«Hallow’s Victim» was the 2nd full length by SAINT VITUS and the last one featuring original singer Scott Reagers. Although this LP all in all is not as throughoutly perfect as the first, self titled one, it’s still one scorcher and it eludes me why this has never been officially re-released. I couldn’t pick a fave song here, but “War is our Destiny” is maybe the one I like the least (which doesn’t say too much, really). Just like the “Walking Dead” EP and the epochal first LP, the riffing and the atmosphere on “Hallow’s Victim” are totally unique, so much more than just a bastard of the best elements of Metal (the epic) and Punk (the dirt).
Download the complete «Hallow’s Victim» album here (folder includes printed innersleeve scans). Let’s hope this one gets a proper re-release one day soon.
Find more SAINT VITUS stuff on goodbadmusic here and here. And there’s more to come.
Share on Facebook
Yesterday, I saw THE FREEZE live for the first time ever. I wasn’t expecting too much, although “Land of the Lost” is one of the five best albums ever released methinks and I doubt there’s another Hardcore record I played as often as this. Then again, I normally don’t attend Hardcore shows anymore and the fact alone I didn’t want to miss THE FREEZE proves I expected at least to rehash a small dose of the old sensation. So my girlfriend and took a one hour drive on my scooter to the city of Lucerne. Just upon arrival, I ran into a bunch of old buddies of mine like Nasty (formerly EXXOR) and Roger (formerly NECROMANCER & AMEX NIMEON), both now playing in THE SENILES. I also met Röbi who used to do so much for the 80s Hardcore thing in Switzerland and Germany with his legendary SPEED AIRPLAY radio show in the mid 80s and of course Mölch with whom I was engaged in both MEGAWIMP fanzine and OFF THE DISK RECORDS, among other familiar and half familiar faces.
THE SENILES delivered a fun show and as soon as the second band WICKED (who play horrible music) was on stage, we literally ran outside the venue (which is a former prison, located in a surrealistic area in rural Switzerland, with a massive panorama of mountains, so dominant that it almost takes your breath away and makes you feel numb – or as Heinrich Heine said about central Switzerland: Mountains so high that all the swiss are blockheads). So while we sat by some table, a short guy who had the looks of Inspector Columbo played around with a dog. I mean, what am I saying, playing: He was obsessed by the damn tyke. He couldn’t let go off of it and ran around and about with that animal like they both were on some kind of a Doctor Doolitle wonder drug. Suddenly, the Columbo guy disappeared only to reappear on stage as Clif Hanger, singer of THE FREEZE.
The set was great. They opened with “American Town” and the audience, young and old, got totally into the band right from start. They ripped (!) through a set well mixed with both old and new songs and not one of the numbers was below great. The energy level was high, Clif looked like a mad man (or as Röbi said: If he wouldn’t have been a singer, he would have ended up being something like the una-bomber). The audience sang along most songs like I wouldn’t have expected it and I totally dug this because I keep thinking of Clif Hanger as the Raymond Carver of Hardcore. This man has written some of my favorite lyrics. So it wasn’t until long until even the old silly me started to dance hard and harder until I completely lost control during tracks such as “Time Bomb”, “Boston not L.A.”, “Violent Arrest” or the monolithic “Nazi Fun”. I’m not sure whether any other original members were among the line up of five, but whether or not – they did a hell of a good job and it took me until the next day to start feeling the familiar mixture between excitement and stomache-ache like I usually feel when having taken part in one of these folkloric history re-enactments of sorts.
“Guilty Face” was the THE FREEZE’s Hardcore peak. Never before and never after they sounded faster and angrier. All of the four songs can be called the crème de la crème of Hardcore, even the slower “Halloween Night”. I’m sure you all have heard these tracks, maybe on the reissue 10″ with extra tracks on Axction Records, but I just felt like throwing this one into the round.
Find more of THE FREEZE on the essential “Unsafe at any Speed” 7″ compilation ep and don’t forget me the first one, Tommy (and else).
This post is especially for Linda, my love.
Violent Arrest.mp3
Voices from my Window.mp3
Halloween Night.mp3
Guilty Face.mp3
Share on Facebook
One of the lesser known DC-related Hardcore Punk records and much of the attention it’s still getting seems to be coming mainly from the participation of Tom Lyle from GOVERNMENT ISSUE. BEAVER also had a great song (“Punch him int he Head” redone) on the «Bouncing Babies» Comp. LP.
