Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 3): KYLMÄ SOTA "S/t" Lp, 2010

Kylmä Sota is a band I know I have seen twice but that I have absolutely no recollection of. They had been booked at the sadly defunct and almighty Play Fast or Don't festival in Czech in 2009 and even though I was indeed parading that year in Hradec Králové and despite always making a point to check out all the bands on the bill (I still do), I don't remember seeing them at all. They apparently did play in the afternoon but I was nowhere near pissed enough to use intoxication as an excuse. Maybe I should have been drunk. They also played in Paris in 2013 and I do remember well seeing the opening bands but my memories of the Finns are blank, a tragedy made even sadder by the fact that, by all accounts, they were great on stage.

The brain works in mysterious ways. Whereas I have crystal clear memories of abysmal bands making fools of themselves 20 years ago (the list includes some of my own bands), I am unable to remember some good bands I specially went to the gig to see. I try to pretend I do most of the time just to keep my notoriously high level of punk points safe. Sometimes repeating to others a story of how superb the band was, even if you can't remember fuck all, is enough to convince yourself that you actually do remember. You basically have to fill in the blanks and create a believable story based on more or less reliable outside reports and voilà. 

It has to be pointed out that Kylmä Sota - meaning "cold war" in Finnish - is a band that is still remembered in the grand collective punk psyche and indeed I see them as one of the best Finnish bands of the era and quite possibly my favourite one (which makes my memory loss even more frustrating). The band released a number of good records and lasted ten years, between 2005 and 2015, a very decent run at a time when bands' lifespans were growing shorter and Kylmä Sota's existence happened at a pivotal time. When they formed in the mid-00's, social media and youtube were not around and the punk scene, its inner workings and its representations were still very similar to those of the 90's. 10 years later, things were very different and punk and its codes had changed drastically. But the reason why Kylmä Sota are still mentioned in elders' discussions is that the band were precursors, unintentionally, as it is often the case, as they brought the uncompromising distorted d-beat style to Europe.

Kylmä Sota is the only band on my list that does not strictly abide by the holy d-beat scriptures. Don't get me wrong, they undeniably stood as a d-beat band. But they were not as orthodox or monomaniacal (mean people would also say as unoriginal) as the rest, although not by that much (according to these same mean people). I felt I had to include them because, beside being a great band, they brought something new or rather they brought something that already existed to a new place. From their humble beginning until the end, their use of a layered super fuzzy Japanese-style distortion applied to traditional Discharge-loving käng hardcore was just not done in Europe. Listening to this wonderful Lp - their strongest material in my opinion - I sometimes have the impression of vintage Disclose covering Diskonto and Dischange with a Finnish hardcore singer and this distinctive Suomi flow and sonorities. The riffs abide by the Swedish d-beat tradition but textures differ and if the aforementioned heroes from Kochi are obvious influences, classic Japanese noisepunk acts like Confuse and Gai or even crasher classics like Collapsed Society or Gloom. 

I am not forgetting Lebenden Toten who used that piercing Kyushu guitar distortion as early as 2003 but they did not partake in d-beat and very much remained in the (then not quite construed) noisepunk category (like the Wankys shortly after). By the start of the 2010's more and more bands worldwide would take to the "wall of noise" approach (Japan has always had its own dynamics so I'm not taking it into account here) but none were total d-beat bands like Kylmä Sota were as even the excellent Giftgasattack (other pioneers from Sweden) were not as Dis-oriented as the Turku punks. Kylmä Sota's music was very energetic, galloping and intense, with a definite punk edge emphasized by the fast-paced shouted, but not growled or harsh in any way vocals. In spite of it being a 10 song album, not the easiest format to pull for d-beat, the listener is grabbed by the throat from the start and never set free. Intensity-driven hardcore punk. It has to be pointed out that it was not the members' first (nor last) band as they had played in acts like Stumm, Selfish, Khatarina and others I am not really familiar with and right from the band's demo indeed, you can tell that they know what they are doing (when sober at least).

A very strong record that appealed to the d-beat fanatics, scandicore lovers and just old-school  hardcore audiences that at the time had not been overfed the "distortion and echoed vocals" hardcore trend. It was released on Feral Ward in 2010 so you know it's quality stuff. Do take a listen to the rest of their discography, you are going to be disnoised.

