Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 6): DISPOSE "Horror Revival" Lp, 2013

Already the sixth part of Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life and only the first band to have the "dis" prefix in its name. The trend of this prefix as a sign of d-beatness, about as subtle as a oi band having the word "skin" in the moniker, has remained pretty stable since its explosion in the 90's with only a small drop in the early to mid 00's. You would think that by now bands would have run out of existing words starting with "dis" but as Disattack and iconic discore band Disfear proved, you do not even need a proper word to make one, a philosophy that the remarkable and sadly underrated Disclone were only too happy to follow (a lot of average-to-mediocre d-beat band did too but I am too much of a coward to rat them out). Dis may have been getting pathetic for a while but at least it is still alive and kicking, claiming its relevance. But then you could say the same about nu metal (the epitomy of tastelessness and a style even scarier than shoegaze) so that's not necessarily a good thing.

Dispose, from Norrbotten County, I got into relatively recently, I must admit. Caught into the constant maelstrom of hardcore novelty it seems that I did not take the time to give them a proper listen. The band was very prolific between its inception in 2007 (says bandcamp) and the mid-10's (one full Lp, two split Lp's, one full Ep, 5 split Ep's and I am not even mentioning the tapes and cdr's) and bands that release materials every 3 months are fundamentally hard to keep up with. It feels like a losing battle that you may not even want to engage because you're lazy, which is ok, you can always justify it by being a real punk-rocker. This kind of things. I remember listening to the 2016 split Lp with our national treasure Bakounine, liking it well enough and thinking to myself that I should give Dispose some attention. Still a bit late to the party I suppose.

This proud Swedish d-beat band belong to the radically DIY part of the hardcore scene. This ain't no fancy hardcore band parading on social media, these are Disclose maniacs keen on having material released on a label called Dis Before Dishonour. Dispose have been running on passion, dedication, resolve, at the expense of quality at times but d-beat needs punks them to keep the flame of raw and ugly music alive. Is the very name polysemous? Of course the phrase "to dispose of" makes sense for a d-beat band and one might stop at this meaning, but you could very well understand it as "the pose of the dis" in a positive sense which would basically suggest a "dis identity", a way to conduct yourself and stand in life, "dis" as "oi" if you wish except you don't have to shout it three times. 

But let's crash the pose of intellectualism and fancy postmodern theory, Dispose play straight-forward d-beat raw punk, with a focus on the raw. I love how emphatic the drumming sounds, very much like Diatribe, and how spontaneous and honest it feels. However simple the formula is, you can tell the guitar sound has been worked on and it certainly displays aggression and grooviness, I like it a lot. The vocals are of the raspy variety but not low-pitched, giving it a raw punk edge. The real hit to me is the song "Horror revival" with its alternation of early mid-paced Discharge and fast d-takt moments, creating a nice contrast. The faster Disclose style remains the main influence here, whether it is the Tragedy or the Disbones periods, and I am definitely hearing the 90's Uppsalla d-takt käng bands as well like Dishonest, Harass or Cumbrage. Visually, everything is in order with the band using the same font as late Disclose and a very similar skull logo too with the "noise not music" symbol replacing the good old anarchy symbol so that even without looking at the picture of the famous Norii gate that survived the bombing of Nagasaki on the cover. Pretty close indeed.

Horror Revival is a great starting point if you are looking to discover Dispose and I see it as their most accomplished work but their split with Kranium is also solid. This was released on D-Takt and Råpunk, a crucial and influential label run by a passionate man responsible for some great records since the late 00's.    

Dispose Survival

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Repression Attack "Алтарь Разрушения / Altar of Destruction" cd, 2013

Lately, we have been talking a lot - it is a royal "we" obviously - about names and how they can convey an idea of what a punk band is about in terms of sound and influences. Sometimes a rather unusual moniker can work great for a given genre or on the contrary prove to be a very unfortunate choice, the quality of the band notwithstanding (see the Genital Deformities case). But generally, especially since the unstoppable and ungovernable rise of the internet, names are pretty straight-forward and transparent, unequivocal, although exceptions like Disface do force even the learned listeners to be careful, alert and humble. Otherwise you will end up with a (rather good) melodic punk-rock band instead of an unremarkable d-beat band. So even though the old saying "don't judge a book by its cover" remains true, if you bump into a band called Stenchkrusher exhibiting axes, disgruntled orcs and gutter crusties, the chance that they play indie-rock is virtually nil, unless it is your mate Gary trolling you again with his imaginary bands. Get a life Gary. 

The name Repression Attack does not really conjure up images of hyperbolic Russian stenchcore and yet that's exactly what they were in the 2010's. It has to be said that the band started as early as 2007 back when they were a punkier-sounding outfit, influenced mostly by Anti-Cimex, Extreme Noise Terror and Disclose (as revealed in a recent interview for the excellent and highly recommended Disastro Sonoro blog) and when the whole Russian d-beat/crust wave was still very much embryonic. And indeed, upon listening to their first proper recording in late 2009, a split tape with pan Zlobek, RA - based in Ryazan, South of Moscow - were still metal-free and a solid and savage example of ENT-styled dual-vocal crustcore. I had not played the songs for a while and I was pleasantly surprised at how good they are. So I suppose the name "Repression Attack" is not out of place if you originally settle for that kind of political crust punk vibe and I suppose it felt a little pointless to change name after they embarked on the 2010 stenchcore revival cruise. The one thing that definitely looks incongruous on that initial tape is the "Good night white pride" cover from Loikaemie, a rather tragic German oi band, even though I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment. But then, I presume that the idea to cover that particular number had a lot to do with the strong presence of local far-right hooligans and skinheads in those years more than the actual music. And on that level the name Repression Attack also feels like a political comment in itself in relation with the repressive politics of the Russian government. Sometimes you do not chose the name, the name choses you. 

I have already written about my love story with Russian crust several times, notably very recently through my post about Kärzer, so I am not going to bother you one more time with how much I love Fatum or how I first came across Distress in 2006 when a roommate brought back their demo tape after a trip to Russia. My brain resembling more and more a giant crust gridlock - my doctor actually described it as the most severe instance of the Rush Hour of the Crust Syndrome she had ever come across but I am still struggling to know if it was a compliment - I do not remember how I became familiar with RA but I suspect it was through a blog back when the whole punk blog thing was at its peak and before people got addicted to selfies and their own image and I am quite sure it was with the early split tape because I do remember identifying RA as a stenchcore unit only afterwards. While the early incarnation of the band had dual male vocals, the Алтарь Разрушения cd have prominent female lead vocals, which I have to say surprised me even more, in a good way as I have always been a sucker for female-fronted crust music. That RA's music changed a lot between both recordings is an understatement, not just in terms of style and where they moved to on the crust spectrum but also in terms of musicianship. In 2009 they were enjoyably raw and in-your-face but in 2013 they were truly a tight unit and, had they changed their name, I don't think I would have been able to recognize them.

