BOLT THROWER interview 1991

Bolt Thrower is the band that I've probably listen to the most this year (well, along with The Saints & Radio Birdman). Especially "...for victory" & "the IV crusade", perfect albums! Anyhow, here's an early interview taken from the legendary Putrefaction'zine #5 outta sweden!

Tu Vida

And now for something completely different...a bloody cd! As a record collector, I usually go for the vinyl version but since all the bootlegs looked like shit, this time I choose to buy the official cd discography. Anyhow, M.E.L.I. (Muerte En la Industria) was a quite obscure band that released only a demo in the golden age of mexican hardcore/punk, the late 80s. But unlike Xenofobia, Masacre 68 or Atoxxxico, they never released anything on wax. But their 1988 demo tape titled "Tu Vida" is on the same level of the aforementioned mexican hardcore legends: simple yet very intense music played with a lot of rage. All recorded with the trademark raw but brutal production that makes mexican (and generally, south american hardcore) unique and very genuine. Really solid band worth your time if you're even vaguely interested in mexican bands. I'm quite sure that if they lasted more than 2 years, we would have more people talking about them. This discography cd was released in 2005 by Speedstate Records outta japan. I scored it for cheap thanx to my japanese pal Jum. Apart from the demo tracks, it also features live tunes captured around 2000 when they briefly reunited. Comes with a booklet full of rare pictures, flyers, band history and so on. Unless you are ready to shell out big money for the original tape, this cd is the best way to get into this band...

Disgrace To The Corpse Of Sid

With my recent reborn obsession for early Earache catalogue, when a couple of months ago I've spotted an OG 1989 press of Sore Throat "disgrace to the corpse of sid" lp at the local record fair for a good price, I simply couldn't pass it. I'd love to say that I was way into them as a teen in the early 90s' but it would be nothing but a lie. For some unknown reasons I've discovered this band way too late. But I still enjoy a lot their brutal noisecore. These pommie bastards assembled some of most primitive & controversial aural butchery back then. Especially with this one (their second album), they incorporated to their  decimation of your ear canals some harsh noise & weird stuff. While side A has 90 sharp noisecore outbursts, side B features 11 slow & doomy tracks in the vein of Amebix. I must admit I'm not a big fan of side B. But the artwork itself make this record worth owning even if the music sucked (but that's not the case). Lyrically, as almost all english bands, they took themselves way too serious and made fun of bands like Napalm Death, DRI, Sex Pistols, Sucidal Tendencies etc...for being sell outs. Aaaaahhh, I miss the 90s! One of the earliest band doing the noisecore thing, this has also been repressed recently by FOAD so go and get a copy!

Love that Dig/Earache included band instructions for the artwork/backcover/insert in the dustsleeve, expecially since he didn't follow them at all, ahahaha!

Shogakara Taigae

Another quite obscure japanese masterpiece that originally came out only on cd around 1992 has been recently reissued: Yoshihiro Hiraoka & Human Arts "Shogakara Taigae", the only release by this short lived project. Shame on myself and any other self-proclaimed japanese hardcore nerd out there who wasn't already familiar with these guys, since this seriously rips! Here we're talking about a japanese all star side-project. Led by the singer of Poison/Poison Arts, this band included the best guitarist ever from the land of the rising sun, the mighty Chelsea (Deathside, Poison & Paintbox) as well as Minoru (The Comes, Lipcream) on bass. Not sure who's the guy under the skins but he does a great job for sure! But band members' pedigree is useless when the music can speak for itself. And here we're talking about high quality stuff, top notch Burning Spirits kind of hardcore filtered with some catchy melodies. While their main bands were more straight forward, here it seems they tried something a bit more weird and unconventional. Like "英知", the third to last song of the record, a very pop & melodic tune that somehow fits perfectly on a generally way more metallic album. I guess here Chelsea was trying something different that later morphed into Paintbox? Anyhow, here you'll find the trendmark Chelsea way of playing guitar that made Deathside one of the best band ever. A serious contender if I'll ever write a japanese full length top ten list. How this album is not a cult one revered by legion of fans worldwide is a mystery to me. Hope this reissue gives it the recognition it deserves!