Kylmä Sota

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dyspnea vs Nakot

An adventure in split Ep's! I have no gun but I can split: CONTRAVENE / SVART AGGRESSION "S/t" split Ep, 2000

The first time I saw the Contravene logo I thought it was a chicken or maybe a fat water fowl or common pigeon. It was a little bewildering. Even back then, in 2003, when my doomed quest to know everything there is to know about crust, anarchopunk and patches was still in its infancy, I already knew that there were only a couple of bird species that punk bands were legally allowed to use if they wanted to earn the bitter respect of their peers. There was the dove for the anarchopunk bands, a symbol inherited from the original 80's waves and popularized by peace-loving soap-dodging teenagers like Omega Tribe, Alternative or The Iconoclast and then re-adapted by countless crust bands like Nausea or SDS (Japanese crusties certainly love their dove). The use of this bird is something of a prerequisite in those genres if you have an anti-war song (more likely you'll have at least seven of them) and while no doves fly here in the real world, they certainly do on punk shirts.

The eagle is also an acceptable punk bird, but more of an aggressive, threatening, majestic one, sometimes used as a patriotic symbol if you are unlucky enough to be American. Some neocrust or blackened crust bands use it often. I have to say that Tragedy's take on the eagle is particularly striking and, unsurprisingly enough, it has been a popular logo. Vultures can be used as well, often in the stenchcore or metal crust imagery in order to reflect war, desolation and death, the vulture is the bird that comes when we're all already dead and we have effectively committed self-inflicted extinction. Lol.

Chickens on the other hand have never been popular punk birds for obvious reasons. It looks thick, it cannot fly with any sort of grace (when it can at all), it is certainly not threatening in the least. And to most people it symbolizes food. So why would Contravene use it at all? It did take a couple of years and a friend's compliment for me to realize that the band's logo was actually and logically a dove. I had a Contravene badge (and still do I think) with the logo because I loved the band and did not mind enduring the mockeries and ridicule in relation to wearing a chicken on my jacket. And then that friend told me something like: "Cool dove logo mate" which made me understand that it was, in fact, a dove but a short-winged, featherless one with a strange goose-like neck. But a dove nonetheless. I guess. Stupid me, I can see the dove perfectly now.

I was a big fan of the band in the 00's (I may have overplayed A Call to Action to be honest) and while I still listen to Contravene from times to times I cannot say they move me like they did back when I still had all my hair. I do see the band as a genuine 00's anarchopunk classic however and I cannot think of any other that sounded quite like them. The Phoenix-based unit were quite prolific too with one Lp, two Ep's and two split Ep's under their vegan belt in only six years (between 2000 and 2003 actually) so that if you were into DIY political punk at that time you would have heard of them, even more so since they toured in Europe in 2001 (or something? I was too busy listening to streetpunk dross in 2001 and missed them like a bellend). In addition Contravene were from Arizona and while areas like Portland, New York, Minneapolis or any Californian shitholes were deemed "cool" and would attract punters regardless of the bands on stage, Arizona was not exactly the trendiest punk place and that made them a little more special in my eyes as a result. They were very outspoken politically, very serious, very passionate and supported revolutionary ideals (there is the obligatory political text about multiple oppressions with the Ep) and it made them quite inspiring in a lot of respects. They had that kind of youthful energy and belief that matter and their lyrics are every bit as relevant today, sadly I must add. 

And well, they were quite unique musically too. Not perfect and listening to them carefully and critically again, there are bits that don't quite work but I don't think it really matters because they had all that sincerity and they did strive to create their own brand of anarchopunk (to an extent, it is not like they went all experimental and played the guitar with forks like The Ex did) which makes them remarkable. Their side of this split is made up of one long song, recorded in early 2000. "Stand up and resist" is classic Contravene in all its glory. It opens with a sample of a political speech then proceeds with a rather melancholy and melodic, mid-paced, short introduction before unleashing the dark and heavy crusty riffs with a singalong chorus, then some sort of metallic-yet-melodic instrumental moment, then back to the fast crust riffs and then, as an epic conclusion, the same arpeggio tune as on the opening is back this time with more dynamics and catchy poppy backing chorus. Contravene were great at telling stories with their songs, that were often quite long for the genre, through the use of introductions, conclusions, twists or transitions and on this number it works flawlessly.

They have often been compared to Nausea, probably because of the strong shouted female vocals, but they were more tuneful and versatile. They definitely belonged to that 90's wave of female-fronted US anarchopunk of classic bands like Antiproduct or Mankind? but they were also heavier, metallic and crustier like the aforementioned Nausea and even European bands like Homomilitia (the fact that some members from the band also played in Misanthropic and Sea of Deprivation accounts for the metallic sound). What made them really stand out was their surprisingly melodic poppy moments reminiscent of Civilised Society and even Chumbawamba or Omega Tribe - I love anarcho-cheesy and Contravene sometimes did go full out which can scare some eway - although the production is always on the heavy side. It might be too melodic for the crustier-than-thou and too heavy and metallic for the lovers of traditional anarchopunk but in the end that was what made Contravene who they were. One of the most relevant anarchopunk bands of their generation.