Алтарь Разрушения came out in 2013 at a time when Russian crust was becoming a real thing and it is a work that clearly matters from that national perspective but even on an international level this album clearly held it own at that point in time and can be said to be a highlight of the early 2010's. The sound is pretty raw and unostentatious, a bit thin and sloppy sometimes (it was recorded live in late 2012), but still very powerful and it aptly conveys that sense of dirty anger pervading the band's music and a crust-as-fuck soundscape. It would be far-fetched to claim that RA is an openly referential band although they can't pretend to be reinventing crust pants on that one. The attentive listener will be able to spot a couple of literal Deviated Instinct riffs on some songs but they are not really used as nerdy nods, they just fit very well and serve the purpose of the songwriting. RA know and love the formula, you have heavy and filthy, stenchy metallic mid-paced moments as well as fast relentless thrashing d-beat with mean, hoarse and raspy female vocals supported by a second male vocalist dealing with the lower Antisect-grinder pitch. The interplay between the two guitars works very well and allows for the cracking hooks and the dirty bends that can take a modern stenchcore act from good to great. The variety of beats is important, at times too much so as a single song can have four distinct tempo changes and accompanying riffs which can be a little distracting narratively and overwhelming given the length of the album. But that's a minor criticism. The band gets extra points for their eerie synth driven introduction on "Холодная Смерть" and transition on "Мёртвая Тишина" (with the exact same tune as Effigy's "From Hell"). Brilliant old-school call. 

RA can be relevantly be seen as a second-generation stenchcore revivalist band and should be mentioned in the same breath as Cancer Spreading, Last Legion Alive and Fatum as they share common influences (the UK greats and the 00's stenchcore revival), aesthetics and intents and let's throw some AGE and Ναυτία in there too. Pila's vocals do set the band apart on Алтарь Разрушения, very aggressive and spiteful not unlike Agnes from Homomilitia/Lost and I like that she firmly keeps RA on punk grounds. The cd was actually self-released, which is pretty preposterous considering its quality, and goes on to show that sometimes class bands are unfairly ignored. In early 2014 the band recorded a proper Ep with a better sound (and a love for Deviated Instinct riffs again) that would only be released in 2016 thanks to a collaboration between seven labels among which Neanderthal Stench, Insane Society and Totalpunk. Return to Instincts was made up of two long old-school crust anthems and was an improvement, it saw the band further work on the narrative dimension of crust thanks to longer songs that allowed for a real story to develop and an atmosphere to settle. It's an excellent Ep. Tragically, one member, Dimashkin, passed away that year and it must have been a massive blow to RA and I did not hear anything from the band until earlier this year.

I was delighted to see that the band was still going but since they never were too keen to show off on the internet or social media, I guess I just did not do my homeworks - since youtube reveals that RA did play live in recent years - and thought they had split up. The 2022 version of RA is different as only the drummer Gleb and guitar player Kobra are still in the band and I must say, and I am not exaggerating for once, that never did RA sound as good as on their new album An Endless Landscape of Ugly Shapes. The band now claim to play "psychedelicrust" (it reminds me of Akrasia and their "cataclysmic space crust") and, while they are still rooted in the stenchcore world, this time with a greater emphasis on the apocalyptic groove of the Axegrinder branch of the family tree, they have infused their crust with psychedelic influences, danceable tribal beats and progressive elements. On paper, the idea of having a saxophone on a crust album is akin to blasphemy to me and would have you decapitated but it is, I have to admit, really good. Brilliant, excellent even. RA use these new sonorities and vibes to tell a different crust story that still makes sense. It is still definitely an old-school crust work but undeniably very original and unique, which is not something one is able to say often when it comes to crust. I am reminded of 90's bands like Bad Influence, Iowaska and Πανικός. It is like Swordwielder on shrooms or something. Cracking stuff. For the moment, a physical release is not planned but I really hope it will materialize at some point because An Endless Landscape of Ugly Shapes is bound to become a genuine crust classic and already one of the best of the 2020's. 

There is an interesting interview of the band on the Disastro Sonoro blog (here) where they talk about Russian crust, crust songwriting and the current situation in Russia with the war and Putin's iron fist. A good, albeit depressing, read. This is precisely the moment when Russian punk bands, especially those who have something to say and work in genuine DIY fashion, need support. Grind the enemy. 

Repression Attack

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Absurd Society "不条理な社会" Ep, 2013

Society. Whatever we mean with this term, punks absolutely hate its conformity, its alienation, its cruelty. Sometimes, a teenage punk yelling "fuck society" signifies that he is proper pissed with his mum for not letting him wear massively oversized tartan bondage trousers at school, not the least sensible of advice in retrospect considering the aforementioned spotty but undeterred lad ended up in a wheelie bin the last time he did. True story that. For other, more experienced and articulate, punks, society has been shaped by years of cultural bigotry, religious teachings and class exploitation (kindly provided by capitalism or state socialism) and thus can be used as a relevant political synecdoche to make your brilliant anarchist propaganda more accessible to the masses (also known as "people who did not go to uni to study sociology"), asserting your intellectual superiority over your mates in the process. Society is very much like "the system" in punk's collective psyche, it can be difficult to actually define it but you know you have to resist, protest and fight it. I mean, that's what our shirts say so we, at the very least, should write a very angry post on Insta.

But society does suck of course. Menace thought it was insane, Special Duties violent, Chaotic Youth sad. The prophets Discharge were victims of society, Mau Maus its rejects, while some wondered if it was civilised indeed or inevitably headed towards the collapse. The band we are dealing with today thought that society was absurd - enough to literally call themselves "Absurd Society" - an idea that surely rings true everywhere but nowhere quite as strongly as in Japan, the country of absolute contrasts where extremely conventional salarymen can rub shoulders with people dressed exactly like the thugs in Clockwork Orange. Neither outfits look really comfortable actually.

Absurd Society were from Sapporo, up North, and were around from 2009 to 2013 which makes them part of the oldest bands that I will tackle in Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust. Of course the Japanese punk scene has been renowned for its amazing and unique crust bands for years and a specifically Japanese crust sound, with several connected but distinct branches and its own visual, musical, textual and referential tropes, has emerged so that even a casual listener of crust should be able to spot even an average specimen with relative ease. Beside they cemented the culture of the crust pants, a future candidate for inclusion in Unesco's intangible world heritage (intangible but very odoriferous it has to be pointed out). 

AS were never the most popular name but I still see them as being solid and very representative of the typical Japanese crust sound. The band recorded two demos, a tape and then a cdr (well, it was the late 00's/early 10's you still could get away with cdr's and Japanese punks never had the snobbishness to give up the format) that would be reissued on a tape entitled Demo's Album in 2012 on Noise For Mobbish (!) from Malaysia. Just in case you had any doubt about the crustness of the band, the tape's visuals included the classic celtic knots, a crow, a crustier-than-thou font and a cartoonish crasher-styled drawing of the band. The first demo offered four songs of raw and crunchy metallic crust not far from crust masters SDS' early period or a more crustcore-oritented Effigy while the superior second one was a much more powerful and relentless effort of harsh thrashing stenchcrust not far from SDS' mid-90's sound (everything should be measured on an SDS scale methinks) seasoned with Defector's manic versatility and Stormcrow's apocalyptic cavemen stench before being drenched in distortion. Clearly not for the weak of the heart or posers. 

