Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 19): BURNING//WORLD "Peace is no reality" 12'' Ep, 2022

Great men, when faced with uncertainty and chaos, are know to take hard but just decisions while staring mysteriously into the horizon burdened with a truth only they know. This kind of shit. I cannot be called great by any stretch of the imagination, unless you are weird enough to associate greatness with owning a massive albeit rather childish amount of Antisect shirts (unsurprisingly my mum does not belong to that category), but when I dived into the substantial d-beat section of my record collection - it does take at least half of it - in order to select works for this series, tough choices had to be made and I stood tall and made them, cold-hearted, with unshakable resolve. So in a sense, I was kinda great I suppose. However some picks were easy indeed and Burning//World might have been the very first name I wrote down on my list for several reasons upon which I shall presently elaborate.

Peace is no reality, for all its d-beat brilliance (it didn't win the D-Beat of the Year award in 2022 for nothing), did not enjoy the same publicity as other bands dicking around in the same school yard and therefore it felt like a logical choice to rave a bit about the band on Terminal Sound Nuisance what with it being the blog of the underdogs and all. This said, and this is very interesting and revealing, Burning//World still attracted enough attention to garner a number of dithyrambic reviews, actual reviews with arguments, with points being made, analysis, genuine narrative description and unbridled passion (one of them by none other than Jackie Crust War and he knows his shit). In a world where people can't usually be arsed to communicate with much more than memes or emojis or, on the contrary at the other end of the spectrum, offer ridiculously pseudo-intellectual descriptions of punk records "reinventing the punk narrative" in order to sell them at high prices, it was nice and, yes, fun to read decent punk reviews that felt honest in their enthusiasm and read as both very earnest and yet not deprived of ironic self-awareness. I mean, we're dealing with a "just-like-Disclose" band not a Debussy-inspired free jazz orchestra. The label Blown Out Media compiled them on the bandcamp page of the recording so you can take a look for yourself. This very relative abundance of thought-out praises for a simple and very niche d-beat record only confirmed what I instantly knew: Peace is no reality is bound to become a minor d-beat classic in the years to come and not just because the world will actually burn.

I am for once not going to delve on the specifics of the music because others already did it with accuracy and I basically agree with all the terms of endearment. Burning//World go for the Disclose-covering-Disaster-with-Framtid's-intensity-and-Disease's-boundless-fanaticism and they hit very hard, so hard that this might be what set them a little above the friendly and non-hierarchical competition. Heavy riffs, superb distortion, pummeling drums, Kawakamish vocals, this is an artfully made relentless barrage of noizy d-beat raw punk that mirrors the horrors of a world that never stopped burning, it has the ideal length and the songs tell a great story together. 

One does not just stumble upon Burning//World's sonic attack of perfectly executed homage to Dis culture while casually looking for the latest fancy hardcore band online. There is no hype just pure love and anger. You already knew what you were looking for, no need for surprise, there was a hole in your heart that needed to be filled with D love and this is your therapeutic dose. This record is something one seeks for militant confirmation and cultural affirmation, there is no coincidence here. Peace is no reality is a dog whistle for Disclose fans, it is both perfect and cryptic in its reiteration and if it is to become indeed a classic for the initiates, it will be one that unites an already close circle. It is always perfectly in control of what it aims at achieving and for whom (I assume it is a studio project precisely for that reason) and I cannot find any flaws to this record. I mean, it even has a bloody obi.

This crucial confidential record was released on Blown Out Media, a label from Albuquerque I have been following very closely for a couple of years (I mean, they do use the Disaster font and I am an easy man to please) that displays taste for passionate niche raw hardcore punk like Svaveldioxid, Krash or Forclose (yes). If you ever bump into this jewel, grab the fucker immediately.

Burning//D-Beat World

Last Nigh a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 8): DISEASE "Neverending War Crimes" 12" Ep, 2016

This one you could probably see coming. Not that I was exactly contractually obliged to include Disease in Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life, but let's say there would have been potentially lethal consequences including the revelation that I once owned skacore albums back in the mid-90's, the names of which are best forsaken to the realm of eternal darkness. Hard stuff that might induce mental stupor and leave the listener's psychic balance into a state of disrepair. So as you see, what choice did I really have?

I have been a Disease believer for quite a while now and I strongly recommend you read the great interview I did with Alex a few years ago called At Ease With the Dis. I have grown to love the band's pious and solemn love for the d-beat philosophy and their fervent tenacity to explore, again and again, ways to express their adoration for Disclose and the significance of keeping their legacy alive for the very concept behind it (beside the pleasure to play distorted hardcore music, of course). Disease is a total d-beat band striving to embrace all the characteristics that could be approached the same way as Dispose - already tackled in this series - who have been an influence on the Macedonians (although the latter have certainly proved to be more prolific in the last years). 

Their Disclose worship appears to be both the means and the end. They undeniably belong in the die-hards category that I found impressive and intriguing; inspirational too; heroic definitelu; quixotic almost. Like the endless repetition that defines d-beat music, d-beat as worship and system of references cannot know an end and will never reach a conclusion like the tragic, very real wars destroying the world. It is an unstoppable train running on passion and precision, a deceptively simple clock powering itself, a timeless compass always pointing in the same direction, a story meaningfully repeating its own plot through a single beat and breath.

Damn I'm feeling smart today. Neverending War Crimes stands as the record that, in my opinion, saw them fall in the "great d-beat band" category, a position they have further cemented since. It showcases the band's strength, especially the relentlessness they manage to infuse their music with. The hard-hitting drumming and the crispy distortion targeting the evergrowing audience of Disclose fanatics really work. I like how upfront and primal the vocals sound like, with neither effects nor filters (I have said it before but too many bands opt for drowning their voice in reverbs which might attenuate the sonic aggression), and how fast and intense the record is, with only "Why must we?" slowing things down a bit with a rather odd pace. As prophets of the Disclose cosmogony on a mission to spread the Word, Disease tend to work on different moments of Kawakami's inspirational journey and Neverending War Crimes is all about Disclose's faster "Swedish period", namely the mid-90's (Tragedy and of course The Great Swedish Feast) back when cavekäng bands like Shitlickers were still significant influences and it is obviously no coincidence if Disease also display a crude "dislickers" feel here that highlights the brutality and "wall of noise" effect that won't fail to discourage and disincentivize posers craving to boast the d-beat raw punk costume.

As a point of entry, this record - released through Rawmantic Disasters, Black Against Night, Crucificados Pelo Sistema and Grind Your Mind - will prove difficult to listen to for the inexperts as the music might make them feel like they are besieged by a noise plague. However, d-beat raw punk lovers must see them standing at the top of the pile, a feat not to be discarded, not just because of the harsh albeit friendly competition, but because hailing from Skopje it is significantly harder to tour in Western Europe than for Swedes. In the end this 11 minute long 12" Ep will delight Tragedy fanatics but the disbones-era believers will enjoy the wonderful Death Is Inevitable 2020 Lp more. Both sides have been reported to be at peace with each other but you never know what the future holds. Is a d-beat schism to be?

