BLACK OVER RED

A recent evening spent with Struggle To Survive reminded me of all of the dead links from The Early Escape Years (and it's weird to think that there is such a thing...but there is), but this post has way more to do with how good this tape is than how many other tapes are left dangling in the abyss of lost servers and mediafire data dumps. The pures might claim that hardcore was dead by 1987, and the self righteous might claim that nothing worthwhile happened after 1985 (incorrect), but there are so many underrated bands that popped up in that weird spacial void between punk's 1980s heyday and the birth of the DIY network in the 1990s. Not quite linked to the anarcho scene, removed from early hardcore, but playing by a rulebook that seemed to allow them to get away with whatever they wanted, these bands often appear to exist in an ether devoid of scene association...which is what makes them so appealing. BLACK OVER RED approach tuneful punk with the fury of the UK thrash that popped up around the same time, and it just manifests fiery punk. Killer punk...and I really like killer punk. 

STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE