MRR Column #301

RIGHTEOUS IN DESTRUCTION
…are the opening lyrics to the Walls LP that I had the fine pleasure of reviewing a few months back, and truer words are rarely spoken. This Seattle/Portland force made the long trek to San Francisco this month to play a killer show on a rare blisteringly cold SF night at Balazo Gallery on Mission Street with Acephalix, Warkrime, and Sacred Shock. All the bands truly raged hard, but fuck!... I had high expectations for their live set from all the things I had heard and how much I already loved their record. Well, let me just say that what I had expected was surpassed in spades. I can only liken the sound and atmosphere of the Walls experience to a doom-obsessed (not the band) woolly mammoth playing later Black Flag tunes while repeatedly kicking you in the face. It was that good. There’s something in their playing style that does such a killer job at creating tension and stress to the point where it was as if Armageddon was going to birth from August’s mouth mid song and the world was gonna implode.

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MRR has a policy where a record can’t be reviewed more than once in a year regardless of format (CD/LP) or label, so, occasionally worthy vinyl issues of previous CD-only releases are forced to be left out. The latest release to fall prey to said policy is Reality Crisis’ Discharge Your Frustration. This album was released half-dozen or so months back as a CD on H:G Fact, and has now been given the vinyl treatment by Portland’s Whispers in Darkness label. I’d just like to reiterate what I said in the Year End Top-Tens and in my review of the CD by stating that this record is one of the most storming and energetic hardcore records that I’ve heard in eons—especially a new one. Blasting Japanese hardcore of the finest vintage. I highly urge you to seek this out and you can get a copy from: Whispers In Darkness / PO Box 40113 / Portland, OR 97240-0113, or check your favorite distro.
Since we’re on the subject of Japanese hardcore, I’d like to state that I’m looking for a pen pal in the land of the rising sun to trade new releases with. It’s getting harder and harder over here to get my grubby mitts on the newer stuff coming out of the country as it seems to sell out in seconds flat. (ie: Kaibushitsu EP, Order Donki, and Toyota singles). If you’re interested drop me a line at justin@maximumrocknroll.com or write me at the MRR PO Box.
This month was made possible by the following: No Peace? EP, No Comment, Hatred Surge, Hubbs’ obsession with My Brain Hurts, obvs Walls and Reality Crisis, Stickmen With Rayguns/Bobby Soxx/Teenage Queers, Francis Harold and the Holograms, Cult Ritual 7", Infest No Man’s Slave, Deathreat, Bloodbath demos, Sick Of It All, and Outburst 7".
Anyone got a spare Bobby Soxx Hate in the ’80s?