Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 18): LANGUID "A paranoid wretch in society's game" Lp, 2021

Although I am mostly a man of logic and Cartesian rationalism - even if it means rationalising stuff that I probably shouldn't such as my overconsumption of 6 minute long d-beat records - I know how to recognize a sign when it comes crashing into my mailbox. Indeed, I received the brand new Languid Lp today and since I had already planned to blabber on about these craftsmen of the D, I instantly thought that the Gods of punk were urging me to get off my lazy arse and finally get to it.

A simpler mind would be tempted to state the obvious when talking about A Paranoid Wretch in Society's Game, namely that it is quite possibly the best d-beat album of the past 10 years (and if it does not make it at least to your top 5 you're clearly in the wrong room amigo) and be done with it and just get on with a boring life made worth living through the acquisition of objects that give meaning to the big great void and alleviate the existential pain. Just ask any nerds that collect Star Wars toys. Languid's feat with this album cannot be taken lightly, after 30 years of devout Discharge imitators' monomania (also known as "playing d-beat") they still managed to produce a significant record of some length (24 minutes) that captivates the listener by offering a genuine, tasteful collection of Discharge-loving of songs that sound both extremely familiar, in the best possible way, but also meaningfully better than most bands who try to do exactly the same thing. To be fair, this Lp is close to perfection. It feels seamless but I would guess the boys gave some serious philosophical thought to the raison d'être of the ultimate d-beat song. What constitutes a memorable d-beat song? One that must fundamentally sound exactly like a predetermined pattern? Vertiginous shit. You know when Miyamoto Musashi fucked off to the countryside in order to watch potatoes grow and think about life, well my bet is that Languid did a d-beat version of that that includes cider and a hair-charging workshop. 

It has to be pointed out, cheekily perrhaps, that Discharge cannot be considered as Languid's main influence. They are all about Meanwhile really (it wasn't mastered by Kenko for nothing), a band that turned Discharge love into Discharge lore and tried really hard to sound like Stoke-on-Trent's renegades. Languid do the same thing with the Swedes musically but that doesn't really make them sound "just like" Discharge but more like a band that strives to sound like Discharge, so it is basically the worship of the worshiper rather than the worshipee. Know what I mean? They sound like the brilliant soundalikes if you wish and when you are a modern d-beat band I suppose that is the best you can wish for. To "sound just like" with gusto, finesse and a tendency to crack your brain up. Languid have everything going for them here, the great Swedish-style dis riffs like Meanwhile or early Disfear that are classic but not generic, galloping drums that would prompt a legless man to steal a bike and ride in the sunset, a singer that does not growl or shout like a hyena on speed but rather uses a hoarse anger-driven but comprehensible Cal dialect, but perhaps more importantly, and that's probably the main feat here, one that I cannot quite put my finger on, it can have to do with the overall dynamics and balance for all I know, but Languid manage to rock without playing rock-n-roll. There is no flashy solos or thrashy bits or Motörhead nods or garage sound or anything, it is just pure fucking impact and moshing power. It would even make my dad's foot tapping. Granted, the members of Languid do have great hair so that might enhance the rock power too.

2017's Resist the Mental Slaughter was really promising and upon hearing it, a strong "just like Discharge" force I spotted; 2018's Submission is the Only Freedom was a confirmation and the settling of a strong Meanwhile d-takt style; 2021's A Paranoid Wretch in Society's Game was the crowing glory and a band at the top of the league (I skipped the Ep because it is one I have actually never grabbed for some reason, probably because it has a white cover). I predict that this Lp will still be talked about and revered in 20 years time and it stands as a genuine modern d-beat classic and an instant addition to an already glorious and fascinating canon. I know some are a little torn over the band's visual aesthetics and I agree that, at first, I was of the opinion that it was more fitting for an orc-themed crust band that love Bolt Thrower or Cimex fanatics like Guided Cradle. But because the band has stuck for it and used a similar theme and template, I have grown fond of it. 

This jewel was released on none other than D-Takt & Råpunk in Europe and Desolate Records in the U$ of A. 

A paranoid beat in society's game

         

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 13): DESPAIR "Visions of the Inferno" Lp, 2018

I sometimes find myself caught up in my own moral principles and therefore do not practice what I vehemently preach, namely to not judge a book by its cover (to be applied metaphorically as from my experience most novels, especially North-American, can be judged by their cover which makes the phrase rather odd) or its reputation. As vaguely bothered as it makes me feel in terms of the petty values I insist upon holding, I do happen to love bands before I actually play them just by reading the "ex and current members of" list. It goes without saying that I am sometimes violently proven wrong but let's not engage in an excruciatingly exhaustive excursus about the culprits as not only do I not want to find horse heads in my bed again, but more importantly I have been told on several occasions that it bores readers. In fact my brother once suggested I indicate the time it'd take to read the full review for busy readers, which sounds like encouraging laziness to me. It's like asking how long will the Sore Throat song be. Are you really that busy mate? What are you, a banker? Does this keep me from being waylaid by swarms of admirers on my way to buy baguettes? Does it fuck.

But yeah. Reading, accidentally, about a d-beat project involving ex and current members of pretty classy bands got me interested: Despair had Cordie on guitar who by then had already played with drummer Bryce in Raw War and Kaiten, Chris also on guitar from the mighty Decontrol, Foat from Limb From Limb, Fear of Tomorrow and Total War and John formerly of the underrated Dödsfälla on vocals. The thought that "it's gonna be a good one that" did accost my mind, never to really leave. This more or less justified belief is a bit like morning drinking: it sounds good on paper but can end up to be a disaster (pun intended). Despair can be said to be a band that I loved before listening to in spite of a generic moniker - in addition to the Osaka crusties you will unsurprisingly find three black-metal bands with the same name on Discogs but also a ridiculously cheesy Russian power-metal band that comes highly recommended if you're having a bad day) that still makes sense considering the genre. At least they did not go for Dispair (not a bad band by the way but you know...).

As mentioned, I was a little late to the party and only heard about the band when they had presumably already passed (their final gig took place in June, 2015), which I felt a little upset about but then it happens to me often with obscure family members so I didn't make too much of it. Upon playing the album on youtube (unglamorous I know), Despair instantly revealed themselves as a cracking "just-like Discharge" orchestra, a restrictive but ultimately fulfilling and engrossing sub-category of d-beat, not unlike what the saltwater crocodile is to its Nile cousin: the subtle difference is in the details.  

Before Visions of the Inferno Despair thought wise to record a self-released demo tape in 2015 that illustrated emphatically what the band had in mind and several songs from the demo would be rerecorded and vastly improved for the Lp (released a good few years after it was recorded). The demo of Despair must be seen as an antechamber to their album as the Lp magnified the real qualities and traits exhibited on the first recording. Despair's demo was, well, essentially a punk demo, that is to say an allusion to what would come (admittedly it is easier to say in retrospect). This maniacal Vancouver unit is particularly enjoyable because they partake in the difficult task to replicate the philosophy of the first 90's d-beat generation of Dischange, Disaster or Disfear, not just in terms of sound but also in terms of their original praxis, one that is as close as possible to Discharge itself. This is Discharge-loving d-beat instead of d-beat loving d-beat, if you know what I mean. It even looks like a 90's d-beat record. The direct Discharge references may overwhelm some (who will gently and mercifully be called "posers") but I am not one to flinch at open Discharge love, especially when it has song titles like "...and they still ignore", "Life's massdestruction" or "Visions of the inferno". 

