Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing

Avskum-Uproar Underifran (Prank Records, PO BOX  410892 San Francisco, CA 94141-0892) 1984 was the year that a little known 7″ entitled “Crucified By The System” lacerated eardrums in Kristinehamn, Sweden and its surrounding environs.

That vomitous mohican warcry, a formative effort by a group of sullen young Swedes known as Avskum, sounded like a deconstructive, embryonic Discharge on a shoestring budget, and proved a benchmark recording of sorts among the crusty hc vanguard.  Alongside the work of  early Anti-Cimex, it troved the depths of tinitus-inducing Scandinavian punk primitivism, a heaping pile of spiked and studded offal that would go unmatched in decades subsequent.

Over a decade later, the surprising resurgence of those scabby, smelly punks on San Francisco-based Prank Records, while not a return to form per se, heralded in an era of riotous rock’n'roll-tinged dis-cord (sorry), exemplified by their comeback effort “In The Spirit of Massdestruction” (Prank, 2000). Basted in thundering Motorslog and rock/crust bombast, that record was ultimately less notable for its songwriting than its stylistic direction, one which would be echoed and popularized by the likes of Born Dead Icons, Inepsy, Reign of Bombs, a newly revamped Disfear, and many others. “Massdestruction”’s  less stylized, more Scandi-kang/d-beat-centric follow up, “Punkista”, was an improved addition to the Avskum repertoire, although the toilet bowl sonics and supreme chaos of the band’s earliest three chord aberrations were lost in the shuffle.

After years of variations on an unrefined theme, however, “Uproar Underifran”, Avskum’s latest LP, has made significant strides towards resurrecting the band’s scuzziest d-beat/kang of old, this time balancing  that air raid primitivism with the fist-pumping leads, hints of rock’n'roll combustion, and deft pacing of their later work.

“Uproar Underifran” is arguably the band’s most fully realized outing to date, capturing the better aspects of their varied evolution at once. Here, tinny, trebly skeletal Dis-racket is brought to bear more prominently than in recent years, but is adrift in tense chanegups, bits of Lemmy-ish swagger, and  layered, immense bass-heavy production.

These songs are far more condensed, unrefined, and impactful than anything Avskum had been able to offer up with their post- “Crucified” output to this point. While functioning more as a cohesive unit of blackened, hardened hc sprawl, there are distinguishable qualities aplenty amongst many of the eighteen perilously fast, abrupt rupturings. The opening buzz and howl of “Kapitalismens Yttersta”, torrential “Dagar”, and the caustic blitz of “Nationalstaten Faller” and ”Porrstork” are but a few of the anti-authoritarian  anarkopunk tirades that do  justice to Avskum’s formative legacy.

While the burn is lessened somewhat by a few repetitive-sounding numbers, particularly towards the record’s second half, the vast majority of these ruminations on military force, extraordinary rendition, systemic apathy, extreme poverty, and societal neglect are delivered with aplomb and brute force to spare.

Is this latest offering Avskum’s masterpiece?  Perhaps not, as that distinction is best reserved for an effort as astoundingly crude as “Crucified by the System”. Still, “Uproar Underifran” is one of the stronger punk/hc records of the year bar none. -Mike Ramek