Category: Various

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v.a. Six Weeks Omnibus Vol. 2

If you’re into lame descriptions like “what a powerhouse of a compilation”, then this review is for you: released in 2002 by the US label, this omnibus takes no prisoners. Soul Craft start out with very rocking guitar riffs and a singer who sounds like he’s permanently complaining. Next are Gouka with extremely tight, driving and powerful d-beat. Last on Side A are Civil Rights, who like their background “Ooohs” and drum shuffles.
Side B starts with Flame, who are fast and dirty as fuck. Exhale play melodic Burning Spirits-like HC with an extremely pissed singer. Last is the Society for Cutting Up Men (just kidding) with lots of raw distortion and fuzz!

What a powerhouse of a compilation!

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v.a. Godzilla – A Japanese Hardcore Compilation

Wow, what a “creative” name for a japanese hardcore compilation! All sarcasm aside, the bands on this bootleg compilation are all top notch: Side A starts off with the only release by Brain Death, their “Personal Affair” 7″ from 1987. Raging blast beats with a high pitched singer who could be male, female or fuck off! Next is the Chicken Bowels’ classic 7″ “Keep Our Fire Burning” with angry, ultra-fast and somewhat melodic US-influenced hardcore anthems. Side B features the rawest stuff on this LP, Googol Plex’ only 7″ titled “Nail A Lie To The Counter” from 1987. Just as wild and blasting as Brain Death, but with a barking shouter and a noisier production. Last are The Clay, whose primitive and stomping 7″ Middle East Combat Area can also be found here. In addition to the tracks of the 7″ this bootleg also features their songs from the Great Punk Hits Compilation.

Warum kommst du nicht vorbei und zerstörst Hilpoltstein?

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v.a. Tunes For Fucker Vol. 2 LP

The second of three money saving compilations, and what a monster: it starts out with the untoppable of all releases: Zouo’s “The Final Agony” 7″, which I’ve already worshipped here. Next are Tranquilizer, who recorded their tracks with the aid of an out of tune guitar and a vacuum cleaner. With the exception of the intro style “Never go to war” they all start and sound virtually identical and surely made Kuro ashamed of their tame niceness and clean sound! Manbiki Chocolate (Shoplifted Chocolate, what a great name!) are the closest thing to real music on this compilation. They have some melodies and actual structures in their songs, but are otherwise as fast and hardcore as the rest. Last are G-Spot who sound like that one night when you invited all your leather-jacketed, spiked and studded friends to your practice place, got wasted and then recorded the ideas from last week’s party on a boombox!

These tunes are for you, fucker!

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v.a. Jisatsu Omnibus 8″

I have no idea whether this awesome compilation has an “official” name, since none can be found on the cover, labels etc. Usually it’s called the Jisatsu Omnibus (自殺オムニバス), after the label that released it. Confuse and The Sexual are the “bigger” names on the compilation: Confuse deliver their trademark hissing, fuzzy and overdriven distortion insanity, while The Sexual sound pretty similar to their ep “The Last Days”: cool, simple and somewhat melodic hardcore. The B-Side starts out with 自我 (Jiga, sometimes spelled Ziga), the second band of Gas’ original singer. They play hardcore in the same vein as The Sexual, just a little bit more primitive sounding. Last are M-78, a project by band members of Ghoul, Gastunk, Systematic Death and Gas, who are a lot more metallic than the rest and never released anything else.

Why was the 8″ format popular in Japan, and seemingly nowhere else?

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v.a. You Can Set The Dove Free… LP

“You Can Set The Dove Free…” is another one of those bootleg compilations that helps people save a shitload of money for the price of lower pretentious arseholeness. The Sexual’s 7″ flexi “The Last Days” features really cool, somewhat underproduced, punky hardcore sung in the greatest and thickest japanese accent you could hope for. Great shit, and in my opinion the winner of this compilation (and among the big winners of japanese hardcore!). So What’s “Injustice” 8″ flexi is even more lo-fi, with raw, primitive punk accompanied by a wobbly drummer. It has also recently been bootlegged as a vinyl 7″. Juuden Souchi’s singer on their “Deadline” 7″ sounds like a rasping submachine gun: spitting out syllables faster than anybody should be able to! Last in line are Crow with their first 7″ “Who Killed Dove”. Like their tracks on “Eye Of The Thrash Guerilla” they are not nearly as heavy and tight as they would become later on, but a lot more punk and primitive.

…But What About The Hawk?”

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v.a. Great Punk Hits LP

Just what can you expect of a compilation named “Great Punk Hits”? Exactly what it says on the tin: GISM deliver two tracks of completely distorted, fuzzy and hissing metallic hardcore; The Execute songs are fast and melodic with some metal guitars (just like their first 7″); The Clay are great, primitive political hardcore punk; Aburadako are weird and awesome (sadly the record skips on one of their songs); G-Zet are simply great with one heavy hardcore track and one instrumental song; Laughin’ Nose are forgettable as always.
This version here is a bootleg; there was a skip during one track by Aburadako on the original record, and it’s faithfully reproduced here for your listening pleasure. Also the cover of the original compilation is yellow instead of white.

Did I mention how great these punk hits are?

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v.a. Eye Of The Thrash Guerilla LP

Eye Of The Thrash Guerilla is a great compilation with a cool mix of different styles. It’s got great Burning Spirits hardcore by Death Side and 鉄アレイ (Tetsu Arei), wild thrash by Nightmare and Raise Cain, total mayhem by SxOxB and dark d-beat by Crow (who were not nearly as heavy back then as they are now). This version is a german bootleg on the 大阪 records, who also released boots of SxOxB and Outo.

Better an eye of a thrash guerilla than an eye of a tiger…

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v.a. Hardcore Unlawful Assembly LP

This compilation LP from 1984 is something of a misnomer, since there’s quite a lot of non-hardcore on it: Cobra, Laughin’ Nose (absolute unlistenable and unbearable lyrics on this release) and Baws are more Oi!/punk than hardcore. The rest are real heavy weights, though: Zouo were the darkest band in japanese hardcore, Lip Cream deliver heavy thrash, Outo are pure distortion, Mobs play dark, somewhat melodic mid-tempo hardcore and GISM are pure evil (as usual)!

I thought this was a riotous assembly?

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v.a. Hold Up Omnibus 8″

The Hold Up Omnibus 8″ is a compilation of live recordings with Systematic Death, Ghoul, The Clay and Gastunk. The tracks by Systematic Death are all available as studio versions on different 7″es and compilations, as is one song by Ghoul. The Gastunk songs are (as far as I know) otherwise unreleased, just like all the songs by The Clay. Sadly the recording quality is mostly mediocre, but The Clay are absolutely great on this record. Really primitive, powerful stompers of straightforward political hardcore.

8 inches of noise!

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