For review and radio play consideration:
Please send vinyl (preferred), CD, or cassette releases to MRR, PO Box 3852, Oakland, CA 94609, USA. Maximum Rocknroll wants to review everything that comes out in the world of underground punk rock, hardcore, garage, post-punk, thrash, etc.—no major labels or labels exclusively distributed by major-owned distributors, no reviews of test pressings or promo CDs without final artwork. Please include contact information and let us know where your band is from!
What’s happening to America when high school kids begin producing industrial music? It has to be an encouraging trend. I didn’t much care for their voice-oriented material; yet, the instrumental sections here are sometimes haunting and effective, spanning a wide variety of experimental styles. More, I say!
This is definitely independent and underground. This guy records on a low budget with a $15 mic and gets a sound that is 100% better than anything PUBLIC IMAGE has released in five years. Even though it’s basically a one-man show, the playing here is surprisingly cohesive and loose at the same time.
Do you think that if I give this a bad review, G.G. ALLIN will stop sending me something new to review every issue? Probably not, but it’s worth a try. Here goes: The only thing smaller than this guy’s brain is his dick, which he tries to overcompensate for by writing pathetic songs (four of ’em here) of sexual degeneration. Wishes he were IGGY, but his ego’s too big to accept such “small-time” status. Okay, G.G., send the next one…
I hear this is the first of many politically oriented “unity” HC compilations to come out of Mortarhate. (I think it’s Mortarhate; it’s hard to tell from the disc and cover.) It’s an admirable sentiment, unifying activist punks with other movements, but it’s not the sentiment alone that’s good here. The tracks shred. Excellent, it includes BROKEN BONES, POTENTIAL THREAT, INSTIGATORS, VARUKERS, LOST CHERREES, MALINHEADS, DEZERTER, and lost more, many previously unreleased.
Incredibly powerful Swedish compilation that features 37 songs by 14 bands. Hard-hitting with lots of thrash rhythms, you’ll experience variations of hardcore from fast, turbulent explosions to raw, gut-crunching scorchers. Furious fun from INGRON HUTLOS, MOB 47, NYX NEGATIV, ASOCIAL IRTS, SÖTLIMPA, KRIXHJALTERS, DISTRUST, and more. This is one to check out. Really good.
Some very poor recording mars what were probably some very exciting live moments for the four bands that appear on here; SYSTEMATIC DEATH, GHOUL, GASTUNK, and the CLAY turn in several tracks each, but…too bad.
Action packed chaos grooved into spasmic colored vinyl. Quick charges of lightning-paced thrash with jubilant tempos and grinding assaults featuring eight German bands doing fourteen sonic bursters. INFERNO, ROTTING CARCASS, CERESIT 81, BOLKOTTZ, WOT, MANIACS, and more deliver some crucial sounds that exhilarate to the fullest.
Like most compilations, a little spotty. RAW POWER starts off and blows away all the competition. Their sound here is sooooo much better than their first LP, as they showcase their breakneck stop-and-start sound with vocals literally spit out through your speakers. RAPPRESAGLIA and PEDAGO PARTY both go for a more popular thrash sound. The other band, RIVOLTA DELL’ODIO, has a slower art-damaged sound.
The Melbourne, Australia equivalent to Bullshit Detector, where you get good recordings by eleven of Australia’s hottest hardcore performers. The prizes include double tracks by CIVIL DISSIDENT, who undoubtedly are one of the three best Australian bands, and intense stuff by I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVY, who thrash it with humor. Plus excellent tracks by END RESULT, VICIOUS CIRCLE, BODIES, MURDER MURDER SUICIDE, and more. A very quality effort, you can see the heart behind this!
It’s that punk/Oi (skunk) sound that’s so popular in France. Here we have a muddily recorded indie release with four bands, two of which produce mediocre examples of the genre (DISTURB and TOXIK), one a good example (OFFENSIVE), and the other an excellent example (KIDNAP). The song by the latter is “1984,” the song Jeff wanted to put on our Welcome to 1984 LP.
Pus and I often have minor musical differences, so I was hoping for the opportunity to take a friendly swipe at the old headbanger’s international thrash-oriented compilation. But I’m having a hard time because it’s a fucking good record. Some of the groups here are among my favorites (like 7 SECONDS and MOB 47) and the selections are usually up the best of each band’s standard, so I’ll just have to bite my tongue and get into these vicious slabs of cranium-crunching mayhem, etc. Kudos to GENOCIDE EXPRESS, SIEGE, and even HOLY DOLLS.
