Necros-Tangled Up; Restless Records, 1987

 

On the very first Hardcore Punk Rock mix tape that Disaster Amnesiac ever had the pleasure of hearing, 1985 in late spring, Necros featured pretty prominently. Needless to say, I followed their career after that; there's even a funny (to me) story of actually meeting them at an Arby's on Jefferson Davis Highway in Woodbridge VA as they were wending their way over to Richmond for a show with the Circle Jerks. Also recall 2003-ish, finding out about an affordable reissue of Conquest For Death and talking to a record store proprietor in Baltimore in order to attain a copy (dude also tantalized me with stories of interactions with Lungfish members). As for Tangled Up, the 1987 full length from Necros, Disaster Amnesiac most definitely owned a copy during that time and most definitely played it a lot. As recalled, the sounds on the album were exemplary of a certain strain of musical production, rooted within Hardcore Punk Rock and Punk Rock in general, that were evidence of progress within the overall aesthetics of same. Journalists such as Brian Walsby and Mike Gitter, if I'm not mistaken, were all-in, as was teenage Amnesiac, the Dumfries Dork, the Potomac High Hierophant (at least within my own little domain, consisting of bedroom and basement), the Terror of All Things Civil Within Montclair. It's suspected that my copy of the initial vinyl release was sold at Plan 9 Records in Richmond. Bad decision man! The Big Daddy Roth cover image alone should have precluded me doing that, but I probably needed some quick cash for weed or Marlboros. Teenagers can lack foresight! All that screeding aside, I'm happy to have found a CD copy of what was probably Restless Records' best offering, with the To Damascus LP coming in a very close second, here in Tucson a few weeks back. And I've listened. And I've enjoyed. Here in Arizona, on obvious Second Amendment diatribe such as Gun is not only understood but also welcomed and uplifted! That the lyrics also feature wild party babes is definitely not a bad thing. The music on this track features a dynamic that is all over Tangled Up, that being a canny update on the Hardcore Punk Rock rhythmic approach expertly swung by drummer Todd Swalla, just slathered with much more skilled guitar playing of a decidedly non-wanker technique by way of guitarist Andy Wendler. In other words, noisy and unhinged. Do not become unhinged when you're at the rifle range, of course.  Disaster Amnesiac keeps asking "just how close are Necros singer Barry Henssler and Ted Nugent, anyway"? Next up we have Blizzard Of Glass, with its tight syncopation and real deal Hardcore gang vocals. Tight picked bass there, Ron Sakowski! Perhaps a bit of Celtic Frost influence in there, who knows, and is that a bad thing at all, in this era or any other? Of course not. The song ends with the abruptness that one can expect from Punk Rock and leads to Tangled Up's centerpiece track, Big Chief. This one's an epic tale of some sort. Disaster Amnesiac has been guessing that some of the lyrical content describes weirdo people that Henssler encountered out on the tour trail, but obviously that's just speculative. And Wendler's solo is one of the most straight up Detroit post-Stooges guitar statements that I've ever had the pleasure of going deaf to. Fantastic, rockin' stuff here, driving pounding Rock 'n Roll! I'm certainly happy to have become reacquainted with it! Tough to follow all that, but Open Wound does with more of Necros Hardcore refinement. This band was at ground floor of the 'core, and this song shows them getting a bit fancier with the accents a bit, but it's still IQ 32 to this dumb ass. Tangled Up continues this trend, with Henssler maybe showing a bit more "maturity" in his lyrics, if by the term one means world weariness. Hey, at least you had Swalla kicking ass in your drum monitor, Barr. A bit more of that road chug on the tune, too. It's almost as if Power Of Fear  and Black Water are simplified version of Tangled, but that's alright. Necros were a touring, working band, and it's totally fine for bands like that to rely upon signature moves; especially good for the band if those moves are original and ass kicking. Hardcore Punk grounded itself within those tendencies, and again, Necros were there at its initial flowering period. After Noise, another rager, Tangled Up suddenly goes Prog on 500 Years, A Pack Of Kools, Nile Song and A House Full Of Drunks. Kools allows the guitar guys to show evidence of some of their musical developments and this leads into an incredible version of Pink Floyd's juiciest writing wherein Todd gets his licks in before the whole thing wraps up after a concise twenty eight minutes  with Drunks. Atonal piano hails the invention of Death Rock, to be capitalized upon a bit over a decade later by Viking Bros in Sweden. In doing research and contemplation for this post, Disaster Amnesiac saw a picture of this iteration of Necros, all greyed and aged, hanging out together. Did they play some shows recently? That must have been a time!