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!
A solid, committed seven-track EP from Surrey’s LOST CHERREES. Female vocals and a basic, well-balanced production complement this varied selection, but the straight-ahead rockers like “Real Crimes” and “Pain Relief” are the most effective of these highly political compositions. A fine debut, even if “No Flag” sounds for all the world like a punk version of “O, Christmas Tree.”
Though named after a group of 19th-century rebels who went around sabotaging industrial machinery in Britain, these LUDDITES have adopted a quasi-industrial post-punk approach in their music. Herein one can find measured tension, a heavy bass, interesting drum flourishes, and a somber overall attitude.
The MAU MAUS provide a strong argument in favor of the benefits of speed in modern punk music. They have fairly typical chord progressions, generic themes, and a rather annoying vocalist, but somehow the frenzied tempo compensates by keeping your arms and legs flailing about. “Facts of War” is a killer track.
A severe early CLASH influence, right down to the Joe Strummer vocals, mars the offerings on this band’s second 45. The better of the two tracks is “Fight to Win,” an unadventurous ’77-style punk number with a fair melody and uninvolving background choruses. This kind of thing has been down better elsewhere.
Inveighing lyrics highlighted by a raunchy hard-edged guitar sound that whines and grinds. The SYSTEM make a blend of melodies and vivid rhythms that are distinct and vivacious, a raw exhilarating sound similar to ANTHRAX or CRASS, but with a strength all their own. Good enjoyable music.
Can old hippies still produce good music? MICHAEL MOORCOCK proves that they can rise to the occasion with “Dodgem Dude,” a wonderful psychedelic blast with loud guitars and haunting background vocals. A really excellent cut, not equalled by the flip. Flicknife is an innovative little label.
Oh yeah? You must have lost it all before you recorded this. Actually, it’s not that bad at all—I just couldn’t resist. There are a few decent “skunk” tracks here, but most plod along with no special spark.
RED LONDON plays older-style melodic punk that sounds better by virtue of its relative rarity today. The guitars have a clean ’60s tone (courtesy of Attila?), but ultimately the material fails to impress itself on your consciousness. Decent lyrics, though.
At long last, a RUDIMENTARY PENI album. The band delivers the essence of total imagination into their music, lyrics, and art—complete originality. Fast, creative, and haunting, the fascination continues with this overwhelmingly intense display of lunging vocals, screeching guitars, enticing bass, and roaring drum abrasiveness. Once again, the brilliance that is RUDIMENTARY PENI.
Now here’s an English band and record that I do like. All of this material has that special feel of intelligence and commitment, whether the rock ’n’ roll of the title track, the thrash of “Not Me,” of the power-chording of the unlisted track. One of the best, no doubt about it.
A fine new British thrash band. The strong production enhances their tight, powerful instrumental attack, especially on “Dead Generation.” Riot City has surpassed No Future as a quality label.
Standard mid-tempo UK punk. There aren’t any real surprises here, but the title track has a catchy chorus and “Boys in Blue” has a wee bit of drive. OK, but nothing to write home about.
A well produced yet raw rhythm-heavy band with a garage feel, not unlike their fellow countrymen, the SUBHUMANS. The lyrics are all political, and are best summed up by their name, which means a “renunciation of previous beliefs, religion…”
An exceptional ultra-thrash attack can be found on ANTI-CIMEX’s second EP. The production is much better, and the band is much more cohesive this time around. These songs rank right up there with those of the SHITLICKERS and HUVUDTVÄTT (the HEADCLEANERS) in the Swedish “shred” sweepstakes. A must.
Hardcore meets rock. Quick and melodic thrusts of boisterous energy from Sweden. Powerful harmonies and leads assaulting with raw harsh vocal cracks; foot-tapping insistencies stand triumphant and chanting. An excitable release.
Another new Dutch band that seems to be more influenced by American thrash than UK punk styles. Although the recording quality isn’t the best—there’s one studio side and one live side—it’s good enough to reveal the ASPERITYS as a fine group with a lot of potential.
Finland’s premier kings of total chaotic thrash. Hard-hitting, tight, and explosive fury with a metal edge. Bellicose convulsions of an invincible split-second attack of unrelenting mayhem. Brutal insistence sledgehammers an increasingly assertive charge of aggressive, raucous, rabble-rousing clamor. The BASTARDS’ velocity continues to be extraordinary, and they’re always creating more.
This debut by Italian band FALLOUT consists of three fast ’77-type numbers and three thrashers. The sound is driving, the choruses and tunes stick in your craw, and there are some nifty little lead parts, so check it out. Good effort.
Some plodding German punk and then—wham!—some super-frenetic thrash. Two singers share vocal duties, and the woman really wails. There’s some great stuff here, and I highly recommend over half of this record.
Clean production and sound quality, but the big question is “where is it from?” France, perhaps? LES CADAVRES have a strong style that resembles fast hardcore and the early COCKNEY REJECTS, with its chants, twin guitars, good hard vocals, and an overall good mix. VATICAN is slower and raw, with a driving punch of early punk styles like the SKIDS or GENERATION X. A very interesting effort.
Noisy guitar-oriented music from Holland. Most of it falls within the droning post-punk category, but there are also a couple of faster punk-style numbers. Abrasive, but not energetic enough.
This Canadian LP has been out for a while, eh. But it’s finally gonna get the distribution it deserves, eh. Mostly, it’s great, tight thrash with a few slower metallic DOA-type songs, eh. But the real joy of it is the totally satirical and retarded nature of the words, lampooning just about everyone, eh. Get it, eh.
Six songs that rage at the listener. There’s a lot of MINOR THREAT influence here, in that the songs are delivered with incredible force but have melodies and hooks galore. Great stuff that must be heard.
The newest (and possibly final) release from LAMA displays a reversion to their pre-thrash sound—powerful mid-tempo punk with a heavy guitar attack. I suspect that it was recorded before their album, but it’d be a super addition to anyone’s collection.
Two of these songs by Iceland’s ÎEYR are pretty lightweight experimental numbers, but one (“Positive Affirmations”) makes this EP worth buying—it’s real fast-paced post-punk with raw guitars, great drumming, and THROBBING GRISTLE-like industrialized vocals.
RATTUS combustion, startling adrenaline speed and hammerhead blows of power. Featuring the new high-velocity rasping vocals of Annikki, RATTUS virtually sweep forth with sharp-edged earloads of riveting force and disorderly rapidity. Brilliant Finnish hardcore, unhesitant and explosive assaults of raw nitro energy.
Mutated thrash from Italy. PEGGIO PUNX play fast and have good choruses, but the most distinctive features of this EP are the clean, undistorted guitars, sudden structural shifts, and an exaggerated drum mix that sounds very bizarre. Unusual but worthwhile.
This band is aptly named—they’re one of the best I’ve heard from Europe. They present a tight all-out thrash assault with powerhouse instrumentation. Go for this today!
Like Italy’s WRETCHED, Denmark’s RAZOR BLADES play sloppy, spirited thrash. Though their hearts are in the right place, I find this tape hard to listen to. There aren’t any distinctive hooks, and the musical backing is just too undisciplined to generate body-shaking power. They need to develop a bit.
New material from some of the people formerly in South Africa’s RIOT SQUAD. Once again, the songs are vitriolic critiques of that country’s apartheid police state regime. The music consists of older-style punk and reggae, and the five RIOT SQUAD songs from the EP are also included.
An album’s worth of blistering political thrash from Canada. Structurally, there’s a lot of imaginative little quirks that serve to break up the tempo, so the high-powered songs don’t all run together. Very tight, very intelligent, and very worthwhile.
Four songs in the thrash/Oi style, faster than most but not as fast as the EXPLOITED. Two songs are in English, and their titles—”Riot in the Street” and “Abuse of Power”—give an indication of ROUGH’s thematic concerns.
A droning Finnish garage punk record. RUTTO’s songs are extremely basic and not too fast, the recording seems to be taken from a portable cassette, and there aren’t any outstanding hooks. The most exceptional thing here is the presence of a female vocalist.
Jeff, the next time you assign me to review some so-so ’77 sounding UK stuff, you better make sure it’s a 45, or I’m gonna force to sit in your room and listen to it at full volume.
A 12-song debut that showcases a basic thrash sound. In this instance, the fast cuts work a lot better than the ones that start slow and build up. There’s something lacking here, like a spark, but it’s still worth a listen.
