Vestiges - The Descent of Man

Artist: Vestiges
Album: The Descent of Man
Genre: Black Metal
Origin: USA
Year: 2010

There seems to be some disagreement on the intertubes as to whether Vestiges is a black metal band or a crust punk band or whatever. I'm not sure myself, but they are definitely a good band. This is a dense, full-force album with thoughtful atmosphere, not unlike Fall of Efrafa. And they're touring! Go give 'em some money!

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UPDATE: Vestiges contacted me with a link to their new split with Ghaust. Receive it here!

Witch Hunt & To What End? - split

Artists: Witch Hunt & To What End?
Album: Split EP
Genre: Crust Punk
Origin: USA & Sweden respectively
Year: 2008

Witch Hunt and To What End? are both female-fronted, aggressive punk bands that came together across the Atlantic for this brilliant split. Witch Hunt is influenced a bit more by '80s British anarcho-punk, while To What End? is straight-up Swedish d-beat. I also highly recommend This Is Only The Beginning..., a compilation of Witch Hunt's early recordings.

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Skarp - Requiem

Artist: Skarp
Album: Requiem
Genre: Blackout Grind
Year: 2005
Origin: USA (Seattle)

Blackout grind? Yeah, it's a made-up subgenre, but I think it sounds cool and gives a hint of the band's atmosphere. Skarp takes a crusty punk song structure and drops the bottom out with mammoth heaviness you won't believe. The female vocalist is "singing like I'm from Sweden," with fitting harshness for a grind act. As you can see from the album cover this release has a somewhat silly theme of suicide, making this kind of like the punk equivalent of DSBM, though of course there are the usual anarchist lyrical themes as well.

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Totalt Jävla Mörker - Totalt Jävla Mörker

Artist: Totalt Jävla Mörker
Album: Totalt Jävla Mörker
Genre: Crust punk
Year: 2006
Origin: Sweden

This here's some of the heaviest, most refreshing crust punk I've heard in a long while. Totalt Jävla Mörker are from Sweden (of course), and the lyrics are all in their native tongue, along with the band name: Total Fucking Darkness. From what I understand, the band's newest album is slowed down a bit, but this self-titled release is lightning fast, crushingly metallic punk in the best Swedish tradition. I would definitely recommend this for anyone who enjoys Martyröd or Wolfpack/Wolfbrigade.

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Disfear - Live the Storm

Artist: Disfear
Album: Live the Storm
Genre: Crust Punk
Year: 2008
Origin: Sweden

Disfear has for years been one of the best bands and worst names in crust punk. Now they are playing it rock'n'roll style, but still with the d-beat (of course). This is for fans of Wolfbrigade/Wolfpack for sure. It may be more accessible than most crusty albums, but the energy on this recording is still unbelievable. It's intense, it's rockin', it will make you bang your head!

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Iskra - Bureval

Artist: Iskra
Album: Bureval
Genre: RABM
Year: 2009
Origin: Canada

Iskra is a Canadian crust band that has leaned heavily black metal in the past, and is apparently focusing on the black metal aspect of their music even more in this recent release. The band takes its name from a Soviet newspaper, and is often brought up when people discuss the Red and/or Anarchist Black Metal scene. This album is just as furious and thrashy as the self-titled album, but I think I like this new one better, particularly since this drumming and a few of the riffs would fit in with any pvre kvlt Norwegian black metal band.

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Punch - Punch

Artist: Punch
Album: Punch
Genre: Hardcore / Thrash Punk
Year: 2009
Origin: USA

Punch is a powerviolence/thrashcore/very-fast-punk band from my local metropolis, San Francisco. The female vocalist is extremely fierce, which accompanies the band's blistering speed and heaviness perfectly. The lyrics are of course quite important to the band, with vegan and feminist ideologies featured prominently in those that I read. I only came across this, along with the band's only previous release, the Eyeless EP, very recently, but I think this is definitely a promising young group.

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Morne - Untold Wait

Artist: Morne
Album: Untold Wait
Genre: Sludge / Crust
Year: 2009
Origin: USA

Morne is another crust band that plays atmospheric, sludgy music that is very reminiscent of Fall of Efrafa. The band-members hail from a notable crust-punk background, from bands such as Disrupt and Filth of Mankind, but they obviously have been influenced by post-metal just as much. This is a style that I think is really starting to take off, and I can't say I'm sorry.

