Kurwa CRUST Przeciwny Systemowi! An anthology of Polish crust (1991-2022)

I am finally back after an unusually lengthy break from the blog. Not that I was insanely busy, although I'd love to pretend to. I just needed some time for myself, not unlike a distraught parent leaving his children alone in the wood for a couple of weeks in order to sort his life out or a wrestler who gets injured after attempting an elbow drop from the third rope. I even toyed with the idea of stopping Terminal Sound Nuisance altogether and find another hobby that would bring more attention to my once ravishing greatness and undeniable charisma, like food influencer or a shark whisperer, something contemporary. I even took a pretty pricy but eventually useless selfie class in July (I was unable to pass the test though, something to do with me being the antithesis of photogenic or something). What is the relevance of running a punk blog these days beside making you feel prematurely old? Maybe the quest for relevance is itself irrelevant in this day and age when quantity largely prevails over quantity. The term "content creator" is remarkable in this sense as modern "creators" are not even able to qualify what they offer and resort to the generic and vague term "content" and as pop culture gluttons we stuff ourselves with forgettable but mildly enjoyable shit. Oh well. 

The thing is, despite investigating a number of alternative options, I could not quite figure what I could replace the blog with, which must mean that Terminal Sound Nuisance has to be kept alive. The absence of answer was the answer. And so here I am again, ready to rock (reasonably because of my bad back) and entertain the punk masses, something I was born for although my mum would disagree firmly. 

All this blabbering to say that I am back with a solid CRUST and to get things going again I have something special for you: an anthology of Polish crust. As even the least discerning readers will have noticed (they are few, I am well aware that Terminal Sound Nuisance's readership is notoriously class and well sound), I have a soft spot for Polish crust and, because the genre has never ceased to be not only popular but also strong in this country, working on retrospective compilations made a lot of sense. Fun was had.

I have already written quite extensively about crust and punk in general in Poland throughout the years and re-reading my elegant prose for egotistical inspiration made me realize how prolific, vibrant and dynamic the scene was in the 90's. Indeed, the claim that Poland was a major punk stronghold during that pivotal decade (in terms of bands but also of touring destination) is true and even a quick superficial glance at classic bands like Infekcja, Homomilitia, Sanctus Iuda or Filth of Mankind (to stick to my initial plan) can prove enough to illustrate this. If the crust genre became less popular in many parts of Europe, Polish punks faithfully, loyally kept producing quality crust bands to this day. Many of these bands' reach does not go beyond the country's borders but if you bother looking for information, instead of waiting passively for information to look for you, you will make some new friends. But since you are most certainly a lazy bum, I am more than happy to take on that role.

While selecting and compiling the songs, I wondered with a Sartre-looking expression if Polish crust could be described as its own subgenre, like the Greek or Japanese schools of crust, or if it was merely crust sung in Polish. While I would argue that its identity is not as strong and peculiar as its aforementioned two cousins, there are enough common recurring traits among all the bands to hypothesize a "Polish crust sound". First, with almost all the bands singing in Polish, the language with its sonorities, dynamic accents, its flow and pronunciation has an impact on the overall sound and gives it an aggressive edge. Second, more often than not, right from the start, Polish crust has displayed a heavy, crunchy, dark metallic influence, not in the apocalyptic sense like the Greeks (with some exceptions) but faster, thrashier and keeping a raw intensity. It should be pointed out as well that, originally and distinctly, more than in any other countries, Polish crust bands must be said to have been some of the best examples of fast and pummeling 90's eurocrust, far more Hiatus than Doom if you wish and if the genre evolved along with the rest of global crust scene (Japan being the usual exception) these are the basis and basics.

Do these can justify and potentially cement the "genrification" of Polish crust? Probably not, such elements can be found in other scenes abroad, however they still stand as meaningful, defining traits running through a large enough body of works for me to offer cohesive and coherent compilations. By no means has Polish crust been undisturbed and insensitive to the various international crust waves as the comps can attest. Some bands are more progressive, to the extent of neocrusting at times, others are heavily infused with death, black or doom metal, but the similarities are sufficiently present and relevant. I chose to leave out bands that, I felt, as good as they might be thought to be, did not totally qualify as crust although they certainly had crust elements like Silence, Deczcz or Evil or some of the faster 90's anarchopunk bands. Or as my sensei would sometimes tell me when he was teaching me the way: "it ain't crust enough my little lad". On the other hand, I did include some bands that are often seen as pertaining to the early grindcore scene, like Toxic Bonkers or Grossmember, but shared enough common points with their crusty contemporaries at some point. Subjectivity, yeah? 

I tried to be exhaustive without but I probably missed out some bands, either out of sheer forgetfulness or because they were either just too obscure or because Alzheimer arrived early at the party. In any case, you are more than welcome to mention bands that could have made it here or to point out mistakes. The more the merrier like my gran would say, although she was mostly referring to wine I guess. There are 2 compilations with 43 bands and songs in total ranging from the proto-crusty year of 1991 to our fetid modern time. Thanks to the people I borrowed (well...) the pictures from.

In bimber there is no choice    

PART ONE:

01. HOMOMILITIA "Intro + To możliwe jest tylko tutaj" from Twoje Ciało Twój Wybór Lp, 1996 (Łódź)

02. HELLISHEAVEN "Sedes sapientiae ora pro se" from S/t split Lp with CREEPIN CORRUPT, 2009 (Lublin)

03. DRIP OF LIES "Lies" from S/t demo, 2009 (Warszawa)

04. SOCIAL CRISIS "Zachowaj spokój" from S/t split Ep with WOJNA, 2018 (Biała Podlaska)

05. FUCK FINGER "Zdrajczynie" from S/t tape, 2002 (Łuków)

06. S.O. WAR "Mili chłopcy z policji" from Bullshit Propaganda tape, 1998 (recorded in 1993), (Strzelce Opolskie)

07. UNDECIDED "Pokoj W niebie jak i na ziemi" from S/t tape, 1996 (Bartoszyce)

08. PATROMONIUM DEL PUEBLO "Pliczy się tylko muzyka..." from Pustka tape, 1999 (Dąbrowa Górnicza)

09. HUFF RAID "Insect" from Euro Tour Tape, 2017 (Toruń)

10. CEASELESS DESOLATION "Jutro" from Nicość Lp, 2013 (Lublin)

11. BURN THE CROSS "Thirteen" from S/t split Ep with HOLY EXTERMINATION, 2013 (Jasło)

12. FILTH OF MANKIND "The foundation" from They've Taken Everything - A Tribute to Icons of Filth double cd compilation, 2007 (Gdańsk)