This is such a great EP! Hectic, manic Hardcore with some interesting twists and nice basslines. Some say this suffers from a thin sound – I cannot say so. To me, these mosquito guitars and the tin can drums are one crucial aspect of Hardcore in its early days. And we all know that these were the golden days. It’s obvious though the record doesn’t sound as it should have sounded; the production’s really weird, but there’s still so much fun and energy coming from it, how could you say this is a bad production? Thin sound, stop and go stakkato – it may come as no surprise to you when I’m saying that this sounds more than a bit like an earlier version of G.I. Hard to pick a fave song out of the ten numbers featured here. They’re all short and fast and very original, pretty far from being generic.
This EP never really got the appreciation it deserves (despite the anti-AC/DC sentiments expressed in the song “KKK-FM”). Do a little internet research and you’ll find the same negative stereotypes over and over gain. Time to change this! This is a fantastic yet overlooked record. And it will only get better, year after year.
Aparently only 300 made of these and never officially re-released. Download and enjoy!
Trendy.mp3
Georgetown sucks.mp3
Video Disease.mp3
Punch him in the Head.mp3
Limited Nuclear War.mp3
Life is a Joke.mp3
Vladimer.mp3
Boring.mp3
KKK-FM.mp3
No Messages.mp3
Share on Facebook
When I recently watched “The Story of ANVIL”, I couldn’t help but ask myself why in some cases, bands just don’t “make it” (when attempting to be commercially succesful). While in the case of Anvil (although the movie sees that differently), it might have something to do with the vocals, the lyrics and the general representation of the band, there were others reasons why some bands were ignored.
In the particular case of BUFFALO, it had to do with the simple fact that some bands, like this one, were pushed forward by a general trend and at the same time got quickly rolled over by this very trend. Although we generally are quick to use the label NWOBHM for every british Metal band of the latest 70s/earlier 80s, a closer look reveals the gruesome truth: Not only did the NWOBHM bring up considerable talent and set the path for the world wide commercial victory of Heavy Metal – it also erased a certain type of music from the books. The process of cultural transformation is as cold as ice.
This post is dedicated to one of those unsung heroes. It’s BUFFALO’s first release. After this, they released another 7″. Is this good music? Bad music? Or good bad music? Does this still mean anything today or does it sound like an echo from the past? You tell me.
Battle torn Heroes.mp3
Women of the Night.mp3
Share on Facebook
Three more mongo hits from Switzerland’s SPERMA (check this link for their first 7″ and this one for the alternate version of it).
Three love songs of sorts here: “Schmier” (“Cops”) deals with the boys in blue, “No more Love” with the Punk lifestyle and the epic “Radio” is dedicated to the swiss national radio (“ich hass es so” is the last line – “I hate it so much”). Please note that the anti-cop song pre-dates that famous one of German’s SLIME, which is pretty much alike in words.
Definitely the best sounding of the four SPERMA releases, but thank gawd it’s still the same sloppy, unoriginal and oh-so charming version of how Punk sounded to the ears of teens rather than to those of critics and music journalists. Totally love the cover, which folds out to the poster you see. Hard to come by. Enjoy!
Schmier.mp3
No more love.mp3
Radio.mp3
Share on Facebook
Finally a new promo record that’s worth reviewing (and finally a new post, so you might say)! It’s the first 12″er, after a few 7″ers, by Holland’s SACK-’O-WOES. While I’m not particularly fond of Retro Punk and this indeed sounds like modern Dirty Punk ‘n’ Roll, I must say that at least to me, it makes a huge difference when this kind of music comes from Punk veterans. Not that it makes the music itself better or worse, it just adds the dignity every band worth mentioning should have.
SACK-’O-WOES consists of ex-members from bands such as GEPOPEL, INDIREKT or ANTIDOTE (the dutch, that is, of course) but as mentioned before - you better don’t think they’re just rehashing their past musical work. You can’t call me an expert in the fields of Retro Punk so I can’t really compare this band with others of their genre, but they sure do deliver the goods on this EP. The opener “Prodigal Scum” is probably my fave track here as it bursts out with enough power to make me dance around spastically in my living room. The remaining songs are basically made out of the same formula – tight, guitar driven Dirt Rock smashing the sack right in your fucking face! A great power pill for the days when you are, like I am, hung over from last nights excesses and need a serious kick in the butt.