I have no idea whether many people knew of those demos outside of Japan, or indeed outside of the close crust circle of the archipelago, as I only found out about the band with their 不条理な社会 Ep from 2013 and got to own the tape a few years after the band's demise. This late Ep has everything one is entitled to expect both from a metallic stenchcrust band and from a Japanese crust band in general. The sound is more compact and not as harsh as on the second demo but AS built from the same material. Classic '96/'98 SDS, early Effigy and 00's stenchcore songwriting like Cancer Spreading with a blownout crashercrust texture, aggressive evil vocals, punishing fast galloping crust and heavy filthy mid-paced moments and old-school thrashing crust riffs. The second song "Refusal of the change" is the real hit here with its magnificent metalcrust crescendo that would have a deadman mosh. 

AS are not reinventing the wheel I for one do not believe that they will be hailed as "a classic band" in ten years. However it is a record that does a solid job at providing quality traditional Japanese stenchcore and, let's get really, we just cannot have enough of that right? It is a shame the band split up shortly after the release of the Ep in 2013 (though it was recorded in 2010 apparently) and I haven't been able to tell if the members kept the crust going in other bands. 不条理な社会 was released on Tokyo-based Strong Mind Japan, an active label responsible for records from acts such as Attack SS, System Fucker, Asmodeus and even fucking Disorder! The Ep looks brilliant with a cover artfully drawn by Mid from Deviated Instinct which pretty much insures you get the maximum amount of crust cred as well as class gas masks and skulls (the band used to have a DI-inspired logo too) although it does not visually look like typical Japanese crust artwork which is to the band's credit. This said there is still a neat red obi so that you cannot really mistake AS for a Polish band anyway. 

This one is for the "stench metal crust" maniacs, the cream of the crop.

Society's absurd    

    

Sonatas in D Major (part 3): Realities of War "S/t" Ep, 2013

It's monday morning and although I am not exactly straight and alert, I still have time on my hands before listening to Cock Sparrer on my way to work (because that's what real workers do, right?). I suppose normies would use that precious extra time to do some ironing and catch up on a tedious Netflix series so that they will have something to talk about with their colleagues and feel like their superficial critiques of mainstream American programs is actually akin to engaging in voicing a dissenting opinion. When you hear people claiming that they'd rather spend their night watching Netflix rather than go to a gig and support da scene, that's when you know there is something very wrong indeed with people and with the scene (let's be honest). Are Netflix and Instagram killing punk-rock? You've got four hours. As for me, I shall not be corrupted by this unrelenting propaganda machine and will rather spend my monday morning on something more intellectually rewarding and healthy, like write about an extraordinarily raw recoding of Japanese noizy d-beat from the early 90's. That will be my symbolic act of resistance to the kkkapitalist system and maybe I will also vacuum the flat if I'm done early.

Today's Sonatas in D Major will be Realities of War's self-titled Ep, first released in 2013 but actually recorded 21 years before that, in 1992. As the band bio, written by the guitar player tells us, RoW was never an actual band and this recording was only done for fun by two bored but devoted teenagers who had access to a studio at their school but did not really bother to share the result. I know it already sounds very much like the beginning of a punk fairytale but then when the guitarist adds, for the sake of realism, that "one day of 1992 after listening to DISASTER and SORE THROAT, we decided to go to the studio to try something like that", the story almost falls into unabated teary-eyed romanticism and the most idealistic among us are praying for this magic story to go on. In a perfect alternative world, some other punk (with DISCHARGE and DOOM patches!) that the drummer vaguely knew from his hometown would give the recording a listen, think it's amazing and offer to play the bass (because as you have guessed it, it was just a drum and guitar hardcore project). This three-piece would practice a lot and record a proper demo tape in 1993 and their revolutionary d-beat noize will make them noticed and they'll get to play at the infamous Final Noise Attack gigs in Osaka and share the stage with bands like Gloom and Crusade. At that time they will start to form a strong friendship with another Japanese band, from Kochi city, who was also trying to invent a distorted version of Discharge and further systematize a formula and an artistic view: Disclose. RoW and Disclose would often share the stage and this partnership would materialize through an incredible split Lp entitled Devastation Inferno recorded in 1994 and released on MCR, the distribution of which would make both bands known throughout the world and revered to this very day. That would have been the perfect version of the story. In reality, RoW never played outside of the studio and this project remained a one-off thing, stuck at the stage of the first practice forever. Sob sob.

Would we have heard of RoW if the guitar player in question was not Jacky from Framtid and Crust War? Probably not. After all, the recording was never released, not even as a demo, and therefore very few people would have even been aware of RoW at the time (especially since Jacky was also then involved in a real band, Asphyxia, whose demo would too be reissued in the 00's). Except that Jacky found the recording by chance years after that and sent it to Kawakami (from Disclose you dimwit) "just for fun". It made sense that he liked the recording, since after all it was made up of raw, distorted and primitive d-beat punk songs, not dissimilar to what Kawakami was trying to do exactly at the same time, great minds thinking alike and all that. Then the recording was sent to John from No Fucker, who thought of releasing it but eventually did not, and it finally saw the light of day on a proper Ep in 2013 thanks to Not Very Nice Records, a US label responsible for other noizy stuff from the likes of Chaos Destroy, Scum or Rotozaza. 

I will not beat around the bush: in order to appreciate this Ep, you already have to be really into raw d-beat. If a friend wants to get to know d-beat music better, asks you for help and you end up playing RoW, then you can be sure that he or she will never get into it. If that was your initial intention, well done mate, that person will probably never ask you for musical recommendations ever, but if you wanted to make a convert, then you are just a bad punk. Let's face it, this is a very rough recording, even if in a good way. Some badgers' arses are softer than that. But then, it was basically a recording of a first rehearsal done by two teenage punks, with no bass guitar, so all in all, the result is really not that bad. The sound quality aside, it is pretty fascinating to hear the obsession for Discharge and Discharge-loving hardcore that made the basis for RoW and in that light, they were right on time for the real start of the 90's d-beat explosion and their referring to Disaster as an influence is significant as it points to a second degree Discharge-loving influence and not just Discharge which means that they thrived for a "just like Discharge" sound while emulating prior talented copyists in the process, meaning that RoW was as much about the love for Dis(charge) than about Discharge in flesh and boooones (do you copy?). Because of obvious technical limitations, it is difficult to say if the rawness of the end product was intentional and how much would they have polished the sound if given the chance. Similarly, I wonder if the primitiveness of the songwriting and the directness of the riffs (for instance) were totally conditioned by the time limit or if they denoted a will to play stripped down, pure, quintessential Discharge music. I suppose the answer lies somewhere in the middle.  