13. SORROW "Black crow" from Black Crow Lp, 2022 (Poznań)

14. MITRĘGA "Przelana czara" from Kraina Wpływów split Lp with NON PRESIDENT, 2015 (Lublin)

15. CHORYGEN "Ścierwa" from S/t Ep, 2014 (Łódź)

16. DISABLE "Wojna 1" from S/t cdr demo, 2003 (Łódź)

17. STRADOOM TERROR "Kapitalistyczni hipokryci" from Głuchy Głos Protestu?... split tape with NON TIBI SPIRO, 1996 (Rzeszów)

18. ALCHEMIK SENDIVIUS "Cholerny sen" from Przeciwko Wiwisekcji demo/live tape, 1993 (Grudziądz)

19. GROSSMEMBER "Fucking pigs" from 4-way split tape with AGATHOCLES/DISCHORD/OPC, 1997 (Warszawa)

20. MIND "Full of dark memory" from S/t split Ep with DISTRESS, 1998 (Łódź/Berlin)

21. PIEKŁO KOBIET "W Pułapce Dziedzictwa" from Wyzwolenie Kobiet Wyzwoleniem Mężczyzn = Liberation Of Women, Liberation Of Men 10", 1998 (Łuków)

22. DISGUSTING LIES "Administracja" from Rich Man/Poor Man Ep, 1996 (Łódź)

PART ONE

PART TWO:

01. INFECKJA "Ziemia" from S/t Ep, 1997 (Wrocław)

02. ENOUGH! "Dlaczego" from Darkside tape, 1996 (Gdańsk)

03. CHORY "Krzyże hipokryzji" from S/t tape, 2000 (Bielsko-Biała)

04. HOLY EXTERMINATION "They need blood" from S/t split Ep with BURN THE CROSS, 2013 (Nowy Sącz)

05. WOJNA "Stołkowe kurwy" from S/t split Ep with SOCIAL CRISIS, 2017 (Poznań)

06. TOXIC BONKERS "Kłamstwa w imię Boga" from S/t demo tape, 1994 (Łódź)

07. HOSTILITY "Tak bardzo sie boisz" from ...I Niech Jeden Strzał... tape, 1995 (Białystok)

08. BISECT "Zdyscyplinowane ogniwa" from Nastepna Krwawa Interwencja tape, 1995 (Radom)

09. SILNA WOLA "Anarchistyczny Czarny Krzyż" from Zero Akceptacji Dla Państwa Chiny tape, 1997 (Lebork)

10. TRÜD "Samogwałt" from Wszechświat B tape, 2016 (Torun)

11. VICTIM OF TRUTH "Więcej" from S/t cdr demo, 2010 (Biała Podlaska)

12. DEATH CRUSADE "W zamian" from Rakieta//Bomba Lp, 2017 (Gdańsk)

13. MENTAL ABERRATION "Cywilizacja" from Okrutna Rzeczywistość tape, 1991 (Gdańsk)

14. RZEŹNIA "Machina spoleczna" from Żreć tape, 1996 (Opole)

15. NON TIBI SPIRO "666" from Głuchy Głos Protestu?... split tape with STRADOOM TERROR, 1996 (Rzeszów)

16. MONOTEIZM CO-EXISTENCE "A homo sapie" from Patrz I Odczuj! tape, 1998 (Kolno)

17. SANCTUS IUDA "Prawdziwe Oblicze Kapitalizmu" from Rząd-Korporacje-Wy/Zysk tape, 1995 (Białystok)

18. NON PRESIDENT "Aborcja" from S/t split Lp with HUFF RAID, 2018 (Wojcieszów)

19. SCUMSTADT "Ścierwogród" from S/t cd, 2018 (Łódź)

20. LOST "Jak długo jeszcze" from Strach Lp, 2003 (Łódź)

21. MONEY DRUG "Przymus Państwa from S/t split Ep with WIND OF PAIN, 1995 (Gdańsk)

PART TWO

An adventure in split Ep's! I have no gun but I can split: GRIDE / LIES & DISTRUST "S/t" split Ep, 1998

What could be more embarrassing than wearing a shirt saying "good girls go to Heaven, bad girls go to PRAGUE"? I remember a group of extremely pissed and obnoxiously loud Australian ladies visibly on a hen do all wearing such tasteful tops in the town centre and consciously vomiting on every street corners. The noise and the bilious yellowish ponds made them relatively easy to avoid - which was the reasonable thing to do - but the spectacle was insidiously compelling. The locals managed to remain stern and stoic, probably accustomed to such distasteful tomfooleries and were far beyond consternation at this point. Fuck knows if this locust-like group of destruction was going on the rampage all over Europe or if they specifically picked Prague as the epicenter of their own chaos. It made the Play Fast or Don't festival that I was going to look like a garden party among decent people. Who said punks could not be well behaved? Well kind of. 

Contrary to its neighbour Poland, from an outsider's point of view, Czech never seemed to produce as many bands that got to cross the borders in terms of notoriety. Comparing countries is often irrelevant as it does not take into account specific histories and contexts that inform the production of music and formation of bands, even if said countries are apparently close culturally and historically. Sometimes local dynamics can only escape and elude people from the outside. France is a case in point. We have been consistently shit at hardcore punk music contrary to Italy, Spain or Germany because rock culture has long been abysmal in the country. However we did alright with dodgy oi, self-obsessed depressive dark-wave and emocore- quite obviously - and we have one of the best hip-hop scenes in the world (or so I have heard because it is hard to believe judging from the dross that my 18 year old neighbour is blasting on a weekly basis... I mean what's with the fucking vocoder everywhere?). But if you don't live in France, you wouldn't know the reason why there were so few hardcore bands. So comparisons could be pointless to an extent even if the ties between two countries (like Poland and Czech or, for obvious reasons, Slovakia and Czech) were strong during the 90's (notably with the labels Malarie Records and Insane Society Records), which is the period I am interested in.

