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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Άπνοια

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: the Rise of Nova Crustia - Contagium "S/t" Ep, 2012 / Fragment "S/t" demo Ep, 2016/ Kaltbruching Acideath/Zygome "S/t" split Lp, 2019

Amusingly, I almost left my hometown, the city of love, compulsory arrogance and dog shit (not necessarily in that order), for Halifax. In fact, I started Terminal Sound Nuisance a little after I was told that Canada was not exactly dying to welcome yet another useless pretentious twat - another term for French people over there apparently - on its territory. So ultimately I guess humanity, because of the blog's great contribution to its development, should thank the Canadian employers who, politely, told me to piss off. I was unemployed back then and had to survive in a tiny 9m2 square "flat" (in Paris anything bigger than a toilet is called a "flat") so that when I learnt that Canada was looking for young promising workers for positions they were struggling to fill, I immediately jumped on the occasion, bought a brand new, vaguely decent-looking coat and registered to the Destination Canada forum, confident that the recruiters, in awe before my many skills and my jaw-dropping charisma, would hire me on the spot. Little did I know that the country was looking for lorry drivers and plumbers and not in the least interested in my unspectacular profile. Still, I sent a resume and a charming job application letter full of lies to a kindergarten in Halifax, although I had never actually worked with young children and you could even say without it being much of an exaggeration that I don't even enjoy being around them, in the hope that someone would be kind enough, on a whim, to give me the job. 

Fortunately for Nova Scotia kids, they did deign to answer my request and in the end I had to take a job carrying heavy crates of vegetables and working as a cashier in a foodstore. I cannot help wonder though. What if I had actually gone to Halifax? I would have become part of a terrific hardcore punk scene over there, seen and perhaps even played in top crust bands instead of living in a town infested with constipated oi bands and soft middle-class indie-rock. Blame the kindergarten. I did not know that many bands from that area at the time to be honest. Of course I knew System Shit but had no idea they were from Nova Scotia. In fact I don't think I knew of the name "Nova Scotia" before I briefly fancied moving there.

At that point in time I was still already aware of Contagium which I first heard thanks to the great Crust Demos blog, which was - and I hope will be back to being one day - an excellent purveyors of worldwide young crust and d-beat bands, through their 2008 demo. Of course, this first effort was raw (most demos were in the 00's) but you can detect rudimentary versions of songwriting structures, vocal styles and riffs that would come to characterize the "Halifax crust sound". An Ep followed in 2009 and then the Archaic Lp in 2010. Re-exploring these works today I have to say that they hold very well. I remember at the time of their release thinking that they were a little late to the stenchcore revival party - what with Hellshock cosplaying as a Japanese metal-punk band and Stormcrow napping as a stoner metal freight train - not unlike guests arriving late with bags of crisps in their hands while everyone has been stuffing themselves with specially that all night. But I am up for crisps and crust any time of the day so I really don't care much. Contagium played blazing filthy stenchcore with howling anguished reverb-drenched vocals at a time when such vocal effects were not as popular or automatic as they are today (it's what I call "Destino Final Syndrome") and the band was also much faster and pissed than a lot of others falling under the stench umbrella so that the music definitely stood out from the crust swamp. I suppose Archaic might sound a little repetitive in retrospect and that Contagium maybe worked better with the Ep format but I am not here to split hair. Their strongest recording, by far, was the 2012 Ep released on Doomed To Extinction.

Recorded in 2011 for their Terminal Filth Stenchtour (I know, right?) and originally released as a limited tape, this (second) eponymous Ep is a jewel in the crust crown. The recipe is pretty similar only the sound is heavier and more aggressive, the hooks more viciously effective and the dual vocal teamwork more focused, expressive and therefore more threateningly ferocious. You could say that it is a significant upgrade upon their already strong stenchcore foundations defined by mean and groovy mid-paced metallic bits with mosh-inducing filthy riffs and thunderously fast crusty hardcore thrash with two nutters howling screams of desperate anger. Imagine a modern more powerful blend of Terminal Filth Stenchcore and Rock'n'roll Conformity, the dirty obnoxious metallic punk catchiness of the former enlightening the fast-thrash-meets-mid-paced-stench-crust vibe of the latter, add some vintage Axegrinder and Misery, some Heresy and Napalm Death rabid madness and put it in a stenchcore revival oven until it rots completely. Then place the stew in the middle of a wasteland and wait for crows to eat and regurgitate it. This Ep is the sound of those crows attacking posh wankers on the streets after the meal. Or something. As usual the artwork is fabulous and it was Adam, from the band, who was in charge of making Contagium look good. The cover of this Ep is probably my favourite work of his as it is so grim-looking. It would be Contagium's last offering but as you must expect by now, it was certainly not the last breath of Halifax crust.