I personally do not mind the raw rehearsal sound (after all I have raved about Gutrot and even Eat Shit on Terminal Sound Nuisance) and in addition to early Discharge and Disaster, I am reminded of genuinely raw early discharge-y bands like Subversion, Violent Uprising or even Diatribe, of demo era Doom instead of Sore Throat (the opening of "Doombastards" leaves little room for doubt), and of Disclose of course, especially in the vocal tone, but the similarity is unintentional, if not anachronistic. As I said, the guitar riffs are very simple, direct and aggressive and the d-beat is very pure and, dare I say it, innocent. I just love how the singer introduces the band at the start and then at the end says "Thank you, good night" as if it were a proper gig. It just sounds adorable especially when you put in perspective with the barrage of raw noise that just hit you. RoW sound almost refreshing for their genuine and youthful version of the raw and distorted d-beat, they sound like the lost paradise, essentially prelapsarian, unspoilt by the massive coming trend, symbolical of a time when the name "Realities of War" referred also to Discharge and not just to the whole d-beat phenomenon. It does sound a bit corny to our jaded ears nowadays but that's because we have become cynical bastards.

This is for the true lovers of the D. Seven songs, five of which are untitled. This noize kills posers and can therefore be used as a repellent. 

Realities of D

  

Ashes to ashes, crust to CRUST (round 5): Παροξυσμός "Οι Θεοί Της Λήθης" Ep, 2013

Throughout the years, punx borrowed more than a few significant concepts from metalheads. Things like high-pitched guitar solos, embroidered patches, lengthy song titles or even tuning (perms have been mostly avoided so far, which I am grateful for). Or like that oxymoron everybody knows but that few know it is one: one-man bands. I cannot think of many pre-00's solo projects in the realms of crust (I am not including the noisecore subgenre in this statement, which has its own long-rooted tradition of noise-making loneliness) but there have been quite a few instances in the past 15 years, covering mainly - but not exclusively, like Besthöven can gloriously attest - the most metal-tinged punk subgenres or diverse shades of solitary D-Beat. In general, these companionless endeavours into punk music (and metal really) remain studio experiments as it is just one geezer playing all the instruments by himself. This type of studio-only one-man band must not be confused with quintessential one-man bands that are keen on playing live but these are very rarely of the crust/grind variety (with some particularly memorable exceptions however, especially in France) and are more often musical performances, happy hippie folk punk or Béruriers Noirs wannabes. But enough sociolectal convolutions already. All this to stay that Παροξυσμός (aka Paroksysmos) is a one-man band.

I am not sure about where I stand on one-man bands. On the one hand, the inherent absence of a proper group dynamics in the music-making process can be seen as a downside and the music becomes very much personal and personalized (that and the fact that the artist may not necessarily be as proficient in all the instruments). On the other, a one-man band implies another way of writing music and can result in a very focused, cohesive, uncompromising result (assuming the technical abilities allows the creator to do so), especially if you are a particularly obsessive person who likes to write music on one's own and cannot be arsed with the bass player always showing up late at rehearsals or with the drummer's tendency to add double bass parts whenever someone is not looking. A one-man crust band is a tricky business but it also implies a love and dedication to the music that I find admirable and a literal application of the DIY spirit. The lovely bloke responsible for Παροξυσμός is Βαγγέλης (aka Vangelis) and he is from Greece (you had figured this one out, hadn't you?), Athens to be specific.

I think I first heard about Παροξυσμός on Crust Demos, a blog that focuses in reviewing and promoting new demos from crust/grind/d-beat/noisy bollox acts with a tireless, almost masochistic, energy that is awe-inspiring. But it was not the first time I had come across Vangelis' passion for gruff crust (grust?) since, prior to Παροξυσμός, he had another one-man band called Diseptic that released a split tape with Wormrot in 2008, a grindcore band from Singapore that recently recorded an album for Earache. To be honest, there are few actual similarities between Diseptic and Παροξυσμός and, if I hadn't known beforehand that they both had the same Frankenstein, as well-trained to the arts of crust as my notorious ears might be, I would have been clueless. To be brief, Diseptic sounded like a boisterous street brawl between Disrupt and Warsore, one that was rather enjoyable if you like the discipline (I do) and more generally if you are interested in music that sounds like it was recorded in an abandoned sewer. I have no idea what happened in the ensuing years, between the death of Diseptic and the birth of Παροξυσμός, but a demo of the latter, entitled "Χημικά Κατάλοιπα" (or "Chemical residues") emerged in digital format in mid-2013.

Not really craving to be in touch with the passions of the populace, I am quite unfamiliar with the ways in which today's commoners declare themselves. Rumours of selfies and snapchats have reached Terminal Sound Nuisance's ivory towers but they were only met with appalled bemusement and circumspect stupefaction. I do know one thing though, that if someone had given me "Χημικά Κατάλοιπα" as a present, I would have married that person on the fucking spot. The effects of Greek crust's seductive power are that strong. Forthrightly put, Παροξυσμός is basically a one-man tribute to vintage Greek crust and thrashy hardcore and there is a profoundly romantic idea behind this concept that greatly appeals to me (granted, I am a huge sucker for that sound and therefore utterly partial). I have already written about Greek crust on several occasions (when dealing with Ρήγμα, Ανάσα Στάχτη and Πανικός) so you might already be aware of my stance on the subject and how I consider Greece to have been one of the three most important places crust-wise in terms of quantity, quality and creativity for almost a decade. So of course, when I read about a band trying to recreate that sound, I was about as excited as a gran at a Julio Iglesias concert.

Upon hearing the demo, I must confess that I initially and wrongly thought a drum machine had been used on the recording, which gives you an indication of the metronomic tightness of the drumming. I guess you could say Vangelis is a human drumming machine then. The mastery of the rhythm section is truly impressive and there are moments when the skills really shine but fortunately never so much as to overshadow or suffocate the songs and the other instruments and, overall, we are still in raw crust territory. "Χημικά Κατάλοιπα" adds an old-school grindcore influence (akin to Filthy Christians or Unseen Terror for the thrashiest bits) to the traditional apocalyptic crust sound of Greece, a recurring trait in Παροξυσμός' work. Despite some production flaws (keep in mind that it is a demo) this first recording conveys a sense of focus and direction that is impressive. The riffs are excellent, simple in themselves but always adequate and powerful, dark and aggressive without feeling too intentional and, if the guitar sound lacks a little crunch, the texture is still right. The drumming offers plenty of variations, yet never overdoes them or overwhelms the listener. On the whole I feel the balance is good because of the songs' strength and of the thought-out articulate simplicity of the riffs. The vocals are absolutely crushing and you sometimes wonder if you have not come across an unreleased session from Χαοτικό Τέλος or Ξεχασμένη Προφητεία. They are hoarse and gruff but distinguishable, with that sense of forwardness and anger inherent to the Greek crust sound, sounding pessimistic yet combative.

