"Fuck The Legion, Fuck The Lyrics, Fuck The Lot Of View! Vol.2" compilation tape, 2015

I have absolutely no idea how this compilation tape ended up in my pristine collection. Distros sometimes, when shipping prices allow for it, stick in parcels a couple of records they have been trying to get rid of, the ones that have been sleeping in boxes for too long and take up much needed space - a thoughtfulness usually formulated as "I've added extra gifts and goodies for you" - when you pass an order. I'm not blaming them and sometimes you do have nice surprises although more often than not the gifts end up sleeping in other boxes in non-distro homes. Cycle of life. This tape belongs to the first category of nice surprises. I suppose it landed here through a Greek distro (either this or someone broke into my place and planted the thing for me to write about it) but I can't recall which. If I'm being honest I had completely forgotten about it and I'm not even sure I ever played the fucker before this review. Not so long ago I still had a loyal employee taking care of the sorting for me and he selected only the most listenable material Terminal Sound Nuisance gets sent. It was truly a painful daily process and I was thankful to have him - I would often scratch him behind the ears and feed him treats - as he prevented me to suffer the indignity to endure German metalcore or random Californian post-skacore (please refrain from sending such dross). Tragically he progressively got deaf and he had to be put down. Fuck the Legion, Fuck the Lyrics, Fuck the Lot of Views! Vol.2 was one of the tapes salvaged by my sorely missed partner. Thanks mate.

This 100% DIY production comes from Greece, from a label called Stand Against Vivisection Records based in Kavala that started in 2004 and might have folded in the 2020's (the last release is from 2022). Looking at the catalogue, one has to admire the variety of styles it released, from cracking postpunk (Πανδημία and Κωμωδία Θανάτου), brutal grindcore (Agathocles and Mixomatosis), classic 80's punk (Mellakka or Απόγνωση) and angry crust (Παροξυσμός). I would venture that the label maybe just originally happened to support the network of friends and take part in worthy projects and then grew into helping out from times to times. There were three volumes of Fuck The Legion, Fuck The Lyrics, Fuck The Lot Of View! - the silly reference to Chaotic Dischord always makes me giggle like a school kid upon hearing a fart - the first one from 2013 included the aforementioned incredible Πανδημία, goth punks Era of Fear (both Athens bands did a split Lp shortly after), Luftslott and Καρκίνωμα (who did a split tape with the rather popular antifa oi punk band Ομίχλη in 2001). All the songs on the tapes were recorded live in Kavala so it's about as raw and urgent as you can expect. As for the the third volume it was in fact a vinyl Lp, a fairly ambitious undertaking, with Kavala SS (who also appear on the second one), Ταραχές, Eristetyt (yes, Eristetyt ) and Etuaste, the last two from Finland.

The chances of anyone knowing about the four bands included on this second volume are rather slim unless: you are a punk from Greece or Istanbul and were around then and there; you were an angry local neighbour who had to sleep through all this noisy punk shows of these bands; or you are a massive Greek punk nerd and probably scared all your friends away a long time ago. The first band is he Κοπρόσκυλα (meaning "dirty dogs" or maybe "stray dogs") from Athens, a rather short-lived experience since the 9 songs on the tape were the band's only studio recording apparently. These songs were actually originally released as a cdr demo in 2010 so they were not exactly new at the time of release of this compilation. Information about The Κοπρόσκυλα is scarce to say the least but my sharp ears were already familiar with the vocals that must belong to the singer of Πανδημία (and these days of Πυρ Κατά Βούληση). I love his singing style so even though the music of  The Κοπρόσκυλα cannot be said to be Earth-shattering, the nine songs run pretty smoothly indeed. The band played dynamic and energetic punk-rock with some good hooks and singalongs but they are neither fast enough or melancholy enough to really grab the listener by the throat although they were certainly solid and tight enough to stand as a reliable local band.

The next band, Ugly Shadows, is not actually from Greece but from Istanbul, Turkey. They were around in the mid-00's and had members of Poster ITI (a very likable charged UK82 type band that had a good run and covered The Bristles) and Era of Fear. The mid-10's were the zenith of the postpunk revival and Ugly Shadows must definitely be seen in that light, as belonging to that mood of the time. To be fair the band's punk energy (especially with dynamic drumming and the shouted female vocals) puts them more in the "dark punk" category than the melancholy goth one. They are more angry than they are depressed if you like. The production is pretty basic here which works with the songwriting and adds some urgency. The lyrics are in English and you could easily namedrop PDX bands like Moral Hex or Dead Cult, class French exports Litovsk and also prepare some invitations for Barcelona's Sect. Know what I mean? Ugly Shadows are not reinventing the wheel but they sound honest enough in a genre that quickly became a cheap excuse to tour and a bandwagon one could easily jump on. There are four songs here, two that appeared on the self-titled 2015 Ep and two on the 2014 cdr demo. After the demise of the band three members went on to form Crudez, a very apt and accurate, albeit short-lived, Vice Squad-meet-Lux band. Members later on went on to play in bands like Die In Vain or Rotting System, and, in singer Gicem's case, in the Paris-based Zevk.

On the other side of the tape you will find the local heroes Kavala SS, who only ever appeared on this tape and on the third volume so I strongly suspect some (very) close ties with the label. I haven't been much of a fan of adding "SS" to your band's name. First because you always have to explain that it's not dodgy because Crude SS and Tampere SS did it and second because you grandmother would be very upset indeed if she saw you wearing a shirt with SS on it (but then, she actually saw SS soldiers in the flesh so she kinda has a point). I didn't expect to enjoy Kavala SS that much but they proved to be a good, fun listen reminiscent of classic 80's Finnish bands (they don't cover Tampere SS or Bastards for nothing) with crazy vocals not unlike 80's Japanese bands (they cover The Execute, just to be safe). The band also cover Rudimentary Peni and the lyrics to "Ύμνος Στον" are an adaptation of a poem by Fernando Pessoa who would have probably been very curious to hear it indeed. Who said punks did not read? As I said, it's fun and rather well-done although they probably loved covers a bit too much.

The final band of the compilation is also the best one: Toxic Minds. Forget the name pointing to crossover mountains, Toxic Minds play heavy, intense, aggressive old-school crust punk, the Greek way. Although not precisely prolific, this Thessaloniki act has been around since 2009 and the six songs included here were either taken from their unreleased 2012 cdr demo or are rehearsal recording. Therefore don't expect clean produced crust music, this is for the trve fans. The rawness, the primitiveness of the sound unmistakably remind one of older Greek bands and I would suggest Toxic Minds lie somewhere between beefy angry hardcore bands like Απολίτιστοι or early Πανικός and gruff metallic crust monsters like Ατομική Σχάση and Ανθρωπινος Ληθαργος (even though they are not as metal oriented or as epic as the national founding bands of the genre). If you close your eyes and listen to their songs here you would believe they were released in 1995. Absolutely brilliant stuff and Toxic Minds are the reason why such humble compilation tapes are crucial to the punk scene (and my personal encyclopedic knowledge of course). Stand Against Vivisection released their full Lp in 2017 and while it doesn't really have that cavemen crust feel anymore the album hits very hard and sounds absolutely furious with that typical Greek hardcore intensity but a perfect production highlighting the savagery of the songs. Fuck me.