I have never been there so I was never able to study Halifax punks in their natural habitat and identify what each groups of local punks exactly did and with whom, in spite of my reputation of world-acclaimed punk anthropologist (I did get twelve likes on Facebook once, what a day). However discogs tells me that these people involved in Contagium, Fragment and Zygome have been in dozens of other bands in the 2010's alone. Just to give you an idea of the incestuousness of the Halifax scene, guitar player Adam and drummer Ben also played in Abject Pax together, the latter actually also playing in Fragment - with Cody (they also did Life Chain together) who was involved with Adam in Concrete Asylum, among many others, and drummer Mark who also played in Carcass Toss, with Cody, and Outcry, with Rosie who also played in Zygome and Abject Pax, as mentioned above with Ben and Adam - and Zygome. I could try to draw a genealogical tree of the Halifax punk scene, it would be an arduous, tedious, task but one of such I find quite fascinating. It would probably show that although there have been dozens of solid punk bands in the past ten year over there, they were done by the same ten people. But isn't it the case almost everywhere else? I have been wondering whether some of these people actually lived in the studio, or even if some of them had not been locked in and would not be allowed to leave until they did 100 bands or something. 

Crustagium 2012

Fragment is the next Halifax band we are dealing with in this superb writeup that I am confident will finally get me a work visa in Canada if the minister of Canadian Heritage reads it. Come on Pablo, don't be a dick. The band has Ben, formerly in Contagium; Cody, who seems to play or have played in more bands than I have had showers in the 00's (I know, I know, but those were crazy times); Steven from Outcry and Shitpissers (this is a definite yes for me) and Mark who does not seem to play in any other bands, which is very suspicious indeed. Fragment is a band I immediately took a great liking to even though the genre they embraced (distorted crasher cavecore punk?) has become a popular hobby for (too) many bands in the 2010's. How many average distorted d-beat raw punk projects does the world really need? This is a bit of a harsh statement especially since I would delighted to have even just one d-beat band in Paris. Anyway Fragment are brilliant at what they do, possibly one of the best distorted bands right now and this is their 2016 demo, originally released on tape under the name Hear Nothing (no idea where they got that from... any idea?). I generally don't see the point of reissuing contemporary demo tapes on vinyl but this was objectively such a potent and skillful hammering that the solid British label Imminent Destruction rightly took on the job and made the demo available to men, women, children and non-binary persons.

With an insert displaying "Distort Terror" and the Gloom reference "Devastating Noise Attack" the seasoned listener is aware that he or she will be subjected to an intense, relentless and loud assault on the sense commonly known as a wall of noise. The vinyl is eight minute long and there is no pause between songs which reinforces the impression of fierce sonic mercilessness. The obligatory ingredients are perfectly used: there are mean deafening feedbacks, textured distortion, hard-hitting manic crasher drumming with those typical rolls and howling vocals (with the traditional Halifax reverb, they seem to really love that there). Pretty much the Gloom and D-Clone school of thoughts but I would argue that the aggressive riffs in Fragment could be described as a distorted take on classic 90's käng. Beside, what makes the band stand out are the mean thrashing stenchy mid-paced moments - not quite unlike Contagium's really - that allow the music to breath and the listener to headbang while keeping that fuzzy distorted texture. Basically what I mean is that Fragment actually write songs with hooks and do not make the mistake to rely only on pedal effects and Japanese crust referentiality (although you do need that too if you want to do things properly in this exercise in style). In the end, that is what they excel at (they remind me of the superlative late D-Clone in that respect) and this perfect demo exemplifies this capacity. The band will keep noizing things up with a brilliant album, In the Dust, the following year that went on delivering the crasher goods, this time with an additional narrative style allowed by the Lp format (the one reservation I have is that the vocals are too low in the mix). Two Ep's followed and the most recent one Mind Convulsion shows Fragment going even noisier and rawer, to the point of becoming some sort of primitive harsh noizecrust unit that claims "Fuckin Noise Rich Crusties Trendy Punk Nerds Fuck Off!! We Love Damaging Noise!!!", a clear reference to the Japanese school. As Hard Skin would say: they ain't messing around. I just hope they're not talking about me.

Fragment

The last Halifax band of this post is probably my favourite of the three. In fact they are my favourite. Zygome. Now when I first heard of a band called Zygome from Halifax a couple of years ago, I spontaneously rose from my comfy armchair, walked out of my luxury office located at the top of the Terminal Sound Nuisance Tower, took a can of lager out of the diamond-studded fridge, went to the rooftop, opened the can and looked up to the sky pensively, beaming with anticipation on the inside. Zygome are a three-piece made up of Adam (from Contagium and many as we have seen), Ben (from Contagium and Fragment, the writeup is a sort of tribute to his talent) and Rosie (from Outcry and Abject Pax among others). The name can rightly be said to be, obviously, the equivalent of a bird whistle for crusties. Just like dogs can hear ultrasound, crust maniacs rose their ears when the name Zygome traveled through the air. It's not an actual word mind you although the term "zigoma" does exist (it's the bony arch of the cheek) but I guess they just insisted on leaving the last alphabetical spot to Zygote out of respect even if they sound nothing like them. Their sword logo and their self-description as a "crusher crust" band are far more significant items.

