Discordance Axis "Original Sound Version 1992 - 1995" CD
[Hydra Head]
Whew, this is one mega huge collection from this by now legendary grind unit, including the tracks from the "Ulterior" LP, their split 7"s with Def Master, Hellchild, Capitalist Casualties, and Cosmic Hurse, plus plenty of live and unreleased tracks to boot. My prior exposure to Discordance Axis is pretty limited, having only heard their last full-length on Hydra Head, the "Jouhou" CD, and a few scattered songs here and there, but based on this disc the band seems to have always been pretty raw to varying degrees, with vocals that shift quickly from low, guttural shouting to insane screaming. Speed is of course the dominating element in many cases, but they definitely mess with a lot of weird rhythms and chords, as well as throwing around plenty of dissonant textures and a little bit of noisiness at times. The drumming is way tighter and easier to grasp than a lot of the early guitar playing, and I've never been wild on the higher-pitched screaming vocals when it comes to this style, but I will say that the lower vocals on a lot of these early tracks are fucking superb - possessing quite a bit of force. There's a hell of a lot to absorb here, and obviously most of the tracks are over in a flash (averaging just under one minute each), but when they drop some weird little discordant melodies as in tracks like "Mimetic" or some slower and more dynamic chord progressions (see "Empire"), things start to jump out at you. "My Neighbor Totoro" is even an unexpectedly calm little instrumental that wouldn't sound out of place on an emo record (damn right, I said it)!? As far as recordings, the "Ulterior" tracks are a little muddy as far as guitar tone, but the drums sound great, and despite vocals being mildly dominant I like the overall sound. It's amazing what a difference a thicker guitar tone and stronger mix can make though, because some of the unreleased studio tracks are alternate recordings, and they sound a lot more powerful. The tracks from the Capitalist Casualties split were recorded live on the radio and pretty much sound like shit. It basically sounds like vocals over feedback and noise, so... those are far from the best contributions to this massive set. The last 20 or so minutes of the disc are pretty useless as well, because it's all live and rehearsal material that just isn't listenable in my opinion. The 19-minute CBGB's set from '95 is all included in one track, and it sounds alright, but the first rehearsal (10 songs that are all less than 30 seconds each) sounds horrendous - all you can make out are cymbals and an occasional bit of vocals or guitars. The packaging is quite fucking specific, as the CD comes housed in a DVD case with a massive 28-page booklet overflowing with content. Included is all of the original record cover artwork, plenty of band photos, lyrics, song explanations, general commentary about certain releases and songs, an early band history... you name it, it's here. Amazing. It's nice and clean and easy to read as well, definitely organized. I'm impressed. And a lot of the lyrics are really interesting as well, tending to convey a general message in an abstract manner (at times more cryptically than others). "Provisioning drain, Circuitry of extraction, Trapped in cancer, Obsessed illusion, Rapacity of carnage exceeds tolerance, Thoughtless abuse practiced rape, Supervised extraction suits voracious interests, That sap the blood from the Earth's heart, The spine of a prolonged delusion, We are controlled by unseen terror." This is a cool collection, but I might have liked it more without all of the live stuff. Thankfully it's all at the end so you can just skip it, but I might have gone ahead and broken the sequence up to move the Capitalist Casualties split to precede the live material, thus all of the less than interesting material would be at the end, but it's no big deal. I must give the band and label insane amounts of credit for the attention to detail used to handle this release, as that definitely makes the bulk of it worthwhile. (7/10)
Running time - 68:34, Tracks: 69
[Notable tracks: Mimetic, Empire, My Neighbor Totoro, Ice, Cataract, Empire/The Kill, Amnesia Ceiling, Macro]
Hydra Head Records - http://www.hydrahead.com

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