Already the sevneth and last album by Government Issue, four gentlemen from Washington, and they're active from 1980 to 1989 and on this album are John (vocals), Tom (guitars), Jay (bass), Peter (drums) involved. They began as hardcore band but overtime transitioned into more alternative rock areas. Government Issue originated from the Washington, D.C. hardcore scene but added elements of heavy metal, new wave, and psychedelic rock on later records. Though this has caused the band to be sometimes overlooked in relation to other Washington D.C. hardcore acts, their stylistic diversity made them influential to later punk rock groups. They performed occasional reunion shows in the 2000s and 2010s with various lineups, until Stabb's death from stomach cancer in 2016. On this last output they are not as awesome as they were in their early days and I once had a double album but I can't remember which one. However, though they did have a following in the straight edge community, Government Issue's stylistic expansion from one album to the next alienated much of their early hardcore audience. Blush writes that "Unfortunately, most who went to see G.I. through the 80s still expected to hear hardcore reminiscent of the first EP. The group was moving into a softer, R.E.M. direction, and none of their fans gave a shit about such profound maturity." Huey remarks that the band "has remained somewhat overlooked in relation to the rest of the D.C. hardcore bands of their time, in part because their music never really fit the proto-emo bent of much of the local Dischord stable", while Burgess notes that they nonetheless "made history in their own way by never fitting into the scene most people naturally associated with their city." Well, no matter how their development went, G.I. are among the best of the Washington hardcore scene and have had a decisive influence on the American punk culture, Amen!
