TERMINAL ESCAPE: crossover

Showing posts with label crossover. Show all posts

26 February 2025

CIVIL DISORDER

I'm not sure if you're prepared for this. You should listen anyway, but I strongly suggest strapping in before the opening title track on Berontak Dan Nalar kicks in because....it's a lot. Absolutely raging Indonesian crossover thrash of the highest order with speed picking guitars that'll make you think you're listening to MORBID ANGEL if you close your eyes tight enough. For context, this came out a year before Waste 'em All and I would argue CIVIL DISORDER match that record blow for blow from start to finish while taking a liberal nod in the direction of metallic Japanese hardcore/thrash. Sandpaper vocals, wildly erratic leads, EXODUS and Four Of A Kind-caliber high intensity moshes - listen to "Pembunuh Berdarah Dingin" and you will never be the same.

BERONTAK DAN NALAR

28 May 2023

2ND COMING

Snail mail Los Angeles address and a (310) area code scrawled on the inside (but no email), so I'm going to guess late '90s here - but the sound is what really dates 2ND COMING, and that is not a dig. NYC style crossover (think SOD, ANTHRAX) with serious SUICIDAL vibes (check the solo on "The Blame" - dropping right into the funk break). It's so hard trying to imagine this band even existing in the new millennium....

2ND COMING

24 March 2023

ACROPHET

Mind melting Midwest thrash assault. Brookfield, Wisconsin denizens ACROPHET would wrap the decade with two full length discs on Triple X Records (where they were overshadowed by bands like JANE'S ADDICTION, D.I. and MIND OVER 4), but you won't be surprised to hear that this demo session captures the band at their most primal. Seven determined apocalypse thrashers land like COC smoking Hell Awaits in the fast lane, almost like they recognize the limitations of the relatively (but appropriately) primitive recording and compensate by playing everything harder...and faster. I have to think that every suburban enclave had their ACROPHET in 1987, but I have a hard time imagining that all of them raged this hard.

THE ANSWER WITHIN

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Friends of The Escape did a very nice reissue of this tape for folks interested in a physical copy. Those folks (and folks interested in BUTTHOLE SURFERS and ANTI-STATE CONTROL tapes or HICKEY photozines) are encouraged to click HERE.

15 October 2022

HOWLING MAD

Absolutely raging UK hardcore infected by the mid decade proto-thrash craze and fronted by an almost metal and and almost Biafra vocalist. Listen to them just decimate riffs, playing them into the fukkn earth until there's no life left in them before lurching into a solo and then back to flogging that dead riff some more. And they are good riffs - buzzsaw riffs that infect you - and you want to hear more of them. Seems like this 1987 recording is all we're gonna get, so clench fists and strap in.

A TASTE OF THINGS TO COME

11 February 2022

DEAD BUT STILL KICKING

A time capsule of unknowns, 1991's Dead But Still Kicking crams a dozen of your new favorite bands into one hour of beer soaked punk and hardcore. Detroit's SCRUFFY TEARAWAYS open the comp with two sinister crossover rippers and THE VACANT follow up with shrill UK influenced punk, good enough that you stick around for TATTOOED CORPSE and VOODOO LOVE GODS dropping by with their distinct brands of sleazy bar punk. Primitive crossover from BLINDED DESTINY, roughshod melodic punk from THIRSTY, then GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE, ZOMBIE TERRORISTS, X WOOLHEAD, COMMONWEALTH and A.D. plow through the second side before SHARK FETISH bash out a harmonica drenched garage hardcore stomp to close the tape. Bands are from Portland, Germany, Maryland, Michigan and parts unknown - I might have been familiar with two of the twelve before I popped this plastic wonder in the deck....and comps still rule.

DEAD BUT STILL KICKING

17 November 2021

NUNCHAKU MASTERS vs. D.F.C.

Thrashers - REJOICE!!! If you don't already know how fucking huge crossover thrash is in Brasil, then you might as well start here before making your way over to VIOLATOR, DAMN YOUTH, MACE, and...well, you should pack yourself a snack because you're going to be thrashing for a while. Long running veterans D.F.C. lay down a full throttle Bonded By Blood style madness, while NUNCHAKU MASTERS are a little more deliberate and lean more on the crossover/hardcore end of the spectrum (as opposed to the metal/thrash end...). I've used too many words already, just get to work.

NUNCHAKU MASTERS vs. D.F.C.