The interplay between the guitars impresses, the guitar players do not step on one another's studded boots and while I am conservatively not in favour of two guitars in an orthodox d-beat band, Despair stands as one of the very few modern examples where you can actually hear that it makes sense (I am reminded of Anti-System on that level at times). The bass has that old-school dirty reverb sound instead of the usual grinding tone and I love the fact that the vocalist does not rely on pedal effects or forcefulness (two common flaws in contemporary d-beat bands) for the Discharge rendering, he just goes hoarse and angry but still understandable, not unlike on the Discard Lp (possibly a relevant reference in terms of conception when it comes to Despair's Lp) which confers a genuine hardcore punk edge to the whole. The Lp does have imperfections here and there but they are meaningless because Visions of the Inferno succeeds in doing exactly what it set out to: absolute Discharge worship with a taste refined through solid knowledge of the D word, an ear for the good aggressive riff with a cracking guitar sound and a sort of contagious "charged punk" collective drive. Beside let's not overlook that it is a full album, not a mere Ep, so that it is harder to make it sound coherent and whole, the story is longer to tell. The fact that it was mastered by Kenko kinda goes without saying and is the icing on the nuclear war.

     

This album is rather difficult to find these days but if you do happen to see it, don't dick around and jump on it (and do elbow your way to the distro if needed). As you can imagine all the lads kept playing in bands after on a more or less permanent basis with John joining the excellent and already discussed Genogeist, Bryce currently doing Reaktori, Foat Dead Hunt and Malakili while Cordie (also referred to as "the riff machine" in some quarters) just started his thirteenth band since 2015 last month, a formidable feat that got him to be nominated for the Vancouver Punk of the Year award this year.

Visions of the d-beat

    

An adventure in split Ep's! I have no gun but I can split: GLOBAL HOLOCAUST / MASSGRAVE "Revenge" split Ep, 2006

I recently listened to Hard Skin's song "Not messing around", a banger telling the story of a proper skinhead, quite likely a supporter of Millwall FC who is faithful to the traditional way of life. Most of all it's about a simple man who strives to live his better life and if it must include dancing the tango and the foxtrot, drinking whisky instead of bitter, then so be it. Once a bootboy always a bootboy as the saying goes. Inspiring shit indeed. Working-class heroes ain't messing around and if this song doesn't motivate you to get off your fat arse, what will? 

Do you know who else are not messing around? Global Holocaust and Massgrave, that's who. While the latter have made a name for themselves since their inception in 2003, the former has largely remained a band that would be best defined, as Mel Brooks put it, as a world-famous band in their home country. Local "legends" I guess. I first heard of GH through the Montreal Crust-Fucks compilation cd. It would have been released in 1999 or 2000 (the band Oppressed Conscience mentioned John Paul 2nd's 2000 speech in which he apologized for the heinous crimes of the Church - it was a bit late for that mate) and I remember ordering it from a distro called React that was active in the 90's and 00's and had a lot of pretty obscure noisy delicacies from all over the world. To be honest, I picked that one because it was cheap, everything seemed to be on this distro, and I was curious about Montreal crust bands - I only knew Hellbound and After the Bombs which I both loved - and the compilation, with its rather transparent title, promised just that. It is a fun record, still crusty but with some diversity, and along with Disagree (the best band here), GH definitely won me over. 

After a quick research I understood GH were pioneers and had been rather crucial in the making of the Montreal crust scene (assuming the very term "scene" is relevant to refer to 30 people). It's fair to say that the name and the vintage crustier-than-thou font give the genre away. They formed as early as 1989 which made them a second-generation crustcore band although they arsed around in the studio for a while because their first recording, the demo tape Hope?, was only released in 1993. From 1995 to 1999 they certainly made up for lost time, or started drinking more reasonablu, and no less than six Ep's, among which four splits with fellow Montreal bands Oppressed Conscience, Obnoxious Race and Urban Trash and another Québec-based band Fierce. 

During the 90's GH enjoyed a stable lineup with Simon, on drums, being a tireless musician (he also played in Préjudice, Disjonction and three of the aforementioned bands GH did splits with) and running Tobacco Shit Records that released most of GH's records and other Canadian bands. Sonically they were in line with the decade had to offer as far as the genre was concerned: gruff crustcore with a thrashing grindcore influence like Destroy! dating Toxic Bonkers at a Fleas & Live gig. One of the strongest points, if not the strongest, was Fred's vocals, instantly recognizable, that able to sound raucous and coarse but also very pissed and discernible, on the verge of dementia. Really good work here. The band then stopped in 1996 after being "banned in the city" whatever that means. I could not find any details about this ban. Did it involve some of rioting that ended up with police forbidding them to play in Montreal? That'd be legendary so I guess we would be able to find stories about it online. Were they just kicked out after a particularly poor gig? If you know the full story, let me know and I'll add the thing here.

The band reformed in 2006 with a new guitar player and let's get real: they did not change much. The grindcore moments were pretty much gone but in terms of production and textures, the two songs on this split Ep could have been recorded in 1996, as if time had had no effect on these thick-skinned crusties. We're still heavily in thrashing crustcore land and I am reminded of Brazilian thrashing hardcore legend Armagedom. Simple and rather good, I think the split Ep format fits the band very well here. GH would released another split Ep with Dehumanizer Earth the same year and a full Ep in 2008 with seven (!) different covers, six of which being (loving) rip-offs of other bands like Antischism, DS-13 or Tragedy. Granted those were very limited pressings but that cracked me up. You've got to love punks with a cheeky sense of humour.

On the other side the listener is treated with three songs from the mighty Massgrave from Vancouver (not to be confused with the short-lived but excellent Japanese Massgrave). I am not sure it would be correct to claim that MG were ever a trendy or a high-profile band (on the punk scale being a high-profile act means to have a queue of at least seven people at the merch table, it's simple maths really) but they have clearly become an established band and even people who are not into crust or grindcore (also known as posers) are at least a little familiar with them (if not with the actual music at least with how much they stand for the genre). They have been one of the very few contemporary bands to be able to totally appeal to both crust and grind crowds. Depending on the size of your town, there may not be a difference between these crowds. Actually in small towns everybody go to "the punk gig" whether they are into metalcore, melodic punk or neocrust because it would be pointless to form silly little scenes. But in bigger places where silliness is key, as far as I can see, a division has grown and solidified between the d-beat/crust audience and the full-on grindcore one. It's the case even in Paris, a town that has never been famous for either genres (that's an understatement, we're infested by oi music) that don't draw many people anyway unless you bring a bigger name. But MS are something of an exception in the sense that they are a solid DIY punk band, first and foremost, playing music that not only appeals to more but also, as an openly political band, avoids the tastelessness and stupidity that too many grindcore bands intentionally embrace. They are basically a good band with a delicately hairy font.

I first heard about them when a good friend of mine ages ago, far more into grindcore than I ever will be, mentioned that Stormcrow would appear on a split Lp with Massgrave to be released soon on Agipunk. Not being aware of the existence of said band, I proceeded to ask about their identity. He described them as "kinda like Disrupt or State of Fear but more manic and with more blast beats, even " and he was quite right. He then added that "even someone with shit tastes like you should enjoy it" which somehow negatively impacted the discovery. Oh well. By 2006 MG had already released two albums, a split cd with Neckbeerd (that involved a member of MG) and a strong full album entitled ...People are the Problem, and four Ep's, three of them being, in true DIY grindcore fashion split records with Warfair?, Pretty Little Flowers and Poser Disposer (I like the name of that one and the spoof Anti Cimex cover). The three songs on the present split are vintage 00's Massgrave, absolutely furious and relentless grinding cavemen crustcore with dual tradeoff vocals reminiscent of late Disrupt, 3-Way Cum or Deformed Conscience. The band sounds absolutely unstoppable and ferocious here, the production is amazing, powerful in that it relies on the energy and aggression of the songwriting to create that vibe of brutal and angry hardcore punk savagery and still provide significant changes of pace. They were at the top of their early game and this is one of my favourite recordings from the band. Short and sweet to be sure and with a limited amount of blast beats which suits me well. What a slap in the face. 