They released a self-titled four-song demo in 2018, originally as a digital only thing (if I remember correctly) but it was much too good not to be released physically, on tape on the very good label Runstate Tapes from Montreal (responsible for Rat Cage, Apärä or Inepsy releases among other strong hardcore punk works) and on vinyl on Black Against Night Records, a label located in Australia run by a former member of the Skopje-based Born For Slaughter and specialized in crust and d-beat. Although an easy analysis, I would argue that Zygome did build on the Contagium legacy and songwriting tricks (fast crusty thrash bits with filthy mid-tempo moments, reverb on the howling vocals and so on) but they added tasteful old-school crust atmospherics (synth and long eerie intros for instance) and vocal works in order to convey a more articulate sense of storytelling and narratity to their filthy stenchcrust sound. More Axegrinder, Amebix and '87 Antisect elements to the '86-'88-Deviated-Instinct-of-Survival if you will. Needless to say I was avidly watching the internet for the followup record and it took shape as a split Lp with Kaltbruching Acideath in 2019 on Doomed to Extinction.

To put it bluntly, this album might be the best crust Lp of the decade although such a claim is contingent on your personal tastes in the many shades of crust. There is a consensus among the Council of Crust Elders that few albums could match that one but the argument that Swordwielder's System Overlord, the Instinct of Survival/Asocial Terror Fabrication, Disturd's Dark or Χαοτικό Τέλος' Υπόσχεση are also the cream of the crust crop is sound indeed. Who cares about rankings anyway? Cooperation not competition and all that. On their side of the split, Zygome unleash on the - intentionally - unwashed 14 minutes of pure old-school crust gold as the band further refined their crafty recipe. The first song "The other" opens with gloomy Amebix-like arpeggios and a creepy synth melody which I am a massive sucker for. There is nothing better than opening your crust record with synth as it immediate puts the listener in the adequate mood and announces that an epic apocalyptic story is going to unfold and that is precisely what you are here for. Following that lesson in crust preliminaries, the song explodes into a perfect exercise in mean thrashing stenchcore with appropriately anguished shouts. 

The next one is a short, fast and loud number, first reminiscent of vintage early Napalm Death and then in the second part of the song of Civilised Society? thanks to some great tuneful female vocals over some heavy mid-paced crust punk. And all of that in one minute. The next one, "A thousand sun (rise in reverse)" is absolute Amebixian epics with the typical dark pagan tribal beats and the classic Baron-like flow and accentuation. It is a beautifully dark and morose song. This song is tied to the following one, "Overcome with pain", with a short interlude that is daring to say the least as it is exactly the same as the opening to Deviated Instinct's "Possession" on Terminal Filth Stenchcore. Of course, if you have never heard this foundational work, you will just think that the idea to include some quite beautiful Anglican hymn (I'm guessing) works well just before a song about depression and alienation. And on that level, it does work well and makes sense strictly in term os the story-told. On a referential level, it is a bold move of referentiality that will have stenchcore lovers nod in unison and it also works and makes sense on that intertextual, storytelling level. As for the song itself it can be seen as a wicked reinterpretation of a song that could have been lifted from Rock'n'Roll Conformity, thrashing stench metal punk with something of a mean Anihilated touch. 

Finally their recording comes to an end with "Hammer of war", an apocalyptic crust scorcher that is not unlike '05 Hellshock. What makes the song so brilliant is its conclusion - that is also the conclusion to the side and the whole story - with the shouted repetition of "Hammer of war" over a filthy metallic crust riff, a bit like in late Antisect, until the voices and the music fade out into the void. Crusher stench rules.

On the other side of this split Lp the mighty Kaltbruching Acideath from Japan await. Let's tackle the elephant in the room straight away: it's a bit of a mouthful, an albatross of a name even, one I am still struggling to spell properly, which is somewhat humiliating since I was once a spelling bee champion - well it was more of a pub quizz but still. The name derives from a 12'' by a Canadian dark techno project called Huren (the work of one David Foster) and entitled Kaltbrüchig Acideath. Now I am utterly unknowledgeable about electronic music, I have never enjoyed it at all although I have been told it is a very diverse and fascinating world - and I am sure it is. The only tiny area of techno music I am vaguely aware of is the Exit Hippies/Death Dust Extractor/Abraham Cross harsh techno-noize turn and only out of curiosity and because of the ties to the Japanese crust scene. But anyway, David Foster, who lives in Berlin of course, is apparently a bit of an underground legend because of his participation in cult sonic projects from the early 90's on and of his role in the creation of the New York-based Zhark label, described in an article as a "High end low fi Motörhead driven squatter techno label". As I understand it the guy is a techno punk with links to the squatters movement who did dark and noisy challenging music. Of course, there is no strict sonic similarity between Kaltbruching Acideath and Kaltbrüchig Acideath. However, as unlikely as it sounds and that's where things get interesting, Foster definitely knows his shit when it comes to DIY Japanese crust. For example, a picture on his Discogs page shows a montage of him with the cover of the Natural Crust and Punk Force Noise Making compilation Ep from 1996 (it had Mental Disease, Order and Mindsuck and was reviewed on this elite punk blog here) with the caption "The system you hate is the system you support" which is a classic Crude SS slogan and there is a stenchcore-looking drawing in the background that I cannot quite identify (it's only a detail of it). On his Instagram page, there is another montage this time including a Framtid visual (as well as a picture of himself with a tired Lemmy). How unlikely is that? There must be a link that I am missing between the Japanese crasher noize crust scene and David Foster. Enlighten me please. 

