SHIT SMELL - "Wasted Life!" demo (Sweden, 1994)

This is a pretty obscure '90s Swedish fast and raw hardcore punk band I know next to nothing about. Sounds typically Swedish even though it's sung in English, and it's a little more diverse than your average d-takt / käng band — it could've been on just about any Really Fast compilation. With a name like Shit Smell and song titles like "Drunk Again", "My Dick Falling Off" or "Fuck Skinheads", don't expect super clever politically charged manifestos for lyrics… haha. Add to this a raw recording, tape hiss, and some of the ugliest and most minimal cover design ever… Aesthetes stay clear!

SHIT SMELL - Wasted Life! demo (Sweden, 1994)

MIDNIGHT - demo (Portland, 2002)

Not to be confused with the Cleveland metal band of the same name, this very Midnight was from Portland, OR and called it a day before they even got the chance to release the debut 7" that they recorded shortly after this demo. They had members of all the usual suspects and more (From Ashes Rise, Atrocious Madness, Hellshock, Warcry, Lebenden Toten, Limp Wrist…) and played catchy heavy hardcore/punk with Japanese HC and heavy metal overtones, topped off by super brutal female vocals (I didn't realize it was a girl singing until someone told me!) This 5-song tape still sounds great more than a decade later so do yourself a favor and check it out. A "discography" LP featuring this demo and the unreleased EP has been in the works for a few years, let's hope it sees the light of day soon!

MIDNIGHT - demo (Portland, 2002)

GERONIMO - "A Couple Of Words For You" demo (1989)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but all I can remember about this tape is there was a member of the Danish thrash metal band Invocator involved, who I assume is the long haired dude in the Sepultura shirt on the cover. I mentioned Geronimo to some knowledgeable Copenhagen hardcore enthusiast a few years back and he had never heard of the band… Well… Not sure if they released anything besides this 20-song affair. The artwork is terrible and there's a couple of goofy moments (remember when every late 80s hardcore band had a shitty rap song?), but all in all this is high caliber, well crafted, super fast US-sounding hardcore/thrash, with sweet Dead Kennedys and Angry Samoans covers to top it all off. Very cool tape.

GERONIMO - A Couple Of Words For You demo (1989)

BOSTON STRANGLER - "Outcast" demo (2010)

There's been a lot of Boston media coverage in the past few days for obvious reasons so this seems pretty appropriate. Boston Strangler needs no introduction, they've been quite hyped over the past couple of years, paying tribute to the old hardcore scene of the city, and doing it well — bands like SSD and DYS immediately come to mind upon listening to them. For some reason the LP didn't totally convince me, partly due to a rather sterile/clean production. The rawer production on this demo suits them much better IMHO.

BOSTON STRANGLER - Outcast demo (2010)

MORTIFIED - "Drivel" demo (1991)

After the Kulturo live tape I posted a few days ago, here's another weird occurence from the UK. There's hardly any info to be found about Mortified on the internet, other than the fact they had at least another demo. Their music itself is hard to describe: slow, dirgy, heavy and dissonant — there's elements of doom metal, crust, industrial, noise rock, an early Godflesh / Pitch Shifter vibe maybe, a little Amebix, although this isn't a remotely accurate description. Download and judge by yourself I guess? If you happen to know more and feel like sharing info, feel free to post in the comments section below.

MORTIFIED - Drivel demo (1991)

OTAN - "Jodeles" demo (2003)

Otan was one of those bands that helped put Barcelona back on the punk map in the mid '00s. Not that the scene over there was dying or anything, but this new breed of angry anarchist hardcore/punk bands caught the attention of many punks abroad. They released two 7"s and this 11-track demo, which may well be my favorite of the bunch. I bought it at a show in Barcelona in 2005, the same night that I met their singer Teodoro for the first time, struggling to communicate in broken Spanish. A truly unique character, this hombre! Otan has featured members of Destrucción, Invasión, Firmeza 10, or Absurdo among others.

OTAN - Jodeles demo (2003)

KULTURO - Live @ Planet X, Liverpool, 13th April 1991

I don't know much about Kulturo other than the fact they existed from 1989 to 1991 and featured two ex-members of Antisect. They had a pretty experimental approach to music — loooong songs with elements of Hawkwind, Killing Joke, post punk, heavy metal… kinda like a prog version of Zygote maybe? They never released any studio recording. I've heard rumors of an unfinished demo but I have no idea if any of it is true… Or am I confusing this for the infamous incomplete 2nd Antisect album? Either way, I have 4 different live sets on cassette and picked this one pretty randomly as the sound is good (soundboard recording) and I happen to have the flyer for this specific show.