On the other side Svart Aggression were a perfect choice for a split with the Arizonians, full of significance and meaning. Hailing from Kalmar, the band is mostly known nowadays (and by "mostly known" I mean that I have one mate locally who knows the band because they did do a split with Kaaos, which is pretty brilliant) for their connection with Protestera with whom they shared two members in the early days. One year before Operation, a criminally overlooked angry Swedish anarchopunk band, officially folded, two members of the band formed Svart Aggression. In 1999 Protestera, basically the progression from Operation, started and both bands sounded very similar in the beginning, fast and angry 90's aanrchopunk, pretty much the same people under a different name. While oft forgotten when one meditates about 90's Swedish hardcore, crust and d-beat, Svart Aggression certainly deserves to be rediscovered, if only because they were a little different and did not quite fit the orthodox Distortion Records template.

In some respect Svart Aggression unintentionally stood for some stylistic transitions that took place between the late 90's and the 00's in Sweden as some bands started to add different influences to the otherwise fairly classic scandicrust recipe. The furious and savage käng attack is present with the cracking song "Mördare" and its traditionally pummeling fast d-takt and epic crunchy hardcore riffs, not unlike Tolshock maybe, but there are also heavier elements with a down-tuned melancholy vibe like on the introduction to "Skit system" and its slow d-beat. Pretty much how the so-called neocrust wave would work just a few years afterwards but I suppose it was more the dark Wolfpack influence speaking in this case. The dual male and female vocals really gives the band that classic anarchopunk feeling that already prevailed in Operation - and many other bands in the 90's and early 00's - and on the whole you could see Svart Aggression as a sort of Swedish version of React. I love how the two vocalists work together as Emma has a very peculiar way of singing that is almost spoken but still powerful and that balances well with Coffe's raspy aggressive käng shouts. A genuinely great combination. These two songs were recorded in late 1999 during the same session as the five songs that would eventually appear on the brilliant Tänk Själv Ep in 2006 released on Scream Records (although the label does not appear on the backcover, in true DIY fashion, a small promotional flyer from Scream Records referencing the Ep was actually included in the Ep) but, not owning the split with Kaaos, released in 2000 like the present record, I can't tell you if the two songs it has were also taken during the same session. 

This split Ep was released on Catchphraze Records, a label based in Arizona that was responsible for records by Axiom, Inner Conflict and all of Contravene's. The label also ran a small distro that sold DIY tape versions of old, sold-out records that were seemingly impossible to find - to me anyway - and I remember ordering several tapes from them around 2003, notably Sacrilege's first Lp on a very simple dubbed tape with a xerox cover. Needless to say it severely kicked my ass. So thank you Catchphraze. 

                                                                             Svart Contravene

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

           

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: LIFE / Judas Krust "Polluted water drainage wreck of culture / Genosida populasi" split Ep, 2017

I still use an Ipod nano to listen to music when I'm out. Yes, the device still works fine and its relatively short storage space allows me to actually choose and select what I really want to listen to carefully instead of being drowned in an overwhelming ocean of available music. Endless listening options make the very notion of choice meaningless as one just jumps from one song to another according to an ever-changing erratic mood that can nowadays change all the time as we cannot stand being frustrated. By limiting myself to a specific number of works - often new ones I wish to pay closer attention to - I like to think that I am more focused and prone to engage with them. Sure, I could just stream the things but, let's face it, I could change my mind after two minutes and just browse or doom scroll indefinitely. On the contrary, when I am at home in my Disclose pajamas (I have already mentioned them but it is just reminder that I am a class act) and am faced with endless possibilities, the mind sometimes gets distracted. It is hard enough not to get lost in this gigantic maze of punk bands and I personally need to draw boundaries and create a delimited field of expertise that I will explore. I suppose infinite choice does not quite work for me and or least not when I want to integrate and absorb a band's music into my repertoire of knowledge. I am like an older robot that needs to compute.     

So the other day, I was riding the underground on my way to work while blasting some Meanwhile on my Ipod nano - I affectionately call it Captain Pod - because in the morning you need softer music in order to wake up progressively. I noticed a teenager with pinkish hair and weird pricy trainers staring at me. I don't enjoy being stared at and I suppose no one does. And she kept staring, looking vacant and chewing a gum. That made me quite uncomfortable and self-conscious. Was she judging me for something? A disgraceful, shocking cowlick? An open fly? A rebellious bogey? Was my State of Fear enamel pin somewhat misplaced? Or worse, had Antisect been cancelled and no one told me because I am not on Insta? And she just got off and stared her way to the nearest exit. Of course, like every teenager, she was wearing airpods, the kind that people never really seem to ever take off (I read that some where actually water proof so that you can keep listening to Billie Eilish, inspiring fitness podcasts or vocoder contests while in the shower) and I wondered what music she was listening to and what was the soundtrack to her staring at the world like a stoned tortoise. Maybe I will soon be an object of mockery on some viral Tiktok video. Let me know please. 