The vocalists are perfectly complementary and manage to recreate an argument between angry cavemen about who did not watch the fire properly. The riffs are top notch too and show that Sweden was certainly a country that the guitar player looked up to while the very sound and tone of the guitar is quite specific and makes the band easy to recognize. Back when the band started the traditional dual vocals crustcore style was slowly vanishing and it would soon go out of fashion after the mid-00's (Visions of War standing as the immortal heroes of the (sub)subgenre). I would venture that the fact that MG was significantly connected with the grindcore scene (most of their collaborations were with grind bands) that value brutality somehow made it easier for them to develop their specific grinding crust attack and build momentum. I had the opportunity to see them twice (I put on the second gig myself) and I had a blast. 

This record was released on Unrest Records when the label was still in its infancy. Little by little it would become a well-respected label responsible for records from the likes of Disrupt (well, that one made sense), The Accüsed, Driller Killer and even Morus. The main flaw of this Ep is the cover, a little confusing visually and without any reference to the bands included, unless you know the record beforehand, it's not one you would necessarily want to check on the distro table. Let's call this a punk tradition.

Global Grave    

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Metachrist "Fall Into Bloody Carnage" Lp, 2021

Fan service has become a massive part of our overconsumption of cultural goods. You could say that fan service - by which I mean the tendency to create art intrinsically aimed at satisfying subculture junkies by using predictable and typical discursive elements meant to indulge specific never-ending cravings - plays an essential role in how we use the internet. You could argue that's what it is really for actually. Let's face it, after an alienating at work, during which you've taken as many toilet breaks as possible to avoid achieving your brainless tasks without looking suspiciously lazy or disgustingly sick - and thus undatable - one does not really dream of blasting an experimental jazzcore band or reading about Holocaust literature when getting home. You are looking for something that is sure to alleviate the existential pain and lovingly reflect your tastes, confirm that they are legitimate, that what you love, and by extension yourself, as we often over-identify ourselves, in an almost military fashion, with what we proudly and loyally love, is valid, loveable and worth loving. And not just because it is also loved by many others with a sort of communal drive, but because what you love is expressly created out of love for you and by those who love religiously the same thing and are looking to receive the same love they are giving you. Fuck me, that is a lot of love and I am starting to sound like an unctuous pop singer for senior citizens cruises. The orgy metaphor might have worked better.

Fan service can take all shapes. Niche cosplay done by overweight thirty-something with an excruciating attention to details that make NASA engineers look like teens with attention span deficiencies; doom-scroll elite makeup videos that will make you feel ugly and old the minute you turn off your phone; loquacious nutters who violate the sanctity of basic science claiming like you that the Earth is flat and that pineapples are actually a Jewish vaccine; message boards aimed at providing a space for record-collecting incels to argue harshly about the worth of the hottest new American hardcore bands or absolutely unoriginal just-like-Discharge d-beat bands that just put out a one-sided flexi which will feed your wildest fantasies. I have to say I am not insensitive to fan service and, to be quite honest, am a very easy target. Just form a band with a singer who can vaguely imitate 89' Doom's and you can easily blag a tenner from me and I will take any criticism of this trait of character as a disgraceful affront to my identity. Fan service is like homeopathy. It will neither solve the dull meaninglessness of your mundane existence where the most exotic thing you've done all week is going to the chip shop on a Tuesday night nor will it slow down your own inevitable mental decrepitude but it will comfort you and make you forget about the lifelock and what happens "after the gig". And about that time teenagers made fun of you for no reason (I guess?). Life really.    

But let's cut the crap and serve the fans. Metachrist is the ultimate crust fan service. I first came across the band while randomly losing my time on bandcamp drinking coffee in the harsh light of the early afternoon and bumped into the Final Bloody Master recording. I instantly woke up and proceeded to turn on my sleepy braincells. The influences of Metachrist were very obvious from the start in a heart-warming way. The music made me think, fondly, of someone owning a very similar record collection to mine exhibiting his or her most precious pieces like a kid displaying favourite toys (although in this case I really couldn't be bothered to pretend I care). Granted, the songs sounded a little rushed but I made a mental note to follow the band closely as it had a very promising potential. 

A mere two months later, a new demo was posted, this time entitled Banished to the Dark. Now that was surprising. Punks are not exactly known for their speediness but since it was as good as the first one, I shrugged off this peculiarity and decided that the songs had probably been recorded during the same session. And then a third demo, Conquered and Divided, came out just two months after. I was glad and excited, of course, and felt like a teen who just found a fiver on the street for the third consecutive time in just a week. Very lucky but still pretty uncanny. I started to worry that there could a crust band held in captivity somewhere in a Canadian studio, blackmailed into delivering old-school crust rippers. I cannot fathom what the object of such a treacherous plan could be, perhaps the evil mastermind behind the punknapping threatened them to rip apart all the patches from their jackets or divulge that one of them actually owned recent Mighty Mighty Bosstones records. I called Interpol but they unsurprisingly told me to piss off like that one time I called them because I thought I had lost my vintage SDS shirt. And then it hit me: Metachrist is a one-man solo project.

The band is the creation of an Ottawa punk, self-proclaimed metal-punk geek and part-time spandex model, who is involved with about a dozen such musical projects (yeah, really). The man can play all the instruments, which clearly helps, and set out to create an 80's styled metallic crust punk monster aimed at pleasing the most loyal fans. Needless to say that when a proper vinyl Lp came out in late 2021, I was about as hysterically excited and unbearable to be around as a man who just spotted the yeti. One-man projects are tricky. If you are doing something wrong and are having funny ideas that will eventually prove to be tasteless, no one is going to warn you that you are losing the plot and that playing the flute on a stenchcore song may not be a wise artistic choice. On the contrary, solo projects allow you to be in total control of the songs so that the work totally reflects the vision of the "artist". It is a double-edged sword and now that I think about it there are not many solo crust projects. There are d-beat ones but no old-school crust ones as far I know. 

As I mentioned, Metachrist (which I read as a nod, possibly unintentional, to Nausea's "Cyber God") can be defined as an absolute fan service session  or, as the creator calls it, "crust porn" but I am too much of a prude to think of it that way. The first thing that strikes the listener upon hearing Fall Into Blood Carnage is how epic it sounds. From the typical synth moments to the emphatic victorious thrashing heavy metal transitions and the dark filthy riffs, you are in head-banging heaven and it makes the album a very, very fun listen. In fact, it is the most fun, in a way that is both serious and cheeky, crust recording of the past ten years. The nods, the exaggerated tribute, the hyperbolic referentiality are so obvious, self-conscious, proudly worn that the music turns into a warm and loving, respectful homage to all the greats. Bitter bastards might call it predictable or even corny and sentimental, but for its affirmation of classic UK crust music, I think that it is a beautiful tribute. It is like a crust cover band but with its own songs, if you know what I mean. The other strength of the Lp is that, even if you are not that familiar with the crust canon, its energy, passion and overall punk triumphant catchiness make it easy to relate to and I believe old-school metal fans would dig it as well.

So let's take a look at some songs. The introduction is basically a synth-driven eerie reworking of a tune from The Mob and the first number, one of my favourite, is a wonderful Amebix/Axegrinder type anthem with dark chorus that remind me of Coitus; "No horizon" is a full-on Cimex-ified fast and glorious Onslaught-like metal punk song; "Dominion soaked in blood" has one of the cheesiest, most epic introduction to a crust song I have ever heard, we're almost in heavy metal territory, though the core of the song is delicious late-Antisect-snogging-Amebix worship; "Erected in your death" takes us a back with a bang to the best of the crusty UK crossover sound like English Dogs and Sacrilege. And that is just the first side, I could go on since Fall Into Bloody Carnage is a proper full length album that takes its sweet time to tell the great story of crust. It is like Where's Wally? with the beloved vintage British bands. If you are looking for innovative crust music, Metachrist will not be for you, however if you are in need of a perfect tribute structured around a knowledgeable template, it is tailor-made. In the end Metachrist is metacrust and the unintentional paronomasia is revealing. It is crust music about crust music, it says something about the genre itself, with ease and seamlessly, like a mise en abyme. It is fan service as much as it is genre service in some respect. And it bloody rocks. 

