Sleeping At The Popes "Self-titled" Ep 2005

First, just a word to say that all downloads are technically working again now. I re-uploaded them all on mediabollocks so I guess it can only be a temporary solution anyway but hopefully I will have sorted something out before they kick me out - again.

If you can read - for the sake of the argument let's assume you can - you will have noticed that this blog revolves mostly around my obsessive love for some particular brands of punk-rock (some would say "narrow" actually). However, nothing gives me more faith in punk than a loveable band coming from a scene I know nothing about. Not only is this intellectually stimulatin, but demonstrates punk's formidable ability to creep into unexpected places. Well, at least when I bought this Ep in 2006, I had no idea that there was, or had been, a punk-rock scene in South Africa. Mind you, this was very much a pre-internet age for me and no one had ever bothered to tell me that, indeed, there were and had been cracking bands over there. Now, 8 years later, thanks to some amazing blogs and truly dedicated old-timers, I know that South Africa produced some terrific punk bands in the 80's like Powerage, Screaming Foetus, Wild Youth, Chaos SA or (early) Voice of Destruction, and I am aware of a couple of more recent bands worthy of everyone's attention like Brafcharge, Touched by Nausea, Outrage, Anti-All or TDKM. If you want to know more about the scene there, I strongly recommend this blog South African Punk Downloads. If anything, and whatever your shitty tastes can be, it proves that punk-rock's driving force lies in its fundamental internationalism and if you are curious-minded, you will be able to find that there is quality punk-rock in Syria and noisy grinding hardcore in Pakistan (not for the faint-hearted this one!). But back to the actual music.

Sleeping At The Popes. What the hell lads? Really? Picking such a cryptic name for a band often means that few people will even make the effort of listening to you. Sad but true (recently I witnessed an amazing Italian band called Intothebaobab, really top stuff in the spirit of Nerorgasmo and Pioggia Nera, and I can't help thinking that a name with a baobab reference is an hindrance... oh well). But having grown up in the French scene, where choosing ridiculous names for bands is not only a common practice but almost a golden rule, I wasn't even scared when I ordered their Ep. SATP formed in Cape Town in 2004, recorded two demo cdr's, released that one Ep and split up in 2006. I would argue that SATP was part of a generation of punks which brought another set of influences to the South-African punk table. I hear a lot of 90's-early 00's US anarchopunk in their music, which is almost ironical since that type of sound was certainly on its last leg by 2005. But petty and futile considerations about trends notwithstanding, the Ep is really good in its own right. Fast and passionate hardcore-punk with two pissed vocalists (and, I understand, the additional voice of a screaming drummer), one doing the high-pitched yells in a rather fast hardcore fashion (all the rage in the early 00's, right?) while the other takes care of the more traditional Conflict-type vocals. The sound is not particularly heavy as SATP relies more on heart-felt, spontaneous anger than crushing power. This is only a guess, but this is the kind of bands that rule live: political punk music that is angry and to the point. As previously mentioned, this brings to mind bands like Civil Disobedience, Resist, Brother Inferior, or even the brilliant Counter-Attack, with a dash of 00's hardcore-thrash revival.

Lyrically, the band tackled issues embedded in the South-African context, with songs about the democratic illusions, the racist crimes and the sexual violence of the police, the corruption of the new "democratic" leaders... All told from a youthful anarchist perspective. In true anarchopunk spirit, this Ep just reeks of indignation and anger. Because of their moniker, I am pretty sure you'll be able to get it from the infamous "2 euro record bin" and honestly, you really should.  

Sleeping at the popes!

 

More troubles coming everytime...

Apparently Opendrive has decided to close my account so all the files uploaded on that server will be deleted in a couple of days. I have no idea which is the guilty file as they didn't even notice me, I just couldn't log in into my account today and had to ask them why. So much for "premium" users service...

Basically, a lot of files will disappear shortly and I will have to sort things out again. If anyone has any suggestions...