For all I know there could be copies of the tape floating around and it's well worth investigating.  

Fuck fuck fuck

PROFOSS "S/t" tape Ep, 2018

Sweden. The only country in the world where toddlers are lulled to sleep with the Mob 47 double cd discography and teenagers have to learn all of Zlatan's punchlines for their high-school finals (of course, I will stick to the first proposition of the theorem in this review). I have been told by a renowned anthropologist (also known as my mate Paul) that a common rite of passage for Swedish teens includes listening to the same d-beat song, relentlessly, until studs grow out of their backs, thus being deemed an adult ready to take on the big bad world and attend punk festivals. Sounds pretty legit to me. He also told me that an ancient 80's punk mating ritual was to sing the lyrics of Asta Kask's first three Ep's for a whole week standing under the window of your betrothed. The recipient of these horrendous serenades often went insane and it was not uncommon to see the singers being attacked by wolves because they were often really shit singers. This does make one shudder and I think we should all be thankful for the disappearance of such inhuman and cruel customs and glad to welcome modernity with its more progressive practices of dick pics or toxic dating apps. I am still partial to a bit of Asta Kask though.

So yeah, Swedish punk it is then. Profoss (meaning provost in English) was a rather short-lived band from Malmö belonging to the long käng hardcore tradition, that specific brand of fast, hard-hitting, raw punk music spawned by post-Discharge hardcore punk acts like Anti-Cimex, Shitlickers or Mob 47. It would be overambitious to do a comprehensive history of what quickly became its own hardcore genre (and I may not be the most qualified for this to be honest) but undeniably, not only did the style always maintain its level of popularity nationally (quantity often matching quality), but it spread progressively to all parts of the world throughout the following decades. I sometimes thought of the early examples of the genre as being conceptually more furious, faster versions of the Varukers (who came to life a little before), meaning a Discharge-influenced punk sound but harder. I don't see, however, proper käng bands as d-beat bands - although the common overarching Discharge influence somewhat makes the qualifier unavoidable. Both subgenres are close cousins and inbreeding is not rare but the distinction must be made in terms of scope, d-beat bands relying solely on Discharge and on bands relying solely on Discharge while käng bands work on a wider array of bands. If you want to be a pedant twat during parties, feel free to find a poor innocent bastard and proceed to explain to him or her all the crucial artistic differences between Meanwhile's d-beat, Warcollapse's crust and Diskonto's käng. It always goes well.

One band that has seemingly never been as popular as they are today is Totalitär. There are, I think, several reasons why the band (who ironically played very few shows) reached a widespread cult status. The riffing has to be the main one as Totalitär's guitar player always came up with riffs that were a bit more complex than your usual dischargey scandicore ones but often proved to be catchier and more rocking without being rock'n'roll (if that makes sense). As a result, the songs can be more memorable and have a wider appeal than, say, Svart Parad's primitive writing. Totalitär's sound is dynamic, energetic, raw but palatable, aggressive and angry but not brutal and their discography is solid and consistent when most other 80's bands folded after releasing just a couple of Ep's "back in the day". I myself prefer Anti-Cimex's impact or Mob 47's unparalleled energy but Totalitär's indisputable hooks and hardcore essence make them a genuine classic punk band. However, there were very few strict Totalitär style bands up until the 2010's. Even during the 90's when d-beat and crust solidified Discharge as Sweden's favourite flavour, I cannot think of any band sounding significantly like Totalitär. There were, to be sure, bands with rocking riffs (like Uncurbed for instance) and bands with a distinct raw käng sound (notably in Uppsala) that could be said to have a Totalitär influence (like Abuse maybe) but none that were primarily Totalitär influenced. Enter the 2010's and bands like Profoss.

For once France was not late to the party and in fact might have had a good hand in getting the table ready with Bordeaux' Gasmask Terrör's early 2010's recordings (and to some extent Architects of Death from 2008) showing clear signs of consummate Totalitär love. Things had been cooking for a little while though and a band like Skitkids significantly heralded what was to come while Fy Fan certainly started to piece it together. Swedish bands did not dick around for long and Malmö's Infernöh showed everyone how it was perfectly done and it wouldn't be far-fetched to claim that to this day Infernöh's totalicore remains the benchmark. Unsurprisingly Profoss had a member in common with Infernöh, Jona who also played in the aforementioned Fy Fan and it was recorded at Blakklodge Studio that is run by Jonas another members of Infernöh (it seems to have been a fairly popular name for people from that generation). Perhaps surprisingly, two members of Terrible Feelings, a band I personally really enjoy but I know many dislike. Their bad. 

What makes Profoss so good and one of my personal favourite Totalitär style bands is how they managed to balance the riffing style and the hoarse furious vocals you're bound to expect in this template with a pummeling production that confers a relentlessness reminiscent of '84 Anti-Cimex or 90's Swedish d-beat bands. As a consequence the recording sounds absolutely unstoppable and the expertise is second to none. The band even dared to include two mid-paced numbers (one very Uncurbed-dining-at-Totalitär while the other is a top notch Discharge scorcher) for the kids to mosh and go crazy in the pit while middle-aged punks stand at the back with their arms nodding. There is one additional song on the tape version (released on Pissed Off Records, a Malaysian label that released materials from Fy Fan, Crutches or Tarantüla before this one) so that even if you own Adult Crash's vinyl version there would be some benefits for you. It's unfortunate that Profoss did not soldier for long and I would have loved to see more goodness from a band that epitomised raw and potent Swedish hardcore.

Profoss       

FILTHY HATE "S/t" tape, 2018

Tokyo's Filthy Hate is the perfect example of a band I was late to the party for. I have no idea why no one sent me an invite, it's not like my address is hard to find or anything. Or perhaps there wasn't a party at all and Filthy Hate belong to the "obscure bands department", a strangely defined world that does not seem to have any fixed definition in fact, an object of respect and prestige in the hardcore punk realms, especially among the Higher Punk Council. Knowledge of "obscure bands" - real or faked - is what separates scholarly nerds with plebeian punks who are content to listen to properly recorded bands whose quality has been globally acknowledged instead of rough amateurish 4 track recordings like real punks do. The twats.

So yeah, no one bothered to mention that band to me and I had to just bump into it by myself, rather recently. Needless to say that I had to fire some employees in retaliation. Truth be told Filthy Hate are not exactly the most notorious act so that my magnanimous self only fired two of them, one whom I suspected to listen to shoegaze on his free time so he had it coming anyway. Alea iacta est. The band's League One status can be explained by a small quantity of vinyl releases, namely a flexi Ep in 2011 on their own label and a split Ep with Midway Still, a English indie punk band from the early 90's (you just cannot make that shit up). Definitely not what would get you in the punk charts. It would be a hyperbole to claim that Filthy Hate proved to be a life-changing experience but they are certainly good and relevant enough for me to be upset that I did not include them on my Japanese crust compilations. Oh well, it's not like anyone noticed I guess.

