Adventure in split Ep's! I have no gun but I can split: DYSPNEA / NAKOT "S/t" split Ep, 2007

This is a record I actually bought fairly recently, out of nowhere really, at a local punk gig that had rather melodic bands on the bill. I always check out record stands in case something decent got lost in the midst of all the usual crap (or fast food punk as I wittily call it) and, as the night proved it, you never know what you are going to come across. To find this Ep, 17 years after its release, was unlikely and I imagine it had been sleeping in the box since it came out after a record trade. It might seem curious but then some distros have been sleeping for ages and only see the light day every three years or so and beside the genre that Dyspnea and Nakot engaged in not being really popular in France it is not all that surprising. It has to be said that some of this split's jail mates - some of which had been doing time in the box for well over twenty years - were bound however to remain buried there for eternity. Still you've got to love sleeping distros, they're always a fun, albeit frightening at times, trip into the past that will have you reminisce about bands that should not be reminisced about sometimes. Who needs to remember third rate Ekkaia wannabes?

I vaguely remembered Dyspnea as being "kinda neocrusty" but my memory of Nakot was much more accurate, or rather I remembered accurately quite liking Nakot even though I had not played their split with the brilliant Дажд/Dažd (a cruelly underrated band whose first album I rate very highly) for a while. So when I bumped into this great-looking humble record for a mere three euros, I didn't mess about and grabbed it. I saw surprise but also gratefulness in the eyes of the bloke running this tiny distro. Mind you, this Ep may have traveled more than me. The context of the release of this Ep was quite specific as it showcased two contemporary, modern, young bands from the Balkans which was not so common at the time, especially from my perspective as I still did not know much about the Greek scene (about which I have written extensively) and even less about bands from Yugoslavia. As I recall it, this collaboration between Dyspnea and Nakot excited my curiosity because I had not quite figured out yet that the classic 00's crust/d-beat/scandi sound had reached the Balkans. No, as you can see, I haven't always been the quickest kid on the block.

It strikes me as a little strange that Dyspnea, from Tyrnavos, almost always slips my mind when I reflect upon the Greek crust mythology, an activity I engage in often, deeply and with statuesque intensity. Still, I know I must have come across the name right when the band started through the then active blog scene of the late 00's, quite possibly thanks to Crustcracker or Crust Demos (the latter surviving until 2020), two blogs that were run by punks from Greece that I checked regularly and focused on obscure contemporary international bands of the fast and punishing variety. Those, among others, were great sources of information and inspiration as it reinforced the idea that punk was an unstoppable DIY international movement and that youthful talentless people from all over the world, be they from Chile, Indonesia or Slovenia, could also try to sound like Discharge or Doom and that's the real beauty of punk-rock, what unites us all. 

But to get back at Dyspnea they always stood for that time and the discovery process attached to it in my mind, they epitomised the type of bands that I would get to know through a blog: pretty local, pretty raw and pretty typical of the era (three criteria that are in no way bad things). I used to download a lot of music from these blogs (and I still do download a lot of music) and I loved the fact that they often promoted bands that were local to them. This recording is pretty raw, if not rough, even by 00's standards and if I did not know better (or if I could not read) I would have thought that they had been around in the early 90's rather than the late 00's. In any case Dyspnea cannot be described as being "neocrust", although they do have the odd melodic leads, an intensely dark vibe and a logo that is not dissimilar to Tragedy's (but you get five eagles instead of just one, it's a bargain). The vibe is dark, very dark, anguished even and the low gruff vocals sound pretty desperate indeed. Of course the Greek language works brilliantly with this kind of atmosphere (only the first song "Βολικοί Στη Σιωπή" is sung in Greek though, the other one is in English). The first number unleashes raw, bleak, fast crustcore with a slow-paced metallic break toward the end while the second is a groovy mid-paced one with a filthy tone and a singer sounding like he uses uranium as mouth wash. Beside ace Greek old-school metal crust bands like Ανθρώπινος-Λήθαργος or Βιομηχανική Αυτοκτονία, it reminds me of Czech gruff crust bands like Mass Genocide Process and neo(ish)crust geniuses Leadershit. Dyspnea would appear years later in 2014 on a split Lp with fellow countrymen Unfit Earth, using the same recipe but with a much cleaner and heavier production. It was well executed but did not have the charm of those two songs. 

