An adventure in split Ep's! I have no gun but I can split: GLOBAL HOLOCAUST / MASSGRAVE "Revenge" split Ep, 2006

I recently listened to Hard Skin's song "Not messing around", a banger telling the story of a proper skinhead, quite likely a supporter of Millwall FC who is faithful to the traditional way of life. Most of all it's about a simple man who strives to live his better life and if it must include dancing the tango and the foxtrot, drinking whisky instead of bitter, then so be it. Once a bootboy always a bootboy as the saying goes. Inspiring shit indeed. Working-class heroes ain't messing around and if this song doesn't motivate you to get off your fat arse, what will? 

Do you know who else are not messing around? Global Holocaust and Massgrave, that's who. While the latter have made a name for themselves since their inception in 2003, the former has largely remained a band that would be best defined, as Mel Brooks put it, as a world-famous band in their home country. Local "legends" I guess. I first heard of GH through the Montreal Crust-Fucks compilation cd. It would have been released in 1999 or 2000 (the band Oppressed Conscience mentioned John Paul 2nd's 2000 speech in which he apologized for the heinous crimes of the Church - it was a bit late for that mate) and I remember ordering it from a distro called React that was active in the 90's and 00's and had a lot of pretty obscure noisy delicacies from all over the world. To be honest, I picked that one because it was cheap, everything seemed to be on this distro, and I was curious about Montreal crust bands - I only knew Hellbound and After the Bombs which I both loved - and the compilation, with its rather transparent title, promised just that. It is a fun record, still crusty but with some diversity, and along with Disagree (the best band here), GH definitely won me over. 

After a quick research I understood GH were pioneers and had been rather crucial in the making of the Montreal crust scene (assuming the very term "scene" is relevant to refer to 30 people). It's fair to say that the name and the vintage crustier-than-thou font give the genre away. They formed as early as 1989 which made them a second-generation crustcore band although they arsed around in the studio for a while because their first recording, the demo tape Hope?, was only released in 1993. From 1995 to 1999 they certainly made up for lost time, or started drinking more reasonablu, and no less than six Ep's, among which four splits with fellow Montreal bands Oppressed Conscience, Obnoxious Race and Urban Trash and another Québec-based band Fierce. 

During the 90's GH enjoyed a stable lineup with Simon, on drums, being a tireless musician (he also played in Préjudice, Disjonction and three of the aforementioned bands GH did splits with) and running Tobacco Shit Records that released most of GH's records and other Canadian bands. Sonically they were in line with the decade had to offer as far as the genre was concerned: gruff crustcore with a thrashing grindcore influence like Destroy! dating Toxic Bonkers at a Fleas & Live gig. One of the strongest points, if not the strongest, was Fred's vocals, instantly recognizable, that able to sound raucous and coarse but also very pissed and discernible, on the verge of dementia. Really good work here. The band then stopped in 1996 after being "banned in the city" whatever that means. I could not find any details about this ban. Did it involve some of rioting that ended up with police forbidding them to play in Montreal? That'd be legendary so I guess we would be able to find stories about it online. Were they just kicked out after a particularly poor gig? If you know the full story, let me know and I'll add the thing here.

The band reformed in 2006 with a new guitar player and let's get real: they did not change much. The grindcore moments were pretty much gone but in terms of production and textures, the two songs on this split Ep could have been recorded in 1996, as if time had had no effect on these thick-skinned crusties. We're still heavily in thrashing crustcore land and I am reminded of Brazilian thrashing hardcore legend Armagedom. Simple and rather good, I think the split Ep format fits the band very well here. GH would released another split Ep with Dehumanizer Earth the same year and a full Ep in 2008 with seven (!) different covers, six of which being (loving) rip-offs of other bands like Antischism, DS-13 or Tragedy. Granted those were very limited pressings but that cracked me up. You've got to love punks with a cheeky sense of humour.

