Crumbsuckers

Crumbsuckers were a crossover/thrash metal outfit that formed in 1982 on an island east of Manhattan, Long Island in Noo Yawk. Along with fellow 'crunchy' bands (my word for the genre) like Cro Mags, Circle Jerks, Agnostic Front and D.R.I., the band led the charge of hardcore, shredding both stage and speakers in there own furious style.
1991 saw Crumbsuckers turn into Heavy Rain after deciding to follow a new leaning toward traditional sounding metal. Members Gary Meskil and Dan Richardson left the band to from Pro Pain.
There was a Crumbsuckers reunion gig in New York at B.B. King Blues Club on August 3rd, 2006 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Life Of Dreams record.
Sadly they only ever recorded two studio albums, Life Of Dreams in 1986 and Beast On My Back (B.O.M.B.) 1988. The demos that were available were The Crumbsucker Cave, 1984 Demo and March Of The Light Brigades.
Luckily for me, I got my young paws on both albums back in the day (no easy task where I lived) and I thought they were awesome, reminding me of S.O.D (Stormtroopers Of Death), another great band to skate to which was a big plus as I was heavily into skateboarding at the time.
It could be argued by the more 'serious' of music lovers that due to the low output of music, its hard to rate Crumbsuckers albums as classics like you can with Slayer and Metallica, but im not that fickle, and will happily put the epic Life Of Dreams alongside the equally epic Speak English Or Die by aforementioned S.O.D. Both wonderfully happy, crunchy, noisy, fist pumping, funny records with a few serious message lobbed in for good measure.
Check them out below, and crank that volume up!

Poison Idea

Bow to them

There is no escaping the fact that Poison Idea were big. Not in commercial terms, obviously, but in life, death, music and influence they were truly massive. Formed in Portland, Oregon in 1980 by frontman Jerry A the band seemed to get progessively more dangerous as they went along, almost deliberately pushing a lifestyle to its ultimate limits just to see what would break it. In a game of 'let's see who's the more punk' Jerry A once pointed a loaded gun at Dwarves singer Blag Dahlia and when guitarist Pig Champion died aged 47 this year it was a great loss of talent, but no great suprise.
But while Jerry A frequently breathed fire or sliced his head open onstage with broken glass, he also wrote lyrics that could rival Charles Buckowski in their beautiful ugliness, stark realism and savage honesty. And despite their seeming indolence and over-the-top drink/drug consumption Poison Idea were phenomenal musicians, capable of playing faster and tighter than any of their peers even when they couldn't stand up.
Their fans include Nirvana, Amen, Pearl Jam, Pantera, Machine Head, Turbonegro...and you if you've got any sense.

*This was an article in Kerrang! magazine a few years ago.

And now back to me. I first heard Poison Idea with the 'We Must Burn' and was intantly blown away. Their music is beautiful like a hot woman wearing nothing but hot pants and heels punching you in the face. Such a shame that a lot of our younger Metalheads have never even heard of this band, I think its criminal. Way way waaaay underrated. The albums 'Feel The Darkness' and 'Blank Blackout Vacant' are the most talked about but I love all their stuff. Its how (I believe) the Sex Pistols should have been.Punk might have been born in Britain, but the Americans did some fine tweakings to the genre and Poison Idea were at the front.

Check 'em out here.





Rest In Peace Pig!

United Kingdom Apple Core

Back in 1986 emerged a young British thrash band who brought some cool music and a dose of FUN to the scene. Their name was Acid Reign and they were a bloody great band! They were picked up by British thrash metal label Under One Flag in '88 and released the Moshkinstein EP, which is when I discovered them. The EP cover (shown below) stood out from the rest in that crowded Musiquarium record shop in Swansea and as soon as I got home and played it, I was hooked.
The awesome 'Goddess', the punchy 'Suspended Sentence' and the truly awesome 'Motherly Love', their song to Norman Bates. Brilliant stuff!

Mosh!

They got to support bands like Flotsam and Jetsam, Death Angel, Nuclear Assault and Exodus, touring on Exodus' "Fabulous Disaster Tour".
Sadly they weren't around for long and after releasing just two full length albums, (1989s 'The Fear' and 'Obnoxious' in 1990) they went their seperate ways.
But it was fun while it lasted. Fantastic music to skate to as well! Moshkinstein!

Check out Motherly Love below!