SENSELESS APOCALYPSE interview 1994

My introduction to japanese grind/noise/hc happened more than 20 years ago via their split with Cripple Bastards. Found this short but nice chat on MRR#134 from july 1994.

Chaos

While discussing with a friend about the greatness of 80s' italian hc, I stated that the only other EU scene from that period equally as solid was the finnish one. He replied that all finnish bands sound the same. "Of course" I said, "but they all sound bloody good!". Which is not always true (I'm talking about the monotony, not the greatness of finnish hardcore). Just think about Stalin's only release, the "chaos" ep released in back in 1980. Not to be confused with their way more well known japanese band also named from the same moustached dictator, Stalin were a unique band. While the structure of the songs, the melodies and the tempos fall perfectly into the KBD punk category, guitar sound & vocals are way harsher than they british counterparts from that era. Considering that they were extremely young when they recorded this, can we consider it somehow a transitional record? After breaking up half of them went to form the uber-excellent hardcore band Nukketeatteri, so my thesis cannot be that far from reality. Anyhow, this is the repress on Svart Records that came out a few years ago but I only managed to get now. Perfect reproduction of the original that now goes for big bucks. Obscure but unmissable band for all the finnish hc/punk freaks out there... 

Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses

I grew up in a small town of circa 2500 people situated 30 kms outta the nearest big city. Not the most isolated place in the world of course but around 1992, for a bunch of spotty teenagers who were into skateboarding & just discovered metal, it looked like we were stuck in a sea of boredom in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully, trough skateboard we discovered extreme metal (before we were only listening to Iron Maiden, ACDC etc...) and made a bunch of new friends who were into the same stuff we liked. Around spring or summer 1993 we met this crazy guy named Andrea (RIP). He was one year younger than me but he discovered extreme music way before us. We immediately got along pretty well and we started to hang around together regularly. He had what back then looked like the biggest record collection ever so one day me and my mate went to his house and gave him something like twenty 90 minutes tapes and asked him to dub us as much music as possible. Recorded tapes slowly started to come back to us short after. One of them contained one of the most influential album of my life: Brutal Truth debut full length "extreme conditions demand extreme responses", released by Earache back in 1992. While I was already familiar with Napalm Death early material, this was at another level. It was way more brutal and those blast beats were simply insane! I still worship Scott Lewis for the incredible work he did in this record. Fastest grind drumming back then! Not to mention Dan Linker. I guess that it's thanx to him if I started playing bass back then. For sure one of the few person I consider a living legend: the older he got, the more he pushed to the extreme the music he played. You can't say that for many other people. Not only this ruled hard musically, but also lyrics were waaay smarter & more interesting than your average dumb metal clichés. A socio-political attitude (but always far away from the righteous PC fuckers), brutal grindcore and an obsession for hemp made Brutal Truth the perfect band for 17 years old me. Unfortunately through the aforementioned friend I soon discovered that they played a gig (with Fear Factory) very close to my house in january '93, just a few months before I discovered them!! I took me to wait 5 more years before I was finally able to see them live. They were awesome of course but I'd still give a nut to be able to go back to that gig. Their debut album has always been my favourite in their long career.

While I kept buying all their releases over the years, for some reasons I never managed to get a copy of "ECDER". Back then I was happy with the dubbed tape I got. Then I've replaced it with mp3s (but I still have that tape). Now, after being a fan for over 23 years, I decided it was time to get a proper copy of it. Of course not the stupid recent repress on double lps, the real deal. Scored this easily for quite a reasonable price. Very clean copy but it misses the printed dust sleeve. How people can lose something like that is beyond my understanding. I didn't remember this came with a hype sticker. I'm pretty sure I've never seen a copy with it back then. Anyhow, they're always welcome since they are a nice extra touch to an already solid release.