When I started to think about the series, I wanted to write about a Czech record because I don't often review Czech records, a pretty simple argument I admit. At first I though that I did not know that many 90's hardcore punk bands from there and then, after a couple of cups of coffee and a closer look at the collection, I realized that the scene was more prolific than I initially imagines. Czech punks love fast music so it is no coincidence that grindcore and fastcore have been popular genres over there since the early 90's, the well-respected, well-known and still active (!) Malignant Tumour being the best example of this phenomenon and a band like See You in Hell certainly stuck too. I am not an expert in grindcore or super fast hardcore in general so I would be at a loss to assess how big and well-liked the Czech scene is but with a solid culture of extreme music festivals (like the Obscene Extreme of course) I suppose that there are large segments of the scene I am not even aware of and I have learnt to be at peace with the idea that I will never be an omniscient übermensch. 

Now that is just unkind.

But to get back to subgenres that are my bread and butter and that I pride myself in being a gentleman connoisseur, namely anarchopunk and crust, not many names came out beside How Long?, CulDeSac, Exekuce and Lies & Distrust (other bands like Nonconformist or Coexist were from the other side of the border). On one hand, this kind of categorizations does not make much sense in the context of the time and petty classifications do not reflect scene dynamics. More often than not, whether you play hardcore or crust or grindcore don't necessarily really matter, what does is the sense of togetherness, solidarity and belonging. On the other hand, you also have to look at the music itself and how certain bands captured the global vibes of the time and crust was very prominent at the time. The choice of the split Ep between Gride and Lies & Distrust was an easy one: Gride exemplified what fast Czech hardcore sounded like in the 90's and L&D were a great example of the typical eurocrust sound that went well beyond the country's borders. The Ep is therefore relevant for two complementary reasons.

As I remember Gride were rather well-known back in the early 00's when I started dignifying the Paris scene with my exquisite presence. As I mentioned I was never a grind head but I heard the name enough to understand that the band was good (I cannot remember but they must have played here) and one of their Lp, 2003's Tanec Bláznů, was released on two French labels. However, before getting this Ep rather recently in my quest to create a comprehensive 90's crust library - to my mum's dismay - I don't think I had actually spent the time to properly listen to the band. I was expecting something much grindier and, while there is of course a grindcore influence, Gride were not an all out noisecore blasting machine. The primitive, straight-forward angry punk sound really works here and makes the songs very dynamic and energetic (the coconut-sounding drums are too loud though). The five songs are very enjoyable and are completely metal-free as Gride in the late 90's were first and foremost a raw grinding hardcore band rather than what we understand as grindcore today (often far too technical). The vocals are aggressive and rather classical in conception but don't feel too forced and I am reminded of their compatriot Mrtvá Budoucnost but not as blast beats oriented and on the whole of the punkier side of grindcore and bands like Intestinal Disease, Proyecto Terror or Wojczech. The band would change throughout the year and the split Ep reflected what they started out as, as a young band with this early lineup. Gride kept going and are still active although I have no idea what they sound like today.

On the other side L&D offer four songs of, well, classically executed raw cavemen crust. I could almost stop the description here since by now, after years of reading Terminal Sound Nuisance, you probably know exactly what I mean by that. But I am paid by the word and with the inflation and all that (have you seen the shipping prices recently? Buying records is turning into a luxury, even for first-world twats like myself) I just have to keep writing. I don't dislike the name Lies & Distrust and it could summarize adequately the programs of most of the current political parties but it is a but long indeed. I would have gone directly for Distrust because at that time in the mid 90's no one really knew about the 80's Swedish band (beside käng nerds I suppose) and I have no idea who that Ohio punk band was (thank you Discogs). I like the logo though as I am a simple man of simple pleasures. The popularity of the band today is pretty much non-existent and only crust old-timers would remember them at all. All my attempts to start a conversation about L&D have miserably failed for some reason and mentioning you love lies and distrust on a dating website is also a major faux pas. So let's say I am, once again, standing for the little man here.

Musically L&D is everything you can expect from a young 90's European crustcore band. The production is not exactly crystal clear and you cannot really hear anything but the cymbals and the gruff vocals. Don't get me wrong, it still sounds very energetic and punishing but in a very DIY punk-as-fuck passioante cheap way which often goes hand in hand with 90's crust and even defines it. What they lack in production L&D make up with aggression and hyperbolic crustness. As the cradle of Eurocrust, early Hiatus is the major ingredient of course and I can also hear a Polish crust influence, like Infekcja and Silna Wola, but there is also a distinct grindcore influence popping up from time to time as if they couldn't really help throwing a couple of blast beats to keep the locals awake. The same year the band would contribute three songs (with a slightly more balanced production) on another split Ep with another crusty Czech band Exekuce (with whom they shared a member) and in 1999 Shit Records (yes) would release a split Lp between l&D and Dischord from Brazil.      

The record comes with a pretty big booklet (that is a bit of a mess and I struggled to put all the pages in the correct order) with the lyrics and translations showing how political the period was. This split Ep was released on Insane Society, a long-established label run by Barvák who took over the vocals in L&D after the present split (he's actually mentioned as the new singer in the credits). By the time of the band's demise, two members formed the tighter gruff crust band Dread 101 (that we will see on the blog sooner than later).  

Gride & Distrust

   

An adventure in split Ep's! I have no gun but I can split: TOTUUS / HIASTUS "Sankari / S/t" split Ep, 1996

If you are looking for something clean, thought-provoking, challenging hardcore-punk that goes against the rules and regulations, codes and conventions, against "the norm" done by good-looking Instagram-friendly Americans who thrive on being "followed" by others and taking selfies, then this record is not for you. Or maybe it could be if you bother for a change, checking ugly bands playing ugly music to ugly people for a good price as I was able to find a copy of this split Ep for a mere 2€ which is about 15 times cheaper than a Turnstile record (checking this Zoomer band's website I realized that they sell grossly overpriced hats and fucking teddy bears but no physical records... what an odd choice for an ex punk band). Alright, let's stop with the boomer-flavoured rant, as we can hold hands, kiss and definitely enjoy Turntile and Hiastus, even though the latter were fortunately never nominated for any kind of awards, except a local beer drinking contest and a grizzli bear imitation one. 

