Subhumans “From the Cradle to the Grave” 1983. Bluurg Records. 80′s UK hardcore punk. From the Cradle to the Grave was Subhumans’ second full-length album (they had several EP’s from ‘81 and ‘82), released the same year as their first, The Day the Country Died. I’ve been putting together a mix of UK punk tracks from the 70′s and early-to-mid 80′s and realized that I didn’t really know much about Subhumans and haven’t listened to their music much at all. As I spin Side A, which is filled with mostly short-n-fast hardcore tracks like “Where’s the Freedom?” and “Reality is Waiting for a Bus” (but also some proto-grunge-metal-prog (kinda Black Sabbath-y)/punk songs like “Wake Up Screaming” which clocks in at over 5 minutes), it strikes me how different their sound is as compared to the other UK punk I’ve been listening today. Except for the British accent and word choices (ie “advert” instead of “ad” and mentioning the queen), From the Cradle to the Grave could have come out of the early 80′s SoCal hardcore scene. “Adversity,” my favorite song on the album, has an infectious beat that would have fit in any mosh pit then and even into the late 80′s/early 90′s grunge scene. Side B is one long song, the title track “From the Cradle to the Grave” which lasts a whopping 17 minutes: unheard of for most punk for sure and filled with tempo (lightning fast to relaxed), key (major to minor – lots of minor!) and style (punk to reggae to metal) changes. The Subhumans continued to evolve their sound for one more full-length after From the Cradle to the Grave before dissolving in ‘85 due to stylistic differences (and then, of course, got together for reunion shows and another record in 2007).