'91-'92 Demo

I love hardcore. Sometimes I love it even more than metal. The reason I love it is because I sometimes find bands like Neglect. These guys are one of those ultra-cult, grubby, aesthetic entities that existed for a few years before imploding. Their discography is restricted to singles, demos and EPs (and compilations of the above). I remember people calling this stuff 'hatecore' back in the 90s (along with bands like Sheer Terror, SFA and Darkside NYC). This term seems to have been re-appropriated to describe Nazi punk these days, which is unfortunate. Bands like Neglect had little time for politics or ideology of any kind. They hated everything and everyone, and weren't afraid to show it.

The idea of baleful, nihilistic hardcore punk existed before Neglect. Negative Approach had been doing it for a decade, Sheer Terror for a few years. Still, Neglect took things a step further into almost comical extremes. The band's songs were more complex and more metal than most hardcore bands of the era. Their songs were packed with exquisite riff transitions which allowed the song narratives to develop. The songs were stories, miserable stories of course, but cohesive and packed with dark humour. There weren't many bands doing this kind of thing, and Neglect would have been a perfect underground antidote to the death metal scene in 1991/92 (when death metal was losing some of its primal grittiness).

This "'91-'92 Demo" is the band's first studio recording. It contains five songs and an intro ("Deluxe!"). Three of the songs ("Lost", "Death Explorer" and "Horror Struck") would later be re-recorded by Don Fury and released elsewhere. They are all brilliant, particularly the latter. The other two songs ("Society's World" and "Mind Games") were never re-recorded and only appear here. These two songs are the weakest of the bunch, but not by much. This band didn’t write filler. They poured themselves into every song they wrote. The performances make this obvious. They were much tighter than you would expect for a band on their debut demo. The musicianship is not flashy, but it is sharp and full of exertion. These guys must have enjoyed playing and practicing together. They bled these songs.

This demo is impressive. It is worth hearing for the rare songs alone. Sure, it is nowhere near as brutal or as punishing as "The Complete Don Fury Sessions". The production isn't bad but the guitar tone is a major weakness, being fuzzy, ill-defined, and dominated by the (excellent) bass tone. The demo shows the band’s massive potential. They were almost the finished article. All they needed was some more songs and some time in a decent studio. They soon got both. Neglect was a badass band on every count and you should listen to them.