The Rise of the Serpent Men

Axegrinder is a band that came and went far too quickly. But in the short five years that they were active they managed to become legends in the crust genre, a very small niche genre, but legends nonetheless. For the uninitiated crust punk started in the mid 1980s and is the combing of hardcore and metal but not arriving at a cartoonish and silly conclusion like Stormtroopers of Death. It has a far more serious and apocalyptic sound than what was coming from the Bermuda shorts wearing boingers like S.O.D. and D.R.I. There are different interpretations within this genre but Axegrinder’s debut album, Rise of the Serpent Man sticks closely to what Amebix laid down in 1985 with the release of Arise, and that’s a slow to midpaced, but crushingly heavy sound filled with dread and despair. Rise of the Serpent Men is a quintessential crust album that perfectly demonstrates this style of music.

From the very first of only seven tracks it’s clear that this album leads more towards metal than hardcore. Never Ending Winter is an instrumental that effectively sets the mood for the rest of the album. Unlike most hardcore albums, Rise of the Serpent Men is all about creating a gloomy and depressing atmosphere rather than raging through fifteen tracks clocking in at two minutes a piece. They take their time and everything feels very deliberate. This record can be described as plodding and I understand how that could be viewed negatively since most metal and hardcore fans are all about speed, I too was once like that, but there is so much power behind everything they do that it doesn't come off as dull.

All of the songs pretty much follow the same structure. They lure you in with synthesizers, pianos, acoustic guitars etc and then all of sudden in come the crushing riffs. In the case of Life Chain you get some since cymbal action and a groovy bass line which leads to a fuzzy, somewhat mellow guitar riff. Things pick up a little bit and it gives a feeling that things are about to get real mean. And then it all stops with just the guitar fading out and in a very deep Lemmy like voice you hear “Recognize your chains!” Very powerful stuff. Each song starts in a similar manner but it never gets old. Every part of every song is strong enough to keep you interested. There are only a few fast parts on this album and they don’t last long. They come in out of nowhere and then the band drops back into the heavier than hell and pick up with the chorus. The Synthesizer intro in Warmachine gives the song a dystopian feel. That’s probably due to all the apocalyptic/dystopian films of the 70s and 80s with the futuristic sounding electronic score. It’s a perfect fit for this album and for this song in particular.

The lyrical theme of Rise of the Serpent Men is mainly anti-war, anti-religious and the environment. No surprises there, but they are very well written and like most crust and metal bands they use metaphors and go a lot deeper than standard black and white punk lyrics. Lyrically, my favorite on this album would have to be Life Chain. I view Life Chain with two different meanings. One interpretation is saying that people are strong enough to break away from the chains of religion they just need to realize it. Religion constantly tells people that they are weak, they’re sinners and that they need a magical being to get them through life. Axegrinder believes that that is bullshit and that people need to take control. The other interpretation is that people work themselves to death. Human beings are never satisfied so we work until we die so that we can accumulate more stuff. We create our own slavery with our greed.

Axegrinder managed to release one of the greatest crust albums in their short existence and earn themselves a spot at the top of the heap. If you dig Amebix, Deviated Instinct, or Hellbastard you’ll love the even more metallic sounding Rise of the Serpent Men.

Axegrinder was a four-piece band from London, England. They were active from 1985 to around 1990. They managed to put out a full-length album though, which is really really good. I don't know much about crust or anything, but I actually caught myself moving my head listening to this record. The atmosphere here is really badass.

The album contains of good work from each member, there are some pretty interesting ambient and piano intros to the songs and again, the atmosphere is great. Matt's bass guitar is pretty audible, filling nicely behind the guitar riffs and creating the heavy atmosphere along the drums. The drumming is pretty decent with some memorable parts and the basslines are really good.

When I listen to this album I sense some sort of "fuck it" attitude in the music which I really like. Trevs vocals are a bit dirty, if that word can describe it well. The guitarist, Steve, plays some nice solos here and there and has some pretty decent riffs, but there is a lot of space for the bass which I am totally into. The ambient intros of "War Machine" and "Rise of the Serpent Men" give the album its own personality and some emotion, so there is something beside the heavy music.

I certainly enjoyed this album, highlights being the bass actually. This album should be checked out by anyone who is into some heavy stuff. Personally, I had only a small small clue of what crust was before I listened to this album.

There's two reasons why I'm not gonna say that Axegrinder is (was) better than the Amebix. For one, the Amebix pioneered this style of crusty music that, for punks like me back in the 80's, helped me to discover metal. The other reason that I don't put Axegrinder ahead of Amebix is that half of my buddies would probably lynch me. Other than that, though, this album kicks a whole lotta ass. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and that's exactly what Rise of the Serpent Men is.

