Fuck Off Commercial

Rumble Militia never got big. No wonder, they couldn’t because they were anti-commercial! But honestly, their music and their musicianship aren’t all that either. ‘Fuck Off Commercial’ is an album worth tracking down only if you’re pretty much collecting everything thrash and crossover from the eighties.

The production is non-existent. Fluffy guitars, underproduced light drums with too much cymbals. But production never really bothers me on eighties albums. It’s the songs and vocals that often bore me to death.
Staffi Agoropoulos came from a punk background but clearly likes Mercyful Fate as well (you just gotta love his hilarious screams) But when singing in a normal voice he’s a mere shadow of Mike Muir to be honest. But credit to the man for trying to combine crossover vocals with King Diamond.

It’s just that songs like Treason and Dead end kids seem to go on forever. It’s the more thrashing material like ‘Bang 'til death’ which makes this album worth listening to. No pretentiousness there but in your face crossover with only incidental melodic vocals. Also the highly DRI-SOD inspired Nuclear Warfare songs are just fun.

But the band had not decided which way to actually go with their music. ‘Fright of stupidity’ is pure thrash with gruff vocals and a middle section which got its inspiration from RtL-era Metallica. But due to the length of the song, a lack of catchiness and generic riffs, it is tedious. And it takes over 6 minutes!

And that title track? A RunDMC version of ‘Full of danger’? Indeed. The band themselves call it ‘Full Of Commercial’. Yeah, hahaha. Funny only once you know. That’s the kind of joke you put on a single or EP.

No, the album is all over the place. Even the vocals are inconsistent throughout the material. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone unless you’re really interested in third rate stuff from both thrash as well as crossover scenes.

Highlights: Full of danger, Bang 'til death, Nuclear warfare 1+2.
Less than half the album…Shame

Every fucking fad has its revival and most of them not only do not deserve to be exhumed, but don't even deserve to have ever existed. One noble exception, however, is a revival I wouldn't have expected or even hoped for, the revival of Hardcore/Thrash Metal Crossover, spearheaded by bands like Municipal Waste.

This kind of music really became a movement in 1985 (D.R.I., S.O.D., C.O.C.) and hit its peak in 1987, but it went away even faster than it had come, and by the end of the decade, i.e. two years later, it was dead, stone-dead! In 1987, however, for a very short time this style dominated the heavy music scene and Rumble Militia were one of the few German representatives.

Maybe they were under pressure to release an album as fast as possible or they were not the most creative guys, but 5 "regular" songs in 24 minutes plus one (good) instrumental ("Rumble Attack") was a bit meagre even in the ancient times of vinyl. The other negative aspect, apart from the shortness, is the production, especially the guitars sound terrible.

The highlights include "Full Of Danger" (maybe the best Rumble Militia song ever), "Dead End Kids", "Bang ‘Til Death", although I don't like the pre-chorus ("Kids understand…") and the 30 second Hardcore blast "Nuclear Warfare" (The First and The Last is basically the same song). The rest of the album is OK (the title track, which is a funky reworking of "Full Of Danger") or mediocre ("Treason" and "Fright Or Stupidity", which is the longest but also weakest song on here - the fast parts are nice though). Last but not least, I have to mention the falsetto vocals, especially on "Dead End Kids", which may be the oddest vocals ever recorded. Hillarious!

Rumble Militia are just as much rooted in Punk as they are in Metal and so it's no surprise that they play a mixture of both. They played the right sound at the right time, as their debut album and the following "En Nombre Del Ley" EP were released during the short heyday of the Crossover movement. Although far from being a classic, "Fuck Off Commercial" has its share of good songs. However, this already short (and not too well-produced) album also contains a few mediocre songs, which results in a considerable decrease of the score.