Let's just get to the actual record in a swift fashion. This is not an excellent record to be perfectly honest. I like it a lot but that doesn't mean it is objectively that good and, in fact, even fans of the genres adopted by the bands could do without the Ep and live a perfectly normal, unhappy life. I am not, have never been and never will be, as you know full well, one deterred by average generic punk music. It is all a matter of love that is as blind as it is, in this case, deaf. This Totuus/Hiastus split Ep reminds me of the original noble goal that led me to create Terminal Sound Nuisance: "a blog promoting good (and not so good) genuine punk music". This record does fall into the "not so good" category but it doesn't mean it cannot be loved and rediscovered. There was something heart-breaking in seeing this battered copy in the 2€ record bin (my acute crust detector told it was only a matter of time before it got relegated to the 1€ one) and, being a soft bastard, I could not help but rescue this little angel from the dumpster, like a gran welcoming her seventh kitten because the little shit was hungry and homeless or something. 

I knew of Totuus before because I already owned the 1999 self-titled Ep released on Fight Records and I closely associate the band with this well-known and still active Finnish label based in Tampere that released or rereleased works from Kaaos, Tampere SS, Unkind, Positive Negative or Riistetyt. With such a list of culprits, one already logically imagines what Totuus - which translates as "truth" - will sound like: classic raw and direct Finnish hardcore. Clever but not completely true. The backbone of the band remains firmly rooted in 80's Finncore (think Terveet Kädet or Kantan Uutiset, even Riistetyt) and the production, or lack thereof, effortlessly reproduces the sound of that decade, but you can still tell Totuus was a 90's band. It would not be mistaken to compare them with bands like Rajoitus or Uutuus because, beside them all ending with the phoneme "-tus", they cook with the same old-school ingredients, but where the aforementioned bands almost exclusively rely on 80's Finnish hardcore (although Rajoitus were Swedes) Totuus also had a European hardcore influence and bands like BGK or Ripcord do come to mind. It would appear far-fetched to state that they were as good as all those canonized acts but their side of the split is still pretty solid and has that wild, furious, biting energy. 9 short songs in less than 7 minutes. The split Ep format fits the songwriting perfectly and makes Totuus and solid example of proper raw old-school hardcore done in the 90's and looking lovingly toward the previous decade. 

Do you remember that kid at school who was desperate to look like the coolest, most stylish, most popular cat and tried so hard to walk like him, dress like him, talk like him? That's pretty much the relationship between Hiastus and Hiatus. The former went as far as calling themselves Hiastus, which means - wait for it, wait for it - "hiatus" in Finnish. On the surface, this sounds adorable. A band trying to sound like their heroes, a band that openly wears its heart on the sleeve, a band that does not give a single shit about even trying to pretend to be original in any way. And really deep down, it is what most teenage bands are all about when they start. They just want to be The Clash or Black Flag or your older cousin's nu-metal band that for some reason seems to attract a lot of girls. 

D-beat, as a genre, works exactly like this, on worshipping and emulating the source material, referring to the signs and symboles. If one were to see it as a subgenre, 90's crust would be one that is defined strictly with a rather short time period - let's say from 1991 to 2005 and the rise of neocrust. D-beat also started as a 90's epiphenomenon but, contrary to the classic eurocrust sound, survived in one piece in spite of a certain drop in popularity in the late 00's, and then got even stronger and spread everywhere with time. Therefore "eurocrust" or more globally "90's crust" was not so much a subgenre as it was a wave, with a distinct sound that was used to build and lead the new generations of crust, as opposed to d-beat which by essence had to stay the same with some tone variations. Siblings of 90's crust, "cavemen crust" or "cavecrust" (as I like to call it) managed to stay alive, afloat and deliver proud examples of the Doom-loving crust traditions from times to times, especially in Japan - Doom-love was an essential trait of European crust in the 90's - and instances of classic ENT/Disrupt dual-vocal crustcore bands still occur but on too small a scale to state to states that there is a such a thing as genre-emulating or genre-referring 90's crust trend. Sob fucking sob.

But in any case, Hiastus were 90's eurocrust to the bone. It was in their blood, they breathed eurocrust, they ate eurocrust, they drank eurocrust, their wildest dreams were made of fantasies of splits between Hiatus and Warcollapse, Silna Wola and Subcaos, Enola Gay and Social Genocide. For all I know the drummer named his first-born Way of Doom. It is actually not the first time that I write about Hiastus as they appeared on the Never Again compilation Ep that I reviewed 10 fucking years ago. That stings. Beside the mighty Hiatus, the Oulu-based band was without a doubt very influenced by the national crust heroes Amen who, with a first deliciously sloppy Ep in 1990, belonged to the first generation of eurocrust. They clearly must have played Feikki and Paranemia quite a bit. With the band relying on the traditional dual vocal crust attack, like Amen, to spread the message - recent discoveries revealed that the first instances of such an aural technique may date back to the neolithic era, when humans could not actually speak and grunted like apes - early Disrupt and Extreme Noise Terror must have been blasted to death as well. The sound is obviously pretty raw (the surface noise only providing extra crust points) but the music is more energetic than I remember with a good pummeling drumming. The vocals are too loud in the mix and a little overwhelming at times, especially because of the very dedicated fellow responsible for the low growling parts. Ironically the spoken parts are too low in the mix, as if the singers, after three songs of shouting like demented sea elephants, were too shy to speak normally all of a sudden. The flaw makes the music sound a bit ridiculous but even more enjoyable as well. This is 90's DIY crustcore, not technical metal. 

Hiastus remind me of the Polish band Money Drug who were equally raw and a bit sloppy with their dual vocal eurocrust recipe, and of their countrymen Rotten Sound who started as very similar Disrupt-ish act with their Ep Sick Bastards in 1995. I like the Hiastus side a lot but, let's get real, this is one is for the crust completists, for the archivists, for the obsessed, for those who consider prehistoric 90's crust as the sweetest serenade and mid-table Hiatus-like bands as adorable underdogs in a decade plagued by shoegaze. 

