Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 21): REGIMEN DE TERROR "S/t" Ep, 2023

This is going to be the last part of this wonderful series and I won't probably be writing about d-beat for a good few years because I have officially run out of epithets and attributes to qualify this peculiar emphatically and crucially redundant punk subgenre. And to wrap this all up, I would like to introduce you to what was undoubtedly my favourite d-beat record of 2023: Regimen de Terror's second Ep. 

A couple of years ago I did a compilation entitled The Beat to End All Beats (that was incidentally removed from youtube for "inappropriate content" which is pretty hilarious considering all the turds floating around on this platform) illustrating the explosion of the d-beat trend from the early 90's to the mid 00's. Well, if you will pardon a self-reference, this Ep could be considered as "the d-beat to end all d-beats". From all the records that I tackled in this series, Regimen de Terror's is not just the one that sounds the most just like Discharge, as it can be argued that it is not humanly possible (I shudder at the thought of what AI could do to our D) to sound closer to Discharge (in the present case to Why). The quest has never been deprived of contenders, some very talented ones getting undeniably close to the Holy Grail, but this two-piece might take the cake and have almost achieved something that is both the ultimate goal to reach and yet an unthinkable taboo: actually sounding just like Discharge. Do we really want a band that actually sounds just like Discharge? Or just love the idea of it? Do we just want bands who strive and crave to achieve the unachievable, something both romantic and rather unreasonable that cannot and must not be achieved? Isn't the journey and the struggle, the process, the cult, the quest the whole point? What happens if the coyote finally catches the roadrunner? A feeling of pointlessness or the sentiment of victory and satisfaction? 

In any case, Regimen de Terror is a two man operation run by Mikel from Spain and none other than Janne Jutila, a d-beat legend (he's on the drums obviously) who played in Time Square Preachers or Dismachine and owns D-takt studio. He was in charge of the mixing and mastering and you can tell he knows how to express his abundant love for Discharge. I mean, the man lives and breaths d-beat, he probably had "Decontrol" as his wedding song for all I know. To be fair, strong, energetic and dynamic is the actual Discharge beat on this Ep and he does not stray from the canonical path (the one and only "undischargy" moment is the Japanese style opening roll on "Visiones del futuro" but I am being picky). The riffs are straight out of Why and are played with conviction and aggression. The vocals are in Spanish, which, because of the sonorities and scansion of the language, brings some classic local dis-bands to the table, but to be honest, they sound a lot more like Cal holidaying in Barcelona than MG15. The accentuation is superb and confers to the songs a genuine and almost disturbing Discharge vibe. Inside the paroxysmal restrictive obsession of d-beat, Regimen de Terror manage to create an even narrower path, almost touching the last pint glass that Cal drank out of during the last gig of the Why lineup (the d-beat equivalent of the Holy Grail for Christians). The quest might be a shibboleth but if it were to be achieved, would the gates of Hell actually open?

This very fun, very angry, very energetic raw d-beat Ep was released on La Vida Es Un Mus (because Paco deep down loves his "just-like-Discharge" d-beat) and I am sure you can find it easily. 

Regimen de d-beat terror 

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part ): SMELL CORPSES "5 track" tape Ep, 2022

If there is one thing that punk taught me - beside the fact that poor hygiene can be considered a proof of one's dedication to the movement by platinum punks (to my mother's eternal despair, I must say) - it is that it's an international movement. One that we should value for it. While the random wanker on the street will probably only listen to popular mainstream American pop music and its local equivalent (because who doesn't want to be American?), the proud punk, the one who cares, who connects, who is blissfully oblivious to basic tuning and fiercely unbothered with dodgy musicianship, will fearlessly strive to discover noisy music that most people won't listen to anyway, done by fellow punks all around the planet. The knowledge that we are part of a worldwide DIY underground movement always felt quite glorious and vertiginous at the same time. Sycophantic me, I know.

