A Holocaust in Your Head

Along with their fellow Britons in Napalm Death, this rag-tag group of hardcore misfits turned metallic innovators dubbed Extreme Noise Terror are largely seen as being at the forefront of the development grindcore. However, much like with said compatriots, nothing that they released in their early days when the term was attributed to them bears a good death of resemblance to what is largely recognized as being grindcore at present. It is quite extreme, both from a low-fidelity noise index standard, as well as from the standpoint of aggression circa the late 1980s. Though it may not be immediately obvious at first listen, a lot of the sonic mayhem going on throughout "A Holocaust In Your Head" could be compared to the slightly cleaner cut thrashing character of crossover bands like Weirmacht and the earliest incarnation of Morbid Angel and Death to a lesser extent, but interpreted through a much more jaded production lens. It's an album that literally flirts with demo quality, yet this is arguably its greatest charm as a clean production would simply be putting a sugar coating on what is supposed to be a sour, raw, decrepit musical delivery that is quite befitting the dark social commentary dealt with lyrically.

In a very similar tradition to that of "Scum" and "From Enslavement To Obliteration", the character of this album manifests as an extremely fast meshing of Discharge/Black Flag styled hardcore riffing with faster, thrashing beats and barely comprehensible guttural barks and shouts. There are literally times when bits and pieces of the grimness of Nocturno Culto and the bellowing intensity of David Vincent can be pulled out of the fuzz and speculation as to how big of an impact this style had on both of their respective bands can be made. The songs are generally quite short in length, barely even attempting to hit the 3 minute mark that was normally the territory of even the most concise thrash/crossover bands circa this time period, though they've established a bit more regularity to their song lengths than Napalm Death, whom were often predisposed to mixing moderately short songs with sub-1 minute ditties that were a curious novelty of the time yet also not very strong in the staying power department. This regularity also permeates through the nature of these songs, as they tend to function on similar ideas and usually only differentiated by a peculiarly gripping bass intro as on "Bullshit Propaganda" or a sampled narrative about a slaughterhouse before a free time blast section in "Murder".

Arguably the greatest barrier that this album has in connecting with much of the less extreme elements of the metal world is its extremely low-fi sound, which is also its greatest charm for the extreme fringes of raw black metal and punk-laden thrash. Most who are new to hardcore and more inclined towards mainline thrash, death or speed metal will probably want to transition gradually into this band via somewhat more accessible works by the likes of Amebix and Discharge, both of which don't get quite as nasty and raw, yet contain many of the key elements that make this album tick. Indeed, most who are of the present generation of death metal enthusiasts will probably find the later works of this band to be far more accessible, given that it conforms much more closely to the aggressive, yet more balanced and meaty character that came to embody Napalm Death's popular 90s albums. But from a historical standpoint, this is an important album that definitely plays into a fair amount of the cross-pollination that was going on between death metal and hardcore/crust punk during the late 80s.

Extreme Noise Terror is, like dozens of other ‘artists’ out there, a band that is worshipped solely on the fact that they sound like shit. In its never ending quest for speed and brutality, grindcore (they call this crust punk, but I've always found that to be a terribly stupid name for a genre. Why not dirt metal or grimecore? Idiots...) often finds itself enlisting all sorts of talentless hacks that will satisfy those two demands, despite bringing nothing in the way of cohesion, originality, or anything else for that matter. ENT is a band that loves Black Flag, but wish that they’d be faster and shittier with stronger leftist viewpoints. And since they found wishing to be pretty much useless, they decided just to do it themselves.

So that’s what you get on Holocaust in Your Head: Black Flag worship that’s faster, extremer, and way shittier. From the vocalists hackneyed shout-growling (see: Chris Barnes circa Eaten Back to Life) to the dead simple punk riffs to the bargain bin demo quality, it’s an album that’s useless outside of a testament to sheer noise. Certainly there are those that would argue that such is the point; that the album is merely executing what it set out to do by being as shitty and enraged as it possibly could be. In that regards, the album is a shining success, but really, how could it fail when its aspirations were set so low? Anyone could make this album and many have since, except they at least have the courtesy of writing material that is original and interesting without force-feeding their listeners a shovelful of bullshit hippie propaganda (“Murder,” “Raping the Earth”) and at least they feature a vocalist whose delivery isn’t so embarrassing at times that I feel sorry for him. ENT even have the gall to call out S.O.D. as posers because their lyrics aren’t approved by PETA. Newsflash: they’re a fucking joke band and they still have better riffs than you. The only redeeming factor to this little turd is that it’s mercifully brief, clocking in at just over 20 minutes. Great for those with a short attention span.