Now that was a long digression. KA formed in the early 2010's and self-released two demos but I only heard about them through their first Ep Aural Carnage (a determined nod to Sore Throat's Aural Butchery since the word "carnage" is pasted over the word "butchery" on the cover) released on Hardcore Survives in 2017 and displaying a lovely Electro Hippies tribute on the cover in terms of visuals and layout. So you already know you are on holy ground. Musically KA work on a side of old-school grindy crust that is seldom explored with strong influences from the fabulous Prophecy of Doom (especially), early Napalm Death and early Bolt Thrower. Metallic, grinding and even death-metal-ish at times but keeping a dirty genuine noizecrust vibe. Their next recording saw the Tokyo-based lot improved on the aforementioned cavemen metal crust formula with a heavier, raw organic sound to die for - it sounds like you can almost smell it - and two hyperbolic Sore Throat-styled crustier-than-thou numbers for good measure. It is absolutely brilliant and I was lucky enough to see them live in 2018 and they completely destroyed it. Undeniably one of the best Japanese crust bands right now. My only reservation is the lengthy introduction that is basically the muffled sound of a Tokyo street (I presume) and does not really bring anything meaningful to the actual crust story. But it is only a minor criticism as KA are the real deal.

Revenge Records described KA as "grinding stench metal crust", Zygome as "anarcho stench crust", both bands as "total horrendous stench metal crust" and the album as a "mega terminal filth wimpcore split" and I guess that crust bingo sums it up nicely. One of the strongest crust records of the decade, easily, and one that is bound to become canonical at some point (you can be sure I will lobby for that). It was released on the ever reliable and solid Doomed To Extinction who, in merely two years, basically destroyed the crust game with the Instinct of Survival/Asocial Terror Fabrication split Lp, the IOS/Fatum split tape and this Kaltbruching Acideath/Zygome Lp. The cover of the split was drawn by Adam and epitomized what crust art is all about: heads on spike, an army of zombified punx, celtic frames, torn war banners... And an Easter egg: in this case the leader of the crust legion is wearing a ribbon at that says "crust" in the same lettering as the one displayed by Mid Deviated Instinct on the back of a jacket "back-in-the-day" and immortalised on the picture below.

On a much more serious note, this modest article is dedicated to Rosie, who was involved in Zygome, Outcry and other worthy bands and passed away in 2020. Of course, I never met her but still, the death of a committed punk, especially at such a young age, is always tragic and sad and even though I mostly rant and ramble about music on this blog in order to provide (hopefully) enjoyable reads, it is also important to commemorate our dead and not forget. 

Zygome / Kaltbruching Acideath

                       

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Black Terror "Born Again" tape, 2014

If one was to conceptualize the various creative artistic dynamics as well as the conceptual theory underlining the d-beat genre as praxis and philosophy, one could say that the D is endlessly self-sufficient. One cannot bring anything truly new to d-beat nowadays, as it is in the constant reworking of the original material and simple formula and in the intensity of the delivery (amount of distortion, vocal flow, rawness and so on) that a solid d-beat performance must emerge. However, what can be achieved through Discharge love is more difficult and rarer to do with other punk bands which has a lot to do with the systematicness of Discharge. Still, strict Doom cosplay has been a rather consistent practice for almost three decades, although the number of candidates is limited when compared to Discharge or even Disclose, and more particular instances like SDS who passionately emulated Antisect (and Disturd emulating the emulators in turn) do show that bands can conceive indeed an utterly consuming love for a classic band. And if anything, Amebix can be said to be an absolute classic, therefore prone to be carefully imitated. 

Enter Black Terror from Singapore, an obscure band from the mid-10's bent on worshipping Amebix with all their heart and whatever musicianship they were able to muster in order to reach that noble goal. Of course, Amebix has had a massive influence on so many bands that a careless reader could be inclined to think that Black Terror band were not in any way unique or different as hundreds of Amebix-inspired bands can be listed, even renowned bands like Misery or Axegrinder for example. And that careless reader, in spite of such insolence that would normally get him or her dismissed from class, is not wrong. But here we are not just talking of an Amebix influence or inspiration, we are dealing with an Amebix impression. Even in this very restricted filed, BT have not been the only ones. In the early 00's Zoe from Osaka walked the same walk with even greater determination (see my magnificent piece about The Last Axe Beat Lp) by merging both Amebix and post-Amebix (the legacy of Zygote) in an act of synthesis, early Acrostix very much worked in a synth-driven Amebixian crust as well while the project Axeman was an act of Amebix worship coming from the underground metal world rather than the punk scene. BT must be seen in a similar light. But to a certain extent only, not because their Amebix reenactment is less accurate or powerful than Acrostix or Zoe's, but because on Born Again it appears to be a part-time activity. I know.

BT were an obscure band and I cannot find much information about them or the members, which is not so common in the age of hegemonic availability. They are a bit mysterious if you like. To be fair, the name "Black terror" does not exactly help on that level and I will leave to your imagination what typing "black terror singapore" in the Google or Youtube search bars result in. In fact, the name may be considered as a rather bad idea, not the worst possible idea - great bands going for much worse names are easy to come by - but probably too metal-sounding for their own good. Discogs tells me that there are at least three other bands called Black Terror. Two are unsurprisingly black-metal bands, one from Peru armed with corpse paint, an inverted cross and a song entitled "Sodomy and extermination" which sounds a little extreme and an other from Czech with a shite undecipherable logo and a demo called Let's Annihilate the Whole World, Fucker!. Needless to say I'd rather have a drink with the second one. Things get stranger name-wise with the London-based indie rock band called Fifty Tons of Black Terror (?) and the hip-hop singer Sgt Black Terror a character that sounds more like a 90's wrestler than a street gangster. So you see, the task was herculean. 

