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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dread the fastards

An adventure in split Ep's! I have no gun but I can split: POLIKARPA Y SUS VICIOSAS / DEFUSE "What's right" split Ep, 2000

We're in early January, you still have a vague but persistent headache from New Year's Eve. Your body is not the seemingly forever youth machine you thought it used to be and for some reason someone you haven't seen since middle school has bombarded you with inane selfies on the 31st - hopefully it was just a matter of texting the wrong person - and the realization that you will be one year older by the end of the year slowly dawns upon you. I have never been one to enjoy partying hard on this annual occasion since some inebriated stranger dressed as a penguin vomited on my Hulk Hogan costume some years back. This shameful incident involving unsolicited bodily fluid being excreted over my beloved copy of the 90's WWF championship belt significantly scarred my self-esteem and I have not been able to look at a penguin in the eye since. 

Fortunately this year did not end in such a traumatic fashion and therefore the morale is not worse than usual which is already good enough and I feel light and breezy with the prospect of a new year which will inevitably bring the usual amount of ruthless bloody wars, massacres and right-wing wankers somehow getting into power. And of good records too, hopefully. 2024 will see us go through more split Ep's, from the noughties first, ten of them like for the 90's, and probably some from the 2010's (I already have a couple in mind). But let's start with the opening year of the new decade: 2000.

In 2000, my own preoccupations were rather insubstantial as I was bent on scoffing at anyone at school who did not listen to punk music and The Casualties (the two were strict synonyms). As a man on that admittedly puerile mission, I did not have many friends as a consequence but "integrity", as I would call it, was what mattered in punk-rock I had been told. It could have been worse though as a lot of adults seemed to be obsessed at the time with the coming collapse of civilisation because of the infamous Y2K problem and I can remember my dad running around the house in panic because he didn't know shit about computers and antivirus. While I was busy being a self-righteous arrogant nuisance convinced of his own self-importance to "normies" (my rivals would that this has not changed that much), real punks were doing important work and I see this What's right split Ep between Polikarpa y sus Viciosas from Bogota and Defuse from Osaka as a humble but meaningful piece of punk history. 

I talked about it before but DIY punk made my younger self realize that if the actual world was big indeed and seemingly torn apart, the punk world was small and connected. Browsing through distro tables in the early 00's I became aware that, not only were there punks all over the place in countries I couldn't really place on a map, but that there had been punks there for two decades already. In an era when people only listened to American or English music beside our own local pop dross in French, the realization that there were bands delivering the goods in Peru, Slovakia or New Zealand came as a shock that was electrifying, stimulating as it opened new horizons and allowed me to feel superior to my brethren on a whole new level. "Oh, so you haven't heard of Venezuelan anarchopunk? What are you? Some sort of cultural imperialist abiding by the United States' hegemonic culture?". At that same time, it also struck me that there were apparently a lot of women involved in punk bands, far more than I thought, just screaming angrily at our world's madness and gender roles. Contrary to what my sexist upbringing taught me, girls also played fast and aggressive punk music and rightfully protested in the face oppression. This got me mum very worried.      

This Ep is absolutely wonderful because it combines both aspects: it is a collaboration between two all-female bands from opposite sides of the world. The significance of such a project certainly transcends the actual value of the record, which does not mean however that their output should not be looked at critically, like any piece of art. To completely ignore the creative content in the name of this significance would be somewhat disrespectful and implies that it does not require critical thinking and engagement. This is a sad tendency of our time. To be positive and supportive does not mean to be acritical, quite the contrary. To not critique (when it is done respectfully, knowledgeably and constructively) implies the denial of a work's identity as art. 

Alright let's cut the critical theory and let's get to punk-rock. Polikarpa y sus Viciosas (they took their name from Policarpa Salavarrieta, an important political figure in the resistance against the Spaniards during the 19th century who ended up executed) are a band from Bogota formed in 1994 and they are still active. If you have been to gigs in Europe on a regular basis you have certainly bumped into their name since they have been touring several times in the past 15 years. In fact, they were probably one of the first Colombian punk bands to even tour in Europe. Since the incredible success of Muro in 2017, a lot of bands from Bogota gravitating around the Rat Trap Collective have been able to tour internationally but before that few Latino bands could afford to tour so that the idea was unrealistic to start with (Brazilian bands have been an exception to an extent because of their long-lasting ties with the European and North American scenes). The achievement of Polikarpa in that respect, and a little before of Apatia-No or Doña Maldad, cannot be overlooked especially since the band started out musically as a fairly straight-forward angry punk-rock band with that raging Latino punk flair.