Certainly there’s an audience for this sort of thing (inexplicably), but the fact stands that just about any amateur musicians could make a feasibly better album than this one without all the nonsense that comes with listening to this. My tenure with grindcore has been fairly short, but even I know that the genre has a lot more to offer than this. Avoid.

I always wondered what the story was behind this album. As far as I know the album was originally recorded with Mick Harris on drums, then re-recorded with Tony "Stick" Dickens and released on vinyl. And finally re-recorded once again with Mark Bailey on bass, to be released on CD. Now I’ve always wondered if each of these re-recordings were fully done or just the drums and later on the bass? Now I do have an old cassette somewhere with the vinyl version on it but I mostly play the CD and I will focus my review on that version.

In any case, all versions have Pete Hurley on guitar and vocals by Phil Vane and Dean Jones. And these three lads are the essence of the old E.N.T. Hurley’s guitar has a punk crunch sound here and isn’t as ‘heavy’ as it would be on the split LP with Filthkick nor the ’87-’90 Peel Session yet already brutal enough.

Now there are two things that have always annoyed me on this album. Firstly we have the added sampled intro to “Murder”. The song normally already starts with a spoken version of the first verse so this ‘extra’ intro is very obsolete. Secondly the added S.O.D.-riff to “ If Your Only in It for the Music”. I don’t know why E.N.T. disliked S.O.D. so much (in those days Sorethroat bashed them as well) but I always found it a bit pathetic if bands try to score or prove their ‘underground-ness’ by bashing other metal or punk musicians. By the way, the bass intro to “Bullshit Propaganda” should have been played bit better and because of this, there are better versions of this song around. So penalty points for those issues.

Apart from that, just a damn good album! It holds such classics like “Fucked Up System”, “Conned Through Life”, “Murder” and “Another Nail in the Coffin”. There are plenty of political subjects on which I firmly disagree with this band but I’ve always loved their strong message, energy and style. Never beating around the bush. The band sound as if they mean it and their strong image emphasises the already confronting music.

Calling E.N.T. (or crust in general) just noise would be stupidity since all their songs (save sloppy jokes like “Only in It for the Music”) do have verses and a chorus. If one gets to know these songs, they’re easily identified as songs. When discussing crustcore or even grindcore it’s catchy vocal lines and breaks which give the songs individual character since drums and pace are virtually the same on all songs. You just love it or hate it. I love it and E.N.T. put in just enough detail to make their compositions some of the best in the genre. And as said, their sound (especially the vocals!) and energy really made them rise from the masses.

If you´re looking for expert musicants, don´t touch this one. Early Extreme Noise Terror delivers raw crust punk, closest of which on the metal side of extreme can be found from likes of Napalm Death´s Peel Sessions. If you, like I, do love Napalm Death´s Peel Sessions, then you should also check this one out.

I have to express my astonishment for the previous review of this title. Even though both ENT and Amebix are backbones of crust, there is not much that links them in terms of music. While Amebix was from the beginning dark, depressed, slow and metallic - and especially on their late years also pioners of thrash metal, ENT was one of the first ones to bring noisy hardcore which later was to be called crustcore. Saying ENT is Doom worshipping sounds also odd into my ear - ENT had already recorded for John Peel radio show before Doom had their first record out. Nevertheless, both Amebix and Doom are also great bands on their own right, though not much related to the subject of this review.

Well, as said, this is intense stuff. The sound of the record is very strongly stressed on guitars that leave almost everything behing. Behind the guitars one can hear very intense yet techically unperfect drumming. Once again, comparation to Mick Harris´s drumming on early Napalm Death is not far from truth - bearing in mind the fact that ENT playes hardly any blastbeat at all. Actually, it is hard to tell, what the drummer is beating, so insane is his style.