To fight this early uneasiness I looked at the bands I had on my loyal Captain Pod and settled for a life-saving act by which I mean LIFE because if there is one band that I often play to cheer me up, boost my spirit, make me smile like a buffoon or prepare myself to be relentlessly bullied by middle-class customers, well, it has to be LIFE. Yes, LIFE is life, just like in that Opus song. It would have been unprofessional not to include a LIFE record in Live by the Crust, Die bv Crust. This band certainly live by the crust and just like Crux claimed that they would die with their boots on when they 16 (while they stopped wearing any by 1985), LIFE will probably die with they crust pants on. Much more romantic if you ask me.

It would be a little pointless to tell the full story of this legendary Tokyo band that has been going since 1991 and has logically released a lot of records. In a world of status-obsessed wankers, LIFE have always been a breath of fresh air. They are politically-motivated, sincere, positive and stand for everything that is good in the DIY punk scene. Beside, live they play hard like their bums are on fire. Their latest records have been particularly good and I cannot recommend enough their new album Ossification of Corral. I am aware that it would make me look much cooler if I said that I much prefer their first demos, or even better their first rehearsals, and that they lost it as soon as more than 20 people knew about them (I mean, it is in the Elite Punk-rock for Dummies guidebook) but I do believe it is among their best works. This split with Zudas Krust from Indonesia was originally released on tape in 2015 on Doombringer records and the vinyl version came out two years after thanks to a collaboration between the aforementioned Indonesian label, Phobia Records, Crust War, Headnoise Records and Not Enough Records (many great labels that would make a brilliant team at Survivor Series). 

These two songs from LIFE are not a bad start at all if you have never really taken the time to dig into them. They incorporate the essence of proper Japanese crust, the heaviness, the relentless intensity, the distortedness, the angry raw aggression. LIFE just sound unstoppable here. I have left the two songs "Polluted water drainage wreck of culture" and "River of filth" on the same track to emphasize the ferocity. Both have groovy stench filthcrust parts that remind me of Effigy or After the Bombs and give them a genuine epic feel, further enhanced through epic guitar leads, before exploding into their classic brand of punishing blownout Japanese-style crasher scandi peacecrust. It is like SDS and Frigöra teaming up at Gloom's place to write a ruthless record for Distortion Records. The lyrics are decidedly about ecology and nuclear power. The five minutes fly fast and will leave you craving for more (I usually combine this split and the one with Instinct of Survival and I can guarantee you will be ready to rip the head of your smug boss upon arrival). 

Zudas Krust formed as early as 2008 and have been pretty prolific since which make them a leading hardcore punk band in Jakarta. I first became aware of them in the late 00's back when there were a plethora of blogs dealing in d-beat and crust (15 years later and I sometimes feel like the boomer equivalent of punk bloggers) that were a brilliant way to get to know old and contemporary bands from places I was bit clueless about. I remember downloading quite a few punk bands from the very dynamic Indonesian scene (beside them, Kontrasosial and Peace of Annihiliation are two solid bands that immediately spring to mind when I think this genre in this locality). I was favourably impressed with the raw Swedish-flavoured hardcore punk sound of ZK and made a mental note to, one day, get a record from them. Unfortunately, tapes and records from that part of the world can be quite difficult to get in Europe so that a split Ep with both LIFE and ZK was a perfect opportunity.

On that 2014 recording, ZK definitely took their influence from the raw attack of Japanese crusty crasher scandicore bands and closing your eyes, for its the raw production, I could definitely imagine them belonging to the booming 90's scene of the Final Noise Attack and Punk and Destroy gigs. Three punishing songs, two of them with lyrics in their mother language, reminiscent of early Framtid, Collapse Society and Crocodileskink that would definitely delight devotees of the genre. This band should get more attention and I am sure that if they were from Tokyo, Stockholm or New York, they probably would. Both sides of the Ep were mastered at the infamous Noise Room, which accounts for their power, textures and dynamics, although the ZK songs are not as loud and less produced. I don't think this Ep should be too hard to find so make yourself a favour and support the scene. 

