FARCE "S/t" demo tape, 2017

This is somehow a stimulating one to review for Terminal Sound Nuisance as Farce firmly belonged (I assume they are no longer active) to the hardcore scene - X's are optional but felt - rather than the comfy anarcho/crusty one my magnanimous self is used to promote here. At the end of the day it's all punk, innit? So why the need to create divisions? A fair point but then isn't the context as important - if not more in many cases - as the text itself? We often tend to think that context always creates text (or music) which is obviously the intuitive approach but that would be disregarding the performative power of the act of creation that sometimes escapes and gets rid of its creators. It would be far-fetched to claim that Farce's rather humble demo tape reflects such philosophical matters and I guess that what I really want to say is that Farce come from a hardcore background but their music appealed as much to the spiky crew as the athletic one (let's put it that way). 

Were it not for their cover of Doom - "Police bastard" no less than the band's most notorious and iconic song - I do not think I would have paid much attention to Farce, not because I dislike the music a priori, but precisely because the people from Farce are from a different crew and I can be close-minded (like my coworkers like to say when I confess my utter indifference to vocoder music). I make it sound like every subgenres is its own tribe with its council and its code of law that does not really mix with other tribes - be they rival or allies or just totally alien. Actually maybe we do have tribes or factions - it would be the appropriate term - that don't really mix, especially in large cities where you can afford to have this sort of artificial divisions. In smaller towns, everybody just go to "the gig" whatever the genre (beside monstrosities like skacore or shoegaze). It's not as complicated. 

So basically I almost missed this very fine tape because the members of Farce were and are involved in bands like Game, Shrapnel, Arms Race, Violent Reaction or Obstruct - all bands I am not hard or muscular enough to listen to - and because the tape was released on Quality Control HQ, a very hardcore-oriented (in the US sense of the term) label I don't follow closely for its lack of hairy logos. It does not mean that I don't like some of the bands and it certainly doesn't mean that I don't go see them and support them. I did go to the Damage is Done festival last year and although, to be honest, it was for Framtid, seeing groups of grown men doing the two-step dance (Macarenacore?) and waving their arms like dysfunctional helicopters was a right laugh and some of the bands were objectively very good. As I said, different codes of behaviours are attached to specific punk factions, and mine is often more concerned with taking shit speed, nodding drunkenly to an average Discharge clone and discussing the bourgeois habit of taking showers while still Instagramming patches. All much more respectable and very noble habits, right? 

But let's actually get to the tape. So why would both a healthy jumping straight-edge 35 year old hardcore kid and what can only be described as a stumbling human-shaped pair of crust pants love Farce? Because they proudly relied on the classic mid-late 80's UK hardcore sound of bands like Heresy, Electro Hippies or Ripcord and maybe even furious raw hardcore bands like Asocial or G-Anx (without the trippy bits) and whether you worship Siege and early Agnostic Front or Deviated Instinct and Sore Throat we can all be friend and mosh - respectfully and caring for wimps like myself - together. "Let's all be friend! Means to an end!" and all that. The tape has 8 songs in 11 minutes, the production is direct and gives the impression that it was recorded in 1987, the songwriting goes straight to the point, the pace is mostly of the fast and furious variety but you have some mid-paced moments to keep the grindcore crowd away. Just good, solid political hardcore punk. The label logo on this release has been turned into an homage to Icons of Filth's aesthetics, tasteful fan service I am sucker for. The brilliant artwork was done by Nicky Rat who, with his distinct style, has been working with tons of, often successful, bands since then. I wish Farce had had an Ep in them but that was not to be.

This silly writeup is dedicated to Ola - from Farce and Quality Control HQ - for obvious reasons. 

Farce

ΑΤΟΜΙΚΗ ΣΧΑΣΗ "Ακροβάτες Στο Κενό" tape, 2018

I first learnt about the label Extreme Earslaughter in 2017 when I read about a coming discography of Industrial Suicide (or Βιομηχανική Αυτοκτονία as they are known in the non-posing world), that classic Greek band virtually unknown outside of Greece and of the crust elite. Of course, excitement grew exponentially at the Terminal Sound Nuisance headquarter. A very limited run of a tape including rough late 80's recordings from a gruff metallic crust band with a grim name is the equivalent of a holy miracle in these quarters, if not the proof of the existence of God. Further investigations indicated that the man behind this operation was none other than Vagelis from the excellent Παροξυσμός, a band I was already following closely. It basically all made sense. 

Readers of the blog are well aware that Greek crust is definitely my thing and I have written about this localised take on the old-school crust genre - whose unique defining specificities, I would argue, make it an actual subgenre - on numerous occasions and the band Ατομική Σχάση (aka Atomikí Schási meaning Nuclear Fission) gloriously ticks all the boxes. If I were a judge at the Crust Olympics I would give them a 10 for sure. I knew this 90's Athens band before this reissue through the enigmatic Same Old Madness blog (it's been inactive since 2017, sadly) that was bent on archiving all the Greek punk bands that ever existed with absolutely no information about any of the bands beside the names and dates. Needless to say I spent hours exploring that rich but ultimately rather inhospitable place, discovering absolute gems in the process, among which Ατομική Σχάση. That Extreme Earslaughter in 2018 decided to resurrect this 1995 demo, Ακροβάτες Στο Κενό, is a selfless gift to the world. And that's what I love about this label and about this tape: it's what they represent. This humble tape, with only 100 copies made, is a labour of love, passion, dedication, of the immortal DIY spirit in the face of the commodification and the artificialisation of our culture. This tape is the opposite of the online crust pants contests and of bands constantly promoting themselves, it is for the genuine lovers of crust, and I would argue that this applies to Greek crust as a whole itself, it is how you identify the trve kvlt. If I was the bouncer of an exclusive crust nightclub I would ask people who want to get in what their favourite Greek crust band is and if they are unable to answer then it's back to the cheap neocrust club down the road. 

