuisance gets sent. It was truly a painful daily process and I was thankful to have him - I would often scratch him behind the ears and feed him treats - as he prevented me to suffer the indignity to endure German metalcore or random Californian post-skacore (please refrain from sending such dross). Tragically he progressively got deaf and he had to be put down. Fuck the Legion, Fuck the Lyrics, Fuck the Lot of Views! Vol.2 was one of the tapes salvaged by my sorely missed partner. Thanks mate.

This 100% DIY production comes from Greece, from a label called Stand Against Vivisection Records based in Kavala that started in 2004 and might have folded in the 2020's (the last release is from 2022). Looking at the catalogue, one has to admire the variety of styles it released, from cracking postpunk (Πανδημία and Κωμωδία Θανάτου), brutal grindcore (Agathocles and Mixomatosis), classic 80's punk (Mellakka or Απόγνωση) and angry crust (Παροξυσμός). I would venture that the label maybe just originally happened to support the network of friends and take part in worthy projects and then grew into helping out from times to times. There were three volumes of Fuck The Legion, Fuck The Lyrics, Fuck The Lot Of View! - the silly reference to Chaotic Dischord always makes me giggle like a school kid upon hearing a fart - the first one from 2013 included the aforementioned incredible Πανδημία, goth punks Era of Fear (both Athens bands did a split Lp shortly after), Luftslott and Καρκίνωμα (who did a split tape with the rather popular antifa oi punk band Ομίχλη in 2001). All the songs on the tapes were recorded live in Kavala so it's about as raw and urgent as you can expect. As for the the third volume it was in fact a vinyl Lp, a fairly ambitious undertaking, with Kavala SS (who also appear on the second one), Ταραχές, Eristetyt (yes, Eristetyt ) and Etuaste, the last two from Finland.

The chances of anyone knowing about the four bands included on this second volume are rather slim unless: you are a punk from Greece or Istanbul and were around then and there; you were an angry local neighbour who had to sleep through all this noisy punk shows of these bands; or you are a massive Greek punk nerd and probably scared all your friends away a long time ago. The first band is he Κοπρόσκυλα (meaning "dirty dogs" or maybe "stray dogs") from Athens, a rather short-lived experience since the 9 songs on the tape were the band's only studio recording apparently. These songs were actually originally released as a cdr demo in 2010 so they were not exactly new at the time of release of this compilation. Information about The Κοπρόσκυλα is scarce to say the least but my sharp ears were already familiar with the vocals that must belong to the singer of Πανδημία (and these days of Πυρ Κατά Βούληση). I love his singing style so even though the music of  The Κοπρόσκυλα cannot be said to be Earth-shattering, the nine songs run pretty smoothly indeed. The band played dynamic and energetic punk-rock with some good hooks and singalongs but they are neither fast enough or melancholy enough to really grab the listener by the throat although they were certainly solid and tight enough to stand as a reliable local band.

The next band, Ugly Shadows, is not actually from Greece but from Istanbul, Turkey. They were around in the mid-00's and had members of Poster ITI (a very likable charged UK82 type band that had a good run and covered The Bristles) and Era of Fear. The mid-10's were the zenith of the postpunk revival and Ugly Shadows must definitely be seen in that light, as belonging to that mood of the time. To be fair the band's punk energy (especially with dynamic drumming and the shouted female vocals) puts them more in the "dark punk" category than the melancholy goth one. They are more angry than they are depressed if you like. The production is pretty basic here which works with the songwriting and adds some urgency. The lyrics are in English and you could easily namedrop PDX bands like Moral Hex or Dead Cult, class French exports Litovsk and also prepare some invitations for Barcelona's Sect. Know what I mean? Ugly Shadows are not reinventing the wheel but they sound honest enough in a genre that quickly became a cheap excuse to tour and a bandwagon one could easily jump on. There are four songs here, two that appeared on the self-titled 2015 Ep and two on the 2014 cdr demo. After the demise of the band three members went on to form Crudez, a very apt and accurate, albeit short-lived, Vice Squad-meet-Lux band. Members later on went on to play in bands like Die In Vain or Rotting System, and, in singer Gicem's case, in the Paris-based Zevk.