KRUST LIFE  

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Napalm Raid "Wheel of war" Lp, 2017

To listen to, enjoy and truly engage with certain types of noizy hardcore punk, it could be argued that you need to be, at least, a little masochistic. I mean, in theory no sane person likes to be aurally punished by purposefully brutal, relentless and loud noisy music. I remember well the combination of utter dismay and genuine concern for my mental health on some of my (non-punk) friends' faces when I played them Extreme Noise Terror as a reply to the rather innocuous question "so what do you listen to these days? Still into punk-rock?". Of course, relativity is of the essence here. If you listen to a lot of that kind of punk like myself, some vintage ENT in the morning will sound like a reward, a gratification and not like an unfair punishment inflicted by a soap-dodging weirdo. Hence the parallel with masochism. Are subgenres like cavemen crust or crasher or stenchcore musical forms of masochism? Do we like or need the pain to get into these? And if so, where would goregrind be on the scale of masochism? Shagging someone who just ate four pounds of stale garlic sausages? Such questions do make one shiver. 

Another memory that immediately comes to mind in order to illustrate this theory is Sete Star Sept's gigs in Paris in 2014. It took place in a genuinely depressing and miserable-looking bar (that also served mediocre pizzas) located in a rather rough Parisian suburbs whose landlord, a friendly Sri Lankan man, once agreed to host a punk gig in order to attract some punters as his bar was almost always empty after 6pm. Following that fateful decision of his, he ended up having punk gigs regularly, sometimes several times a week, and bands like Destino Final, Fleas & Lice, Morne and even Dropdead and The Mob played there. I don't think the landlord ever got the appeal of punk music but, up to a certain point, he managed to bear the pain stoically. That Sete Start Sept gig stands out because of how emphatically chaotic and noisy and just incomprehensible the band sounded like (I mean, even I struggle to go through a SSS record). The look on that poor man's face was one of utter disbelief, composed incredulity and fatalistic pain as he witnessed the band's performance. What unlikely chain of events, he must have asked himself, led to me owning a cheap bar hosting what could be best defined as an impenetrable wall of nasty sound that some people inexplicably seem to enjoy? SSS is a rather extreme example, his worst night maybe, and fortunately for him, not every gig were that much of a sonic bollocking. But still, as I watched the grindcore freaks relishing in the savage noise and the landlord's resilient agony, the paradox was evident. Some loved the punishment while others endured it. 

Wheel of War can be said to be an absolute scandicrust bollocking, one that is unceasingly intense and furiously harsh, one that could easily repel meaningful sectors of the hardcore punk world, one that could even be considered as being "maybe a bit much" by fans of d-beat and raw punk. And I would not entirely  disagree with such a statement actually as Wheel of War can sound a little hard to bear. But it is still patently one of the best albums in the crust category of the 2010's and most likely the best in the scandicrust subcategory. For some reason, the MTV Music Award went for Ed fucking Sheeran as artist of the year in 2017 and Napalm Raid were not even nominated. In fact, the knobheads don't even have a Best Crust Artist category. Shameful really. 

Wheel of War is so good precisely because it sounds so punishing. Whenever I play it, I excitedly anticipate the coming kicks up the arse, I know what's coming and am looking forward to it. The Lp reminds me of D-Clone Creation and Destroy, or Framtid's Lp's, or Flyblown's, or Atrocious Madness', or 3-Way Cum's Ep's, or Hiatus' Way of Doom, or Doom's Peel Sessions, not because Napalm Raid sound just like them (although the Canadians are certainly not dissimilar to some of those works) but because their Lp possesses that level of madness-inducing sonic aggression, of uncontrolled anger, of unhinged power. The battering does leave the listener exhausted but happy. Or it can lead to him or her leaving punk-rock in order to live an existence of silence in a monastery somewhere in the arse-end of nowhere.

Napalm Raid (which we will call NR from now on) are from Halifax, Nova Scotia, a dynamic Canadian town that has produced a vast number of top crust and hardcore bands (and extreme bands in general from I gather) in the past fifteen years, some of which I rate very, very highly. There will be further opportunities to talk about those in the future of Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust. I first heard of a Halifax crust scene through Contagium in the late 00's but upon preparing that dantean series I realized that the seemingly immortal System Shit are also from there and, uncoincidentally NR did a split tape with them in their early years. NR caught my attention in 2012 when I bumped into their video of "Why" (where does that come from) on fucking youtube (I have to say I am generally not a big fan of music videos but this one is pretty basic, just the band playing in the studio, nothing cheesy). I was of course impressed with the band's solid, hard-hitting knowledgeable take on the 90's Anti-Cimex/Driller Killer sound but I was particularly fond of the deeply deranged echoing reverbed vocals. At the time, not every band and their mum used such effects (Destino Final obviously did, a lot) so that it sounded a little different. Because I was absolutely skint at the time, I could not buy the Mindless Nation Lp though. 