You already know if you need this split Ep, I know I do.   

  

TOTUUS + HIASTUS = argh          

An adventure in split Ep's! I have no gun but I can split: SOCIAL GENOCIDE / AGATHOCLES "Systemphobic" split Ep, 1995

Alright then, let's finally get back to work. I wish I could tell you that Terminal Sound Nuisance was dormant because I was busy pursuing my dream of becoming a referee in professional wrestling but the reality is, as it always is, much more prosaic and unexceptional. Our luxurious 22m2 mansion was broken into and my computer (with all the blog's files stored on it for extra pain) got nicked. It could have been worse as none of the records has been stolen, as far as I can see. I can't help but imagine the face of the burglars when they entered our tiny two room flat and witnessed the ridiculous quantity of dodgy-looking vinyls not to mention the massive Antisect flag hanging above our bed. If they were young lads, which is likely, there is a chance they had never even seen an actual record before. They must have thought that some olympic level losers live here. Thank fuck they did not find my shark costume. In any case, to their credit, they did not wreck up the place at all and just grabbed the two computers. And my electric razor for some reason. That actually really pissed me off. And how disgusting, for all they know I could use it to shave my arse with it. Not to mention that they did not even take the charger. 

But enough whining, there are worse things in life like surviving in a war-torn country, crying your eyes out because you can't feed your kid or losing a mint copy of Deviated Instinct's Welcome to the Orgy. As I pointed out in a previous post, the focus of this next series will be more around medium and less around content. For that reason a split Ep's special felt like the perfect choice. I have often ranted about how great and specifically DIY punk this format has been but I have never actually taken the thing to the next level, embrace the concept and embark in an epic split Ep series. Not only is the witty choice convenient, comfortable even, since I have a lot of them, but it also felt relevant because this traditional medium doesn't seem to be as popular nowadays than it once was. So buckle up, or don't if you are not a proper punk and a mere shoegaze poser.

To open such a series, I just had to pick an Agathocles record. It would have been deeply insulting not to as the Belgians have released an insane amount of splits with bands from all around the world since 1988. They epitomise, excessively perhaps, the essence of the DIY punk split Ep based around cooperation, togetherness and mutual support. It is also much cheaper to do as costs are, well, split. Because of this overproduction Agathocles have become a legendary gimmick band, one that is known as much if not more for their music, the content, as for the form, the record-as-medium. I mean, even my aunt Sylvie did a split Ep with them for all I know. Although I understand people who are, I am myself not a massive fan of Agathocles. The Lp records I own are great because a mate who's also a grindcore freak (and not illogically an eternal bachelor) recommended them, like the split Lp with Unholy Grave or Razor Sharp Daggers. The rest of the Agathocles records in my collection, I bought for the other side, for the band they shared the split with. Like Drudge, Depressor or indeed Social Genocide. And let's start with this cruelly underrated Austrian crust band.

First, I must get on my knees and apologize to all of you. As I endlessly exhibit my knowledge and love for 90's crust, a genre that, inexplicably according to my jazz-loving twat of a shrink, I adore, I completely forgot, to my greatest shame, to include Social Genocide on my Crustmas compilation a few years back. The band just slipped my mind and there is really no excuse for that. Criminal. Truth be told, they do have a pretty shit name that sadly prevents me to ever wear a Social Genocide shirt (Genital Deformities' at least is merely gross) and hasn't aged too well, especially since the Covid pandemics which saw the emergence of legions of idiotic conspiracy "theorists" who thought that the virus and/or the vaccine were an attempt from "the rich elite" to exterminate "the poor", which is extremely stupid and shows how little-educated people are when it comes to basic knowledge of class antagonism. The capitalist class needs the working class to work for them in order to extract value and benefits and they need unemployement to impose low wages and blackmail workers to accept shite jobs in order to raise even larger profits. If you eradicate large segments of the lower classes, who's going to do the dirty work? Exactly, not millionaires' children. They need us so the idea that they would think to wipe us out on a grand scale is idiotic (at best). Digression over. Let's go back to Social Genocide.

I don't know much about the Austrian punk scene beside the fine 80's hardcore band Extrem, a couple of '77 style acts and more recent bands like Ruidosa Inmundicia (cracking band). Was the scene big in the 90's? Europe then was overrun with hardcore, grindcore and crust bands, the latter trying hard to sound like Doom, but as far as I can tell - which might not be that far at all and I am hoping to corrected - Austria was not exactly a hotspot for smelly crusty punks. And yet. And yet Social Genocide is the epitome, the best example I can think of of traditional 90's eurocrust, and my failing to include them on the aforementioned compilation hurts even more. Really. Conceptually, as masters and pioneers of the eurocrust style and wave, both in terms of quality and quantity, Hiatus occupied the unique spot of being the first quintessential eurocrust band, the epicentre of the crust pandemics, THE first band one will mention in the discussion. And yet, if you take eurocrust as style and wave, it necessarily implies that, while Hiatus were inspired and prompted into existence by Doom and more generally UK crust, Social Genocide and the likes were primarily influenced by Hiatus themselves. Therefore, what I mean with the term eurocrust in the frame of this review are the typical and characteristic post-Hiatus bands, those that Hiatus inspired (in addition to Doom or Extreme Noise Terror). 