On the other side of the tape you will find the local heroes Kavala SS, who only ever appeared on this tape and on the third volume so I strongly suspect some (very) close ties with the label. I haven't been much of a fan of adding "SS" to your band's name. First because you always have to explain that it's not dodgy because Crude SS and Tampere SS did it and second because you grandmother would be very upset indeed if she saw you wearing a shirt with SS on it (but then, she actually saw SS soldiers in the flesh so she kinda has a point). I didn't expect to enjoy Kavala SS that much but they proved to be a good, fun listen reminiscent of classic 80's Finnish bands (they don't cover Tampere SS or Bastards for nothing) with crazy vocals not unlike 80's Japanese bands (they cover The Execute, just to be safe). The band also cover Rudimentary Peni and the lyrics to "Ύμνος Στον" are an adaptation of a poem by Fernando Pessoa who would have probably been very curious to hear it indeed. Who said punks did not read? As I said, it's fun and rather well-done although they probably loved covers a bit too much.

The final band of the compilation is also the best one: Toxic Minds. Forget the name pointing to crossover mountains, Toxic Minds play heavy, intense, aggressive old-school crust punk, the Greek way. Although not precisely prolific, this Thessaloniki act has been around since 2009 and the six songs included here were either taken from their unreleased 2012 cdr demo or are rehearsal recording. Therefore don't expect clean produced crust music, this is for the trve fans. The rawness, the primitiveness of the sound unmistakably remind one of older Greek bands and I would suggest Toxic Minds lie somewhere between beefy angry hardcore bands like Απολίτιστοι or early Πανικός and gruff metallic crust monsters like Ατομική Σχάση and Ανθρωπινος Ληθαργος (even though they are not as metal oriented or as epic as the national founding bands of the genre). If you close your eyes and listen to their songs here you would believe they were released in 1995. Absolutely brilliant stuff and Toxic Minds are the reason why such humble compilation tapes are crucial to the punk scene (and my personal encyclopedic knowledge of course). Stand Against Vivisection released their full Lp in 2017 and while it doesn't really have that cavemen crust feel anymore the album hits very hard and sounds absolutely furious with that typical Greek hardcore intensity but a perfect production highlighting the savagery of the songs. Fuck me.

For all I know there could be copies of the tape floating around and it's well worth investigating.  

Fuck fuck fuck

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 7): HORRENDOUS "War is still..." 12" Ep, 2015

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.

War is still horrendous

An adventure in split Ep's! I have no gun but I can split: HELLISHEAVEN / WEALD "S/t" split Ep, 2015

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. 

HELLISHWEALD

  

     

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Skunk / Existench "S/t" split Ep, 2015

It is odd how much a name can affect the way one relates to a given band. If you come across a band called Terminal Nuclear Krusher or Deviated Filthshit, before even listening, your already damaged ears will prepare themselves to be willingly subjected to some gruff apocalyptic stenchcore, your bleary eyes will soon be adjusting to visions of skeletons in pain, barren wastelands, bum-looking crusty punks and Celtic knot frame and your neck will warm up for the coming moderate moshing (no one is getting any younger, let's be real, and sometimes one does feel about as energetic as an agonizing sloth). And you would be absolutely right to do that, there is no need to sprain a muscle. Appropriate preparedness allows for the right state of mind before the mental and physical absorption of a dose of music. It is not unlike the opening of chakras during a yoga session without the martial farting. That is what we do, we have expectations when presented with works of art (broadly speaking), especially ones belonging to schools or genres that we feel we are already familiar with. You don't approach a band called The Skarambas the same way you do one called Street Squad 84, atlthough in both cases you should save yourself the tedium and elope as fast as your biker boots permit. 

So when you have a split Ep between Skunk and Existench and you do not know the bands like a miserable poser, things can get a little confusing. The name "Existench" gives all the necessary clues. The cross between "existence" and "stench" implies that life is sometimes a toilet indeed and conveys the sense of an impending noise battering. I am sure many a crust band wished they had thought of it first as it is undeniably a great name. But then, you have a band called "Skunk" on the other side and if you haven't seen the slimy crusty font, what will you expect? If you are a confirmed pothead, Skunk would definitely get your attention. Similarly, if you believe that a "skunk" indicates the validity of the fusion between a punk and a skinhead (as if Gogeta the fusion between Goku and Vegeta wasn't bad enough), it might also interest you, although why you would consider such an inane cross identity desirable is upsetting at best. In both cases, you would be very wrong and, assuming you give this Skunk a chance, face major disappointment.

A close friend of mine first told me about the Winnipeg Skunk a while ago, saying that the band was basically Archagathus' crust side-project. I have to admit I was a little underwhelmed with the name, as there used to be a ska punk band called Skunk in France in the late 90's. Checking Discogs now, I realize that there are no less than 41 inventoried entries under the name Skunk, among which a Russian nu metal one, a New Jersey indie rock band and an Italian rapper. Pick your king. But my mate was adamant that I was going to love that band so I did check their first demo online (that would have been about 10 years ago I guess). And fuck me, wasn't he right. My initial circumspection made me feel like a gormless wanker as Skunk play a sort of crust that is an endangered species, one that has tragically all but vanished from the face of an ungrateful and tasteless Earth: dual vocal cavemen crust. Class demo. Then, the band did not really release anything else and Skunk remained a delicious footnote in my crust-addicted brain, although I have to confess that I often remembered them as that "brilliant Archagathus crust project" instead of Skunk.