Two years after, I read about NR's new Ep Storm, a record that I instantly got into and promptly got hold of. While the band kept a significant Cimex käng backbone, they added a distorted Japanese crust sound to the music and, in an emphatically loving move, reinforced the early Doom influence especially on the vocals and the animalistic cavemen atmosphere. Thanks to a massive crashercrust-styled production, Storm was an absolute crusher of a record that indicated a strong crustification of NR's music. I love both Wheel of War and Storm but I would understand why one would rate the latter higher (I think I do, because I did not expect it to be that good). I literally could not wait for the followup and when Wheel of War came out I already knew that it was going to be a collection of intense scorchers but wondered if the album was going to sound like a meaning-enhancing cohesive whole as opposed to just like an assemblage of songs that sound good separately but do not really work together. Was it going to be a collection of short stories or a proper novel? I would have been fine with both but to pull out a genuine great crust album you do have to think about how your songs echo and relate with each other, how specific changes affect the overall narrative. Quite a challenge really as, in the world of crust, recording a great Ep is not the same as writing a great album, the stakes are just different. 

Thankfully NR managed to write a magnificent second album that does not relinquish any of the band's awe-inspiring crushing power and still tells a good story and has a solid plot with enough changes of paces and executions, enough introductions and transitions to make the album memorable. Don't get me wrong, it still sounds like a demented grizzli bear giving you a right bollocking and not like a boringly pretentious German post-hardcore project but I appreciate when records really tell me something (well, shout mercilessly something at me in this case). The sound is a little different to Storm's, maybe less distortion-oriented however the drums have never sounded so powerful, like an endless shower of crust pants-wearing meteors crashing on the listener. Heavy shit. Wheel of War opens with the eponymous song, a metallic filth-crust number - with those hyperbolic howling Doom-like anguished cries that personify the band - that sounds like a rabid row between Brum's finest, Driller Killer, Framtid and Disturd. The next two songs are faster and more direct distorted scandicrust songs that just pummels the shit out of you while "No law" is more has more of a mid-paced distorted 00's stenchcore with a thrashing groove, you know what I mean? The next two are more short sharp shocks of crasher-käng and the final number of the first side is a heavy and dark mid-paced Cimex-styled beefy conclusion. The second side does not let the pressure off at all and keeps assaulting your senses. The highlights include "Wounds" a massive distorted groovy tribute to Doom's cover of Black Sabbath - it really is a tribute to the tribute and multilayered referentiality for careful crusters - and "Untold reality", a kind of melancholy and long Wolfpack-inspired käng ballad. Who said d-beat could not reflect morosity?

Wheel of War is pretty much flawless. I have friends who cannot get past the hyperbolic version of Doom vocals but I definitely think they are an element that makes NR so good and recognizable, which is not so easy in the crowded Dis-crust genre. NR are also somewhat unique in that they occupy a liminal position, the boundary between beefy Anti-Cimex käng, neanderthal Doom-worship and manic crasher-styled Japanese crust. It's like chopping some 90's Cimex, early Reality Crisis, early Driller Killer and Disturd with a knife sharpened with classic Doom, then cook it in a Distortion Records pot, spice it up with some Framtid and Bombanfall, then serve it to a rabid Swedish bear and hear the fucker roar through a distorted microphone in your ear. This album sounds massive and unstoppable. You've been warned. 

Napalm RAIIIIDDDD

Ace Compilations for Less Than a Fiver on Bloody Discogs (part 5): "Why Must We Die for Your Palate?" compilation Ep, 1999

This is the last cheap compilation Ep of the series and I do hope you all took notes. Whether you are looking for a last minute present for that annoyingly ungrateful nephew of yours, trying to reconstruct some sort of decent collection after you had to sell all your records for food and booze after the Covid pandemic or just intending to save some money for the upcoming baby but still have some punk credibility to show your 13 followers on social media, these five Ep's will work miracles. Tested and approved by the Guardians of Punk! Humanitarian mission! If you are a cheese-paring yet sharp busybody, you might be able to bargain your way into an even better deal and negotiate the five records for just £20, assuming you hassle the unwary merch person at a gig enough. Who knows, if you prove to be enough of a stingy bellend, he or she might let you leave with the whole record bin for free just to get rid of you. As young and inspiring successful business owners often say, there are no small victories and if it takes wearing down the poor fool stuck behind the table and thus unable to flee, then so be it. At least, it will be this less records to load back in the van for the band and they had been gathering dust in the distro since Clinton's second term anyway.

The last decade saw, from my eagle-like perspective anyway, a sharp decrease in compilations in general and physical compilation Ep's in particular. Many bands are not so keen on being part of a comp or a split record since it has become technically much easier, not to mention more rewarding, to have your own proper record. I personally greatly enjoy such compilations as they display acts of collaboration between bands and labels, of curation and of both intentional and unintentional representation of a certain time, place, friendship or common purpose. They are fascinating pieces of punk history and, for all the inevita

ble fillers, shit recordings and plain incongruous and yet still strangely relevant songs, they remain significant artifacts of our collective history and wonderful storytellers.