Extinction of Mankind "Scars of mankind still weep" Ep 1998

The fourth and possibly last seat at the "bands-you-shall-not-take-for-granted" table, just next to Misery, Hellkrusher and Warcollapse, had to be given to them, the second longest-running old-school crust band: Extinction of Mankind. To say that I hold EOM close to my heart would be an understatement. I am not sure anyone really cares (and if you don't, why don't you go download some indie-rock on another fancy blog) but EOM was the first proper English crust band I got into. I bought their "Weakness" Ep at a Severed Head Of State gig in Paris in 2002 (that same night I also got Hellksrusher's "Doomsday hour"). I actually hesitated befor buying it on that German distro (SHOS played with Protest Stagnation that night hence a huge distro full of Skuld Releases records) because the Ep looked quite different from I was used to. I was heavily getting into anarchopunk at the time, bands like Disaffect, Substandard, Coitus or classics like Icons of Filth or the almighty Antisect. I felt visually that there was a connection but still it looked darker, gloomier but not cheesy in the way that actual metal bands looked to me. Seeing they were from Manchester (that data reassuring me about the potential quality of the band for some reason), I took the plunge...

Twelve years later, I am still listening to EOM and still wondering why people in my corner of the punk world are not as much into them as I am (you can substitute EOM with any of the bands invited to my aforementioned table)... After all, they are the real legacy of Antisect. They don't try to emulate them as much as SDS though, rather, in the 90's, EOM merged both periods of Antisect to create their own sonic landscape. However, I don't think that, had Antisect gone on playing, they would have actually sounded like EOM. In fact, I am pretty sure that, given the clues we have with Kulturo, they wouldn't have landed too far from Coitus, with a more rocking sound. It's a pretty pointless argument I suppose but I'd be lying to say that it doesn't cross my mind from time to time.

There are two distinct periods to EOM that can be circumscribed to two different line-ups and a change of drummer and guitarist that occured just after the release of the Ep we are going to talk about, a record that therefore can be seen as the apex of EOM's first life, with Foz and Mass still in the band, before Tony and Scoot joined in. I really enjoy both periods of the band but the changes in terms of sound are undeniable. On "Scars of mankind", the drumming is still ripe with drum rolls and tempo changes that, to me, defined the early EOM, while afterwards it became more metal in the traditional sense of the word, harder-hitting probably, more accurate certainly, but further from the original crust bands. The evolution in the guitar is the second great change, with Mass having a dark and dirty, gloomy, slimy, at times quite intricate style and Scoot with a more powerful, crunchier, thicker sound.

Undeniably, "Scars of mankind' is EOM's best 90's record. The songwriting is solid, the sound is better than on the first Lp but remains organic and damp (a bit like an Alien egg), the guitar is haunting and threatening, the distorted bass buzzes, the drumming is also more focused and powerful than previously and well, the vocals are as great as ever, with a singer that doesn't try to growl but on the contrary uses his actual - deep and powerful to say the least - voice, something that is often missing in that genre and that's a bloody shame, because that particular singing style is one of the things that makes EOM instantly recognizable and, well, unique. The perfect blend of Antisect and Nausea with a dash of Chaotic End? I'll drink to that.

The artwork is stunning although I am afraid my shitty scans don't do justice to the drawings here. They are actually dark, by which I mean that they convey a sense of doom, of anguish, of fear and alienation and the Alien motif is just the perfect metaphor of the threatening unknown that is both inside and outside the human body and mind. And it shows that you don't need to use fucking orcs and nuclear explosions all the time. The lyrics are on a par with the great songwriting too: "No dignity" depicting the pitiful, lifeless existence that we are offered by the bleak wasteland that we call society; "Puppets of power" is about power and how we are sedated, conditioned to accept our lot from the cradle to the grave (this is one of the best EOM song ever, a crushing, nightmarish mid-tempo number with an additional singer, a real classic); finally "Scars of mankind" is about human destruction and disrespect of the environment and the natural world.