Det Bittra Slutet+

Another monstrous double lp anthology assembled by the usual suspects @ F.O.A.D. Records. This time it's the vinyl version of the Asocial "det bittra slutet+" cd that came out last year on DisRec. While I was expecting a complete discography, this compiles only the rare early material from this band: "the legendary “Det bittra slutet” EP (1984) with its previous demo and unreleased tracks from the same session, the complete “Asocial Attack” cassette, an extra rehearsal from the same period, extra demo tracks 1983-1984 (among which the songs included on the “No war no more Vol. II” Comp. Tape) and 15 live tracks (the complete Split cassette with Distrust + 2 more songs recorded in Hedemora)". Top notch fast swedish hardcore that Daniel Ekeroth, author of "swedish death metal" book, claimed as the very first band doing the blast beats. Apart for their legendary demo, I wasn't familiar with all the other material featured here and I must admit that I like the material from "asocial attack" tape even more than "det bittra slutet". It has a rawer sound that works perfectly for this band. Even the live material is not that bad and worth your time. Like all the F.O.A.D. releases, it's a deluxe product. Comes on a beautiful gatefold cover and a booklet with band's history, notes, pics, flyers and all the useless infos we record nerds like to know!

ROCKS interview 2000

While looking for something else in my zine collection, I came across this interview with ROCKS, a legendary KBD band from Sydney that released a killer 7" back in 1978. Taken from MRR#211, december 2000.

Left Hand Path

In a few months I will turn 40. Not sure how you elder readers are ageing, but for me it's a very nostalgic process (speaking about my musical tastes). While I've completely lost interest for modern bands and I'm totally out of touch with the current state of the scene (and totally happy with it), over the last few years I've been gradually going back to the music I used to listen to when I was a young kid. In the early '90s I was obsessed with death metal and grindcore. Around '96 or '97 I got tired of it and moved to hardcore. While I kept all my favourite grindcore records, around 2001 I sold all my death/black metal records that I had accumulated in the previous decade. I needed money to print the first issue of my 'zine so I sold my collection to a local record shop for next to nothing. I could have made good bucks outta it since it was all first press of classics. But back then I was brainwashed by all those stupid columns against eBay that were in every zine in those days, so I went for the only other option I had. Of course all the hardcore/punk heroes of that idealistic crusade against eBay ended up selling their collections there for big bucks. Classic. Anyhow, 15 years later I've decided that it's time to rebuild that collection. I've started with an all time classic, a game changer and a genre defining album: Entombed debut album "left hand path", released by Earache in 1990.  

While they previously released 5 demos as Nihilist, they changed their monicker to Entombed (just to kick out of the band John Hedlund, ahaha) just few months before the release of their debut album "left hand path". Recorded in '89 but released only the following year, this has been unanimously considered the very first swedish death metal album ever. And by many people is revered as the best swedish record of this genre. While for me it's a tie with Dismember debut "like an ever flowing stream", I cannot praise this album enough. It's just death metal perfection. From its gloomy & dark vibe to the crushing guitar sound & perfect riffs, from the flawless balance of slow & faster parts to GL Petrov cavernous growls and Nicke Andersson superb drumming, from the incredible artwork to the classic band picture near the cross in the back cover, there's really nothing to complain about Entombed debut full length. It's so well done that the band itself hasn't been able to reproduce its greatness in their second album "clandestine" and slowly morphed into something different (but equally good in my opinion) with "wolverine blues". It's not a surprise that many bands all over the world tried to reproduce LHP sound over the last 26 year. But none went even to closer to it.

I've scored this copy easily outta eBay, but of course it wasn't as cheap as the one I bought in the early 90s. As a small revenge, I've paid it with the money I made by selling hardcore zines on eBay, ahaha. Lesson learnt. Not sure about pressing numbers but being an Earache release from early '90s, I guess we are talking about thousands of copies. There are actually two early presses, one from 1990 and one from the next year. You can easily recognize the very first one from the cool hype sticker on the upper right corner of the cover.