Fortunately I don't have the gatekeeping mentality (and I am far too much of a wimp to be a bouncer, even at a kids party) and Terminal Sound Nuisance is all about sharing and loving so here is your opportunity to show off and feel superior with a delicious if little-known metal crust band. Details about Ατομική Σχάση are scarce to say the least. The band formed in 1993 in Athens, only self-released this demo in 1995, the bass player Haris also played in the first lineup of Ρήγμα (I reviewed the excellent first Lp here) and that's about it I'm afraid. Stylistically, the music is pure old-school crust with that characteristic Greek sound and songwriting. It is very epic with a dark melancholy atmosphere enhanced by keyboards (Greek crusties just love their synth don't they?) very much in line with what Χαοτικό Τέλος. The band blends heavy mid-paced metallic crust like the aforementioned forefathers as well as Axegrinder, Ξεχασμένη Προφητεία or Misery (clearly) but they also tread into faster and thrashier territories reminiscent of Ναυτία, Anti-System or even Hiatus. Apocalyptic synth stenchcrust at its very best. I particularly love the sense of narration and storytelling in this recording with the band taking a genuine breath with an instrumental acoustic song in the middle. You can tell that they really cared about the atmosphere they wanted to create and about the tools they could create it with. The sound is pretty raw compared to today's bands and I guess that with a more polished production this would have easily deserved to be released on Lp at the time but it what it is. I don't mind it at all, if anything it conveys an even more organic vibe.

Fantastic stuff, great label, love music, support the scene and all that.  

THE CRUST

LASTSENTENCE "Solitude" tape Ep, 2017

Alright, I'm back. It would be something of an exaggeration to claim that I'm back "from the dead", although it would certainly make me sound really cool and I'd become the "Phoenix of Crust" which would definitely boost my online popularity and the status of Crustus Immortalis would probably increase engagement on the blog (whatever that means). The closest from the Hades I have been to since the last post was when a pizza delivery guy almost ran me over last week though. So no, I just had things to do - "IRL" as twats say - and lacked time to sit on my arse and write far too enthusiastic words about unlistenable music that few very devoted people love as much as I do. Am I happy to be back? Indeed, old bean, indeed. What I am trying to eventually achieve through Terminal Sound Nuisance is still not quite clear, beside offering something to read instead of a like button and a click culture, but I keep getting back to it anyway. They say that the journey is more important than the destination but then you often find on inspirational posters in people's bathrooms so it is difficult to take seriously. Quixotic I presume.

I won't be doing an actual series for once and will just write about recordings that I like or that I find interesting, the only common attributes being the sacrosanct tape format. The material difference between a demo tape released in 1992 and another one twenty years later is absolutely huge although they are both technically punk tapes. Once the most relevant cheap DIY format, ideal in its very nature for its convenience in order to share and spread your music, has the tape become something of a romantic punk shibboleth, a material tribute to a golden era, the format almost as important as the music, seemingly carrying a message by itself? Still, tapes have remained relatively cheap and you could argue that most people interested in our little niches have always owned, or rather never stopped owning, a tape player anyway so that the contemporary trendiness enjoyed by tapes do not matter that much. It must be different for the people who are too young to have lived in the original era of tapes. How do they see tapes? After all, it was never a relevant format to them, they were born in the mp3 era and I don't see many bands releasing cdr's either.

All this to say that I will be writing about tapes without any real unity of time and place even though I realize that, for all the criticism, I myself have been buying quite a lot of tapes in the past 10 years - more than ever before in fact - so that we will not go too far back in time in general (with delightful exceptions of course). And because I was dying to deal with something completely different to the last series about Japanese crust compilations, the first installment will be... a fucking "Raw-noise mangel attack" from Osaka. I picked it at random and yet I am back right where I stopped. I suppose it says a lot about my tape collection.

Lastsentence (the spelling possibly picked in order to differentiate themselves from the legions of preexisting Last Sentence) can be said to be one of those bands that fans of the subgenre are acquainted with and enjoy to a well balanced, reasonable extent, but that people with a casual liking to Osaka noize will very likely be totally oblivious to. Why bother with Lastsentence when you have Ferocious X? Well, precisely. If you cared to bother with Ferocious X then why not get an extra slice of goodness from the same crew? Think of Lastsentence as the third band of a "3 crasher mangel acts for the price of 2" hardcore punk deal. The band has been going for a while now, made up originally of members from Devastated Goes, Nationstate and Ferocious X (duh) with a first demo released in 2008. The band was a different animal at that time as they had a female singer (Oda from Nationstate) and the music was much more distorted, very close to Ferocious X actually (duh again) as their Beginning of the Closed Mind can attest. By 2011, the sound changed and guitar player Nabe took on vocal duties. Rawer and not as distorted was the guitar and the band focused more on the heritage of Frigöra and early Gloom, the space between them, rather than the "wall of noise" school. It was the right choice because not many bands go for that raw distorted Mob 47 vibe and the energy is contagious when it's done well in a pummeling mangel fashion. 

On this 2017 recording, recorded at the infamous King Cobra Squat, a new guitar played got recruited but the sound recipe remains the same with songs that will fit right with your usual Frigöra-holidaying-in-Osaka morning routine. Lastsentence do well what they set out to, with gusto, and even if they are a humble Osaka "raw-noise mangel attack" and will not shatter the earth crust, it is not, by far, a bad spot to occupy. It is in fact a brilliant tradition to proudly represent. Since 2018 (I think?) the band has had Jacky Framtid on vocals (the drummer Aladdin actually joined Framtid earlier) and he does the job with obvious passion. The Solitude tape Ep was released on Doomed to Extinction Records, a label with more than a passing fondness for Japanese crusty hardcore that I warmly recommend if you like your punk obscure and noizy (the label had released a split between Lastsentence and Tokyo's Voco Protesta two years before that tape). This will appeal of course to the completists but the average Swedish hardcore fan will dig this too.