On the other side the listener is treated with three songs from the mighty Massgrave from Vancouver (not to be confused with the short-lived but excellent Japanese Massgrave). I am not sure it would be correct to claim that MG were ever a trendy or a high-profile band (on the punk scale being a high-profile act means to have a queue of at least seven people at the merch table, it's simple maths really) but they have clearly become an established band and even people who are not into crust or grindcore (also known as posers) are at least a little familiar with them (if not with the actual music at least with how much they stand for the genre). They have been one of the very few contemporary bands to be able to totally appeal to both crust and grind crowds. Depending on the size of your town, there may not be a difference between these crowds. Actually in small towns everybody go to "the punk gig" whether they are into metalcore, melodic punk or neocrust because it would be pointless to form silly little scenes. But in bigger places where silliness is key, as far as I can see, a division has grown and solidified between the d-beat/crust audience and the full-on grindcore one. It's the case even in Paris, a town that has never been famous for either genres (that's an understatement, we're infested by oi music) that don't draw many people anyway unless you bring a bigger name. But MS are something of an exception in the sense that they are a solid DIY punk band, first and foremost, playing music that not only appeals to more but also, as an openly political band, avoids the tastelessness and stupidity that too many grindcore bands intentionally embrace. They are basically a good band with a delicately hairy font.

I first heard about them when a good friend of mine ages ago, far more into grindcore than I ever will be, mentioned that Stormcrow would appear on a split Lp with Massgrave to be released soon on Agipunk. Not being aware of the existence of said band, I proceeded to ask about their identity. He described them as "kinda like Disrupt or State of Fear but more manic and with more blast beats, even " and he was quite right. He then added that "even someone with shit tastes like you should enjoy it" which somehow negatively impacted the discovery. Oh well. By 2006 MG had already released two albums, a split cd with Neckbeerd (that involved a member of MG) and a strong full album entitled ...People are the Problem, and four Ep's, three of them being, in true DIY grindcore fashion split records with Warfair?, Pretty Little Flowers and Poser Disposer (I like the name of that one and the spoof Anti Cimex cover). The three songs on the present split are vintage 00's Massgrave, absolutely furious and relentless grinding cavemen crustcore with dual tradeoff vocals reminiscent of late Disrupt, 3-Way Cum or Deformed Conscience. The band sounds absolutely unstoppable and ferocious here, the production is amazing, powerful in that it relies on the energy and aggression of the songwriting to create that vibe of brutal and angry hardcore punk savagery and still provide significant changes of pace. They were at the top of their early game and this is one of my favourite recordings from the band. Short and sweet to be sure and with a limited amount of blast beats which suits me well. What a slap in the face. 

The vocalists are perfectly complementary and manage to recreate an argument between angry cavemen about who did not watch the fire properly. The riffs are top notch too and show that Sweden was certainly a country that the guitar player looked up to while the very sound and tone of the guitar is quite specific and makes the band easy to recognize. Back when the band started the traditional dual vocals crustcore style was slowly vanishing and it would soon go out of fashion after the mid-00's (Visions of War standing as the immortal heroes of the (sub)subgenre). I would venture that the fact that MG was significantly connected with the grindcore scene (most of their collaborations were with grind bands) that value brutality somehow made it easier for them to develop their specific grinding crust attack and build momentum. I had the opportunity to see them twice (I put on the second gig myself) and I had a blast. 

This record was released on Unrest Records when the label was still in its infancy. Little by little it would become a well-respected label responsible for records from the likes of Disrupt (well, that one made sense), The Accüsed, Driller Killer and even Morus. The main flaw of this Ep is the cover, a little confusing visually and without any reference to the bands included, unless you know the record beforehand, it's not one you would necessarily want to check on the distro table. Let's call this a punk tradition.

Global Grave    

An adventure in split Ep's! I have no gun but I can split: DREAD 101 / FASTARD "Bez Víry / Heavy Mental" split LP, 2001

France, Paris especially, is sometimes seen, from abroad, as a place of sophistication, of culture and of complexity, a country where love, sentiments, melancholy somehow merge romantically with existentialism and poststructuralism (and accessorily with promiscuity, then known as "free love"). Charismatic philosophers, fit and smart poets, pipe-smoking Marxist singer and profound intellectuals would all be rubbing shoulders at conferences, engage in heated yet challenging debates, smoke far too much and get angry with self-righteous passionate class. 