On the other side are Nakot from Belgrade, a relatively short-lived band formed in 2005 that is still remembered - as far as I can tell - more for their relevance probably than their music because they stood for a new generation of punks ready to spit in the face of the powers that be in the difficult context of post-war Serbia. I was not aware of many Yugoslavian punk bands at that point in time - I was absolutely clueless about the buoyant scene of the 80's with the Ljubljana hardcore scene and the tons of national postpunk bands - and in fact, apart from Nulla Osta from Pula that played in 2006 in a squat in Paris (a band made even more exotic because they played with two bass guitars, crazy bastards), I would have struggled to name a Yugoslavian punk band. A friend of mine assured me that she had heard Serbian punk tapes so I at least knew the theoretical existence of punk music in that part of the world. But I'm sure a grindcore fan my age would have had a different perspective and vaster knowledge of the scene there because of the sheer number of grind/fastcore bands there. You could say Nakot, along with the aforementioned Dažd and Anaeroba from Slovenia - because their records could be found relatively easily on Western distro tables - opened a few doors on that level and expanded my punk multiverse. 

Nakot were also appealing because, to put it quite simply, they played a style I already liked and wore patches similar to mine (I assumed). They were basically a gruff scandicore band, a familiar genre that was accessible, and used typical - albeit drawn brilliantly - visuals with skulls, desolation, suffering and the good old Crass font. It felt like going to see a Serbian relative on vacation. Even if you had never met him, it was still family. Nakot's music on this split Ep was fairly simple, heavy and direct käng hardcore, a little lacking in terms of power because of the production (their next record largely solved this), but still delivering the goods. Picture Hellkrusher and Dread 101 partying hard while listening to Driller Killer. You can tell the band is genuine and they mention that when they sing about war, it comes from experience and is not "punk fetishism". 

Shortly after the release of this split, the remarkable efforts of some dedicated bloggers allowed me to explore the prolific 90's Yugoslavian DIY hardcore punk scene and discover dozens of tapes (they almost always were tapes) from the likes of Krvavi Mandat, S.m.c, Verbalni Delikt, Fight Back, Bad Justice, Intoxicate, Hoću Neću! or Totalni Promasaj. The continuity between those bands and Nakot ten years after made sense but also highlighted how much of a 00's band - sonically and visually - the latter were. It has to be said that the gloomy screen-printed artwork, expertly done by Doomsday Graphics, is one of the record's strongest points in spite of the rather common themes it depicts (but then that's what we are all looking for, right?).

A modest yet interesting record to be sure released on three Greek labels, Alcoholic Desaster, We don't Fight it! and Scarecrow, now a well-established label and record store, of whom it was the very first release.       

Dyspnea vs Nakot

Japanese Crust vs The World (part 4): Battle of Disarm / Brainstorm "反戦-反動物実験 / Join no army, police and politician" split Lp, 1993

Let's get back to business with the next installment of the Japanese crust series, which is proving to be so far one of the most glorious adventures the internet has ever seen. And I am not even being funny (possibly slightly delirious though) as I was offered to become the head of the Department of Crust Studies in a pretty posh university. Of course, because I am a loyal fucker, I politely but firmly declined the invite. I mean, do I really want to see essays entitled "Crust and Intersectionality: symbolically deconstructed identities as embodied in the shift from regular black thread to dental floss in the noughties" being written? And do they even allow special brew on campus? Exactly, THEY DON'T. So instead of wasting money on a pair of thick-framed glasses for that job (I was told it was compulsory for teachers), I decided to write about one of the most famous Japanese crust bands: Battle of Disarm.