Neverending D-Beat Crimes 

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 7): HORRENDOUS "War is still..." 12" Ep, 2015

And we're back to Sweden for the third time already. Thank you for flying with D-Beat Airlines, the only planes where you can safely play Death From Above while oboard without getting distressed looks from other passengers. But is it surprising really? Where else would you go if you had to visit a Discharge theme park? Bloody France? Exactly, you go to Sweden, a country where even the pigs know the lyrics to "Spräckta Snutskallar" and where an actual Ministry of D-Takt responsible for regulating the national population of d-beat bands was founded as early as 1983 because said orchestras were starting to threaten and overrun the fragile Swedish rock ecosystem. I hear some Dis-bands even had to be put down.

War is still... stands as one of my favourite d-beat records of the 2010's, a decade replete with bands who tried to get the D right and, as honourable an endeavour as it might be, sometimes failed. I am struggling to know how Horrendous, from Malmö, will go down in Distory, whether in 10 years time they will be seen as what I would call a minor classic or just "that side project with members of Herätys or Infernöh" (the latter option would probably mean that you'll still be able to get the record for cheap). When talking about the early/mid 2010's and about Malmö hardcore bands - or indeed just Swedish hardcore bands - who haunted the period, Infernöh and Herätys would definitely be mentioned in the conversation. And for good reasons as they still prove to be quite loved, if not influential, and the people involved in these bands went on to play in many more good bands. Were these better bands than Horrendous? From an objective standpoint, I suppose so. They managed to produce a decent and coherent discography and were just more significant. All my mates would undoubtedly and vehemently support that assertion. But were they as fun? Or, to rephrase more accurately in the context of this D-beat series, were they as keen on serving narrow-minded fans? Or even, to be more specific, could they make me headbang as vigorously as Horrendous did? I think not.

What immediately strikes the listener on this Ep is the power and thickness of the production. Heavy shit man. The record has a storm-like quality, like a tsunami taking everything in its path of destruction, it pounds and pummels its way toward Discharge paradise, leaving the punks happy and craving for more. War is still... belongs to this category of d-beat records that I can play and genuinely enjoy several times in a row. With a length of about 11 minutes, given the niche they chose to inhabit and the power they achieved to unleash, it is pretty much a perfect record (let's just say for the sake of caviling that it still could have done with another song). The name "Horrendous" might have done them disservice as it spontaneously makes one think heavily of Sore Throat (off-topic, clearly) or some gory death-metal band rather than good old Discharge worship. . And yet at the altar of Discharge they do bow, especially their Hear Nothing era, when the Potters were at their heaviest, and the cheeky bastards included a parody of the iconic Discharge face with what I think could be the singer's own mug. As I told you: self-aware fun! 

Contrary to a lot of bands, Horrendous did not go for a distorted d-beat raw punk sound and listening to it again on a rainy day, it does make me glad they did not and chose the hard-hitting, impactful way of the D. I am reminded of Warcry in their prime - especially with the gruff, raucous, very aggressive vocals but with more of a British scansion (Pancho being of course from Yorkshire) - and Discharge-loving classics like Disaster or Meanwhile are obvious influences. What makes the record stand out are the two mid-paced scorchers "Ain't no worthless scrote" (a song that appears on both sides, at the end of the first and at the start of the second, linking both in a pretty smart, albeit disconcerting at first, move) and "War is reality" that sound incredibly energetic and, rare thing, can actually have you dance, with moderation for those of us who have bad backs. Ace stuff.

Sadly Horrendous did not play for long and this wonderful record was to be their only release. This is the European version on Skrammel Records, the Yanks getting theirs from Brain Solvent Propaganda. The members would go on to play in a lot of good bands and are very much active. Does any of these bands are as fun as Horrendous and can have you rock as hard as on "Ain't no worthless scrote"? Well, I'll leave you to that thought.

War is still horrendous

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Nocturnal Scum "S/t" 12'' Ep, 2018

Germany has always been a bit of an enigma for me. I am not just talking about the success of Rawside or some of the transcendentally cheesy haircuts that many famous athletes wore well into the late 90's. By any standards, Germany has the best network of alternative punk venues anywhere in the world. Even smaller towns have their own autonomous centers provided with cheap rents, actual stages, sound systems and bars (and pissed punters of course). And I won't even get into Berlin's Hausprojekte or Leipzig's insane concentration of alternative spaces hosting gigs and political activities. If Leipzig was turned into abs, it would be Cristiano Ronaldo's: rock-hard. Obviously German towns, especially the ones mentioned above but also Hamburg or Bremen and others (not including München, who would like to live in a golden right-wing magnet?) attract large numbers of foreign punks looking for cheap places to live and great punk action. Some Berlin gigs don't have any actual German-born punks and it does not even affect lager sales. No wonder punks from all around the world move over there instead of Paris where it is horribly expensive, dirty and where punk gigs take place in shitty bars selling stale beers run by landlords who don't give a damn about any music, let alone punk. If you asked the twats, you could just as well be putting on Drungeon and Dragon events as long as the nerds get drinks (arguably people don't really get pissed when playing the game but what do I know). At least, I presume they won't take speed in the bogs.

As a result, because of the amazing venues (sometimes getting subsidies to pay the bands, even shit ones like mines) and hordes of punks living there it is little wonder that touring bands often favour Germany. More often than not what is called "European tour" is basically six gigs out of twelve in Germany, two in Switzerland and sometimes one in glamorous Paris, but that's pretty much because we have selfie-friendly spots and we are on the way toward Barcelona and other much cooler places. This combination of ace spaces, punks from all over the place and countless bands touring should create dozens upon dozens of amazing local bands that should be able to export themselves. You would expect Berlin to be looking down on Portland and put Sweden to shame. Making Paris look like a kindergarten is not nearly enough Berlin. 

In fact, I cannot think of that many remarkable German bands in the field of d-beat/crust in the 00's and 10's. Perhaps most of the good shit remained local and did not reach the shores of Terminal Sound Nuisance but one would logically expect to be overrun with great bands. Even street musicians should be doing covers of Amebix and Anti-Cimex and not abominable covers of "Bella ciao" or, even worse, Manu fucking Chao. I am not claiming that there have not been good bands in those decades (Instinct of Survival are undeniably one of the best crust bands ever and I can think of a couple of genuinely enjoyable other acts), just that there have not been many considering the ratio of punks that are into crust and d-beat raw punk over there. I mean, there are more studs at German punk gigs than there are in Earth's sex dungeons. Are they just too busy looking good or too spoiled with great music to bother? Are Berlin punks just lazy bums? Am I just a shameless ignoramus? Will they retaliate against me? To crust or not to crust? 

