V/A - This Comp Kills Fascists Vol. 1
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Back in the day, this would have been a cassette tape. You would have played it until it wore out. Dubbed copies for your friends. Carried it around in a Walkman like a Bible. Now, in an age where “mixtapes” are CD’s and MP3’s, it’s not quite the same. But Pig Destroyer’s Scott Hull has made it damn close. On This Comp Kills Fascists Vol. 1 (Relapse, 2008), he’s rounded up 14 bands for 51 tracks that total under an hour. Each band contributed a page of liner notes – no Photoshop allowed. There are illustrations, photo collages, hand scrawls, lots of typewriter. The booklet looks like a box of 7″s.
Brutal Truth – Forever in a DazeInsect Warfare – Information Economy
On the spine of the packaging are two words: “POWER VIOLENCE.” This is somewhat misleading. The disc has plenty of power violence (or “powerviolence,” if you’re so inclined), but it also has grindcore and hardcore. Not that such distinctions really matter. A punch to the face is a punch to the face. There are lots here. Brutal Truth turn in four tracks, their first original material since 1997. They haven’t lost a step. Insect Warfare drop perhaps the final songs of their career, and they’re blistering. Magrudergrind show why they’re the most underrated grindcore band today. Chainsaw to the Face are, well, a chainsaw to the face. Kill the Client, Maruta, ASRA, Shitstorm (featuring two members of Torche), Total Fucking Destruction – this compilation is a who’s who in grindcore today.
Magrudergrind – BurdenChainsaw to the Face – Skewered
Relapse in-house artist Orion Landau brilliantly – and literally – illustrates this compilation’s title. When I interviewed him, he said his primary influence was John Heartfield. Heartfield’s photomontage style has cropped up in Landau’s work over the years, but this artwork is a full-on homage to Heartfield. There’s Dubya’s head on a plate (that felt good, typing that), and caustic sendups of McDonald’s and Walmart’s advertising. I have only one gripe with this release: the name. It should have been called This Comp Kills Republicans.
Kory Grow at Paper Thin Walls (RIP) wrote a great feature on this comp, with interviews with every band but one – read it here.