And, even though I personally evolve in such an intellectually glamorous world (I was told Terminal Sound Nuisance is "intrinsically sartrean" - whatever that means), the truth is mostly very different. This morning I saw on my facebook feed (this is the most depressing sentence of 2024 so far) that a young American, self-proclaimed "foodie" (whatever that means as well) and Tik Tok influencer, filmed herself crying because, while traveling in Europe doing whatever wealthy foodies do (taking pictures of their plates I assume), she stopped in Lyon for a couple of days and did not make any friends there as sociable, easy-going and eager to make some as she seemed to be. So here she is, crying live on Tik Tok (wearing a French beret which is the most glaring sign I can think of that you are a naive tourist) and basically complaining and sniveling that French people are rude ugly bastards that will scoff at you if you are not familiar with every single traditional French meals. I felt bad for her because indeed, people in Lyon are notoriously known for being cold and uppity, and because if you believe what you see in Emily in Paris or Amélie is for real, you are in for a major disappointment. French people are dirty wankers that have been marinading in their own sense of superiority for centuries, relying on a reputation of intellectualism and refinement in order to make foreigners feel inferior. If you are in a room full of French people, you can bet that every single one of them thinks he or she is smarter than everyone else. And that's a scientific fact.

The equivalent of such heart-breaking dumb silliness in punk-rock is that non-francophones are unaware of our national propensity to love using terrible puns when they pick a band name. A lot of them cannot be translated which is actually fortunate as it spared everyone the embarrassment but just know they are similar to the worst dad jokes, if the dad in question is something of a slimy twat. Bands reveling in such puns belong to a lot of different genres as well (ska bands, of course, with an act like Les Skarottes being real), sometimes actually good bands with something worthy to say, so that the choice of silly monikers is like shooting yourself in the foot. Bands like Jodie Faster, Youssouf Today or Michel Platinium were indeed good. And I mean just take a look at the name of my own series. We're just doomed.

But what is the connection between French punk's depressingly hopeless tendency to go for shit names and today's Ep? Well, Fastard of course. It would be a little unfair to say that the name is gross like some fastcore/grindcore names can be, but it is nonetheless a hardcore dad joke and one that I can imagine being very popular among the French population. I am surprised our local lovers of fast hardcore, a subgenre generally keen on such lexical amusement, did not find that one first. 

Let's get to the actual record. We've already significantly talked about Czech crust with the review of the split between Gride and Lies & Distrust in December so I am not going to dick around too much. Dread 101 basically formed after Lies & Distrust's demise and two members went on to start this new project so that I very much see the band as the logical follow-up to Lies & Distrust, which might not be that relevant in terms of personnel but is as far as the chronology and evolution of Czech crust is concerned. Dread 101 was probably the first Czech band I knew through the 2002 split with Edinburgh's Social Insecurity and I think they are still my favourite. While L&D were heavily rooted in 90's eurocrust, Dread 101 had more of a Swedish metallic feel, even though they certainly did not give up on mid '93 Hiatus love (up until the mid 00's, very few European crust bands did to be honest). The production still has that distinct 90's raw yet hard-hitting crust feel, not unlike Polish bands' maybe. As I mentioned I am sensibly reminded of Swedish juggernauts like Skitsystem or late Wolfpack but also of the metallic sound of early Filth of Mankind. The grinding vibe that L&D sometimes had is gone here and Dread 101's songwriting can be said to correspond to a sort of template for simple, heavy and metallic Scandi-inspired Czech and Slovakian crust that still exists to this day. It could be argued that the presence of Ethan, who would form the well-respected Cimex-loving Guided Cradle, on the guitar might have brought that beefy Swedish influence or it could have been the start of Wolfpack's long-lasting influence in the region. Dread 101 was a solid band indeed with a deep connection with Scotland (Fastard were from Aberdeenshire) and while I still play the split Lp regularly, I have a certain fondness for the raw urgency of this particular early work. Following the split of the band, as mentioned Ethan would do Guided Cradle, Dan would join Non-Comittal and Angry Brigade along with Svatopluk (who also did Spes Erepta), Stříbro would join Telesa Ohnepal and Kukučka V.I.R. 