But anyway. Whenever I hear about a solid crust band from these parts, I therefore get very curious, not to mention relieved, because of the potential, and it seems only fair to include a Berlin band in the Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust series, a motto that is probably tattooed on many a punk's arse in that very peculiar town. Enter Nocturnal Scum. Something of an odd choice for a name, not that I dislike it and "scum" is after all not an unusual substantive in a punk band's name (see Scum Noise, Scum of Society, Scumbrigade or Scum System Kill), but there was - and still is - already a crust band called Moribund Scum around so that it makes one feel there is a lot of scum in Germany. It is not like they were in a Highlander movie and there could only be one crust scum around I guess. There was room for two types of scum, the nocturnal and the moribund. That's diversity after all.

NS formed in 2015 and, as is often the case, it was not a first attempt at punk music for the members. Singer Katrien used to growl in the well-respected second stenchcore revival band Last Legion Alive, Isa and Janse played in Chorea Huntington and the very good Kriminal, Lassi also played in Kriminal and Gitshi was part of Katyusha, a local metal crust band, in the early 2010's. Back when they were still active (they stopped playing around 2018), NS was often referred to as "that band with Last Legion Alive's singer" and by "often referred to" I mean that I might have read it twice on the internet, one of which was actually my own doing. The connection cannot be said to be unintelligible. After all Katrien's vocals were particularly memorable in LLA, a well liked band in itself, and, without disrespect to the other worthy musicians, it makes sense that people mostly remember the band for her. 

This being said, NS and LLA don't sound alike, the former being more energetic and not as doom-oriented. The sound is purposefully raw as the six songs were recorded in the band's practice space so that the recording has that primitive, wild, feral quality (I am reminded of the early so-called "proto" years of extreme metal) and what the music may lack in heaviness is largely compensated with the crude energy and furious drive permeating the record. In terms of style, NS are pretty pummeling and certainly love their fast and epic thrashing stenchcore balanced with headbanging mid-paced moments with double drum and some death-metal leads. Good shit. They are not reinventing the wheel and don't claim to be. They give the impression that they play crust for crust's sake and love doing it in a genuine way. I am heavily reminded of bands like Limb From Limb, early Krang and Fatum (definitely, post-2015). I like the fact that they rely on energy more than on their pedal boards or effects. The music has that very spontaneous vibe, it is basically very direct and unpretentious and, while it cannot be said to be a major crust work, it is one that can be easily recommended. Especially with Katrien's demented vocals, the actual elephant in the room. I cannot really think of a similar vocal style in crust music and the closest comparisons I can think of on a Tuesday afternoon in November is a cross between Order of the Vulture's mad and evil singer and Meg's gruff throaty vocals in Excrement of War. She hellishly barks, gnarls and growls her way through the songs and manages to sound threatening and very dynamic. If my very mean scary maths teacher had been possessed by evil, she would have sounded just like her. The vocals in NS are impressive even if you are not into crust music (although it does help). 

I don't think the band was still active when this 12'' Ep came out through Angry-Voice Records in 2018. The artwork is simple but evocative enough and I like its pagan Amebix-like eeriness. And there is even a poster included. That is so retro. I love it. After the demise of the band, some members formed Terminal Filth, a 100% satisfaction guaranteed stenchcore band that has been one my favourite punk records of 2022. And while you are it, give Electric Masochist a go if you are looking for an over-the-top howling crust-pants-fueled distorted d-beat band to play at around 4am at your aunt's New Year's Eve party. 

Big thanks go to top geezer Martin for his help in the collection of information. Merci mec!        

     

Berlin Scum

UK84, the Noise Ain't Dead (part 6): Chaos UK "Just mere slaves" 12'', 1997

Like every year, Bloody Christmas is coming again and government twats loudly claim - assuming there are still people caring for what they have to say - that, in this time of distress, the country needs to celebrate merrily while respecting health safety measures. Christmas remains some sort of odd and painful traditional duty with an almost patriotic touch in our current situation, as this year you don't have to kiss your right-wing brother-in-law or your ass-grabbing great-aunt. So the pandemic is not totally without benefit, although you will still have to endure your nephew running berserk around the table and turning the living room into a battlefield. Thanks fuck no one cares for notorious punk-repellent Mariah Carey in my family, it's like garlic to us. But am I only here to whine about Christmas Eve? No indeed. For the last Terminal Sound Nuisance post of 2021, I would like to make you a present in the shape of a lossless rip of a Chaos UK classic. It is not something you will be able to put at the foot of the plastic Christmas tree because it really is a download file but I suppose that if you actually download and open it on the 25th it can count as a valid present. 

Who doesn't know Bristol's Chaos UK? And more importantly, who doesn't like Chaos UK? If you have people in your circle of friends who happen to dislike the band, then you are clearly hanging out with the wrong gang. There is no exception. Sort your life out. Chaos UK belong to this category of bands that everyone likes to some extent, or at least have a lot of respect for. I would include bands such as Discharge, The Mob or Subhumans in this category and many more but I don't want to spend time making lists of bands just to have a bitter geezer declare that, just for the sake of arguing on a monday, he never rated Why very highly nor enjoyed Mob 47. I love taking on that precise role but of course hate it when the situation is reversed. Human nature I guess. Chaos UK really are a bag of quality crisps. Some people have them on a daily basis, others just on the way home after a night-out, others on rare occasions because they want to be slim or eat healthily or whatever dieticians say, while there are also those that never allow themselves to eat crisps but secretly crave for them. Chaos UK work exactly like that. They have their devoted fans, freakish outcasts who can listen to live tapes from the mid-80's, and people who are fine with enjoying a bit of Burning Britain occasionally, on their grandmother's birthday for instance. I like to think that I belong to the first category, the one where the very best of heroes meet.

Claiming that I have a Chaos UK story to tell could be a little far-fetched. It's not like my mum revealed on my 15th birthday that she helped pen "No security" or something. But the band being something of a foundational, heuristic one for me in my teenage years, I inevitably remember well the first time I heard them and the context. It was in 1999. My school only had one real punk. There were also baggies-wearing "skatecore" types who were into Fat Wreck Chords and singers who sounded like ducks, and I know what I am talking about since I had a brief "skatecore" phase myself. But there was only one real punk. After meeting that one real punk, my life changed completely as I started to dress seriously with bleached trousers, boots and an oversized jacket with beer caps as badges. Proper class. I started to hang with the real punk and we became friends. She made real punk tapes for me with The Casualties and older British bands like Varukers, Abrasive Wheels, Cock Sparrer or GBH on it and my own conversion into a real punk was swift indeed, to the great disappointment of my parents who even started to miss my baggie trousers phase which is a saying a lot. 