A good value, this cassette features a clutch of Cleveland bands (CIVILIAN TERRORISTS, LURID, JIPPO, PESTILANCE, and PLAGUE) and just under 30 songs. The sound quality’s good, the music even better—and this tape (as well as future ones in this series) comes with a fanzine, stickers, etc. if you send $1.35 to No Fun.
This is a really quick overview of the SoCal industrial/difficult music scene. You get just about everything on this tape, including psychos like JOHN TRUBEE, DEBT OF NATURE, and BRENT WILCOX to CABARET VOLTAIRE/CHROME-sound artists like PIERRE LAMBOW and RANDALL KENNEDY. Comes in a real classy cardboard package with booklet.
Four bands share this first release by Depression zine. LATIN DOGS (political thrash) and TOXIC ATTITUDE (garage thrash) are both recorded live at a “lawn party.” THE LIPS ARE BACK (older punk) and EDDIE & THE WOLFGANG (garage) round out the release. LATIN DOGS are definitely the best of the lot.
Some extremely fast-paced punk here that’s both tuneful and rips. Worth checking out—I hope they do a record.
Both sides have their catchy, drawing aspects—slow, grinding, powerful, dark tunes, skillfully and menacingly done. At times, the female vocals get a bit too “pretty” for me, but overall, for this kind of material, it’s good.
Basically, this German group mines that same lode that EDDIE & THE HOT RODS did years ago. Still, with the hard-charging guitars and nifty melodies you might find yourself singing along to these full-throttle rockers. This band has a simple but good formula on this record that works.
Another “unity” appeal from AFRIKA BOMBAATAA, this time in conjunction with John Lydon. The result is a rap/punk modern-day “Eve of Destruction.” Infectious, but Mr. Rotten doesn’t seem quite believable to me.
Sort of jaunty early punk sounding. These three songs sort of remind me of RADIO STARS or something like that. Lyrics are simply fun-oriented. From Japan.
A bad ’77-sounding band from Japan. Bad Johnny Rotten vocals, bad reggae. Nice cover, though.
Some very fast-paced punk with good tunes, plenty of back-up vocals and choruses, and driving but simple guitar. Sounds like the BRISTLES, in that there’s a heavy UK influence.
A very hot performance from their US tour of last year, but unfortunately the sound quality makes you feel like you’re in the bathroom at the On Broadway instead of up front. Actually, it’s not quite that bad, but it isn’t good enough to do this band justice.
Decent but unspectacular ’77 UK-style punk. I’ve come to expect specialness from Japanese releases, but there’s no imagination here.
Putting off their venture into haiku til the next release, this eight-song job is more like their slower previous material, but more sparse and less powerful. There are even funk rhythms mixed in here, and overall, I’d have to say that the “magic” seems to be gone from this particular outing. (Comes with a flexi that sounds better than the album.)
With a side “Shit” and a side “Fuck,” it isn’t too hard to figure out the gist of their style; as the run-off groove says, “The SPORES are a bunch of fun guys!” Here, they’ve managed to take the better elements of English funnypunk and fuse it with a raw Canadian sound. On the title track, they sound something like Dave MDC singing with ISM.
There’s a decided ’50s rockabilly meets ’60s punk meets ’70s punk here; the hottest track is a cover of the BEACHNUTS’ (early REED and CALE) “Drivin’ Me Insane.”
A very hot little tape, showcasing this Mexican HC outfit in a live show. The sound quality is just OK, but good enough to give you an idea of how tight and powerful they can be. People who’ve seen them live certainly concur.
Imagine, if you will, a bass guitar, drums, and sax fighting with sick vocals in a messy thrash format. Imagine 19 songs, some as short as ten seconds, delivered in under four minutes. The lyrics are viciously anti-religious and pro-vegetarian, but this is still a very unusual package.
Mod to the max. OK, but nothing new (surprise!). Do I have to go on?
Sparse punk, done at slow-to-medium pace, verging on atmospheric post-punk. Sounds a bit like early SIOUXSIE and many successive imitators. I imagine the lyrics are all-important here, knowing the label, but I’ve got no inkling as to their meaning.
Containing a good many of the songs from their under-produced Italian LP, these new recordings are a whole lot better done, and should help these lads out a lot when they return to tour North America this summer. There’s an increasingly heavy metal guitar influence, but the pounding thrash still predominates.
Three pretty uninspiring skunk tunes. “Danse” is the catchiest of the lot, but overall it’s pretty limp stuff.
