Avoiding the pitfalls of repetition that normally afflict later punk-derived albums, A Holocaust in Your Head is a fire spitting, unhinged, high speed high intensity crust album. That is, if you ignore the first and last tracks, which are a political statement not a song and an insult track to the band S.O.D., respectively.
Extreme Noise Terror rip thourgh hardcore punk and primordial death metal riffs with reckless abandon. Dual singers give some variety to the vocal patterns. Though the political rhetoric in the lyrics can be tiring on some tracks, the music speaks for itself, portraying something quite like the album title suggests: a droning of madness with explosive texture within suggesting a writhing, disturbed and out of control chain reaction just under the surface.
Admittedly none of the musicians here demonstrate great instrumental prowess, but the sheer force of the music and performance makes this entirely irrelevant. It’s as if these fellows channeled their entire frustrated essences into this album; most punk albums get boring half way through, but by sheer energy alone A Holocaust in Your Head remains intense throughout. For the most part this album uses simple song constructions, but interestingly enough there is deviation from verse-chorus-verse format in some songs, which is rare for punk music.
Bands following and contemporary to this group were heavily influenced by Extreme Noise Terror’s hyper speed crust, which became a primordial influence on the rising grindcore movement. Even years after that genre branching and the death of hardcore, A Holocaust in Your Head remains not just essential listening from a historical perspective, but a thoroughly enjoyable musical experience that reveals a world of insanity lurking all around us still.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLMfoj-DuZU
Tags: crust, drone, extreme noise terror, Grindcore, Hardcore
I think early Discharge and Napalm Death’s Scum are better. Too bad this band tried to become “death/grind” in the vein of Cryptopsy and became very boring. Cool write up none the less.
Thanks for the comment. I agree, once they tried going “death/grind” they lost direction. I’d say that material sounded like a flatter mid period Napalm Death.
Their Peel Sessions releases are similarly vicious.
So is this crust hardcore or grindcore?
What’s the difference between the two??
I think this is more Crust hardcore.
grindcore is more like Terrorizer or repulsion. There’s more metal to it.
Correct, there is pretty much no metal here at all (aside from a few death metal-sounding riffs).