Reviews

Paranoid Northern Discs

偏執症者 (Paranoid) Out Raising Hell Outtakes LP

This is a mini-LP of outtakes from PARANOID’s latest full-length Out Raising Hell. Regrettably, I have not picked up that album yet, but this is very appetizing, recording/production-wise. Diminutive chords (thinking VISIONS also from Sweden) and death metal infernal riffing conjure VENOM, REPULSION, and POSSESSED, also reminding me of contemporaries BASTARD PRIEST and ELEGY. I first got into PARANOID when I reviewed their Cover of the Month cassette some years ago, and was completely stoked on their choices, raging from death metal and classic metal, to crust and mangel D-beat hardcore. PARANOID’s execution plays confidently within the thrash metal/D-beat spectrum, and they make it sound easy. All the gruesome hardcore punk disdain with giblets of old school death metal. This latest LP is clearly headbänger-for-känger.

偏執症者 (Paranoid) Possessed / Deserted Centuries 7″

If there’s one thing everyone has to acknowledge about PARANOID, it is that they are original and singular in a genre that strives on sameness and rules to survive. It’s not like they included reggaeton or chanson into their music, but from a rather classic, distorted, noizy käng unit, they have turned into a FROST-loving metallic Scandicore act (it is to be noted that PARANOID is a prolific bunch), and in the realms of DIY hardcore, it is considered as a big step. This 7″ was part of a series of five records with covers structured around a similar colour palette and template. “Possessed” / “Deserted Centuries” appears to be the only one of these with two mid-paced, old school metal songs and no fast bits, and while the Swedes are good at what they do, I have to admit I miss the faster hardcore punk moments. Still, a well-executed endeavour from people who have been doing this long enough to know what they are doing.

偏執症者 (Paranoid) Vanished Resilience / False Control 7″

偏執症者 continue to exert mastery over D-takt in a way that few others even approach. Of a piece aesthetically with a slew of recent releases, this two-song ripper embodies the band’s general imperative: the perfection of a craft. Distinct from so many dis-clones in form and function, I think of PARANOID as “boutique” D-beat. To the matter at hand, both tracks unsurprisingly rip. Upbeat and punk forward on both accounts, the topside “Vanished Resilience” contains a fun trick where they switch from a fast, raging D-beat to a slower (still raging) D-beat. It may sound minor, but this is exactly the type of punk acrobatics that a lesser band would never consider, much less pull off so seamlessly. If you’re not sufficiently lured in by the rad art, this moment alone makes for required listening.