I loved that demo to death and was clearly not the only one as it was released on a proper Lp in late 2014 by Scarecrow records (a strong Greek label that puts out new bands as well as reissues) and Weird Face Productions with "Χημικά Κατάλοιπα" on one side and (wait for it, wait for it) a tribute to classic Greek crust on the other, with top-shelf, flawless covers of Ναυτία, Ανάσα Στάχτη, Χαοτικό Τέλος, Άρνηση, Μάστιγα and Ξεχασμένη Προφητεία. Absolute Greek crust porn that pretty much made my year. To say that I was looking forward to a follow-up to the demo is an understatement and it came in the shape of the "Οι Θεοί Της Λήθης" Ep (it translates as "Gods of oblivion" in English) in December, 2013, thanks to Scarecrow, Weird Face, No Sanctuary (from Poland), Now or Never and Sabrota DIY (both from Greece). Unfortunately, the vinyl pressing was not exactly smooth and it ended up sounding too compressed and rough (which is why, on Vangelis' request, I included my own vinyl rip as well as the much better-sounding wav versions from the bandcamp in the file). I personally do not dislike the actual sound of the Ep, since it is the one I am accustomed to but truthfully, the files available for download on Παροξυσμός' bandcamp are far superior.

"Οι Θεοί Της Λήθης" contains six songs and is the logical continuity of the demo, a solid notch above it. Despite the Ep format, it displays a sense of narration and wholeness through the use of an intro and an outro (of sorts) that I find fitting for the genre. The opening minute of the opening eponymous song is made up of a rather thin-sounding, almost fragile and vulnerable, melancholy guitar part with the sound of thunder and falling rain in the background. It is not spectacular in itself but it works perfectly since it puts an emphasis on the following dark and groovy mid-paced crust that brings that threatening sense of epics that one traditionally associates with Greek crust, somewhere between Celtic Frost, Axegrinder and Antisect. The outro to the record is a marvelous instrumental metal crust number reminiscent of Coitus, Ξεχασμένη Προφητεία and more specifically nodding toward the immense Ψύχωση, who managed to pen hard-hitting, heavy, atmospheric crust instrumentals in the mid-90's (and it's not that easy when you think about it). Sonically, Παροξυσμός is perhaps thrashier and grindier than its crust forefathers and I am hearing a distinctive early grindcore influence (like Terrorizer or Filthy Christians) and, closer to home, riffs and arrangements that bring Πνευματική Διάψευση and Βιομηχανική Αυτοκτονία to mind. The mood is firmly rooted in the crust side of the force though and I would argue that the superb and diverse drumming musicianship (the beat variations and accuracy in the execution are breath-taking and almost machine-like at times), instead of dispersing and fragmenting it, which sometimes happens with too much technicality, serves and enhances that crust vibe. The riffs are dark, heavy and purposeful, familiar and correlating with the Greek crust canon but without ever being derivative. The guitar sound goes in that same direction, it has an appropriate texture, dirty and aggressive with a heaviness that is closely tied with the composition. As I mentioned, the vocals are to die for if you are into that type of sound (and if you are not, you may leave your Crust Membership card on the desk on your way out. Thanks for your cooperation.). They are highly reminiscent of Χαοτικό Τέλος and the likes, not only in their texture but also in how they flow and fit with the music, how they specifically convey anger, how confrontational and monumental and yet how spontaneous and vital they sound like. Just brilliantly done. On the whole, you could relevantly approach this Ep as a meaningful reactualization of the 90's Greek crust sound, which it uses as a clay, and of its creative spirit through the innovative insertions of grindcore elements, and the fact that it was a one-man operation possibly smoothens this process.

The foldout cover of "Οι Θεοί Της Λήθης" is a lovely, DIY-looking poster depicting an adequately morbid cut'n'paste design. The lyrics are mostly about religious and alienation, which is reflected in the cover which has an angry-looking Jesus whipping a poor bastard and whose overall aesthetics are, I feel, strongly reminiscent of 90's crust for the boldness. Following this Ep, Παροξυσμός released a top notch split Ep with Doomed Again in 2014 and a full album last year, entitled "Σἠψη Γενεών", that comes highly recommended. It might be even faster than the band's previous works and the lineup has changed as Vangelis is now helped in his crust quest with two actual persons on the guitar and the bass which has allowed Παροξυσμός to play live recently. A really strong Lp with a different but good production.    

Greek crust's Παροξυσμός

Ashes to ashes, crust to CRUST (round 4): Instinct of Survival "Lapsed into absurdity" s/sided flexi, 2013

Back on tracks after a short break due to a mean-spirited and acute maxillary sinusitis that has reduced me to a constant state of useless grumbling and migrainous self-commiseration. Despite what the doctor said, I was pretty sure I was going to die in excruciating pain, but when I woke up this morning I felt kinda alright, so I suppose I wrote down my last wills and testament in vain yesterday night. Bummer. My head still hurts enough to make me feel that I have been punched all night by an angry twat, but it is surprisingly manageable (the painkillers always help though). And besides, I have been looking forward to write about Instinct of Survival properly since I had the idea for this series. So piss off Sinusitis.

Let's put something straight first: I am a huge sucker for Instinct of Survival. This unrestrained passion takes its roots in the past decade and I can remember the exact time I figuratively fell arse over tit for them: the 2005 Yellow Dog Festival in Packebusch. We were staying in Berlin with some mates that summer and had thought of going to that open-air festival as it had a lot of hard-hitting bands and who doesn't enjoy being deafened by blast beats at 4pm while enjoying a warm lager? The headlining band was To What End? and Sweden had sent a rather large delegation to Packebusch with Uncurbed, Bombstrike, Massgrav, Reign of Bombs and Black Star Rising being also on the bill (reflecting upon the line-up makes me realize how much times have changed since then). Everyone was looking forward to TWE? and I remember them to be rather good live even though they took ages to instal and tune their three (yes, three) guitars together. Listening to their material more than ten years later, their highly polished sound feels quite dated, but then most bands who were going down the "melodic hardcore/crust" path at that time haven't exactly aged so well. Or maybe they just stand as bands of their time, and there is nothing wrong with that, as all bands do to an extent, and the nostalgia industry just hasn't hit the lounge crust (or lounge mangel in TWE?'s case) market yet. For all we know, there could be an epicrust revival in 2025, as ominous and sinister as it might read.

