Crass Dismissed: The music you are too cool to listen to! February 1998
Archived
Chapel of Gristle
Cassette
This band almost didn’t send me this demo because it is slightly old and they are putting the finishing touches on a new one…. I’m damn glad they changed their minds and sent it to me! This 4 track tape is a brooding and violent pit of sludge-core with all of the raw noise you could ask for. The tortured vocals are shredded against the grating music that lurches and plods one moment and then takes off into atypical bursts of speed the next.
There is even an instrumental of sorts where the music churns away while a maniacal voice screams and groans overtop of it, the tune is appropriately called “In Hell With No Eyes” and as you hear the tortured music you can vividly imagine some poor sap rotting away with no way to see his tormentors. It is sick…. You gotta love it!
Capitalist Casualties
Dope and War
7”
The prolific thrash kings are back in the saddle after a small hiatus with more bitter and angry exposes of life in the United States. Of course this band is eminently capable of putting those emotions to music. With new skinsman Max in tow, the band demonstrates that all these years hasn’t dulled their edge one bit…. if anything it has honed it. They are more furious intense, and spastic than ever. C.C. are one of the few bands who have enough experience in the studio that they have learned to capture the devastating delivery of their live set. You never go wrong with C.C. and Dope and War proves that yet again!
Melt-Banana
Eleventh
7” (clear vinyl)
These Japanese freak-a-zoids have been whacking out the underground for the last few years with their twisted and bizarre extreme hardcore. Their music lurches all over the place with a randomness that keeps you off kilter yet somehow they maintain focus and are as tight as a Republican at a benefit for the homeless. The screeching and wailing vocals of Yasuko are definitely the band’s trademark… totally whacked! This 7” will become a classic. I guarantee it. The clear vinyl and the best cover art ever for a Slap-A-Ham release won’t hurt either.
Various Artists
Reality Part #2 CD
The first “Reality” comp was a 7″ but on this second go around Deep Six Records has expanded the scope of the project by making it a full length. “Reality” brings together the finest the underground has to offer in extreme hardcore, powerviolence, grind and (for good measure this time) surf. My words can’t begin to be as convincing as the band roster so let’s cut to the chase. The noise gods on tap are Asshole Parade, Excruciating Terror, Dystopia, Infest, Despise You, Lack Of Interest, Gasp, Suppression, Noothgrush, No Comply, Spazz, Purgatoria, M.I.T.B., Capitalist Casualties, Stapled Shut, Enemy Soil, E.T.O., Bad Acid Trip and C:###.
Thug / Green Machine
Split 7” (Blue and White swirled vinyl)
The only flaw that Thug has is that they don’t release near enough material. I would love to hear a full length project by these ear drum assassins. Their sound continues to develop as well, with a more cohesive marriage of speed and plod being achieved. Crushcore? Sludgegrind? How about, friggin’ fantastic! Yeah, that one works for me. Flipping over the plastic you get Green Machine, who are not the crusty punks that I figured they would be with that name. Instead they are a japanese sludge band with a gravel voiced screamer on the microphone and a Sabbath-infested plod in the guitars. Something like Grief except looser and more spastic and erratic.
….Remember to pillage BEFORE you burn! —Jeb Branin
Read more from the SLUG archives:
Aquabats
Foo Fighters
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