No tracklisting available so this is just one big soundfile.

KULTURO - Live @ Planet X, Liverpool, 13th April 1991

GODZILLA - "Possessed" demo (1997)

Some of you might have heard of the French metal band Gojira, who are well established in mainstream metal circles now. Not my thing at all, but they started out as a pretty good straight up death metal band. They released a couple of demos under the Godzilla monicker before changing it to Gojira (which is the Japanese name for Godzilla, as you may know). Being from the same area, I got to know and see them early on. I was mightily impressed, they were so young yet so tight and creative — especially coming from a rural area that was not exactly a fertile ground for metal. "Possessed" is their second demo tape and you can guess Morbid Angel and "Human"-era Death were major influences at the time. The drummer Mario was about 15 when this was recorded, was self taught and had only been playing for a couple of years. No wonder he's such a beast now.

I just saw on their Discogs page that this demo was reissued on CD a decade ago. Oh well. This is taken from the actual demo tape. I will most likely post the first demo in the future.

GODZILLA - Possessed demo (1997)

LAWLESS - "Nite Of The Wolf" demo (2012)

I never visited Oakland, CA but I have this (distorted?) vision of it is from Eric Miles Williamson novels: a dirty, dangerous, and stinky place. Lawless hail from there and are a pretty acurate soundtrack to this representation of the city. Sick, ugly death metal from the gutters, whose motto is as blunt as you can get: "We do what the fuck we want. Bow to None." If this isn't enough to make you want to check them out, you may be reading the wrong blog. Featuring members of Acephalix and Vastum.

LAWLESS - Nite Of The Wolf demo (2012)

DISTURD - "Studio Trax" demo (2012)

Yes, the name Disturd is abysmal but blame it on the bad Engrish spoken by most Japanese punks and get over it 'cause this band rages harder than your own shitty band anyway. Formerly from Kobe but relocated to Tsuyama (or is it the other way around?), they're very similar to the almighty SDS (Societic Death Slaughter), churning out apocalyptic metallic crust to perfection— think late Antisect, Axegrinder, Sacrilege, etc. There's no info at all on the tape besides an email address, but I believe this 2-song cassette is only sold at shows. Even though I met their guitarist in Japan a couple of years ago, I never got to see them live, but my friend Momo was nice enough to grab this tape for me at a recent Disturd gig in Kyushu. It has a harsher recording than their recent 7"s, but it sounds damn great. Buy their records too!

DISTURD - Studio Trax demo (2012)

ANTI-CIMEX - Live @ Leeds, UK 2nd July 1986

It is no secret that Anti-Cimex is one of the coolest punk bands ever. I endorse their entire discography, save for that terrible song "Scandinavian Jawbreaker Part 2" (what the hell were they thinking?) From their infamous 1986 UK tour, here's a rough audience recording of the Leeds gig. Jonsson sounds pretty drunk at times and I don't doubt he was. This is mostly for Cimex completists and die-hards. Bootleggers fuck off!

ANTI-CIMEX - Live @ Leeds, UK 2nd July 1986

MALICIOUS GRIND - Demo (1987)

Don't be fooled by the name, this ain't no grindcore. Malicious Grind was an excellent Southern California hardcore crossover band from the golden era of the crossover subgenre with pretty varied songwriting and alternating male/female vocals. They later released a 12" on the French label New Wave Records that I don't own but remember to be subpar to this tape. Bassist/vocalist Ingrid Baumgart was also a member of Bulimia Banquet if that rings a bell to anyone.

MALICIOUS GRIND - Demo (1987)

SEMEN - "Masas Obedientes Individuos Dominantes" demo (2009)

¡Joder! I was lucky to witness Semen live on their home turf of Bilbao, Euskadi (that's Basque Country for you) in 2009 right before they broke up, and they kicked ass. Sloppy, straight forward, d-beat driven hardcore punk in the true tradition of Discharge-worshipping Spanish bands — MG-15 or Destrucción being the obvious suspects here. The Destrucción comparison is especially true, as the demo ends with a cover version of their classic tune "Makineros Hijos De Puta", and the artwork featured in the awesome booklet that came with the tape is somewhat reminiscent of Teodoro's drawings.