 

The school we went to had little equipment to speak of but there was a "radio club". The name might be a little misleading though. It was a simple room with a basic hi-fi system - it had a broken turntable and an Out of Order poster for some reason which made us feel like rebels - located just at the entrance of the refectory. We could use the room once a week but he music we played was not broadcast in the whole building of course, the school was not at this level of high technology. We just installed a chair before the door of the room where we placed the speakers and played the music as loud as possible to our fellow students queuing to get into the refectory. The radio show, if you can call it that, took place during lunch breaks so that many unsuspecting, unprepared and, in most cases, unwilling students got exposed to 90's streetpunk and oi - a large portion of which was pretty shite in retrospect - as well as a tasteful assortment of 80's British punk-rock. The speakers' wire would often be removed by lads who did not enjoy our impeccable punk taste but amazingly enough we never got physically brutalized or too victimized, in spite of us playing Casualties' "For the punx" and "Riot" every week. There were threats of mob violence, pitchforks and torches, but, for once, the gods of punk seemed to be protecting us. My mate was heavily into Chaos UK's "Farmyard boogie" a song which she would play often. I did not particularly enjoy the number, although I did pretend to because I wanted to look like I knew my shit. It is after all a rather long comedy song that is difficult to understand if you are not aware of West Country's rural accent but it was my first encounter with Chaos UK and listening to that song always takes me back to the days when I considered a tartan flat cap and oversized bleached pants to be crucial parts of my identity. My friend assured me that Chaos UK were the punkest band of all and more than 20 years later I can say that she was right to some extent. 

The Chaos UK record my friend owned and off which she played "Farmyard boogie" was the 1998 Best of... Chaos UK cd. During a glorious weekend trip in London later that year I managed to find a copy of the very same cd in a record store which felt like a war medal. I had never actually heard the cd in its entirety, apart from "Farmyard boogie" that I knew by heart and "Kill your baby" because we tried to shock people with it, so that digesting the remaining 24 songs proved to be quite an experience. The selection is fine actually. You can find classic vintage Chaos UK numbers from their Riot City Years as well as songs from later records like The Morning After the Night Before (I can still along to "Little bastard with ease). Writing this review makes me realize that there is a lot of Chaos UK material from the 90's, basically the Chaos-as-singer era, that I am really not that familiar with and haven't played that much, but listening to the split Lp's with Raw Noise and Death Side while writing this piece shows me that I might have been - for once - wrong. Oh well, I shall correct the inconsistency. Let's get back to that "best of" cd, admittedly a terrible format but it was the late 90's so bear with me. On the whole, I really liked the record, the noisier hardcore songs as much as the singalong cider punk-rock ones. There was one track however that was truly horrendous and confused me to no end, a 1983 live version of "False prophets" take from Flogging the Horse. I have listened to many horrendous live recordings from the 80's since then, some of them deeply scarring, but this one may take the cake especially since it was released on a proper album by Anagram Records. As a teen, the song terrified me and the very first time I heard it I could not even make out what was happening. If you have never listened to that rubbish, give it a go if you think you are hard enough. It makes Confuse's 1984 live recording sound overproduced. It made Chaos UK even more extreme in my teenage eyes.

Alright, I digress as usual. For some reason, no song from Just Mere Slaves were included on the 1998 cd. Maybe it had to with not getting the original label's - Selfish - permission or maybe the curator just decided to leave the songs out (my guess as to why is as good as yours). As a result, I was unaware of the existence of Just Mere Slaves for quite a long time, until the explosion of music blogs in the late 00's. A real shame since Just Mere Slaves has become my favourite Chaos UK recording, along with the hardcore thrash masterpiece that is Short Sharp Shock Lp. I cannot claim to be a proper Chaos UK historian but let's have some basics right. At that time Mower was on vocals, Gabba had taken on guitar duties, Chaos was still on the bass guitar of course and Chuck on the drums (EDIT: although not being able to get into Japan because of a criminal record, Age, Lunatic Fringe's drummer, replaced Chuck on this Japanese tour). The studio side of Just Mere Slaves was recorded in Japan during the band's tour in November, 1985. Along with their fellow noise-making Bristolians Disorder, Chaos UK have been massively influential on Japanese punk music. In fact, it is widely argued that it was their impact on a certain section of the Japanese scene - let's say Confuse, 白 (Kuro) or Gai and their plentiful offspring, to be brief - that subsequently spawned a punk subgenre now called "noisepunk", a once confidential and obscure cult that has persisted in secret and which the internet has made accessible and very popular among the noise-inclined punks (the name was apparently coined by The Wankys but I feel the terminology is useful and meaningful enough to be liberally applied retroactively). So I suppose that the coming of noise heroes Chaos UK to Japan must have been a massive deal at that time and the shows cannot have been anything but short sharp shocks of punk chaos.

 

The four songs from the first side of Just Mere Slaves were recorded during that tour which probably means that they recorded the thing on November, 12th in Tokyo since they had a day-off. I imagine the band basically entering the studio, unleashing the fucking fury, getting pissed with local punks and being done with it in just one day. The brilliant result is highly impressive. The first time I listened to Just Mere Slaves I immediately thought that it did not quite sound like a typical mid-80's Bristol recording. Of course the songwriting, the raw snotty vocals, the demented atmosphere and the pissed-and-proud vibe were unmistakably mid-80's Chaos UK manic hardcore thrash (there is a new version of "4 minute warning" to help listeners know what they are dealing with) but the frontal layers of highly distorted guitar and the piercing feedback, the extremity of it all, had that Japanese punk texture. There is something of a Japanese hardcore energy to Just Mere Slaves. The four studio songs retain that Chaos UK essence, an energy-driven, hardened, primal and mad-sounding take on the UK82 but at the same time they sound like noizy, triumphant and hyperbolic Japanese hardcore. Were Chaos UK aware of the wave of Bristol-influenced Japanese bands? It would be mere conjecture but they must have been familiar with some Japanese hardcore through the tape-trading network so could it be that they actually decided to emulate or experiment with that Japanese distorted, blown-out sound? Or was it the engineer's idea? Both? Just an epic piss-up in the studio? In any case, this circulation and circularity of influences is fascinating indeed, from Bristol to Japan, from Japan to Bristol, and Chaos UK got to play with Japanese hardcore legends like Gauze, Outo, The Execute, Lip Cream, Goul and Gastank (that is what I deduce from the thank list on the backcover, there could have been more). The studio side of Just Mere Slaves included a crazy and lightning fast rerecording of "4 minute warning" and three new songs: the loud and aggressive one-minute long hardcore scorcher "Rise from the rubble" which they will rerecord for the Chipping Sodbury Bonfire Tapes 1989 album; "City of dreams" a mid-paced wonder with hypnotic tribal drums and demented vocals and feedback; and "Just mere slaves", a fast, anthemic and emphatic song which is actually not unlike epic and direct Japanese hardcore, especially on the introduction and some of the transitions. 

