As of late, and don’t ask me why, I have learned to appreciate the debut by CRUCIFIX. It is sloppy, the guitar’s out of tune, the songs sound like the band was sedated, they’re just too slow. But still, this has got a lot of charme, especially when you think what a scorcher the following 7″ – and what a massive blast the LP was.
None of the five songs is particularly outstanding. “Religion kills” is kinda quick and short, and the refrain sounds like they would sing “Nature kills” and “Brazen Hell”, the longest of the five, I maybe enjoy the most, though it’s a total Negativ Trend rip off (“Black and red”!).
But as I said, it’s the ep as such that I learned to appreciate. It’s a pretty early release and even though Crucifix are often lumped in with Discharge, I really can’t hear any Discharge neither on this, nor the other releases. The anti-war topic, of course and the very uniformed look of the band from 1982 on (look at the backcover photo, how clean cut they still are!). Truth is: This eps materiality is just as important as the music. The cardboard stock of the cover, the fantastic red color, the old-fashioned backside, the labels, the company (why on earth “Universal Records”?) the lyricsheet – you hold these parts in your hands, play the record with its crude and raw sound and it just feels right.
First pressing is on black, second, more common one, on red vinyl.
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Capitulation.mp3
You’re too old.mp3
Religion kills.mp3
Permanently damaged.mp3
Brazen Hell.mp3
8 Comments
Feels like in the good old early blogging times. Great post after great post. Thanks for being here.
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the doctor’s back in da house. finally.
crucifix was super important to us back in the day – i think everyone of us knew the lyrics of all of “dehumanization” by heart. i remember that my buddies from zsd were very much into them, which is quite apparent when listening to their second album, “krieg dem kriege”, which would rate as an all time classic if it weren’t for the crappy mix. remix, anybody?
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Have had the album since forever, but never knew of this 12″. Sounds like a crude demo cassette put to vinyl, love it. Much more hardcore than the the LP.
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Thanks for having maintained such a superb blog over the years, Erich. It would be great to see you keeping up this great work, especially sharing your personal experiences and how ‘it has been’ in this years (with critical recognition of your disdain for a false and romantic retro-uhm-thing, of course) which has been, for me, of the same value as the music itself. ‘Am I a fucking biker or what?’ (The solemn timbre of someone new to this blog.)
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The first three tracks are total killers! I’m sure I’ll be in the minority, but I like this better than Dehumanization–a true sign of class and sophistication.
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Sounds like they’ve just learned to play while listening to Flux of Pink Indians or similar. Then they probably started listening to good hardcore, learned to play better and the rest is history. But this is better than ‘Dehumanisation’? Really?
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Dewey Decimal Reply:
September 28th, 2013 at 00:05
Really.
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Universal Records was a record store they all hung out at. See the interview with Sothira from Warning zine (Portland) from a few years back for pretty much everything you could want to know about the band.
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i think this came out when the band were still working out there sound and image..i hear early GBH an actually some GERMS influence in the slurred vocals/sloppy(in a charming sort-of-way)an chaotic approach..clearly this was a good band but not great YET like on their later stuff..a change in guitarists helped i think..jake was brilliant i.m.o.
interesting(?) note..the guitarist on this record tried out for the band U.F.O. !! i remember it was mentioned in some fanzines during their european tour early in 1984.
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