And then Skunk started releasing many Ep's in the mid-10's with splits with Warvictims, Existench, Restricted Rights and Devastation of Life and the full Ep Failed World as well as a split Lp with Lycanthropy, Bloody Phoenix and Disturbance Project. Most of the material was thoroughly enjoyable, and indeed enjoyed, and I proceeded to buy my favourite ones, the split with Restricted Rights and our present one the split with fellow Canadians Existench. What I did not realize about Skunk is that Dan and Joe, also in Archagathus, used to play in Skeleton in the mid/late 00's, a fine raw d-beat crusty käng band very much from the studded brigade school of thought (like Decontrol meeting Crude SS at Beshöven's place) that actually appeared on a split Ep with Svaveldioxid in 2019 so they might have resurrected the band after all. But then I think these two nerds have been and are still involved in countless bands. 

???

If you have never heard Skunk the five songs that make up the first side are a perfect introduction and according to me their best recording so far. I put all the songs on one single track as feedbacks and noise tie them together anyway and it further stresses the relentlessness of the vibe. The production is raw and definitely cavernous, this is cavemen crustcore for the initiated. The very growled vocal tones borrow to the old-school grindcore tradition but the dual vocal placement and structure is clearly crust-oriented. Musically their brand of fast and raw neanderthal crustcore is very close to the extreme crust terror philosophy as embodied by early Disrupt, late 3-Way Cum, a cavemen crust version of State of Fear or a more primitive Massgrave. I love the organic chaotic feel of the production as well as the gruffness but it has to be pointed out that the riffs are very strong and dynamic too (again, not unlike Disrupt's). 

After this manic aggression on the sense, the listener has to withstand 5 minutes of Existench-ial grindcore. Hailing from Halifax, this lot has been going for ages, especially if you consider that Existench was itself the followup to Disabuse, a band that was already active in 1990. I know that the two founding members that are still in the band were also involved at some point in the other seemingly immortal old-school grinding act System Shit and, while I cannot and won't claim to be an expert in North American grindcore, the band's stories are intertwined. Looking in my massive record collection (I need a speedy golf car to go from letter A to Z) I realized that I owned a couple of Existench records from their vast discography. I don't play them much to be honest but I always think they are quite alright when I do. On this split Ep, what with all the "songs" having been recorded on a 4-track during an afternoon, you should not expect some fancy technical grindcore but a pure explosion of old-school noise-oriented but energetic rough grindcore with harsh vocals (well of course they are). There is one minute of short bursts of insane noisecore at the end of their side which shows that there is also a sensitive side to their music. I would not listen to them all day but I think it works well on this specific record. 

Both bands have short political lyrics so none of that goofy shite and this Ep was released in 2015 through a handful of labels in true DIY tradition: Blastbeat Worship Tapes from Hungary, Suburgatory Records, the sadly defunct Scull Crasher Records from Greece, Rex Manor and Outrageous Defecation from Québec (you just have to have a label with a name like this for a grindcore record, right?). It would be far-fetched to call this a classic or a landmark of 2010's crust but if you are looking for a piece that illustrates the fruitful potential of the liminal frontier between crustcore and grindcore, it does make for an interesting and pleasant listen. 

Exitskunk    

                

Ashes to ashes, crust to CRUST (round 11): Disturd "Dark" cd, 2015

Any punk elder (or wannabe elder really, since they are basically the same thing, age being a bourgeois social construct and all that) will tell you - even if you didn't request his opinion (it is often a "he") on the matter - that it is unwise to break some sacred rules when brainstorming for a band name. As History has often proven, picking the wrong moniker may eventually condemn your top band to obscurity and make your shirt highly difficult to sell. When it comes to names with a Dis prefix, one has to be even more careful as the frontier between an acceptable Disname and an embarrassing one is tenuous indeed. 

Here is a short guideline to help you through the Dis-picking process (this is a strictly linguistic enquiry and does not take the band's quality into consideration):

- Great Disnames: they are referential, relevant to the Discharge worldview and actually mean something (Disaster, Disaffect, Distemper...).

- Decent Disnames: still referential and meaningful but tend to stray away from the Discharge signifying web (Disclose, Discard, Dislike...).