I feel Just Mere Slaves is a crucial record, maybe not a masterpiece per se, but what is commonly called a minor classic. The energy and intensity level on the studio side is breathtaking and relentless. The blistering side might only be eight-minute long and make you crave for more but it does not get much better in terms of "noise ain't dead" UK punk. It was Chaos UK at their noisiest but I do think Short Sharp Shock sounded more threatening and savage and therefore groundbreaking. The other side of Just Mere Slaves is a live recording from their Osaka gig on November, 16th. The sound is surprisingly good considering the sonic chaos - it must have been taken directly from the mixing desk or something - and the daring listener will be exposed to nasty rendering of early Chaos UK classics, "Control", "Victimised", "No security", "Senseless conflict" and, of course, "Farmyard boogie", the Chaos UK song of my youth. This is punk-as-fuck as you can expect but still very much discernible (even the guitar solo is good) and enjoyable. Another live recording from the Japanese tour, from their opening Tokyo gig, can be listened to on the B side of the Stunned to Silence 1985 tape (my friend Erik from the always great Negative Insight wrote an article about this little-known tape that comes recommended, especially since everyone at the Negative Insight HQ soundly thinks that everybody loves Chaos UK). As hard to estimate as it might be, this short Chaos UK tour must have left a mark on the collective psyche of Japanese punks at the time. To this day, Chaos UK, along with Doom and of course Discharge, remain one of the most liked UK punk bands over there with still many bands working on their legacy so it is a safe bet to assume that Japanese punks really never stopped connecting with their music and attitude. And of course the band, Mower especially, helped consolidate the fashion of terminal crust pants and utility belt in Japan which are now only worn by the most elite crusties. 

The record was originally released on Selfish Records in 1986, a label that put out far too many classic mid-late 80's Japanese hardcore records to mention. My copy is however a 1997 reissue (or is it actually a bootleg? It looks like one so you tell me) from Sewage Records, a short-lived that also released Varukers Ep's. Black Konflik Records from Malaysia reissued last year Just Mere Slaves on cd so support the scene and get it.  

I would like to dedicate this writeup to my dear friend from school who I mentioned at the beginning and who tragically passed away in 2019. Without her, I would have never discovered real punk music and gigs. It changed my life forever and more than 20 years after, I am still grateful and feel quite lucky. So may you rest in peace, in punk, in power and let's farmyard boogie. 

Just Mere Slaves             

                     

UK84, the Noise Ain't Dead (part 3): Legion of Parasites "Undesirable guests" 12'' Ep, 1984

Legion of Parasites is one of my favourite band names ever. Sure, it might sound like a bit of a mouthful at first, especially for non-English speakers - witnessing your average French punk even trying to pronounce it is a once in a lifetime experience - but LOP is a name that works superbly, both metaphorically and literally, and it always retains a majestic punk-as-fuck connotation regardless of the meaning you see in it. I first came across this truly exquisite name on Ebay, of all places, which is, I'm well aware, something of an anticlimactic and unromantic revelation that could have cost me some punk points back then but - in a world where (dis)liking a youtube link is the most common acceptable way to engage with new music - sounds almost charmingly innocent 16 years later. I wish I could say I first heard of LOP from a vintage 80's mixtape that a benevolent older punk gave me as a sign of acknowledgement and gang recognition or upon finding out that my mom had had an affair with the bass player when she visited England in the early 80's, but reality is often trivial and disappointing and still we have to live with it as best we can as my wellbeing coach would say. 

A guy on Ebay - he would later on create the very exhaustive UK punk-oriented Nation on Fire blog - was selling homemade cdr's with many - and I do mean many - rare and obscure recordings from UK punk bands that I had never heard of. It was the mid-noughties, I was not the stinking rich bastard I have now become and my Dickensian lifestyle meant I did not have an internet connection at home and could not download anything from soulseek. Therefore, once you got past your reluctance to sell your soul to the evil speculating, commodifying machine that was - and still is - Ebay, getting cheap DIY cdr's full of old-school punk goodness was a good solution and allowed me to become familiar with dozens of incredible anarcho and UK82 bands (A-Heads, Fallout, Potential Threat, Death Zone...) that I had never heard of and I could not find anywhere else. It was a time of excitement, wonder, discovery, celibate and also of waiting since the cdr's did not just instantly appear on your doorstep. Now I check new bands by clicking on a Google-sponsored youtube link and then complain about it on a Google-sponsored blog so that ordering cdr's on Ebay may almost sound deliciously quaint which is already saying a lot about the prevalence of nostalgia.

                                

 You've got to love the tiny shield and the determined facial expression

Reading the name "Legion of Parasites" on that cdr list made me giggle like a schoolboy upon hearing a fart. Now, that was a name I certainly could relate to. In those years dominated by the pompous neocrust lexicon, the name sounded rather puerile, irreverent and fresh and evoked music you could eat your bogies to. Most of those cdr's came with a cheap xeroxed cover of some original artwork and I was looking forward to seeing how the band had transcribed the notion of the legion of parasites pictorially. The name was highly significant after all. Did it refer to how the State treated the young and the unemployed as social parasites to be crushed and tamed? Or did it mean that, in the face of state capitalism, you should resist and become a so-called parasite, live on the dole, on the fringes, squat buildings, shoplift and shower as little as possible (this last one is not compulsory but still recommended)? Perhaps it met both definitions as it would have sounded more relevant politically? Perhaps it was a comment on capitalism' s parasitic nature? And then it could also be adequately used by a spikes'n'studs unit getting smashed in front of a derelict brick wall they just happened to walk by? And being "a legion of parasites" could mean all of that at the same time! With such a moniker, I thought, you just could not go wrong. In spite of the many hypotheses I silently pondered on upon waiting for the parcel of cdr's - it was best to buy them in bulk - not once did I imagine that the visual accompanying the cd would be that literal. 

In The Day the Country Died, guitar played Sean said about the striking choice of name that "we - everybody - were just this legion of parasites on the face of the Earth really. (...) We knew we were parasites as well, but we were trying to change that, trying to put something positive back in..." which points to the people-as-parasites-under-the-capitalist-system theory and makes sense. However, the first visual of LOP I saw did not exactly reflect it. The early discography cdr displayed the front artwork of Undesirable Guests as the cover which shows a rather crude - I have seen better technique from middle-schoolers - drawing of a body louse dressed as a Roman legionnaire. Was it some sort of postmodern situationist statement about the performativity of our radical political projections onto art or was it just a matter of "wouldn't it be funny if we had a louse legionnaire on the cover"? The insect parasite trope was further developed on the backcover through a drawing - quite accurate this time - of a flea (or is it a lice? Because of Fleas and Lice I can never tell) which seems to indicate that LOP were quite serious about the literal parasite-as-organism visual theme and the title Undesirable Guests seem to suggest that those body lice may have settled, uninvited and unwanted but clearly determined, in a comfortable and warm locale of the nether region. No more shall be said on the subject. Rather surprisingly when comparing with Undesirable Guests', their first demos' artwork, Another Disaster and Death Watch, displayed typical 80's anarchopunk imagery of blurry warships and sloppy drunk-looking grim reaper so that the choice of going body lice on their first vinyl could appear somewhat of a bold decision. Unsurprisingly and for the best, LOP did not use that fascination for parasitic insects on their next work. Still, for all the oddity of the cover, I would claim that the cover of this 12'' Ep might be the most relevant visual representation of the "noise ain't dead" series: unpredictable, punk-as-fuck and chaotic. And I love it.