Thus, in that light, along with Subcaos, Social Genocide are basically the most relevant example of a perfectly executed, generic and typical - in the positive sense of term - referential eurocrust band. They were around at the apex of the wave, between 1994 and 1996, not just in Europe but also in the States and Japan, and absolutely delivered. Hailing from Götzis, close to Switzerland, Social Genocide's two songs on this Ep stand as delightful, delicious slices of a cavemen eurocrust cake found in a bin. With the raw and aggressive primal and punchy production, Hiatus heavily come to mind, pleonastic of me to point it out, but there are also large spoonful of genuine early Doom and I sense a distinct Japanese crust influence, which was certainly unusual in European crust at the time, as Battle of Disarm - if not Abraham Cross - are points of reference as well. Paradoxically maybe, Social Genocide managed to be a eurocrust paragon and yet included a Doom-loving Japanese crust touch in their sound (on their Ep's especially, the Lp had more of Private Jesus Detector/Masskontroll feel to my ears). It is subtle but present, if heavy, primal, filthy bear-like pummeling cavecrust can be called "subtle". This tendency is confirmed visually with their side's cover depicting a representation of the band drawn with that sort of naive post Disorder/Chaos UK style that Japanese crusties used - and still use - heavily. Beside, if you look closely, on this crustier-than-though piece exhibiting elite cartoon crust pants, the guitar player has GISM and Swankys stickers on the instrument. And of course the band's On the Brink of Destruction Ep was released on the Japanese label Peace Punk Records so there might have been some trades going on. Clues? 

While we are still on the subject of referentiality, the first song opens with a sample that Anti-System also used on the No Laughing Matter Lp so that the learned listener immediately knows that Social Genocide also know. Wink wink. Utterly brilliant gruff crust songs and band. In our day and age that often celebrate minute worship and copies when it comes to crust or d-beat, the fantastic unoriginality of Social Genocide deserve to be acknowledged. On a side-note the drummer, before hitting things in Social Genocide, played in an obscure band called Dreaded Instinct, the name of which greatly excites my curiosity, further exacerbated by the Sore Throat-ian cover of the tape. Send it to me please. I'm begging ya.

On the other side, well, Agathocles and I have to say that I really like what they are doing here. They are not so much getting high on their traditional blasting 4-track sandpaper mincecore in this case, which I am able to enjoy from time to time, and more on a furious crusty cavegrind mood which appears to be the most relevant path they could have picked on such a split. The first song starts of with a spoken part that remind me heavily of the Belgian anarchopunk band Dona Nobis Pacem (probably the closest Antisect-worshipping band in Europe in the 90's) so that it might be a tribute of some sort, I hope. The vocals are guttural and the production is primitive and there are enough variations to appeal to the grindcore freaks but not so many as to repel the basic Doom-loving crust nuts. As the latter, I am reminded of a crude version of Terrorizer with some Embittered and Disrupt but I am sure grindcore experts would say otherwise. And at the end of the day, as undisputed pioneers Agathocles just sounded like themselves by 1995 but I am not an expect agathoclian so it would be impossible for me to really put this Ep in perspective with the rest of their immense discography. Social Genocide were close to the grindcore scene anyway since they also did a split with Cripple Bastards in 1994.

Unfortunately the insert of this split Ep is missing. Did I lose it or was it never there, I don't remember. It is on discogs if you care.

Eurocrust is dead, long live eurocrust.  

  

Eurocrust heaven    

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Χαοτικό Τέλος "Υπόσχεση" Lp, 2017

Χαοτικό Τέλος's Υπόσχεση Lp is the best crust album of the 2010's. Well, along with Swordwielder's System Overlord Lp. I don't think I can decide, they are both equally brilliant and outstanding in their own unique way, the one difference being that I will not be writing about Swordwielder's masterpiece in Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust (but on a side note do try to focus on living by it) because I already tackled the Swedes and their 2014 demo tape five years ago. Maybe one day I will write about System Overlord as, make no mistake about it, this is by far the band's best work and a crust milestone.

Χαοτικό Τέλος (Chaotic End in English) are from Athens and belong to the category of "legendary bands". You could argue all day over the actual requirements and characteristics that define a legendary band. It is not an easy question especially since the hegemony of youtube and music streaming and the subsequent decontextualization of punk bands from the past which turned pretty much all 80's hardcore bands into "legends", even when they only played seven drunken gigs and recorded two demos in 1982. But I personally agree with the statement that Χαοτικό Τέλος is a legendary band, as epic and hyperbolic as the term might be, it is difficult not to. If you need some background about the band and its story, I recommend you read the great interview that DIY Conspiracy did with them especially as it saves me the hassle (#lazy). 

So then why should they be seen as a legend? I think that the phrase "genre-defining classic" might be more accurate when it comes to the band since Χαοτικό Τέλος basically pioneered a style: Greek crust. Now when I say "Greek crust" I don't just mean that they played crust music and were from Greece, although they were obviously. Greek crust is a genuine subgenre that only grows locally - even if its influence can be felt here and there outside of the country - and can be defined by specific traits like OC crust, Swedish crust or Japanese crasher crust for example. Or horrible French oi if you have poor tastes. I have already written about it several times in the past because I am an obsessive geezer but, to put it simply, what I call Greek crust, as a theorized subgenre, is the reworking of the founding mid/late 80's UK stenchcore crust wave of Amebix, Axegrinder, Antisect with an emphasis on heavy atmospherics and synth-driven part, a heavy apocalyptic sound, some relentless pummeling crustcore phases and a dark and hopeless but still angry vibe. It is definitely old-school metallic crust but with its specific characteristics and lyrics in Greek which, because of the scansion, accentuation and general flow of this peculiar language, clearly helped shape and cement Greek crust as a genre (a similar process took place with Greek dark punk). 

Χαοτικό Τέλος were not the only purveyors of gruff apocalyptic hardcore crust in the very early 90's (the wave was still very much brewing in the late 80's although some bands, like Χαοτικό Τέλος, were already active with a different style) and fantastic bands like Ξεχασμένη Προφητεία/Forgotten Prophecy, Βιομηχανική Αυτοκτονία/Industrial Suicide, Ρήγμα/Rift or Πανικός/Panic among others were also active and delivered quality. All those bands, at that particular time and place contributed to the creation of what is now know as Greek crust. Not unlike OC crust, it cannot be said to be a very widely known style (although it does have its hardcore fans) and many crust lovers might be largely unaware of most Greek crust bands - or even that it is a distinct style of crust music for that matter - in spite of my passionate personal quest to promote it at all cost. But if you had to know just one typical Greek crust band - I don't know why you would but let's you had to for the sake of the argument - it would be Χαοτικό Τέλος as they truly are the basic definition of this sound. But if you are not a lazy bum or, worse, a poser, you can also listen to that brilliant Greek crust compilation I did. It is basically a crash course in the art of Ελληνική κρούστα's apocalyptic crust epics.