- Fantasy Disnames: neologisms relying solely on referentiality with still some kind of sense (Disfear, Dischange, Dissystema...).

- Tasteless Disnames: Dis-based neologisms that sound corny and on the dark side of humour (Disbeer, Disfornicate, Dishit...).  

Unfortunately, and as much as I like the band, Disturd fall into the last category. When I first read about them about ten years ago, I ignorantly scoffed and mentally discarded them as a "comedy Dis-band" unworthy of my royal attention. Even though Disturd were often mentioned in the same breath as Effigy, AGE or SDS, I was not going to waste my princely time and money on a band that had "turd" in its name (the only exception I was then willing to make applied to Pink Turds in Space). It took a short review of the Isolation Ep which compared them to Antisect (it really is that easy if you want to make me buy a record, just say casually that they sound like Antisect) for me to, first, order it and then realize how mistaken I had been. Of course, I could blame my past foolishness on the arrogance of youth or on the troubled relationship I had always had with Japanese punk. But I will try - for once - to acknowledge my errors with dignity and take it on the chin. If I have to be slapped in the face as many times as I mocked the Disturd name, so be it. And well, at least they did not go for Hellturd or Turdgrinder.

I had originally thought of including a Disturd Ep in the "Japanese crust against the world" series but decided against it since the band had just released Dark in late 2015 which qualified them for this crust series instead (quite a fascinating TSN anecdote, innit?). Perhaps because of their bold moniker, Disturd are seldom seriously discussed when the burning topic of Japanese crust inevitably pops up, be it at a dinner party or while you are at the gym with your mates. This discrepancy, which has nothing to do with the music since Disturd certainly deliver the goods, can be partly explained with the band's unusual history. Because of the rather recent span of their prolificity (from 2012 to 2016), they are sometimes thought to be a late 00's/early 10's band. But Disturd must have actually formed in the late 90's as the existence of an early demo (with no actual date) seems to suggest. However the songs of the aforementioned demo being apparently - I haven't heard it - in a UK82/pogopunk vein (which might explain the silly name of the band if you know what I mean), I will not take this mysterious recording in consideration. In 2002, Disturd released a two-song demo, Fight back/Life, one song of which, "Fight back", ended up on a MCR compilation the same year. In 2003, they also appeared on the quietly seminal The Darkest 4 alongside Effigy, Zoe and Acrostix. If by 2003, Effigy were already a confirmed crust band (arguably one of the very best of the period), Acrostix and Zoe were, just like Disturd, in their infancy and had not had a vinyl release yet. But whereas the former quickly went on to have their own record out, the latter waited until 2011 to do so. 

It does not mean that the band was snoozing, since they self-released a tape, entitled Darkness... Faint gleam... in 2007 and Discogs lists a couple of other undated as well tapes, about which I was unable to find sufficient information (Disturd are actually little documented on da internet). In 2011, Black Water released the Isolation Ep, then one year later the Collapse Ep came out on ヤシマレコード, and, in 2014, Hardcore Survives unleashed the new Disturd incarnation with the Inside Ep. At some point between the last two Ep's, Disturd frontman Age relocated from Tsuyama to Kobe, bringing with him the full band's repertoire. My knowledge in Japanese culture being fairly limited, I do not know the specifics of Tsuyama, but from I have read, it looks like a pretty quiet town, so quiet in fact that Disturd were the first punk band to ever emerge from the location, an impressive, if anecdotal, fact when one considers the number of Japanese punk bands in the past four decades. Age reformed the band in Kobe with a new line-up, with Kakuda (formerly in Effigy and Axewield) on the drums and Nassan (Sex Messiah's singer) on the bass. The Dark cd was recorded with this new-look outfit.

Calling Dark a new album (in the sense of novelty) is actually open to discussion. It is undeniably a full length record with a collection of Disturd songs but none of them are technically new. Indeed, all of them had already appeared in different versions on previous recordings. As a consequence, it would not be irrelevant to see Dark as a compilation of re-recorded Disturd songs (some of them written in the early 00's). It does not mean, however, that it is a lazy work or one that you should ignore assuming that you are already familiar with the band's Ep's. If you are not acquainted with Disturd, then Dark is clearly a great starting point, but even if you are, the band has developed a slightly but significantly different sound with the new line-up and it is always an interesting exercise to compare different recordings of the same songs and try to notice the discrepancies in terms of texture, production and vibe (as you can imagine, afternoons with me can be really fun). Despite having a rather limited stock of them, Disturd's songs, from one recording to another, can sound really raw and distorted, or totally triumphant in a Japanese hardcore way, or totally epic like a classic old-school crust anthem... Variety in details if you like.  