 

The last compilation will be Why Must We Die for Your Palate? released in 1999 on Dire/Action records. As you probably understand - unless you only stumbled on Terminal Sound Nuisance by chance, attracted by the smell of cheap, easily obtainable (sub)cultural products - and as the cover stressed openly, the purpose of this Ep was to expose the truth about animal exploitation and promote animal rights and welfare and encourage people to boycott the industry and go vegan. By 1999, this was certainly not something new. British anarchopunk bands had been fighting for animal liberation and meat-free lifestyle, supporting hunt sabbing and demonstrating and taking part in actions against animal experimentation since the early 80's with bands like Conflict, Exit-Stance, Active Minds or Riot/Clone being particularly vehement on the subject. The pro-animal stand quickly spread throughout the world and, under the influence of anarchopunk, the political hardcore scene in the U$A quickly developed a similar stance and commitment on those issues with numerous bands flying the animal rights banner, notably in the Californian peacepunk scene with bands like Resist and Exist, Atrocity or Iconoclast while in New York Nausea and Jesus Chrust were also spreading the gospel and let's not forget the highly influential Antischism. It feels a little redundant to point it out but vegan, animal rights-oriented punk bands have existed from the 90's on pretty much in every places where there is a punk who owns a Conflict patch (that's always the clue). 

 

Following the idealism of anarchopunk in the 80's especially about this topic, some bands took a contradictory stance and claimed that animal rights and songs about them were just a fashion to follow, a box to check, a part of preconstructed template in order to be seen as a righteous anarcho band instead of "free thinkers". Although such criticism often derived from rather reactionary perspectives - the same argument was often made about feminism or pacifism - it is difficult to pretend that having a song about animals did not feel like a compulsory button to push, not unlike some sort of Commandment to abide by or a Herculean labour to perform, only with Moses and Hercules wearing charged hair or the infamous dreadlock mullet, a haircut that was as common for punks as it was for 90's wrestlers. For all the tiresome, redundant clichés that many songs about animal rights carried, I feel that the subject mattered and still does, a lot, and I will take naive idealism and outrage over jaded stale cynicism any day. At least they cared or tried to. Oddly and sadly, although animal rights have entered the mainstream and become a legitimate burning issue in many countries, the subject does not seem to be as popular today as it used to be which, on the surface, would seem to confirm to some extent that the 80's and 90's vegan/vegetarian punk propaganda obeyed to a passing trend and fashion rather than analysis, reason and a love for animals. Still this discrepancy is difficult to explain since punks have been at the forefront of the struggle for a long time and ecological collapse is quite literally and not just dischargily just around the corner. Maybe it is just the usual reaction to the mainstream and that, now that Insta twats have glamourized and depoliticized veganism, it feels useless and not as edgy to rehash the old message of To a Nation of Animal Lovers, though it still stands as a valid and urgent one. It would not be punks' first contradictions.

 

As a credible vegan punk - I own a dozen of Antisect shirts - I have always loved animal rights songs, even the sloppy cheesy ones, because I identify with the message and, love it or not, they have belonged to punk history and tradition for 40 years. I have to confess that I don't even like animals. The neighbour's cat is an alright fellow and watching him being a useless bastard is inspiring indeed, however I have no trust whatsoever in sheep, cows and goats, while horses and ponies are dangerous feral beasts and geese are evil entities. Why Must we Die for Your Palate? belonged to the category of serious, documented and educational animal rights record. It was meant to make you think, convince you and eventually recruit you into the preachy tofu-eating army. Join the fight comrade! There is a comprehensive booklet highlighting the validity and benefits of plant based diets and the necessity of ending animal abuse and industrial farming for the sake of ethics and the environment. If you are already familiar with the issues, it will not be anything new but the firm sense of political purpose and dedication conveying by the Ep is meaningful and typical - in a good way - of the anarcho and crusty 90's scene that disliked soap, even vegan ones, as much as they loved a vegan stew and dumpster diving, which became an important discipline of the Crust Olympics around that time.

 

