The Annihilated – Demo Tape

Remember the times when hardcore punk scene was vigorous, chaotic, caustic and certainly seemed harmful for your listening apparatus? Luckily for all the fans of old school hardcore punk, these times made a glorious comeback thanks to The Annihilated, London based group composed of the members of SHIT and Arms Race. The band nourishes the profoundly recognizable style of the eighties hardcore with a predominantly violent sound. The Annihilated delivers these numbers just in the way hardcore punk should sound: rigorously crude, extremely harsh, brutally straightforward and uncompromisingly fast. Right of the bat, the band delivers enormous portions of blistering riffages with such precision, but still, the sound is coarse and deafening at certain points. These cacophonic maneuvers have been supported by blasting basslines and impressively nimble drumming, which are infrequently adding even more noise to the sound. The Annihilated definitely avoids similarities with their counterparts, so their intentions and musicianship come nearer to the greats such as Negative Approach, DYS, Faith, Heresy, Void, or perhaps Ripcord, but the band produces even more energy along the way. The entire demo recording showcases how this original version of hardcore punk music still sounds threatening, and certainly more exciting than the vaster portion of overly produced hardcore punk bands we encounter on a daily basis. This demo tape has been accompanied by a simplistic, but yet effective cover artwork that displays incinerated corpse with a dagger stabbed in the head. The entire imagery has been xerox printed and it assuredly depicts how demos used to look back in the eighties. The Annihilated clearly paid a lot of attention to each feature, and you’ll surely enjoy this one if you’re a true fan of old school hardcore punk music. This demo has been published on tape by a band, but it’s also available at their Bandcamp page.