BEYOND POSSESSION - Tell Tale Heart EP 1985

I put the metal label here, although the band started out as solid Hardcore/Punk maniacs and I also had their first full length from 1986, but had to give way due to financial resentments (really annoyed me) and now rediscovered and before the SGE hopefully get three points against Bochum today, here & now their first EP with six smashin' cocktails on Rooter Records and I coerce you with littles info from somewhere: Beyond Possession is a band of conviction, and its members refuse to have their names published. Their leader fears it would detract from the group’s identity. The group’s name is taken by man to imply an association with Satan and the demonic hype with which heavy-metal bands often flirt. Not so, say the members of Beyond Possession: rather, they claim they are beyond being possessed by ego and material goods. An American and a Soviet flag hang in the band’s house. “We don’t lick anyone’s boots,” says one. A skateboarding tune they wrote and recorded has been distributed on a Skaterock album. Band members say they oppose both the NeoNazi sentiments of Punk and the blatant commercialism of heavy metal; their music is a hard-core-punk-&-heavy-metal fusion, a compromise that can be appreciated by both the thrashers and the headbangers.

Their nameless and energetic leader works hard to keep alternative music alive in community halls around town. They’ve got day jobs and sink all their money back into the band. They travel. They just got back from an 18-state tour on which they peddled a few home-spun records and made a few waves. Insulted by a condescending announcer on a San Francisco radio show, the DJ had had the audacity to ask inane questions about Canadian weather, the band was forced to fill the mike with rude noises. Beyond Possession confide that “he didn’t ask us about our music.” So dear folks, just a quick fuck and then let's go!

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BEYOND POSSESSION - Is Beyond Possession 1986

Calgary's Beyond Possession with their debut album on Death Records/Metal Blade Records which is a bit louder and heavier than their Tell Tale Heart EP in my opinion and I regret having sold this slab many years ago. Fifteen amazing Thrash/HardcorePunk goodies have come together here with a slightly metallic touch like I liked to hear back then and rediscover today. Unfortunately they stuck to only one album, because after various line-up changes (particularly on guitar) they recorded demos for a second album in 1989 which indicated a more whimsical metal direction, but broke up without completing it. But 1996 a CD with all their recordings (Repossessed 1985-1989) were released on Melodiya Records. Solid stuff for breakfast I think, and maybe a little lunch later... Bon Appétit!

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RIOT .303 - Crowd Control EP 1982

 

As you can see, the sunny, beautiful days are once again a thing of the past and everyday life is irrevocably there but these short breaks are important; if I didn't have them, I would die. Well, if I had tons of money I certainly wouldn't be a blogger, hahaha.... Anyway, maybe a beautiful maid will knock on my door and..... to today's post: Riot .303 were a four piece from Calgary and consisted of Ron (vocals), Al (guitars), Doug (bass), Mark (drums) and this is their only record, which came over via Cardiac, with four smashin' powerful Killers, after their break some members later went on to form Beyond Possession. A short review: Hey, it’s Punkrock that sounds very much like the Canuck SUBHUMANS, even down to the Wimpy Roy-style singing. Most the Punk bands in the US either wimped out or went thrash, leaving the last bastion of the older sound in England and the wilds of Canada, whence this group emerged. Fellas, it’s ’83, but your record is darn nice in a nostalgic sort of way. (Tim Yohannan, MRR #3 • Nov/December 1982) In 2022, Supreme Echo, a label that researches like scientists, brings out rare, unreleased treasures, released a compilation with further recordings by the band which made between 1981-83, including their full studio output, all from this EP and Thrasher’s "Skate Rock Vol. 1", plus nine unreleased songs. With an eight-page booklet with photos, art, and a full-band interview, two stickers and issued mostly on blue or green vinyl, a fucking few on red, all in all 550 copies with seventeen anthems.

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CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER - Money Talks 1987

I remember when my best Friend and I listen to their first album Convicted we were completely blown away, such fast music we knew only from Septic Death, D.R.I., Raw Power & MDC but that was Hardcore and at that time we broke with Metal and became Punx and Cryptic Slaughter mixed both genres into one big whole and on the second album they drove the pace back a little, nevertheless famos! Info: The band was formed 1984 by Les Evans (age 17), Scott Peterson (age 14) and Adam Scott (age 15), who met through their mutual participation in the American Youth Soccer League (AYSO). Soon they were joined by Bill Crooks (age 15), a friend of Adam Scott and a fellow soccer player. Adam Scott was let go a few months later due to conflicts regarding his parents and school. Their first demo, Life in Grave, was produced in 1985 and became well circulated in the burgeoning tape-trader underground. Their first full-length LP, Convicted, was released in 1986 on Death/Metal Blade records, whose artist roster also boasted D.R.I., Corrosion Of Conformity, the Mentors and Beyond Possession. Within its first year of release, Convicted sold over 25,000 copies and earned Cryptic Slaughter the reputation as being one of the fastest bands in hardcore. Next came Money Talks in 1987, which is still considered by many to be the band's best effort. Mixing crushing grooves with lightning speed, Money Talks surpassed Convicted's success by selling 35.000 in its first year and by earning Cryptic Slaughter a fanatical following around the world. They took on the right-wing theocracy directly, with songs like "Freedom Of Expression" that skewered the censorial nature of the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC), founded by Al Gore's wife Tipper. Their "American Heroes" directly confronted the mass media heroic mythology of the astronauts who died in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, when millions toil to survive daily in a world of injustice. Along with D.R.I. they were at the forefront of a musical genre known as much for its relentless energy as its radical anti-authoritarian politics, even if not all the listeners paid attention.

The original line-up recorded their final studio album, Stream Of Consciousness, in 1988. Unhappy with the recording process and the album's production, the band's internal problems were magnified by life on the road. They broke up in the summer on tour before Stream was released later that fall, they played their last show in Detroit on July 14, 1988.

Shortly after returning home, however, guitarist Les Evans and bassist Rob Nicholson recruited new member Eli Nelson and continued on in a new direction. This new incarnation was short-lived, however, and Evans moved to Portland in May 1989 to reform the band with an entirely new line-up, which included Brian Lehfeldt of Wehrmacht fame. The final Cryptic Slaughter album, Speak Your Peace, was a definite departure from the previous material, heavily influenced by a changing music scene.

The band are often credited as one of the progenitors of crossover, the thrash metal and hardcore crossover genre, along with such seminal acts as D.R.I., Corrosion of Conformity and Suicidal Tendencies. In 2003, Relapse Records reissued Convicted and Money Talks with added bonus tracks from Cryptic Slaughter's demo and live recordings. Due to legal reasons, the band changed their name to Lowlife and will be touring and playing CS songs.

And now I have to go to the birthday party of a dear friend!

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