Solitude

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part ): SMELL CORPSES "5 track" tape Ep, 2022

If there is one thing that punk taught me - beside the fact that poor hygiene can be considered a proof of one's dedication to the movement by platinum punks (to my mother's eternal despair, I must say) - it is that it's an international movement. One that we should value for it. While the random wanker on the street will probably only listen to popular mainstream American pop music and its local equivalent (because who doesn't want to be American?), the proud punk, the one who cares, who connects, who is blissfully oblivious to basic tuning and fiercely unbothered with dodgy musicianship, will fearlessly strive to discover noisy music that most people won't listen to anyway, done by fellow punks all around the planet. The knowledge that we are part of a worldwide DIY underground movement always felt quite glorious and vertiginous at the same time. Sycophantic me, I know.

But how is that possible in a world that looks so fragmented, polarized, dislocated, dangerous, rooted in prejudice, fear and high shipping costs? There is no easy answer to this but I am sure clever people who have been provided with grants from official institutions to explore this issue as part of their PHD program and publish a thesis that no actual punks are going to read will come up with something major. In the meantime here is my pissant take on the subject: punks basically share a common language. In spite of all our differences, we understand the language of punk. Because of the tremendous diversity of backgrounds, we all have specific stories to tell and there is no denying the very real impact that historical processes, to be understood materialistically, have had on all of us. Living conditions, gender, race, poverty, national origins, all define and sometimes divide us and even I am not enough of a naive zealot to believe that owning a Doom patch suddenly makes everything alright. And yet, we share a tacit common language, a common set of cultural references, shared DIY practices, a penchant for spiky hair and the habit of being chased down the streets by hard blokes on mopeds. And we all love Discharge, right?

Whenever I hear the average vapid Joe (or Olaf or Carlos or Piotr or Jean or however dull people are idiosyncratically known as in your area) claims that he listens to "a bit of everything" when what he really means is that he listens to any old crap that he is subjected to when shopping at Asda, I feel like getting my Smell Corpses tape out of my pocket and make him listen to it while patronizingly explaining that this is my version of listening to a bit of everything: the usual d-beat raw punk formula tastefully done by a punk band from Thailand. I'm sure this was what Marx meant when he claimed that workers of the world should unite.   

So Smell Corpses are from Thailand, from Phisanulok to be accurate, in the North of the country (not that I would initially have known since I have never been) and this delightful recording of d-beat raw punk seems to be their first gift to the Gods of D. Or is it? The band also appeared on a DVD compilation released in 2018 entitled Kawakami Forever 2017 and including Singapore-based bands like Lifelock or Braincëll who have already been dealt with on Terminal Sound Nuisance. Of course, I am going in circles but who isn't? As for the present recording, it was originally self-released as a cdr in 2018 and reissued on tape first in 2021 on the Japanese label Harimau Asia (who also released material from The Rebel Riot from Burma) and then in 2022 on Full Force Hardcore Destruction, a reliable label responsible for tapes from Lifelock or Declaration, both bands that already paid a visit to this series. As I said, going in circles.

With such honourable connections, the careful reader will have understood that Smell Corpses deal in noisy d-beat with a taste for distortion and for the Japanese style. The production is, indeed, quite raw and unpolished but it conveys a sense of urgency and direction that fits the genre. I am reminded of the early days of D-Clone and Contrast Attitude in its most primitive form (the vocals do not lie) but the band still keeps that nightmarish hypnotic vibe that characterizes the Disclose sound or indeed that of Disease. Of course I like it a lot. The last two songs are sung in the Thai language and I have to say it is the first time I hear a punk band in this language and it sounds great and completely d-beat compatible. 

This tape is for the d-beat raw punk diehards, for people who like it noisy and genuine and who support the international d-beat mafia. If you are brave enough the band the Thai label Inhuman Assault released Smell Corpses' second tape Slaughter Still Continues in 2023. Trigger warning: it might harm posers.

SMELL CORPSES

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 16): DECLARATION "What is the reason for tomorrow?" tape, 2020

This lot definitely declare it, but whether it is a declaration of love or a declaration of war is up to the level of belligerence that the listener can muster in 2025. Absolute, uncompromising and uncompromised Love for the Dis or indomitable war on the world? Possibly both? Revolutionaries used to claim that there was a new world in their hearts which sounds romantic indeed and remains a great title for any emocrust album (points are to be gained through the addition of a screenprinted booklets providing translations of the lyrics into at least three languages). What no one really predicted was the (grave) new world growing in the dark heart of the old one, a brutal universe where power no longer even bothers to hide its inherent brutality under empty phrases. 

Declaration recorded this very fine tape only a few days before the Covid lockdown in Singapore in April 2020, this supremely odd time which we are all trying hard to forget and generally succeed in doing so (in the First World at least). On bandcamp, Declaration add: "Currently witnessing and experiencing the collapse of capitalism, the state and its people. The world will never be the same again". In the end, capitalism and states are doing quite fine indeed although you could argue that the people have a much shittier time remaining on their own two feet. What is the reason for tomorrow then? Does tomorrow really need any reason? It cannot be said to belong to us, as Cal's words once claimed, but I have faith that men, women and children will one day fight back in defense of our future and that punk bands will still be cosplaying as '82 Discharge and charge the best part of a twenty for an album you already the songs of and still gladly buy. That would make a great epitaph, right?

