G&P review: Lebenden Toten

Lebenden Toten
Near Dark
Feral Ward
For a name I’ve always heard connected with the Portland crust punk scene, this is certainly not what I would have expected. With visions of Tragedy dancing in my head (Feral Ward is Yannick from His Hero is Gone’s label, after all) and band photos that look straight out of central casting for a Rancid video, I was at first confuzzled then pleasantly surprised when Lebenden Toten stripped away my stereo speakers one rust scraped layer at a time with a Brill-O pad of abrasive noise.
The spawn of a hitherto clandestine love connection between Merzbow’s Masami Akita and Melt-Banana’s Yasuko Onuki, Lebenden Toten (“living dead” for all you Anglophones) will occasionally give you a splinter of something vaguely recognizable as a song amid the electronic squall and canary in a coal mine vocals. Snippets of drum patterns or a fragmented guitar line breach like whales through the harsh static and tortured FX boxes. From off in the distance you’ll also occasionally grasp a chirped vocal line like a song bird alighting at the premiere of Cthulhu’s long awaited power saw concerto.
To even attempt to describe the band’s quicksand layers of punk and noise in the sense of conventional songwriting would be futile and, unfortunately, like their forerunners in HHIG, they seem to be averse to leaving any sort of internet presence where I can direct you to try for yourself. But those with open minds and a broad definition of hardcore will likely find a lot to enjoy here if they give it a chance.

G&P review: Aaritila

Aaritila
…Ennen Huomista, Tana Tuomiopaivana
Feral Ward
Pity the poor Finnish site moderator. Anglophones moderate obnoxious commenters through the art of disemvowelling, but that’s quite a task when your native tongue is largely consonant free.
The genius of disemvowelling is it allows a troll’s thoughts to still be parsed, albeit with effort. But say I were to disemvowel the title of Aaritila’s latest Finn-core assault, all you’d be left with is Nnn Hmst Tn Tmpvn by Rtl. Not really much to go by there.
Not that I’d want to disemvowel a d-beat outing this enjoyable. Featuring members of Totalitar and Riistetyt and with nary a band photo where somebody isn’t sporting a Discharge tee, that probably tells you all you need to know about Aaritila.
But in between all the d-beating off, Aaritila channel a swinging core of Stooges style rock and roll.
“Totalitaarinen Valvonta” may be an anthem to an uprising of the proletariat, but its solo could have been lifted from a dance friendly early Social Distortion LP while “Kuolleen Kukanmaa’s” low end will shake the foundations of oppressive capitalist oligarchies and and booties.
Aaritla no double hold sincere beliefs about the role of power structures in every day life, but clearly that doesn’t mean the music has to be dour. Not only will the revolution be televised, but it will have a beat and you’ll be able to dance to it. I give it an 85.

G&P review: Warcry

Warcry
Not So Distant Future
Feral Ward
I’m gonna say something heretical here just so you know where I’m coming from. Tragedy’s last album, Nerve Damage, kinda disappointed me. Don’t get me wrong, the song writing was as stellar as d-beat gets and the musicianship was top tier, but it was the flat production that killed that album for me. Vengeance had that awesome, raw sound that gave the songs that needed oomph, that sense of urgency that lets punk continue to thrive despite generally not advancing the songwriting craft an iota since “Blitzkrieg Bop.”
Seems like Todd Burdette (Tragedy/ex-His Hero is Gone) may have had the same quibble because side project Warcry’s latest makes none of the same mistakes while pretty much treading the same punky waters that birthed his previous bands.
With His Hero Is Gone’s moody melodicism and Tragedy’s propulsion, eight song mini-album Not So Distant Future doesn’t stray far from the d-beat reservation but manages to add a soupcon of rock swing and swagger to the sound just to shake up the mix. “White Flag” even trots out a hair-whipping deedly-dee solo just to shake up the dun dun datting. Follow up “The New Age” puts on a punk rock clinic for rhythm sections, led by the synched galloping bass and drum battery that slingshots the song forward.
While self-described “anarchic noise destruction corps” Warcry don’t bring much new to the turntable (black and white art: check; apocalyptic ramblings about the world going to hell in a Hot Topic bag: you betcha), Burdette et al play and howl with enough conviction and intensity that it gives Not So Distant Future a palpable sheen of integrity and sincerity.
Minor critiques of Nerve Damage aside, Burdette has never put his name to anything less than near-perfection no matter what monicker he gives his crusty, d-beat ramblings and Warcry adds another wonderfully dingy patch to his jacket.