However, they were not the first Greek crust band I heard, as it was, of course, Χειμερία Νάρκη/Hibernation when I got the cd Στη Σιωπή Της Αιώνιας Θλίψης when it came out in 2003 or 2004 because, being released by Skuld Releases and Power-It-Up, it was well distributed and because I read somewhere that it sounded a bit like Nausea (which it does I suppose). Fortunately for me - and by extension for you since this work of Greek crust made a massive impression on younger me and arguably drove me years later to start writing and teaching about it with my usual arrogance - the first Χειμερία Νάρκη album (reviewed with my usual biting wit here) might be the best crust albums of the 00's so I clearly was lucky on that one. As I mentioned in the review of Στη Σιωπή Της Αιώνιας Θλίψης I had no idea that Χειμερία Νάρκη belonged to the grand Greek crust dynasty and were but the next logical step of the glorious genre. I was clueless that there were others proud specimens of that sound or indeed that it was even a specific sound to begin with. It took a few years for me to formulate the idea that there might be a Greek crust school and it was through Χαοτικό Τέλος's first album Μπροστά Στην Παράνοια. 

I used to order often from Hardcore Holocaust in the mid/late 00's as it was a great resource in d-beat/crust and I really enjoyed the selection and there was a small second-hand section that I droolingly checked sometimes. One day Μπροστά Στην Παράνοια was added, I had never heard of it and yet, to my disbelief, it was described as "probably the best crust album of all time" or something along these lines. It is often said that people change with time but I haven't really, I was as pretentious and smug as I am today only I feel, wrongly I presume, it is now a somewhat sensible way of life. But then that I somewhat did not know and had never heard of an album that the Hardcore Holocaust guy - who clearly looked like he knew his shit - called "probably the best crust album of all time" felt like a slap in the face and was a little humiliating. I would not go as far as saying that it taught me some humility but it was close enough. I was in disarray. Determined to check if it was indeed what he said it might be (it was before music streaming, blogs and high internet speed at home), I bought the record, a bit pricy to be honest but nowhere near what it is worth now, and was in awe. Hardcore Holocaust was not wrong as you could very well make the case that Μπροστά Στην Παράνοια is the best crust album of the 90's. I realize there are a lot of "best album of the decade" claims in this writeup and that my passion for Greek crust may somewhat distort my sharp ability to think critically but there is enough quality in this 1993 album to back such a claim.

Fast-forward to the mid-2010's. The growing success of Terminal Sound Nuisance is making me the undisputed king of crust (like a crust Kenny Omega if you like but with less injuries) and I am renowned, and even feared throughout the crustdom, for my incredible wealth of knowledge in the dark arts of Greek crust. It is an unpaid gig and no one at the job centre really understood what "Professor in Crust Studies" meant on my resume but it still is something although my mum would disagree. At that point in time, social media, some excellent music blogs and music streaming certainly made the concept of Greek crust more widely known and easier to explore, document and synthesize, but it still very much remained a genre for the crust initiates. And then I read that Χαοτικό Τέλος were playing again. Fuck me. I know many people tend to complain about old bands reforming and not being as good as they used to be and so on but just take a look at Deviated Instinct's recent live performances and releases and you will see that a reformed classic band can be as relevant and brilliant as they used to be. In the case of Χαοτικό Τέλος, it has to be said that Αλέκος, who also plays in Χειμερία Νάρκη, kept being active in the scene, that the bass player Στέφανος is an original member and that younger and supremely skillful drummer Βαγγέλης is the brain behind Παροξυσμός and tons of other bands and behind the label Extreme Earslaughter. So it was difficult to go wrong. And finally 24 years after their first album, Χαοτικό Τέλος self-released in true DIY fashion their second album: Υπόσχεση (Promise).    

I am starting to realize that I haven't actually talked about the music: Υπόσχεση is a perfect crust album. Or rather, it is both a perfect Greek crust album and a perfect crust album. I would not change a single thing to Υπόσχεση which is not something I say very often. Or rather the only thing that could be improved is the artwork, not that it looks ugly or irrelevant - there are enough classic crust signifiers with a reaper, desolation and skulls and  for the listener not to get lost - but such a brilliant work would have probably deserved something more original and evocative, something that would have made it stand out visually as much as it does sonically. The 2010's version of Χαοτικό Τέλος is as potent and genre-defining as the 1990's one. The band offer a new version of their original sound, not so much an improvement per se but more like a seamless continuation of similar roots. Χαοτικό Τέλος have not really changed and their Greek crust recipe is as effective as ever. Of course, the sound itself is different. While Μπροστά Στην Παράνοια had that typical 90's eurocrust production, Υπόσχεση sounds like a modern old-school crust album (amazingly they don't have the exact same instruments and amps than in the early 90's). However, while many bands tend to update their sound through overproduction and departure from what made them great and loved in the first place, Χαοτικό Τέλος just sound like their good old selves at the peak of their creativity in a contemporary studio with contemporary gears (not unlike Misery's From Where the Sun Never Shines, another serious contender for the best 2010's crust album). The main difference is that the drumming is more technical, precise and provides a wider range of possibilities. 

Χαοτικό Τέλος lovingly grind heavy slow apocalyptic synth-driven UK crust like Amebix and Axegrinder as well as American crust heroes Misery, unleash fast dark and aggressive Doom/Hiatus-style freight train 90's eurocrust and demonstrate an incredible sense of narration and storytelling which is truly what has always characterized Χαοτικό Τέλος' - and by extension Greek crust's - peculiar greatness. Through smart and inspired eerie introductions, evocative parts, transitions, beautiful layered epic moments followed with intense thunderous climactic bits, changes of pace and beats, some of the angriest, most passionate and expressively anguished gruff vocals you are likely to hear, they manage to tell a whole story from the first to the last minute, from the introduction to the melancholy conclusion, no mean feat considering it is a 42 minute long album as the band take their time and rightly so and never let the listener even take a break to go to the bathroom. The magnificent first song, "Αγκάθια", an 8 minute epics exemplifies all the narrative crust tricks better than any word. Not many bands can do this as brilliantly (Counterblast's Balance of Pain comes to mind here even if they tell a different story, they tell it with a similar gusto). What does Υπόσχεση tell us then? What is the story? It is a journey of anger and passion, beauty and suffering, Υπόσχεση sounds like the wind blowing over the land and it could be the last day of mankind just as the first day of a new hope. Perhaps it is both. It is a shout in the dark, in darkness, it is a call to action, it is the pain of living in such a disgusting world and the possibility of making it a beautiful one. And it is a crushing crust punk album that will have you play air guitar in the bathroom (do close your windows though, it cannot be iterated enough).   