But how is that possible in a world that looks so fragmented, polarized, dislocated, dangerous, rooted in prejudice, fear and high shipping costs? There is no easy answer to this but I am sure clever people who have been provided with grants from official institutions to explore this issue as part of their PHD program and publish a thesis that no actual punks are going to read will come up with something major. In the meantime here is my pissant take on the subject: punks basically share a common language. In spite of all our differences, we understand the language of punk. Because of the tremendous diversity of backgrounds, we all have specific stories to tell and there is no denying the very real impact that historical processes, to be understood materialistically, have had on all of us. Living conditions, gender, race, poverty, national origins, all define and sometimes divide us and even I am not enough of a naive zealot to believe that owning a Doom patch suddenly makes everything alright. And yet, we share a tacit common language, a common set of cultural references, shared DIY practices, a penchant for spiky hair and the habit of being chased down the streets by hard blokes on mopeds. And we all love Discharge, right?

Whenever I hear the average vapid Joe (or Olaf or Carlos or Piotr or Jean or however dull people are idiosyncratically known as in your area) claims that he listens to "a bit of everything" when what he really means is that he listens to any old crap that he is subjected to when shopping at Asda, I feel like getting my Smell Corpses tape out of my pocket and make him listen to it while patronizingly explaining that this is my version of listening to a bit of everything: the usual d-beat raw punk formula tastefully done by a punk band from Thailand. I'm sure this was what Marx meant when he claimed that workers of the world should unite.   

So Smell Corpses are from Thailand, from Phisanulok to be accurate, in the North of the country (not that I would initially have known since I have never been) and this delightful recording of d-beat raw punk seems to be their first gift to the Gods of D. Or is it? The band also appeared on a DVD compilation released in 2018 entitled Kawakami Forever 2017 and including Singapore-based bands like Lifelock or Braincëll who have already been dealt with on Terminal Sound Nuisance. Of course, I am going in circles but who isn't? As for the present recording, it was originally self-released as a cdr in 2018 and reissued on tape first in 2021 on the Japanese label Harimau Asia (who also released material from The Rebel Riot from Burma) and then in 2022 on Full Force Hardcore Destruction, a reliable label responsible for tapes from Lifelock or Declaration, both bands that already paid a visit to this series. As I said, going in circles.

With such honourable connections, the careful reader will have understood that Smell Corpses deal in noisy d-beat with a taste for distortion and for the Japanese style. The production is, indeed, quite raw and unpolished but it conveys a sense of urgency and direction that fits the genre. I am reminded of the early days of D-Clone and Contrast Attitude in its most primitive form (the vocals do not lie) but the band still keeps that nightmarish hypnotic vibe that characterizes the Disclose sound or indeed that of Disease. Of course I like it a lot. The last two songs are sung in the Thai language and I have to say it is the first time I hear a punk band in this language and it sounds great and completely d-beat compatible. 

This tape is for the d-beat raw punk diehards, for people who like it noisy and genuine and who support the international d-beat mafia. If you are brave enough the band the Thai label Inhuman Assault released Smell Corpses' second tape Slaughter Still Continues in 2023. Trigger warning: it might harm posers.

SMELL CORPSES

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

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

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

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

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

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

Burning//D-Beat World

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 17): DISABLE "...Slamming in the Depths of Hell" Ep, 2020

Surprisingly, only two punks bands, to my all-encompassing knowledge, went for the name "Disable" despite the very punk-compatible implications of the meaning and the presence of the crucial dis prefix: one from Łódź and one from Atlanta (which we will cover today). It is unlikely the latter ever heard of the former since the Polish Disable were mainly known locally and only released a cdr demo in 2003, although they were also active for a little while in the mid-90's (it had members of Homomilitia and Lost so it's quality stuff and was recently reissued if you are not a poser). Therefore our Americans must have felt pretty good about themselves with this apparently still available moniker. And if you will allow a cheesy dad joke I take full responsibility for, Disable are definitely able to Dis.