I don't remember much of the other Swedes. Bombstrike were very heavy, Uncurbed very fun and Massgrave very (VERY) fast. Of course, there were many German bands as well at this event, some that completely went over my head like Keitzer or Mörser (at that time I was completely unfamiliar with the genre, though I did buy a Keitzer tape that I have probably listened to twice since), others that were thoroughly enjoyable tight grindcore acts like Crude BE, Cyness or Infanticide (or Spain's Looking For An Answer) and one in particular, Room 101, that was a very pleasant surprise, dual-vocals metallic anarchocrust, whose 10'' I remember getting. But to me, the real highlight of the festival were Hamburg's Instinct of Survival and quite unexpectedly so. Before we embarked on our journey of tomfoolery East of the border, I had checked the Packebusch line-up and tried to find songs of all the bands that were planned to play there. I was able to find an IOS mp3 (possibly on the website of the Yellow Dog label), and well, they sounded like what I thought Yellow Dog bands mostly sounded like, fast and grindy. So when they took the stage at the festival, that is what I was expecting. It was not very late in the evening and I was already a bit tipsy (not unlike them actually, judging from their demeanour) but I can still distinctly remember the moment during their first song when I realized that, contrary to my expectations, they were playing proper old-school crust. It was too good to be true and I was frantic. To my knowledge, bands that were going for that specific sound, one that was steadily growing to become my favourite then, were few and far between. You had old-timers like Extinction of Mankind and Misery (Warcollapse had not yet started to play again), bands like Filth of Mankind, Χειμερία Νάρκη, Effigy and obviously Hellshock, but that was it. And here I was, witnessing an amazing performance of crunchy, groovy and tense CRUST from a band I virtually did not know, or rather from a band I did not know in that configuration. After they played I rushed to ask one of the members (the one that looked the least drunk I think) if they had something out with that new sound. "Not here and now, but soon," was the reply. From that moment on, upon returning home after a month of having Sternburg and dumpstered bread for breakfast, I checked the internet almost on a daily basis on the lookout for some news about IOS and consistently raved about them to everyone and anyone who would (or even wouldn't) listen. "They are the real deal, crustier than crust itself, and just wait until they released something and you'll see I'm right" became my motto.

By the end of 2005, the so-called "stenchcore revival" was officially in full bloom with the release of Stormcrow, Sanctum and After the Bombs' first records and I suppose that many took the IOS/Guided Cradle split Ep, that saw the light of day in mid-2006, as just an additional petal to this new modern crust flower. But was it really? Listening to the early IOS period, their eponymous 2000 Ep and especially some songs from the 2004 split with Wojczech, you could already spot that brand of groovy metal riffs that would become the band's trademark in the late 00's. From the start, the new IOS felt like punks who had grown up listening to 90's eurocrust and were keen on taking on its more metallic anterior entity. I am not going to delve too much on this glorious late 00's period. Suffice it to say that they were the best European crust band of that decade, taking the crunch of British bands like Deviated Instinct, Hellbastard, Napalm Death and Concrete Sox, the apocalyptic versatility of Misery, the gloominess of late Nausea and early Extinction of Makind and infusing it with the old-school death-metal of Autopsy, IOS didn't use this set of old-school influences to merely play the crust bingo, but to write actually GOOD songs. The influences served their songwriting, rather than the other way around, and that is why their releases are so strong. Their technical proficiency notwithstanding, there is a genuine drive to write riffs and songs that are heavy and catchy, diverse but cohesive tempo breaks that enhances the whole without sectioning it, vocal arrangements that are complementary and memorable rather than monotonous (the dual vocals in IOS are particularly interesting on that level, with Kalle's going for the gruff-yet-discernible crust texture while Padde's sound more evil and almost death-metal)... Basically songs that you can hum to (or whistle to, if you're good at it, I'm really not), that provides the listener with an immediate appreciation as top-shelf crust music but that you can also appreciate through time for what they are intrinsically: great songs.

Fast-forward to late 2013. On a cold Autumn night I learnt, out of the blue, that IOS had a new record out. I cannot remember what I was doing, probably arsing around on the internet, but that was news I no longer expected since the band had been silent record-wise since the 2010 "Screams of suffering" Ep. As is often the case with bands I love unreasonably, I started to fidget like a demented squirrel, sweat profusely, blame the whole world for not telling me and look through the internet for a copy that I eventually impulse-bought without even thinking of giving the songs a listen beforehand. It was IOS and nothing could go wrong. This record was the single-sided flexi "Lapsed into absurdity" released on Doom To Extinction, a very worthy label also responsible for records from Asocial Terror Fabrication, Nakot, Contagium and more recently, Dead Cult and Ulcer. Now, I must make a confession. I am really not that into single-sided records, meaning that I actually always feel a little ripped off by the missing side (more so with single-sided Lp's than Ep's), and I am not huge on flexis either as they can be capricious little rascals that sometimes just won't be played, and to my greatest embarrassment, the music files included in the download link are from the band's bandcamp as my turntable just refused to play my copy of the flexi despite numerous and strenuous attempts on my part to make it work (it was not a pretty sight as I spent almost an hour thinking about clever devices to read the fucker but ended up defeated, or rather, old, lonely, embittered...). So thanks a lot flexis of the world (but the scans are homemade of course).

My first reaction upon holding the record in my trembling hands was, first, one of satisfaction with the darkly evocative cover  - gone are the cheesy crust drawings - depicting a row of disintegrating stone faces with gaping mouths acting as pathways to nowhere. The second reaction, upon opening the foldout and gazing at the inner drawing, was one of bewilderment. Had they gone Japanese? This was Crashercrust Aesthetics 101 and I certainly didn't expect that, though I didn't dislike it either, far from it. Then looking at the label on the actual flexi, I noticed the ambivalent drawing of a hand emerging from a seemingly angry sea (executed in a Japanese style again). Even before playing the record (back when it was still an option...) you could sense that IOS had somewhat changed and that a sense of gloomy melancholy was pervading the wrapper.

"Lasped into absurdity" is made up of two songs and one outro that the band recorded themselves in May, 2013. The production is quite raw and foggy, far from the brutal sound of their precedent records, which was a little unsettling at first but that can be accounted for by the fact that they recorded it on their own. Taking into consideration the change of mood, I think it works very well here as it confers the songs a claustrophobic, eerie yet organic atmosphere, one of confinement and inner madness emphasized by the deceptive warmth of the sound. The mood of IOS' music has indeed shifted and you can hear it from the second part of the very first riff, which would have been written differently just a few years prior. The filthy, all-out crust crunch has given way to more darkly mournful tunes. The heaviness is still present but is expressed through texture and evocation rather than aggression. The guitars have that same vibrating, pulsating quality but the feeling is different, more woeful, sullen and introspective, the drumming is less metallic and more tribal and goes well into postpunk territory as times, while the vocals are more sung, keeping the gruff quality but actually going for some tunefulness. Strictly speaking, and as corny the term might sound, this is postcrust. The übercrust vibe of IOS did not disappear but was now balanced with heavy goth guitar leads and beats, not unlike what Zygote crucially did in the late 80's. Structurally the riffs and the songwriting haven't changed dramatically, one gets the feeling that they express a different aspect of a similar thing or a different version of a same story. Like everyone I suppose, this flexi confused me at first but, when I focused properly on the songwriting, I was still hearing that IOS vibe I loved so much and recognized their propensity to write good songs. Musically I was reminded of early Extinction of Mankind (especially "Baptized in shit" that has some guitar riffs not so dissimilar to "Lasped into absurdity"'s) meeting Smartpils and their heavy style of Killing Joke tribal anarchopunk, or even of Coitus, who penned some genuinely dark and moody numbers in their days. And anyway, there is some synth on "The blue distance" (the outro) and everyone should know the equation by now: crust + synth = top-shelf.