Battle of Disarm (whom I will refer to as BoD from now on, although I realize it does not look so great) was the first crust band from Japan that I listened to. And honestly, it was not illogical at the time: their patches were (and still are) everywhere. No wonder the name caught my then innocent glare. You just could not avoid seeing BoD patches on the jackets worn by that part of the punk population inclined to sew cheap pieces of cloth on an otherwise good-looking garment (and yes, sometimes with bloody dental floss, ironically an item that was prohibited until 1993 in France). The omnipresence of the band was not illogical, nor was it unwarranted. After all, the "Crust, Love and Peace" 10'' could still be found on distro tables at that time (not still for long though, to be fair). The band had toured in Europe only a few years back (in 1997) and the record, released in 1999 on Malarie Records (the label also organized the tour), was a live recording of a gig in Slovenia. I guess the label had made a shitload of patches and shirts for that special occasion and they literally flooded the crusty market at that time. Even now, BoD paraphernalia is easy to find on distros almost 20 years after the tour. And fair enough really, as the band used great visuals and crispy veganarcho-crust imagery. Doves, (A)//(E)//(V) signs, peace symbols, more doves, antiwar slogans, animal rights ones and yet more doves. The whole package. A genuinely great fashionable addition to any self-respecting crusty punk looking to boast some right on politics. Did we really listen to BoD though? Not really. I will be honest here, I did not even buy that 10'' at the time as I was not a fan of live records. I still wore the patch though, not only for the sake of obvious aesthetics, but also because I loved (and still definitely do) the name "Battle of Disarm" for its oxymoronic value.

My first Battle of Disarm tape...

A friend of mine had the "Crust, Love and Peace" 10'' so I did know what BoD sounded like but it was with the "Take Action" tape that I truly became acquainted with them. The tape was unofficial and compiled all the band's Ep's and I seem to remember getting it from Catchphraze Records in 2003. And I enjoyed it very much, undeniably, but that was not quite enough, to my ears, to really get me hooked on the band, and besides, there were too many fantastic new Japanese crust records at that time for me to really bother with and dig deeper into BoD. I eventually did though, years later, when I listened for the first time to the split Lp with Brainstorm and all of a sudden, BoD was no longer "that-band-we-all-like-but-don't-really-care-to-know-much-about". To say that I felt like a fool - yet again - for not paying careful attention to a crucial crust record, for reasons that were flimsy at best, would be an understatement.

BoD's side is entitled "反戦-反動物実験" (meaning "Anti-War Anti-Animal Experimentation", clearly the two main themes in the band's lyrics) and was recorded in February, 1993. This Lp was actually the first vinyl output of BoD, as the band had only recorded a demo tape before, "Not Lie", in 1992, which included studio and live tracks. Discogs tells me they were included on a cd compilation in 1991 entitled "War Compilation" and released on Tribal War Asia (it also had GJPB, Crocodile Sking and The Deepcore Fighter among other international bands). I have never heard that comp but I am sure that it cannot have been released as early as 1991 because of the presence of Warcollapse on the record (the Swedes formed in December 1991 but didn't record anything until 1993, so I am assuming the compilation must be from 1993 or 1994... so fuck you Discogs). There could be earlier BoD recordings since they formed in 1989 and it seems unlikely that they waited more than two years to release anything, but then that is only a usual wild guess of mine. They certainly made up for the lack of recording activity of their early days: between 1993 and 1996, no less than 13 BoD releases saw the light of day, mostly splits on vinyl or tapes. This Tokyo bunch were a staunchly DIY band and appeared to have been very active live in the mid-90's, which accounted for the important number of live recordings and also probably for the relatively small numbers of songs they have penned throughout their career. Not unlike Disclose perhaps, they firmly believed in the internationalist dimension of punk and have shared records or tapes with bands from Portugal, Brazil, Holland, Indonesia, Czech Republic or Finland throughout the years, be they famous like Doom or... huh... far less so like Satellite. This belief in DIY punk as an international network of friends was also reflected in the label of Ryuji, the aptly named DIY Records, that specialized in political hard-hitting punk music from all over and basically did things the way the name suggested.