I don't know whether the Atlantans are still going strong - they hopefully are - but their first demo was released as early as 2010 so that they can be said to have been relatively experimented in the D-game when this Ep came out. Arguably, Disable is a perfect example of a typical 2010's d-beat band. They could never be said to be main-eventers - like a Physique for instance - but they certainly belonged to the upper-mid-card if I may use a wrestling metaphor. This might have to do with their town of origin, Atlanta, which, from an outsider's perspective at least, cannot really be said to have a "punk town" status and nowhere as authoritatively cool as New York or Portland or Richmond these days. In any case, they enjoyed some nice records and notably a split with the ever prolific Warvictims from Sweden but I see ...Slamming in the Depths of Hell as their crowning glory, and not just because of the unsubtle Discharge reference in the title.

The past decade saw a formidable shift in the d-beat subgenre and the roots of this evolution that took this hardcore punk philosophical praxis by storm can be found in the 00's, with bands like No Fucker or Contrast Attitude for instance. This transitional decade was not particularly rich in strict "just like" d-beat bands, possibly because everybody had gotten bored with the 90's d-beat wave that had heavily lost steam by the 00's and I suppose people just did not see much point in mimicking Discharge beside a couple of nerd-focused exceptions like Warcry. The glorious comeback in the 2010's was different because, whereas bands mostly concentrated on Discharge imitation before, the new breed went heavily for Disclose's and distortion and a cult for the band and Kawakami rapidly developed. They became a legend. A band whose d-beat style was once rather unique suddenly turned into a significant source of inspiration and I believe Disable illustrates this move (they don't use not one but two different Disclose fonts for nothing) along with bands like Disease or Aspects of War which we have already tackled in this series.

Disable started out as a much rawer and primitive affair and guitar player Jeremy (who left the band at some point) originally handled much of the vocals while on ...Slamming in the Depths of Hell bass player Ben is in charge of the shouting and screaming during and possibly after the gig. To be honest, I prefer Ben's voice to Jeremy's as it is lower-pitched and sounds closer to the original Discharge impersonators and bands like Cracked Cop Skulls and even Hellkrusher or Final Warning or maybe Varukers (a British vocal vibe, but I could be going deaf too). And you know I am a sucker for doubled vocals in my d-beat and in this case it confers an old-school feel to an otherwise pretty modern take on the distorted d-beat style. There is a lot of Disclose in the mix ("duh" as Gen Z's would probably agree) but Disable do add some dis-crasher influence as well, especially in the drumming and the use of pedals and Japanese bands like D-Clone or Contrast Attitude are lurking in a quite visible background. I like it a lot and the mid-paced "False flag" is a wonderful idea although it might have been wiser to put it on the other side. A very solid Ep released on Brain Slash and Audacious Madness, a then very young label I am very fond of.  

Finally this writeup would be incomplete if I did not mention the split with Warvictims. It did sound odd when I listened to it for the first time and for good reason (so I am not completely deaf after all). As the band explained on bandcamp "the songs were all sped up in order to compensate for the excess length of the tracks" which is one of the punkest I have ever read about a record. Noise not music indeed.

Slamming in the depths of dis

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 14): HELLISH VIEW "Reaper's hand" Ep, 2019

I like Hellish View. I think what they do is good and they are good at what they are striving to do. With them picking a Disclose song as a moniker, the only punters they are likely to attract and entice to spend a tenner on a record are the ones already converted to the D, the risks of one being fundamentally disappointed with the band's work are therefore slim. They can't be said to promise the moon but at least they are not lying about the menu.

Unless you conceive the warmest passion for d-beat raw punk, not just for the music but also for the foundational web of references, the lexical articulations and the visual semiotics, Hellish View will probably sound like a bear family trying to play musical instruments for the first time (not an unpleasant program in itself, for me at least). Reaper's Hand provides the casual d-beat listener, the passerby of the D, with a decent slice of "noise not music" gruff primitive d-beat while still accommodating the aficionados with the validation of the genre's prerequisites. The style's specifications are respected, the crucial boxes proverbially ticked. To switch to a language even the dimwitted among us are capable to understand (there can't be many here, Terminal Sound Nuisance is definitely a high-brow, if ineffably highfalutin, reading experience), this Ep is a scorcher or, like old-school American punks would say, "rad".