On the other side you will find the deliciously silly-yet-punishing Fastard. I have no idea what was meant with the gladiator-themed cover but at least I remembered it. I am not especially well-versed in grindcore or fastcore and I have never claimed to but the five minutes of music, with no less than seven songs, are pleasant indeed. The music has an obnoxious cavemen feel, we're not dealing in technical grindcore here at all and I enjoy the groove Fastard demonstrate in their filthy crust metal moments, maybe not unlike Confrontation on that level. I guess fans of savage punky grindcore like Warsore (the band's primary influence I guess) would enjoy the band and I think the traditional polyphonic grindcore vocals (ranging from mad high-pitched shrieks to bear-like growls) confer a welcome atmosphere of cheeky dementia. This is a wild entertaining ride. As is often the case with the genre, each number is introduced, or concluded as it is sometimes hard to tell in all this furiousness, by a fun sample from a movie, which is a little distracting and I would have wished for more fluidity at times in order to keep the pressure and the intensity. But then, it is after a prerequisite of the genre, like macho dancing is to New York hardcore or expensive shirts are to oi. The lyrics are aptly ridiculous as Fastard pretended to be into gory satanism, torture or just plain horror. Goofy. I'm sure they were fun to see live. The band also released a split Ep with Obsolete from Finland. After Fastard, some members would form the more serious "total crust violence" band Filthpact and Andrew would even do a stint with TRIBE alongside members of Sedition and Scatha (among many others).

This entertaining split was released on Insane Society Records and was dedicated to the Ladronka squat in Prague that was evicted in 2000. On the grand scheme of things, we're not dealing with some sort of forgotten masterpiece but the record is convincing with Dread 101's hard-hitting Swedish-flavoured metallic eurocrust being nicely complemented with Fastard's demented cavemen punky grindcore. And honestly, sometimes that is all you need.         

Dread the fastards

An adventure in split Ep's! I have no gun but I can split: DISARM / SUBCUT "Nem esporte, nem tradição / S/t" split Ep, 1999

The shortening of our attention spans is not without its merits. From the perspective of "a blogger" - the correct terminology for what I do apparently although it sounds like I am a part of some sort of inelegant tech bro clique (that makes one shudder) - attention span as an endangered species means pretty much that I can repeat myself without fear of being singled out as a person stuck in a loop and asking the same questions over and over again, like a pub bore who always wants to share his views with you even though you've already endured far too many times his theory that the vanishing of Antisect's second Lp is the greatest mystery of humankind, bar none. Well, at least with a blog you can just close the window and switch to watching underwhelming youtube videos like a normal person while in a pub you have to hide in the toilets and pretend you have a tummy ache. 

Today's oft tackled topic is the observable lack of classic, typical crust bands in Brazil during the 90's. As I mentioned, it is kind of a rerun and you may check the first episodes as I wrote about Under Threat in 2015 and Dischord in 2017. This is a head-scratching, unexplainable phenomenon from an outsider's point of view. How come Brazil, and above all Sao Paulo, a town that had - and still does - one of the strongest, liveliest, most prolific extreme music scenes did not produce many ENT/Disrupt/Doom-like bands? I mean, even France had a contestant (eternal respect to Enola Gay) and we have always notoriously sucked at it so you would have expected Brazilian punks, famously well into fast aggressive music, to offer a solid dozen of cracking crust bands, which they did not. They certainly created their own brands of primitive thrashing grindcore and furiously fast metallic hardcore and many bands proudly adopted this sonic approach but, strictly speaking, as far as crust was concerned, seemingly few were inspired. Of course, elements of crust music were included in the classic Brazilian extreme hardcore vibe but I would not say that there was ever really a Brazilian crust style which, given the incredible potential, does come as a surprise. It does not imply either that that Brazil was actually missing something, it is just curious. As I said earlier, some things may escape me.