Crushing guitars & mass death, indeed

Here's the ticket from when I was 17 years old and saw both Napalm Death & Entombed (who were the opener of the gig!!) the for the very first time. This was when Entombed had just released "wolverine blues" but they played a good amount of tracks from the early material. Both bands were incredibly good. Good memories...

Odio Las Modas

I must admit that my knowledge about chilean music is very limited. If I have to come up with some names, Pentagram is the only band that pops up in my mind right now. Recently I've been offered a trade by my friend Ignacio from Chile. He asked if I wanted to trade a repress of an italian 80s' classic for a copy of the freshly released Anarkia "censurado" demo from 1989, now pressed for the very first time on wax by Rock SVB Discos from NY. Being a sucker for anything outta sur america, I immediately accepted his offer even without listenening to this online before closing the deal. A few weeks later this ep finally landed in my mailbox. Being a south american hardcore demo from the late 80s, I was expecting something pretty raw and primitive. To my suprise, this turned out to be very well recorded and with very well written & catchy tunes. They were well connected with the local thrash scene back then and you can definitely hear that in the music. That probably explains also why they could play their instruments so well and made such a good recording, ahahah. This is a very classic south american release that I've somehow missed until now. Highly recommended to anyone. This is true politicized punk to me: recorded during one of the most brutal & violent dictatorship ever by real people. Not a by a bunch of privileged & annoyed white kids who pretended to be some kind of revolutionaries. Pressed on a nice 3 panels sleeve with flyers, lyrics, pics and much more. I got the limited blue wax. The stamped dust sleeve is a nice extra touch that gives it some extra points. Feel free to school me on anything (metal & punk) from south america that you think I might enjoy!

Guerra De Metal

There's nothing better than seeing a uber rare record (when you know you have basically zero chances to score the original) being officially repressed. I'm talking about one of the very first metal band from Medellin that helped shaping the ultrametal medallo sound: Astaroth. Born from the ashes of Molotov around 1985, they played a few shows in their area before quickly disappear a couple of years later. During this brief period they managed to release the now super elusive "guerra de metal/ aullido sepulcral" ep, their only proper release if we don't consider their appearance (with a demo version of "guerra de metal") on the infamous Hell'zine comp. tape from 1989. There's basically no infos at all about this band and my guess is that before the internet days, they were totally unknown outside their homeland. Now colombian metal & hardcore fanatics from all over the world are paying insane price for the real deal, so I guess it was about time for an official repress. Courtesy of the newborn Epidemia Records outta France, this is a perfect reproduction of the original. Limited to 300 copies, it comes with an insert with rare pics & lyrics. Luckily the ultra cheesy satanic artwork hasn't been altered at all. I love it and it fits perfectly with the music: two perfect hymns to metal and the dark lord with the classic super raw sound and approach of the ultrametal bands. Not at all dissimilar from more well known names from the same period like Blasfemia or Parabellum. Basically, just another gem from Medellin scene. I hope more obscure colombian eps (Nemesis above all) will get the same treatment in a not so distant future!

Warsore last gig

You know we are big Warsore fans here @ Perro Maldito HQ. So, when this morning I've ramdomly came across a video of their last gig ever that took place in Melbourne at the legendary Arthouse on April 1, 2000, it was already time for a new Warsore post. What's even more interesting is that vocals here are "handled" by a guy that I guess is Bo, the singer with whom they recorded their last ep "Brutal Reprisal". He ain't bad but without Den on vox they weren't the same band in my opinion....

KYLMA SOTA interview 2010

Not sure if they're still active, but Kylma Sota was one of the best band straight outta finland of a few years ago. Taken from MRR#331, december 2010.