Filthy Hate started in 2010 and were formed by members of Isterismo, Tantrum, Deathtribe, so that you already know the music will be lying on the noisy side of life. This tape was released in 2018 on Black Konflik Records, a well-established and respected Malaysian label that I follow closely and specialises in the release of cd versions of raw hardcore and crust records (old and new) but sometimes also cassettes. This particular one is highly convenient since it includes Filthy Hate's first two tapes, 2012's Possessed To Satan on the first side and 2010's Hatred Stench Corpse on the other, the titles of both should give you serious clues as to what these Tokyoites are all about: old-school thrashing hardcore crust. And if you are still unconvinced songs like "Speak Italian or die" or "Dirty Rotten Flannel not Dirty Rotten Imbeciles" should hammer it home. 

Because the production on the first side gives the impression that it was recorded under water, it does require some getting used to, but once you are ready it is pretty much a mid/late-80's fast and dirty UK hardcore feast with several singers and heavy references to Concrete Sox and Electro Hippies and even gruff stenchcore moments à la Deviated Instinct or Napalm Death (the rather odd melodic hardcore song stuck in the middle of it does not spoil the fun). I like it a lot but cannot help thinking how brilliant it would have been with a different sound production like Asocial Terror Fabrication's for instance. The second earlier recording benefits from a clearer production, with more of a traditional crossover vibe maybe, with Sox and Hippies still firmly at the helm and Cerebral Fix as the guest referee. There is also a different singer - a lady I believe - to support the gruff crusty one and on the whole it is another win, all-out 80's crusty metallic hardcore (with again one strange melodic song so I assume they must have lost a bet and are cursed to include at least a number like this on all their recordings). Very enjoyable and the band borrows an Antisect riff so it instantly raises the dopamine level in my brain because I'm an easy man to please. 

This tape would easily deserve the vinyl treatment, with some remastering maybe, especially since that crossover thrash sound seems to be quite fashionable these days  (or more than it was last decade anyway). If you love old-school crust, give Filthy Hate a chance, you will certainly find something befitting there.

Filthy hate    

HARD SKIN "We're the fucking George" tape, 2011

2025 has been a pretty grim year on a global scale, I suppose it's hardly a scoop. However, truthfully, on a personal level 2025 has been quite generous to me what with the new extension to my manor I had build to store my Agathocles discography and the acquisition of a second yacht. A man has to live, innit? Who would have thought a position as Head of the Crust Studies Department and my bestseller book The Rise of Crust Pants: Crust Attires as Radical Deconstruction and Transversal Challenge to the Oppressive Normative Hygiene Basics in the Fragmented Context of Postindustrial Capitalist Society would finally earn me that much money? Take that dad.

In order to fight the overwhelming bleakness, it makes sense to write about punk's best comedy band (ever?): the mighty Hard Skin from Gipsy Hill, sarf London. Humour is difficult to pull out in punk and God knows we have had our fair share of dreadful "joke bands" in France failing miserably at being funny or witty, usually flavoured with distasteful sexist buffoonery, childish puns and just plain anti-PC obnoxiousness (but then it can be said about French humour as a whole so it is unsurprising). I'm sure every country has its own breed of stupid or silly bands, some possibly much better than others but you obviously have to understand the lingo and the cultural references to really grasp a comedy band so that it is hard to be a global expert. England sucks on a lot of levels, like food or penalties, but one thing they excel at beside crumpets is humour. I have always loved their approach to comedy and it stands, by far, as my favourite. Hard Skin mainly rely on that typical British humour, walking the thin line between gross and awkward and witty, they are self-aware as they play with the codes and conventions of a subgroup - in this case oi-loving skinheads - to create a parodic tribute that is both entertainingly silly and somewhat spirited at the same time. Their cartoonish caricature engages the listener in form thanks to its many singalongs (the easiest way to have people join in, "you know it, sing it!") and its specific cultural references about not only the oi but working-class life as whole. When you really get them, Hard Skin could be said to be the best band in the world. I mean, like they say so, right?

I distinctly remember when I first heard them sometime in 2000. We would often go, a mate and I, to a now sadly closed record store in Paris called Sonic Machine. It was located in Montmartre quite far from our sleepy suburban town and it took us about an hour and a half to get there so that the trip to the big city had a pilgrimage quality to it. It felt very much like a small adventure. We would spend hours there in this shop that looked like a punk version of Ali Baba's cave and where you could smoke and drink your beers (which we did copiously of course). We did not know much at that time - it's an understatement - but craved to listen to everything, mostly so-called streetpunk and oi records (my friend was in his short-lived skinhead phase then) because these were the most accessible contemporary styles for us. We did not really go to punk gigs at that point so that going to Sonic Machine was where we'd meet other people and stare in awe at older and much cooler punks. It was during one of those afternoons that I first heard UK Subs, Infa-Riot, The Unseen or Dick Spikies, influential stuff for me then. We had little money so buying a record was the result of a careful and sometimes painfully long process as we wanted to spend our 5O francs on the right record. It was on such a day that my friend grabbed the first Hard Skin cd Hard Nuts and Hard Cunts and asked the friendly, understanding, advisory, passionate and above all patient guy behind the counter to play the thing. It was love at first listen. I was already an absolute sucker for massive singalongs and terrace style chorus and this album is replete with them - little did I know that this use was in fact ironical. My mate bought the cd (he was the skin of the two so it made sense, I think I bought Oxymoron's The Pack is Back).

There was a good reason for Hard Skin's first oeuvre to be so easily available in a French punk store then. The English label that originally released it back in 1996, namely Helen of Oi! Records, had sold its whole catalogue to Noco in 2000, a label based around Paris that mostly released ska but also some oi (the boss was a skinhead and the singer of Skarface). I think Dick Spikie's Let's Start from In Complate was the first release under the new ownership. Not only did a vast amount of original Helen of Oi! records landed in Paris but a couple of represses (of Braindance or Vanilla Muffins) were also done at that time, among which Hard Skin's glorious first album. Funnily enough, the guy running the label had no idea Hard Skin were a comedy band satirising the genre and I distinctly remember the leaflet slipped in all Helen of Oi! release advertising Hard Skin as having members of the shitty Close Shave, probably because the band had "the new wave of the close shave" on the cover of the first Lp. Yes, French people are terrible at foreign languages and everyone at that time (or almost everyone) must have thought they were for real although even I found that there were an awful lot of "oi! oi! oi!" in their songs. Of course, it's much different these days, and a quick glance at Discogs will teach you that Fat Bob played in Wat Tyler (an equally humourous band albeit nowhere as catchy) and ran Rugger Bugger Records and Johnny Takeaway in Thatcher On Acid, two bands connected to the anarchopunk scene. I have always wondered whether the original boss of Helen of Oi! knew they were a joke or not, but he must have and would have seen them as a cheeky tribute band done well and therefore appealing to the gritty oi crowd. The catalogue was very serious and skinhead-oriented and some of the bands included could be said to be rather dodgy - but then it also released the first Bug Central album, a genuine anarchopunk band so who knows. A surprising choice in retrospect but one that reinforced the parody and kinda blurred the lines for us. I mean, they were label mates with On File so they must be for real, yeah?