The compilation Ep includes four American bands: Detestation, End Result, Depressor and Idi Amin. I realize I have directly written about Detestation only once, when I reviewed the Punk Riot compilation Lp (that was in 2012... fuck me), a gap that might strike the punk on the street as a bit odd. Detestation were a pillar of the U$ d-beat/anarcho/crust 90's scene, a parallel dimension that I have touched upon on more than one occasion. Though the band did not play for that long - between 1995 and 1998 - they left a lasting impression on the punk world, maybe not unlike another crucial female-fronted hardcore band, Health Hazard. Detestation is one of these bands that everybody has heard and judging from the high concentration of Detestation appurtenances at festivals, they have remained something of a classic throughout the years. Reasons for this enduring popularity was that the members had already played in quite a few bands before so that they knew what they were doing creatively and had all the right networks, that the band was very prolific indeed but more critically Saira's vocals were one of the most recognizable of the 90's - and arguably beyond - so that they gained an iconic glow that is here to stay. I already wrote about the PDX DIY hardcore punk scene of the 90's and how it grew to be an early example of a nerdier trend of referential punk and it was no coincidence that the name "Detestation" came from GISM's first album and "Masskontroll" from a No Security song for instance. The song "Not fucking funny" was recorded in 1996 and dealt with hypocrisy, pretense and dodgy behaviours in the punk scene. Ty and Adam from Starved and Delirious - and Resist for Ty - appeared on that recording although the lineup at the time of release, or rather at the time they contributed their bit of artwork, had Bryan from S&D and Dominic, beside Kelly from Resist and Defiance and of course Saira. As for the music, well you've heard it all before, yeah? Fast and thrashing scandicore with political lyrics and mean, compelling, insane-sounding and pissed high-pitched female vocals that sound like you're being yelled at after being caught smoking at the window for the first time by your mom. But that might memory talking. Imagine a fight on speed between Crude SS, Pink Turds In Space, Riistetyt and Potential Threat. Class and classic.

 

Next up are the much less famous End Result from Lexington. I guess the name comes from the Crass song but I cannot be sure. This lot were by no means the first to come up with the End Result moniker, as there were, at least, three other bands who had the same linguistical idea: an early 80's punk-rock band made up of English 12 year-old, a Chicago based 80's now-wave band and an excellent mid-80's old-school anarchopunk from Australia. But then, Discogs was not around in the 90's so no harm done really. I don't know much about this End Result to be honest. The song "Control", about the objectification of women's bodies and the sexual politics of meat, is your typical 90's blasting fastcore number with a raw sound (it was recorded in a garage) and two vocalists. Not bad and I like the lyrics but not really my cuppa.

 

On the other side, hostilities resume with Idi Amin, another band I am not really familiar with. That's what I have always enjoyed with such compilations, you always got to discover bands you had never heard about - sometimes for good reasons, let's get real - thus increasing your punk knowledge. I doubt conversations about Idi Amin abound in 2021 but it might come handy one day. Contrary to the obscure End Result, this Roanoke bunch released four Ep's between 1996 and 2001, one of which was with Unholy Grave which helps one locate where Idi Amin stood on the spectrum of punk. With that mind, "Confutation..." (that's a word I did not know so thanks for that Idi Amin) unsuprisingly sounds like a blast fast U$ hardcore thrash with two singers and a powerviolence influence. Again the sound is raw and rough and the band was not the kind to arse around as the song lasts 54 seconds. The lyrics deal with animal experimentaton and there is a nasty picture of a tortured rabbit on their sheet, a common, if not traditional, visual meant to shock that bands have often used when addressing the topic.

 

Finally, you are presented with a song from the mighty and totally unique Depressor, which I have already raved about here at a time when I was still a bit shy and not the egregious braggart I have become. Oh well. Depressor was a San Fransisco musical project started by Chris in 1992, a strange beast that mutated throughout the years, evolving from indus crust to occult hardcore, with inhuman anguish as the binding threat. A bit of an unclassable and cruelly underrated band really. "Filth" was recorded in 1995, a period when Depressor was at the apex of its heavy and hammering industrial old-school metal crust power, and originally appeared on the Burn the Illusion demo tape, recorded on four tracks which accounts for the raw primitive cavecore sound and the smouldering mechanical inhuman urgency of the music. One of the band's crucial early numbers. Imagine Sonic Violence, Godflesh, Saw Throat and Axegrinder working and plotting the revolution on the same alienating assembly line. "Filth" deals with male ego and insecurity and how it relates to animal abuse and the rape culture. A lovely song that would enjoy a boisterously enthusiastic response at your cousin Lee's wedding reception. If you love being crushed by oppressive indus crust, the label Fuck Yoga from Macedonia recently released two Lp's, 1995 and Filth/Grace, that contain Depressor's early material. Essential and compulsory listens for the crust students yearning for crushing enlightenment.

 

Why Must We Die for Your Palate? was released on Dire/Action, a label based in Lexington, so I am guessing that it had some connection with End Result, that also put out the Charger Ep, a band involving Chris from Depressor, as well as a second animal rights compilation Ep, Why Must We Die for Your Science that had a strong lineup made up of Resist and Exist, React, Act of Heresy and A//Political. As one can expect, revolting - but somehow banal even if stemming from a well-meaning intention to induce a reaction - pictures of animal abuse adorn the foldout. This Ep looks like a typical DIY record from this era, simple and realized with little means but a big heart.

 

So why must they die for your palate then?