Category: 2016/04

Posted on

Gauze – Fuck Heads LP

According to the Gauze’s band history on the now sadly defunct Kill From The Heart page, Gauze’s original mission statement was to play as fast as possible by giving the impression of playing fast without actually playing fast. Wow, wrap your head around that sentence! 1984’s release of the Fuck Heads LP was probably the result of this philosophy. It’s still a lot more punk, slower and less wild than 1986’s Equalizing Distort, and the song structures are still a bit more “conventional”, too. But Fuck Heads’s got a very interesting dark and heavy vibe, with a lot of power and anger in the songs.
This here is a recent bootleg release, which includes the songs off the incredibly expensive City Rockers compilation and off the Outsider LP.

Did you know that Gauze could smoke with their butts?

Posted on

Exclaim – Things Keep Evolving Positively 7″

When I found out that Exclaim shared band members with Charm I was not the least bit surprised. This 7″ from 1999 is super fast thrashcore, distorted to hell and back. There’s 10 songs in 10 minutes, pure (positive!) violence.

And it keeps getting even better!

Posted on

AGE – The Spider Rules Your Emotions 7″

AGE, meaning Armed Government’s Error, released this 7″ full of heavy, metallic, crusty hardcore in 2002. The songs are fast, with lots of guitar shredding, some stop and go or mid-tempo mosh parts thrown in. Don’t judge this 7″ by its cover, as the music is cool. The spider kind of reminds me of the weird stuff Purgen put on their album covers in the 2000s. Hmm.

If the spider rules my emotions, does the spider make me a monster?

Posted on

Madame Edwarda – Lorelei ・・ Etranger ・・ Heliogabale 12″

This 12″ from 1985 might just be my most listened to japanese gothic/death rock release at the moment (was that an overly narrow superlative?). All three songs are extremely long and awesome epics (between 5:30 and 8:00 minutes!): Lorelei is melancholic and theatralic in the singer’s wailing and warbling, Étranger sounds cold and sneering with its e-drum accents and atonal riff, Héliogabale is somewhat subdued but almost dancable in places and ends with an almost honey-sweet guitar melody. What’s not to love about it?

Another band with Great Big Hair. And make-up, too!

Posted on

Firebirdgass ‎- Punk Rises From The Pigpen 12″

Firebirdgass are another band of whom I know next to nothing (not even what their name’s supposed to mean…). This six song 12″ was originally released on CD in 2006, the vinyl version is a rerelease from 2010 on an austrian label. The songs are a mix of simple, straight forward punkrock with some high-speed thrashing and mid-tempo rocking, except for the final dirge “Enola Gay”.

パンクスは豚小屋で産まれた!!

Posted on

Poison – Mystery Temptation 7″

Poison Arts originally started out merely called “Poison”, and released some 7″es under that name. Mystery Tempation is their second ep, released in 1986. Its four songs are fast, somewhat melodic and metallic, a bit like the faster stuff by, say, Gastunk. If I am not mistaken, this 7″ should be the first release of the legendary Chelsea, who later played in Death Side and Paintbox, and whose extraordinary guitar playing made these bands so insanely great.

Get it!

Posted on

Transformer – Manoeuvre 12″

Transformer was founded by band members of Kikeiji and Masturbation (among others), and this 12″ from 1986 was their only release. The influence of Masturbation can be clearly heard, so Transformer’s songs are dark, ominous, very slow and plodding, too. What’s clearly different is the almost heavy metal influence on the guitar work. The distortion is really heavy, the guitar screeches, chokes and howls, and there’s thumb-muted arpeggios (is that what you call it?). It somehow reminds me of what Kuolleet Kukat did in the nineties, or maybe songs like “Home” on PIL’s “album”. but that’s not a very accurate comparison. Best check it out yourselves!

催涙ガス?

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started