This Ep was a joint release between Profane Existence and Skuld Releases and it is a record that I have seen floating in distros even recently. So you'd better get it before the 90's become officially trendy. The next EOM record would be the split Lp with Misery which is, for me, a tragic missed opportunity. A collaboration between the two bands that epitomised crust music (and I mean CRUST music) the best should have been the ultimate record, some sort of new classic. Sadly, because of a terrible production, the EOM side sounds weak and even sloppy. So, I think, and I am pretty sure that it is the best idea I have had for a long time, that both bands, especially now that they are both at the top of their game again, should do another split record together, with a proper sound for both this time. How great would that be?

     

Scars of mankind still fucking weep
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Warcollapse "Crap, scrap and unforgivable slaughter" Ep 2003

After Hellkrusher and, a couple of months ago, Misery, here is the third inclusion in the "bands we shouldn't take for granted series": Warcollapse. I am sure you can see a pattern here: bands that are 20 year old (or more!), still great and honest, still playing their own brand of genuine punk-rock, bands you can always rely on, that have survived all the petty trends. In a word: still bollocks but still here. And that's what matters in the end, right? The other pattern in the series is that I bloody love these bands in that, not only are they top notch, but they have had a big influence on me. Pretty obvious I guess.  

Warcollapse hardly needs an introduction if you are even vaguely into crust music. I suppose they can be considered as the best Swedish crustcore band ever. In fact, I personally think they are. While a lot of bands falling into the "Swedish crust" umbrella basically play classic Swedish hardcore with a heavier and harsher sound, very few bands from that scene actually got the classic UK crust sound as well as Warcollapse. Of course, Doom and ENT were heavily influenced by classic Swedish hardcore (after all, Doom wanted to sound like Discard in the beginning!) so it only makes sense that a band intending to emulate that sound will be influenced by Anti-Cimex, Protes Bengt, Asocial, Crude SS and so on. However, the early Warcollapse's sound, to my ears, is more driven by bands that are themselves influenced by the Swedish wave (Doom, Hiatus, Extreme Noise Terror, Disrupt, you know the drill) than by the 80's Swedes. Not unlike English bands that were influenced by Confuse who were themselves influenced by English bands. I really enjoy this interplay of musical influences among punk bands and I think their traveling patterns are fascinating.

But back to Warcollapse. Like I said not many bands got that original crusty feel just right, which I suppose is quite ironic since Sweden has produced dozens of bands in that genre. You had Jesusexercise (a member of whom joined Warcollapse) who recorded an unsung classic of "rudimentary-penized" old-school crust music. You also had 3-Way Cum (the Warcollapse's drummer actually joined them) with a couple of records showing a crushingly brilliant ENT/Disrupt-style crustcore, with a devastatingly animalistic two-vocals attack that puts them at the very top of the 90's eurocrust shelf (a highly coveted spot indeed). For instance, Tolshock, as excellent as they were, lied already more on the Scandicore side of things. I am not saying that I dislike the Swedish brand of crust, far from it, I am a listener of Skitsystem, Uncurbed, Scumbrigade or ENS, and I think they are good bands. However, when you actually think about it, few bands there really had that grizzli crust sound, as they were either drowning in the d-beat wave, too death-metal oriented or heavier rendering of "Stockholm hardcore 1983-1986".

The first incarnation of Warcollapse was actually called Earcollapse and saw the light of day in late 1991. Apparently, they were a Sore Throat-type band at the time and I would be very curious to hear any of it. A change of name and direction occured in 1992, a year that also saw them record their first demos. By 1993, they recorded songs for their first vinyl outputs, the split Ep with Extinction of Mankind and the "Indoctri-Nation" Ep, both released on ElderBerry records. And then, we need to pause. Although, the Ep we are dealing with today was released in 2003, its three songs were recorded exactly 10 years before, basically during the early Warcollapse years. In fact, "In darkness..." was recorded in february 1993, possibly during the same session that gave birth to the tracks from the EOM split. "Beginning of the end" was recorded in november of the same year (the "Indoctrin-nation" recording session?), "The blood runs red" in february 1994.

