Record Label: Alternative Tentacles
Genre: Doom Rock/Gutter Punk
Band Link:
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This CD collects the earliest music from this early 80s band known for developing and influencing crust punk and thrash.

It’s a mixed bag; I hadn’t heard their music before but was under the impression they were Crass-ish. That may be true lyrically and in terms of bare-bones production and gritty, wails-from-the-gutter anger, but musically they’ve got a Sabbathy doom rock sound. Unfortunately, the doom rock on most of the tracks is a sludgy, drawn-out, throbbing headache.

The second half of the collection is livelier and isn’t such a downer. Perhaps their later stuff (post this collection) is the gutter punk I’d expected of them, and tunes like “Curfew,” “Belief,” and “No Gods, No Masters” lean toward that style. Still, not that great.

And maybe that’s a problem with hearing this for the first time 25 years after it came out – maybe it was revolutionary and jaw-dropping back then, but with the benefit of knowing their contemporaries and bands that have come since, it doesn’t impress now.

Bottom Line: Classic crust or angry stoner rock?
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