Cigarettes & Alcohol

It's no secret that I have a soft spot for australian bands but, as an aussie friend once stated, "if we just get a C for hardcore, we'll surely score an A+ for KBD punk". And Brisbane around the end of the '70s was the undisputed capital for it. Not only it gaves birth to the worldwide renewed The Saints but it was also the hometown of lots of incredibly good bands such as Razar, Young Identities, Fun Things and many others. All the originals records by those bands go for buckets of bucks in these days. Being perfectly conscious that I'll never own an OG, when I discovered that a small australian label called LCMR was going to reissue my favourite of those eps, the Leftovers "cigarettes & alcohol" 7", I've immediately broke my rule of not ordering stuff from overseas (because of the insane post rates) and placed my order immediately. A couple of weeks later this landed in my mailbox. While the original was limited to 300 (most of which got destroyed) and without a cover, LCMR did four different versions of this. I've ended up with what is called a "Baron Von Richtofen cover...It's a replica of one of the handmade collage sleeves produced by Warren Lamond and Peter Cornilsen of which there are less than ten in existence". As you can see, my copy is also on purple and handnumbered outta #100. So happy to finally being able to blast these perfect 3 tunes out of my stereo and not anymore on mp3 via my computer!

Reckless Boys

This is a perfect example of everything that's wrong with hardcore in this decade. You're finally allowed to release the "long" lost second demo of one of the hottest bands of the last few years and what the hell you do? You print it on the dumbest format ever in 2016, a bloody tape? I am for sure old and jaded but this makes no sense at all. Back in the days, tapes were the cheapest option to spread and trade music with people. In the early 90s' I got into tons of cool bands thanx to tape-trading and I always used to beg my friends with better & bigger collections to tape me new stuff. But everyone my age or even older will confirm you that tapes were a pain in the ass. They could be easily destroyed by your tape player or, even worse, by your stupid walkman. If you want to hear a specific song, you gotta wait and hope to find it when you fast-forward it. After just a few years or several plays, the sound quality usually gets shittier. Overall, a pretty annoying format. When cdr/internet came in the game, I thought that we finally got rid of those stupid magnetic tapes. But hardcore is a very conservative genre so in the end it's not a big surprise that kids are still printing stupid tapes. Even if it makes no sense at all in 2016. But I just bought one so I guess it's time for no more complains. I think this is the recording that was supposed to be Reckless Aggression debut ep but the band broke up and it never happened. So huge props to SFR Hardcore Records for making the european press of this tape. Songs are equally as good as the ones on their first demo. Pissed off australian hardcore with a strong Oi! influence. Perhaps the Oi! vibe here is even stronger and it works perfectly. There's also a big improvement in the sound quality, way cleaner and more powerful. Meatdog's vocals are incredibly powerful here. I was expecting more explicit graphics but the artwork seems more weird like the Gutter Gods one. Nothing wrong with it, Meatdog can't do no wrong. Too bad this guys called it quits too early, this demo shows that they could have become huge. I'm quite sure not too late someone will print this on the format this recording belongs to, a bloody 7"!!!  

The Horrific Visions

After 3 years of silence, Framtid return with a 4 songs full ep titled "the horrific visions" and it's another masterpiece. This was originally released for their ill-fated 2016 US mini tour that unfortunately never happened. While the core of the band remains the same (Makino on vocals & Jacky on guitar), the main change here is the new rhythmic session. Instead of Ina and Takayama, bass is now handled by Toyo (Zyanose, Defector) and under the skins now there's Alladin (Last Sentence). Does this line up change affected in any way Framtid music? Hell no. They still remain one of the few crust bands worth your time. Framtid has indeed always been a step ahead of every other current crust/noisy band. That's because their tunes are always fucking memorable and not just a mere repetition of the discharge (or should I better say their swedish counterparts?) formula. And this ep continues exactly where they left with "defeat of civilization". Perfect band under every point of view. While this copy was released by Brain Solvent Propaganda, a repress on LVEUM has already been planned so keep an eye open for it if you missed the first press.

VIOLENT HEADACHE interview 2008

Great interview with the long running spanish grinders Violent Headache. Best grind band that ever came outta Spain! Taken from Short, Fast & Loud 'zine #19 from 2008.