The album was a pain in the arse to get in Europe but it was worth it (my banker would possibly disagree with that). The album is everything you can expect from the genre and you are treated to two posters. It was released on a Florida-based label called Hamask records that deals in old-school metal.

Play loud and enjoy the fun.

Fall Into Crusty Carnage          

            

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Skunk / Existench "S/t" split Ep, 2015

It is odd how much a name can affect the way one relates to a given band. If you come across a band called Terminal Nuclear Krusher or Deviated Filthshit, before even listening, your already damaged ears will prepare themselves to be willingly subjected to some gruff apocalyptic stenchcore, your bleary eyes will soon be adjusting to visions of skeletons in pain, barren wastelands, bum-looking crusty punks and Celtic knot frame and your neck will warm up for the coming moderate moshing (no one is getting any younger, let's be real, and sometimes one does feel about as energetic as an agonizing sloth). And you would be absolutely right to do that, there is no need to sprain a muscle. Appropriate preparedness allows for the right state of mind before the mental and physical absorption of a dose of music. It is not unlike the opening of chakras during a yoga session without the martial farting. That is what we do, we have expectations when presented with works of art (broadly speaking), especially ones belonging to schools or genres that we feel we are already familiar with. You don't approach a band called The Skarambas the same way you do one called Street Squad 84, atlthough in both cases you should save yourself the tedium and elope as fast as your biker boots permit. 

So when you have a split Ep between Skunk and Existench and you do not know the bands like a miserable poser, things can get a little confusing. The name "Existench" gives all the necessary clues. The cross between "existence" and "stench" implies that life is sometimes a toilet indeed and conveys the sense of an impending noise battering. I am sure many a crust band wished they had thought of it first as it is undeniably a great name. But then, you have a band called "Skunk" on the other side and if you haven't seen the slimy crusty font, what will you expect? If you are a confirmed pothead, Skunk would definitely get your attention. Similarly, if you believe that a "skunk" indicates the validity of the fusion between a punk and a skinhead (as if Gogeta the fusion between Goku and Vegeta wasn't bad enough), it might also interest you, although why you would consider such an inane cross identity desirable is upsetting at best. In both cases, you would be very wrong and, assuming you give this Skunk a chance, face major disappointment.

A close friend of mine first told me about the Winnipeg Skunk a while ago, saying that the band was basically Archagathus' crust side-project. I have to admit I was a little underwhelmed with the name, as there used to be a ska punk band called Skunk in France in the late 90's. Checking Discogs now, I realize that there are no less than 41 inventoried entries under the name Skunk, among which a Russian nu metal one, a New Jersey indie rock band and an Italian rapper. Pick your king. But my mate was adamant that I was going to love that band so I did check their first demo online (that would have been about 10 years ago I guess). And fuck me, wasn't he right. My initial circumspection made me feel like a gormless wanker as Skunk play a sort of crust that is an endangered species, one that has tragically all but vanished from the face of an ungrateful and tasteless Earth: dual vocal cavemen crust. Class demo. Then, the band did not really release anything else and Skunk remained a delicious footnote in my crust-addicted brain, although I have to confess that I often remembered them as that "brilliant Archagathus crust project" instead of Skunk.

And then Skunk started releasing many Ep's in the mid-10's with splits with Warvictims, Existench, Restricted Rights and Devastation of Life and the full Ep Failed World as well as a split Lp with Lycanthropy, Bloody Phoenix and Disturbance Project. Most of the material was thoroughly enjoyable, and indeed enjoyed, and I proceeded to buy my favourite ones, the split with Restricted Rights and our present one the split with fellow Canadians Existench. What I did not realize about Skunk is that Dan and Joe, also in Archagathus, used to play in Skeleton in the mid/late 00's, a fine raw d-beat crusty käng band very much from the studded brigade school of thought (like Decontrol meeting Crude SS at Beshöven's place) that actually appeared on a split Ep with Svaveldioxid in 2019 so they might have resurrected the band after all. But then I think these two nerds have been and are still involved in countless bands. 

???

If you have never heard Skunk the five songs that make up the first side are a perfect introduction and according to me their best recording so far. I put all the songs on one single track as feedbacks and noise tie them together anyway and it further stresses the relentlessness of the vibe. The production is raw and definitely cavernous, this is cavemen crustcore for the initiated. The very growled vocal tones borrow to the old-school grindcore tradition but the dual vocal placement and structure is clearly crust-oriented. Musically their brand of fast and raw neanderthal crustcore is very close to the extreme crust terror philosophy as embodied by early Disrupt, late 3-Way Cum, a cavemen crust version of State of Fear or a more primitive Massgrave. I love the organic chaotic feel of the production as well as the gruffness but it has to be pointed out that the riffs are very strong and dynamic too (again, not unlike Disrupt's). 

After this manic aggression on the sense, the listener has to withstand 5 minutes of Existench-ial grindcore. Hailing from Halifax, this lot has been going for ages, especially if you consider that Existench was itself the followup to Disabuse, a band that was already active in 1990. I know that the two founding members that are still in the band were also involved at some point in the other seemingly immortal old-school grinding act System Shit and, while I cannot and won't claim to be an expert in North American grindcore, the band's stories are intertwined. Looking in my massive record collection (I need a speedy golf car to go from letter A to Z) I realized that I owned a couple of Existench records from their vast discography. I don't play them much to be honest but I always think they are quite alright when I do. On this split Ep, what with all the "songs" having been recorded on a 4-track during an afternoon, you should not expect some fancy technical grindcore but a pure explosion of old-school noise-oriented but energetic rough grindcore with harsh vocals (well of course they are). There is one minute of short bursts of insane noisecore at the end of their side which shows that there is also a sensitive side to their music. I would not listen to them all day but I think it works well on this specific record. 

Both bands have short political lyrics so none of that goofy shite and this Ep was released in 2015 through a handful of labels in true DIY tradition: Blastbeat Worship Tapes from Hungary, Suburgatory Records, the sadly defunct Scull Crasher Records from Greece, Rex Manor and Outrageous Defecation from Québec (you just have to have a label with a name like this for a grindcore record, right?). It would be far-fetched to call this a classic or a landmark of 2010's crust but if you are looking for a piece that illustrates the fruitful potential of the liminal frontier between crustcore and grindcore, it does make for an interesting and pleasant listen. 

Exitskunk    

                

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Vitriolic Response / System Shit "Dark Wings Spread / Your Life is Fucked" split Ep, 2014

Books. Yes, books. More often than not, you can read alarming reports claiming that "the youth of today" no longer read, that the whole book industry and its physical outputs are therefore condemned to collapse and that tomorrow's teenagers won't be able to know Virginia Woolf from Billie Eilish (I have been told she's very famous on Instagram but am absolutely clueless as to what she actually does for a living) and will think Dickens is just a category of dick pic. It would also necessarily entail that the whole publishing industry might become useless which will send a significant portion of the middle-class to the job centre and may even force some of them into selling their second homes in Italy. A dire prospect indeed but let's pray that it won't come to such extremities. 