But back to today's record. If the "Not Lie" demo from the previous year was a rather rough, if delightful, gruff scandi-infused hardcore affair (maybe not so far from Private Jesus Detector if you know what I mean), the eight songs of "反戦-反動物実験" are perfectly recorded, not in the sense that the production is spectacular per se, but because it fits the band's songwriting to a tee. I don't think songs like "Battle of disarm" or "Anti vivisection" ever sounded better than on this Lp. The guitar riffs are thick and thrashy, even slightly convoluted at times, and bring to mind Crude SS or Lobotomia more than Doom. They still sound straight-forward, almost deceptively so, but only because they are smart and seamless, not unlike what Hiatus managed to do with theirs. The drumming is really upfront, truly pummeling and gives the songs a vintage hardcore energy; the bass is omnipresent and does groove the songs but acts more as a support, a basis, than as an engine; finally, the vocals are growled in the purest cavemen crust tradition, never sounding forceful or constipated, just hoarse, filthy shouts brilliantly synced with the instruments to the point of becoming one of them. It will probably sound a little strange but BoD do not really sound like a Japanese crust band on this Lp. Not that Japanese crust must rigorously and necessarily include strict predefined parameters to fit the category, but still, we are much closer to early/mid-90's eurocrust here than to the national production of the time. Of course, there is a mastery, a tightness and an intensity that points to Japanese punk, but I do feel BoD made more sense sitting side by side with Hiatus, Warcollapse or Subcaos, than Gloom, SDS or Life. For the point of the argument, let's compare BoD to a contemporary Japanese band that can be said to fall in the same section in terms of subgenre, Abraham Cross. The two sound nothing like each other. Beyond the obvious fact that they both went, to an extent, for a neanderthal Doom sound, the textures, the vision, the purpose, the intent (and indeed the intentionality) were all dissimilar. I love both bands, but while Abraham Cross were clearly artistically contextualized in the buoyant Japanese crust sound, BoD were more akin to the global 90's crust wave, despite both band sharing, when bared to essentials, a rather similar songwriting.

Fascinating stuff, right? Well, all this to say that "反戦-反動物実験" (and indeed the 1994 Ep, "In the War", though it is not as cavemen-like) is a brilliant work, certainly the band's crustiest, and is up there with vintage Hiatus. Relentless gruff cavecrust with a groovy metal touch and a Scandi feel (I am pretty sure Masskontroll were heavily into that record). As mentioned above, the lyrics revolve around animal liberation, human destruction and anti-war protests and my only real issue with this record is that the insert looks pretty ugly.

On the other side of the Lp, entitled "Join no Army, Police and Politician", is Brainstorm. And I LOVE Brainstorm. I really do. Their 1989 demo and the 1990 Ep are clearly unsung early crust classics and are probably the closest incarnation of what a Peaceville-sponsored jam between Concrete Sox and Hiatus would have sounded like and, sad but true, had they been from Birmingham, Stockholm or New York, instead of Belgrade, they would probably be revered, their late 80's output (because it is always way cooler to rate the demo higher than what followed) hailed as classic, if not totally "cvlt". In fact, there will be a post about vintage Brainstorm at some point in the future so I am not going to tell too much about them now. Especially since I do not like their side of the Lp. I could get past the thin production but the US jumpy hardcore-crossover turn they took is too much for me to stomach, especially when compared to the tornado of relentless gruffness that characterized their earlier works. So I'd rather rave about them when dealing with one of their top recording.

A few words about the context though. The nine Brainstorm songs from that split were recorded in May, 1993, at a time when the war was certainly not over in Yugoslavia. The main interest of the Brainstorm side undeniably lies in the lyrical content, which, despite unfortunate losses in translation, still reflected the anger, the outrage and the urgency of that time and place. Written from an anti-state perspective, the songs read like cries against patriotism, conformity, blind faith, media and political manipulation, the brutality of war... No longer a mere punk trope used to denounce an imaginary endless war, calls for peace and disgust at the sheep mentality designated a very real situation. I cannot claim to be an expert, or even remotely knowledgeable, about the political situation in Yugoslavia at the time so I am pretty sure that I am missing a lot of references in the lyrics. Still, if only for the inherently punk nature of standing against oppression and violence literally knocking on your door (or tearing it apart really), I feel that the songs can be read as an important, urgent and crucial testimony of what it implied to be a political punk in that time and place.

This split Lp was released on No Time To Be Wasted Records, a Belgrade-based label run by the singer of Brainstorm (he also sang for a thoroughly enjoyable 80's hardcore band called Necrophilia) that was active throughout the 90's.  

Battle of Brainstarm

Dažd "S/t" Lp, 2009

After two rather glorious walks along vintage 80's punk lane, I realized it was high time I ranted a bit about a recent band. Punky goodness can be found in any time or place and if I do have my own strong obsessions, I am also a curious geezer who likes to be taken by surprise. And let me tell you that Dažd (which translates as "rain") totally took me by storm the first time I heard that wonderful album.