The three songs on Polikarpa's side are fairly unpolished which confers a genuinely pissed off vibe and a sense of urgency that reflects their own political, social and national context. Raw Latino punk (and punk in Spanish in general) has become quite trendy since the 2010's but at the time this kind of sound was still something of a novelty for a lot of us, not because the songwriting vastly differs from your usual spiky punk songs but because the overall raw and direct sound and the primal urgency sounded fresh from a European perspective. These were punks that had lives that were much harder than in the North (it brought to light the North/South paradigm while from the 80's to the mid-90's, because of the Cold War, the focus was more West/East). As I mentioned earlier, there have been top punk bands in Latino America in the 80's but to see acts like Apatia-No, Doña Maldad or Migra Violenta touring in the early 00's certainly opened the gates to a new generation of bands and created new connections. You should see Polikarpa from that same perspective of Latino bands touring in the 00's rather than the next generation of Bogota bands. As I said, meaningful times.

Polikarpa's sound could be described originally as a fairly typical Colombian punk style reminiscent of classic Medellin punk-rock bands like IRA, Fertil Miseria or Kontraorden, pogoable tupa-tupa punk with angry vocals and a direct approach. I would argue that on this particular recording Polikarpa showed more of a raw hardcore power, it is more focused than on their previous work, and I like how the tunefulness of the vocals on "Denuncio" adds catchiness to the otherwise fairly basic song (not unlike Vice Squad). Pretty furious stuff that works perfectly with the Ep format. Punk as fuck indeed. The lyrics deal with Colombia's culture of political violence and the need to break free from it all. 

On the other side we have yet another Osaka band after Victims of Greed: Defuse. I cannot think of many Japanese crust or hardcore bands with female members beside the fantastically primitive all-female Crusade and their quest for cavecrust in the early 90's while Mental Disease also had a girl on vocals. For some reason that may escape me, it looks like there just haven't been many women involved in bands in that part of the scene in the 90's while the decade was favourable to more inclusion and diversity in many other places globally. Defuse were certainly an exception in that respect and next time your racist sexist uncle claims that women suck at playing loud music during a dreary Sunday lunch, feel free to blast the band at maximum volume, if anything just to keep everyone from listening to his gammon bollocks. And then show some sympathy and proceed to euthanise the poor bastard.

Defuse did not initially start as a crust band though and if their 2017 Ep Cry of Roar (yeah, they are not exactly the most prolific band) proudly carried the (chaotic) crasher cavecrust banner, this first vinyl appearance sounded far closer to the Japanese tradition of Confuse (I mean, they are called Defuse for a reason), Gai, Kuro and the likes, an aestheticized punk noisiness that has come to be known as "noisepunk", a convenient if anachronistic term in this case. The classic Kyushu noise had not vanished in the 90's and some bands still abided by the "let's maximize the 80's Bristol thrash punk sound" like Order and their snotty take on The Swankys or the brilliantly Confuse-loving Dust Noise and their impeccably distorted fuzzy sound. Of course the tremendous overarching influence that Gloom had then in terms of raw distortedness and aggression, especially in their hometown of Osaka can also be felt here, but more in terms of intensity and bass-driven heaviness than songwriting. You could that Defuse tried to evolve between these three bands as they had Order's punkiness, Dust Noise's obnoxious noiziness and the Final Noise Attack scene. The faster hardcore thrash song "Don't conform" also showed that Defuse could speed things up with great efficiency. 

Before this Ep, the band had recorded a demo tape entitled What's Right - Don't Conform demonstrating that Confuse and The Swankys were the band's primary influences indeed and the first four songs of the tape were re-recorded for the split Ep. I wish that Defuse had the opportunity to record a full record with the production they enjoy on the Ep as the sound is perfect, raw but hard-hitting and really emphasizing the fuzz and distortion of the guitar (the sound engineer Koichi Hara also worked on Gloom's Recomendation of Perdition and Framtid's first Ep so he knew the job). I like the vocals too, not forced, just angry and snotty with sometimes some hoarse high-pitched demented screams for good measure (it is Osaka in the 90's after all). 

Overall this is a very enjoyable split Ep that can appeal to spiky punks as well as distortion and feedback junkies. This was released on Answer Records in 2000, a label that also released records from Reality Crisis, Demolition and even a reissue of CFDL.      

POLIKARPA Y SU DEFUSE

       

An adventure in split Ep's! I have no gun but I can split: VICTIMS OF GREED / SCUM NOISE "Fight for freedom / The power has no power..." split Ep, 1999

This is the last post of the year for Terminal Sound Nuisance and it makes sense to say goodbye and fuck off to a particularly atrocious 2023 with a punk message of protest and an international collaboration showing a spirit of togetherness and solidarity in noise. There is more to humanity than the sound of bombs falling and the cries of grieving families, thankfully. 