Nothing says "things were better in my days" quite like this sort of doomful predictions. I suppose such "kids these days" theories often formulated by pub oracles have always existed and I would not be surprised to read that Mozart in his time was blamed by the old guards (also known as professional twats) for betraying his roots and cater for a new generation that can't be arsed to love proper music. So while I believe that we should not be stupidly optimistic about the state of things and remain critical and alert about social evolutions, notably when alternative cultures are concerned, there is no point in moaning about how the youth of today supposedly do everything wrong and let's not forget that, in spite of our bad backs, poor eyesights and receding hairlines currently plaguing our daily lives, we all used to be them. Let's get real, this not a reason to pretend to enjoy Turnstile, even ironically. It won't make you 16 again and do you really want to spend a whole gig holding up your phone in the air? Fuck no, the proper way to enjoy a punk gig is to quietly nod and tap your feet to a random d-beat band and sing along to the Discharge covers.

But yes, books. I read that a thing called BookTok might be able to save the industry so I checked the wikipedia page (yes, it has one). It is pretty sad that it takes a ruthless capitalist company that promotes "online content consumption" (how sad is that concept) to get younger people to read and from what I gather the most popular genre is "young adult literature", whatever that is (is there an old adult literature? Or a middle-aged adult one?). But let's not be smug or feel aggrieved, after all reading Madeline Miller might lead some to get into real authors like Wayne Rooney or myself - by the way my autobiography, entitled In Smartness There is No Choice, will soon hit the shelves but sadly I am apparently too old to join the BookToker community. 

Why am I boring you with such tedious, cloying digressions. Well, I actually first heard of Vitriolic Response through Ian Glasper's The Scene that Would Not Die that was published two years ago. I have always loved his writing and I cannot stress enough how inspiring and educational his comprehensive books about 80's and 90's UK punk have been for me. Would have I shamelessly bought an Antisect blanket out of subcultural pride without him? Probably not. His latter book about British punk tackled the last two decades and, as he said in the introduction, it had to be a very tricky endeavour that was bound to generate undeservedly harsh criticism, cynicism, snobbishness and the usual negativity that has always been plaguing punk. I am surprised that the armchair critics did not coalesce into a mob to protest again the book. That's a lot of energy wasted they could, and should, have been put into, and this is just a random example, writing their own articles about the bands they feel have been left out instead of posting bitter comments. There are bands that I don't necessarily like or even care about in the book but the amount of work and heart put into it is, as always with the man, impressive and worthy.

If anything, I am actually grateful for The Scene that Would Not Die because it brought a good band to my attention, Vitriolic Response. I don't want to be discourteous but I had never heard of them before and the pleasure I felt when I read the article about them was genuine as it reminded of the time when punk fanzines or even former Glasper's books were a great source to get into new bands, a process that has been severely undermined by social media. On the other hand, I was a little upset too. How could an English band claiming to play old-school metallic crust slip under my radar? Maybe the mojo is gone and I should accept this position as a part-time reiki consultant that my stepsister told me about after all.

So what about the band then? The Manchester-based Vitriolic Response (admittedly a bit of a mouthful of a name) started out in 2012 and its early lineup was made up of people who had all been involved in quite a few bands before: drummer D-Fekt was in the great Kismet HC, guitar hero Rob in Raised by Drunks and briefly in Spite, vocalist Rob in Burn All Flags and Anxiety Attack (among others) and bass player Flek in Poundaflesh and Declaration of War. Not exactly rookies. A first recording session resulted in five songs landing on an Ep entitled Follow the Herd in 2013 and four on a split Ep with System Shit in 2014 which is the record I am interested on this sunny Monday.

To expect some sort of modern post-00's stenchcore sound would be a mistake asVR have a distinct UK 90's metallic hardcore punk feel on this record pervaded with strong old-school crust influences. I particularly enjoy the very direct punk-sounding production here which contrasts with the superheavy down-tuned sound of many contemporary bands in the crust game. Oddly - given the template - VR sound fresh. The vocals clearly point to 90's spiky hardcore and I would describe the crusty metal crusher mosh as punk-oriented (in an Extinction of Mankind-meet-Misery-in-1995 kind of way) rather than Bolt Thrower-worshipping. As hinted above, mid-90's Extinction of Mankind is the most relevant comparison in terms of apocalyptic metallic punk and VR's songwriting (especially their eery introduction and the nasty mid-paced moments) certainly owes a lot to the iconic local band. But as I pointed out, VR can also be seen as that hard-hitting political UK punk unit especially reminiscent of the mighty Substandard and Constant State of Terror and even bands like Fleas and Lice or Aus-Rotten can be brought to the table. This sounds effortlessly old-school and I am not saying that because the participants are old experienced. The one thing bugging me about the songs is the song title "Linge d'arret" which literally means "Laundry line" in French. Did they mean "Ligne d'arrêt" which translates as "Stop line"? I mean, what kind of punks even do the laundry anyway? 

VR then changed drummer with the arrival of Will from Warcoma and a second guitar player, Jay, also joined. Songs were recorded in 2015 for a split 10'' but the project unfortunately did not materialize. A further lineup change was needed and Keith and Beanhead replaced Will and Jay. The songs recorded for the aforementioned 10'' were finally released on a split cd with Chain of Dissent and let me tell you that they are brilliant, a bit more elaborate and well worth the attention of crust-lovers.

On the other side of the Ep are System Shit. This Halifax lot are like a school mate that you like and regularly bump into but don't actually know that much about and never really phone although he appears on quite a few pictures with you and it feels like he has always been around (but not on a creepy way). SS have been going since 1988 which is a respectable feat and if you are into crust or grindcore, you are more than likely to own a SS record or at least a compilation with them on it. A bit like an ugly jumper that an aunt got you at some point. It is definitely there. The songs that the band contributed to this split are absolutely crushing, old-school protest grinding crustcore or crusty grindcore (depending on your musical sensibilities) with a punk attitude at its best. Vintage Disrupt, Destroy! and Extreme Noise Error, or Massgrave for a more recent parallel, are useful tools if you need to build SS songs according to the instruction manual.

This cannot be said to be a classic record but one that fans of genuine and honest crust punk are bound to really enjoy. This was released on FCR, Rotting Head Records, Direct Hit Records and Positive Cacophony. Maybe I should try to CrustTok this shit.  

Vitriolic System

              

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Phozgene "S/t" tape, 2017

Life can be beautiful. And I don't mean just the band LIFE, who has been consistently beautiful for ages, unlike many of us. Sometimes you can encounter, by sheer chance, marvelous punk recordings out of nowhere, so to speak, like Randy Orton's RKO but without your skull being buried on a wrestling mat (this being said, the sensation can be very similar with loud crasher crust). Phozgene is one such example of an amazing hardcore punk surprise. I wish I could tell you that I found their tape in my mailbox because the boys were massive fans of Terminal Sound Nuisance and were begging me to write about it (a $100 bill would have to be included in the envelop of course). But unromantically, their recording just appeared in the youtube recommendations one morning and I think I clicked on the link because the "O" had a peace symbol in it. The most glamorous element of this embarrassingly anticlimactic story may be the fact that I was probably wearing my Disclose pyjamas. It could be much worse of course and Vancouver's Phozgene could have merely been a pure waste of my precious time and attention span. At least, the recording is brilliant. 

More often than not, surprises are disappointing though. Years ago, I remember my dad insisted on bringing me a present from one of his holidays in a resort of some kind. I tried to dissuade him as the last time he had done that I ended up with the cheesiest Dubrovnik key chain. But he told me that this time he would bring me something I would actually enjoy and be proud of. That got me very worried but his drive was quite touching and I thought that the worst thing he could bring back was an ashtray or, if he were particularly ambitious, some sort of smelly carpet from an "authentic" market for tourists. I was wrong. When he came back he proudly told me that he had gone in an actual "rock shop" where he asked for a "rock shirt". My heart almost stopped beating and when he gave me the grey, vastly oversized Limp Bizkit top, I was so speechless that he mistook my reaction for overwhelming happiness. I never told him that this horror quickly ended up as a dust cloth that I would still hide under the bed in case a fellow punk saw it and ruined my then fragile reputation. A scarring experience indeed but I should not complain, it was a heartfelt gift and I should feel lucky to get gifts at all. And it did make for a quality dust cloth to be honest. So thank you daddy. 