PÖBEL MÖBEL is a very gruff-vocaled thrash band—sort of a less-metal GISM. AHM are similar in approach, though less nasty vocally, and a bit more melodic—but still quite on the powerful HC side of things—and also sounding a bit German to me. Both groups are tight!
A new EP’s worth of chunky thrash from one of Brazil’s premier hardcore outfits. There’s one studio side featuring both their excellent “theme” song, with its distinctive guitar riff, and another piledriver; the flip contains three less-appealing, roughly recorded live cuts. But since the studio material is killer stuff that satisfies all expectations, you should look for this one.
This is great! These two releases are both from Germany and both attempt a fun sort of pop/psychedelic sound. It isn’t until you look really close at their pictures that you can figure out that they’re the same band. The DEVILS’ record is more fun in the area of LILIPUT or the REVILLOS, while the VAMPIRES give a heartfelt, humorous nod to early VENTURES-inspired spaghetti-Western themes; the flip is like the LYRES and DMZ.
One side has three excellently produced and delivered, driving thrash numbers with a hot female vocalist. The B-side, “Wounded Knee,” is a more percussive, slower, but tough song with some really gruff male vocals. A good one. (N.J.F. stands for NEGRO JAZZ FUNERAL, not NEW JERSEY’S FINEST.)
Most of the nine songs are very long, garage-production, older-style punk. I can’t understand German, but if the accompanying letter was any indication of the intelligence of lyrics, then they’re quite well thought out.
A tough-sounding rhythm-box punk record, harkening back to a more diverse era. In fact, these guys do date back to ’79 (though they admit they didn’t learn to play till ’81). Interesting. (Usually, this is a code-word for “bad, but they tried to be different.” In this case, it’s genuinely cool.)
Dig sends me this gem. I expected something completely different, instead I get this power thrash attack with a UK punk sound. Solid, driving drums smack with kerranging guitar changes and interesting vocals. Really something good in a different vein, has similarities to a lot of the new Japanese bands. “Rubber Dolls” is a great blistering barrage of mayhem. Fun!
I haven’t been real thrilled by most of the recent Finnish hardcore releases, since they’ve tended to be sloppy and/or overly generic. And even though MELLAKKA don’t offer too much that’s new in the thrash sweepstakes, they do it well. Tight and well-recorded for a D.I.Y. project.
Gritting Finnish hardcore with a raw edge. More heavy power than thrash, with whining background guitars and lots of crackly distortion. More of an English sound, but the prominent Finnish vocals are the high of the mix, with pounding drums and cranked guitars in the distance. Good stuff; a good recording could help this one. Still, the effort has the possible thrust needed.
Winnipeg’s MANIC DEPRESSORS churn out a thick, high-velocity style of thrash with lyrics that address major issues head-on. A good band; the sound quality of this tape, however, has a great deal to be desired—it’s extremely fuzzy.
Fuckin A (pardon my German), these guys shred! All four songs are rip-snortin’ and nasty-ass. A cut above.
A brawny type of German punk that switches easily from German to English lyrics. Some of the rhythms remind me a bit of the PROLETARIAT, but they still show a lot of diversity in their sound. All in all, a good ’79-style punk record.
Mod revival time (?). Even a cover of “I Fought the Law.” Why not cover the fucking JOLT?? Aaagh!
A four-song, all-female release. The songs are in a snappy pop/punk mode with hyper vocals (the COMES vocalist is soon to join the band). When I say pop/punk, I don’t mean in a light sense like, say, TOY DOLLS; these songs are more complex and jazzy, yet maintain a pop structure.
Raw, heavy guitar dominates this seven-incher with stern, powerful riffs. Not thrash, more of a hard, grinding sound as this Finnish band bites down four meaty melodies with RIISTETYT-type vocals. Turn this up and the distortion zooms out of the speakers. Wild and frenzied, this is a different type of punk release that still holds that sharp edge.
Quite an unusual record. While it’s definitely got its punk and hardcore aspects, there’s a lot of originality in rhythms and structure. Apparently, these guys shun the local scene, and it shows in their lack of imitation—the best Japanese record I’ve heard in awhile.
Self-examination and resulting rebellion are the lyrical themes of this Down Under band, delivered in a punk/Oi style that’s simple but effective. Then, suddenly they leap into a thrasher with a female screamer. Then back to older, traditional punk sounds. I liked the exception the best, but maybe they need the slow curves to set up the fastball.
