Demo Tape

I've been listening to loads of Anarcrust since discovering their excellent debut album ("Coalescence"). That record sounds like little else from its time (or since). I love the band's style of fast, technical, thrashy crossover with an anarcho-punk vibe. This was a style of music that I never craved until I heard it, and then I wanted to hear more. The logical next step was to delve deeper into the band’s discography and find their first demo.

This five-song demo from early 1988 seems to have been recorded soon after the band formed (during 1987). They sound tight, fast, furious and technical. There are some occasional dissonant chords that sound like early Voivod (back when that band had more blatant punk influences). There are piles of great riffs, some cool little melodies, and some simple punk singalongs juxtaposed with furious thrash rhythms (e.g., in "The Twitchings Of Pain"). The highlight is "One Way to Death", which is the only song that would later appear on the debut album. This early version hits almost as hard as the later version (despite its production limitations).

The recording quality is as rough as you might expect for a Dutch punk band making their first demo in the late eighties. I don’t mind the raw and fuzzy sound, though it might not appeal to thrash fans conditioned to hearing chunky, well-defined guitar tones. The subsequent album benefitted from a much better and beefier production (also retaining the band’s innate rawness and energy). Still, the number of unique songs on this demo prevents it from being rendered obsolete.

This demo is worthwhile for fans of thrashy punk (or is it punky thrash?). I’d recommend it to people who liked the first Voivod album but were interested in hearing something with more speed, precision and technicality. This demo should be seen as an adjunct to the excellent "Coalescence". This is one of the better and more interesting thrash demos out there. You can tell that the band were onto something. I like it.