Hellish View are from Minneapolis and like a lot of the most fanatical d-beat bands (the Disease and Dispose of this world) are quite prolific with two demo tapes, three Ep's and three split Ep's since 2017. I like the idea of obstinate inflexible bands who keep recording and producing against all odds, especially in such a confidential genre. They are doing it for the love and lovers of it. Or maybe they just lost a bet in high-school and the local bully ordered them to play d-beat until the end of time or else. Minneapolis stands as a legendary punk town with absolute classic bands like Misery, Destroy!, the fanzine Profane Existence and some solid contemporary bands like Hope? so emerging from such a place could be an advantage for a band since you are bound to find like-minded people who know what you are on about when raving over Disclose for way too long. They probably do not tend to run away over the fallacious pretext that walking Ben Sherman commercials are getting on stage like in Paris. However, even amidst the plethoric offer of Minneapolis punk-rock, there have never been a proper d-beat band, one relying solely on the the strict cannon so that Hellish View can be seen as something of a novelty in this context.

This young and studded three-piece do love playing, cheekily and affectionately, with the traditions. While it would be too long to analyze thoroughly the evolution of their sound - but let's just say that they went from a cave d-beat raw punk to a more Disclose-infused d-beat raw punk but I suppose it's just because they learnt to play better - I still have to give credit for some song titles from the disbones-ish 2021 demo tape that illustrate my point like "Protest and revive" or "Assholes (of the fucking leaders)". But what about Reaper's Hand in particular? 

The Ep does a perfect job at blending Aspects of War-era and Disbones-era Disclose (which it does say on the cover) with Decontrol's primal fury (the gruff vocals tonally sound like the perfect mix of both) and something of Shitlickers and Anti-Cimex as well. It has that galloping unpolished distorted d-beat quality that I have grown to love when it's done well. The songwriting is classic indeed but the opening APOD displays some adventurousness as it is a slow-paced but groovy number that made me think of Discharge's vintage mid-paced moments but played at the wrong speed, which is, bizarrely, a compliment here. If the lyrics deal with the usual "wars, death and destruction" trope, it has to be said that the two songs on Reaper's Hand are about Gaza and the plight of the Palestinians which has never been as tragically relevant. 

This slice of delightful fan service done with heart and dedication was released on the very fine local Desolate Records in 2019 and can still be found floating in some tasteful distros I suppose. Did I mention that Hellish View use a cracking logo with a reworking of the Discharge logo but with a crow instead of a face? Now that's creativity.

HELLISH VIEW              

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 12): LIFE LOCK "2018 E.P." Ep, 2019

Little do people know (or care to) that, beside this Singapore lot, there are two other bands with a similar name: a melodic hardcore Lifelock from Turkey and some sort of depressive and dark Bathory-Cimex metal-punk act Lifelöck from Brazil (with a tape called A Non Nuclear Nightmare which is an odd title for an evil band since it is officially the best sort of nightmare). As far as I know, none of these three bands have been sued by Doom for the use of the name of one of their top songs which is a relief (I swear this will be the only crust-related dad joke of the review). What would we become without Discogs? You can't escape record porn.

I don't suppose the Istambulis were thinking about Doom (and after all the phrase "life lock" is meaningful without being tied to a preexisting reference), the Brazilians must certainly have and the Singaporeans just did without hesitation, naturally, like a stud flying instinctively toward a punk leather jacket. Still, even though the nod to Doom must be factored in, Life Lock cannot be defined as Doom-like. Of course, lovers of the Brummies will feel at home with Life Lock - after all both share a common love for things of the D - but their respective program diverge. This review is not meant to explore the roots of Doom, that'd be an ambitious endeavour as we often tend to overlook where the legendary band's music originates from since they are more often seen as influencer rather than influencee. But let's just throw here that they initially intended to work on the gruffest side of 80's Swedish hardcore (Svart Parad, Asocial and all). Life Lock do not although they, rather cheekily, used Doom's cloud logo as the cover of the first version of the present Ep, a self-released tape (to be fair Abraham Cross played the same trick in the 90's). Life Lock have always been pretty clear about their main sources of joy: Disaster and Disclose.