Upon first hearing Declaration, a radiant feeling of joy and warmth immediately took over my brain. The first minute of What is the reason for tomorrow? confirms what your inner self hoped it would to be: pure d-beat, unadulterated, untouched by influences foreign to the Discharge scriptures, an unsoiled oeuvre of mimicry and worship, a soundalike, like a band that had been frozen alongside a mammoth since the 80's and somehow emerged from their slumber in the 2020's. This humble tape was the quietly prodigious child of a bunch of Singaporean punks also involved in established bands like Pazahora, Siäl, Vaaralinen or even Life Lock (which would come as a surprise only to posers). As the saying goes, they know their shit and how to achieve it. There is no ounce of originality in the tape and its perfection originates from this absence. It is the most immediate d-beat language you are likely to find, it speaks directly to the D inside all of us (it is a little known but easily verifiable scientific fact that the D lives in each and everyone of us and can only be unlocked through repeated listens of Discharge, pretty much the punk equivalent of Illumination). If you think d-beat should only be the imitation of Discharge - a form of fundamentalism called dischargism - then Declaration is for you and I am glad to introduce you to them. 

As usual had they emerged from New York or Tokyo or wherever "cool" happens to be these days people would have been more curious and probably touched by their raw sound deeply rooted in early Discharge (somewhere between 1980's Ep's and 1981's Why if you know what I mean) using all the expected tricks to perfection (a special mention goes to the delightful mid-paced numbers). Cracked Cop Skulls (especially with the doubled vocals, which I personally am a sucker for) and Dischange also deserve to be summoned by the court as fellow comrades and students of the Discharge arts. I love that the drums are really upfront and provide that galloping vibe that allows d-beat to sound dynamic. Eleven minutes of plenitude.

This tape was released on Full Force Hardcore Destruction and might still be available somewhere. I suppose Declaration was only to be a studio project from the start and if it did not, Covid forced it to be. In any case, and even if the bands shall remain a mere footnote in punk history, they will alway have a special place at Terminal Sound Nuisance tower and that's a good enough reason for my tomorrow as far as I am concerned. 

What is the reason for d-beat?        

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 10): ASPECTS OF WAR "A Look Into the Nightmare" tape Ep, 2017

Aspects of War is the epitome of a band that does everything by the book. Not any book: the book of the D. This legendary punk codex is the equivalent of the Necronomicon but for people who like Discharge too much - although both readerships fall under the "nerd" category - as its deeper meaning can only be understood by initiates, higher level d-beat fans. It includes Holy d-beat scriptures with the Ten Commandments that must be respected at all costs by Dis nerds if they don't want to end up in Hell where, it is rumoured, one is subjected to shoegaze music for eternity. Beautiful illustrations and parables dating as far back as 1981 also show the way toward the d-beat epiphany to the flock of believers. 

How neat would that be, yeah? If there was such an oeuvre, Aspects of War would have reread it a couple of times just before recording A Look Into the Nightmare. Don't be fooled by the simple tape format, it is a flawless collections of four songs that could be shown to students following a D-Beat 201 class where they will learn about the distorted subspecies of the genre (the corpus is brilliant in this class). Aspects of War were an essentially 2010's band in the sense that they have to be approached through a diachronic lens rather than a synchronic one. The 2010's were a decade during which the Disclose worship, or rather the Kawakami adoration, boomed with an astounding parochial fervor. Previously discussed bands like Dispose or Disease are also to be seen from this perspective, and it can be argued that No Fucker were among the first, if not the first, non-Japanese band to theorize the Disclose-styled d-beat raw punk. From the status of unique band with its distinct style, Disclose became a blueprint for a specific d-beat style postmortem and Aspects of War were one of the noise unit that applied the protocol with dexterous determination and picked the name of a Disclose Ep as a moniker just to make sure that you get it. 

The studded four-piece started in 2010 and threw the towel around 2017. The band were from the Boston area which proves that you don't have to were trainers to play hardcore punk in this town. The lineup included Jake from Nerveskade or Zatsuon and Chris who ran the very good but sadly inactive label Brain Solvent Propaganda, while Devin and Trevor also played in the noisier crasher band Ambush (who did a solid flexi in 2014), so that you can say the boys already partook heavily in noise-making punk activities. Like a proper d-beat band on a mission, Aspects of War got to work with two raw demo tapes, Total Disfuckers in 2010 and the hilariously titled In Order to Satisfy Their Mania For Conquest Punks Are Squandered the next year (this open self-awareness combined with apropos references stands as another aspect of 2010's d-beat) before releasing the superior The Presence of Death Ep and a split with Contrast Attitude both in 2014 and a split with System Fucker and a flexi the next year, vinyl appearances that saw the band take things to a different level of brutality.

Beside a strict adherence to the d-beat raw punk canon, the strong point of Aspects of War was that they always managed to sound both raw and energetic. Sometimes Disclose-influenced bands rely too much on distorsion and effects and unconsciously forget the most crucial element in hardcore punk: the energy and dynamism. Disclose were never just about distortion, their songs were all angry declarations of love to Discharge and Discharge-loving 80's bands and in that sense Disclose were almost like a sonic filter through which these influences were transformed. And Aspects of War, like No Fucker, got that dimension just right. They balanced raw punk textures with simple but effective Dischargish songwriting with ease and A Look Into the Nightmare stood as their aptest release on that level because it reflected this balance perfectly. 

The early demos may be cruder and more primitive, the brilliant split with Contrast Attitude cleaner (well...) and more "produced", but this parting gift proved to be my favourite, not just because I got it for cheap. Three fast d-beat raw punk numbers reminiscent of Disclose (they are not called Aspects of War for nothing) No Fucker or even Final Massakre (especially the vocals) and classic 80's bands (The Iconoclast notably) and a mid-paced Discharge one to wrap it up. Eight minutes of Dis perfection. The North American version was released on Brain Solvent Propaganda for the Varning festival and the European one was done by Voice From Inside. Good shit indeed. 

