Only one band on this split has a recognizable name, officially making it a trend that Headbangers Against Disco featured fewer big names as it progressed: a bad sign surely. After finally listening to Vol. 3, I'm happy to report my reservations were not reflected in the quality of the disc. With its colorful array of styles it might be my favorite 7” in the series. Not that this is a goldmine of undiscovered bands, but herein lies that grab-bag eclecticism of the most fun splits.
Japanese thrashers Terror Squad draw first blood with “Discö Bloody Discö” and the bastards are unrelenting. Kouichi Udagawa sounds like his mind is in tatters and his vocal cords will be too if he has anything to do about it. Stupidly fast as it is, the playing isn't dumbed down, with three solos (two guitar, one bass). Cianide, the band I recognized, follow up with “Metal Never Bends”. Unlike the boggy dirges of their first two albums, this ditty moves closer to a mid-pace and is nothing short of an earworm, being the catchiest track on the split; impressive for knuckle-dragging death metal. Sadly, like Cianide, I already knew this song as it also appears on their Death, Doom and Destruction LP released the same year. At least sandwiching the track between a thrash and trad song brings out how crushingly heavy it is.
You read that last sentence right; next up is plain heavy metal from Iron Rainbow. Despite their obscurity, the other bands at least have respectable discographies, but Iron Rainbow have an output to match their un-notoriety, with a couple demos and a handful of splits from unknown labels, though prolificacy is not directly correlated with quality as made evident by a perusal of the Sloth oeuvre. With “Rockbringer” the New York trio hold their own. Their old timey sensibilities hearkening to the distant periods of the 70s and early 80s. Jeff Scott Anderson provides the only clean vocals of the HAD series. His pronunciation is clear and there's force to his delivery, though his stabs at hitting the high notes show there would be a long road ahead if he wanted to reach top tier status. “Rob Angel take us into orbit,” he instructs the guitarist at one point. You'd be heartless to not find that amusing.
Swedish band Loudpipes finishes with “Don't You Ever”. It's one of those punk songs that's accessible not because it has hooks—it's not even memorable—but because it encapsulates such pure aggression you can't help but get caught up in it. There's a metallic brutality to the assault, though the music is as straightforward as it gets. Like Terror Squad, the screaming is nonstop, though vocalist Nandor Condor sounds more generic than Udagawa. They make up for this with call and response sections (guitarist Freddie Eugene does the responding) and eventually Condor loses it and starts babbling, sputtering and blowing raspberries in the angriest way possible. “Don't You Ever” also appears on Loudpipe's album The Downhill Blues, released in 1997. Likewise “Discö Bloody Discö” appears on Terror Squad's debut LP The Wild Stream of Eternal Sin, though you'd have to wait until 1999 for that. That means three out of four tracks are available elsewhere. From sleuthing around YouTube it appears the album versions are identical to those on the split. It's unlikely you or anyone else already own all these discs, but these facts are a strike against this release nonetheless.
Pity that Headbangers Against Disco ended after three volumes. The cover art depicting the disco duo from the previous installments pulped into a twisted heap suggests triumph, yet twenty years later disco is back in vogue. Allowed to continue, this trend will end with the return of platform shoes; with danceability subsuming all other musical considerations; with ABBA. No! Disco Duck's sins have not been forgotten nor will they be forgiven.
Hear that in the distance? 'Tis Anita Ward's “Ring My Bell”, let's make haste!