In case anyone has missed it (shame on you), the three songs included on that Ep are all covers. Amebix, Antisect and Discharge. What else? The three songs have that classic, powerful Warcollapse sound with guttural and aggressive vocals, pumelling drums and this heavy, flowing guitar sound. The sound is raw just as it should be and epitomized the 90's eurocrust production (or lack thereof some would say). Let's start with the Discharge cover. Now, though everyone and their moms cover Discharge, you have good Discharge covers and bad Discharge covers. This is a good one as it relevantly crustified the Discharge formula without going metal. Beside the band picked a song that is rarely covered by the Dis-legions, "The blood runs red". Amebix then. The years 2000's have seen a noticeable increase of Amebix covers, with no less than two tribute Lp's. But in the early 90's, I am under the impression that it was not so common (actually, Misery did one, "Nobody's driving", as well as EOM with "Sunshine ward" and Charger/Depressor did "Largactyl") and Warcollapse didn't even pick an obvious Amebix song either, nothing from "Arise!" or "Monolyth" as they chose "Beginning of the end" from the 1983 "Winter" 12''. A fantastic song, no doubt about it, but also a rather difficult song to cover in a grizzli crust fashion, as it is dirgy, creepy, dark, moody and threatening and you have to keep those vital elements to the song without falling into the cheesy metal trap. And Warcollapse just nailed it, they kept the atmosphere of the song intact but made it heavier, turned it into a 90's crust anthem. In fact, I would argue that this Amebix cover heralds the "Crust as fuck existence" mini Lp that saw Warcollapse venture in Amebix/Axegrinder territory with great results. Finally, the Antisect cover. One of the great mysteries of our time is the scarcity of Antisect covers. Seriously. In spite of their undeniable influence on crust and anarchopunk, Antisect are seldom covered. Obviously, SDS and Extinction of Mankind (the closest Antisect incarnations of the 90's) did cover them. But apart from them, I can only think of Armagedom, Raw Noise, Doom (a sloppy cover but still, that counts) and... Total Chaos (sigh). There may be more but they don't pop up right now. Anyway, Warcollapse chose the magnificent "In darkness" and it works well, the song becomes more direct and aggressive but I still feel it loses some of its power, its relentlessness. Beside they didn't cover the entire song, which is a shame since I always saw Antisect's songs as being organic entities that cannot be severed, especially on the Lp. But I am being picky, it is still one of the very best Antisect cover around and I am more than happy that it exists.

This Ep was the tribute to the English greats from Warcollapse. A second volume was released a few yars ago with covers from classic Swedish hardcore bands, once again mowed through the Warcollapse crusty grinder. Of course, this Ep is my favourite of the two and it is to be noted that Extinction of Mankind also did a tribute Ep called "Ale to England" with them covering... Amebix, Antisect and Discharge!!! How great is that! It would be interesting to do a comparative study of Warcollapse and EOM's tributes to the same bands in order to analyze what aspects of the music each band has decided to stress. Or maybe it wouldn't. I'll still do it one day.

Warcollapse's tribute to the Brits        

  

Hellkrusher "Dying for who" Ep 1992

I am often under the impression that Hellkrusher is the kind of band that everyone thinks they know, but that no one actually knows well. Bumping into the name for years may have created such a feeling of familiarity with the band, like an old acquaintance that you have never really got to know well but that you are always happy to have a drink with. Well, for those of you who fall in that category, I recommend you actually start hanging out more with this acquaintance. He could become your best mate.

