Thursday, August 25, 2011

EXECUTIONER - The Anthology CD review


EXECUTIONER - The Anthology CD
PATAC Records
Genre: Punk/Hardcore
Rating: 5/5


Back in the days when Scumfeast was a print fanzine (late 1990's) we would get all of these obscure Punk/Hardcore band anthologies sent in for review. It was the heyday for those types of releases thanks to the popularity of the Killed By Death and Bloodstains compilations. You had bands who only recorded one 7"er in their heyday now with a full length for fans of the obscure to digest. Usually they just had a few cool songs and the rest was filler stuff of demos, rehearsal material and some poorly recorded live stuff. Fast forward to the present and now we have something similar. Now just for the record when it comes to the original Punk/Hardcore era from 1976 to 1986 (Hardcore pretty much starting out in 81 and died out or changed in 1986) if a band released an LP, cassette or 7"er I probably had it, heard it or at least knew about it if the thing was reviewed in any of the top fanzines of the time. I started my own publication in 1987 but of course the scene, ahem, was changing by then.


Be that as it may I never heard of San Jose's EXECUTIONER until now and chances are unless you grew up in San Jose circa 1982 neither did you. Obviously it's not strange at all that they sound like many of their contemporaries for example they kinda remind me of the CIRCLE JERKS on some cuts. Of course these guys were at that time sharing bills with the DEAD KENNEDYS, CRUCIFIX and FANG so you can also throw all of them in as well as being influential upon them. This anthology here contains all of their recorded output which never really saw the light of day except for some tracks being on a cassette comp called Growing Pains. As far as EXECUTIONER music goes well after listening to this I'd say that a great injustice has happened. If this came out in the early 80's then not only would this band been as well known and liked as their contemporaries but it would be held up as one of those classic must have releases from the 80's Hardcore era. The thing even comes with a Winston Smith poster. He's the guy, if you've forgotten, who did the artwork for all those ALTERNATIVE TENTACLES label releases.

Label: http://www.patacrecords.com/


Bandcamp: http://patacrecords.bandcamp.com/album/executioner-the-anthology



Website: http://www.executioner82.com/news.html


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