LOP can be said to be a classic early UK hardcore band so details about them are rather easy to find now. But still, let me brief you a bit. The band formed in Bedford more or less officially around 1982 and recorded their first demo the same. Another Disaster was a primitive and quite discordant thoroughly enjoyable twelve-song effort if you are, like myself, into raw and energetic snotty anarchopunk, a bit like a cross between early Flux of Pink Indians, Disorder or early Anti-System, with some songs pointing at the fast noisy hardcore unit they would soon become although a significant portion of the demo was still traditional mid-paced anarcho music. The next recordings, Death Watch and Party Time, both recorded in 1983 and released on a single tape emphatically illustrated that LOP were the fastest band in the land, especially with Death Watch. Relentless and absolutely furious hardcore punk with a proper rawness that made most of the competition sound a little tame, the songs making up the demo opened the cdr I ordered - which covered LOP's punk years, from 1983 to 1985 - and I remember falling in love instantly. 

 

To be fair, the recording might possibly be a little rough for some but I would argue that this typical fast 80's hardcore vibe with the angry and snotty vocal delivery of Cian - guitarist Sean's brother - and the anthemic singalongs actually has to sound raw. Mob 47 with too good a production would have not have sounded half as good. As mentioned, LOP were one of the fastest bands around (with 1982 Antisect just a little behind) and one of the first British bands to incorporate a US hardcore influence into their recipe while keeping a distinct UK touch at that point in time (they would little by little turn into a US-sounding crossover hardcore thrash act). Let's say that in 1983, the band sounded like a boisterous piss-up with early Antisect and Anti-System, Perdition's Disorder, Void and Neos as guests. Something like this. The demo was so good that Marcus from Pax Records included two songs lifted off Death Watch on the Bushell-bashing Bollocks to the Gonads 1983 compilation Lp that included bands from the anarchopunk world like Anti-System or Instigators, UK82 acts like Riot Squad and Xtract but also foreign hardcore punk bands like Crude SS or Subversion which, for the very insular Britain, was something of a novelty. 

The next logical step was of course for LOP to record a proper debut which materialized in February, 1984 in Rocksnake studios (fellow Bedford band Government Lies also recorded there). Undesirable Guests can be seen as a perfect record once you get used to the so-bad-that-it's-good artwork. Like the previous demo, LOP's 1984 12'' without a doubt delivered a severe blow of anarcho hardcore thrash and, as could be expected, the sound on the record is clearer and cleaner but still rooted in the raw punk tradition. In 1984, they were not the only band delivering goods of that sort in the world of hardcore, although you could claim that few others delivered goods of that caliber. But what made LOP stand out was how genuinely catchy and anthemic their songs sounded like. While most fast bands of the era were perfectly happy to inflict six equal slices of all out bollocking hardcore to the eager listener - and I for one am perfectly happy to be inflicted such an pleasurable hardcore punishment - LOP's songs offered some significant variations in terms of tunes and speed. In fact, on the record, LOP make me think of a hardcore thrash version of Subhumans. Of course, there is a vocal closeness but there are also a lot of clever guitar leads and inventive technical drum beats highly reminiscent, probably unintentionally, of the anarchopunk classic and it has to be said that, just like Subhumans, LOP were a tight and proficient lot by 1984. 

Keeping in mind that pervading Subhumans creativity, the first song "Promises" offers a solid rocking metallic blend of Broken Bones, Skeptix and Anti-System; the second one, "Savages" is a gloriously memorable almost oi-ish UK82 mid-paced anthem with a threatening singalong chorus that goes "We are savages"; "Party time" takes you back to a much faster intense thrash attack with highly snotty Disorder vocals and amazing drumming; on the other side, the catchiness continues with the speedy Neos-meet-Dirge "Eroded freedom" and its simple but effective chorus "No, no, no, no"; afterwards "Hypocrites" sounds like Sketpix on speed; and finally "Condemned to live in fear", arguably the best and most intense, relentless of the fast songs of the record and one of my favourite raw hardcore punk of all time, the prosody, accentuation and intonation on that song are pure magic, assuming that, like me, you see magic as something a spiky punk can actually pull out thanks to frustration, passion and a couple of cans. The energy permeating Undesirable Guests is incredible thanks to the very impressive and energetic drumming style and to the typically British defiant and juvenile vocal delivery that clearly marks LOP as a real PUNK band and, combined with the top notch hooks, singalongs and overall songwriting, makes Undesirable Guests one of the strongest UK hardcore punk record of the 80's that can easily please any punk subgroup, although for different reasons. This slice of greatness was released on Fight Back records, a sublabel of Mortarhate, that also released absolute anarchopunk classics by Exit-Stance and Vex, and it has become a very expensive item because of unscrupulous sellers and too many drunk people impulse buying on Discogs. What a shame that it has not been reissued yet.   

                 

Undesirable Guests

 

EDIT: being a bit messy I originally inserted the wrong download link. In fact I inserted the link for the next post so that I have spoiled the surprise. Just don't open it right now, yeah? Here is the correct link to LOP's 12". Sorry for the mistake. 

Ten Steps To Make Your Life CRUSTIER Starting Today (step 5): Prophecy of Doom "The Peel Sessions" 12'' Ep, 1990

There are a couple of tacit but nevertheless crucial, and indeed immemorial, rules that even the most seemingly unflinching crusty has to abide by if the all-important crust credibility is to be maintained at all time. Some have been thoroughly documented by notorious crust anthropologists and I strongly recommend to read such classic studies as The Elementary Structures of Crustship or Coming of Age Rituals in Patched Societies. Today, I will focus on one of these ground rules so that the unexperienced reader will no longer be caught dithering like a speed virgin when asked about his or her favourite recording of /insert name of classic UK hardcore crust bands from the mid/late 80's/, a common enough question in punk socialising spaces like glamorous d-beat gigs, distro stalls or, of course, the bar. Make no mistake as a wrong answer to such a critical enquiry could have you banned from the crust elite for any number of years and from being asked to play in a retro stenchcore band, which is pretty much the highest rank in crusty social groups, the very top of the crust chain. In fact, there have been many instances where the question merely served as a means to gauge the current crust level of a new recruit, not unlike a rite of passage marking the transition from "poser" to "proper". So if you nurture the dream to one day become the guitar player of a tasteful synth-driven stenchcore band, the right answer could be decisive whereas faltering awkwardly "the first album?" will probably not suffice and might condemn you to only attain the spot of the bass player in a new school d-beat band. Therefore, whenever possible, safely go for "the Peel Sessions are excellent". 