The last decade or so had its fair share of classic crust albums. And although it is sometimes difficult to assess the real worth of an Lp when it comes out, now that a few years have passed since Hellshock made the so-called stenchcore subgenre glamorous again, it is obvious that there were some rather average, if lovable (to me anyway), crust bands and some genuinely great works as well. Dažd fell in the second category for one major reason: they were effortlessly original. Although they clearly aimed at incorporating a lot of different influences into their music, it is neither original for the sake of originality, as each addition actually brings something to the music, nor does it have that annoying patchwork feel that bands claiming to blend genres tend to have. Dažd's music feels like a whole, it is fluid yet multifaceted.

The band apparently defined their own music as"Balkan black (anarcho) occult crust post punk". Now I must admit that this sort of annoucements usually scares me. But in this case, this definition is actually relevant. For obvious reasons, Dažd's sound is difficult to pinpoint. It is an organic, thick, substance made of old-school black metal, sludge, doom metal, old crust and metal punk. But despite the extreme metal influences, the music is not as much brutal as it is always heavy. Rather than goat sacrifices and face paints, the music is more like a potion, one that you would be made to drink during a pagan ceremony so that you fall into a trance. If you had a dinner party with an occult metal theme and your guests were filthy crusties, well, that Dažd Lp would be the main course. The music has a ritual, incantation feel to it and range from fast pummeling parts owing as much to Anti-Cimex as to Bathory, to crusty mid-tempo beats reminiscent of Deviated Instinct and Skaven, to slow and heavy sludgy, doomy moments, to dark feral rhythms lifted from Amebixes' Spiderleg era. The vocals may take some time adjusting to if you are not familiar with the band. They have been compared to GISM's which makes some sense since the singer sounds like he is on the verge of insanity, but I would argue that this is a different kind of insanity, one that has to do with the occult, with wilderness, if not with wizardry (close to Skaven's singer doing doom metal maybe?). If the music is quite dark, it is certainly not cold. There is a magical bonfire at the centre of this Lp warming the hearts and the studded jackets of the audience.

The aesthetics of the album are a perfect complement to the music, the visual side of the Dažd experience. The artwork was done by one dude called Jason Barnett and it is just stunning: creepy, slightly disturbing drawings that give a sense of the occult and of magics without falling in the cheesy gore trap (and thanks fuck for that). The lyrics in Serbian use esoteric references and deal with the end of the world, suffering, war, pain, human misery and cute kittens. And for those like me who are wary of pagan metal bands because of possible connections with right-wing politics, you are in safe waters with Dažd as they support anarcho-paganism (I am not too sure what it entails but if it involves listening to Scatha and Iowaska, you can count me in, but only if I can keep my clothes on) and take a stand against fascists. As it says on the inner sleeve "Anarchy/Peace/Chaos/Magic".       

This Lp was released in 2009 (but recorded in 2007) and followed two split Ep's released in 2008, one with fellow Serbians Nakot (on the great Doomed to Extinction Records that later released records by Instinct of Survival and Contagium) and one with Order of the Vulture, a band not so dissimilar to Dažd, although they are more generic. Three labels were responsible for this beauty: Fuck Yoga records from Macedonia, pretty much a grindcore label though it also released some Depressor as well as old-school Colombian hardcore bands like Ataque de Sonido and Herpes; Gasmask Records from Czech Republic that was also involved with the records of the amazing Fatum from Russia; and Kill the Man Who Questions. I am not exactly an expert in the Balkan punk scene, but as far as I can tell, I would situate Dažd in the same wave as bands like Nakot (whose singer was the person behind Doomsday Graphics), Dishumanity, Anaeroba from nearby Slovenia or even Nulla Osta (even though they have been playing since 2002) that were around in the late 00's and succeeded to the mid/late 90's ex-Yugoslavian anarcho crusty wave that gave birth to bands like the brilliant Intoxicate, Brigade OD, Demant, Radikalna Promjena, Krvavi Mandat, Debeli Samuraj or Verbalni Delikt among others.    

The Dažd Lp can still be found pretty easily (because of the infamous "had they been from Portland" paradigm) so I strongly recommend that you pick this unique 00's crusty metal punk album. I have always been more than a little dubious about so-called "blackened crust" because if often sounds like D-beat driven black metal and not like real crust and it's usually just not enough to catch my attention. However this lot are different and managed to create a largely unsung classic album without meaning to. And sometimes, this is the key.

Anarchy/Peace/Chaos/Magic