ASPECTS OF D-BEAT

Last Night a D-Beat Saved My Life (part 9): FOSSE COMMUNE "S/t" demo tape, 2017

Well no, I did not lose a bet. I was not threatened or blackmailed in any way and chose freely. Although I have often, if not almost awlays, been disinclined to write about French punk bands, not just because French music generally irritates me and puts me in a foul and querulous mood, but because I did not grow up listening to French bands and in fact only witness their talent, or lack thereof, when at gigs. Many exceptions to this bitter rule exist, thankfully, but French hardcore bands too often wallow in that US hardcore style that I found particularly cumbersome and tainted with testosterone and basically undeserving of my august attention. Hence something of a reluctance. 

Places like Saint-Etienne or Bordeaux have proved, year in year out, to be able to deliver quality and tasteful hardcore punk music enabling the average French punk to look a Swede in the eye and claim, albeit with a shaky voice and with a horrendous accent: "we have a couple of decent bands at home you know". One cannot overstate how prevalent an influence the Bordeaux hardcore scene has had for the past 20 years. It is known for its deep-rooted passion for the D and for the recognized quality of its bands well outside the country. The fact that it's pretty much the same 10 people doing all the bands is of no importance as you could say the same thing about many a good scene in 2024. In the war against shit taste, they stand as a bastion of good hardcore music and the national résistance against the lurking peril of French oi. They protest to survive, resist to exist and ain't no feeble bastards when it comes to reject the rules of boots'n'braces and £75 Fred Perry shirts.

If you are into d-beat, and I concur that you are if you are reading this (unless you just enjoy reading pompous bollocks), you will have heard of class Bordeaux bands like Gasmask Terrör or Bombardement but the town also has hidden nuggets such as Fosse Commune (which translates as "mass grave", cheery stuff) that the common Discharge worshipper might be unaware of and it is my job, as the condescending redactor-in-chief and self-appointed leader of good taste, to educate the masses and uncover little-known but valuable d-beat bands and in actual fact I rate Fosse Commune pretty highly when it comes to that zoological classification.

The band proved to be, sadly, short-lived so that you would be partly pardoned from not knowing them and I admit that my proximity with the Bordeaux clique did facilitate my coming across them. Fosse Commune was born out of the desire of guitar hero Jesse and drummer Rémi to start a band that would sound like Disaster playing on Disclose's gears which on paper sounds like a very just cause to play music. The masterminds behind this evil plan were not exactly beginners as Jesse had been previously dicking around in the rudimentary albeit noisy Incendiaire and Slakteri and was also singing in the very fun Sexplosion (the title of a Discharge song you wish you could forget) at that point in time, while Rémi was, and still is, involved on the bass with the much underrated raw and furious hardcore band Hondartzako Hondakinak (amply referred to "Honda Honda" because we are, beside being Street Fighter 2 fans, linguistically lazy and unschooled in the Basque language). Singer Esmé and bass player Jean-Marc (formerly in Déjà Mort) joined the troop and they joyfully recorded this 7 song demo, with lyrics in English but for "Des chiens", in 2017 which they self-released in true DIY fashion and therefore had to distribute themselves which must have been a pain in the arse.

Although not getting any discount on the tape myself, Fosse Commune were a generous band with about 14 minutes of noisy d-beat to gift the world. Had they been American, they would have released it on Lp and embarked on a two week European tour with five different shirt designs. The idea was basic and simple enough, nothing revolutionary was undertaken and Fosse Commune, in the grand Distory, could be characterized as pleasingly unoriginal and tastefully unimaginative. From a national perspective however, the creative intent that drove the band was precisely the opposite. Indeed, playing Disaster-styled d-beat hardcore with a Disclose-styled guitar sound in the landscape of French punk music sounds like a near-impossibility, a conceptual aberration, something that can barely be imagined. What would Les Béruriers Noirs think? So while Fosse Commune would have been a delicious non-event in South-East Asia, Spain or the States - albeit one that I would undeniably celebrate - its national uniqueness cannot be understated, as obscure and brief the band might have been.

Dis chats?

Guitar hero Jesse confessed that the project was to use the songwriting of Disaster and apply a layer of Kawakami. This adventurous endeavour had already been touched upon by Deadlock from Japan, who similarly relied heavily on Disaster's slower d-beat drumming - what I call "jogging d-beat" - but don't know that Fosse Commune really thought about them in the writing process. Simple, heavy and distorted riffs the sound of which required about 15 pedals (it probably would have been easier to just plug the guitar into a rusty tumble dryer), some "just like Disaster" transitions and overall a well-executed primitive d-beat pace with a solid sound that fits what they were trying to do and their devotion to the subgenre's tenets. The band's originality - a rarefied realm in this genre - cannot be said to be immeasurable but does exist with Esmé's direct and raspy vocals whose flow and texture are reminiscent of 90's crusty anarchopunk (Lost World or Fleas and Lice at times?) rather than d-beat strictness. As mentioned earlier in the series with Atentado's Ep, female vocalists are few and far between in the cult of Discharge replicas so that it always sounds like a breath of suffocating yet fresh air.

This is a humble but solid demo tape that will undeniably ravish d-beat raw punk sectarians and repel wankers who equate hardcore music with wannabe New York bodybuilders but I believe that Fosse Commune, for its simplicity and groove, can also be enjoyed by the casual hardcore punk fan. I wish the band were able to record an Ep but it was not to be. The one minor flaw of the tape might be the artwork - which I can enjoy - as it is unclear to me what the band wanted to achieve with the lack of references to their extremely referential sound. But maybe I'm just a bit think, innit?

Fosse Commune       

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Step to Freedom "The Rotten Era" tape Ep, 2019

This is going to be the last writeup of a pretty hectic year for Terminal Sound Nuisance. Initially, I intended to complete the Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust series by 2022 but I clearly overestimated my capacities - the malevolent would say it is not unusual - since, beside this one, there remain (at least) eight recordings I would like to tackle. And I actually had to trim off the overambitious original list which included even more records than I could chew (the files are ready so that they will be used at some point, like in 2027 or something). 