From a personal perspective, 2023 has been a strange year. Not only did I start working at a job center, ironically enough since my philosophy has always been to work as little as possible without raising suspicion, but I also celebrated my fortieth birthday. Twenty years ago I pictured my 40 year old self as a spectacularly successful man graced with many records and notoriously class and envied crust pants, one who would command respect in "the crust community" (I know, I know, don't judge me) and whose name would be uttered with admiration. 20 year old me was convinced that he would definitely look up to my future 40 year old self which on some level is both adorably stupid and positive. And well, if I could contact 20 year old me tomorrow, I would first tell the little fucker to stop buying trendy neocrust and grab as much Disclose materials as possible, and second I would tell him that twenty years from now he would have the most massive collection of Antisect shirts in the country and if that does not convince that indeed he will succeed in life then nothing will. I would not tell him to enjoy his sumptuous thick hair because time does what it does. I'm not so mean.

So here I am again, sitting on my arse and writing about some rather obscure Japanese crust and Brazilian raw hardcore. Which is quite fine when I compare it with what my colleagues do on their free time, binge watching mediocre American Netflix series while mindlessly scrolling on their phone and thinking what snacks they are going to eat next. Without punk, I could be like them and I like to think that 20 year old me would be proud that I still believe and have faith. Socially, it is rather frowned upon to not have children, not own a flat, not earn more than the minimum wage and still spend most of my money on poorly recorded records, noisy gigs you cannot attend without wearing ear protections and vegan delicacies. Not to mention spending hours in a tiny vehicle to play 20 minutes before a couple of old but lovable fuckers. As a half-wise man once said to me: "Punk-rock ruined my life but I wouldn't change a thing". 

But let's get to work, shall we? As we have seen numerous times, the Japanese 90's crust scene was intense and prolific and the decade put the town of Osaka on the map. Osaka became the birth place of a crust genre that was all its own - one we have come to name "crasher crust" - and although it did spread around the world, marginally, it is still closely associated with what Gloom or Crust War Records built so that when I am told about an Osaka crust band I immediately think about manic seriously distorted savage crust. Punk towns all work this way and conjure up a specific land-base sound and contextual aesthetics. But they are also relative and closely tied to our own personal mythology. PDX punk to me is Hellshock and Black Water and Whisper in Darkness, to others it will be Red Dons. Tragically Paris punk is now synonymous with Ben Sherman collections and constipated oi music and I haven't been able to achieve much in terms of local propaganda. 

But basically Victims of Greed were from a 90's crust band from Osaka. Granted, they may not have picked the best moniker as it is a very common signifier that could point to any punk style but they are worth your while. I actually already talked a little about VoG in a previous post from the Noize Not Music is a Fine Art because they appeared on the very good and under-appreciated 'No Hesitation to Resist' compilation 10". VoG are everything you could expect from a Japanese crust band: they are fast and intense with a crunchy distorted sound, extreme polyphonic vocals (from the traditional low gruff growls to the snotty punk shouts) and pummeling. Typical cave-crust done the Japanese way with that distinct production, a bit like Gloom covering Hiatus. There are some heavier metallic mid-tempo moments for good measure and I think the different vocal tones bring some variety and the four songs in four minutes and a half fly too fast (a full VoG Ep would have been brilliant). The lyrics mostly deal with animal liberation and veganism, not unlike Battle of Disarm at the time (although they were not an isolated case). Convincing 90's crust here. The band gets some extra points for including a verse in Portuguese in the song "Authority and rotten" and translations of their (and Scum Noise's) lyrics in Japanese. Pretty old-school.

On the other side are Scum Noise from Sao Paulo, Brazil, a familiar name if you have been around for a bit of time. I don't know what Brazilian punks drink in the morning but their bands definitely live long as Scum Noise have been playing, more or less actively, since 1990 (likewise Subcut have been going since 1992). I suppose that's what you call dedication and being for real. SN belong to that category of bands that I know without really knowing, even though I have had the 2001 reissue of their self-titled first Ep for ages and play it from times to times. We're not quite intimate but have been bumping into each other regularly if you know what I mean. In spite of being often described as a crust band, SN clearly did not belong to the crust genre. To me they epitomize what genuinely raw Swedish-flavoured hardcore punk should sound like. 