But let's get back to the music. As I mentioned, BT can be said to be working half-time at the Amebix factory. And they do work hard. The brilliant rocking, groovy but raw and organic production gives the recording a genuine old-school feel that fits the Amebix style perfectly. "Prince of lies" freely borrows riffs and lyrics from "Largactyl", "Last knight" opens with a piece of delicate singing (and kinda shamelessly tuneless although I appreciate the effort) just like on "Sunshine ward", "Born again" starts with typical Monolith-ish arpeggios and has a darkest heavy "Coming home" meets "Beyond the sun" vibe and of course, it feels redundant and almost silly to have to point it out, there is a cover of "ICBM". If Born Again was only made up of those four songs, it would be the ultimate performance of Amebixness. But there are five other songs on the tape that sound noticeably different - no ska though. Heaviness is still of the essence but the influences vary. On the whole there is a strong Celtic Frost influence running through them, especially in the vocals at times, but the song "Too little much too late" is clearly a loving nod to Inepsy and the dirty old-school crust feel of "The end" and "Your world" strongly reminds me of the great Coitus (who were themselves a blend of Celtic Frost, crust-era Antisect and punk-as-fuck 90's squats so it does make sense). 

There is a certain sense of disparateness at times, especially when the "motörcrust" influence becomes too strong (fortunately it does not happen often), but the tape is definitely good in terms of songwriting, sound (reminiscent of 90's crust) and metal-punk energy. The fact that it is not more widely known is quite astonishing but it may have to do with their country of origin and the difficulty to widely distribute recordings from bands located in South-East Asia despite very active and qualitative labels from this part of the world. Who knows, maybe BT are considered as the classic Singaporean crust band over there? I must confess I am quite unknowledgeable about that scene although I greatly enjoy cracking bands like Blinded Humanity (who appeared on the great Singapore Punk Holocaust compilation cd) or Lifelock and hopefully I will be able to write at length about such bands in the future before I am old, lonely, embittered and deaf. Born Again was released on Azadghei records, a reliable Singapore-based label that has released some solid materials from Blinded Humanity, General Enemy or Zudas Krust. 

The visual is a little underwhelming and a more striking cover, or just a crustier one maybe, would have probably encouraged more people to give it a try and realize BT are really good at what they do, that unique raw and rocking blend of orthodox Amebix love, Frost and Coitus. And I give them credit for crediting Gustave Doré. I'm sure he'd have enjoyed that.  

Amebix born again

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Hostiliter "A New Dawn for Lost Mankind" cd, 2016

I have already touched upon the topic of how Italy from the mid-00's until the late 10's became one of the hotspots for genuinely solid old-school crust music in Europe - and beyond I would argue - while in the 90's, the decade traditionally associated with the rise of the genre, the country was surprisingly, not to mention sadly, crust-free (with the exceptions of Scum of Society and to some extent Dissciorda). I have never been sure about the reasons of this discrepancy. There certainly was grindcore so speed was not the issue. Did Italian parents choose to abandon their baby crust punks in the local woods? Legends of feral kids howling Doom lyrics at the moon would seem to point in that direction. Did they try to exorcize them? Were foreign crusties prohibited to enter the country by the government? Were the pigs equipped with crust repellent Bat-spray? The idea that Italian punks in the 90's did not enjoy crust music like the rest of the world is just preposterous so I would go personally go for the repellent spray. In any case, this mystery remains a cold case and any theory is a good theory.  

In the 00's, things changed drastically through the impulse of top bands like Campus Sterminii, Dirty Power Games and Kontatto and eventually something close to an Italian stenchcore wave (in punk terminology, a "wave" appears when more than five bands sort of play the same style) emerged by the end of the decade with Cancer Spreading as the last crust standing at the time of writing. These are basic historical facts that anyone can find in the Harvard Encyclopedia of Crust - chapter 7, section 3 - and I am definitely not paid enough for this gig to repeat myself on a sunday so if you need an even deeper exploration on the subject of Italian crust from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective, check the piece about Campus Sterminii's Life is a Nightmarish Struggle I did last year. 

Hostiliter can be said to have been part of that 2010's wave of Italian stenchcore as they were active during the heart of it, between 2010 and 2016 (or 2017?) and even though it is quite hard to gauge how those bands will fare in the future, it is still crucial to investigate and analyze them since, if punk does belong to the punks (and not the businessmen or the cultural establishment and the academia), it also belongs to the punks to write our own history and memory of punk. I must confess that I have absolutely no recollection of my first encounter with Hostiliter but it might have been during one of those nights when I end up scouting for new upcoming crust bands online for hours while I had promised myself I would just check whether Warcollapse did two or three split Ep's in the 90's (they only did two in case you were also wondering but wanted to spare yourself the effort). But anyway, the band was from Viterno, between Roma and Perugia and self-released a five-song demo cd in 2011 entitled Intoxication which will be your cuppa if you are into raw and straight-forward early Cancer Spreading (and clearly you should be). They recorded a remarkable promotape in 2012 (or was it later? The youtube videos says 2015) called Age of Decay that sounded more apocalyptic and metallic, with some great mid-paced moments and even some synth while keeping that fast and raw crust punk approach style. 