14 November 2021

HALL OF SHAME

This one came from the YOUR MOTHER folks after their 1997 (or was it 1998?) tour of Israel. There are some videos floating around of HALL OF SHAME in a Haifa warehouse melting adolescent faces and...well, it rips. Kids just going for it; looks of wonderment from the audience and the band. I want to believe it was truly as pure and honest as it seems, as it sounds. Because if that were the case then humanity wouldn't be quite as shit as we all know humanity is.... so dream and thrash. Thrash and dream.

PISS ON EARTH

12 September 2021

DAMN YOUTH

I jumped on this as son as I saw it pop up - when something is this good and there are only a couple of dozen physical copies, you gotta move fast. DAMN YOUTH hail from Northeastern Brasil just outside of Fortaleza, and have been honing their AntiFascist Skate Thrash Assault since the mid '10s...CWB Undead harvests the fruit of their efforts at a live show in 2019 (I think?). The casual conversation between songs is without pretense - DAMN YOUTH let their performance speak for itself, and 'relentless' is the only word that seems appropriate. Ten doses of brutal head splitting nazi smashing thrash metal is what you're expecting, and that's exactly what they deliver. I spent my 45th birthday with these dudes...they slayed that night just like they did the night this set was recorded.

CWB UNDEAD

01 September 2021

U.Y.U.S.

U.Y.U.S. were from Houston. If they had been from New York then both of their LPs would be $100 records, instead they're $20 records. The tape says (DEMO) but I'm pretty sure all four of these tunes are on their self titled 1989 slab. Shit rips.

(DEMO)

All eyes on Texas today. All eyes on California in two weeks. Then it'll be something else. Some new horror. Some different assault. Some other place. Something else that is so wild that you just can't believe it can actually be happening because you thought "we" were "better" than this. We aren't. We are this. And we won't have enough eyes to keep an eye on all of it...and at some point the heart is simply going to run out.

14 June 2021

ACID SPERM

Sometimes you need to look behind the joke to find the shred. Sure, "Ed Has A Glass Eye" and "Hairy Burrito's" can be a little tough to take seriously, but underneath the shrill Brecht-meets-Dart vocals you can find primitive foundations for what could have become a demonic crossover thrash masterpiece. Of course that never happened, and while we listen to "Acid Groove (Waffle Iran In My Pants)," we are left to listen for diamonds that would have been...instead of diamonds that were.

WAFFLE IRAN

21 March 2021

UNCLE SMOOTH AND THE LOST MAYANS

A few years after hardcore's heyday, in that dark void before the USDIY network had really coalesced and scenes were codified, experimentation was truly allowed, even celebrated...and shit was wild. PRIMUS played 924 Gilman countless times, OFFSPRING and ECONOCHRIST toured together. VICTIMS FAMILY was a punk band. The lines between crossover, thrash, commercial alt rock and punk were extremely blurry, countless bands lived exclusively in those grey areas, and those grey areas were often in the suburbs. Enter UNCLE SMOOTH AND THE LOST MAYANS from Waukesha, Wisconsin. I wasn't there, so I reached out to a few people who lived through it to give me some context....

Dug: "Musical giants of Waukesha, WI!"

Karoline: "Maybe we were all just stupid kids and maybe they were really great and I just didn't appreciate it at the time."

Sweater: "I'd like to revisit them, they were 'too musical' for me then. I never understood the whole Primus thing - now I can kind of understand, but I still don't think it's right."

At times it's not too far removed from the college town punk I was surrounded by at the time. There are some proto-grunge bits a la SLUGFUZLE, while the wild funk/punk of CINDERBISCUITS crashes full speed into late '80s thrash and....and also PRIMUS. These dudes listened to a lot of PRIMUS. I can't imagine making music like this as a teenager, and thinking of UNCLE SMOOTH AND THE LOST MAYANS playing the same Madison basement as ASPIRIN FEAST and BIKINI KILL (not the same show, but still)...well, it was a different time.

UNCLE SMOOTH AND THE LOST MAYANS

31 October 2020

INCARCERATED

Impulse internet buy paid off big time here. INCARCERATED blast out of 1996 playing nasty death influenced thrash at a time when both were out of vogue. Demented and fierce as fuck, an actual crossover combining hardcore and death/thrash metal. Your knuckles are going to hurt after this one - you just get to choose whether its because if the ground or a nazi's face.

INCARCERATED

You're no messiah, you're a...you're a movie of the week.

You're a fucking T-shirt.

At best.