Some Hellkrusher facts first. They originally formed in 1989 (yes, that early) and are from the Newcastle area. Scotty, formerly a bastard from hell, brought the "Hell" with him while Ali, not being that energetic after all, nicked the "Krusher". Honestly Energetic Bastard would have sounded like shit and I am really glad they went for Hellkrusher. The very early HK line-up also had a bloke from Senile Decay playing drums and a metalhead as a guitarist, which accounts for the rather metal-oriented first Lp of HK, "Wasteland". Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love that album, it is definitely one of my favourite metal-punk Lp ever, up there with English Dogs, Concrete Sox and Broken Bones (I would argue that "Wasteland", being slightly more aggressive and crusty, appeals to me more). However, when you think of Hellkrusher, you don't expect guitar solos or Slayer shirts. You want vintage Discharge-influenced punk-rock with heart and bollocks. The band split up in 1991 and reformed a couple of months later with a line-up change that saw Curry from Debauchery being hired behind the kit and Scotty moving to the guitar (he was originally the bass player). They then recorded a demo in 1992 which marked the proper beginning of the HK sound. This demo not only got released as an Lp, "Buildings for the rich" (who doesn't like a Class War reference?) but two tracks from that recording session were also included on the B side of the Ep we are dealing with today: "Dying for who".

The two studio tracks, "Dying for who" and "Scared of change", have everything you want from a band like Hellkrusher: straight-up UK hardcore-punk influenced by the likes of Discharge, Varukers, Onslaught or Anti-System. It is heavy, raw, fast, political and even a little ahead of its time since the Dis-clones wave hadn't started yet (on some level, you could argue that Disaster and Hellkrusher probably, if unwillingly, started that trend). The three live tracks on the A side of the Ep, recorded in 1992 at Planet X in Liverpool, are brilliant too, the sound is really good, intense and aggressive. Listening to that record, I cannot help but feel that early HK was really the beginning of the 90's UK hardcore-punk sound and that they played a major role in shaping that sound. I would even say that the Varukers' recordings from the 90's were heavily influenced by HK in terms of sound and song-writing (give a listen to "Murder" with HK's early Ep's in mind and you will know what I mean).

Hellkrusher shouldn't be seen as a mere "Dis-band", although they unfairly often are. In fact, only one of the five songs on the Ep deal with war atrocities, "Dying for who". "Hellkrusher" is about bullshit rock star behaviours and keeping down-to-earth, honest DIY values, "Scared of change" is about the Tory re-election, "Smash the trash" is about the music business and its money while "Destined to die" is about vivisection. Not really your average warsongs, right?

This Ep was released in 1992 on the mighty Tribal War Records, the record label of Neil (from the first Nausea line-up, Jesus Chrust and Final Warning) that was responsible for some fantastic records throughout the years that had a strong and lasting influence on me (Sarcasm, Coitus, Contravene, Antiproduct, Axiom, Atrocious Madness, Behind Enemy Lines and so on). "Dying for who" may actually have been its second release, I am not too sure (the first one was the second Confrontation Ep: the man had great tastes!). Great label, great band. And for the unlucky ones not in the know, Hellkrusher are still playing, still recording (their 2012 split Ep with Bullet Ridden is great) and Antisociety has just released an Lp with all their recordings from 1993 to 1994, their classic period really, with the "Fields of blood" Ep and the split Ep with Disclose.

Now what are you waiting for?      

Hellkrusher

Uro "Requiem" Lp 2003

I turned 30 last month and despite what everyone has been saying about how important this stage of my life should feel and I did not really give a toss. I am still listening to Antisect, Amebix and Deviated Instinct, I am still as good-looking as ever and, if anything, my general tastes in music are getting better and better. I will give you that my back has seen merrier days because of hard work but that's work and not age-related. However, it still feels strange that I bought this record 10 years ago when it came out. At the time I was getting pretty much all the records from this young Danish label, Plague Bearer, since they never disappointed. Judge for yourself: the first Martyrdöd Lp, the Skitkids demo and Besthöven "Just another warsong" Ep. Pretty neat, right? But nothing moved me quite as much as the Uro Lp. Their first Ep, "Revolutions romantik" from 2002, was fine but, no offense, still sounded a little like a poor man's Paragraf 119 or Vaning 5 and I am pretty sure no one saw the "Requiem" Lp coming, apart from the people lucky enough to witness them live in Copenhagen. The bastards.