By 2015, the band had evolved into a more death-metal oriented crust unit - some would say "deathcrust" but I hate the term - not unlike what Cancer Spreading were doing at that moment too (I am not suggesting that Hostiliter's evolution was necessarily influenced by CS's but the fact is worth mentioning). A New Dawn for Lost Mankind is a modest but effective recording of death-metal influenced stenchcore with a hardcore punk production. The album lacks a little in heaviness but makes up for it thanks to its dynamic and aggressive crusty punk vibe. Bolt Thrower-influenced crust is of course the band's main template and bands like Heallisheaven, Sanctum or Last Legion Alive (and of course Cancer Spreading) come to mind and, while it would be far-fetched to claim Hostiliter were the cream of the crust crop - their sorry lack of vinyl output especially not helping - but they still definitely delivered, were apt specimen of the 10's metal crust subgenre and the cd is very pleasant precisely for its typicality. This is crust that has crows, chaos crosses, skulls, barren wasteland and torn war banners at its core. You already know the menu if you are seated at this table. The lyrics in Italian are definitely a plus and I had fun finding several borrowed bits from classic crust bands (a barely modified Deviated Instinct riff here, a Filth of Mankind break there, some Nausea flow too). The icing on the cake is the top Contropotere cover - "Demoni e dei" from their 1988 album Nessuna Speranza Nessuna Paura - which Hostiliter greatly pulls out. I don't know any other band covering the absolutely magnificent and unique Contropotere so A New Dawn for Lost Mankind is worth hearing if only for that very relevant choice. Great job.

The cd was released on Suoni Oscuri in 2016 and I suppose may still be ordered through the band as it was not well distributed at all. Mind you, I don't even know how many copies were pressed as I was lucky enough to get it when they played in France. Until then, here is the download link. 

           

A new crust for lost mankind

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Deviated Instinct / Summon the Crows "S/t" split Ep, 2012

Earlier this month, Deviated Instinct's Terminal Filth Stenchcore demo was reissued on vinyl. 35 years after its original tape release, back when no one had a bad back in the band yet and receding hairlines were but a distant if dreadful prospect associated with adulthood and mortgages, this absolute classic, genre-defining recording of raw and gruff metallic anarcho hardcore punk is available once again. This formidable event can be said to be the crust equivalent of the Queen's jubilee if you need a scale of importance. The vinyl was renamed Terminal Filth Stench-Core for the occasion, a hyphenated discrepancy that I feel the need to underline metaphorically and literally. I haven't been able to consult my usual crust oracles about this one (they have been busy evaluating the potential crustness of Hellshock's coming record for weeks now) so I cannot state with certitude that this change in spelling will change our perspective on the whole crust movement but it might. Still, don't hold your guttural breath.

Needless to say I have been one merry lad since I learnt about the materialisation of this reissue (a rather long process actually) released on Terminal Filth (the band's own label, that's DIY for you) and Italy's Agipunk who, after reissuing Hellbastard's Ripper Crust 2009, made another crucial signing on the crust mercato. In order to win the crust Grand Slam, they just need to deal with Axegrinder's Grind the Enemy by 2035.

As you must know, the band reformed in 2007 for a couple of gigs only but ended up putting out three new records, this split Ep with Olso's Summon the Crows and Liberty Crawls... to the Sanctuary of Slaves in 2012 and Husk in 2018 and are still very much going. I remember, fondly, rushing to see them at their second, and advertised as the last one ever I believe, gig in 2008 at the 1in12 Club in Bradford because I did not want to miss the unique opportunity to see one of my favourite bands live. In the end I saw the band several times afterwards but am still waiting for the full refund of my 2008 trip to Bradford because of the fake advertising (and the shite weather). I also rushed to buy this split Ep when it came out and I remember that genuine excitement and the usual circumspection were the two major feelings among the "punk community". On the one hand, so many reformed 80's punk bands had put out, objectively and subjectively, horrendous and disappointing records that it was quite reasonable to be at least a little suspicious. But on the other hand our collective conservativeness sometimes prevents us from enjoying a band's progression and desire to try something new or just understanding the fact that, 20 years after, they don't want to sound just like it's still the mid-80's and haven't changed, listened to anything new or even bathed since their legendary 1984 demo tape. I remember people being disappointed that the members of DI did not look the exact same. But who still wore wellies in 2012?