The first song "The Hell is near" is a masterclass in käng with its simple riffing and direct sound, its knowledgeably orthodox vocal flow and perfect drumming. Just fast raw punk the way it should be. The second number "The world around us" is yet another gem, this time dealing with the classic groovy mid-paced Discharge-inspired formula with a primitive thrashing vibe. The Brazilian hardcore influence and its raw anger and typical vocal style does pop out and you can tell SN definitely listened to Armagedom a lot. The last two songs are a little more anecdotal for me, one more direct käng endeavour and an all-out fast hardcore thrash attack but the Ep is worth grabbing for the aforementioned opening tracks alone. Think a title match for the Cimex raw-punk title between '92 Hellkrusher and early Diskonto with '86 Armagedom as a special referee. The raw, thin even, production confers a genuine 80's feel to the music, something that few 90's got to replicate as well. Third-world hardcore punk indeed. The singer of the band actually ran No Fashion Hardcore Records, a label that was of course part and parcel of the Brazilian DIY punk scene but also released Disclose records.

It is unclear when the SN or the VoG were recorded but the Ep was released in 1999 on FFT Label, standing for Fuck Fashion Town, that was run by Koichiro from Argue Damnation. This Ep goes for cheap and is typically a dollar bin bargain. 

 Scum Greed

An adventure in split Ep's! I have no gun but I can split: SERVITUDE / EBOLA "S/t" split Ep, 1999

How grim can one get? Or rather, how grim, bleak and downright depressing can one look to others? 

I am not an especially grim person. After a few pints, like every normally constituted person, I enjoy a game of darts, cracking a few dad jokes and getting into a drunken fight because I am a sore loser but I still do get reinvited, sometimes. It would be far-fetched to claim I am the life of the party but my presence illuminates the room enough and probably inspires many a youth to not be like me. I know how to prove myself useful. But to have a split record between one band called Servitude and another called Ebola does convey a vibe of tragedy, horror and overall doom so that it might not be the best topic for a first Tinder date and conversations starters like "Do you enjoy Servitude?" or "I much prefer early Ebola" haven't proved to be particularly effective. It's still marginally better than "Have you heard of Genital Deformities?" or "The last Coitus full length was something of a disappointment" I suppose.

From a punk point of view, of course, there is nothing wrong with a split between these bands, it made sense given the styles they used to work on. When I bought this Ep, I already had the split between Misery and Extinction of Mankind so I was already a lost cause as far as my terminological tastes were concerned. The symbolism of lexical fields and of naming in the punk world is absolutely fascinating and the fact that we have had our own stable but ever-changing metalanguage for 45 years is a testament to the relevance of punk. The downside is our tendency to rely too much on our cultural jargon, just like teenagers have always done to make their parents feel old, except a lot of us are well into our forties and fifties and our parents have mostly given up on us a long time ago and, unlike us, most teens do grow up. I might do a piece on punk language one day.

Before the record selection for this series, I had not played neither Servitude nor Ebola for a long time so it was an interesting re-exploration. I have had records from both bands for a while so that the fact they survived the often heartbreaking annual purges throughout the years indicated that a part of my brain knows that I like them even though I didn't exactly remember why (the punk brain works in strange ways). Servitude were from Minneapolis and belonged to the prolific local 90's crust and extreme hardcore scene that gravitated around Profane Existence and there are unsurprisingly many familiar faces when looking at the members' resumes. It would be silly doing exhaustive genealogical "ex-members of" lists but suffice to say that the individuals involved in Servitude did time in bands like Destroy!, Segue, Dissension or Code 13 and would later serve in Scorned, Provoked or Frenzy. 

The band recorded a rough and ready demo tape in 1996 (I doubt it was really distributed) that hinted at what they were going for but things really took shape with the 1997 Ep Apparatus on Profane Existence and Skuld Releases. As tempting - if unwise - as it is to blame it on Alzheimer (it runs deep in the family, sadly, the only positive I can think of is that it might allow me to forget about ska-punk and shoegaze) I remembered Servitude as an all-out down-tuned savage crustcore attack with dual male and female vocals with that distinct 90's US sound but they are not really. The Ep actually has variety, tempo changes, even some emotional moments and while there is obviously a crustcore influence, it might make more sense to see them as an anarchopunk blend of progressive crusty bands like Jobbykrust or Unhinged, of Health Hazard's furiousness and of more dissonant heavy down-tuned hardcore bands like His Hero Is Gone with an urgent, direct sound. Like One By One infused with extreme hardcore or something or indeed, not unlike Ebola, the type of bands that Flat Earth would have released. A good Ep representative of a specific 90's sound.