I'm a sucker for dreary accoustic guitar/synth intros that finally kick in and get all heavy and bad-ass, and this album is chock full of them. The music is simple, a hallmark of crust punk, but the guitar riffs are catchy. The bass is also easy to identify (another trademark of crust), finding its own voice amidst the buzzsaw guitars.

So the music itself, as well as the production quality, are comparable to Amebix's "Monolith". But what really sells me on these guys is the vocals. Where the Amebix sound scratchy, Axegrinder's vocals are a low-pitched roar. They're just better. They're also intelligible, and the lyrics are kinda corny but pretty good. I dunno. Check these out:

Now at last we are as one, though it means nothing no more
Master and beggar die as one, the final chapter...
In the final......
WAR!

The shit used to send chills up my spine back in the day, and it still sounds pretty damn good now. If you're a fan of the Amebix, check this album out and don't be too hard on them for ripping off "Monolith". It's not theft. It's flattery.

I was actually preparing to review this a while ago, when to my astonishment someone beat me to it. I was contemplating simply not bothering, as I'm not really sure this is entirely worth the effort, but I had a few things to add to the previous review, so I thought I would submit this anyway. Axegrinder are indeed what is generally referred to as a crust band. It's the sort of approach a real hybridation of metal and hardcore should sound like, and not the fucking metalcore shite that gets passed off as good fusion nowadays. That said, Axegrinder kind of falls flat in a couple of areas.
First off, the band's image, if you call it that, is quite off putting for me. Maybe it's not all that dissimilar to that of Amebix, whom this band are obviously attempting to emulate, but at least that other, very much superior band never plastered album sleeves and shirts with hackneyed slogans like "Anarchist, not satanist!" and "peace metal, not death metal!" Apparently the band was not taken seriously by the punk scene because of their embracing of metal as a sound, so they felt the need to hastily assure everyone that although they sounded like one of those grindy, evil metal bands, they sure as hell didn't think like one. Well, needless to say, my reaction to this is a hearty fuck off, and an admonition that bands such as this need to stop patting themselves on the back and get on with making music, which is often quite good, but who's integrity can be nearly destroyed by such stupid, inane posturing. If the music can't speak for itself, what good is it? "anarchist"...gimme a fucking break.
As for the music...well, it's pretty much a less heady and less monolithic version of Amebix. Same crusty bass tone, although it's not as prevalent, very similar vocals, use of atmospheric elements such as acoustic guitars and synthesizer to help bolster the gloomy feel. Axegrinder like long, ambient intros, and they're used in a few of these songs, to set the mood. It's particularly effective when accompanied by the raspy, Lemmy/Von Aphid sound-alike vocals (even the limey accent is similar). There's even some female vocals in one track..very subtle, and quite well done. Essentially, I'd say this is sort of like Amebix somewhere between their "Arise!" and "monolith" albums, but with more of an emphasis on ambience and mood. There are a few cool riffs here and there, particularly (and unsurprisingly) bass driven ones, but much of this just sort of seems to pass by without making much of an impact. It doesn't help that the production is quite loose and muddy, and that the band doesn't seem to have quite mastered this "metal thing" they're toying with yet. Unfortunately, they'd never get the chance, as they broke up shortly after this album materialized. Ah well, no big loss, really. This band was recommended to me because I was interested in hearing music that successfully captured the very particular doom and gloom of amebix; I'm still looking.

I remember getting this LP (on vinyl!) years ago at the recommendation of my fave metal mag at the time, England's "Metal Forces" (RIP), and enjoying it quite a bit. It still holds up pretty well to this day, too. The Brits called bands like this "stench core" because crusty punk types were more often than not the ones playing this type of music, and since they had a habit of not bathing...Anyway, this album is all about the bass, and has a warm, organic production job that spotlights the evil fuzzy roar of that instrument loud and clear--even louder than the guitar, actually! But everything else sounds good anyway. Vocalist Trev spends all his time in a hoarse, guttural roar that is not quite death metal, more like Lemmy with a deeper voice and not as much character, but still is suitable for their gloomy, doomy approach. The songs trudge along in a creepy crawl of rhythmic, atmospheric riffing that still is incredibly heavy in its minimalist approach, especially opener "Hellstorm", which settles down into a plaintive keyboard interlude before revving up the doom machine again. The riffs are simple and memorable, and only one song speeds up a little, and even though it's not much, it still makes a noticeable difference. Which is where this album has its problem; it does tend to drag a bit with its uniformly slow tempos. Those tempos are still good headbanging tempos, though, and I found myself doing just that furiously whenever this LP was on. Ultimately, this is a good listen for those rainy days when you don't feel like putting on the Cure and getting depressed--rather, put this on to express how pissed you are at how it's pouring out and you feel like kicking the walls!