I don't want to name anyone because I am the ultimate positive punk, and I cannot afford to have yet another punk band sue me, but it is undeniable that some old reformed bands often have offered embarrassing new works. But DI do not belong to the category of disappointing-and-tragically-disconnected-old-farts-trying-to-relive-their-youth. They were brilliant live when I saw them and their newer records are all solid and make sense. They sound like DI but also offer a logical evolution. Something different and familiar if you will. It does not mean that one has to love the new material as much as the old one as we all are sentimental with such things and if you lost your virginity to Welcome to the Orgy it is perfectly understandable that no record will be able to top that one. I think that DI's return was successful because they were not a parody of their old selves and some members had still been active in the extreme music world long after the original demise of the band so that when they played their old material it sounded like a very natural and fluid reworking (arguably some of the old songs have never sounded better), rather than a painful re-enactment or a crust cosplay. 

"End times" definitely sounds like a DI song - like, well, dark heavy crust - or rather like a relevant update of the classic DI sound. Some transitions are reminiscent of more modern metallic sludgecore (I am reminded of bands like Damad or 13 actually) but the backbone is still gruff Frost-influenced groovy cavemen old-school crust with that classic slimy metallic guitar sound, maybe not unlike 90's Genital Deformities or a grimmer, bleaker version of Coitus, or even some Stormcrow which shows that they kept in touch with their own stenchcrow legacy. Leggo's hoarse vocals are absolutely ferocious and threatening, like what he did with Filthkick, and they are undeniably one of the band's strongest points. Finally, and this might be the band's wisest choice, they did not go for too clean a production. Often, reformed bands tend to be overproduced mistakenly thinking that an updated version of their material is synonymous with a clean, modern production, while what people really liked in their old songs is precisely the raw and aggressive sound. Therefore the choice to record those 6 songs in 2012 at the 1in12 Club with Bri Doom at the wheel was the best possible one for a returning DI as it couldn't alienate the anticipating anxious fans soundwise. 

And one can understand that a band craves for an elaborate production that they, maybe frustratingly, could not afford in the 80's back when they had a £30 recording budget with a sound engineer who was into prog-rock. So there is often a discrepancy of expectation here and this often results in reformed bands sounding like modern overproduced hardcore bands and often lose the intensity and urgency in the process. DI kept that heavy organic dirty production that fits their songs so well although it has to be said that they clearly sound like they are more comfortable and knowledgeable in the studio both in terms of playing and overall balance. I think that the very same song with a clean modern production would not have worked as well. "End times" was recorded in 2012 during the same sessions as Liberty Crawls... DI took their time afterwards since Husk was only release in late 2018.

On the other side are two songs from Oslo's Summon the Crows. I have been raving a lot about DI, as usual I guess, but the presence of STC on the Ep was a further sign that it may well become a classic. STC is a band I followed from the start when I bought their first eponymous Ep in 2004 just because I thought the cover looked brilliant. Ironically, I had no idea that the artist behind the artwork was Mid from Deviated Instinct but if I were superstitious or in any way spiritual I would say it was a premonition from Destiny knocking at my door. But seeing that I am not in the least let's just say I have impeccable tastes. STC is one of those bands that I know I mostly enjoy but do not play often enough probably because their second album, 2011's One More to the Gallows, was something of a let-down. Their earlier endeavours however were solid works of crusty dark hardcore thrash, not deprived of some of 00's crust's major flaws like the epic melodic guitar leads, but the songwriting was versatile and brutal enough, with distinct nods towards black-metal and thrash, to make STC sound quite original and genuinely anguished in a sea of often derivative neocrust. They are clearly metallic and crusty but cannot be described as a stenchcore revival band, although stenchcore fans are probably into STC and their music would not have been out of place on a 4-way split with Sanctum, Cancer Spreading and Warcollapse. 

When One More to the Gallows came out, I was surprised since the band had not released anything since 2006 and I basically thought they had split up. While the aforementioned Lp did not really win me over the two songs included on this split Ep - the last release of the band - were much better and more akin to what STC had achieved with their first records, an interesting blend of käng hardcore and old-school extreme metal. I read reviews describing STC as blackened crust and while it is not wrong from a literal perspective, I don't think it is relevant to associate their particular sound to what the term "blackened crust" has come to qualify. What makes STC stand out, beside their punishing black/thrash crust sound, is the unpredictability of the guitar riffs and the originality of the song structures. And in a subgenre that is more than crowded with average bands, and even though it would be far-fetched to claim they are reinventing hardcore or metal or whatever, to stand out even a little is not nothing. STC reminds me of bands like The Black Hand, Legion 666 or Order of the Vulture  - and early Martyrdöd of course, the most obvious name in that category - not because those bands sound alike - they share similarities but are not similar - but because they all, quite successfully so, blended hard-hitting raw hardcore punk with primitive extreme metal of the black, proto-death or thrash varieties. I guess that if you soak Warcollapse, Martyrdöd, early Sepultura and Sodom in a bathtub filled with 00's crust, you'd get something close to those two STC songs. Contrary to the previous clean-sounding Lp, the production on those works well, it sounds aggressive and powerful but keeps a certain rawness. 

This split Ep can be said to be a solid relevant pairing, not spectacular enough to be a crust classic but still something very much worth having in your collection, especially if you don't want to be suspected of being a poser. The artwork on the Ep was done by Mid, not exactly a surprise, with a gloomy drawing depicting crows - there had to be crows because of the Norwegians I guess - defending human skulls agains two tiny shagging flies nailed together and a massive one who appears to be sleeping. Of course I like it but would my mum hang it on her bedroom wall? Yes, exactly. On the backcover, there are more flies and bits of skulls with Mid's usual visual virtuosity. This split Ep was released on the Oslo-based label Nakkeskudd Platter, mostly active in the 00's. Kjetil from STC would later form the great Akrasia (who've already been included on this series) while Stig got to play in Knuste Ruter and Razorbats.    

