PLUME

 

Hopelessly addictive twee punk with heavy guitars from the TRY THE PIE / PRIMAL RITE family tree. Think Simple Machines by way of PRIMITIVES....but those guitars are like a teletransporter and they just take me away. It's so simple, really, and apparently so good that PLUME decided this one cassette was enough. I disagree, yet I'm grateful nonetheless. 

PLUME

SHITBASTARD

 

I remember when I first heard of the Washington SHITBASTARD all I could think of was the Arizona SHITBASTARD who were (at that point) only a few short years in the past.  Never mind though, the Washington SHITBASTARD changed their name to SPITTING TEETH shortly after the release of Bust It! and then WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? played a few shows with them before they fizzled and Evan hooked up with COLD SWEAT...in case you wanted a trip down memory lane disguised as a history lesson. Seven doses of blasting fastcore that closes with a "Septic Slam," a track that hits me like SOD covering PENTAGRAM...you still reading? You ain't moshing? Weird. 

BUST IT!

KÖNTRAKLÄSSE

 

Holy shit this tape has aged well. Just as the new century dawned, at the intersection of DOOMSDAY HOUR, DYSTOPIA and SCARRED FOR LIFE came KÖNTRAKLÄSSE, a Long Beach juggernaut that was arguably greater than the mere sum of their parts. Think G-ANX, SUNDAY MORNING EINSTEINS, UNCURBED...formed in the image of the Swedish maters, this is pure and unfiltered kång. I saw them at Gilman Street and even my memory doesn't do this tape justice. Somehow there are only four songs and somehow those four songs have never been put to wax, which defies all logic. 

KÖNTRKLÄSSE

CONTORTION SESSION

Someone else knows more that I do...but CONTORTION SESSION were a late '80s hardcore skate punk band from Houston and this ten song demo fukkn slams. Groove on the primal metallic stomp of "The Reaper Awaits." Cringe at the homophobic lyrics to "Anti-Fashion."  Imagine yourself surrounded by a bunch a sweaty neanderthals...the third generation tape even sounds muggy, just like it should.

CONTORTION SESSION

BODY & SOUL

 

I've listened to this a few times recently, and it's one of those recordings that is nearly impossible (for me) to consume casually. You can put it on while you're doing something else, just because you like sound and you need to have sound in your life (tinnitus is a motherfukkr, y'all), but you'll find (I find) that soon the 'something else' just fades away and you're left with Max Roach on the drums and Artie Shepp on the saxophone and they're just speaking to you in a language that you can't quite understand...but you listen. Because you want to learn. You want to learn their language because you need to understand what they are saying but you know that you will never NEVER never be in that place with them much less be on that plane with them. A stunning encapsulation of two masters at the top of their game in Paris, released in 1976 and referred to as Sweet Mao. Imagine a sound so powerful that the song titles alone are political statements. Imagine two people so completely consumed by the moment that they each know what the other is going to do with no communication beyond sound in the moment. Yet another example of why I am grateful for the now-defunct Loathed Sound label....

BODY & SOUL

THY INFERNAL

 

In a very real sense, THY INFERNAL is everything that yesterday's ARGUMENT? post is not. Released in 1997 at the very front end of the first real wave of USBM, Satan's Wrath is a fully realized searing black metal assault, absolutely massive and bleak in every way. Guitar melodies drive the title track, a minor solo driven by punishing double bass before the return of the verse and a chorus of demonic screams. The ungodly crunch during the first half of "Our Past Victories" defies all sonic logic, because sound is simply not meant to be this fukkn sketchy and/or evil. But THY INFERNAL are both. There are only four songs here, all of which were rerecorded for their full length released in 1999 (also titled Satan's Wrath)...brace yourself.

SATAN'S WRATH

* For the dedicated few, I will note that the band includes VITAL REMAINS, IOMMI STUBBS and IMMOLATION in their thanks list. If you're one of those dedicated few, then you'll understand why I mention it...

ARGUMENT?

 

The absence of rules is what's supposed to keep this shit interesting, right? Like a cloudy anarcho punk troupe from Los Angeles, a dual vocal trio with no guitar and only occasional blips and whirrs to augment the ploppy bass and forceful, thoughful (read: forcefully thought filled) lyrics that dominate this first tape. ARGUMENT? do not seem even remotely interested in writing (or performing) anything even close to a song, much less a hit song - the title track that closes this 2016 tape leaves me almost frustrated...and interested. In other words: it worked. 

DESPITE HER LOVE