SEMEN - Masas Obedientes Individuos Dominantes demo (2009)

NEKROFILTH - "Filling My Blood With Poison..." demo (2008)

I can't really hang with Nekrofilth's piss-drenched atmosphere — too much fecal matter and sexual perversion for my own good, although I expect GG Allin fans to be all over this. The music, on the other hand, rips. This three-piece from Cleveland, Ohio has a couple of recordings under its belt. If you ask me, this is not exactly their strongest release. If you're new to the band, I'd suggest you check out the Worship Destruction 12" and split LP with Nun Slaughter first (both of which were originally issued as demos I believe?), two releases reminding me heavily of proto death metal gods Slaughter (Canada) with some Repulsion thrown in for good measure. If the GBH cover song isn't indicative enough, Filling My Blood With Poison is probably their punkest recording. This is a 2013 limited reprint on Home Taping Cruelties from Germany. Dog knows what the weirdos behind the label drenched the cover in (goat blood? puke?…), but I'm not sure I wanna know: this shit smells like hell. Thankfully this digital rip will save me from pulling it out too often and getting sick from the stench.

NEKROFILTH - Filling My Blood With Poison... demo (2008)

LOS CRUDOS - Live @ Bordeaux, France. 13th Dec. 1996

This one's for the diehards. Or the locals. A very rough audience recording of Los Crudos' show here in Bordeaux, France back in 1996. This tape hasn't be heard by more than a handful of people so far, for good reason I guess. Martin's vocals are way too buried in the mix... and barely audible by the end of the tape. But I swear you can hear me talk between songs at some point. Haha. The tape stops during the first encore song too, sorry about that.

Local heroes Öpstand opened for Los Crudos that night, and they even got to play twice (in case you wanna know, that's because the Crudos guys were wandering in the streets of Bordeaux while Öpstand were playing. Back to the venue they were super pissed they missed them and urged them to play again). I have both sets on that same tape, one of which ended up on the Öpstand discography CD. The other set is basically the same songs, but if there is demand I'll be happy to digitize it some day. This line up of Öpstand with Bruno (ex-Aspro 5000) drumming never recorded anything and didn't play more than a couple of shows.

But I digress... I didn't take the time to figure out the setlist so that's one large soundfile. Feel free to break down the tracklist if you feel like it, I'm sure some people would appreciate.

Last but not least, I'm proud to say that more than 16 years later, some friends and I are still booking DIY hardcore punk shows at this same venue. Old punks never die.

LOS CRUDOS - Live @ Athénée Libertaire, Bordeaux, France. 13th December 1996

SAUNA - "Ei Leiki" demo (1991)

 
Sauna was an early '90s Swedish käng punk band. All I can remember is that one member (Pjär) went on to join 3-Way Cum, although I'm sure they must have shared personnel with other bands. They did a split LP with Disrupt but this demo is their true gem, much heavier and far more punishing. This downtuned aural assault is in league with the most brutal Swedish hardcore bands of yesteryear such as Svart Parad or Bombanfall, with vocals bordering on death metal growls. Coincidentally there is a Two Moons Rising cover song on this — Bombanfall if you prefer. The demo was released on Crash Mag Records who also released a couple of very underrated EPs in my opinion (Bombraid, No Admission...)

The tracklist displayed on the demo cover is wrong so I fixed the song order.

SAUNA - Ei Leiki demo (1991) 

CALL THE POLICE - "World Crashing In" demo (2002)

Call The Police was a short lived hardcore punk band from Portland, OR, USA that released a solid LP on Feral Ward, although this demo was their best material in my opinion (a few tracks were re-recorded for the LP.) The song title "1984 In 2002" is probably a nod to Special Duties and gives an insight of what the band was heading for, taking inspiration from UK 82 punk from the Riot City / No Future roster but also adding a fair dose of old American punk — check out the intro to "Grind To Freedom" and tell me it doesn't remind you of one of the most famous US punk songs of all times! For the record, the band had both Burdette brothers (of Tragedy and a million other bands fame) on guitar. The female vocalist was recently seen in Salted City (also featuring Grant of Talk Is Poison/Warcry) whose 7" from a couple of years back I urge you to check out – it's pretty similar in style and drive to Call The Police.

CALL THE POLICE - World Crashing In demo (2002)