Terrorismo Musical

Recently I've finally knocked off from my want list a record that was on it for the longest time ever. 19 years, to be exactly. Nor an extremely rare one, neither a particularly expansive one. But for some reason this one eluded me for almost two decades! I'm talking about the Warsore/ Unholy Grave split ep that was released by Mink Records back in 1997. At first I couldn't find it from any distro. Then it got less and lesser priority and, over the years, I ended up not putting enough effort to get a copy of it. Recently I've decided that this year I will finally finish my Warsore collection. Checked online and, surprise surprise, price has risen a bit in the last few years. Sent an offer via discogs and managed to get a copy for a fair price. I was very excited when it arrived and I got an extra surprise when I discovered that I am on the Warsore thanx list for an interview I did with them around 1996. A great surprise that adds extra meaning to a record that I already love a lot. Not only Warsore has their best artwork ever here, but their material is solid as always. This band is grindcore perfection in my book and, even if this is not their best material when it comes to recording quality, it's still an excellent dose of their trademark brutal grindcore with some of the best vocals and guitar sound ever! On the other side, Unholy Grave. Honestly, I've never managed to understand the hype that surrounds this band. Over the years I've of course ended up listening to some of their numerous releases. Some were decent, most were not. But none left me an impression. And this ain't different. Badly recorded and boring music. Worth for the Warsore side only.    

Les Nerfs A Vif

If with their debut ep I've been super slow, this time it went differently. I've indeed been fast enough to secure a limited version of Rixe second ep "les nerfs a vif", again on LVEUM. This continues exactly where "coups et blessures" left.  Again four trax, again four perfectly assembled oi hymns. The perfect soundtrack for your drunken sing-alongs skinhead nights. Perhaps the production is a bit dirtier this time & I would have turned up a bit vocal's volume. But the truth is that I'm just being way too anal. Perfect record again and for sure we already got a candidate for one of the best eps of the year. Comes with a big fold-out insert that has a poster on one side and lyrics on the other. First press sold out in few days, good luck finding one! 

888 Metal

When it comes to colombian bands, I usually go for the original only. But in this rare case I gave up since the original has been eluding me for years and I didn't even own it in any other format. Since Nuclear War Now! Records recently reprinted Reencarnacion double lp discography (well, "kinda of" since all the demos are missing), I've decided that it was about time to get this while still looking for an orginal first press of the lp. And I must admit that I'm quite satisfied with it since they've done an excellent work as always at the NWW!HQ. Comes with a huge poster, a booklet full of pics, infos and interviews all housed in a beautiful gatefold cover with both lp & 7" artworks. If you're not familiar with them, here we are talking about a legendary band that had a huge role, along with their townmates Parabellum & Blasfemia, in shaping the ultra-metal medallo trademark sound. It's a primitive and raw mix of speed, trash & death metal with a huge hardcore vibe that could be considered proto-black metal. Euronymous itself cited Reencarnacion as a huge influence in creating Mayhem, just to give you a vague idea on how important this band is! First lp contains their "s/t" lp from 1988, their best work in my opinion. Second one has the "acompaname a la tumba" ep from the same year (where Piolin played all the instruments) which is a bit inferior compared to the full length and a live recording. The appeal of colombian metal is that they used satanic imaginary as the easiest way for frustrated teens to refuse the rules of the uber-catholic environment they grew up in (something I can totally relate to), not just as a mere shock factor to impress their audience. It's not indeed a sheer coincidence that, when this scene disbanded, they all had a huge role in creating the medellin hardcore scene and went to form bands like Restos De Tragedia, Herpes and few others.

Promo pics

In the 90s', I've always used to get promo material for the crappy zine I did back then. Yes, labels sent you free stuff to review even if you were a 16 years old kid who printed 30 copies only of your shitty zine. Ahhh, the good ol'days. Anyhow, these parcels often included promo pics for the bands. Here's some of my fave that I've found online.

 

RECKLESS AGGRESSION interview 2010

Another good one taken from Not Guilty 'zine #3 from 2010. Sent my copy of this zine back to its editor Beau since it ended up without a copy for himself. Before packing it, I've scanned this great interview with Meatdog of the mighty Reckless Aggression.