A friend of mine called Disturd "the ghost of SDS" and, even after thinking long and hard about it, I cannot really think of a better phrase to characterize them (and of course, I love the high degree of nerdery of the remark, since SDS referred to themselves as "the ghost of Anti-Sect"). If you blended all the different eras of SDS into one tight, cohesive unit, the end result would sound something like Disturd. They have the heaviness, the intensity, the referential but clever songwriting, the Antisect-worship to a tee, the chugging riffs, the shredding ones and they even nod directly and respectfully toward the national crust pioneers with the song "Scum system fear". Significant dissimilarities do exist between both bands as Disturd are globally more metallic in terms of songwriting and the production is unlike any of SDS'. The band fearlessly went for some glorious UK crust moments and I cannot think of many bands able to recreate the dark vibe of "Out from the void"-era Antisect as well as Disturd (who did not think twice about borrowing a couple of riffs and vocal parts in the process). Add to this some heavy, filthy early Hellbastard riffing and mid-paced thrashy moments reminiscent of Sacrilege's flair and you will get a sonic picture of the band's backbone. As I previously pointed out, SDS remain the main compass but I would argue that their overarching influence is as structural as it is literal since it also provides the band with a creative template for the seamless incorporation of classic UK crust elements into the Japanese crust sound. They make it sound easy but it clearly isn't. Contrary to SDS who mostly and contextually worked on the UK sound, Disturd also largely build upon the national brand of metallic crust and I distinctively hear some influences from AGE in the overall triumphant groove and from Effigy, not only in the drumming (the peculiar but brilliant double-bass parts evidently come to mind) but also in the arrangements and the balance between the three instruments. 

Disturd do not really bring anything new to the table but they are remarkable in the way they keep that specific school of Japanese crust alive, without pretension but with an unrivaled conviction, especially when one considers that Age has been playing these songs for almost 15 years. The tempos are diverse, ranging from the fast and pummeling dischargy beat to the mid-paced crunchy metal specimen and the slow, moody epic trek. The sound production is perfect for this kind of sound, it has a definite rawness and urgency but still maintains a degree of crispiness so that it feels organic and not the product of a fancy engineer (truth be told, it also works because they are a tight trio). The distorted bass sound is truly to die for, groovy, brooding and thick, it cements the heaviness into the composition and leaves enough space for the guitar to thrash. The vocals are very upfront, which I like, naturally pissed and harsh, with a some variety in the tones (from caveman growls to angry shouts). 

The artwork is pretty simple, darkly suggestive and looks a lot like the Inside Ep's, so that it ties both records aesthetically (perhaps too much so). Dark was self-released by the band on cd only (for now anyway) and is still available if you care to look for it, but then it might take more efforts than just clicking twice on youtube.            

Dark Disturd

Ashes to ashes, crust to CRUST (round 10): Ruinebell "Embers' grave" 12'', 2015

When I started to think about a possible roster for this series, I was confronted with a dilemma. Not the kind to keep me awake at night in a pool of sweat and tears, but one that still needed thoughtful consideration and inner investigation (if that helps, just picture me thinking hard while the sun is setting on a postindustrial landscape). The scope of Terminal Sound Nuisance has changed significantly throughout the years and even if I like to think that I managed to maintain some sort of recurring narrative motif for its contents to hold together cohesively, the idea to write about novelty - possibly our epoch's main shibboleth - raised a few issues in terms of the perspective to adopt. Not being particularly prone to rave purposelessly about the latest releases whose cool factor is often too transient to trust ("don't believe the hype" as they say), the relevant trope to be used in this particular case was uncertain. I knew it had to be different because of the novelty element of the works but it wouldn't have made much sense if I only focused on the excitement induced by discovery. There is nothing quite like hearing a cracking unknown recording for the first time but the feeling is not the same if the band is contemporary, especially since we fatally lack perspective about our current present context. How well will 2010's crust hold in 10 years time? And flowing from this interrogation, one also needs to ask: how unperceptive may these words eventually become? And where are my prescription pills?

But to get back on point, the "Ashes to ashes, crust to CRUST" odyssey is, because of its transversality, a fun opportunity to be enthusiastic about new records, focus on the priceless element of surprise and take responsibility for its impermanence. Which brings me to Ruinebell, because it is a band that I did not see coming at all and that I became acquainted with considerably later than I feel is appropriate considering the quality of their music. The fact that no one told me about them before is preposterous and, were we living under the French Ancien Régime, I would have thought of writing a nasty pamphlet and possibly settled things via a couple of bloody - but honourable - duels. But since it is 2017, I am just writing a new post entry, though rest assured that I hit the keys with bitterness in my heart right now.

