Artist: Axegrinder
Country: United Kingdom
Label: Peaceville Records
Formats: CD
Year: 2006
In the early days of Peaceville there has been some truly worthwhile releases that somehow faded into oblivion and are totally unknown to most of the new-school metalheads – even to those who claim to be into the earlier, obscure, influential and cultish bands. Peaceville are mostly know for their re-releases these days, but lately they have been trying to give some of their earlier works a second youth. Some time ago Deviated Instinct saw a re-release of some earlier works being released, now its time for London based Axegrinder, which was already founded back in 1985 and had a truly important role in establishing the UK scene in which they played alongside bands like Carcass, Bolt Thrower, Prophecy Of Doom, Concrete Sox, Heresy, Paradise Lost, Electro Hippies and Napalm Death. A very fruitful scene, with all bands proving to be more than influential.
This Axegrinder balances, musically, somewhere between a crusty bits and that very early Bolt Thrower kind of metal sound, so it might not surprise that this album was recorded back in 1988, around the same time Bolt Thrower and Paradise Lost were releasing demos and bands like Concrete Sox, Heresy and Electro Hippies were releasing their first vinyl pieces. A very influential period for not only the UK scene but the overall extreme music scene worldwide. I, personally, was introduced to these tunes with the split album with Prophecy Of Doom (its about time someone compiles some of their old stuff for a re-release!) on which these songs were released about two years after its initial release. I used to have these recordings on a CDR, as they were close to impossible to find, and I am glad they were compiled this neat, on a nice looking digipack with nice linernotes from Matt (bass guitars), a couple of old pictures and lyrics. But the most valuable, though invaluable at the same time, is of course the music and it is rather hard to imagine what position this band had at the time and how influential it turned out to be, eighteen years after its initial release. As a bonus we’ll find a Wartech demo, a band that was founded by the remaining members after Matt left Axegrinder, a not so worthwhile demo and a bit misplaced. I know there are a few Axegrinder recording that are rare or even unreleased, that would’ve been a better bonus instead of something that actually has very little to do with Axegrinder in the end. Yet, I’m very glad that Peaceville decided to save this musical heritage for future generations and give Axegrinder the recognition they deserve instead of keeping on re-releasing Katatonia, Anathema, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Darkthrone albums. All hail the eighties UK scene!
In the liner notes Matt talks about the political situation back in the days and how very little in has changed, and that the only change was for the worse, he puts the angry songs in one line with that political situation in one line and ends with: “perhaps it is time to make another record after all”. Let’s hope so!
