FIELD NOTES
Bring back discography compilations to punk and hardcore. The hardcore attention span over the last few years seems to be so short in regards how music is released, and to new bands in general. Bands that were big in the scene even two or three years ago, like California crossover thrashers Dead Heat or Baltimore heavyweights Queensway, seem to be “underrated” now. And bands who primarily have EPs or singles under their belts, like two of the best current melodic bands Koyo and Rule Them All (both from Long Island, New York), don’t have any catalogued comps or their brief release history. When I first started getting into hardcore, discography CDs were some of the first things I gravitated to so I could listen to as much as possible with only one release. Minor Threat’s 1989 Complete Discography release is obviously the gold standard, and as far as I’m concerned, the greatest hardcore recordings of all time. My second choice would be Black Flag’s The First Four Years from 1983, compiling all of the pre-Henry Rollins material. Some of the most exciting compilations came from grindcore and powerviolence bands, in a contest with each other to see who could cram the most song on one release. Dropdead, the foundational Boston powerviolence band, released their first compilation Discography in 1994, featuring 39 songs on an 11” LP (they didn’t even need the 12th inch). Chicago’s revolutionary Latino hardcore band Los Crudos first issued their discography CD, appropriately entitled Discografia, in 2002 with 74 tracks. Perhaps the most in-depth document is Springfield, Massachusetts grindcore titans Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s Bestial Machinery from 2005, which spans 126 tracks over two CDs. Even more impressively, the band could have fit them all onto one disc, since the total runtime is still two minutes short of a CD’s 80-minute capacity, but CDs are only able to have a maximum of 99 tracks. There have been a small handful of notable comps from the past decade or so that I enjoy quite a bit. Long Island’s defunct hardcore metallers Jukai released their Prologue compilation LP in 2017. The following year, short-lived D.C. straightedge group Line Of Sight released the self-titled Line Of Sight collection on notable European label Refuse Records. For how many hardcore bands come and go lately, I personally would love to see more of these compilations released. Listening to a band’s demo through to their final EP can be a really fun way to observe how the band grew from record to record. Oh yeah, last thing on this topic. One thing I do not enjoy is when compilations are sequenced by descending chronological order, where the newest release is first and the oldest release is last. That’s just confusing.
THEME MUSIC: ‘(Don’t Fear) The Reaper’ by Candlemass (2010)
I saw so many concerts last year, that when I was running down the best ones I saw, I completely forgot I saw legendary UK doom metallers Candlemass. Not that the show wasn’t good or memorable, it was just up against a slew of first time bands for me in 2022. The 1976 classic ‘(Don’t Fear) The Reaper’ by Blue Öyster Cult has been covered plenty of times in the decades since its release. Scottish pop one hit wonders Big Country performed a version on their Ships CD single, released in 1993. Yesterday’s featured artist Ville Valo and HIM covered it in 1997 on their debut LP, Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666. There have been two really excellent electronic covers as well, first by UK techno group Apollo 440 in 1995, and then a decade later by new wavers Heaven 17. Candlemass’ version, released on a vinyl-only EP backed with ‘All Along The Watchtower’ by Bob Dylan (linked above), has become my favorite rendition as of late and one of my most listened to recordings by the band. In a way, it’s exactly what you’d expect: a slowed tempo, thick-toned guitar transposition of the original. Candlemass’ vocalist at the time, Robert Lowe, does great justice with his mystifying, soaring delivery. The band even nails the breakdown in the bridge, arguably the most difficult part of covering this track. Doom, sludge, and stoner metal have a rich history of cover tunes (potentially a future Hunter’s Log featurette), and this one is definitely included with the highest caliber.
PERFORMANCE REVIEW: Blue Öyster Cult at Summerfest, Milwaukee, July 1 2022 (photo credit)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s annual Summerfest is truly one of the most fun and insane times as a musicgoer. The entire festival takes place over 9 days, with multiple stages operating all day long with every type of act imaginable. Take a look at this year’s lineup, where I’m planning to see prog rock legends Styx, alt rock legends Soul Asylum, indie darling Andy Shauf, and horror-themed anonymous funk band Here Come The Mummies all in the same day. By the way, just to demonstrate how active this place is from day to day, the other notable bands playing that day are Built To Spill, Collective Soul, Japanese Breakfast, and The Pretty Reckless. Summerfest often crams multiple touring packages onto the same day as well; I had a similarly eclectic time last year catching the Modern English and Midge Ure tour, and closing out the night with the Machine Gun Kelly and Avril Lavigne tour (you can direct your hate mail to the comments below). One of the first bands I saw that day was the aforementioned Blue Öyster Cult, a legacy act who I’d yet to see live. I’m not a diehard or an expert, but I enjoy the hits just as much as anyone. My favorite thing about Blue Öyster Cult is their role in influencing stoner metal, with how heavy the guitars are on their early albums. I saw ZZ Top for the first time last year as well, and they exist in a similar pantheon. The band started quite late on the overcast July Friday, leaving a lot to be expected once they finally hit the stage. They started with a handful of songs I wasn’t immediately familiar with before breaking into the 1981 hit ‘Burnin’ For You’ from Fire Of Unknown Origin (one of the best album covers of the ‘80s hard rock era). After that they played ‘Harvest Moon,’ a career deep cut from their unstreamable 1998 album Heaven Forbid. I didn’t know this track at all, but it was absolutely my favorite song they played. A really cool gothic hard rock track that definitely sounds like it fit great with the ‘90s bands they influenced like Paradise Lost or Type O Negative. The band sounded good overall, but stayed fairly stoic throughout the performance. I don’t expect every hard rock band at their age to be flying across the stage, but visually there was nothing to keep attention to. Had they begun promptly, I would have been able to stay until the end to hear the marathon of ‘Godzilla,’ ‘(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,’ and ‘Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll,’ but I had other sets I needed to catch that afternoon. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to see them again, but nice to cross them off the list.
COMPOSITION SOUNDTRACK: Tribulation - Hamartia (2023 Century Media)
In my head, it’s been a long time since I’ve heard from Swedish band Tribulation, who have been described as “the Sisters Of Mercy of death metal” but I personally never heard that from their albums. In reality, I totally missed their 2021 album Where The Gloom Becomes Sound, and hadn’t checked in since 2018’s Down Below. They’ve been a metal community favorite since they signed to Century Media in 2015, and I’ve enjoyed them enough but just wasn’t as obsessed about it. But since they have a new release out, and it’s only 4 tracks, I figured I’d give it a shot. From the first moments of the title track ‘Hamartia,’ I definitely hear the gothic elements. But it’s actually reminding me of defunct Chicago black metal band Nachtmystium, who were notably influenced by plenty of goth and industrial music. The sound continues on ‘Axis Mundi,’ closing out a very strong one-two punch of melodic black metal that I haven’t heard in a long time, aside from last year’s criminally underrated Colours Of Faith by Lithuanian band Sisyphean. ‘Hemoclysm’ is an epic centerpiece, heightening the elements of black, death, and gothic metal across its almost-7-minute runtime. The closing track is ‘Vengeance (The Pact)',’ a Blue Öyster Cult tune from the previously noted Fire Of Unknown Origin album. The song fits Tribulation’s sound perfectly, and enhances the Swedishness of their sound calling to worldwide phenomenon Ghost and influential death-turned-goth group Katatonia. Proving two important things, that 1) Blue Öyster Cult is absolutely metal canon, and 2) whatever’s in the Swedish water that’s making their metal bands so good needs to start getting filtered to other countries.