It would be untrue and hyperbolic to claim that the scene was deprived of Doom-lovers though. How sad would that be? Aforementioned bands like Dischord (a hard-working band who had a very decent discography with splits with Lies & Distrust, Rotten Sound or Força Macabra) or Under Threat (a project that was started by Rot's drummer and went on to release splits with Battle of Disarm or... Dischord!) and bands like Cruel Face were inspired and included elements pertaining to the subgenre to some extent. And of course, you saw me coming, Disarm were undeniably, gloriously, heroically one of the few national bands that was openly, deeply, fundamentally oriented toward gruff 90's crust.

In fact, I see Disarm as the Brazilian band that was the most typical of the 90's crust wave, the one that fitted the template with the most accuracy and, clearly, with the most ease. The name could be seen as a little unfortunate and prone to cause confusion since it is a great but fairly common moniker. The classic Swedish käng band Disarm from the 80's is the most famous, but there is also a one-man grindcore band from Italy, some short-lived punk-rock band from Springfield, a hardcore band from Niigata, yet another American band this time of the folk punk variety (gasp), yet another Japanese band but one that does 80's thrash metal, a Welsh sloppy anarchopunk band from the 80's, a Ukrainian thrash metal band with the most horrendous Disarm font of them all, yet another American hardcore band from Virginia and there is apparently an active crust band from Switzerland named Disarm. This abundance of Disarms is disarming (I take full responsibility for that shit joke). A great name that was used far too often but then in the mid-90's, our Disarm's first recording was done in 1997, it certainly sounded like a good idea since you wouldn't have heard of some of the most obscure Disarms of the past.

But anyway, the four songs on this split Ep are the best ones from the band's first run between 1997 and 2001 (the band seemingly reformed in the mid-00's as they released a split with Norway's Sound Your Alarm in 2007 and with Indonesia's Firstblood in 2013). The 1997 self-titled demo tape (this session also appeared on a split tape with Holochaos) was a rough and ready direct crustcore attack, the potential of which was confirmed with this 1999 recording. The first three numbers are by-the-book 90's cavemen crust reminiscent of From Resignation-era Hiatus, mid-90's Doom and Warcollapse with lyrics about animal rights. You know the drill. The lyrics in Portuguese also point to the overlooked - but beloved in these quarters - mid-90's Subcaos as well. The key word overall here being "mid-90's". The production has that perfect 90's crust cave groove and thickness, the scansion is ideal, the riffs obvious but effective, this is exactly what I expect from the genre and era. The fourth song however is totally different and display Disarm in full-on Brazilian thrashing hardcore mode with that typical fast and angry vocal delivery and that vibe of unstoppability. Quite the surprise since it sounds nothing like the other songs and also a genuinely good idea since it reminds the listener that this is Sao Paulo not fucking Stockholm. Following this split, Disarm would appear on a split Lp with Stomachal Corrosion. 

On the other side prolific grindcore band Subcut (but grindcore bands often are) offer, kindly, five songs of raw and energetic relentless angry grindcore with a hardcore thrash influence like Brazilian bands are usually excellent at. This is definitely my kind of grindcore, really direct and with a punk attitude and none of that technical snooze fest. I love how the band frenetically speeds up the tempo and unleash furious blast beats. The musicianship is a little sloppy and the production very low-fi but Subcut sound intense and relentless enough to make these elements work at their benefit. In fact, if it were properly produced I would not probably like it because that is exactly what I expect from a raw high octane Brazilian grindcore band. With them using dual vocals Subcut's music can be said to incorporate a primitive crust influence (after all the two genres were close at the beginning of the decade) or at least appeal to a crust crowd open to a balanced diet of blast beats like Destroy! or Confrontation used. But on the whole, in terms of song structures Subcut belonged to the grindcore side and their cover of Intestinal Disease is a clear enough sign of that. Imagine Rot and Dropdead recording a one hour practice together on a tape recorder in order to contribute songs for a 4-way split between Gride, Entrails Massacre and Intestinal Disease.