I do not even remember how or when I first heard of Ruinebell but my first two reactions are still vivid. It was first "OMG this is absolutely excellent! Who? What? When? Where? How? Why?" and second "and a what lovely name they picked!". Obviously, the immediate lexical meaning of "Ruinebell" is "the bell of ruin", which aptly reflects the music's spectral mournfulness and fits with the metal/crust lexical field. But what about the "e" then? It is Ruinebell and not Ruinbell. In a short interview for Terrorizer (that you can read here), multi-instrumentalist Lasse explains that "ruine" is the French word for "ruin" and that they ended up using the former for their moniker because it looked better graphically. However, such a choice also created a rather pleasant double entendre as "ruinebell" is almost similar to "ruine belle", a phrase that translates as "beautiful ruin" and which meaning also coheres with the band's music. So even before I actually listened to the songs, I was already taken in linguistically though, to be fair, I am not sure the band really did that on purpose.

More than an actual band, Ruinebell can probably be best described as a studio project, which implies that we are not likely to ever see them play (which kinda sucks). It is a trio made up of two Finns - Pekka on the drums and Lasse on the guitar, bass and synth - and one Spaniard on vocals, so you can imagine that band practices must be few and far between. This said, the boys have solid experience in playing in bands indeed since Lasse and Pekka play together in Hooded Menace (and before that in Vacant Coffin and respectively in many other acts as well) while Dopi was the drummer/singer of long-running grindcore band Machetazo and has also played in such projects as Dishammer or Mutilated Veterans throughout the years. So not exactly an amateurish lineup and it certainly shows.

The initial idea behind Ruinebell was to write Amebix/Axegrinder-influenced metallic crust music with an industrial touch and heavy Voivod riffs without sounding too referential. Honestly, I could almost stop writing right there since they absolutely nailed the sound they were reaching for and their music speaks for itself, but as we all know, I won't. Their first Ep, Demise in grace, recorded as a duo (with Dopi playing the drums as well as singing) and released in 2011 on Czech DIY metal label Doomentia Records, is a coup de maître that demonstrates how brilliant axegrinding mid-paced doomy crust can sound thanks to concerted songwriting and proper ideas. The Amebixian vibe is strong and potent and yet it never feels old or literal, rather it is used as a binder to make new additions hold together. As they use the basic ingredients of old-school crust, they also update them. Ruinebell sound both old-school and modern and on that level they do remind me conceptually of early Morne. I am not going to dwell too much on the Ep (that, for reasons that may have to do with the unfamiliar label that released it and my own ignorance about the underground metal scene, completely passed me by until recently) but it has everything a crust-loving person can hope for. And yes, that includes apocalyptic moody synth parts and terrific bass-lines.

Embers' grace can be relevantly seen as Demise from grace's sequel, meaning that it is not just a follow-up but also a genuine progression. Assuredly, Ruinebell built on similar grounds for the 12'' and the amegrinder scripture still stands as the music's backbone but it is a more versatile and diverse work with a slightly different mood, not as mournful and more ominously mechanical. I suppose Ruinebell could have picked the easier path and write a full Lp that would have sounded just like a longer Demise in grace - and honestly, I would still have been thrilled - because their musical ability and their sense of clever songwriting would have allowed it, but they went for something a little different, globally more rhythmic and colder, the industrial influence more upfront. And it works. While crust has often been openly infused with black, death or doom-metal in recent years (with varying results, truth be told), I cannot think of many crust bands that have ventured into industrial sonorities since the 90's. The opening song, "Inexistence", epitomizes this shift, with heavy chugging riffs and cold, steely beats cloaked around the classic mid-tempo crust structure. Quite the perfect meeting point between Sonic Violence, Depressor, 13 and Axegrinder. The following track - "The hermit" - is a more orthodox locomotive old-school crust anthem, with a monumental driving synth, some wicked gloomy guitar arpeggios and even a progressive feel on one riff. Clearly an epic number that brings to mind vintage Greek crust, early Morne and mid-90's Counterblast for its inventive recreation of canonical crust elements. On the flipside, "Temple of isolation" is even more indus-influenced with its stark martial beats, super heavy bass sound and dark incantatory guitar riffs, not unlike a combination of early Godflesh, Killing Joke at their heaviest, the mighty Depressor and of course Amebix. Finally, "Flesh bone catacomb" is a galloping Amebix/Axegrinder song with a desperate doom feel concluded with an eerie spoken part that nods heavily toward vintage crust. Quite a ride in twenty minutes.