23 September 2020

MORBID LIFE SOCIETY

MLS is the sound of true freaks. Spastic thrash fanatics ripping blast beats and bong hits before either were in vogue, dropping funky break downs and Zappa song construction into face melting Bay Area thrash. OK, weed was never out of vogue. "Prostitution," the opening track on their self titled 1988 demo, has more riffs and changes than most entire records...you exhale when the song ends and only then do you realize that you've been holding your breath for more than three minutes. There's the self titled demo from 1991 too (with the same cover art and two of the same tracks), a brighter session that helps them fall more in sonic line with the West Bay Coalition crew they are often associated with - an association solidified when 625 Productions slapped the '91 demo on wax later in the decade. The instrumental "The Pot Song" (which appears on both demos) probably captures MORBID LIFE SOCIETY best - a prog/funk/thrash instrumental that has no business on a normal punk or metal record until they break loose with an insane dose of blast for the last 30 seconds. Maybe MLS fit in everywhere because they didn't fit in anywhere, but listening to these kids bash the shit out of their very existence and just let it all loose is like filling your lungs with history.

There are (confirmed) reports that 625 is planning to drop both of these demos onto a cassette for modern consumption, maybe the other 1988 demo too, so those of us who (justifiably) feel like there is nothing to look forward to...there's hope.

DEMO 88 DEMO 91

07 October 2019

SANITY CONTROL

Simply put, Warsaw's SANITY CONTROL are one of the best old school thrash bands I have ever heard. Killer modern crossover of the highest order. Period.

SANITY CONTROL

02 December 2018

DISINTEGRATION

As if the cover isn't enough, these Australian deliver a raw-fidelity thrash assault that lands somewhere between Obsessed By Cruelty and GRIMPLE. I assume there has been more since this 2013 demo, but I've been too stuck on "Thrash Is My Girlfriend" to bother looking. Yeah....you know exactly what I mean.

NO LIFE 'TIL CROSSOVER

03 May 2018

INTRICATE

This one comes courtesy of a concerned FOTE, hoping to ensure yet another artifact is not lost. Previously unknown to me, Germany's INTRICATE shine through a rough live recording on this 1992 cassette release that is full of power. This pre-dates the German Metalcore explosion by a few years, but the trajectory seems relatively clear, and INTRICATE serve as a potential bridge leading to the JANE, SYSTRAL, MÖRSER and the like. Maximum intensity Pain/Word-era NEUROSIS tries to find a niche amongst primal speed metal riffs and relentless European crust - most of the material here is live and it is amazing...but when the studio track drops in it's like a fukkn steamroller. Cheers to Will for the loaner...I'll have it back in your hands soon.

A CONVULSION ATTEMPT

03 March 2018

LOOSE NUKES

Some dude on the internet announced earlier this week that the LOOSE NUKES tape was a ripper. I read that and I thought, "yeah, it fukkn is." A tasteful tinge of crossover thrash in this non-stop riff assault, and everything is tight as a drum. Ten tracks delivered in under twelve minutes, Houston's LOOSE NUKES are worth more than one casual mention on the internet....so now they have (at least) two.

FAST FORWARD TO EXTINCTION

26 December 2017

DEATH IN ACTION

Another repost, as Dead Week conrinues the transformation into Death Week. This one comes from late '80s Germany in the form of blistering and primal crossover thrash like DEATH SIDE in a death grip with DEATH ANGEL but without the solos that either comparison conjures. A few full length platters followed this 1987 demo, but as I mentioned in the original post, none of them hold a candle to the half hour of magic in today's plastic shell.

VEINS OF FEAR

11 December 2017

DIOS MIO

Remember when party thrash was a thing? I mean, it's still a thing - it was a thing (likely) before you listened to it, and it will continue to be a thing long after you stopped thinking it was cool. But remember when YOU listened to party thrash? Check DIOS MIO's "Shit Life" video for a pleasant trip down memory lane, but then click the link below (as you should every day, obviously) and check their 2006 demonstration cassette for eleven minutes of high energy hardcore. The tongue in cheek factor is a little more muted, just some small town Wisconsin kids beating the shit out of their instruments and trying to cop a mosh any way they can. I completely missed seeing this band live, even though I was living a few hours down I-94 during the bulk of their run, but such is life. Choice track here is "Scab," but you'd be wise to jam the whole batch a few times.

DEMONSTRATION

12 January 2017

BURGERKILL

You don't just have to pay attention, you have to look. There are hundreds of these. Thousands. Bands that popped up somewhere on the other side of this flat disc we call home, played their hearts out and then moved on or faded away before the geographically challenged had a chance to notice...or, perhaps, bands that took an entirely different trajectory and ended up playing Wacken, like our Indonesian guests BURGERKILL. 2000's Dua Sisi was their first release, and it's very much a hardcore platter, though the roots of the metal powerhouse they evolved into are evident. I suppose if you put the term "crossover" in a modern context, this is a perfect example? I just think it's a meaty hardcore platter.....

DUA SISI