THE MURDER SQUAD T.O./HULLUUS „“Rising Crust” Split”

Music: Crust/Grind
Country: Canada/USA
Web site: www.woundedpaw.com
Cool Songs: Here Today, Hour of Wolves

“Rising Crust” is a split featuring two crustcore artists, THE MURDER SQUAD T.O. from Ontario, Canada and HULLUUS from Wisconsin. Both bands play similar styles of crusty hardcore in the tradition of the groups that paved the way for grindcore, which was an off shoot of the British Crass movement.

THE MURDER SQUAD’s tracks are featured first. This group plays a medium paced brand of hardcore with a very “crusty” production. The guitar playing is consistent with punk with a strong attention for up tempo bar chord, down picking. Other moments show the band playing a more groove-oriented form of hardcore that fans of popular hardcore bands like HATEBREED could probably relate to. Don’t misinterpret this statement, though, THE MURDER SQUAD have very little to do with what people call “hardcore” today. A mixture of quasi death metal vocals and higher pitched, whiny vocals lay out the band’s stance on political issues such as war, authority figures, and racism (they’re against it). The group finishes with a descent cover of NAUSEA’s “Here Today,” which ends with a hilarious “Mr. Show” sound clip about hippy bashing.

HULLUUS begins their side of the album with a slow, menacing low chord that sets the stage for some brutal grinding crust punk. HULLUUS sounds much like older NAPALM DEATH, particulary after Lee Dorian left the band. The vocals are yelled at a middle pitch, much lower than the noisecore acts of today, yet still ugly and punky. The music definitely shows punk quality suited perfectly for a circle pit and stage diving. Also, the choruses repeat phrases like “Hour of Wolves” that would be great to sing along to at their shows.

“Rising Crust” is a true crust-punk album by every standard. The production is raw and the music is pissed. This album is obnoxious, in your face, and churns out songs faster than Bush administration acquires countries. Even though short and simple is the motto of this type of music, the album suffers from being too bried. With two bands playing short songs it would seem they could have released more songs. Also, the high pitch punk vocals on THE MURDER SQUAD T.O. get irritating after a couple minutes. Still, “Rising” Crust” is a fun listen, especially for the punk aspects. I find it interesting to see this obscure music style still thriving three decades after its creation.

note: 5/10

Tracklist

THE MURDER SQUAD T.O.
1. Another Day In Hell
2. Relationship Of Bacteria
3. More Blood Will Flow
4. Destructive Not Productive
5. Here Today (Nausea Cover)

HULLUUS
6. Hour of Wolves
7. Bombraid
8. Condemned
9. Black Tomorrow

Line-up

THE MURDER SQUAD T.O.
Mike Abalienation – vocals
Wounded Paw – bass
Mike – drums
Killkenny – guitar
Slack – guitar

HULLUUS
Rayny…vox
Bob…guit
Marvin…bass
John…drums