From the start, I considered this gargantuan series as a bold experiment that social scientists around the world were too scared and cowardly to undertake: how much crust can the human body take? For a year, I only wrote, thought and dreamt about crust music. Even for a music genius like myself, I have to admit that it has been a challenging experience and there have been times when I was only able to speak crust gibberish (basically a blend of band names and neanderthal exclamations) because I almost overdosed on the thing. But survive I did and I came out stronger, as I became a crustcore übermensch, the Captain America of stenchcore, the Goku of crasher crust, the hero you must call if a crust record has to be analyzed urgently because the future of the world is at stake - to facilitate the process I've had a crust signal installed on the roof of the building (I'll grant that, if you ignore that one time when a pigeon accidentally sat on it, it has never been used yet ). So yes, it has been a busy crust year for Terminal Sound Nuisance. 

The last of these smug homilies will be about Step to Freedom from Nizhny Novgorod (or Нижний Новгород if you want to impress your mates with some linguistic skills), a town East of Moscow. Let's be real: it makes sense to end the year with a Russian punk band. I am not going to get into the war that has been raging in Ukraine this year, as complete media saturation was quickly achieved. It seemed every punter suddenly became pub-level geopolitics experts even though they probably could not place Kharkiv on a map in February. A lot of them (and us sometimes) should probably stick to discussing football, spitting death threats to referees, grumbling about the new government reforms or, if that's your thing, the price of Japanese flexis. The current war(s) aside, Russia has been further turning into a war-mongering conservative authoritarian state that shits on human rights, LGBTQ rights, workers rights and protesters and I believe it is not always easy to be a punk band with something to say over there (to be fair, there are many other areas in the world where it is not either). And now young poor bastards are being sent off to war to fight for a political fiction - the Nation, God, Honour, Glory - as it always has been the case. Generals and ministers die in bed. So yes, not the cheeriest year over there and being called Step to Freedom in this context of stepping away from freedom and to tyranny is beautiful. Solidarity with punks in Ukraine, Russia and wherever life is hard because of delusional lunatics with military might and unlimited funds. I realize it is rather insignificant to say this on a music blog but the feeling is really there. 

Alright then, let's get started. I am not sure when STF exactly started but their first recording, entitled Social Zombies, was self-released on tape in 2014. The musicianship being quite decent, I would venture that the band had already been playing for a couple of years or that the members had already been involved in bands before. Or just that I am not used to people being actually able to play their instruments. I have written about Russian crust bands on several occasions (Fatum, Kärzer or Repression Attack) and I have grown to be very fond of their crust style since the start of the past decade. While I would not claim that Russian crust - perhaps a more relevant terminology would be "crust in Russian" because of the bands located in Belarus or Kazakhstan - is as specific-sounding as the very particular Greek crust school (although it has to be pointed out that they both work with a unique language), even a half-witted listener will have noticed that their national style has developed several significant idiosyncrasies and has steadily become quite recognizable. As a result there are several elements (visual, sonic, thematic, the effective use of the language) expected of and associated with Russian crust, which points to a genrification process to some extent. Time will tell if it sticks but I am betting my Antisect bottle opener that it will.  

Social Zombies was a promising first effort and has a couple of solid crusty metal-punk songs (a bit like Sanctum meets late Cimex or something at times) but some modern hardcore moments do lose me. Their next effort, a tape entitled Cemetery for the Humankind released on Makima Records, only came out in 2017 so the band clearly took its time and to be honest, it was well worth the wait as it is a much more convincing powerful work. These songs revolve around a decidedly thrash metal-inspired stenchcore formula enhanced through that typically aggressive howling Russian delivery. Basically a balance of a Cimex-influenced gruff crust sound and the moshiest, thrashiest end of the crust metal spectrum, not unlike Nuclear Death Terror on a date with Limb From Limb at a thrash-themed restaurant run by the second stenchcore revival's legions (Fatum is an obvious ship captain). I love when STF go all old-school crust through crushing mid-paced apocalyptic crust but not being a thrash/speed metal fanatic, they lose me again when they rock too much the bandanas out of their back pockets. An enjoyable effort but not one I would necessarily play regularly. The Rotten Era tape Ep on the other hand is another story.

Released in 2019 on the excellent Blown Out Media from New Mexico, this four-song jewel comes close to being a perfect Russian stenchcore gem. It still has that extreme old-school thrash metal influence but mean crust is clearly the dominant force on that one (the punk side of the Limb From Limb spectrum if you will) which suits me better. It also looks crustier visually with an abundance of crust signifiers (yes I am taling about the Antisect celtic frame). This tape is a proper scorcher. The mid-2010's Fatum filthy work plan can be said to be very much in use here but I am distinctly hearing some tasteful nods to UK classics like early Bolt Thrower, Genital Deformities and Antisect and the 00's stenchcore revival is also just around the corner (some sweet Effigy and Sanctum's touches here and there). The production is direct and very energetic, it highlights the angry vibe of the songs and these punks are very angry indeed at the bleak capitalist wasteland they live in and the specific phonetics are useful tools here. At the end of the day, The Rotten Era is over-the-top pissed off metallic crust punk with a bite at its best, a concept that I have come to link with Russian crust music. This definitely deserves a vinyl version. Maybe in 2038 for the fifth stenchcore revival?

Step to Freedom

  

    

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Genogeist "S/t" demo tape, 2018

And Portland does it again. 

