EXCRUTIATION

 

I snatched this one as a bit of an afterthought, but it's been a steady presence in my listening rotation ever since I did. Classic Euro heavy metal with death and dark thrash undertones throughout, but EXCRUCTIATION's approach is unique and it's tough to put a finger on what makes them different. I present "The Mask" as a prime (and difficult); picture the above subgenre descriptors with added influence from '80s Japanese metalpunk - think the MASTURBATION 12" or CRIME's Nucler Blood. When I mention these records while I'm talking about a band who seem to be just a couple of degrees removed from some regular ass Euro metalheads it doesn't make sense.....then "Oppressive Reality" starts and there's no more analyzing. Choice cut is maybe "Genocide In God's Name" but I could trip over myself trying to finger the most compelling tracks on this collection of tracks recorded between 1988-1990. Listen to "Wardance" and realize that there has always been hope for music, punks. 

ANNO DOMINI: AN ANTHOLOGY OF THE PAST

VIOLENCE AND THE SACRED

 Outsider improvisational and/or experimental sounds from the Canadian realm, captured in Montreal in 1986. It's difficult to describe what VIOLENCE AND THE SACRED are/were/is, but I can tell you that intentional listening will likely result in intensified thought and/or analysis.  Like NEGATIVLAND and IDIOT FLESH and RESIDENTS, maybe deconstructed by ZOLAR-X because it's just that fukkn weird. 

TEDDY DIED (SINCERITY)

RSG

 

When I opened the most recent package of gold from Indonesia I remember just kinda staring and poring carefully over the contents. Almost 100 tapes spanning two-and-one-half decades of DIY punk from the fourth most populous country in the world. A capital city with as many people as the state of California (throw in both Dakotas, Hawaii and Maine for good measure). A DIY punk scene that ignited a full generation after most of the "first" world, an ignition and growth inspired and encouraged by the public pressure that led to the downfall of a military dictator. Indonesian punk and hardcore exists in a world all its own because they don't need "us" to validate their existence or their worth - they take notes and they take note, but what they're doing often has little to do with the rest of the world even when they're paying homage (like ZABØGART covering URBAN WASTE and CHARLES BRONSON last week). I stared at that box of tapes and I scoured the titles....dozens of bands I had never heard of. Hardcore, crust, emo, punk, Oi!, grind.....tape after tape from DIY punk bands creating and inspiring and existing on an entirely different plane. RSG was the first tape I pulled out of the box and I popped it in immediately - it sounded like I needed it to sound in that moment; raw, insistent, intense DIY crust/grind that could honestly have been from anywhere. But it wasn't. I'm looking forward to the next box before I've even made a dent in this one, because the more you learn, the more you know how much you have to learn. 

INNOCENT PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS BE THE VICTIM OF GOVERNMENT POWER

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THEIST

 

Different presentations of these songs are on the THEIST tape I posted a few years ago, but I enjoyed revisiting this absolute bulldozer so much that I figured there must be some would-be interested parties who may have missed out the first time around. A glorious amalgamation of epic stadium crust and crushing doomsludge...and then they go fast, and when they go fast I suggest you strap in. The closer "At The End Of The Maze" probably captures all of the power most effectively (makes sense that it's the closer then, no?), building on everything from the stoner grooves that open "Antidogma" to the breakneck epic DBeat assault of "Endless Lust" and the atmospheric interludes "Aeon" and "Arche" that separate this release from their other self titled cassette.
Here I am in 2026 listening to a recording from 2014...wishing it was 2003. 

THEIST

UNIVERSAL BEAT

 

Classic sounding Bay Area garage / power pop that comes from the modern era. Dripping with '90s Mission energy, it's easy to imagine myself losing my shit watching UNIVERSAL BEAT ignite a sweaty warehouse in a deserted corner of the Dogpatch, sharing the room with folks from MENSCLUB and HICKEY and FANTASY on an otherwise unremarkable Friday night. An unremarkable night in the moment that evolves into a thing of legend as the years pass - the kind of band that makes people's eyes get wide when you say you saw them more times than you can remember not because you are (were) cool but because you just happened to be there. Listen to "Mission 9" and know that this is that kind of band, you just happen to be living through a different and otherwise unremarkable time.

GREATEST HITS

ZULU HITS

 

The titles and cover accurately indicate contents here - a glorious collection of late '80s South African music from a few artists you may know (LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO, UMOJA) and a slew of new-to-you bangers from ZIA (perfect '80s freestyle), LUCKY DUBE, INKUNZI EMDAKA, SPLASH (perhaps my favorite track on the tape), NGANE KHAMBA and heaps more. This music makes me happy in the right way - it's happy and upbeat music but it's far from empty. These sounds are full of hope, full of life, full of power. You can hear it, and you can feel it while you're hearing it.  

ZULU HITS: BLACK SOUTH AFRICAN MUSIC

BOLO

 

Twelve minutes of putrid, bombastic fastcore / pv from St. Petersburg. You know the feeling when you think you know what's coming and you're waiting with outstretched earholes because you know you want what's coming and then....it's better than you wanted it to be? Well, that's BOLO. Imagine LACK OF INTEREST listening to '90s Florida death metal and then colliding with PARLAMENTARISK SODOMI in a damp (dank) alley on a Thursday morning before sunrise. Oh wait....today is Thursday isn'y it? Interesting.

FRUSTRATION