A friend of mine could burn cd's at home (cdr's seemed to be insanely high tech for me at the time) and he made a copy for me which I played to death. My mate and I even got to see Hard Skin live, in January, 2002, along with some other local oi bands (among which Les Teckels that had Frustration's singer). The crowd confirmed to me that they were real skinheads as no one was really laughing and everyone looked hard, bald and rather unfriendly and I don't think I ever went back to a proper oi gig after that. As I improved my English significantly, I realized that Hard Skin were indeed a comedy band - I feel the second Lp is even more parodic - and that made them even better in my eyes and I'd play them whenever I feel blue and just want to listen to good punk, warm tunes that you remember instantly and have a good laugh. I suppose they are better live because you have all the stage banter accompanying the hits and that makes the experience unforgettable and the perfect place for a romantic first date.

But Hard Skin are not just about the jokes and swear words, they can actually write songs with catchy hooks and tunes, infectious choruses and great punk energy and that's why they can also seduce people not necessarily knowledgeable in the things of oi. Obviously, oi fans (and ex oi fans like myself) will enjoy them far more and will delight in spotting the ripoffs of Cockney Rejects, Cock Sparrer, Sham 69 or Blitz (are they the equivalent of a bingoi night?) and giggle at the clichés about British working-class life. Shoegaze fans won't probably get it though, because they suck. But what about this tape then? We're the Fucking George was released in 2011 in vinyl on their own JT Classics and on tape on Germany's Cut the Cord That... Record, responsible for records from much more businesslike bands like Catholic Guilt, Neon Piss or Generacion Suicida. I think the title of the tape refers to the term used to call generous tippers during casino sessions which would make Hard Skin's music priceless gold charitably offered I guess. The tape includes the band's singles (beside 2008's Cocks and Cunts which may have been a wise decision) and compilation tracks released between 1996 and 2010 - by which I mean between 1978 and 1981 as the band claims. Until recently, I never considered Hard Skin to be a "singles band" as I only owned the albums and never really saw the Ep's in distros. This release is therefore a convenient one to own if you do not have the originals because you are poor or if you are a lazy twat and can't be arsed to listen to Ep's because you have to turn them over quickly. There are a lot of classics here like "We are the wankers", "Make my tea", "First day angry song" or a live version of "Beer and fags" (but there is a mistake in the tracklist as it indicates "Sausage man" while the song is actually "Two bob cunt"). Elite UK oi indeed that have never tired of listening for 25 years. Pretty neat and educational if you want to warn your kids about how shit Romford is or teach them Santa is a skinhead or that darts are a real men's occupation.

Sadly - and I mean that - Hard Skin are no more as they played their last gigs in December and I was lucky enough to be at the London one on the 12th with The Restarts and Passion Killers. The show was brilliant as usual and Fat Bob's banter as funny as ever (I think Chumbawamba's ears are still red). It was a little emotional for me, after all these years of being a fan and if I had kids I would have them recite the lyrics before going to bed every night.

Oi not jobs!    

They're the fucking George

HUFF RAID "Euro Tour Tape 2017"

This tape takes me back to a more innocent, almost virginal, time back when everything punk felt new, exciting, all gigs were existential moments, all bands were statements, all beers drunk were akin to showing the fingers to "the Capitalist System", all badges were worn like medals, stripes earned. I am not talking about the year 2017 when this tape was released of course. By then I could already be described as a slightly blasé purist (mostly for the pose), fatigued for the sake of claiming I was, eyes sharp, ears even sharper, the wit ready to bite, grading bands like my sadistic math teacher graded copies when I was 12. No, what I mean is that buying this cassette, the intention causing the act and more importantly the very reason why I waved the fiver at the distro table took me back to my formative punk years, when receding hairlines were the least of my worries and getting bald but a distant prospect that was about as real to me as getting a proper job. Little did I know.

When Huff Raid played in Paris during the Autumn of 2017, I went to the gig almost without checking it beforehand. I am saying "almost" because there were only a couple of songs uploaded on their bandcamp at that point - taken from the first recording - and if I remember distractedly playing one, I was rather unimpressed and only got off my arse to go to the venue because my best friend was putting on the gig and always made a point to "support the scene" because we are a "network of friends". And I think I owed him one. For my defense it was on a Monday night, basically the worst day for a band on tour, so my customary loyalty was a little challenged, I'll be honest. And let's frankly deal with the lexical elephant in the room: the name kinda sucked. In France we have a long, tedious, painful tradition of punk bands using puns for their monikers. Sometimes great bands shoot themselves in the foot trying to come up with a funny or - even worse - a clever name although more often than not, if the name has an awkward pun, the music is likely to be an ordeal rather than a revelation. So there were many deterring factors: an unknown band I have never heard with a bit of a crap name, a rainy Monday night and some of the filthiest beers served in the area. A potential recipe for disaster and yet Huff Raid played a blinder sending me back to my petty prejudices.

Witnessing their performance took me back to when I was 16, had no clue who the band on stage was and thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless. This element of surprise and this feeling of discovery were part and parcel of what punk was all about in the early 00's because you could not check the bands online before and since I did not know much anyway, everything seemed awesome to me, each band was the best in the world and I would rush to the distro table and basically stare at the merch because I usually could not afford it. Still, I remember these gigs vividly and although I now realize that some of the bands I saw at that time were average at best, the emotion and the impression that they were undeniably the dog's bollocks has never quite left me. I am not claiming that Huff Raid stood as the best crust acts of the year or that they shook me to the very core (there was the disgusting beer for that), but just the fact of seeing a band from my general field expertise, that I did not know, and liking a lot more than I expected, so much so that I bought the tape right away, felt brilliant. It was a fresh experience and I recall going home light-hearted and thinking that I had been right to go and a twat for being judgmental at times. I have been to hundreds of gigs since then, some with higher profile bands on the bill, but have seldom experienced the same element of happy surprise. As a consequence Huff Raid to me symbolise a band that is unfairly unknown but nonetheless delivered quality crustcore.

This lot were from Toruń, Poland, a town apparently more famous for its gingerbread than crust music. I don't think they were around for long and only recorded twice. The first was for a demo tape self-released in early 2017 with six songs - three of which were added on bandcamp - that are really not bad at all when I could actually be arsed to listen to them properly and a second session, with eight songs this time, that was released as a tour tape, probably to have something to sell the punters while on the road, but also a split Lp with Non President, another crust band from Wojcieszów, a town that is not only much smaller than Toruń but also much more difficult to pronounce. Somewhat unusually Huff Raid (implying both fear and a discontent-fueled attack, let's get intellectual for the sake of appearances) sing in English rather than Polish. If it does seem a little odd at first because the vast majority of Polish crust bands sing in their home language, because Huff Raid do not sound at all like one - by which I mean that they do not stylistically use the traditional Polish metallic crust template as defined by the 90's wave (I have already approached the subject on several occasions) - it does not really matter. Had they tried to sound like or rely on Homomilitia, Enough! or Hostility, singing in English would have been, I feel, a mistake. However, given their scandicrust take on the genre, I don't think it is of much importance. 