But back to Phozgene. "Phosgene" means "a poisonous, colorless, very volatile liquid or suffocating gas, (...) a chemical warfare compound" which I suppose makes it a synonym for special brew. Phozgene was a band that had what I call a "fuck me effect". I suppose that if you spend too much time watching American series and films, you could call that the "wow factor", which sounds pretty dreadful to be honest. The "fuck me effect" implies that you are completely taken by surprise by a brilliant band, one that you did not necessarily expect much from and that gives you a massive kick up the arse (in a good way, not in a "where have you been all night son?" kinda way). Phozgene felt exactly like that. A band seemingly coming out of nowhere and checking all the right crust boxes. It was basically a crust equivalent of the RKO: you don't see it coming but it nails you nonetheless. And whenever I listen to Phozgene, I still remember that amazing feeling of being pleasantly surprised and it does make your Supreme Leader - i.e. me - really happy as it has become pretty rare to be favourably impressed by a random obscure band in a world where we are continually fed new bands and constantly bombarded with hyped "genre-bending rules-challenging crucial hardcore bands" that end up being forgotten and replaced with another one six months after. Not that any of my own bands has ever been included in that category. So I may just be envious. 

I asked guitar hero Cordie about the history of Phozgene and that was how it went. Back in 2016 bass player Alex and himself had just completed a tour with their PDX-based band Suss Law and they decided to go back to Vancouver (where Cordie is from). The both of them started messing about in the studio and quickly wrote songs influenced by the mighty G-Anx while smoking weed. Amazingly they were capable to play an actual gig just weeks after the songs were even written in those circumstances. If you lock me up in a studio with some mates and feed us a weed-based diet, the result would be absolutely embarrassing and the best anti-drug campaign in world's history. The message would be something like: "If you don't want to make a fool of yourself in public like that twat on stage, don't do drugs". But anyway, after that first gig the band recruited new drummer Darrell and two months after they recorded that little gem of a demo. There was another studio session in the Summer of 2017 where four songs were recorded, one of which appeared on the Terminal Noize Addicts compilation Ep in 2019 along with Suss Law, Zyanose and fucking Disorder (one of Cordy's teenage fantasies I'm sure). The three remaining songs have not been released yet (hopefully a label will wake up and get to it someday). By 2019, Phozgene was no longer though as they stopped playing after a small tour in Canada in late 2017. In the end, the band only played for about ten months.

So what makes Phozgene a highlight of the decade for me, albeit a modest one. The band had something that few others can claim to have: they sound original. The basic ingredients for the recipe are classic in the best sense of the term. Right from the introduction, the main direction can be aptly defined as old-school filthy stenchcrust with 90's style dual vocals and an angry punk vibe (rather than a metal one) running throughout. Or something. The band don't hesitate to switch beats, from the traditional dis-käng worship to the dirty mid-paced thrashing crust one and blasting old-school hardcore. Apart from G-Anx, 80's British crust bands like Mortal Terror, Electro Hippies and '88 Deviated Instinct come to mind just like cavemen käng inspired classics like 3-Way Cum or State of Fear and I would also definitely compare it with the more contemporary '09/'10-era of Cancer Spreading (that's accuracy for you). But while bands influenced by G-Anx usually stick to the ultra fast käng hardcore template, Phozgene also worked on the psychedelic aspect of the band and freely included more progressive influences with tribal space rock bits, dark postpunk moments, free rock solos and even some synth thrown in there, all of those smartly integrated into the whole and not just thrown in there. So yeah, weed. 

On paper, it could just sound like a mess but taken as a whole, it makes sense and allows the demo to tell a great story with different moods that is different but still coherent and meaningful. It will definitely appeal to people craving for gruff old-school crust and at the same time bring something new, with a fresh twist, to a table that often lacks personality and creativity. I suppose that we are not far, conceptually at least, from what Instinct of Survival offered in the mid 2010's (revival stenchcore meets Zygote and Smartpils) and a band like Kärzer (which you can explore here) can be approach in a similar light. It would be far-fetched to claim Phozgene were the first act to add psychedelic and progressive influences to classic crust though and in the 90's Bad Influence and Πανικός clearly pioneered this drive to go beyond through this peculiar path. But as I mentioned, it is uncommon to see that nowadays, even more so from a band proverbially coming out of nowhere. 

This demo was first released in 2017 by Thought Decay Records from Canada (Phane's own short-lived attempt at releasing stuff I presume) and reissued in 2020 by No Name Records from Kiev. With a 25 minute running time, it would make for a brilliant vinyl Lp (just saying). Cordie and Alex are still doing Suss Law (distorted and noizy UK82) and the latter also plays in a Ramones-inspired band called The Chuffs. As for Cordie, he is a busy bee and beside riffing in the brilliant Phane (charged punk at its very best), he also lent his skills to Brutalize (raw punk hell), Despair (which I can say is one of my favourite orthodox d-beat bands of the decade so you will hear about it at some point in the future) and he has probably written a handful of riffs for three new bands since I started this article.

Phozgene 

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: the Rise of Nova Crustia - Contagium "S/t" Ep, 2012 / Fragment "S/t" demo Ep, 2016/ Kaltbruching Acideath/Zygome "S/t" split Lp, 2019

Amusingly, I almost left my hometown, the city of love, compulsory arrogance and dog shit (not necessarily in that order), for Halifax. In fact, I started Terminal Sound Nuisance a little after I was told that Canada was not exactly dying to welcome yet another useless pretentious twat - another term for French people over there apparently - on its territory. So ultimately I guess humanity, because of the blog's great contribution to its development, should thank the Canadian employers who, politely, told me to piss off. I was unemployed back then and had to survive in a tiny 9m2 square "flat" (in Paris anything bigger than a toilet is called a "flat") so that when I learnt that Canada was looking for young promising workers for positions they were struggling to fill, I immediately jumped on the occasion, bought a brand new, vaguely decent-looking coat and registered to the Destination Canada forum, confident that the recruiters, in awe before my many skills and my jaw-dropping charisma, would hire me on the spot. Little did I know that the country was looking for lorry drivers and plumbers and not in the least interested in my unspectacular profile. Still, I sent a resume and a charming job application letter full of lies to a kindergarten in Halifax, although I had never actually worked with young children and you could even say without it being much of an exaggeration that I don't even enjoy being around them, in the hope that someone would be kind enough, on a whim, to give me the job. 

Fortunately for Nova Scotia kids, they did deign to answer my request and in the end I had to take a job carrying heavy crates of vegetables and working as a cashier in a foodstore. I cannot help wonder though. What if I had actually gone to Halifax? I would have become part of a terrific hardcore punk scene over there, seen and perhaps even played in top crust bands instead of living in a town infested with constipated oi bands and soft middle-class indie-rock. Blame the kindergarten. I did not know that many bands from that area at the time to be honest. Of course I knew System Shit but had no idea they were from Nova Scotia. In fact I don't think I knew of the name "Nova Scotia" before I briefly fancied moving there.

