Kruds / Rampant Decay split on Patac Records

Time to pull out the old crazy metal from Patac, this one is a split to clear the backyard this weekend, and get those jerks off your lawn. No one would ever come knock on your door and tell you to turn this down. What you've got is a split with Kruds who are throwing crazy samples into their hardcore, which is weird and awesome and Rampant Decay who are back with another split, because god knows if they get their own full length the world is going to end.

Kruds - "Hatchet Face" starts out with a Compton's Most Wanted sample over some RnB loop "I got another gang story to tell..." starting out this metal onslaught of growly vocals, thin metal guitars dropping out for a crunchy fuzz bassline then they double time it with yelly vocals. I like then they get a groove going for a minute...they could stick to these melodies. I think "Dead Bent" is up next with trading off vocals... who doesn't love to hear this completely room clearing grind.
Then shit... a Mike Tyson sample? Genius, really anything the guys says can be mindblowing, even if you already know he is completely crazypants. Putting this right next to speed grindcore with big starts and stops? Shit I'll take it, somehow they got away with pressing this, someone was asleep at the pressing plant...nice work.
At least 4 tracks here, sounds home recorded and angry, with Marshall stacks. This last one slows down to a crawl and I like when it gets extreme like this, as slow as possible. I'm old, the fast stuff just flys by me. More samples!...from Caddyshack? I'm getting into this. I hope they try to put these in live, it's bringing back that rampant sampling from the '90s but in metal? There's an idea. More speed and mixed up stops, slow it down again for a econd of hardcore. They all yell into the mic. Nice one, unexpectd and weird. The bands they thank on the liner notes are worth the price of admission alone: Goregrowler, Charles' Grandparents (Is that a band or a sincere thanks?) and Down Syndrome (again....thanks or band?).

The B-Side is from the guys in Rampant Decay, they're getting that big sound and the growling is seriously ferocious, it's beefier and even faster, blending into a massive blur of vocal and cymbal crashes... then a rock beat and chord changes with a choir?! This is great. "Political Lemmings" I love that these guys are so angry I just hope they're setting some banks on fire while they're at it. Don't put all your energy into the band, help stick it to the 1% would you? "King of the trash" has up front gutteral growls, while the instrumentation struggles to break forward... this kind of thing scares me. You can get into a trance and really want to break stuff. Great sleeve with a crazy tattooed dude rising out of the cigar smoke(?) who is knifing, no machete-ing this guy in the head who has a bike that says "vegan" on the downtube. I think there's lots of other labels involved in this release...and really? Facebook addresses? What the fuck is that? You guys should be firebombing facebook, not advertising those assholes in your liner notes. Can I be 'friends' with Rampant Decay? You should want to kill me!

I've never been good at reading these crazy metal typefaces and it's a good thing there's a download card or I would have gotten these wrong...from Patac records.

Psycho on Patac Records

Here's another single from, Psycho on the Boston-centric hardcore label, Patac Records. The last thing I expected was this jagged sawblade looking vinyl when I pulled it out from the sleeve. Incredible....looks like they had to start cutting the tracks way inside to allow room for working out the blades, but then how did they cut those into each vinyl? That's completely insane...there must have been some kind of jigsaw form or something. Another step after they're pressed...a shit-ton of work. I honestly have no idea how you would do that on a scale of 500 or so like this. Lucky mastered these at least... and then they were pressed somewhere else? And maybe then cut/melted somewhere else? Damn, Patac had the idea it would work with Psycho...putting the needle on the record, that sawblade is a nice touch.

Sounding an awful lot like Suicidal Tendencies, on "Vertigo", the first track...but that probably jut says more about the last time I was listening to this stuff. To know there is this kind of well documented and supported scene in Boston is great...it's almost intimidating, and Patac is giving you plenty of places to start. They really have nailed down this sound and it's players throughout the genre's history. Turns out these guys have been around since 1982, breaking it off in 1994, and coming back 16 years later with this 4 song EP. Why? Probably because they can't stop playing. This grindcore is always going to be a part of them, obviously. They could help shape a new scene.

Wouldn't it be weak to say "Well, I grew up, so I had to quit"....you loved it in the first place..what changed? You got older? Who cares! I swear if a band gives up like that, you almost have to discount their body of work a little. I guess they never had that drive. It's easy to load up your shit every night at 18, and play as fast as possible, but to hear these guys keeping this up on the uncomfortable "Animal", is more hardcore than anyone under 20. The real balls come when your band has been around for 30 freaking years and then crush you with a punk EP like this.

"Religious" on the B-Side, is as condemning as you can imagine, the vocal rhythm back and forth of Cody is overlapping, delivered at inhuman speed. They always seem to find an internal rhythm that doesn't seem to repeat in any regular way...well it breaks out at the beginning and ends with a solo, but I think it's just to mess with you.