Find out more on SACK-’O-WOES here and on the band’s myspace site. If you like these two tracks here, do yourself a favour and buy the EP from the directly. It’s a beautifully made one-sided picture disc produced with the same technique as the legendary “Yes L.A.” compilation.
PS: I hope you don’t mind, Niels, but I just had to scan your letter:
Prodigal Scum.mp3
Midwife Crisis.mp3
Share on Facebook
HELLWITCH from Gainesville / Florida were one of the most original of the early Death Metal bands. Quite technical, fast (especially on the 1990 CD-album that followed this demo). There’s something really morbid about this band’s sound.
On “Transgressive Sentience”, the band showed a remarkable progress compared to the somewhat more generic first demo tape from 1984. Especially the wicked guitar work, but also the often ecentric vocals of guitarist / singer Pat Ranieri definitely set the band apart in the 1986 Death Metal scene (and I’m not even sure if the label Death Metal really fits HELLWITCH). When ripping the tape, I couldn’t help but noticing that the vocal style has some similarities to later SLAUGHTER (Canada). A bit punky and not really well done, haha.
All four songs here are great. “Nosferatu” is easy to enjoy and got speed up immensly on the band’s beforementioned CD in a redone version. “Satan’s Wrath” takes a bit of time to unveil its qualities. “Torture Chamber” is anothr fast number and “Fate at Pain’s End” is another incredibly tense and original track and my fave. The guitar harmonies are incredibly good and the relentless riffing and uptempo parts are killer!! Had HELLWITCH put more time onto the vocals, with a different singer, they might have become really well known among the blossoming DM thing that was about to explode in the late 80s. But time and audiences are cruel and merciless.
If Pat Ranieri reads this (who gave me this demo in person when I met him in 1986 at (maybe) the MASSACRE rehearsal space: Greetings from Erich Megawimp!
Nosferatu.mp3
Satan’s Wrath.mp3
Torture Chamber.mp3
Fate at Pain’s End.mp3
Share on Facebook
After the youngest band in Hardcore, here’s another band full of youngsters. It’d be so easy to slag off CRIPPLED YOUTH mercilessly – not only for the fact that after this they became BOLD, one of these countless post-Hardcore bands that give me the creeps. Just check out the lyrics we’ve got here like the immortal words in “Positive Scene”: “I don’t know what your scene’s like, or if it’s really cool, I just know what my scene’s like and I think it fucking rules” – no wonder bands like CRUCIAL YOUTH took the piss out of these posi-bands and even the german SPERMBIRDS had a song called “No Punks in K-Town” (on their fabulous “Something to prove” LP from 1987) that was directly aimed at Crippled Youth and what they stood for – things had begun to drastically change. suddenly, you had all these insecure kids singing about friendship, walking tall and respect. Scary shit, man.
But apart from the obvious sillyness, and that could have been one of the main motiviations for me to post this any other day than today, I was really surprised when playing “Join the Fight”. Some of the songs in their naivety didn’t sound half as bad as I had remembered them. There’s something really driving in the music and that has a lot to do with the simple but effective hammering of the skins. I love that. It’s obvious that YOUTH OF TODAY were the main influence for CRIPPLED YOUTH in every aspect.
I had this EP already sorted out to be sold with hundreds of other records. But after ripping it and writing this little piece, I realized that it’s still somehow dear to me. Maybe as a curiosity too. I mean, maybe that’s the only way to take Boyscout Hardcore.
Depicted is the second press, by the way. Funny, how the printers forgot to remove their I-dunno-how-you-call-these-scales before making the offset film.
Walk tall, walk straight.mp3
Positive Scene.mp3
Can’t you see.mp3
Not just Talk.mp3
Respect.mp3
Choice.mp3
Stand together.mp3
K-Town Mosh Crew.mp3
United we stand.mp3
PS: The errorous link for “Positive Scene” is fixed now!
Share on Facebook
