Subhumans “Crisis Point”

sfilzen — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 20:36:34 +0000

Subhumans “Crisis Point” 2019. Pirates Press Records. My plan today was to write about this latest release from UK punk OGs Subhumans along with a gushing review of the show and great live shots I took this past weekend at one of my favorite new local clubs, X-Ray Arcade, but of course that show was cancelled, along with every other concert and show we’ve had tickets for or plans to see, pretty much for the foreseeable future. So I’ll content myself with listening to some fast, loud and angry punk on vinyl. The amazing thing about good political punk is that the message never gets old – and it’s kinda horrifying that every song they sing is relevant (not like 2019 was that long ago but the world has shifted rather dramatically in the 6 months since this was released), just the way that the tracks from their 1983 masterpiece (and second LP) From the Cradle to the Grave still feel on point (ie one of my punk favorites “Adversity”). Crisis Point is Subhumans’ sixth LP (there’s a bunch of EP’s, too) and the band has the same lineup as it did in ‘83, also amazing. It’s stuffed full of scathing socio-political commentary, aimed at just about everything. My top track is “Follow the Leader” (“Follow the leader and do do as you’re told/How much can you be controlled?”); I also really like some of the other free-thinking tracks like “Punk Machine” (an awesome guitar riff along with “Say no to the man and the industry…”), “Information Gap” (“Disinformation – what do we know? It’s propaganda telling us what we think they need to”) and “Thought is Free” (“Empty brains don’t complain/Are easily trained”). “99%” is really good, too, clearly about the mass wealth inequality in the world. I’m still super-bummed about not getting the chance to see Subhumans though the graffiti-ready stencil packed in the album almost makes up for it.

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Subhumans “From the Cradle to the Grave”

sfilzen — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 20:20:17 +0000

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).

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Subhumans “Crisis Point”

Subhumans “From the Cradle to the Grave”