This album, and for once I am not even ranting exaggeratedly here, is definitely one of the best anarchopunk record of the 2000's. It has absolutely everything you want from a grand anarcho record: anger, passion, frustration, sadness, the whole range of emotions really. But more importantly, it has something that few bands can claim to ever achieve: it sounds unique. Of course, the addition of a cello does play a crucial role in creating this uniqueness yet it is still not a guarantee that you will create something this brilliant. After all Remains of the Day, Garmonbozia and Öroku, decent bands for sure, don't immediately pop into mind when one thinks of top notch unique bands despite their common use of a cello. But Uro? They used it perfectly to draw a dark, beautiful sonic background that emphasizes the overall hopelessness of the songs. Although I don't see Uro as the prototypical pessimistic crusty band at all, judging from the detailed explanations in English (I am pretty awesome but not really fluent in Danish) their lyrics must be pretty fucking grim and depressing. There is pain, there is frustration but it is also very beautiful and for all the alienation felt, for all the feelings of powerlessness and futlity, you can still hear the beating heart of an angry fighting spirit buried amongst the graveyard of political illusions (I am in an epic mood tonight, so expect some cheesy metaphors and sloppy references to English romanticism). And as past events have shown, the punks of Ungdomshuset have more than a little figthing spirit to show in the face of state oppression, so my guess is that Uro wrote songs they wanted to hear when they felt down (and they probably listened to a lot of Paragraf 119 when the time for action came!).

But enough cheesy bollocks already. Rarely have I seen such a cohesion between the music, the message and the artwork in a record. It just makes so much sense. Uro's music is actually quite difficult to describe. I would argue that they are not as much original as they are unique. Songs are mostly mid-tempo, though you do find faster parts, as "Requiem" is not about crushing power but about setting a dark mood, about painting a peculiar atmosphere. Whereas some bands choose to hammer their anger and frustration through sheer aggression, "Requiem" is a dirge. The riffs are always perfect and the use of the cello is stellar, witty and fits seamlessly in the music as it never sounds forceful. There is a definite sense of epics in Uro's music but, at a time when it often meant aping Tragedy, the band managed to create something of their own, something almost organic but still sounding completely spontaneous and unpretentious, as if things just fell into place on their own. "Requiem" is remarkable and yet trying to describe it in terms of discrete musical elements seems to diminish its wholeness. There is something pagan in the drumming and the riffs that might bring Sedition or Scatha to mind but in a much simpler and less intricate fashion. The vocals certainly carry the music too as the band used the anarcho-certified male/female vocals and reflect anger, sadness and that threatening element. As difficult an album it is to review, I'd say that if you took Scatha, Disaffect, Smartpils, The Mad Are Sane and Paragraf 119 and made them listen to the Cocteau Twins for a month, you would have something quite close. Or not.

The artwork is appropriately dark but doesn't look cheesy or gratuitous. Although the lyrics don't deal with subjects that are particularly original in themselves, much effort seems to have been put into them. Powerless witnesses and participants in the destruction of the environment, the alienation inherent in city life, the punk scene as being a mirror of straight society, the repression getting tighter around our necks, the inescapability of social control... All these niceties are significantly conveyed through Uro's music and art. From what I have heard, Uro certainly made a mark in the Copenhagen punk scene of the early 00's and some people were even crying at their last gig... Of course, the story didn't end there for the members of the band as some of them joined bands like Nuclear Death Terror or Bombregn soon after the demise of Uro (which means something like "unrest" or "turmoil" in Danish if I am not mistaken).

Depressing mandatory cello-driven punk-rock that sounds as good and - bizarrely - fresh to day as it did 10 years ago.

   

Requiem

Mindrot "Endeavor" Ep 1991

Since I am a nice bloke, I wish all of you a happy new year full of booze, life and misery (there's a quote here!). I hope I will be able to keep the blog flowing with even more terrific records, although to be faire, you will probably have to settle for terrible some times. To put everyone in a great mood for 2014, I shall start the year with a joyful, light-hearted and definitely optimistic record from the mighty (up to 1992) Mindrot.