The three songs that Servitude contributed to the split Ep are heavier and more down-tuned so that it takes a couple of (loud) listens to really to get into it, especially with just about four minutes of music. If the music's texture is different, it also feels like the next logical step and makes sense that the band would move toward such a production (it was after all in the air at that time). In terms of influence, Servitude never sounded as threateningly destructive, intense and angry as on this one. As mentioned above, it sounds like a bar fight between HHIG, Jobbykrust and One By One. I love how the vocals work together in that specific 90's anarcho way. Some find it dated, I find it endearing. My one reservation is that it is a little short for the style and a full Ep recording would have worked better especially since there are a lot of changes and some versatility involved. The three songs were recorded in early 1997 so, for all I know, Servitude may not even have been active by the time the Ep came out in 1999. The screenprinted cover on their side looks absolutely magnificent but I could not find who was the artist. Didn't they have Insta in 1999?

On the other side are Ebola from Newcastle. Yes, there have been a lot of Ebolas throughout the years (even a tongue-in-cheek French oi band), one of which was from Berlin and a contemporary of our one. The 00's delivered quite a few extra grindcore Ebolas which was to be expected since it is a pretty cool disease (from a safe European home of course) and wearing an Ebola shirt would probably shock your nan. The story of Ebola goes hand in hand with that of the 90's DIY hardcore punk scene of the North of England and the band changed a lot in their six years existence (between 1995 and 2000, I think). Alright, let me try entangle the thing.

The band started out with Karen and Micky (from the cruelly underrated One By One) teaming up with Andy (later on in Sawn Off and Shank), Chris and Jonathan (later in Sawn Off and Minute Manifesto). This lineup recorded the Incubation Lp in 1996 , released on Flat Earth Records (obviously), an album I have had for a very long time, that I like but is impossible to store properly because my version has a 13 inch record mailer envelope as a cover. It looks good but to this day, it is the only record that has never fit in any of my record shelves or boxes. Again, pretty endearing. This first effort was a pretty devastating one, just fast, punishing hardcore thrash with dual vocals and diverse tempo changes that sounded like a date between Health Hazard, Disaffect and American powerviolence during a conference about anarchism. Ebola were always very vocal politically, not to mention literally, and they were always careful to provide interesting things to read and booklets with their records (no longer a common practice nowadays but then I am under the impression that we are all so jaded that we no longer even care to read the lyrics).

The following Ep released the next year, Imprecation, with Nick (from Enslaved Records and later Boxed In replacing Jonathan) was even more savage, demented and unpredictable blasting hardcore, more focused and articulate too I suppose but less traditionally punk. An extreme record that would be exhausting as an album and can only work on an Ep. The 90's were not done with Ebola yet and the band recorded five more songs in September, 1998, for the present split with Servitude. The first striking thing is how raw the production is. While Incubation and Imprecation enjoyed a rather good sound highlighting the relentless aggression and the manic and destructive changes, their side of the split almost sounds like a live in the studio recording. If the songwriting is similar to the previous Ep, this shift in terms of sound confers a more primitive, primal vibe to the music, a low-fi nature that borders on DIY grindcore or squat-based hardcore powerviolence. Very intense and even less for the faint-hearted than before as the vocalists remind me of angry hyenas fighting for the last vegan sausage (let's just pretend that hyenas are into vegan sausages). Imprecation would be the better Ebola record as it sounds more accomplished, however this side of the split Ep probably displays more charm and even character as it demonstrated that Ebola could still deliver in terms of blasting intensity and aggression with a direct, raw, bass-driven sound, not unlike Dystopia at times. These five songs would be reissued with a new mastering on a one-sided Ep in 2000 on Enslaved.

As mentioned, Ebola were a political bunch. Each song is introduced with an audio sample which was customary in the fastcore/powerviolence trend in the 90's (even up to the mid 00's) and there is a proper booklet accompanying the Ep. The explanations to the songs are quite illuminating and describe what the motif, the feeling and the context were during the writing. I know some people hate the practice and consider that the songs should stand on their own without a notice but retrospectively the explanatory notes help understand the mood of the time and the songs against macho violence "Malevolence" definitely stands for a specific time period in DIY hardcore punk. The whole thing looks brilliant and emphasizes the honesty of the band and the motivations that point to the 90's anarchopunk tradition (veganism, anti-homophobia...) rather than what modern powerviolence (or however you want to call it) is all about today. 

On the whole, I think that this split Ep is a good record, much rawer and more punishing than I remembered, clearly a testament to what DIY political hardcore was about at that time, musically, lyrically and visually. This was released on Clean Plate Records, the label run by Will Killingsworth who played in Orchid at that point in time.  

The Ebola of Servitude

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Disarm + Subcut   

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

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

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

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

Now that is just unkind.

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

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

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

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

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

Gride & Distrust