I have been whining on many occasions like a proverbial sad bastard about how PDX (that's how punks who are not posers call the town) has, time after time again, given birth to brilliant hardcore punk bands. I am not sure why it is. Perhaps the younger generations basically emulate the good music and bands that preceded them, thus ensuring the continuity and survival of local quality punk. Does good music basically spawn further good music? Being able to watch Hellshock or Dog Soldier or Harum-Scarum or Autistic Youth or Tragedy (the list really is endless) is a considerable advantage in your formative years. As young punks we all used to look up to and admire older punks, sometimes just slightly older really, with starry eyes and a bit of envy because they all seemed to play in cool bands and were thus undeniably much more self-confident than your spotty self trapped in rampant insecurity. In that PDX context it would probably inspire you to sound as good, or even better than them, and basically to write good songs. Good music calls for and attracts good music, it is a magnet. It creates a dynamic that will lead people to move to this place in order to be part of this movement, immerse themselves in the energy and contribute further good music. From afar PDX is like going to Hollywood to make it as an actor or actress but for punks who are into Discharge cosplay. If you need another metaphor because you are under 25, it is like a massively popular motivational Instagram post that everyone strives to emulate.

On the other hand, maybe they also have shite bands in Portland, we just never hear about them. Maybe the town's best-kept secrets are actually its terrible bands that have to be contained in order to safeguard the good reputation of Portland. What would people think if they knew the town was overrun with skacore revival bands or Smash Mouth cover bands? I trust the local punk police with its unlimited trendsetting power will do its best to keep the city's name untarnished. And if they plan to hire at some point, they know where to find me. 

So Genogeist is yet another class PDX crust band if you have not already guessed. The love story between the city and crust music is famous and seemingly unbreakable. I mean, you could do an advent crust calendar with only PDX crust bands (seriously, I did). A few months ago in Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust I touched upon others bands from the area, namely crasher crusties Horrendous 3D and the Sacrilege-loving Terminal Conquest and because the scene is rather incestuous, a member of Genogeist played in the latter. In fact, the people involved in Genogeist also got their hands dirtier than they already were in Dödläge, GAASP, Vastation and Decomp - bands that I rate very highly indeed - so it is little wonder that a coalition of such craftpersons would result in something remarkable (well, there have been exceptions to that rule but common decency and basic cowardice force me to remain silent on the matter). And of course, Genogeist absolutely rips. In fact their 2019 Lp is one the strongest crust albums of the decade and it would probably make it to my personal top 10. It just sounds and looks stunning. But before this gem the band recorded a five track demo tape in 2018 which is what we are all religiously gathered for tonight.

Granted, the tape was pretty limited with only 100 copies being made which may account for its relative obscurity. I distinctly remember - and I am sure many others unfortunately also do in spite of themselves - rambling inarticulately about the Genogeist demo upon hearing it, even to people who are not into crust at all. Even to random strangers apparently. As if I were twatting innocents in the face with emphatic praises about the band. But what can you do? I am an enthusiast. I am not completely sure about the name "genogeist", the prefix "geno" meaning "race" or "family" and "geist" is the German word for "mind" ("ein gesunder Geist in einem gesunder Körper" as my brutally scary German teacher used to tell our class while specifically staring at me for some reason) so I suppose it suggests an idea of an overarching collective mind which would go well with the futuristic dystopian robotic imagery of the band and the anguished and unhinged vibe of the music, each reflecting the other. This cohesion and fluid link between form and content is meant to create a sense of crazed technological alienation for the self and the collective alike, an idea that was notably at the core of SDS's super intense Digital Evil in Your Mind (and Ameber although with a different songwriting), a brilliant and unique work on which Genogeist clearly built and developed the concept further. This is basically the definition of cybercrust: half-punk, half-machine, 100% crust. They could have gone for robocrust or mechacrust too but I am thankful they left crustmorpher out.  

The band has often been compared to later SDS, and rightly so, but AGE's Four Wings Lp must definitely be mentioned too as this rather underrated album of exploding and rocking metallic crust explored very similar themes to SDS's and Genogeist's visuals actually hint more to the Niigata's legends. Therefore, one would be right to argue that these PDX punks pay tribute to the aforementioned periods of those Japanese bands, not just in terms of music but also in terms of message and aesthetic stance. And clearly, the music absolutely smokes. Relentless Antisect-ish Japanese-styled metallic crust with a sense of atmospherics, ripping solos, angry gruff vocals, rocking mid-paced filthy metal moments and a relentless energy (let's throw a bit of Disturd). Japanese-inspired crust is often associated by the average singleton to the distorted blown-out crasher crust school of Gloom, Collapse Society, Zyanose and the likes but the SDS way is just as meaningfully influential and part of this magnificent equation.

This is a very strong punishing recording with a heavy but still raw production, the sole minor issue being the level of the cymbals that sound a little distracting. Black Water would release a visually stunning full album the next year that further highlighted the band's furious referential take on the Japanese greats. A supernova cybercrust cracker and as I said, one of the best crust albums of the decade. The tape was released on Malaysia's very prolific Black Konflik Records and Sickhead Records. 

Praise the cybercrust                    

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Phozgene "S/t" tape, 2017

Life can be beautiful. And I don't mean just the band LIFE, who has been consistently beautiful for ages, unlike many of us. Sometimes you can encounter, by sheer chance, marvelous punk recordings out of nowhere, so to speak, like Randy Orton's RKO but without your skull being buried on a wrestling mat (this being said, the sensation can be very similar with loud crasher crust). Phozgene is one such example of an amazing hardcore punk surprise. I wish I could tell you that I found their tape in my mailbox because the boys were massive fans of Terminal Sound Nuisance and were begging me to write about it (a $100 bill would have to be included in the envelop of course). But unromantically, their recording just appeared in the youtube recommendations one morning and I think I clicked on the link because the "O" had a peace symbol in it. The most glamorous element of this embarrassingly anticlimactic story may be the fact that I was probably wearing my Disclose pyjamas. It could be much worse of course and Vancouver's Phozgene could have merely been a pure waste of my precious time and attention span. At least, the recording is brilliant. 