Absolutely class album that is still available so support the band and get a copy. In fact if you were to buy just one crust album this year, go for that one (or for System Overlord). In pure DIY anarchopunk fashion the band self released this masterpiece and you even get a poster and a sticker with the vinyl.  

Υπόσχεση

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Άπνοια "Θρίαμβος Του Μίσους" tape, 2018

The training to become a certified crust expert is difficult. One of the unsuspected consequences of Terminal Sound Nuisance is that many young, and arguably worthy, punks were actually inspired by my immense knowledgeabililty and the respectability that it confers one. I expected hordes of fans simply bowing before my greatness, kissing my oversized flashy Antisect signet ring and overall feeling a cultish adoration toward this enterprise. And instead, I see too many kids with a bright future but slowly losing faith upon realizing what it truly takes to become a crust superstar. The training is hard and requires a heavy discipline not quite unlike a Jedi's in terms of dedication, daily humiliation and dodgy-looking greenish geezers. Also it is very reminiscent of the Tough Enough show, only you've got me instead of Stone Cold Steve Austin and you listen to the Hiatus discography instead of slamming cocky bastards on a mat.

During a particularly demanding physical lesson with my crust sensei years ago (I still had flamboyant hair, so that was a while back indeed), he told me sternly after I had just completed a thorough analytical essay called "Visual Bristolness in the Work of Early Osaka Crasher Crusties: a Critical Perspective on Crust Pants Referentiality" that, sometimes, "less is more and more is less". Now, that is exactly what my laziest bandmate would say when they cannot be arsed to do something properly and have to hide that they have no idea or inspiration about that riff they were supposed to bring to practice. I guess many people feel witty with such a mantra as it makes them look like they have a grasp on aesthetics theory and on the first Doom demos. That is pretty much what I said to my sensei. He told me "too impetuous and arrogant you are, you French bastard" and then passed out in a pool of his own vomit as part of the next lesson about finding the right recipe for your special brew.

Άπνοια perfectly embodies the concept of "less is more" when it comes to crust music. Simple, fast and loud and always tasteful 90's style eurocrust with a raw production and a lot of anger to show. No fancy elaborate distortion or fuzz or overwhelming effects on the vocals or epic narration, just direct, honest, pissed crusty hardcore punk. And you need this kind of bands in the crust game and I, for one, always welcome them whole-heartedly when they display that straight-forward crust vibe, not out of intent or a sense of eurocrust intertextuality, but just because it is basically good and a perfectly valid way to do the crust. In that unpretentious way, they remind me of Đornata not because they necessarily sound like them but because they keep things simple. 

The band apparently formed in 2004 but did not record anything before 2014, which is a little odd indeed and one could venture that Άπνοια might have taken the "less is more" philosophy too literally and heartfully waiting ten years to release their first demo. They are from Kozani not so far from North Macedonia - as they now call it - and if you are a reader of the blog you are well aware of how much of a sucker I am for Greek crust (see my study of the genre here) so that Άπνοια were bound to catch my attention. However, and rather paradoxically, Άπνοια are not really a "Greek crust" band. Of course, they are from Greece and playing crust punk, but their music cannot be said to sound like traditional Greek crust stylistically. In fact, if the band did not sing in Greek, I probably would not have been able to discern their origins (clearly continental Europe and not Scandinavia though), but then perhaps my sensei would have. Άπνοια remind me a lot of 90's Polish crust punk in fact, of classic bands like Silna Wola or Sanctus Iuda, also of '93 era Hiatus and even of Tijuana crust punk act Coaccion for the crude directness and aggression (but maybe I'm still a bit drunk from last night). They are not exactly heavy and hyperbolic - although the music is certainly dark, pummeling and angry and the riffs are aptly Scandi-inspired - so I suppose the cavemen crust tag would not fit. In any case, they do not sound at all like Χαοτικό Τέλος (even if they did cover them in their early days), Ναυτία or Ψύχωση. 

Their clear dis-hardcore sonic basis is improved by a brilliant vocal works pointing to the classic crust school with a main vocalist, whose raspy and very angry tone reminds me heavily of Πανδημία's amazing singer (not many can claim to be able to make the listener feel that he or she is being grasped by the proverbial collar and given a proper bollocking in a pure demonstration of anger), and a second one who is more on the grizzli-crust side of things. A good pairing that especially since Greek sounds so seriously furious and desperate when applied to heavy punk music. Θρίαμβος Του Μίσους is a real album clocking at 25 minutes made up of 8 songs of raw eurocrusty discore and one number, "Διχόνοια", that is an absolute gem of classic 90's Greek metal-crust with brooding apocalyptic epics and a great sense of storytelling that sees Άπνοια showing that they also can pull out Χαοτικό Τέλος-inspired crust, the multitalented bastards. This recording would easily deserve to be reissued on vinyl. This is raw and genuine pissed crust punk. 

Θρίαμβος Του Μίσους was released in 2018 and is undeniably the band's strongest - and crustiest - work. Do check out the rest of their discography if you are craving for raw dis hardcore with a bit of thrash punk. It was put out on tape by Extreme Earslaughter the label of Vagelis from the mighty Παροξυσμός and literally tons of other hard-hitting bands (he is actually rumoured to be a robot). If you are not familiar with his work with the label, let's just say that it is magnificent resource for rare obscure old-school Greek crust (finger heart) and extreme metal bands, but also contemporary DIY hardcore punk. The tapes are always very limited, 100 copies, but they are uploaded onto youtube. Do check them out as it is clearly a labour of love. 

Άπνοια