At that point in time I was still already aware of Contagium which I first heard thanks to the great Crust Demos blog, which was - and I hope will be back to being one day - an excellent purveyors of worldwide young crust and d-beat bands, through their 2008 demo. Of course, this first effort was raw (most demos were in the 00's) but you can detect rudimentary versions of songwriting structures, vocal styles and riffs that would come to characterize the "Halifax crust sound". An Ep followed in 2009 and then the Archaic Lp in 2010. Re-exploring these works today I have to say that they hold very well. I remember at the time of their release thinking that they were a little late to the stenchcore revival party - what with Hellshock cosplaying as a Japanese metal-punk band and Stormcrow napping as a stoner metal freight train - not unlike guests arriving late with bags of crisps in their hands while everyone has been stuffing themselves with specially that all night. But I am up for crisps and crust any time of the day so I really don't care much. Contagium played blazing filthy stenchcore with howling anguished reverb-drenched vocals at a time when such vocal effects were not as popular or automatic as they are today (it's what I call "Destino Final Syndrome") and the band was also much faster and pissed than a lot of others falling under the stench umbrella so that the music definitely stood out from the crust swamp. I suppose Archaic might sound a little repetitive in retrospect and that Contagium maybe worked better with the Ep format but I am not here to split hair. Their strongest recording, by far, was the 2012 Ep released on Doomed To Extinction.

Recorded in 2011 for their Terminal Filth Stenchtour (I know, right?) and originally released as a limited tape, this (second) eponymous Ep is a jewel in the crust crown. The recipe is pretty similar only the sound is heavier and more aggressive, the hooks more viciously effective and the dual vocal teamwork more focused, expressive and therefore more threateningly ferocious. You could say that it is a significant upgrade upon their already strong stenchcore foundations defined by mean and groovy mid-paced metallic bits with mosh-inducing filthy riffs and thunderously fast crusty hardcore thrash with two nutters howling screams of desperate anger. Imagine a modern more powerful blend of Terminal Filth Stenchcore and Rock'n'roll Conformity, the dirty obnoxious metallic punk catchiness of the former enlightening the fast-thrash-meets-mid-paced-stench-crust vibe of the latter, add some vintage Axegrinder and Misery, some Heresy and Napalm Death rabid madness and put it in a stenchcore revival oven until it rots completely. Then place the stew in the middle of a wasteland and wait for crows to eat and regurgitate it. This Ep is the sound of those crows attacking posh wankers on the streets after the meal. Or something. As usual the artwork is fabulous and it was Adam, from the band, who was in charge of making Contagium look good. The cover of this Ep is probably my favourite work of his as it is so grim-looking. It would be Contagium's last offering but as you must expect by now, it was certainly not the last breath of Halifax crust.

I have never been there so I was never able to study Halifax punks in their natural habitat and identify what each groups of local punks exactly did and with whom, in spite of my reputation of world-acclaimed punk anthropologist (I did get twelve likes on Facebook once, what a day). However discogs tells me that these people involved in Contagium, Fragment and Zygome have been in dozens of other bands in the 2010's alone. Just to give you an idea of the incestuousness of the Halifax scene, guitar player Adam and drummer Ben also played in Abject Pax together, the latter actually also playing in Fragment - with Cody (they also did Life Chain together) who was involved with Adam in Concrete Asylum, among many others, and drummer Mark who also played in Carcass Toss, with Cody, and Outcry, with Rosie who also played in Zygome and Abject Pax, as mentioned above with Ben and Adam - and Zygome. I could try to draw a genealogical tree of the Halifax punk scene, it would be an arduous, tedious, task but one of such I find quite fascinating. It would probably show that although there have been dozens of solid punk bands in the past ten year over there, they were done by the same ten people. But isn't it the case almost everywhere else? I have been wondering whether some of these people actually lived in the studio, or even if some of them had not been locked in and would not be allowed to leave until they did 100 bands or something. 

Crustagium 2012

Fragment is the next Halifax band we are dealing with in this superb writeup that I am confident will finally get me a work visa in Canada if the minister of Canadian Heritage reads it. Come on Pablo, don't be a dick. The band has Ben, formerly in Contagium; Cody, who seems to play or have played in more bands than I have had showers in the 00's (I know, I know, but those were crazy times); Steven from Outcry and Shitpissers (this is a definite yes for me) and Mark who does not seem to play in any other bands, which is very suspicious indeed. Fragment is a band I immediately took a great liking to even though the genre they embraced (distorted crasher cavecore punk?) has become a popular hobby for (too) many bands in the 2010's. How many average distorted d-beat raw punk projects does the world really need? This is a bit of a harsh statement especially since I would delighted to have even just one d-beat band in Paris. Anyway Fragment are brilliant at what they do, possibly one of the best distorted bands right now and this is their 2016 demo, originally released on tape under the name Hear Nothing (no idea where they got that from... any idea?). I generally don't see the point of reissuing contemporary demo tapes on vinyl but this was objectively such a potent and skillful hammering that the solid British label Imminent Destruction rightly took on the job and made the demo available to men, women, children and non-binary persons.

With an insert displaying "Distort Terror" and the Gloom reference "Devastating Noise Attack" the seasoned listener is aware that he or she will be subjected to an intense, relentless and loud assault on the sense commonly known as a wall of noise. The vinyl is eight minute long and there is no pause between songs which reinforces the impression of fierce sonic mercilessness. The obligatory ingredients are perfectly used: there are mean deafening feedbacks, textured distortion, hard-hitting manic crasher drumming with those typical rolls and howling vocals (with the traditional Halifax reverb, they seem to really love that there). Pretty much the Gloom and D-Clone school of thoughts but I would argue that the aggressive riffs in Fragment could be described as a distorted take on classic 90's käng. Beside, what makes the band stand out are the mean thrashing stenchy mid-paced moments - not quite unlike Contagium's really - that allow the music to breath and the listener to headbang while keeping that fuzzy distorted texture. Basically what I mean is that Fragment actually write songs with hooks and do not make the mistake to rely only on pedal effects and Japanese crust referentiality (although you do need that too if you want to do things properly in this exercise in style). In the end, that is what they excel at (they remind me of the superlative late D-Clone in that respect) and this perfect demo exemplifies this capacity. The band will keep noizing things up with a brilliant album, In the Dust, the following year that went on delivering the crasher goods, this time with an additional narrative style allowed by the Lp format (the one reservation I have is that the vocals are too low in the mix). Two Ep's followed and the most recent one Mind Convulsion shows Fragment going even noisier and rawer, to the point of becoming some sort of primitive harsh noizecrust unit that claims "Fuckin Noise Rich Crusties Trendy Punk Nerds Fuck Off!! We Love Damaging Noise!!!", a clear reference to the Japanese school. As Hard Skin would say: they ain't messing around. I just hope they're not talking about me.

Fragment

The last Halifax band of this post is probably my favourite of the three. In fact they are my favourite. Zygome. Now when I first heard of a band called Zygome from Halifax a couple of years ago, I spontaneously rose from my comfy armchair, walked out of my luxury office located at the top of the Terminal Sound Nuisance Tower, took a can of lager out of the diamond-studded fridge, went to the rooftop, opened the can and looked up to the sky pensively, beaming with anticipation on the inside. Zygome are a three-piece made up of Adam (from Contagium and many as we have seen), Ben (from Contagium and Fragment, the writeup is a sort of tribute to his talent) and Rosie (from Outcry and Abject Pax among others). The name can rightly be said to be, obviously, the equivalent of a bird whistle for crusties. Just like dogs can hear ultrasound, crust maniacs rose their ears when the name Zygome traveled through the air. It's not an actual word mind you although the term "zigoma" does exist (it's the bony arch of the cheek) but I guess they just insisted on leaving the last alphabetical spot to Zygote out of respect even if they sound nothing like them. Their sword logo and their self-description as a "crusher crust" band are far more significant items.