When this came out, and even more when the "Call of the blue distance" Lp did the following year, I read numerous comments about IOS and how they were "jumping on the postpunk bandwagon" and "not real crust anymore". Being blamed for following a trend is, in "the scene", one of the gravest accusations, only second place to being a poser (this one being assessed according to the number of studs, tats, ingested drugs and showers of a given punk). I cannot say I am that surprised with such reactions although I do not condone them as they denote more intellectual laziness and absence of self-reflexivity than an actual thought process. Yes, postpunk (or dark punk or whatever it's called this week) has been fashionable in the first half of the 10's and yes, IOS did use clearer guitar sounds, goth-tinged leads and drum beats and they even - may the Stenchcore Gods forgive them - sing sometimes. But, in terms of vibe and songwriting, they are still a crust band playing crust music. The mood and sound are more melancholy and they borrowed from another punk subgenres but then, isn't it what crust has always done? And isn't crust originally precisely the result of such an ontological move, punk borrowing from metal in order to create something new? And after all, from a diegetic point of view, the incorporation of Zygote/Smartpils elements is relevant with the crust mythology. It feels silly to state the obvious, but punk (and yes, crust too if you understand it as a vibe, a creative tension rather than just a template) needs to be multidimensional in order to be interesting and stimulating, and there have been - and hopefully will be - potent examples of bands unafraid of injecting crust with some outside elements to great results (apart from Iowaska, who would have thought psychedelic crust could work?). But then, if "crusties" are just content with listening to the same old Bolt Thrower rip-offs, what can you do? As IOS put it in the song "Lasped into absurdity": "In the soil of your complacency / Germinates the seed of our bitterness".

"Lapsed into absurdity" can be seen as a transitional record, one that ties "North of nowhere" with "Call of the blue distance," like a connective hyphen. Taken strictly by itself, although the two songs are really solid, the flexi still does feel a little incomplete - and I had second thoughts about including the flexi in this series - but from the perspective of IOS' story, it makes a lot of sense. It has a primal, incantatory quality that makes you crave for more and I wish "Call of the blue distance" had kept a little of that earthy sound in the production (that is my sole concern with the album). Lyrically, the content fits with the form. "Lapsed into absurdity" is about self-delusion, self-proclaimed superiority and bitterness, while "What will you do?" deals with bitterness, disillusion and meaninglessness.

And on a side-note, do yourself a favor and give a proper listen to Kalle and Padde's side-project, Psychotic Mind Battle. Their "Cleansing" demo from 2013 is a brilliantly brutal, over-the-top, gruff cavemen crust effort and definitely one of the best I have heard this decade in the "Extreme Noise Terror" category.

Lapsed into flexiurdity     

     

Ashes to ashes, crust to CRUST (round 3): Claustrophobia "Sobre las ruinas de la civilizacion" cdr, 2013

"Has nostalgia ever been more profitable than it is today?"  

This thought crossed my mind while I was doing the dishes today, an activity that, for some reason, I actually really enjoy for it allows to ponder and reflect upon things. I had just read some kind of corny and predictable mainstream article about how "old-school" - if not almost disgustingly "vintage" - the early 00's were, and it bothered me, probably more than it should have, but it did leave me with a feeling of unease. It seems that, although we live longer, because of the insanely constant technological innovations, things and ourselves ironically get symbolically old far quicker. With technology becoming so entangled with generational cultural practice and identity, a decade-old device is already seen as somewhat belonging to another time, like a relic or an artifact that will become valuable again as soon as its actual relevance and convenience are obsolete. The past has never been so recent and nostalgia is a flourishing business. To see twentysomethings bemoaning the disappearance of shite mp3's is quite baffling if you think about it. But I suppose that, faced with change and its dramatic speed, we all tend to reminisce about the past (even if it is objectively and chronologically close) with rose-tinted spectacles and boast about it, especially since our epoch glorifies even the most trivial of a consensually sanctioned past. I personally blame our own compulsive narcissism, the masochistic obsession with ourselves and the modern propensity to dramatize our egos...

And then I was basically done with the dishes and I made myself some coffee. I am not prone to nostalgia and I don't think things were better before. Some things were but other sucked and I generally prefer to think about it in terms of cycles and circularity rather than linearity because it feels more sensible and because it makes me look smart (or a smartass, depending on your perspective). But of course, just like everyone, it happens that I have Proustian madeleine moments and the acquisition of Claustrophobia's demo was a delicious one (you didn't seriously believe that my directionless rant would not serve an introductory purpose, did you?).

I remember it very clearly. It was in October, 2013, and La Fraction, Klee Benally and a band called Gerk were doing a benefit gig in Paris. I was, obviously, familiar with La Fraction, a band I have always enjoyed, but I was rather intrigued by Gerk. It said "Crust Punk - Argentine" on the flyer and, since the glorious days when crust bands would happily cross paths with the French capital had been over for quite some time, I was enthusiastic about seeing Gerk, a band I had never heard of. And they played a fine show, undeniably, very intense and energetic, and they were wearing gorgeous lucha libre masks which made me like the performance even more (I am a wrestling nut and I have no shame) and fear that one of them was going to pass out because of the heat. Were they a crust punk band? Absolutely not. They certainly delivered a tight set of super fast angry hardcore with a lot of tempo changes but the music was pretty much crust-free (truth be told, the crust genre is so misunderstood in France that a lot of people cry "crust" as soon as they hear harsh vocals and fast music...).

Being in a rather good mood, I decided to take a look at Gerk's distro. You do not get to see Argentinian hardcore punk bands play every week and I wanted to see what they had brought on tour and, maybe, get a record or two, to support the band. So I was browsing through the cd's (they were mostly cd's as I recall it) and then, out of nowhere, I bumped into this one.

The crust detector went mental...

As you know, I am a crust fanatic and, although I have grown far more demanding and rigorous with my crust with time, I have a fondness for the old-school take on the genre that is unbreakable (to the point of silliness, I will be the first one to admit that). I was awestruck. There was a band, obviously of the metal crust variety, that had a cd with a cover saturated with crust references, that I had never even heard of or read about. I am not saying that I know every crust band in existence, since that would be impossible and, honestly, rather unpleasant when one considers what passes as "crust" these days, but I do pride myself in being quite knowledgeable about the old-school crust subgenre (or stenchcore, if you like). Now, I realize that it sounds like a terrible pick-up line and I would be the first to run for cover upon hearing it in real life. But I nevertheless spend a lot of time scouting the merciless world of the internet for quality crust music, often getting knocked out but always getting up again. But there I was, confronted with an enticing band I knew nothing about, but which was, looking at the rather cheesy "crustier than crust" cover, clearly right up my proverbial alley. And I absolutely loved that feeling. It took me back a few years before, back when the internet had not yet spoiled the mystery and the excitement of discovery, in those years when I was gleefully clueless about crust and looked starry-eyed at distro tables, asking the person running them what this or that band sounded like, then proceeded to read the thank lists to see if I could spot familiar names and then watched the artwork closely to check for actual clues about the musical content. The method was not infallible, by any means, and some bands had names that could trick you, like Anarcrust, who were not really crust (I have made peace with them but it did take some time), but I was enthralled to bring home records from bands I had never listened to, not quite sure if I was going to like them or not.