On this twelve minute long tape, the band sounds absolutely relentless, hence my decision to leave the eight songs (all intriguingly entitled with one single word) on the one file, in order to reflect that implacable dimension. The music is fast, pummeling in the Swedish d-beat crust way, with solid riffs, not unlike 3-Way Cum, early Acursed or non-Scandinavian adaptations of the genre like Another Oppressive System. They are a bit heavier and darker than your typical käng band too, very much crust-oriented on that level, and I am reminded of bands like Nuclear Death Terror or Social Insecurity as well but the Poles never wander into metal. They hit hard, sound unstoppable and impactful and the tape leaves you craving for more. It's quality stuff and it's a shame they did not keep going and a shame they did not garner more attention at the time outside of Poland. The split Lp can still be found easily and you just should give it a try.

Did I mention they ripped live?

Huff Raid!

          

"Atropello!! - Peruvian Hardcore Punk Compilation" tape, 2020's (?)

Let's deal with the elephant the room first: of course this is not an original copy of the cassette. The hardcore purists - also known as "the snobs" - will all in unison grunt a collective "duh" and Captain Obvious will join in the smirking. I can't really blame them. Atropello!! is a hardcore punk tape compilation originally released in 1989 in Peru on a tiny label called Bakteria Tapes that only released two tapes and was probably run by a member from one of the bands called Cesar (thanks Discogs for that precious bit of trivia). The chance that a humble forty-something punk from Paris would own an original copy of the thing is therefore highly unlikely. But then haven't we all heard incredible tales of rare tape recordings somehow ending in the hands of an innocent, often undeserving but excited righteous youth? And I'm not just talking about the dusty practice tapes of your uncle Bob's shit prog band he did in high school (nope, it doesn't really count in this context), tapes he thought should be immortalised online and hope you'll take care of it. But after all, tape trading was all the rage in the 80's and it would not completely unlikely that a Lima punk sent a copy of Atropello!! to a similarly enthusiastic Paris punk (although I have trouble picturing what sort of hardcore tape he would have sent in return given the size of the hardcore scene at the time). Then this tape could have been gifted to me, after I showed credentials and was deemed worthy by the local High Punk Council and there could even have been a ceremony to mark this important passage. Right?

But no, of course not, I grabbed this unofficial reissue in Zagreb from the Doomtown Records distro table last year so it is quite obviously a homemade bootleg meant as a tribute to this very fine but largely unknown piece of punk history. Details about the 80's punk scene in Lima is relatively scarce although two documentaries actually exist (the first one being basically live videos) and can be seen on youtube (there was a short article published in 2012 in Maximum Rocknroll that you can find here) and you will be able to gather pieces of information here and there - which is of course something I love doing. This writeup doesn't claim to be a historical piece about the early Peruvian punk scene but it is still quite easy and fun to infer some elements. The scene very largely revolved around the capital Lima where about a third of Peruvians lived (the country being rather centralised), making the movement predominantly urban at that time. What better places for punk in the 80's than a South American capital? There was certainly no shortage of good reasons to get into it (poverty, political oppression, violence, corruption, you name it - like Autopsia did). Throughout this review, there will also be no shortage of wild guesses, potentially inaccurate assertions, erroneous data and gross misunderstandings, so feel free to correct me in the comments.

The early Latino hardcore scene has rightly become more documented in the past 10 years. Classic Mexican hardcore bands like MELI, Massacre 68, SS-20, Herejia, Atoxxxico or Histeria have all enjoyed reissues and the very noisy Medellin scene of the late 80's/early 90's is also starting to be resurrected, like the notably amazing reissue of Estamos en la Sima on FOAD Records (probably the best label when it comes to rerelease old materials because of the impressive care put into the booklet and the contextualisation). The old-school Brazilian scene has always been well documented and regularly reissued so I don't see it in the same light, contrary to the Peruvian scene that has remained rather in the shadow compared to DF or Medellin hardcore "de las ochentas". Yet, judging by the number of bands and the dynamism and energy of the music, it can be said that Lima was one hotspots of hardcore punk on the continent at that point in time (or perhaps I am also guilty of projecting too much and I just want it to be too hard). Since I bumped into 80's Peruvian hardcore, I have always had a soft spot for the sound and the scene, as short-lived as it might have been then - most bands did not make it to 1990 - certainly had its fair share of quality raw and pissed hardcore bands that were every bits as good as other Spanish-speaking contemporary acts and resonate meaningfully with the current tupa-tupa punk fashion.

If you have never heard of the Lima punk scene and never listened to an old-school hardcore band from Lima, Atropello!! is the ideal starting point as it includes 9 bands and 28 songs: one hour of genuine RAW PUNK. The most significant missing early Peruvian punk bands here would be Narcosis (whose '85 demo Primera Dosis is something of a cult snotty punk recording) and Leuzemia (class '77 style band with a contagious energy and brilliant tunes) but since Atropello!! claims to be a hardcore compilation it is not too surprising (second "duh" of the writeup). The Lima-based bands included were around for a short period of time - 80's bands often were anyway - during the second part of the decade and could all be said to be influenced not just by American hardcore, but also UK82, Italian as well as Brazilian hardcore and I suppose the classics of Spanish punk (RIP for example). At the end of the day, it sounds exactly like it should: angry teens trying to play fast punk music. Let's have it!

The first band on the tape is called Kaos General (!) with 5 songs (their whole '88 demo in fact), one of my favourite here. They play raw rabioso urgent hardcore punk, not far from the Mexican classics or a more primitive take on Anti-Dogmatikss and IV Reich, but you can also tell that they played a lot of US hardcore (on that level you've got to love the introduction to "Permanecermos hasta el final" that was liberally borrowed from Minor Threat) and I love the angry and easy to sing along chorus. The eponymous song "Kaos general" sums up what 80's raw punk was all about and is an instant classic. There is no official reissue yet but I hope it's just a matter of time. Next up are Panico and we are in even rawer territory. The tone is more melodic and slower, the first song being basically a crude adaptation of 4-Skins' "Chaos" with a lot of heart and energy while the second one is a simple but effective tupa-tupa number with a good tune. Probably more UK82 than properly hardcore I suppose but I like it. Just two songs for Panico but a demo was recorded in 1985 with 4 more songs on it that was reissued on Ep in 2012. 

