kromosomlivecdI immediately read the description of this and assumed that the band were from Sweden or possibly Finland where crust is undeniably king but then we have all been guilty of overlooking Australia at times, probably due to it being so bastard far away but they have a thriving scene of all that is ferocious in everything from war metal to punk. Hailing from Melbourne these degenerate noisy oiks apparently rose from the steam of Pisschrist and as far as the urinary tract of them is concerned one listen made it very clear it was relieved in a toxic stream of white lightning cider and special brew (or the Oz equivalent). You could practically smell the stench coming off this, which was all the more impressive as it was a digital download.

This album is a debut of sorts although it gathers together the bands previous material which was only available on vinyl in the form of one 12” and two 7”s. The bands doctrine of ‘Noisier, faster, rawer’ is evident the second that play is pressed and does not let up over the 15 tracks included in the slightest.

DBH the first track is full of shrill guitar noise that really hurts the bloody ears and practically makes them bleed. The tone they wring out of it on this first collection of thrash hits was obviously down to the recording session, I can’t believe it was on purpose.  Luckily the incessant pounding drums can be heard in the background and the course, pissed off vocals come through too. It’s noisy, brash stuff with short sharp shocking songs that are over in a flash. Some definition is found on ‘Paranoid’ and the guitar tones are a bit easier to focus on now. The central riff really reminds of the likes of GBH and at first I thought we were listening to a cover; Black Sabbath it aint.

As we are flung into ‘Fallout’ it’s obvious we are on a different disc and recording session. This is hollow with vocals quite ill-defined and low in the mix but with some nice heavy bass tones finally getting in on the action. Some shredding Anarcho crust punk riffs flail away and the spiky agit-core d-beat pound is yobbish and full of violence on the likes of ‘Chaos Night.’ Chaotic it is too but it is a glorious racket that should have you pogoing like mad if you ever get the chance to witness it live.

With hardly anything here going on more than the two minute mark the whole bastard disc is done in just under the half hour mark and is likely to leave you covered in beer, vomit and wondering how the squat got even messier whilst it was on. In doing so it hardly gives anything in the way of a surprise to the listener but occasionally as on the title track which injects a doom laden nihilism to proceedings makes you wonder how good they could be with a decent recording budget. Fuck that though, who cares about that at the end of the day it’s hardly the punk rock doctrine is it?

(6.5/10 Pete Woods)

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