August 2010
7 posts
Axewield- Wisdom of Doom 12" (2010) [revised]
While not quite on the level of Iron Maiden v. Judas Priest or The Beatles v. The Rolling Stones, for a brief moment in the early 2000s one could speak of a Zoe v. Effigy rivalry for the hearts of hundreds of metal-crazed Japanese crust fans. What Dark Master was conducting the orchestra at your shredded-clothing axe-feast? Effigy’s Grinding Metal Massacre or Zoe’s From Hell? I always...
Wretched- Libero di Vivere, Libero di Morire LP...
It occurs to me that the Wretched are a much more stylized band than one gives them credit for being. (Please note the guitar and drummer are different here than on the split 7” with Indigesti, which is a wonderful record but to which the following comments do not really apply.)
On this LP, the guitar is all shimmering atmosphere, laid out in oblique slabs—hardly the mighty roar of...
Negazione- Tutti Pazzi 7" (1985)
“CRAZINESS” IN HARDCORE
Have you ever tried to imitate speaking a language that you know nothing about? If I try to “speak” Chinese or Finnish or Italian, I can only replicate a few typical sounds, an accent, and maybe some stereotypical gestures. Maybe I have heard the pitch system in Chinese, or what seems to me a preponderance of diphthongs—but my observations...
Lip Cream- 9 Shocks Terror LP (1987)
Are Lip Cream good? What are they doing? What did *they* think they were doing?
Here are some argument on why Lip Cream might not be good: 1) All their songs sound the same. 2) No understanding of dynamics. 3) Not catchy. 4) Have polished their style down to an affect-less, one-dimensional algorithm.
Let’s grant all of this. There is no “song-writing” in Lip Cream. Even worse,...
86 Mentality "s/t" & "On the Loose" 7"s (2004,...
These records are the exact opposite of the Hatred Surge record reviewed in the last post, in this sense: where the description of the Hatred Surge 7” trumped its actual existence as music, any such description of 86 Mentality undersells the band and is a thing apart from the experience of sitting down and listening to these records.
How to describe 86 Mentality? They sound like Iron Cross....
Hatred Surge "Servant" b/w "Bestial" single (2008)
This is a really cool idea for a record: a two-song single, packaged in a generic “Singles Club” sleeve, from a band whose first record crammed 9 songs into about 6 minutes, and who play a style that certainly doesn’t conform to the A-side/B-side logic of the 45 rpm single. (One always says that “Reggae is a singles genre,” or powerpop certainly.) But this...
The Bad Brains- The Youth Are Getting Restless LP...
Due to punk’s collector mentality, this widely-distributed live album from 1990 (but recorded in 1987) will never have the reputation of the ultra-rare Pay to Cum single; or, for that matter, the perennial tag of being “underrated” that I Against I profits from. Rather, like the Omega Sessions 10”, The Youth are Getting Restless is an actually underrated, nearly...