"Legalize Murder" features lyrics written by GG, I don't know if this was based on some published writing he did, or it was some kind of spoken word track...or is this what he said at NYU when he was sticking the banana up his ass? However they found it, they ended up making it my favorite track. (They actually recorded with GG on "Freaks,Fags, Drunks and Junkies" (1987) - ed) Going almost Black Flag with a party on punk version of "Fucking Pigs! Legalize Murder!" railing heavy headbanging chords, this is a rally cry for occupy wall street. They need some punk rock attitude down there to really make a change. Forget the drum circles, play "legalize murder(ing the rich)" and I'll happily be down there.

Sawblade black vinyl with double sided sleeve, with lyrics and liner notes inside.

Boston's own godfathers of grind are back with a brand new platter of splatter! Four raging tracks that are gaurenteed to give your turntable a real kick in the ass. This is the first new set of recordings in fourteen years. PSYCHO formed in 1982, and stood out in the Boston scene due to their unique blending of hardcore punk and thrash metal. Bands like PSYCHO, CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES and THE ACCUSED laid down the groundwork for modern mainstream acts like MUNICIPAL WASTE and TOXIC HOLOCAUST. This record has been die-cut into a 'sawblade' shape, and limited to 600 copies, the first 150 are on red vinyl.

Revilers - Stand or Fall EP on Patac Records

The stencil font and the gothic title lettering of the Revilers EP let you, the seven inch browser, know that these guys mean business...looking further on the reverse sleeve has an old etching image of a guy hanging in some sort of a personal size cage from a hangman's beam over the ocean. I'm going to guess that he was probably a pirate because back in the old days, probably the late 1700's they would string you up like that to rot in the port where everyone could see. You are a bad person and no one is going to save you. In typical fashion this is more of Patac Records extreme music, from this band, Revilers, also out of Boston, or the Cape Cod area, if you believe certain reviews. I hope the cape cod area could support a band like this, but I kind of doubt it. I know what it's like in a small town, extreme music of any kind doesn't go over very well at the local bar, but then again, angry, fuck all, punk can find a home anywhere really, so that part of me wouldn't be surprised.
The A-Side has the title track "Stand or Fall", and the entire production on this record is really clean, seriously low end kick drums, they really spent some time mastering this, getting the levels in line to have one pretty massive wall of melodic punk, which is coming off to me like Agnostic Front, that defining of punk for the Northeast...really really angry, not trying to push the limits of performance or technical skill or attitude, but getting the job done with that blue collar aesthetic. we have to rock these people tonight, not piss them off because we're trying to suck as hard as possible out of our own boredom.
In, "Tried and True", it could almost be a hard rock, anthemic Replacements track, J-Had even shares that raspy gutteral vocal, which works to carry all the tracks really melodically in that Rocket from the Crypt or Murder City Devils way...don't write them off as only about the aggression and angst. There's definitely fist pumping attention to detail here and actual songwriting taking place alongside the attitude.
B-Side's, "Road Rage" has to be my favorite lyrics on this one:

So clever in your saab
You haven't seen the last of me
beat you in front of your children
while your wife holds my coat

Not that they aren't going slightly political, talking about standing together, union style, and losing power against corporations....all valid complaints, but I can relate to road rage, and this track would probably get you in trouble on the freeway.

Get it direct from Patac Records, extreme music purveyors:

5 new tracks from Boston's Revilers. These new tracks pick right up where the debut EP ISOLATION left off. The two opening tracks are strong Oi influenced punk anthems in the vein of BLITZ and UK SUBS, while Side B hits you like a sledgehammer with tracks inspired by the likes of URBAN WASTE, CHAOS UK, and INEPSY. 100 Blue Marble (Mail Order and Tour Only) 400 Black color vinyl is 1st, 1st served.

Insult / Rampant Decay on Patac Records

If there is a one universal music law I've found to be true it's that the more insane, upsetting or extreme end of the music spectrum you're working with, in general the nicer the people who created it are going to be. So middle of the road, commercial artists are going to be the biggest assholes? See?
I guess it kind of doesn't make sense, but then again if you're in it for yourself, even if it sounds like the most hateful, apocalyptic meltdown that's just because it's all coming out in the practice space and not on peoples faces. I get it.
So obviously we've got some of the nicest guys in Insult, Derek, Nate and Paulie from Boston...this trio is pushing those human limits of speed, doom and growly vocals. There are six tracks here, from "Hate Your Face" and "Shitbag". It's amazing how foreign sounding the riffs are, unrepeating, and bordering on experimental at times, there's almost nothing to hold onto as the complete wall of noise starts in some internal hyper rhythm like in "Sheeple". There are hints at softer hardcore punk here and there, but mostly they're frighteningly dark and with inhuman speed.
It's in the final track, "Diddler on Parole" that they slow down for a minute and come up with a sludgy power riff between the tortured throaty vocal, a single repeated chord with kick and cymbal crashes, reminding me of a punkier Harvey Milk. A deliberately off key solo appears for a second, maybe just to flip off the whole idea.