Such a masterplan is straight-forward enough but it does require a songwriting flair for the simple but perfect riffs, vocal pattern, distortion level and primitive drum beat, things that Life Lock clearly demonstrates. They remain faithful to the source material with a "wall of noise not music" vibe expressed through blatant but always loving Disaster and Disclose rip-offs. Even more accurate perhaps would be the theory that Life Lock is the answer to the question "What if Disclose had been a radical Disaster-worship act?". This is an existential interrogation, the kind of which often arises after a collective boozing session at 2am. Definitely after the gig. Even if your hearing and eyesight are not what they used to be, the Ep is replete with Disaster references. Life Lock cover "Devastation" (sample included), use the Disaster font to write their own name, the first song "Our glorious(?) dead" directly refers to Disaster's "Glorious?", "Hell's inferno" to the line "Hellish inferno" in Disaster's "Inferno". Being fair play, Life Lock do indicate "Thanks to Disaster" on the backcover and the song "Grows in fear" is more akin to a blissfully obvious Disclose tribute. Who said d-beat was a one-trick pony?

This marvelous Ep was recorded in 2018 and released on Brain Solvent Propaganda and Symphony of Destruction. I haven't been able to get an idea of how active the band was or maybe still is. They did release a handful of tape, among which the quite manifest and rhetorical Who'll Make Noise Not Music?!! in 2010 (with a recreation of Discharge's iconic first Ep but with "Disaster" painted at the bottom of a studded jacket, in case you needed to be reminded of where they were heading toward) and And For What (you know what they mean, yeah?) with an even nerdier cover using the very same picture of the two armed soldiers as Disaster used, except these soldiers, instead of the perfectly acceptable gasmask faces, now have the cabbage heads of Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing. What a combo. 

The Singapore scene has proven to a new wider audience to be very dynamic and lively for the past 10 years with bands like Siäl and Lubricant being quite successful abroad and needless to say that punk 2.0 certainly contributed to that well-deserved interest. However, one must not forget that Singapore punks have been playing noisy crust and d-beat (and more generally hardcore) for a long time as solid bands like Minus, Blinded Humanity or Pazahora (members of which play in the aformentioned Siäl) can attest. For those ready to nerd out, I recommend giving a listen to the Singapore Punk Holocaust compilation cd released sometime in the 00's.

But in the meantime blast some Life Lock, arguably the Disclosest band to Disaster. 

LIFE LOCK

 

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 11): DECADE "A Deadly Game of Make Believe" Ep, 2018

People who claim that Discharge-mimicking bands all sound the same are both right and wrong, although they are probably sorry to be right but wrong to believe they are. Well, partly. But at the end of the (domes)day it all depends if you are trying to express praise or contempt, approval or blame. On the one hand, you could very well mean that the bands all sound the same just as they should in a wonderful communion of love for Stoke-on-Trent antiheroes, their intentionally strong similarities illustrating a punk togetherness that has few, if any, comparisons in the music world. Or, on the other hand, you could very well mean that Discharge-loving bands all sound the same because they are uninspired, incapable of writing their own music and see originality as a cardinal sin. It really is a matter of perspective, two antithetic ways to look at the phenomenon.

But a band may very well rhapsodize about Discharge and yet not sound like a d-beat band. It sounds ludicrous but is not. Deathcharge's Plastic Smiles was a case in point with three copies of Discharge songs free of the infamous beat. A bit of a cheeky endeavour I suppose. Still, Plastic Smiles referred to those Discharge's mid-paced numbers that belonged to the acceptable era of the band, namely between 1980 and 1982, so that even though the D was not technically beaten, the Ep did worship at the right altar. As much as I would like to pretend that Discharge stopped in 1984, they did not and if Warning and The More I see can be considered as amusingly cheesy metallic punk records that retrospectively sound quite adorable, like listening to an elderly person try to use modern slang, inflicting the pompous Grave New World upon the punk world was far less forgivable and basically shitting the already damaged bed. Modernity, in its inscrutability, has seen the rise of bands claiming that they actually enjoyed this era of Discharge and strive to emulate the grave new beat. 