Invigorating thrash, compliments of this three-piece Swedish barrage of chaos. Frantic flailing of whining guitar sledgehammers breakneck speed, an invasion of energetic rhythms with toppling drum mayhem. Another staggering Swedish band that delivers Herculean strength like HUVUDTVÄTT or ANTI-CIMEX.
Vancouver’s legendary SUBHUMANS deliver their first record in years, but it’s been worth the wait. An aggressive ’77-punk style melds with strong lyrics to create brilliant cuts like “America Commits Suicide” and a very catchy version of “Googolplex”; there’s even a killer cover of MENACE’s “Screwed Up” to satisfy Britpunk enthusiasts. All we can do now is hope that they get back together and tour.
When STAZIONE SUICIDA thrash, it’s a wicked noise they make. Unfortunately, they get bogged down too often in horrific post-punk depresso stuff that doesn’t do much for me. Great singer, though.
Believe it or not, TK has done it again. Although side two drags a bit (in relative terms), and the vocal and guitar mix isn’t quite as piercing as it was on their peerless Ääretön Joulu EP, this album is exhilarating in its intensity. The distinctive combination of paint-stripping vocals, flailing guitars, and tightly structured blasts of concentrated power lift TK into a realm occupied by a few awesome musical entities like INDIGESTI and DIE KREUZEN. As M. Bowles would say, this is “shredsational,” so buy the fucker immediately.
23 songs by eight of Holland’s many great thrash and punk bands. The bands include PANDEMONIUM, the HAEMORRHOIDS, ZMIV, the OUTLAWZ, NULL-A, the LAST FEW, the AMSTERDAMNED, and BGK (who have an incredibly hot debut LP of their own out), and there isn’t one lame track here. Get this today!
The cover will fool you. Stirring feedback erupts into screeching strikes of unrelenting acceleration. Amazingly fast exertions of detonating disorder from Sweden. Packs all the punches of exuberant split-second nitro blastings, with chaotic guitars wild and frenzied, savage drumming, and vociferous vocal piercings. One of the best international 7″ers out. Thanks to Jerker!
A reissue of the first two TK EPs (reviewed in MRR #3). If you missed them the first time around, here’s your big chance. An amazingly raw sensory assault.
Swirling guitars, spinning fast psychotic grinds of explosive vigor. Enter WASTE from Holland, yet another approach to quick demanding hardcore and punk, completely different than AGENT ORANGE or BGK. WASTE is aggressive; an onslaught of butchering mayhem bolts you to the electric chair with schizoid charges of outrageous fury.
Two 60-minute tapes containing all the previous and soon-to-appear Brazilian vinyl releases. These include the Grito Suburbano LP (now out of print), the Sub LP, the LIXOMANIA EP, the OLHO SECO EP, the upcoming O Começo Do Fim Do Mundo live compilation LP, and the INOCENTES EP. Anyone who can’t afford to get the individual records should send for this at once. Note: The song order listed on the insert isn’t completely accurate.
Seven bands appear on this compilation put together by Finland’s Kaaos fanzine. It contains some studio demos and some live recordings, and includes both better-known bands (TERVEET KÄDET, the BASTARDS, RIISTETYT, KAAOS) and newer up-and-coming groups like PROTESTI, TAMPERE SS, and FUCKING FINLAND. Uneven but worthwhile.
Chaos Productions presents thirteen bands from France. A multitude of different noises ranging from hardcore to skin chants. Reminiscent of English punk circa 1981, sometimes too similar. Has a lot of power and ambition, but needs more creativity.
Side one is real mediocre, with DIOXINA’s standard slow UK punk and a ska tune by ARRM, but side two is killer. ARRM returns with some blistering stuff, NABAT showcases some fast Oi, and RAPPRESAGLIA rips out strong thrash.
More great thrash from OLHO SECO. The high end of the mix is less piercing here than on the Grito Suburbano album; the guitar on “Muito Obrigado” suffers a bit for it, but the other two tracks blast along like a speeding bullet train. Hot!
The second release by Italy’s WRETCHED. Lightning fast disorder whirlpools completely unrestrained destruction, as wailing guitar bashes and shrilling raw vocals journey the cranium into a bulldozing bombardment of maniacal unhesitant crushing speed. If you’re a fan of the NEOS, TERVEET KÄDET, or DEEP WOUND, feel the colossal quickness of the WRETCHED.