My one reservation about the Subcut side is that the five songs were taken from three different recording sessions. The first three were recorded in 1999 and the whole session would appear on the very fine split 10'' with Cruel Face in 2000; the fourth song is taken from a 1998 session while the Intestinal Disease cover was already included on a split tape with Rot. As a result, as a whole, their side has a disparate feel that is a little distracting, to a small extent because the production always remains raw and stylistically the songs were similar but still, I'd rather have five songs from the same session. Subcut would have a long life and are still active and still grinding.

This fine highly enjoyable Ep was released on No Fashion HC Records, a label that specialized in grindcore and raw hardcore and notably released a double-cd Disclose retrospective.

Disarm + Subcut   

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: DISMACHINE / CUMBRAGE split Ep, 1995

I have to confess that I have been oblivious to both Dismachine and Cumbrage for a long time. I am a bit at a loss to understand why. These two bands worked in a field that was massively overpopulated in the 90's, namely Swedish hardcore, aka käng or scandicore, and, when yours truly miraculously crashed in the scene in the early 00's, it was very easy to get lost among all the Disfear, Diskonto or Dischange of a few years past. Overwhelming would be the exact word. The two Uppsala units we are dealing with today were always hanging in the background in my mind. I knew who and what they were - at least roughly - but could not be arsed to properly investigate, a bit like the familiar faces you have been seeing at gigs forever but never bothered really talking to beside the odd "You alright mate?" a rhetorical question to which the only possible answer is "I've been fine, you?" as an honest one like "Actually I have been very depressed since my dog's death and I really need to talk to someone. Do you like dogs?" would absolute mortify me and force me to pretend to care about the fartful Captain Doggo's untimely passing. That was pretty much my relationship with Dismachine and Cumbrage: glad they're here but not enough to bother. Of course, when I really paid attention I realize I was wrong, an unpleasant but sadly not a rare occurrence these days.

In my tiny mind Dismachine were "that band that did a split record with Totalitär at some point" which is technically true but tends to dismiss them, on paper, as a sparring partner if not a sidekick. Unfair, definitely, and the incredible popularity that Totalitär have been enjoying for the past 15 years - they have arguably never been as popular as they are today - does reinforce that feeling. How many Totalitär-like bands does the world need? And I know what I am talking about, I play in one. When the record came out in 1995 my favourite band was still probably Ace of Base so upon release Dismachine may have been popular too for all I know. And at least the split Lp ensures that the name Dismachine will not disappear. 

The name they picked did not help. I don't really mind it as the practice to apply the "dis" prefix to a random name was still fresh in the 90's. It was not the smartest lexical choice but in 1995 it made sense. Not so much in the 2020's as I see the practice as very passé if not a little distasteful (lol right?) in some cases. We actually had a bass player put down when we started looking for a name with my band and he offered, smiling innocently like a bellend, "Dispocalypse". May Bob rest in Dis. Being called Dismachine in the 90's was both an advantage and a downside. On the one hand it allowed and still allows the band to be immediately identified and associated with the 90's Swedish käng/d-beat/crust wave which is like a dog whistle for stud-wearing Discharge nuts and crusters. On the other hand it limited and still limits the band to be immediately identified and associated with the 90's Swedish käng/d-beat/crust wave which is like a repellent and a source of prejudices for people who are not inclined to wear studs and have a decent dental hygiene and no lice. Before seriously diving into Dismachine, seeing they were from Uppsala and I am familiar with what the punks were up to there and then, I was expecting a Diskonto-like hardcore band with a more orthodox Discharge vibe. Yeah wrong again.