The next band is Ataque Frontal, undoubtedly the most famous Peruvian hardcore band on the tape and in general. This is the first 80's punk band from Peru that I heard of, not a massive feat since their legendary 1988 Ep was released on a Paris label called New Wave Records that was also responsible for putting out a couple of records in the 80's from the likes of Abaddon, Heïmat-Los or Agent Orange and whose founder was apparently in touch with some punks in Lima. This Ep can be said to be one of the best Latino hardcore punk records from the 80's and the three songs on the tape are absolutely ferocious. Ataque Frontal were once known as Guerrilla Urbana, probably the first hardcore band in the country (their first gig apparently ended with shots from the police, a legend-creating moment), whose first demo was released as a split tape with HHH on another Paris label called Jungle Hop (not sure what the Paris-Lima connection was all about but I should ask). The songs "Sobreviviré" and "Memorias" were actually originally written under the name Guerrilla Urbana. The production here is, obviously, raw but if anything it highlights the anger and the urgency. You can tell it's the late 80's and some moments remind me of Negazione or even Heresy, although Ataque Frontal were punkier and closer to Massacre 68 or MELI. Hardcore aficionados must know them already but if you do not the Ep has been reissued. Brilliant shit.

The following orchestra is Kaos. Now with a name like this you would expect a particularly chaotic and spontaneous affair full of teenage energy and angst that would somehow make out for the general lack of musicianship. You would not be wrong. I am pretty sure every country has its own punk band called "chaos" and Atropellos!! includes no less than 3 songs from the band, all live recordings so you better get prepared. The result is of course rough, direct and punk-as-fuck with that distinctive original tupa-tupa style, far from all the contemporary wannabes. I love the vocals and how angry the vocals sounds like as he is really screaming his head off. Kaos even have a song entitled "No!!!" that has too many "oi! oi!" and ends up in some sort of proto-grindcore anarchy which is quite something. The band has actually been reissued several times and some of the demos are genuine Latino raw punk gems that stand as Peruvian hardcore at its most rabid, the kind that kill posers. 

The next band G3 almost sounds pop after that and indeed they are possibly the most skilled band here. They were formed by ex members of Autopsia (who are also on the compilation) and even won fourth place in a Non-Professional Rock contest. I'd be proud and I'm sure they were. G3 were more influenced by the Boston hardcore scene than their comrades (rest assured that the sound is just as raw) and they played really fast with that typical flow and some great tunes. They were rather successful and even got to tour. The two songs on the first side were taken from a rather good-sounding (all things considered) live recording from 1989 while the other two are from a studio session from 1987. Not my favourite take on hardcore but still a very apt band with that instinctive USHC energy. 

Next up are Curriculum Mortis are they are a massive kick up the arse. This long-haired punks are the only metallic band on the compilation and as such, proudly flying the crossover thrash flag, they do indulge in some cheesy 80's solos that are really quite fun. The classic 80's thrash metal bands must have been influences but I am hearing a lot of UKHC as well like Heresy, Concrete Sox or indeed early Napalm Death (possibly because I suck at crossover and these are my references). What I love here is how raw,  primitive and just super punk Curriculum Mortis sound. They probably wanted to be the next Slayer but they ended up epitomising what skint punk teens listening to Slayer were able to produce in a DIY fashion. And personally I much prefer that second option. The band must have a quiet cult status since Nuclear War Now reissued their demo in 2022. 

The following band is Autopsia, the only band along Ataque Frontal I was familiar with prior to coming across Atropello!!. Autopsia had some of their songs off their grandiose Sistema y Poder demo tape from 1985 reissued as an Ep which I knew entitled Poder, Represión Y Corrupción in 2006 (notably thanks to the Medellin label Sin Temores that also reissued the Panico demo as well other Peruvian classics like Maria T-T y el Empujon Brutal). The original recording is far longer and it is absolutely brilliant. Sistema y Poder exemplified the essence of raw tupa-tupa Latino hardcore punk, a unique sound specific to a time and place that cannot really be duplicated - although Ignorantes arguably come close. The vocals are gruff and aggressive, you really have the impression that the singer is personally pissed at you and at the world and he probably was. The energy and the tension is impressive on the tree songs included on the tape and I strongly suggest you dive into into the whole recording. The parallel with classic Mexican hardcore is relevant but bands like Riot Squad or Ad'Nauseam are also points of comparison and perhaps some deutschpunk too? But in the end this stands as a sound-creating recording.

Sentido Común are next and, as I'm sure you have come to expect, play typical raw hardcore punk with a love for a particular binary beat. Only two songs (the band's discography is very limited) but they do the job in an aptly disorderly fashion and the chorus to "Con la violencia no!" is a high point of the whole compilation. The final band of Atropello!! is Descontrol, something of a cult band - deservedly - thanks to their excellent '87 demo Productos de las Circunstancias that was reissued last decade but is now about as affordable as a meal in London. However on the compilation only the song "Utopia" originally appeared on the demo, the other two numbers being live songs which account for the even rawer sound and how upfront the vocals are. Still the energy and impact are unbelievable and these three songs give a relevant glimpse at how furious Descontrol were. They cannot be said to be 100% from the tupa-tupa philosophy and I can hear a lot of Italian hardcore, like EU's Arse, Indigesti or Declino, and Spanish raw punk classics like IV Reich. As I said the two live songs are rough so I advise to go to the demo too. Top band who were apparently thrown away from a gig once by the Maoist party Sendero Luminoso for being an imperialist band playing music contaminated by foreign influences. That's pretty cool.  

One cannot but assume that Atropello!! will enjoy an official reissue in the future (it will have to be a double Lp which may make labels hesitant) to allow the punk masses to discover a little-known scene and prove that hardcore is not synonymous with the US of A. I have read about a tape reissue from Helvetet Records but have never seen it advertised and it is not on the website so who knows. 

Atropello!!

        

AFTERBIRTH "Robots of death" tape, 2005

For those of you who worried the last's review might somewhat signaled that Terminal Sound Nuisance might descend soon into postpunk refinement, rest assured that things won't go that far although you will be exposed to more postpunk in the future (because, you know, the 2010's and all that). But today we are going back to basics, to the source, to the perpetuation of what has made this blog great for years - or at least a decent and enjoyable read when you are in the bogs (the numbers tell me that this is actually the most sensible place to read about punk) - with a rather obscure recording: Robots of Death by Afterbirth. This thing is not even on Youtube, it's that cool a tape, one you will be able to use in punk trivia and act like an irksome and cocky twat in the process.

This album - as it is clearly an album rather than just a demo tape - was released in 2005, a time when crust was undertaking a transformation, definitely and irremediably leaving the 90's crust shores (beside some diehard and seemingly immortal bands like Visions of War or Profit and Murder) for the shinier, flashier neocrust or stenchcore revival sounds that defined the decade. To me it was a time of excitement, constant discovery, a time when tastes were shaped, formed, deformed, reformed, when your brain can still be considered as young and you are not a jaded bastard whining about Gen Z's (yet). It was a time when people still bought records from new bands before listening to them online, helped in their decision by the usually short description the labels or the bands themselves provided (needless to point out that some of them did lie about the quality of their production, a bit like your uncle Robert when he says he almost made it as a professional football player when he was a lad). These leaps of faith would sometimes result in amazing finds and lifelong love relations with Χειμερία Νάρκη or Coitus but could also end up being sore disappointments. At least surprise was of the essence which is not something that can often be said these days. But anyway, what about Afterbirth? How did they feat in the crust landscape of the mid-00's?