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Fuckmorgue - Down Forever

Artist: Fuckmorgue
Album: Down Forever
Genre: Black Metal
Year: 2004
Origin: Canada

I almost didn't take this when I first saw it because of the band name and album art. But then someone mentioned crust influences, and it seems that at least one out of four interesting new black metal bands comes from Canada, so I gave it a shot. I was surprised in a very good way! It's grimy and harsh, but experimentally so. The vocals will probably turn some black metal fans off: she screams in a crusty but tortured voice - think somewhere between Detestation and Thorr's Hammer. The album and songs are rather short, and I like all of 'em, even Where He Goes which only has one repeated line to the lyrics.

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Fall of Efrafa - Owsla

Artist: Fall of Efrafa
Album: Owsla
Genre: Neocrust
Year: 2006
Origin: UK

Fall of Efrafa are a sludge/crust/post-metal band from Brighton. Apparently they are a concept-band about the mythology in the novel “Watership Down” By Richard Adams (which I haven't read). Anyway, the songs on this, their debut album, are epic and crushing in all the right ways, starting out with a simple and dark cello intro and building their marching army of sound as they head to the crash against rocks that is the self-titled final track. I also have the second album, and I guess the third is out now so I would love to hear it; I wonder, will they disband after the trilogy, or just let the 'concept-band' idea fade away.

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Kakistocracy - Cast Aside Your Chains and Dance

Artist: Kakistocracy
Album: Cast Aside Your Chains and Dance
Genre: Crust Punk
Year: 2004
Origin: USA

kakistocracy n. - "Government by the least qualified." As you would expect with a name like that, the band plays anarchist punk with crust heaviness and dual-vocal technique. They come from the South of the US, which seems to give them the motivation to kick even more ass than their Northern counterparts.

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Detestation - Agony of Living

Artist: Detestation
Album: Agony of Living
Genre: Crust / Anarcho-Punk
Year: 1997
Origin: USA

Detestation is a crust anarcho-punk band with female vocals from Portland, Oregon. If you are familiar with other female-fronted crust punk acts like I Object! or Mankind? or A//political, this is a pretty standard but very enjoyable album. The music is furious and dense and seemingly a bit more metal than their counterparts, and the lyrics hit the typical animal rights and class war topics as well as a pretty heavy dose of depression.

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Gallhammer - Ill Innocence

Artist: Gallhammer
Album: Ill Innocence
Genre: Black Metal
Year: 2007
Origin: Japan

Gallhammer is an all-female black metal band from Tokyo with influences from doom metal and crust punk (if anyone knows any other good all-female bands, please leave me a comment). A lot of the songs on this album have a definite crust backbone (Killed By the Queen in particular is very Amebix-esque). There are also some more down-tempo, melodic black metal pieces that can only be described as twisted. This isn't especially technical music (it's black metal/crust after all), but the songs are well put together and the growls are terrific. Gallhammer also has another full-length from 2003 and a slew of demos, none of which I have heard.

EDIT: Ok, I've come across Gallhammer's other full-length, Gloomy Lights, and it has more of a crust punk feel to it. It's good, and I would definitely recommend it to crust fans, but I think I prefer Ill Innocence as an overall album.

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Behind Enemy Lines - The Global Cannibal

Artist: Behind Enemy Lines
Album: The Global Cannibal
Origin: USA
Genre: Crust Punk
Year: 2003

Behind Enemy Lines is the new heavier, more metal-ish incarnation of Aus Rotten. The band maintains the same political fury while up-ing the musical intensity. This album flows from one song into another in a way that very few other punk albums have achieved, and in that sense this record feels timeless. On the other hand, Behind Enemy Lines is particularly relevant for delivering hard-hitting, intelligent commentary on current issues in the US and throughout the world, from the occupation of Iraq to the development of new "nonlethal" crowd control by the US military. While the lyrics aren't anything particularly unexpected for someone familiar with left-wing politics, I find the message to be more poignant and intellectual than the great majority of political music.

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