A fine example of Midieval art

Not only is such an answer - almost - always true, as you could indeed argue that the best materials of Extreme Noise Terror, Doom or Napalm Death were recorded during their visits to the BBC studios (I personally consider the transitions between ENT's "I'm not a fool" and "In it for life" and between Doom "Symptom of the universe" and "Multinationals" to be some of the most poignant moments of crust magic ever put to tape), but it also shows that you acknowledge the influence that John Peel has had on the making of the so-called UK hardcore scene and sound. To be offered a Peel Session was a big deal for punk bands at the time. Pretty much every punk kid was a fan of the man's open-mindedness and enthusiasm and got to discover top bands through his show so it was felt as a major achievement to be invited to be a part of it, without mentioning that your band was going to be broadcast nationally on the BBC with all the exposure that ensued. I suppose one of the main reasons - if not the main reason - why punk Peel Sessions always sounded ace was that, for many bands, it would be the only opportunity to play on state-of-the-art equipment, as opposed to the usually shitty amps of their practice spaces, which accounted for the fantastic sound production they were treated with. Besides, the very idea of playing the noiziest, filthiest grinding hardcore on such expensive appliances, live on the BBC radio must have felt quite exhilarating and an antithesis in action. Punk, innit?  

When it comes to Prophecy of Doom, from Tewkesbury, you can confidently assert that their two Peel Sessions deserved to be regarded as the best material they ever recorded (although the second one from 1991 might be even better than the first). It will undoubtedly shine a knowledgeable glow upon your person. PoD were certainly one of the most unique and convincing bands pertaining to the original UK crust wave (as usual, I strongly urge you to read the chapter devoted to them in Trapped in a Scene) and, at their peak, their brand of intelligent, oppressive grinding stenchcore certainly amounted to the best of what crust had to offer. In spite of the two aforementioned Peel Sessions, one genuinely classic crust Lp - 1990's Acknowledge the Confusion Master - and a number of contemporary reissues (thanks to the good people of Agipunk for that), PoD have unfairly remained something of an underappreciated band, fervently revered by a few but tragically ignored by many. I first came across PoD through their second album, the Matrix cd, released in 1992 on Metalcore, which I got for cheap (it figures) ages ago. It was not, to say the least, an ideal introduction to a band that I had seen mentioned on several tasteful thank lists and that shared a split cd with Axegrinder, which entitled me to expect some proper crust from them. Matrix is not good and the last time I played it, I think Tony Blair was still Prime Minister. However, it stands as their only admittedly lacklustre work and you can trust all the rest, safe in your crusthood. 

The Peel Sessions 12'' Ep was recorded on January, 28th and broadcast on February, 14th, 1990. It included four songs that originally appeared on the album, released the same year on Deaf Records (a Peaceville sublabel) and recorded with the same lineup of Shrew, Shrub, Tommy, Dean and Martin. I suppose that if you played PoD for the first time to an innocent punky bystander, a common first reaction would be one of genuine wonder at Shrew's very peculiar vocals since he used a guitar effect pedal (some sort of delay) making him sound like the rotting corpse of some unidentified but undoubtedly monstrous and barbaric creature growling at your guilty conscience from beyond the grave. It is just a lovely feeling. While I am generally not a massive believer in using too much effect on your vocals, the combination of the delay with the threateningly gruff, insane-sounding vocal style works ideally with PoD and it has to be said that it was a daring move for the time. If life has been so miserable that you have never had the opportunity to enjoy PoD at their best, let's suggest that they could be defined as an oppressively groovy grinding crust band with a leaning towards early death metal or as an epic pub brawl between early Carcass and Mindrot, '89 Deviated Instinct and '88 Hellbastard but I feel that such comparisons cannot render the suffocating atmosphere of madness permeating PoD's sound and their original take on the genre, be it in terms of song structures, writing or sonic textures. You will find many different paces in these four songs, from fast-paced cavemen crust to mid-tempo mean pummeling stenchcore, blasting grinding death metal or painful and dark sludgy moment, all shades of crust punishment answer the call. As you can expect, the production is absolutely perfect and the bass sound is to die for. The lyrics were another strong point of the band with rather thought-provoking words about our pervasive egotism, the subconscious thought processes, the lies and conceit we create to keep going and the ensuing personal and social insanity. PoD's lyrics were like their music: quite unique and smart.

This 12'' Ep was released on Strange Fruit, the BBC-related label that put out all the Peel Sessions and of course everyone recognized the distinctive style of Mid who drew the cover of the record (I encourage you to use this intel as a scholarly piece of crust trivia) and kept experimenting with more layered visual techniques. Fortunately for you, Boss Tuneage released a PoD discography entitled Retrospective 1988-1991 last year (without Matrix though) that is still available on vinyl and cd so there is really no excuse.     

Prophecy of Crust    

Last Week's Trend is Now Passé (part 10): Eve of the Scream "Control" 12'' Ep, 1989

Like my mommy used to tell me whenever I could not stop stuffing meself with chocolate cookies, all good things come to an end. Now that I can be described, in the broadest sense possible, as a grownup, at least officially, I have come to understand the depth of such a saying, and although I allow myself to overeat at times, I am afraid that even the most incredible things in the world - like Last Week's Trend is Now Passé for example, off the top of my head - do have to end eventually. And so this is the last part of this series that has focused on works pertaining to the second wave of British anarchopunk, all recorded during the second part of the 80's. By no means was it the first time I addressed this topic and, being of an obsessive nature, it won't probably be the last either (but I shall reasonably wait until the next pandemics, the dreadful Covid 20, also known as the Walrus Flu, hit the world in 2022 to get back to it). But before I leave you to your torpor and the streaming of irksome lockdown videos showing middle-class families tunelessly singing together in their spacious living room, your day shall be vastly improved by this write-up about a band you have probably never ever heard about: Eve of the Scream.

An unknown band? For real? In 2020? I know how it sounds. Disconcerting to say the least. And I know what you are thinking. Lost marbles and all that. You are probably blaming such a dubious statement on my pathological tendency to hyperbolise, one that can be verified pretty much in every articles I ever wrote for Terminal Sound Nuisance. And you would be wrong. I did take my medication and I truthfully believe that you, my faithful readers, are not acquainted with Eve of the Scream and, for once, I am not going to sneer at your ignorance and condescend to lecture you about your inadmissible shortcomings. In fact, it pains me to confess, until a relatively recent time, I was myself completely and sinfully oblivious to the existence of EOTS and consequently I shall be repenting by reciting three "Punk is dead" and five "Persons unknown" every night until I fucking die. 