Today, Mindrot is mostly known as a rather decent 90's doom-metal act, remembered for their "Dawning" Lp released on Nuclear Blast in 1995. But back in 1990, when the band formed, Mindrot was part of the amazing California anarcho/crust scene. I already talked a bit about it in the Resist and Exist post, but strictly in terms of early crust (meaning filthy, metallic and gnarly), California had to offer such a concentration of smashing bands over a short period of time (from the mid 80's on to the early 90's as bands like Iconoclast, Diatribe and obviously Crucifix seemed to belong to a slightly earlier generation). See for yourself: A//Solution, Glycine Max, Apocalypse, Confrontation and of course Mindrot. To this crusty bunch you could also add anarchopunk-sounding Media Children, Atrocity or A State of Mind, hardcore-punk heroes Final Conflict, Armistice, Another Destructive System or Holocaust and even, a little later on, old-school grindcore like Phobia. This scene deserves its own "The day the country died" and I truly hope that a couple of bored and motivated old-timers from that era will sort something out one day (now, that could be a grand New Year's resolution for 2014!).

This Ep should be considered as Mindrot's first real record. However, their 1990 demo is so good, so powerful and so unique in its own way (there are some seriously crushing, amazing songs on that tape that more than deserve a comfy spot in the stenchcore pantheon) that, more than a mere demo, I see it as a proper album at least as good as the first Prophecy of Doom Lp. I sense that this is becoming my gimmick but honestly, someone should reissue this demo on record for fuck's sake (yeah, yeah, I know, do it yourself, right?). There are two songs on the Ep called "Endeavor" (I am currently fighting the urge to write it properly, meaning "endeavour"!), with an intro AND an outro. Now, that might sound like a bit much for just an Ep but I think it gives the record a sense of completion and of storytelling. I like it. In terms of music, Mindrot played at that time some seriously heavy, dark and anguished music with guttural vocals. Even then, you could hear that they were really into early doom-metal and death-metal and that, overall, the musicianship at play was superior to their fellow crusty bands of the era, or maybe they just aimed a bit higher with a better sound, more time spent on song structures. Or, more likely, they just learnt to play their instruments. I often think of Mindrot as the American Prophecy of Doom, although they were not quite as strange and more polished. But they still embody that shift from all-out crusty bollocks (aka dirty punks adding poor musical skills and a healthy dose of snottiness to extreme metal) to proper metal music. They are still punk enough for me and from an orthodox point of view they play real CRUST, the way the genre was meant to be played, but with added extreme doom-metal.

As I mentioned, Mindrot belonged to the tightly knit anarcho-crusty scene and the time of the 1990 demo, the "Endeavor" Ep and the split Ep with Apocalypse (certainly the best old-school metallic crust, us kids say stenchcore now though, ever), they shared a member with Confrontation and some Matt Parillo, who would form the almight Dystopia a few years later by way of Carcinogen, was playing the guitar. When Mindrot became a real doom-metal band, a former member of Apocalypse joined them as well. But enough mundane facts. There is a rather relevant parallel between the cover depicting what looks like a dead and tortuous tree half-hidden behind the very coarse grain of the picture and lyrics about the very physical effects of alineation, the inner emotional confusion inherent to modern life and the ever-present pain, depression and despair. No song about cider-drinking on this one. This should be the soundtrack to your next winter holidays. But then with a band called Mindrot, and what a great name that truly is when you think about it, you can't really expect anything else.

Your mind is rotting

       

Scum of Society "Violenza legale" Ep 1997

This will be the last post of the year 2013. The last 12 months saw countless brilliant records being posted on Terminal Sound Nuisance and, thankfully, there will be even more samples of my flawless tastes on the blog in 2014. You have been warned. So, in order to bring some sort of closure to this year, what could be more appropriate than a rather unoriginal and yet totally relevant 90's crust record with a lot of heart and guts? Because that's what TSN is all about and I gladly leave pointless quests for originality to others with a more artistic mindset than mine.

