#g-anx

The split 7” inch was originally released in 1988, on a one-off label called Gore Core. Filthy Christians’ six contributions provide the more interesting side of music. Their run of songs opens with “Satanist,” which initially sounds like a Clay Records single from 1983. The descent into blast-driven chaos is seamless and simultaneously manages to shock — even now, when grind’s extremity is somehow a little less than extreme. Filthy Christians’ capacity to modulate from melodically grounded song forms into maniacal grind reaches apotheosis on “Vaktmäster Jazz (Olle P),” which intermittently breaks into insipidly strummed pop guitar. It’s brain damaging and brilliant. G-Anx were a somewhat more experienced band, having formed in 1982. Their songs are more complex, their playing more coherent; “Chicken Fuck” has a metal-tinged introduction and an inevitable breakdown that will have you flashing on M.D.C., c. Smoke Signals. It’s kind of fun that the band is given to epic opening chords and heroic posturing that collapse into short, sharp outbursts of thrashy grind. Even in these early iterations, it can be hard to distinguish the feral from the parodic. 

Filthy Christians came from Falun, a small northern city long associated with copper mining, and G-Anx formed in Jönköping, a lakeside city in central Sweden. Neither is particularly cosmopolitan, neither has Stockholm’s scale or punk scene. How music of this kind became thinkable to the kids in the bands is a profound mystery. It’s easier to imagine why this music likely felt completely necessary to them. It’s additionally remarkable that the original Gore Core record found its way to Providence, Rhode Island, and the guys in Dropdead. Dropdead’s guitarist Ben Barnett runs Armageddon, the label responsible for the reissue, and he has noted the record’s importance for his band. Influence and obscurity: it’s a fairly old saw in rock history. See all the stories about Big Star and the Velvet Underground. But in 1988, grind was even deeper underground than either of those bands ever were, or wanted to be. Armageddon has done us all a favor, unearthing this split record and putting its grotty, riotous and occasionally ridiculous sounds back into circulation.