I doubt you really want the whole story but you are still going to have it. In late 2015, I traveled to Brittany to attend a mate's party for New Year's Eve. The day before the customary midnight trades of germs, I was staying at another friend's, who is, to put it mildly, "an older punk". And I enjoy hanging out with older punks. Really, I do. They always have fascinating tales of insane punk gigs of yore to tell, or captivating anecdotes about old-school tours going seriously wrong, or gossip about how the singer of a legendary hardcore band is actually expert at behaving like a spoiled wanker. And of course, they often own old records and demo tapes and fanzines that you may never have heard about. So anyway, I was at this friend's place and we were chatting pleasantly, talking about recent bands we were into, this kind of things. Of course he is well aware that I claim to be a bit of an authority as far as vintage anarchopunk and crust go, a bit like a pundit, except I'm slightly better at discussing the validity of Discharge clones instead of Manchester United's shit transfer policy. So he innocently asks if I am familiar an 80's anarchopunk band called Eve of the Scream (with a French accent, as you can imagine). I replied that I did not, so he started fumbling around his record shelves and took out what looked like an Lp. Before the first chords arrived to my delicate ears, I honestly thought that I had either misheard the band's name or that he had mispronounced it. So when I realized that, not only was the band actually called Eve of the Scream, but that it was, indeed, a vintage anarcho act from the UK that was unbeknownst to me, I fell off my pedestal, instantly got off my high horse and started to get very excited about that mysterious band that had all the attributes of a personal favourite. It was a truly humbling experience, one that reminded me of why I enjoyed the company of knowledgeable old punks so much, as there are always things you can learn from their experience and stories. So thanks a lot for that. 

Once back at home, I immediately formed a research team capable to gather as much intelligence as possible about EOTS, the band that had inexplicably escaped me. Predictably, they only had the one record, the 12'' Ep Control from 1989, and I have not been able to find much about them, although a former EOTS member did create a soundcloud page 10 years ago that included the two recordings of the band (the aforementioned Control 12'' and a demo tape entitled Unbelievable Genocide) as well as some biographical elements. EOTS were from the Merseyside area, very close to Liverpool, and must have formed in the mid-80's. Mentions are made of a previous lineup to Unbelievable Genocide, but another earlier demo recording seems unlikely, and I have a feeling that EOTS may have been run like a collective and were possibly close to the free festivals scene, and I am not just saying that because they have a ska moment. Ippy (called Sherry on the cover), who is responsible for the backing vocals was apparently involved in the Greenham Women's Peace Camp movement and main singer Martin - who was still at school - used to play in Happy to be Sad (whatever that band might be!). After some skillful digs on a punk archaeological site, I was able to confirm that the Unbelievable Genocide tape (that is not even referenced on discogs) was originally released on Bluurg Tapes (at number 77), possibly in 1988. Unfortunately, the version of the demo uploaded onto the soundcloud page is apparently incomplete so that only six tracks are included. Although, this recording is not as crisp as Control, it nevertheless indicates what EOTS were trying to do in term of style. The band's music hints at that "free punk" sound that a significant number of anarchopunk bands in the mid/late 80's embraced, bands like Culture Shock, Freak Electric, Hippy Slags, Smartpils, Karma Sutra, basically bands that did not take the metal path and endeavoured to free punk-rock from its stylistic chains (and inspired by earlier non-conformist 80's punk bands) through the infusion of psychedelic rock, dub music, indie pop, ska, prog rock... The results of such miscegenation did not always demonstrate impeccable aesthetic judgements but it was a perfectly logical evolution from anarchopunk, just as valid as the contemporary crust wave. I am not saying that EOTS is an anarcho-dub collective, however I do get that "free" vibe from their catchy and danceable chorus-driven punk-rock with percussions. Three songs from Unbelievable Genocide were included on an anti-vivisection tape compilation entitled No Justification released in 1989 on a French label called Acts of Defiance - responsible for a couple of other such tapes from 1986 to 1992 (says discogs) - that also included Media Children and Γκούλαγκ, two bands who have already been invited to Terminal Sound Nuisance (No Justification also has songs from Brotherhood but, to be honest, they are unlikely to ever land here).

There are five songs on Control, recorded between 1988 and 1989. In fact, I am quite sure the last song "It's your choice", which was performed by a different lineup as stated on the backcover, previously appeared on the demo tape so that it is basically a four-song 12'' Ep with one extra track. EOTS did all their sessions at a local studio, called the Station House, with the help of one Paul Madden who notably worked on We Are Going to Eat You's Everywen the same year. Frustratingly, my copy of the record is bereft of any booklet or insert, which are very helpful in situating a band inside the punk cosmos with accuracy. But I am reputedly famous - and usually celebrated - to never run out of zeal when it comes to formulate wild guesses about unrenowned bands so I'll have a go by myself (and I have got the soundcloud page saved somewhere). Apparently, EOTS shared the stage with bands such as Rubella Ballet, City Indians, Culture Shock, Radical Dance Fatcion or Thatcher On Acid, and if you were to blend all these bands together, the resulting smoothie would taste something like EOTS. Control is a multifaceted anarchopunk record, fueled by clever and versatile songwriting skills and led by an outstanding performance and a strong presence of frontman Martin who really sings his heart out. In terms of musicianship, EOTS were nothing extraordinary - and admittedly having two drummers was probably a little ambitious for the demo session - although they are all pretty sound at what they do and the playing is not sloppy at all. But what really set Control apart lie in the dynamics of the songwriting, its youthful and uplifting energy. Control sounds like a fresh call to action, not because it is a unique punk masterpiece, but for the sense of urgency and optimism it manages to convey. The five songs are very well thought-out. For instance the song "Control" contains four different movements, after a soft tuneful introduction, you get a direct and snotty punk-rock entrée, before jumping to a full on ska interlude, and then to a dark postpunk break and finally to a poppy Chumba moment concluded by some epic guitar-driven punk-rock. Thanks to the sheer positive energy permeating the songwriting, "Control" never sounds disparate or clumsy, on the contrary it sounds like a proper story, greatly told from an angry teenage perspective, and the four other songs are just as convincing and memorable. EOTS were incredibly and, one feels, effortlessly catchy and tuneful too. The passionate dual male/female chorus will stick with you for days ("Dare to dream" is absolute gold) and the songs have that inherent danceable quality that can be found those early 90's anarcho bands like AOS3, Citizen Fish or Scum of Toytown, though EOTS are definitely more punk-rock-oriented. However, positing that this modest Liverpool band can be seen as an aesthetic bridge between the mid/late 80's free anarchopunk sound and the 90's anarcho-dub-punk is not irrelevant. But what do they really sound like, I figuratively hear you ask? Well, I suppose that they would feel comfortable with versatile psych punk bands like Culture Shock, Karma Sutra or Smartpils, but they also have that driving, lively, tuneful punk-rock element to them that can be found in bands like Hagar the Womb, Indian Dream or Naked, and of course they are especially close to the early '82/'84 Conflict sound either, especially in the way they are able to vary the tempos while still expressing a mood of anger.

The lyrics to the songs are not included and it's a real shame. From what I can gather, traditional anarchopunk topics like animal abuse, genocidal Western policies and manmade pollution are tackled. You can spot a dream catcher on the cover, which may be a little awkward retrospectively, and associated with the epigraph "Love, peace and positive change", it does conjure up images of long-haired punks traveling in a muddy van. As for the name Eve of the Scream, I wish I had a witty interpretation to offer but I don't.

Old punx rule, ok?  

Dare to dream