Arroganta Agitatorer "Arrogans" 7"
[Busted Heads]
Here's a reissue of some classic Swedish hardcore/punk from way back in 1983, originally released by the band themselves in a criminally small pressing of only 500 copies! This material definitely has more in common with early 80's US hardcore than anything else, it's definitely not the traditional Swedish or UK type of thing. The songs are based around relatively fast chord progressions with simple structures and straight yelling vocals with lots of gang backups. The tracks are really memorable, too. It's not overly fast or aggressive, so it's just a nice slab of traditional hardcore without any nonsense. "Framtiden?" has a cool melodic bass intro and is a bit slower, "Hemvärnet" shows the first signs of some noisy lead playing, and "Why Why Enola Gay" is a previously unreleased bonus track (and damn is it awesome that they were able to include this song). There's almost a slight crossover feel to some of the riffing, it's catchy without shedding any of its potency. This stuff is from 1983, so you can imagine what the recording probably sounds like. But in all honesty it doesn't sound that dated to me. It's raw in a suitable manner and the overall mix and tones are actually very strong for the age of the material. The layout is all black and white with the original front cover intact (they just used a different logo than appeared on the original pressing). Inside are the lyrics and some brief band information, plus a photo of various Arroganta Agitatorer memorabilia. The lyrics are in both Swedish and English. Ironically all of the Swedish tracks are on side A, and all of the English tracks are on side B. It's sort of funny, because even when the vocals are in English they're so slurred that you can barely tell they're not singing in Swedish due to the heavy accent. There's also a xeroxed insert that has English translations of the Swedish tracks and a reprinted interview from an old issue of MRR, and I think it's great that they went to that level of detail. The songs all deal with bleak subject matter, most of which is socio-political (war, corruption, the apocalypse, etc.) with a few more personal tracks as well (namely "Arbeit Macht Frei" and "Brainless Youth"). This is a great 7", and it's fucking awesome to see it back in print in such fine form. Busted Heads wins again. (8/10)
Running time - 13:00 (approximately), Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Framtiden?, Tre Ton Trotyl, Violence is the Only Solution, Cut the Crap]
Busted Heads - http://www.bustedheads.com

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