Is it postmodern irony? Fanaticism gone wrong? An unhealthy passion for perms? A bad diet with deficiencies in d-beat minerals? Who knows, but it sounds like ordering tap water at the pub on a first date. But after all Final Bombs have always loved and emulated mid-80's Discharge and even though I find the music absolutely revolting, I really do respect the passion. But what do I know about good taste, I cantillate to Blyth Power in the shower. In any case, there is no denying that a band such as Final Bombs love Discharge (and love is very deaf) as much as a band such as Meanwhile. Do they sound alike? Absolutely not. 

Among the current bands wearing their love for the Discharge era that was once taboo on their sleeves are Decade from Toronto, fine dis lovers mostly known these days for their appetence for Grave New World (as can be witnessed on their daring World Stopped Turning Lp and the rather good split Lp with Fatum). They started as a much more traditional d-beat unit such as can be heard on their first Ep, the brilliantly entitled A Deadly Game of Make Believe. I knew Decade before they turned "grave" and was well impressed upon hearing them for the first time. A Dead Game was originally released on Runstate Tapes, a Montreal-based label that specializes in cassettes of often small bands with an inclination for noisy raw hardcore and has been responsible for many good releases since 2013. The proper punk spirit if you know what I mean. This Decade recording was so punishing and relentless that it inevitably got reissued on vinyl through Rawmantic Disasters from Berlin (the name of the label includes both "raw" and "dis" so I suppose nobody will feel aggrieved if I don't detail further its field of expertise). 

From the opening of the gates, Decade unleash the fucking fury here and they are not messing around. Pummeling and dark Hear Nothing-era d-beat hardcore (think early Disfear and the "just-like-Discharge" 90's school) played with an intensity that few bands are able to reach. Classic riffs, a buzzing bass and drums well in front in the mix. However, as Discharge-inspired as Decade rightly demand to be seen, the band manages to infuse some originality to the otherwise aptly executed, tried and tested orthodox d-beat formula. There is a vibe of dementia and madness in Decade's music, a sense of pervading insanity blending with the customary anger the subgenre is based on. 

Through the addition of samples, noisy arrangements, interludes and transitions, saturated guitar effects (bordering on so-called noisepunk) and peculiar vocals, Decade do stand out. Of course, the vocals will cause the listener a Marmite reaction: you will love it or hate it. I have to admit I disliked it at first as I did not find it really contribute anything to the otherwise excellent "we <3 Discharge" record and thought it merely emphasized the fact that they were dicking around with too many vocal effects pedals. It was fantastic when Destino Final did it but it did get old quick and it still remains a major flaw in far too many contemporary raw punk bands. But playing the Ep again and listening closely I realized that indeed the vocals were not just gratuitous but actually conveyed an atmosphere of extreme dementia that can be found in some Japanese bands. I assume the intended effect was to bring some volatility and a slightly different edge by playing with the vocal and guitar textures and the traditional d-beat songwriting. May the aficionados have no fear though, Decade still very much rely on high referentiality and strict obedience to the Discharge rulebook. They just took some liberty with it and quite possibly had some psychedelic tea beforehand.

A Deadly Game of Make Believe stands as a fun d-beat Ep and one that I often go back to although it did not really hit me at first. Decade get to tell a very familiar story in a slightly different way here and they have to be commanded for it. Would it work on a full length? Well, I would have loved to see them try but this is highly unlikely to happen. As for the cover, it's not exactly bloodcurdling but the level of cheesiness is high (it does remind one of Ignorance or Thisclose actually) and I cannot help but think that it heralded the grave new venturesome Decade. It must be the shades and the arm-crossing contest.

