You mean the metal band? No, i certainly don't. While i don't have anything negative or positive to say about that particular gaggle of metalheads in their scary corpse makeup, i do have lots of positive things to say about the UK punkers under the same name. Let me start off by saying that this is probably one of the most underrated UK82 records in my books, which is quite sad because not only is this on Riot City, but these 3 songs are some of the finest written from that time and place. I won't say that the band itself is one of the finest, as their first record ('Gentle Murder' also released on Riot City) and their appearance on the MRR 'Welcome To 1984' comp are pretty lackluster. Still, how this record could fall through the cracks of time is beyond me. The song writing and the anger just boils over. I've even caught myself whistling some some of these riffs for days on end at times. But as much as i adore this record, i've never heard anyone ever say a thing about it?
I picked up my particular copy of this from a local shop totally on a whim to be honest, mostly due to the Riot City label and also thinking that the gent on the back cover reminded me of Wasted Time's Mark Shubert (Yep, baby boi could drink a keg i reckon!) . The sleeve was kind of tattered, ripped and overall seen better days, but the record itself looked fine, so i took a gamble and added it to my pile. Needle drops on the record and you're smacked right into an evil as shit mid tempo jam that has the drummer taking cues from what sounds like a very Joy Division-esque beat. The guitar sounds is kind of out there and some of the leads certainly sound like something East Bay Ray would have cooked up (no shit, it sounds like the guitar in Cesspool Of Eden). Still for a bunch of weirdos, this is way more interesting and catchy than any of their previous material which makes me think that at this point, the band has finally found their sound. It's fucked up, but it's still done by a bunch of spikey haired jerks that you'd see sniffing glue in an alleyway. As the record continues on, the songs get more straight forward but still keep that certain quality that makes it stand out. The pounding bass and drum intro that starts the b-side off for example is just the perfect way to introduce you to the song before it knocks you into some riffs that just make you want to bash your head off a brick wall. No joke. The last song is more upbeat than the other two and though it's less interesting than the others, it's a classic example of a Uk82 no mercy hardcore killer that doesn't suffer from being the least bit boring.
One of the things about the Mayhem catalogue though is it tends to get a bit confusing, especially with this record. The first ep is entitled "Gentle Murder", however the song with a similar name appears only on this record, not the first. Then we get into the track listing. On both the sleeve and the record, Side A is listed as Gentle Murder while Side B is listed as (Your Face Fits) Lie And Die along with Clean Cut. Nothing wrong with that, but on the song Lie And Die, the singer seems to be screaming 'gentle murder' over and over again. Perhaps this could be my ears playing a trick on me, but could it be that Lie And Die and Gentle Murder are actually supposed to be reversed on the record? Or maybe the lads just liked the term so much that they decided to name a separate record and song after it while also including it in yet another song with a different name. Seems strange for a band that only has about 9 (that i can count, is there more?) recorded songs. Who knows. If you do, please drop me a line.
Since this is a later release in the Riot City catalogue, i imagine that it suffered the same fate of many other later releases and wasn't pressed in large numbers. However i think that anyone looking to track down a copy should be able to find one for fairly cheap, even at auction as there seems to be next to no interest for records like this at the moment. When compared to the rest of the Riot City releases, i'd certainly be ranking this in my top 3 and would recommend anyone with decent taste in old UK punk to add it to your want list or at least give a listen to.
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