V/A War Compilation

Building on my last post and the excellent one recently done by Marc at Fugitive Equilibrium focusing on Dirt, Mankind? and Final Warning, here is the War Compilation.  Released by Tribal War Asia, the Japanese branch of the label, this one features two of Neil's bands - Warning and Jesus Chrust.  Also included are some great Japanese bands of the time - T.D.F., Battle of Disarm, G.J.P.B., Crocodileskink and a couple more.  Along with Japan, the New York/New Jersey area is represented with Neil's bands, Rorschach, Merel, Hell No, Bugout Society and the underrated Huasipungo.  Sweden's Warcollapse are the only non-Japan or US based band I think. 

Anyways, most of the bands lean to the crusty side of things, particularly the Japanese groups.  "Can You Smell the Dead" might be my favorite T.D.F. track - great metal-punk that pre-dates the glut of those bands that are out there today.  Battle of Disarm, Warcollapse and Rorschach are their usual brilliant selves.  The Warning and Jesus Chrust songs are among both bands' best.  Huasipungo, Bugout Society, Merel, G.J.P.B., Urgesnake, The Denied and Crocodileskink all contribute strong tracks.

One band I was really interested to hear when I picked up this comp. was Hell No.  They featured two folks from Citizens Arrest so I had to hear the new group.  Unfortunately they were a huge let-down.  The music had decent parts but the vocals were way over-the-top.  They made me think of Life of Agony or something.  Their song on this record is one of their better tunes, however.  I bought their first album based on the better parts of this track but that record totally ended my interest in them.  Download and check it out for yourself...

V/A War Compilation