v/a "Norrland D-beat Compilation" compilation CD
[Cage Match Federation]
This absolutely massive collection features nine Swedish hardcore/punk bands for a whopping grand total of nearly 60 tracks and well over an hour of music! All of the material was previously only available on vinyl, and all of the participating bands put money towards pressing the CD so it could be sold for inexpensive prices. Good stuff. First up is the female fronted fury of Ambulance, cranking out four intense tracks of dissonant hardcore/punk that's very much in the vein of His Hero is Gone crossing over into Tragedy. The vocals are gruff, the music midpaced to moderately fast with lots of melodic tendencies and pounding rhythmic sensibilities, the recording is heavy and has a lot of low-end, etc. "Out of Reach" is faster and shorter and has more of a traditional Swedish crust sound, but the other tracks definitely offer more variety and changes in tempo, notably "Habits", which is just an awesome track. Next up is Ana Barata with a rawer sound and dual vocal tradeoffs for their brand of straight up hardcore/punk in the vein of some other contemporary Swedish acts. Their songs hover right around a minute each and aren't as metallic as some other artists, but the driving rhythms, scathing vocals, and persistent vocal arrangements hold true to form. "Liv = Slaveri" has more drastic tempo changes that help it stand out, but most of these six songs do have an atypical undercurrent that's sort of interesting. Earth Died Screaming's five tracks are also raw, with a nice distorted bass tone backing the noisy guitars and manic screaming. Their approach is basically fast hardcore/punk with some really over the top vocals that are pretty throat shredding. A thin recording keeps things from sounding all that heavy, but the vocals are so pissed off that they carry most of the weight on their own. "Arbetslös Med Bredband" seems a little more straightforward and consistent, while "We'll Die Screaming" and a few other songs flirt with some quirkier riffing, but it's nothing all that unusual. Following with a whopping 13 tracks is Uncle Charles, who sounds similar to a blend of the prior two acts, taking a noisy and raw approach to a punchy Swedish crust sound, using vocal tradeoffs (lower shouts and high-end screams) for added energy and a thicker bass tone for a harder hitting attack that still keeps things free of metal. I definitely think these songs keep the energy level pretty high, though admittedly they sound pretty similar to one another. "Förändrad = Förlorad?" uses a killer bass intro and more emphatic rhythms that jumps out a ton, though! And "Den Bistra Sanningen" is much longer, slower, and heavier than their other songs, making for a real fuckin' whopper. After that, Reign of Bombs follows in a similar style with five tracks that are definitely D-beat in approach and use shouting vocals that aren't as aggressive as the other bands herein. Their songs are all consistent and don't offer much variety, and though the sound is pretty rough I like that the bass is totally even with the guitars. Urug's seven contributions are much different from the other artists, going for a chaotic and discordant grindcore sort of sound with lots of speed and wacky riffing that's a little sloppy. This isn't my thing at all but it is cool that they're one of the most unique sounding bands on the compilation in regards to the fact that you're expecting nothing but crusty hardcore/punk for an hour. Speaking of which, 365 Dagar av Synd brings back that style to clinical perfection afterwards, with seven songs of heavy, no bullshit crust with a solid recording and dual vocals to boot. The leads and such make this reminiscent of Masskontroll at times, but despite being rather generic they've got a tried and true sound that works when the playing is tight and the writing is forceful. Next up is Auktion with another seven, similar but using thinner distortion with yelled vocals, so the overall aesthetic is in more of an early-80's kind of vein. Those classic influences definitely make their material stand out from a lot of the other bands, without really straying too far from the general direction of the compilation. They do a killer cover of Nausea's "Self Destruct" as well, which is darker and more spacious than anything else herein. Closing things out is the mighty Human Waste with four tracks of raging hardcore/punk, starting with the shockingly rocked out "Ondskan I Mänsklig Skepnad", complete with tons of leads and a really catchy sort of style - 70's rock dual guitar harmonies and all!? The other songs are of course more traditionally aggressive and in your face, but still seem a little more energetic and rocked out in subtleties than most of the band's work that I've heard in the past. Great songs, for sure. All of the bands have rugged recordings and some of the artists use songs from various recording sessions, so there's a lot of variation, but nothing sounds bad or makes anything hard to sit through due to the sound quality. In fact, most of the bands have pretty effective production levels, so... The layout's all done in black and white and the cover art kicks ass in typical high contrast hardcore/punk fashion. Inside one page is devoted to each band, so there's a range of artwork and photos included with contact information in most cases. I really love that cover, though... something about it really grabs my attention. Good stuff! The tracklist has some of the bands listed in the wrong order, but the label's website has the corrected version available for reference. An hour of this style of music is definitely a little too much to take in one sitting, and Ambulance and Human Waste (the only bands I had heard prior to this compilation) definitely outshine the other artists, but there's nothing on here that sucks, and I definitely admire the thought process behind the release and its cheap price. So, for that reason, it's something that fans of this style will want to check out. Of course the notable Human Waste delivers, but I'm really looking forward to hearing more from Ambulance based on their contributions here, and Uncle Charles could do some damage as well. (7/10)
Running time - 74:24, Tracks: 58
[Notable tracks: Ambulance, Uncle Charles, Human Waste]
Cage Match Federation - http://www.wastedsounds.com

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