Of course, if I didn't check a band's sound all the time before getting their record, I could still feel the same, but then, there are so many new ones that one cannot just buy candidly all the time and of course my tastes have become far more articulate and I am now fully aware of which records I want to own physically and which ones I am comfortable just having a passing acquaintance with...

Realizing that there was a peculiar geezer who had been staring at that one record on his table, the distro bloke finally asked me, with some awkwardness as I remember it, if he could help. And yes indeed, he most probably could. He told me that Claustrophobia was a newish band from Buenos Aires and that it was their first record. Obviously, I took that one home with me, beaming with childish joy and self-indulgence. I mean, the cover had a zombified crusty punk with an Axegrinder top and a bow and arrow, with two sloppy human skulls at his feet and hovering crows in a post-apocalyptic sky over his head... How could it go wrong?

I am not going to pretend that I am some sort of qualified expert about the Argentinian punk scene. It is actually a scene I - sadly - know too little about, although I can do a decent job humming to Dos Minutos. In the early noughties, the country had some cracking political punk bands like Migra Violenta with their fast and furious hardcore, Terror y Miseria with their angry yet tuneful brand of anarchopunk or the little-known but clearly brilliant Axion//Protesta who played a great blend of bands like Apatia No, Elektroduendes or Estigiä and managed to do excellent Crass covers in Spanish (an impressive job when one considers how difficult it is to cover Crass at all). None of these bands were crust though and, to my limited knowledge, the genre was virtually absent from the scene at that time. There were hard-hitting, fast, manic, grindy hardcore-punk bands, to be sure, but none had that specific gruff crust sound. When looking for genuine crust music from Latina América, up until the mid-00's, one mainly had two options. You could turn to Sao Paolo and its raw and chaotic grinding take on the genre with bands from the second part of the 90's like Under-Threat, Dischord, Cruel Face or No Prejudice, or you could go for the Mexican scene (mid 90's/early 00's era) and crust-infused anarcho bands like Desobediencia Civil, Regeneracion or Crimenes de Guerra, all-out gruff crustcore acts like Discordia and Inhumanidad (both are highly recommended) or the rocking crust-punk sound of Tijuana's Massakro and Coaccion. And of course, it would be criminal not to mention the longest-running crust punk band of the continent, Los Rezios from Lima, who have been delivering the goods steadily for two decades (the "Clarificacion" Lp from 2011 is really solid AND has an Amebix cover).

Thanks to several very active Latino punk blogs in the late noughties, the materials of newer bands started to emerge and spread more globally. That was when I became aware of several bands from Argentina that had crust elements in their music (to varying extents but still noticeable) like Disvastacion (sloppy but energetic raw, gruff scandicrust with some metal in it) and A Duelo Con La Vida (rough and primitive but glorious pummeling grinding anarchocrust). But it was a band called Horror Humano and their eponymous album from 2008 that really grabbed my attention, heavy and crunchy, distorted, angry grind/crust with overblown dual vocals and an ear for good short songs, a bit like a cross between Accion Mutante, Disassociate and Rot. This specific sound is rather difficult to do well and, pretty much out of nowhere, Horror Humano completely nailed it.

But even though there had already been a couple of crusty Argentinian bands before Claustrophobia, none of them had (to my knowledge, again) taken the old-school crust path yet and been so visually deliberate and exuberant about it as they were (and in actual fact, I cannot think of many Latino crust bands referring so openly to the stenchcore visual canons before 2013). As I mentioned, the artwork is ripe with referential graphic clues that indicate a high degree of crustness, arguably almost to the point of self-parody. "Sobre la ruinas de la civilizacion" was recorded in mid-2013 and co-released by seven labels (some of which, judging from the respective discographies, were probably just mates of the band giving a hand), among which Quien Calla Otorga, a label also responsible for putting out stuff from Gerk, Doña Maldad, Migra Violenta or Hummus. The object itself looks really nice and certainly not cheap. It is a pro-done cdr with a glossy insert and they even included some sort of large flyer with extra artwork in order to promote and thank the people who took part in its making, so that from the outset, it already feels like a proper album rather than a first demo.

My initial reaction when I played the cd was one of pleasant surprise upon hearing the sound quality of the production. It is heavy but clear and quite well-balanced given the template, it sounds spontaneous and aggressive with enough punky raw urgency. There are a couple of sloppy moments here and there, especially when the band tries to wander in death-metal territories, but they are few and far between and are arguably part of the genre's charm. Despite the über-stenchcore aesthetics, Claustrophobia are not even that metal. Don't get me wrong, you will find the usual mid-paced crunchy metallic parts but these are mostly used as introductions or breaks as the band opted for a decidedly fast crust tempo which was the right thing to do. Modern metal-crust bands like Stormcrow and Sanctum do come to mind, especially in some of the riffing, but I am equally reminded me of the more direct dark crustcore sound of bands like Man The Conveyor, Nuclear Death Terror and Dödsfälla and - possibly even more - of the filthy metallic crust of Campus Sterminii, early Cancer Spreading and Giuda ("Decadenza" era), especially in the arrangement of the vocals and the overall mood of the songs. Claustrophobia mostly keeps up with their "metallic pummeling cavecrust" plan but at times some elements from old-school grindcore, death-metal and neocrust do creep in and do not always work smoothly, for technical or songwriting reasons (the grind bits do function fine enough for me). This said, "Sobre las ruinas de la civilizacion" is a solid, convincing first effort that can be seen as a worthy blend of 90's gruff eurocrust and 00's stenchcore seasoned with that delightfully relentless South-American hardcore rabia epitomized and intensified by the polyphonic approach to the vocal works (to put it urbanely).

Lyrically, Claustrophobia did not go for the usual "apocalypse darkness from hell" that too many crust bands entrapped themselves in and penned revolutionary anarchistic songs, usually from an insurrectionary perspective (something not unusual for bands from that area). "Enjenadxs" is about the coercive nature of the psychiatric world, "Muerte al patriarcado" deals with the patriarchal conditioning of our selves, "Armate y se violento" is basically a call to arms for revolutionary love while "Afila tus ideas" questions the validity of the concept of "authority" in order to wage a war on authorities. Pretty intense stuff that the artwork does not necessarily reflect.

Claustrophobia are still active although I am not aware of any particular plan for a next record. And on a side note, if you are interested in quality Argentinian crust music, I would strongly recommend Ruinas, another Buenos Aires band emphatically treading along the stenchcore road (their own 2013 demo is a strong one).      

Claustrophobia