The guitars are, as I said, loud, sounding raw yet not losing their power. This thing is the first one to make difference between ENT and usual "raw" sounds in punk/crust/metal.

One thing in which so many crustcore/metal bands fail but ENT succees is songwriting. Thought being primitive and straight forward, songs of Extreme Noise Terror are simply gorgeous - but remind you we are not talking about epic stuff here.

There is no escaping the dual-vocals thing of which ENT is best known. First we go a guy who shouts and growls, then we have another guy who screams. Revolutionary in its time but I have to say that I´ve heard also better works on this field.

So what makes this so much better than it´s successors? Putting it into a word: intensity. Still in the 21st century, this record is a milestone in intensity in raw music. Compared to another classic of crustcore/metal (though released five years later), Disrupt´s "Unrest" LP Extreme Noise Terror´s "A Holocaust in Your Head" loses in the sound quality and tightness, but with such an intense playing AND great songs you can´t go wrong.

A classic that is still worth checking out - not only because of its importance in the history of extreme music but also because of its content. But be warned, this is raw stuff.

There is one thing that must be clarified about early era Extreme Noise Terror... they weren't necessarily grindcore! They played what would become grindcore but their music (at least on this album) is very sloppy crust punk with intense speed and adrenaline.

Extreme Noise Terror usually gets labeled with the grindcore label but people fail to realize that they were a crust punk band. This album perfectly demonstrates that point with their Doom and Amebix worship style music with hints of Discharge and Napalm Death in their music. They were apart of the English hardcore punk/grindcore movement of the mid-late 80's and were one of the most popular and intense groups above the movement. I like to look at ENT as a poor man’s Doom… they sound an awful lot like Doom, just a more extreme form of Doom.

As I mentioned before, this CD presents ENT as a pretty messy band where it may seem like the band is not playing with harmony with one another... but they really are surprisingly. That's how messy this CD comes off being, and the production is pretty much everywhere on this recording with the vocals sometimes overpowering the music and the guitars/bass being all distorted.

What I always liked about ENT is their unique dual vocal thing they've always had going on. One of the vocal styles is a very gritty, raspy growl while the other is a very Doom-esq. sounding grunt (think how you might sound when you're taking a huge dump that wouldn't come out... yeah, it sounds like that.) The vocal thing seems to work out well with ENT, but the gritty growls sometimes can be really annoying being they overpower everything in the CD and... well, they just get annoying because they sound annoying! I feel that the whole album should've been done with the grunt style singing rather than having a second style vocal. None the less, the album is still enjoyable if you can look past the annoying growls.

The songs vary in style on the album; some of the songs are short 50 second tracks ("Deceived"), have a traditional hardcore punk riff playing throughout the music with intense fast drum playing ("Fucked Up System"), or most of the tracks overall are just huge messes of thrashing madness. There are no breathers to be found on this CD... everything is fast paced, distorted, straight forward and whatnot... this all explains the purpose of the album title "A Holocaust In Your Head." There is no other perfect way to describe the music other than that because this really sounds like a huge headache happening in your head... only it's enjoyable to listen to. There are occasional moments where you can hear blast beats ("No Threat" and "Show Us You Care") but most of the beats are comprised of the d-beat style drumming... only injected with steroids ("Bullshit Propaganda"). Some of the most catchiest tracks on the CD are "Murder" with it's anthem-like sound and memorable riffs playing throughout the sample played in the beginning of the song and the overall layout of the song and the track "If You're Only In It For The Music (S.O.D. Off!)" is a huge obvious rip-off of S.O.D.'s song "Milk"... only done crust style and, of course, messy. It's actually humorous to hear because they actually ripped off the band and somehow made this song their own.

Look, all I have to say about this album is if you're into early pre-grindcore music like Electro Hippies, Doom, and so on, then check out this band's CD. This is very essential crust punk; you don't know crust punk until you have Amebix, Doom and Extreme Noise Terror in your collection so if you claim to be a crust buff and never heard of ENT, then you don't know anything! For an album which is messy and raw in every sense, this is really a great and fun listen. Without further or do, I'll just end all of this by saying get this fucking CD and feel the raw intensity and the power of the almighty crust.


Ear Candy: Statement, Deceived, Fucked Up System, Murder, If You're Only In It For The Music (S.O.D. Off!)...