I have already talked about how I love 90's eurocrust (90's crust in general really, even the Japanese bands of that genre no longer seem to attract that much attention, which unfortunately doesn't mean I can afford to buy their records... yet!) and how I think it is being gravely under-appreciated right now. Bands like Hiatus, Homomilitia, Sarcasm, Proyecto Terror, Subcaos, Embittered, Enola Gay and so on. It is not all grim of course, and there are a number of bands still flying the flag but it certainly doesn't garner as much interest as, say, 10 years ago. But anyway, while crust punk spread like wild fire all over the world during that decade, one European country with a very strong punk tradition strangely seemed to ignore its greatness: Italy. Of course, there was the amazingly unique and genre-challenging Contropotere who incorporated elements of crust music, but, as much as they escaped easy classifications, I always saw them as being essentially an 80's band in spirit although they did record some brilliant stuff in the 90's. Besides, Contropotere sounded like no other band (were they even a band or more a collective?), so it might not be relevant to use them as a point of comparison. Italy had fast and furious hardcore bands, grindcore bands, all sorts really but crust (apart from Jilted who fitted the tag). How odd is that? The 00's fortunately saw a lot more enthusiasm towards loud dreadlocked noisy bollocks with bands like Campus Sterminii, Giuda, Berserk, Cancer Spreading or NIS.

Scum of Society musy have formed around 1995 or 1996, judging from their discography. I don't know what the band took in 1997 but in that year only, they managed to put out two Ep's and one split Lp. In 2002 (or 2003?) they released a split Ep with Full of Hatred and that was basically the end of the band. Musically, Scum of Society were nothing special I suppose: just straight out, bass-driven, raw crust punk along the lines of Hiatus and Doom with shouted rather than gruffy vocals so that you can understand what they are on about (assuming you speak Italian). The recording is a bit rough and ready, if not sloppy, but there is an undeniable urgency to the sound and there is actually some degree of variety in the song structures with metal or hardcore breaks and even a couple of blast beats for good measure. In terms of music, it is everything you can expect from mid/late 90's DIY European crust record.

As was often the case, crust bands were more directly political in those days or at least they showed it more. The record comes with a 17-pages booklets, no less, with lyrics and artwork and even some political writing and a list of active squats in Italy! From what I can gather, Scum of Society must have been involved to some extent in the squatters' movement at the time. There are staunch "DIY and proud" ethics at play in this Ep and radical politics are being worn unashamedly (they even borrowed the "proud to be punk"logo from Riot/Clone!). Lyrically, any anarcho-oriented punk will find him/herself in safe territories: an anti-nazi song, an anti-coppers song, an anti-rockstars song, an anti-alienation song, two anti-war songs and a song about how the poor are the scum of society in the eyes of the authorities. The perfect soundtrack for the party you will throw for New Year's Eve, isn't it?

The texts included by the band are probably better clues of the actual politics of Scum of Society. The first one is about the importance of staying DIY and what it means to them. In 1997, they were already pointing at the absurd prevalence of form over content:

"we think that the music, the attitude, the fashion, in the magic world of hardcore-punk has became more important than the spirit. So we confirm one more time that for us to be punx means self-production (DIY), political action, communication, in short the creation of physical and mental situations of freedom, alternative and antagonism to the power that oppress us all. We produce and distribute DIY stuff as a part of a project of self determination of our lives".

A good statement indeed. The second text is about submission and resistance to the different tricks of the State as it tries to mold us into good law-abiding citizens and the band is right in sending a healthy and hearty "fuck off" to all the armies, be they the official ones serving our current masters or the non-official ones serving our masters of tomorrow. The third text is about the oppressive power of the family unit and how it works as the first level of alineation in order to produce "normal" children. Finally there is the aforementioned stuff about squatting which, in addition to providing an exhaustive list of active squats, also briefly tells the political motivations of squatters, why they do it (to live and/or to organize things) and how they choose to live their lives according to their own rules. Some smart words about the dangers of being a legalized squat which would create a "good squatters/bad squatters" dichotomy (the good ole Victorian values of the "deserving" versus the "undeserving" poor).

It is definitely better you read it all for yourself anyway. And don't forget to listen to the record while you are at it. I found it in a 2 euros bin and so can you!

Violenza legale!