The production on Embers' grace sounds very clear, almost surgical, in the bleakest sense of the term, so it confers a literal metallic quality to the songs. This kind of production seldom works with the crust genre because it can make the music sound too clean and lose its filthy groovy edge, but in this case I feel it connects adequately with the band's songwriting intent. Because of the mid-paced 80's crust style of Ruinebell, one might think that going for this very cold modern production would have impaired and deprived the songs of their darkly threatening power, but thanks to a clever use of the synth as a texturing agent and a focus on heavy, precise, cold industrial rhythms, Ruinebell manage to offer a new relevant perspective on the genre, keeping it heavy but in a different sepulchral way. The musical abilities of the participants are obvious but always serve the general direction and help create a meaningful oppressive atmosphere that feels tense and sorrowful. I haven't talked about the vocals yet but they clearly demonstrate an awareness and a knowledge of the rules of the genre that are impressive. I can hear some Japanese crust influence in the harsh gruff tone, especially since the singer uses an effect on his voice, but also Steve from Neurosis if he tried to impersonate an entombed humanoid entity (the sorrowful lyrics also point in that direction actually). In any case, it shows that one does not have to squeal like a grossly constipated boar to deliver proper crust vocals and that, in the end, clever vocal placement is the key.

Embers' grace was released in September, 2015 on Doomentia Records (I still have not figured out how to correctly pronounce "doomentia" and probably never will) and I am pretty sure it is still available. The only reservation I can voice about this wonderful 12'' has to do with the artwork that does not really reflect the music (the cover looks more like a doom-metal one) and only partly illustrates the mood. Oh well, great records also have flaws I suppose. 

Belle ruine

         

Ashes to ashes, crust to CRUST (round 9): Putrefaction "Scavenger" Ep, 2015

If you ask your next-door neighbour about his favourite contemporary crust bands, Putrefaction are unlikely to come up in the discussion. And the hypothesis is not rhetorical, go ahead, chat him up and you'll see I am right. It is, along other dismaying things like the recent French elections or international shipping costs, one of the many sad truths of our time and I do not have a reasonable explanation for this discrepancy. 

It would be far-fetched to claim that Putrefaction have gone completely unnoticed, as I remember that their 2012 Lp did garner some well-deserved attention, but this wonderful Ep pretty much flew under the radar. If the amount of active crusty metal-punk bands is any indication, it is then sound to assume that Putrefaction's sound is not happening at the wrong time. Could they be at the wrong place, being from Dublin? Yet another instance of the "had-they-been-from-Portland" syndrome? Still, the ever-increasing globalization of punk music through the internet should precisely keep great crust music from remaining relatively unknown and, ideally, foster both a more horizontal way of apprehending music from multiple backgrounds and an urge to discover exciting bands from all over, as vertiginous as it might be given the spectrum of inquiry. But then, the internet also tends to exacerbate pre-existing glorifications of some parts of the scene at the expense of others. We have a window open to the world and yet use it as the mirror of our obsessions. Could the world wide web be the ultimate reflection of this duality? Or has our attention span been permanently damaged by the overwhelming mass of information continuously renewed before our eyes? Or perhaps the name "Putrefaction" sounds too ingrained in death-metal lexical mythology and might scare "da punx" away? 

You should ask your neighbour again, unless he threatened to call the cops the first time. If so, it might be safer to leave him on his own and just leave a note in his mailbox or something.

Putrefaction are friends so I could be a little partial to them but have no fear, I will be just as subjective as usual, prone to defend the crust underdogs against the trendies (that I always picture wearing Fall of Efrafa shirts and Metal Punk Death Squad hats for some obscure reason that even my shrink cannot make sense of). As I remember it, the idea of Putrefaction was born in 2005 in Dublin when Eric (the handsome guitarist/singer, formerly in Easpa Measa and currently also singing for Rats Blood) mentioned that he was thinking of forming some kind of D-beat band under that moniker. Helped in this task by brothers Donal and Eoin, it first came into being with the 2007 Destroyers demo. The demo was a rather raw but promising 8-song effort that gave the listener an idea of what the band was then trying to achieve. It could be roughly described as an aggressive blend of State of Fear-type crust, Hellshock's epic stenchcore style and Repulsion's primitive extreme metal (the punk as fuck Sepultura cover is pretty ace). There were some genuinely good ideas on this one. Though it was partly impaired by a raw punk production, it still conferred the demo some sort of Hellhammer charm, so even if it was not a groundbreaking recording, at least it had the relative merits to sound unpretentiously spontaneous and angry. It did not, however, prepare the unsuspecting listener for the mammoth metal-punk scorcher as unleashed on Blood cult five years later.