More often than not, surprises are disappointing though. Years ago, I remember my dad insisted on bringing me a present from one of his holidays in a resort of some kind. I tried to dissuade him as the last time he had done that I ended up with the cheesiest Dubrovnik key chain. But he told me that this time he would bring me something I would actually enjoy and be proud of. That got me very worried but his drive was quite touching and I thought that the worst thing he could bring back was an ashtray or, if he were particularly ambitious, some sort of smelly carpet from an "authentic" market for tourists. I was wrong. When he came back he proudly told me that he had gone in an actual "rock shop" where he asked for a "rock shirt". My heart almost stopped beating and when he gave me the grey, vastly oversized Limp Bizkit top, I was so speechless that he mistook my reaction for overwhelming happiness. I never told him that this horror quickly ended up as a dust cloth that I would still hide under the bed in case a fellow punk saw it and ruined my then fragile reputation. A scarring experience indeed but I should not complain, it was a heartfelt gift and I should feel lucky to get gifts at all. And it did make for a quality dust cloth to be honest. So thank you daddy. 

But back to Phozgene. "Phosgene" means "a poisonous, colorless, very volatile liquid or suffocating gas, (...) a chemical warfare compound" which I suppose makes it a synonym for special brew. Phozgene was a band that had what I call a "fuck me effect". I suppose that if you spend too much time watching American series and films, you could call that the "wow factor", which sounds pretty dreadful to be honest. The "fuck me effect" implies that you are completely taken by surprise by a brilliant band, one that you did not necessarily expect much from and that gives you a massive kick up the arse (in a good way, not in a "where have you been all night son?" kinda way). Phozgene felt exactly like that. A band seemingly coming out of nowhere and checking all the right crust boxes. It was basically a crust equivalent of the RKO: you don't see it coming but it nails you nonetheless. And whenever I listen to Phozgene, I still remember that amazing feeling of being pleasantly surprised and it does make your Supreme Leader - i.e. me - really happy as it has become pretty rare to be favourably impressed by a random obscure band in a world where we are continually fed new bands and constantly bombarded with hyped "genre-bending rules-challenging crucial hardcore bands" that end up being forgotten and replaced with another one six months after. Not that any of my own bands has ever been included in that category. So I may just be envious. 

I asked guitar hero Cordie about the history of Phozgene and that was how it went. Back in 2016 bass player Alex and himself had just completed a tour with their PDX-based band Suss Law and they decided to go back to Vancouver (where Cordie is from). The both of them started messing about in the studio and quickly wrote songs influenced by the mighty G-Anx while smoking weed. Amazingly they were capable to play an actual gig just weeks after the songs were even written in those circumstances. If you lock me up in a studio with some mates and feed us a weed-based diet, the result would be absolutely embarrassing and the best anti-drug campaign in world's history. The message would be something like: "If you don't want to make a fool of yourself in public like that twat on stage, don't do drugs". But anyway, after that first gig the band recruited new drummer Darrell and two months after they recorded that little gem of a demo. There was another studio session in the Summer of 2017 where four songs were recorded, one of which appeared on the Terminal Noize Addicts compilation Ep in 2019 along with Suss Law, Zyanose and fucking Disorder (one of Cordy's teenage fantasies I'm sure). The three remaining songs have not been released yet (hopefully a label will wake up and get to it someday). By 2019, Phozgene was no longer though as they stopped playing after a small tour in Canada in late 2017. In the end, the band only played for about ten months.

So what makes Phozgene a highlight of the decade for me, albeit a modest one. The band had something that few others can claim to have: they sound original. The basic ingredients for the recipe are classic in the best sense of the term. Right from the introduction, the main direction can be aptly defined as old-school filthy stenchcrust with 90's style dual vocals and an angry punk vibe (rather than a metal one) running throughout. Or something. The band don't hesitate to switch beats, from the traditional dis-käng worship to the dirty mid-paced thrashing crust one and blasting old-school hardcore. Apart from G-Anx, 80's British crust bands like Mortal Terror, Electro Hippies and '88 Deviated Instinct come to mind just like cavemen käng inspired classics like 3-Way Cum or State of Fear and I would also definitely compare it with the more contemporary '09/'10-era of Cancer Spreading (that's accuracy for you). But while bands influenced by G-Anx usually stick to the ultra fast käng hardcore template, Phozgene also worked on the psychedelic aspect of the band and freely included more progressive influences with tribal space rock bits, dark postpunk moments, free rock solos and even some synth thrown in there, all of those smartly integrated into the whole and not just thrown in there. So yeah, weed. 

On paper, it could just sound like a mess but taken as a whole, it makes sense and allows the demo to tell a great story with different moods that is different but still coherent and meaningful. It will definitely appeal to people craving for gruff old-school crust and at the same time bring something new, with a fresh twist, to a table that often lacks personality and creativity. I suppose that we are not far, conceptually at least, from what Instinct of Survival offered in the mid 2010's (revival stenchcore meets Zygote and Smartpils) and a band like Kärzer (which you can explore here) can be approach in a similar light. It would be far-fetched to claim Phozgene were the first act to add psychedelic and progressive influences to classic crust though and in the 90's Bad Influence and Πανικός clearly pioneered this drive to go beyond through this peculiar path. But as I mentioned, it is uncommon to see that nowadays, even more so from a band proverbially coming out of nowhere. 

This demo was first released in 2017 by Thought Decay Records from Canada (Phane's own short-lived attempt at releasing stuff I presume) and reissued in 2020 by No Name Records from Kiev. With a 25 minute running time, it would make for a brilliant vinyl Lp (just saying). Cordie and Alex are still doing Suss Law (distorted and noizy UK82) and the latter also plays in a Ramones-inspired band called The Chuffs. As for Cordie, he is a busy bee and beside riffing in the brilliant Phane (charged punk at its very best), he also lent his skills to Brutalize (raw punk hell), Despair (which I can say is one of my favourite orthodox d-beat bands of the decade so you will hear about it at some point in the future) and he has probably written a handful of riffs for three new bands since I started this article.

Phozgene