They released a self-titled four-song demo in 2018, originally as a digital only thing (if I remember correctly) but it was much too good not to be released physically, on tape on the very good label Runstate Tapes from Montreal (responsible for Rat Cage, Apärä or Inepsy releases among other strong hardcore punk works) and on vinyl on Black Against Night Records, a label located in Australia run by a former member of the Skopje-based Born For Slaughter and specialized in crust and d-beat. Although an easy analysis, I would argue that Zygome did build on the Contagium legacy and songwriting tricks (fast crusty thrash bits with filthy mid-tempo moments, reverb on the howling vocals and so on) but they added tasteful old-school crust atmospherics (synth and long eerie intros for instance) and vocal works in order to convey a more articulate sense of storytelling and narratity to their filthy stenchcrust sound. More Axegrinder, Amebix and '87 Antisect elements to the '86-'88-Deviated-Instinct-of-Survival if you will. Needless to say I was avidly watching the internet for the followup record and it took shape as a split Lp with Kaltbruching Acideath in 2019 on Doomed to Extinction.

To put it bluntly, this album might be the best crust Lp of the decade although such a claim is contingent on your personal tastes in the many shades of crust. There is a consensus among the Council of Crust Elders that few albums could match that one but the argument that Swordwielder's System Overlord, the Instinct of Survival/Asocial Terror Fabrication, Disturd's Dark or Χαοτικό Τέλος' Υπόσχεση are also the cream of the crust crop is sound indeed. Who cares about rankings anyway? Cooperation not competition and all that. On their side of the split, Zygome unleash on the - intentionally - unwashed 14 minutes of pure old-school crust gold as the band further refined their crafty recipe. The first song "The other" opens with gloomy Amebix-like arpeggios and a creepy synth melody which I am a massive sucker for. There is nothing better than opening your crust record with synth as it immediate puts the listener in the adequate mood and announces that an epic apocalyptic story is going to unfold and that is precisely what you are here for. Following that lesson in crust preliminaries, the song explodes into a perfect exercise in mean thrashing stenchcore with appropriately anguished shouts. 

The next one is a short, fast and loud number, first reminiscent of vintage early Napalm Death and then in the second part of the song of Civilised Society? thanks to some great tuneful female vocals over some heavy mid-paced crust punk. And all of that in one minute. The next one, "A thousand sun (rise in reverse)" is absolute Amebixian epics with the typical dark pagan tribal beats and the classic Baron-like flow and accentuation. It is a beautifully dark and morose song. This song is tied to the following one, "Overcome with pain", with a short interlude that is daring to say the least as it is exactly the same as the opening to Deviated Instinct's "Possession" on Terminal Filth Stenchcore. Of course, if you have never heard this foundational work, you will just think that the idea to include some quite beautiful Anglican hymn (I'm guessing) works well just before a song about depression and alienation. And on that level, it does work well and makes sense strictly in term os the story-told. On a referential level, it is a bold move of referentiality that will have stenchcore lovers nod in unison and it also works and makes sense on that intertextual, storytelling level. As for the song itself it can be seen as a wicked reinterpretation of a song that could have been lifted from Rock'n'Roll Conformity, thrashing stench metal punk with something of a mean Anihilated touch. 

Finally their recording comes to an end with "Hammer of war", an apocalyptic crust scorcher that is not unlike '05 Hellshock. What makes the song so brilliant is its conclusion - that is also the conclusion to the side and the whole story - with the shouted repetition of "Hammer of war" over a filthy metallic crust riff, a bit like in late Antisect, until the voices and the music fade out into the void. Crusher stench rules.

On the other side of this split Lp the mighty Kaltbruching Acideath from Japan await. Let's tackle the elephant in the room straight away: it's a bit of a mouthful, an albatross of a name even, one I am still struggling to spell properly, which is somewhat humiliating since I was once a spelling bee champion - well it was more of a pub quizz but still. The name derives from a 12'' by a Canadian dark techno project called Huren (the work of one David Foster) and entitled Kaltbrüchig Acideath. Now I am utterly unknowledgeable about electronic music, I have never enjoyed it at all although I have been told it is a very diverse and fascinating world - and I am sure it is. The only tiny area of techno music I am vaguely aware of is the Exit Hippies/Death Dust Extractor/Abraham Cross harsh techno-noize turn and only out of curiosity and because of the ties to the Japanese crust scene. But anyway, David Foster, who lives in Berlin of course, is apparently a bit of an underground legend because of his participation in cult sonic projects from the early 90's on and of his role in the creation of the New York-based Zhark label, described in an article as a "High end low fi Motörhead driven squatter techno label". As I understand it the guy is a techno punk with links to the squatters movement who did dark and noisy challenging music. Of course, there is no strict sonic similarity between Kaltbruching Acideath and Kaltbrüchig Acideath. However, as unlikely as it sounds and that's where things get interesting, Foster definitely knows his shit when it comes to DIY Japanese crust. For example, a picture on his Discogs page shows a montage of him with the cover of the Natural Crust and Punk Force Noise Making compilation Ep from 1996 (it had Mental Disease, Order and Mindsuck and was reviewed on this elite punk blog here) with the caption "The system you hate is the system you support" which is a classic Crude SS slogan and there is a stenchcore-looking drawing in the background that I cannot quite identify (it's only a detail of it). On his Instagram page, there is another montage this time including a Framtid visual (as well as a picture of himself with a tired Lemmy). How unlikely is that? There must be a link that I am missing between the Japanese crasher noize crust scene and David Foster. Enlighten me please. 

Now that was a long digression. KA formed in the early 2010's and self-released two demos but I only heard about them through their first Ep Aural Carnage (a determined nod to Sore Throat's Aural Butchery since the word "carnage" is pasted over the word "butchery" on the cover) released on Hardcore Survives in 2017 and displaying a lovely Electro Hippies tribute on the cover in terms of visuals and layout. So you already know you are on holy ground. Musically KA work on a side of old-school grindy crust that is seldom explored with strong influences from the fabulous Prophecy of Doom (especially), early Napalm Death and early Bolt Thrower. Metallic, grinding and even death-metal-ish at times but keeping a dirty genuine noizecrust vibe. Their next recording saw the Tokyo-based lot improved on the aforementioned cavemen metal crust formula with a heavier, raw organic sound to die for - it sounds like you can almost smell it - and two hyperbolic Sore Throat-styled crustier-than-thou numbers for good measure. It is absolutely brilliant and I was lucky enough to see them live in 2018 and they completely destroyed it. Undeniably one of the best Japanese crust bands right now. My only reservation is the lengthy introduction that is basically the muffled sound of a Tokyo street (I presume) and does not really bring anything meaningful to the actual crust story. But it is only a minor criticism as KA are the real deal.

Revenge Records described KA as "grinding stench metal crust", Zygome as "anarcho stench crust", both bands as "total horrendous stench metal crust" and the album as a "mega terminal filth wimpcore split" and I guess that crust bingo sums it up nicely. One of the strongest crust records of the decade, easily, and one that is bound to become canonical at some point (you can be sure I will lobby for that). It was released on the ever reliable and solid Doomed To Extinction who, in merely two years, basically destroyed the crust game with the Instinct of Survival/Asocial Terror Fabrication split Lp, the IOS/Fatum split tape and this Kaltbruching Acideath/Zygome Lp. The cover of the split was drawn by Adam and epitomized what crust art is all about: heads on spike, an army of zombified punx, celtic frames, torn war banners... And an Easter egg: in this case the leader of the crust legion is wearing a ribbon at that says "crust" in the same lettering as the one displayed by Mid Deviated Instinct on the back of a jacket "back-in-the-day" and immortalised on the picture below.

On a much more serious note, this modest article is dedicated to Rosie, who was involved in Zygome, Outcry and other worthy bands and passed away in 2020. Of course, I never met her but still, the death of a committed punk, especially at such a young age, is always tragic and sad and even though I mostly rant and ramble about music on this blog in order to provide (hopefully) enjoyable reads, it is also important to commemorate our dead and not forget. 

Zygome / Kaltbruching Acideath