The band was from Edinburgh and the description provided at the time of acquisition it caught my attention for two reasons. First, it said that Afterbirth had members from bands I was familiar with, namely Paul who played in the 90's speed punk band Beergut 100 (mohawk required to get into this one) and the excellent heavy crust punk band Social Insecurity (that I wrote about ages ago here). That did make me feel at least a bit comfortable and "in the know" if not "part of the conspiracy". Second, it said that the band did a cover of Axegrinder, a band that I had gotten into recently and whose influence and legendary status I was starting to understand and grasp. Ironically Afterbirth covered "Grind the enemy", a song I had never heard then because I only knew the excellent '87 live recording they had uploaded on their long defunct website and the Lp that a friend gifted with Soulseek and an internet connection (those conferred a certains status in the 00's) had burnt on a cd for me. Little did I know then that it would remain, to this day, the one Axegrinder song that bands always cover (which stands as a little odd as I would tend to find "Final war" much more interesting to rework, although it does not have a boisterous chorus you can sing along to, which must be taken into consideration when the audience is predictably well pissed). Robots of Death was not Afterbirth's first endavours into the big scary world of punk music as they had recorded a demo in 2003, the songs of which appeared on a split Ep with Filthpact in 2004. As enjoyable as these three songs were, I see this tape as a significantly better offering. 

By the time of the recording of the tape, the band had an international lineup with Polish drummer Artur (previously fin Juliette and then also In Decades Decline), Leos from Czech on the bass guitar along with Paul Social Insecurity on the guitar and Scalezy formerly in the mighty Mortal Terror and Sawn Off on vocals. I remember playing the tape for the first time and thinking that the production was quite unpolished, very direct and somehow unlike the cleaner productions that were becoming quite common then. It probably impacted my perception of Robots of Death and of the band as a whole then and made me think that this lot were more direct and basically punkier than most of the modern crust. Listening to it now, I realize that it's really not that raw but I still find the simplicity and spontaneousness it conveys rather endearing. There are bits where you can hear the distinct 00's crust leads and idiosyncrasies but Afterbirth at that point in time relied more on fast d-beat hardcore punk (the guitar's sound remains rather clear) with dirty metallic crust moments, a bit like a date between Extinction of Mankind, late 90's Hellkrusher and the Final Warning Ep's. The last number "Lead lined coffins" is a top-shelf old-school Misery-like mid-paced metallic crust anthem that you have to listen to if you are into the genre and want to be able to look at yourself in the mirror. 

This is a humble, honest punk album that works on most levels and still stands the test of time. Afterbirth would recruit a second guitar player for the 2007 Lp Your Gods Vomit in Disgust, a decent work very representative of the crust sound of the time but that I thought didn't have the charm of Robots of Death. As mentioned at the beginning it was released on tape on Insane Society and on cdr on Crust Crusade which was the band's own label.

Robots of CRUST

 

 

FUNERAL PARADE "S/t" demo tape, 2013

 (The review was meant to be much shorter but there you go, I couldn't help digressing like a madman.)

Modern postpunk: that thing everyone pretended to love in 2013.

Honestly even a well-respected clairvoyant scholar such as myself could have never predicted the postpunk trend that took the DIY hardcore punk scene by storm in the 2010's (and caused eyeliners sales to increase significantly). But then, did anyone? I still struggle to understand how the phenomena spread so quickly and what artistic or indeed emotional needs - both from the musicians and the audience's point of view - postpunk answered at that point in time. But it undeniably filled a gap.

From my understanding it did not just emerge from a newer generation of punks that tried to offer something different or maybe something that was absent but some older punks also went for it. And, punk being an endless game of referring to the past, it relied on an 80's influence that was different than your usual anarcho/hardcore department: that liminal zone when and where punk went dark and grew a fascination for graveyards, weird shirts and dark eyes, basically the Siouxsie and the Banshees school and all that followed. When what came to be called and understood collectively as "postpunk" (I will get back to this linguistic shift) hit the scene, I must confess that I did not really give a shit about the genre or indeed the term and notion, having grown up very uninterested with it. It therefore brought a new conceptual tool into my punk arsenal as I had to used to point to and define bands that were starting to merge with the DIY hardcore. 

Beside the odd new wave song at parties that I would willfully dance to when sufficiently pissed, I was still scarred by the Blitz incident and rejected anything remotely (mostly terminologically) connected with what I thought of as the inherently evil "postpunk galaxy". Let me digress for a bit. When I was 16 I bought a Blitz double cd called Voice of a Generation - The New Future Years. The first one included the Lp while the other had the singles. Half way through the second cd I noticed some alarming changes on songs like "New age" - that still had a great singalong chorus about "the kids" so that was alright - but when the songs off Telecommunication or Solar kicked in I felt personally betrayed. Despite being 2000 and the boy of Blitz being long cold, I felt cheated by a band who had sold out to new wave (or whatever) that stole and corrupted the band who stopped singing about the "punks on the streets" I identified with. Since that day, I want to punch the people who claim "postpunk Blitz" is as good or even better (that's the ultimate outrage) than the early stuff. They are almost always people who also listen to shoegaze or noiserock, have moustaches and live in nice flats to be fair. They are lucky I am too much of a wimp.

Fast forward 10 laters and there we were, with a new generation of bands actually into postpunk and not just victims of a certain 80's trend when otherwise decent bands were mislead into shamefully going postpunk. Some made it rather safely - I'll admit - while others crashed miserably. At least they did not go shit metal like Discharge did. Hairspray had a lot to answer for in these terrible developments I reckon. To get back to the story, I associated the name "postpunk" with negative things without knowing much about it and had no idea that Siouxsie, New Model Army or Killing Joke could fall under this umbrella. I thought postpunk was either all edgy and intellectual (like Devo or Adam and the Ants) or silly new wave for middle-class people with an unhealthy obsession with their hair and looking straight at the camera. As a result I was absolutely flabbergasted when some fellow punks (who admittedly did not grow up with UK punk at all) started to refer as Lost Cherrees or even The Mob as postpunk. I called the bands I listen to but were a bit darker and moodier "goth-influenced" but the term postpunk wouldn't have come to mind. This shift happened really fast and after years of enduring neocrust and fastcore bands in the 00's it was time for a new global trend that I knew little about. On the one hand, it proved to be a fantastic excuse for moaning and complaining, on the other it did make me dig deeper into a genre I knew very little about. It was at least stimulating.

From my Paris-based experience, I locate the start of the postpunk wave with two gigs: Spectres in April, 2011, and Belgrado and The Estranged in June, 2011. This was a turning point, not just musically (although it was indeed very unlike what I had seen before in DIY hardcore punk gigs), but also because of the personnel involved in these bands, people who had played or were playing in hardcore or crust bands and suddenly opened up to a different style. As taken aback as I was, I still enjoyed the gigs and mostly did until the mid 2010's when every new touring band sounded just like the former. It would be unfair to dismiss this wave on the face of the average bands that joined in opportunistically. The fact some bands have been sticking to it and are still active means that the genre is here to stay. Beside I enjoy even the most average 90's eurocrust band so it would hypocritical for me to judge the mid table 10's postpunk band too harshly. 