A deadly game of make Discharge

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 10): ASPECTS OF WAR "A Look Into the Nightmare" tape Ep, 2017

Aspects of War is the epitome of a band that does everything by the book. Not any book: the book of the D. This legendary punk codex is the equivalent of the Necronomicon but for people who like Discharge too much - although both readerships fall under the "nerd" category - as its deeper meaning can only be understood by initiates, higher level d-beat fans. It includes Holy d-beat scriptures with the Ten Commandments that must be respected at all costs by Dis nerds if they don't want to end up in Hell where, it is rumoured, one is subjected to shoegaze music for eternity. Beautiful illustrations and parables dating as far back as 1981 also show the way toward the d-beat epiphany to the flock of believers. 

How neat would that be, yeah? If there was such an oeuvre, Aspects of War would have reread it a couple of times just before recording A Look Into the Nightmare. Don't be fooled by the simple tape format, it is a flawless collections of four songs that could be shown to students following a D-Beat 201 class where they will learn about the distorted subspecies of the genre (the corpus is brilliant in this class). Aspects of War were an essentially 2010's band in the sense that they have to be approached through a diachronic lens rather than a synchronic one. The 2010's were a decade during which the Disclose worship, or rather the Kawakami adoration, boomed with an astounding parochial fervor. Previously discussed bands like Dispose or Disease are also to be seen from this perspective, and it can be argued that No Fucker were among the first, if not the first, non-Japanese band to theorize the Disclose-styled d-beat raw punk. From the status of unique band with its distinct style, Disclose became a blueprint for a specific d-beat style postmortem and Aspects of War were one of the noise unit that applied the protocol with dexterous determination and picked the name of a Disclose Ep as a moniker just to make sure that you get it. 

The studded four-piece started in 2010 and threw the towel around 2017. The band were from the Boston area which proves that you don't have to were trainers to play hardcore punk in this town. The lineup included Jake from Nerveskade or Zatsuon and Chris who ran the very good but sadly inactive label Brain Solvent Propaganda, while Devin and Trevor also played in the noisier crasher band Ambush (who did a solid flexi in 2014), so that you can say the boys already partook heavily in noise-making punk activities. Like a proper d-beat band on a mission, Aspects of War got to work with two raw demo tapes, Total Disfuckers in 2010 and the hilariously titled In Order to Satisfy Their Mania For Conquest Punks Are Squandered the next year (this open self-awareness combined with apropos references stands as another aspect of 2010's d-beat) before releasing the superior The Presence of Death Ep and a split with Contrast Attitude both in 2014 and a split with System Fucker and a flexi the next year, vinyl appearances that saw the band take things to a different level of brutality.

Beside a strict adherence to the d-beat raw punk canon, the strong point of Aspects of War was that they always managed to sound both raw and energetic. Sometimes Disclose-influenced bands rely too much on distorsion and effects and unconsciously forget the most crucial element in hardcore punk: the energy and dynamism. Disclose were never just about distortion, their songs were all angry declarations of love to Discharge and Discharge-loving 80's bands and in that sense Disclose were almost like a sonic filter through which these influences were transformed. And Aspects of War, like No Fucker, got that dimension just right. They balanced raw punk textures with simple but effective Dischargish songwriting with ease and A Look Into the Nightmare stood as their aptest release on that level because it reflected this balance perfectly. 

The early demos may be cruder and more primitive, the brilliant split with Contrast Attitude cleaner (well...) and more "produced", but this parting gift proved to be my favourite, not just because I got it for cheap. Three fast d-beat raw punk numbers reminiscent of Disclose (they are not called Aspects of War for nothing) No Fucker or even Final Massakre (especially the vocals) and classic 80's bands (The Iconoclast notably) and a mid-paced Discharge one to wrap it up. Eight minutes of Dis perfection. The North American version was released on Brain Solvent Propaganda for the Varning festival and the European one was done by Voice From Inside. Good shit indeed. 

ASPECTS OF D-BEAT

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

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

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

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

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

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

War is still horrendous