The B-Side is from Rampant Decay, a 4-piece from Providence who's also throwing puppy birthday parties with Napalm Death listed as an influence...haven't thought about those guys since my friend Dave was carving their logo into the back table in art class. If they would have only accepted that desktop as his final project....
"Apocalyterian Party" is working with another switch between a semi-rhythmic structure that is mostly instrumentation being played at top possible speed and then slowing down to Melvins sludge, nice contrast guys. Rich's vocals manage to get even lower and more disturbing than the first side, it's truly evil. It's scary to even think how they ended up here musically, raising the bar. "Pigshit" gets more metal sounding with maybe their only attempt at melody, another track of insanely swapping tempos with Rich remaining king of the underworld. Truly frightening stuff that makes me question that music law altogether, this single is the anti-christ soundtrack.

Mostly clear, with black, like smoke trapped in amber....nice, from Patac Records.

Executioner on Patac Records

This one from Executioner came in from Patac records, out of Boston, I randomly pulled this reissue gem from the pile post-Irene and this convertible driving through the lava apocalypse seemed appropriate, if weirdly nostalgic, that demented '50s in hell look. Turns out it's from Winston Smith, who designed all those great Dead Kennedys covers, and he's even got prints of this one for sale over there, along with lots of other collage work that is most definitely NOT funded by the NEA. Thanks to the liner notes, I realized this was recorded in 1982, and that definitely changed things. Sometimes the date is the most important part of work like this, you really have to imagine the music scene back then in the bay area in CA, the lack of support for anything outside the box in the early '80s, let alone this kind of metal punk. It's also crazy to put this alongside the sing sing releases or Last Laugh's reissues from the same time period...it feels like a different world. I guess that goes to show the effects of geographic isolation on a sound that was happening all over the country.

"Fix Me" is surprisingly slow tempo and melodic, but Dave Burks vocals let you know this is going scummy punk eventually, sounding like he's puking and screaming at the same time. Not surprising, he's talking about shooting up in a style made for this irrational, cold-war, world ending, Regan times.
These guys bring the speed eventually, running right into the next track "Hellbound"...and with insane solos(?) they can most definitely deliver more than just power chord changes. I think that was the hardcore work ethic at work here. They have to be taken seriously because of the musicianship, not that they really needed anyone's approval, but it's anything but the stereotype lazy or apathetic playing that can be punk sometimes.
The B-Side, "Flatlands", is another stab at a real melody, with Dave's rough delivery that you have to appreciate that you can still understand what he's talking about....unlike a lot of those Germs tracks. I get that it's even more punk to not even be able to understand what you're even singing about, but at this point we haven't gotten to that useless competition phase yet. Plus he's talking about bombing a museum...I think you could start with a lot of other institutions first, but they shouldn't exactly be exempt either.
"Marked to Die" starts with a distanced, lo-fi distortion riff, it that slow, deliberate almost metal rhythm, something like Group Sex, which must have been an influence.
These aren't the typical power tempo, showoff speed punk tracks. They aren't all the same sounding one minute songs, it's right up there with probably some of the best legendary punk from that year...there are going to be a lot of people happy about this finally hitting vinyl almost 30 years later.

On Black vinyl with an old xerox flier from a show, lyrics printed on the reverse sleeve and black and white photos from the old days.

Get it from Patac Records...who also have an Anal Cunt shirt I can pick up now that I don't live with my mom.

Executioner - Hellbound EP San Jose Punk

It's not often that one stumbles across an unknown, undiscovered gem from the golden age of California hardcore, but that's the case with this debut release from a band that went their separate ways over 25 years ago. Formed in San Jose in 1982, Executioner's music was hard, fast, tight and loud. It contained "taboo" extended guitar solos and stop-on-a-dime tempo changes. They sounded like nobody else. A mix of hardcore West Coast punk rock, speed metal (before there WAS such a thing) and the larynx-shredding assault of singer Dave Burk's vocal missives, their music commanded attention. And they got it. A bootleg cassette of their song "Fix Me/Hellbound" became the number one requested cut on the legendary underground station KFJC for the entire year 1983. It was the number two most requested song on San Francisco's mainstream station KQAK (The Quake) the following year. All with absolutely no promotion, just word of mouth. But by that time they had called it quits, victims of their own teenage attention spans, the then-current ethos of slackerdom, and perhaps a few too many encounters with illicit substances. Their recordings sat unreleased for over two and a half decades, kept alive only by the 4th and 5th generation cassette dubs that kept on making the rounds in the following years as their legend grew. Until now... Patac Records is proud to release Executioner's long awaited debut "Hellbound." Members of Executioner went on to work with such diverse artists as Steve Jones (Sex Pistols), Guns n' Roses, 22 Jacks, Black Francis (Pixies), Throbbing Gristle, The Offs, Pete Yorn, and many others. Catch them here in their formative years, and prepare to be blown away. Cover art by WINSTON SMITH.