To be fair (time for confidences), when the Blood cult Lp came out in 2012, I had almost forgotten about Putrefaction. I do not know how active they were locally between 2007 and 2012, but the truth is that I thought they had basically stopped playing so I was both pleased and surprised when a full album was released on four reliable labels such as Underground Movement (also responsible for the Coitus discography and the brilliant Bullet Ridden album), Distro-Y Records, Phobia Records and Ratbone Records. Without even getting into the songwriting, the progression from the demo is immense. The album has a massive sound and, as tempting as the claim that the musicianship considerably improved appears, it might be closer to the truth to say that the effort is that much more focused and cohesive that it allows the instruments to really shine. Blood cult is a more diverse work which borrows more heavily from the world of extreme metal than the demo. The direct crustcore element is toned down to give room to a more refined death-metal influence that never feels contrived and mechanical. Although Putrefaction's investigative fields are apparent, the band never sounds derivative or generic. More crucially, despite the diverse stylistic additions, the music does not feel disparate and the different phases sound like adhering parts of a smooth whole and not like a bland series. I would argue that this is what makes the album good: it sounds whole. I may not love to death all the elements when taken separately, but as an entity, they all work. On this album, Putrefaction borrowed from old-school death-metal bands like Repulsion or Autopsy, but also from modern metal crust acts like Limb From Limb or Hellshock, from the dark hardcore punk sound of Tragedy or World Burns To Death and the epic cavemen crustcore of Cop On Fire and Consume. The list of possible influences is endless and it would be pointless (and a probable tedious read) to go on, as what really matters here is that the band tied all of these elements in the songwriting with one thing: mood. Whether they go for a brutal death-metal beat or for a mid-paced heavy hardcore moment, the mood remains the compass. Putrefaction sound like a trance-inducing apocalyptic ride into the industrial wasteland as a symbol of the decay of an ever-rotting society. Sure, the hellish bike (it has to be a motorbike, right?) sometimes takes a turn or goes faster but the destination does not change.

When Putrefaction released their Scavenger Ep two years ago, this time I was ready to ruck and when they played in Paris I bought it in a heartbeat (and let me tell you that they were one of the most convincing crust trios I have ever witnessed live). If Blood Cult was a dantean journey to the threshold of Hell's gates, Scavenger can be described as the mad descent into the Inferno itself as it sounds like the (un)natural progression of the Lp. It is a great Ep with memorable clever riffs that never falls into complacency, enhanced with a thick, heavy and aggressive production that is burning and abrasive and never sounds overdone or artificially angry. Superb job on that level. The bass sound is ominous and distorted and confers a crunchy texture to the songs, the guitar has that vibrating, filthy metallic quality but keeps a distinctively hardcore aggression and the drumming is excellent, just at the right level, pummeling but neither buried nor overshadowing everything else. The vocals are hoarse, guttural and aptly expressive of the sense of desperate rage that the band goes for, and, more importantly, they never sound forced or ridiculously grandiloquent. 

Despite the shorter format, Scavenger is still a pretty varied, highly mood-driven work with some delicious hooks in the arrangements and the articulations. "Welcome death" is a crushingly epic introduction to the record, reminiscent of vintage Stormcrow (especially in the textures), Limb From Limb and of a punkified Bolt Thrower; "Wasted time" is a mid-paced dark hardcore anthem (skipping on my copy for some unfathomable reason) that brings Tragedy and Wolfpack's best moments to mind; "After the storm" is an epic mid-00's "gruff-yet-modern" crustcore number that nods towards Cop On Fire and Nuclear Death Terror (with perhaps something of the Spanish D-Beat/crust school as well); finally, "Ballast existence" goes back effortlessly to Stormcrow heaviness and concludes the last ride in style. Although they certainly build on old-school metal and punk (you won't be hearing silly technical blast beats, pseudo screamo atmospheric parts or similar nonsensical atrocities), Putrefaction sound modern in a good way, dark, powerful and epic. They are not openly referential and, in spite of some unavoidable sonic familiarity, write songs that are singular, catchy and strong enough to stand out from the crowd. The lyrics are another definite strongpoint, pissed, genuinely political and carefully written despite their directness, they depict the homicidal and exploitative nature of modern politics instead of rehashing dull doomsday allegories. I particularly enjoy "Wasted time," with words about "A vicious ruling class crucifying the poor. Ireland 2015" that read bitterly familiar in the current era of austerity politics. 

A truly cracking record released on Distro-Y (and still available) that you could argumentatively recommend to your neighbour now (never underestimate the connective power of crust).       

Putrefy Dublin