     

Summon the stormcrows              

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Absurd Society "不条理な社会" Ep, 2013

Society. Whatever we mean with this term, punks absolutely hate its conformity, its alienation, its cruelty. Sometimes, a teenage punk yelling "fuck society" signifies that he is proper pissed with his mum for not letting him wear massively oversized tartan bondage trousers at school, not the least sensible of advice in retrospect considering the aforementioned spotty but undeterred lad ended up in a wheelie bin the last time he did. True story that. For other, more experienced and articulate, punks, society has been shaped by years of cultural bigotry, religious teachings and class exploitation (kindly provided by capitalism or state socialism) and thus can be used as a relevant political synecdoche to make your brilliant anarchist propaganda more accessible to the masses (also known as "people who did not go to uni to study sociology"), asserting your intellectual superiority over your mates in the process. Society is very much like "the system" in punk's collective psyche, it can be difficult to actually define it but you know you have to resist, protest and fight it. I mean, that's what our shirts say so we, at the very least, should write a very angry post on Insta.

But society does suck of course. Menace thought it was insane, Special Duties violent, Chaotic Youth sad. The prophets Discharge were victims of society, Mau Maus its rejects, while some wondered if it was civilised indeed or inevitably headed towards the collapse. The band we are dealing with today thought that society was absurd - enough to literally call themselves "Absurd Society" - an idea that surely rings true everywhere but nowhere quite as strongly as in Japan, the country of absolute contrasts where extremely conventional salarymen can rub shoulders with people dressed exactly like the thugs in Clockwork Orange. Neither outfits look really comfortable actually.

Absurd Society were from Sapporo, up North, and were around from 2009 to 2013 which makes them part of the oldest bands that I will tackle in Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust. Of course the Japanese punk scene has been renowned for its amazing and unique crust bands for years and a specifically Japanese crust sound, with several connected but distinct branches and its own visual, musical, textual and referential tropes, has emerged so that even a casual listener of crust should be able to spot even an average specimen with relative ease. Beside they cemented the culture of the crust pants, a future candidate for inclusion in Unesco's intangible world heritage (intangible but very odoriferous it has to be pointed out). 

AS were never the most popular name but I still see them as being solid and very representative of the typical Japanese crust sound. The band recorded two demos, a tape and then a cdr (well, it was the late 00's/early 10's you still could get away with cdr's and Japanese punks never had the snobbishness to give up the format) that would be reissued on a tape entitled Demo's Album in 2012 on Noise For Mobbish (!) from Malaysia. Just in case you had any doubt about the crustness of the band, the tape's visuals included the classic celtic knots, a crow, a crustier-than-thou font and a cartoonish crasher-styled drawing of the band. The first demo offered four songs of raw and crunchy metallic crust not far from crust masters SDS' early period or a more crustcore-oritented Effigy while the superior second one was a much more powerful and relentless effort of harsh thrashing stenchcrust not far from SDS' mid-90's sound (everything should be measured on an SDS scale methinks) seasoned with Defector's manic versatility and Stormcrow's apocalyptic cavemen stench before being drenched in distortion. Clearly not for the weak of the heart or posers. 

I have no idea whether many people knew of those demos outside of Japan, or indeed outside of the close crust circle of the archipelago, as I only found out about the band with their 不条理な社会 Ep from 2013 and got to own the tape a few years after the band's demise. This late Ep has everything one is entitled to expect both from a metallic stenchcrust band and from a Japanese crust band in general. The sound is more compact and not as harsh as on the second demo but AS built from the same material. Classic '96/'98 SDS, early Effigy and 00's stenchcore songwriting like Cancer Spreading with a blownout crashercrust texture, aggressive evil vocals, punishing fast galloping crust and heavy filthy mid-paced moments and old-school thrashing crust riffs. The second song "Refusal of the change" is the real hit here with its magnificent metalcrust crescendo that would have a deadman mosh. 

AS are not reinventing the wheel I for one do not believe that they will be hailed as "a classic band" in ten years. However it is a record that does a solid job at providing quality traditional Japanese stenchcore and, let's get really, we just cannot have enough of that right? It is a shame the band split up shortly after the release of the Ep in 2013 (though it was recorded in 2010 apparently) and I haven't been able to tell if the members kept the crust going in other bands. 不条理な社会 was released on Tokyo-based Strong Mind Japan, an active label responsible for records from acts such as Attack SS, System Fucker, Asmodeus and even fucking Disorder! The Ep looks brilliant with a cover artfully drawn by Mid from Deviated Instinct which pretty much insures you get the maximum amount of crust cred as well as class gas masks and skulls (the band used to have a DI-inspired logo too) although it does not visually look like typical Japanese crust artwork which is to the band's credit. This said there is still a neat red obi so that you cannot really mistake AS for a Polish band anyway. 

This one is for the "stench metal crust" maniacs, the cream of the crop.

Society's absurd