While the term postpunk can encompass a very large array of sounds (from Joy Division, Siekiera, New Model Army, Siouxsie, The Cure to Christian Death, Crisis, UK Decay, Paralisis Permanente or Trisomie 21) the core style of the wave, your typical 10's postpunk band, lived in the locality of, I felt, Skeletal Family - themselves not exactly pioneers. It was dark and melancholy but danceable, tuneful and completely metal-free. And you were allowed to look good and take showers as opposed to the previous punk trends which saw such activities as definite signs of gentrification. Until the end of the decade, almost every large towns and countries started to have their very own postpunk bands. But among the first to resurrect postpunk were Funeral Parade from fucking Portland.

Funeral Parade - the tone-setting name comes from Part 1's iconic record obviously - exemplifies what a good 2010's postpunk was supposed to sound like. I suppose the coinage "anarcho goth-punk" would have been more relevant in their case, especially since their sole recording was released in 2010, at the beginning of the trend (it has to be pointed out that Spectres' first Ep came out as early as 2007 which makes this Vancouver band genuine trail blazers of modern Joy Division cosplay) when the term postpunk had not quite dominated and overrun anything that was even vaguely melancholy. Funeral Parade's music stands as a wonderful illustration of the genre that, despite all the hair spray, started out as more PUNK than it was post and therefore made it much more palatable, enjoyable and indeed enjoyed by close-minded me. You have the signature melodic and gloomy guitar leads, that typical dynamic drum beat with a lot of cymbals and a lot of chorus on the bass guitar, all classic 80's goth signifiers. It is a demo so that the production remains raw and very punk-oriented, which suits me just fine. The vocals are angry, halfway between spoken and shouted, very much in the anarchopunk tradition. The songs are mostly catchy and the length (5 songs in 15 minutes) is appropriate for me as I can quickly get bored with the postpunk guitar leads when they are overwhelming. Beside 80's gothpunk influences like the aforementioned Skeletal Family and early Screaming Dead, I can hear a snottier and more traditional UK punk influence like The System or Subhumans and also anarcho bands that incorporated seamlessly postpunk or goth influences (after they can be seen as both) like Part 1 (duh), Lost Cherrees or even Chumba. 

What made Funeral Parade so representative was also that all its members were involved in noisy (if not noizy) hardcore bands like Lebenden Toten, Nerveskade or Ripper at the same time and may have wanted a bit of fresh hair through a more old-school 80's sound that your mum could still vaguely nod to. Two members of Funeral Parade also played in the very goth-oriented (not to mention longer-running and better-known) Bellicose Minds so that something was definitely in the water - and in the hairspray. Funeral Parade did not last long, unfortunately because listening to this 2010 tunes again I realize that it's exactly I want my gothpunk (or postpunk or dark punk or whatever) to sound like. Originally self-released on tape, this is the European version released in 2013 on Voice From Inside, a DIY or Die label then based in Kyiv. It was reissued on vinyl the following year on Mata La Musica Records, a label that put out materials from Bi-Marks, Mundo Muerto or Generacion Suicida in the early/mid 10's.

Did I mention hairspray?   

Funeral Parade

FARCE "S/t" demo tape, 2017

This is somehow a stimulating one to review for Terminal Sound Nuisance as Farce firmly belonged (I assume they are no longer active) to the hardcore scene - X's are optional but felt - rather than the comfy anarcho/crusty one my magnanimous self is used to promote here. At the end of the day it's all punk, innit? So why the need to create divisions? A fair point but then isn't the context as important - if not more in many cases - as the text itself? We often tend to think that context always creates text (or music) which is obviously the intuitive approach but that would be disregarding the performative power of the act of creation that sometimes escapes and gets rid of its creators. It would be far-fetched to claim that Farce's rather humble demo tape reflects such philosophical matters and I guess that what I really want to say is that Farce come from a hardcore background but their music appealed as much to the spiky crew as the athletic one (let's put it that way). 

Were it not for their cover of Doom - "Police bastard" no less than the band's most notorious and iconic song - I do not think I would have paid much attention to Farce, not because I dislike the music a priori, but precisely because the people from Farce are from a different crew and I can be close-minded (like my coworkers like to say when I confess my utter indifference to vocoder music). I make it sound like every subgenres is its own tribe with its council and its code of law that does not really mix with other tribes - be they rival or allies or just totally alien. Actually maybe we do have tribes or factions - it would be the appropriate term - that don't really mix, especially in large cities where you can afford to have this sort of artificial divisions. In smaller towns, everybody just go to "the gig" whatever the genre (beside monstrosities like skacore or shoegaze). It's not as complicated. 

So basically I almost missed this very fine tape because the members of Farce were and are involved in bands like Game, Shrapnel, Arms Race, Violent Reaction or Obstruct - all bands I am not hard or muscular enough to listen to - and because the tape was released on Quality Control HQ, a very hardcore-oriented (in the US sense of the term) label I don't follow closely for its lack of hairy logos. It does not mean that I don't like some of the bands and it certainly doesn't mean that I don't go see them and support them. I did go to the Damage is Done festival last year and although, to be honest, it was for Framtid, seeing groups of grown men doing the two-step dance (Macarenacore?) and waving their arms like dysfunctional helicopters was a right laugh and some of the bands were objectively very good. As I said, different codes of behaviours are attached to specific punk factions, and mine is often more concerned with taking shit speed, nodding drunkenly to an average Discharge clone and discussing the bourgeois habit of taking showers while still Instagramming patches. All much more respectable and very noble habits, right? 

But let's actually get to the tape. So why would both a healthy jumping straight-edge 35 year old hardcore kid and what can only be described as a stumbling human-shaped pair of crust pants love Farce? Because they proudly relied on the classic mid-late 80's UK hardcore sound of bands like Heresy, Electro Hippies or Ripcord and maybe even furious raw hardcore bands like Asocial or G-Anx (without the trippy bits) and whether you worship Siege and early Agnostic Front or Deviated Instinct and Sore Throat we can all be friend and mosh - respectfully and caring for wimps like myself - together. "Let's all be friend! Means to an end!" and all that. The tape has 8 songs in 11 minutes, the production is direct and gives the impression that it was recorded in 1987, the songwriting goes straight to the point, the pace is mostly of the fast and furious variety but you have some mid-paced moments to keep the grindcore crowd away. Just good, solid political hardcore punk. The label logo on this release has been turned into an homage to Icons of Filth's aesthetics, tasteful fan service I am sucker for. The brilliant artwork was done by Nicky Rat who, with his distinct style, has been working with tons of, often successful, bands since then. I wish Farce had had an Ep in them but that was not to be.

This silly writeup is dedicated to Ola - from Farce and Quality Control HQ - for obvious reasons. 

Farce