Dismachine managed to pull out a genuine tour de force: the blend of angry raw käng with furious blasting grinding fastcore. In theory it should not really work or at least not as fluidly, as effortlessly and as dynamically but they nailed it. When one thinks (by which I mean me) about the mating of käng and fastcore, one fears that it would produce something disparate and not cohesive, a bit like a kid with a faded Anti-Cimex shirt and a bullet belt but also a bandana and an American cap. What a dreadful sight. But in Dismachine's case, it sounds perfect. The split Ep format fits them to a T (well to a D) because the fast grindy vibe can be exhausting on a full length and of course the d-takt käng style is tailor-made for Ep's. On their side you will be exposed to proper raw energetic classic Swedish hardcore like Cimex, Asocial or early Totalitär and over-the-top punk-as-fuck blasting mean fast hardcore not unlike G-Anx or Dropdead. I love how they keep it serious and yet fun (the three-second songs clearly point out at the cheeky side of grindcore). If you bump into a record bin with a Dismachine record (that's where I found my copy as I remember it), you know what to do. The band members were busy bees and the Uppsala scene's seeming dynamism in the 90's has a lot to do with the fact that each one of them being involved in other projects: D-Takt master Jan Jutila also played in Times Square Preachers, Dishonest and Disjah (a studio project with Kawakami!) among others, Jonas was in Diskonto, Aparat and Nojsbojs (Noise Boys?), Linus also in Diskonto, Nojsbojs, Arsedestroyer and Masturbatorium (yes) and Masta in Aparat. The classic case of ten people equals ten bands. 

Cumbrage emerged from the exact same scene. In fact Jan Jutila this time is credited as doing some vocals (he was on the guitar in Dismachine and on drums with TSP, what a man), while Kjelle played in Zionide and Times Square Preachers. There is a strange indication on the Ep's cover that says "Featuring Times Square Preachers and C.U.M." which is little unsettling. If C.U.M. was Cumbrage's first name and it may have made sense to point out that it was the same band under a different albeit equally bad name (alright, Cumbrage is a little better, because it is at least incomprehensible), but Times Square Preachers was a different band altogether. It did share members with Dismachine (and Cumbrage) though, so that the purpose may have been to signal that people from TSP were involved and since they were one of the bands that kickstarted the 90's käng thing in Uppsala (along with Diskonto) it sounded reasonable. Or perhaps Dismachine was basically the sequel of TSP with a different lineup and songwriting style but then that would not make much sense given the propensity of this crew to start new bands all the time. Or would it? Please let me know. 

Cumbrage is more classical than Dismachine and in fact sound exactly like I once expected Dismachine to sound like: right on the border between raw old-school käng and orthodox d-beat. It you want to be a terminological smart-arse you could argue that Cumbrage are "discore". Or maybe just describe their crude hardcore tornado as an orgy between Totalitär, Dischange, Asocial and No Security. What really works here - and the same could be said about Dismachine - is the production as the music has that organic rawness, that spontaneous hardcore furiousness, the songs sound very dynamic and retain the Discharge-loving spirit of the classic 80's bands without trying too hard. The riffs are rigorously käng-oriented and the vocal flow and the prosody demonstrate that the singers know exactly how the genre is supposed to sound like and the drumming is a crash course in d-beat. 

Unsurprisingly both bands recorded their songs in D-Takt studio with Jan Jutila at the helm which is the hardcore equivalent of having David Beckham as your personal beauty coach: the man knows what he is talking about. This split Ep cannot be said to be a 90's classic but classically 90's. It is very solid and much better than what passes as Swedish hardcore sometimes and I see it as a käng candy, something predictably heart-warming with a by-the-book performance of raw pummeling dis-flavoured-käng by Cumbrage and something a little original with Dismachine's blend of furious blasting fastcore and classic 80's käng. The record just flows because of the very similar punchy raw production on both side, for all I know the two bands recorded on the same day which gives extra cohesiveness and conveys a real local Uppsala vibe. Did I mention that it was released on Jan Jutila's label Your Own Jailer Records?

A sweet little Ep that is better than you probably remember.  

Dismachine + Cumbrage = <3

           

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: 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