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...