/mu/ - Music

Now here's an enigma. In the world of the internet, you'd think bands whoever released anything would at least have at least a decent account of their existence. In the case of Final Offensive, absolutely no information about them exists aside from a 7-track demo purportedly released in 1982. Not even Eddie Stampton's massive tome "The White Nationalist Skinhead Movement" mentions them. Aside from the demo cassette, they would later be featured on a French cassette compilation in 1998.

Final Offensive aren't as quaint as that description would suggest. These are the croaking goblinoid shaven heads in a damp dark basement, angry and probably hungry, hacking out punk rock so crude and cruddy it makes The Last Resort look like Camel. The kind shown in Trevor Griffith’s TV play ‘Oi for England’, which you should check out if you haven’t already.

Final Offensive are having a say but not necessarily having a laugh. The lyrics of "Rally" call for the "Aryan race" to rebel against a Jewish threat (we’ve all heard that one before) and their general right wing paranoia makes this probably the first RAC release presuming this was circulated before "British Justice" by the Ovaltinees and Skrewdriver’s "White Power" in 1983.

The tunes themselves are actually very good, there’s obviously not an Ian Stuart among these fellas but as proved by "Voice of the Young" and particularly "Final Offensive" they do what they do well. "Whose Justice" is a complete rip-off of "Johnny Barden" by the aforementioned Last Resort, so I wonder what the story is there.

The shit-fi murky recording is primarily what adds the atmosphere though at the same time the smudgy bass and muffled vocals do somewhat hamper the performances, making it a pity that Final Offensive never went into the studio and seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. Mysterious.

Hailing from Gillingham in Kent, Peter & The Wolf were one of the original RAC bands in the White Noise Records circuit. Originally apolitical, Peter & The Wolf shifted their songwriting towards nationalism after recruiting Mark Taylor on vocals, who subsequently wrote politically-oriented songs like "Livingstone" and "Raped." "Livingstone" focused on "Red Ken", the leader of the Greater London Council while "Raped" lyricized about the account of a six-year-old raped by a South Asian in Yorkshire who only served 27 days in prison for his defilement of a prepubescent girl.

Apparently recorded in the kitchen at one of the band member's home, Peter & the Wolf's brand of Oi! is crude and made cruder by low sound quality but this is still an interesting, albeit minor, piece of skinhead history. The vocals are largely unintelligible - I wouldn't have minded hearing what they had to say about Crass in the title track - but there is something cool about their basement rawness. This works rather nicely as a companion piece to Final Offensive's demo.

The Summer of 1981 saw the rebirth of Skrewdriver. Concerned by the rising political tensions, Ian Stuart announced Skrewdriver would now be a patriotic band. After several line-up changes, Skrewdriver would stabilize and release the legendary "Back with a Bang", marking the change from non-political to political.

"Back With a Bang" is quite possibly greatest Oi! song ever, and that's out of some stiff competition. All of the passion, integrity and intensity that defines Oi! as a music genre and as a movement is encapsulated in these exhilarating three minutes. Everything just soars from start to finish, from the vocals of Ian Stuart - delivered with furious abandon, as though through gritted teeth - to the infectious guitar solo. Skrewdriver's extremist political inclinations, which were beginning to reveal themselves around the time this single hit the shelves, have ostracized them from the scene and subculture that they defined but nothing should take away from the fact that some of the ultimate skinhead anthems were theirs. Simply anyone who likes anthemic punk rock owes it to themselves to hear this.

Fronted by Liam Walsh, London Branch was a typical band of RAC’s "golden age", but since their only release was this demo, they haven’t exactly been remembered in the same way as Skrewdriver and Brutal Attack. After enough cancelled gigs, blacklistings from venues and arrests, London Branch came to an abrupt end at the end of 1983.

Lyrically they’re authoritarian to the max, it’s like Combat 84’s confrontational ‘Rapist’ EP on steroids. Is it the spirit of Punk Rock to spout racial epithets and celebrate public executions, colonialism and nuclear armament? For these blokes, it is. That’s not to say that this isn’t good though, the vocals bring the rage and while the heavy guitar sound they were going for is dampened by the raw sound quality there are some good classic Oi! style riffs to be found.

Definitely some menacing and intimidating stuff, if any of these "peace punks" caught wind they’d be running to fetch some clean knickers.

Woolwich-based skinheads The Die-Hards came on the scene at the start of 1983. After recording a demo and a live gig, the band underwent several line-up changes before appearing on two compilations: the National Front plugged "This Is White Noise" and Ian Stuart's own "No Surrender" from Rock-O-Rama Records.

"White Working Class Man" is a mournful, downtempo tune agonizing over the pains of the British underclass.

Go to work every day Working hard for an honest week’s pay

Wife and kids ain’t got enough

Problems in my head and I’m feeling rough

Got to work to earn our keep

They fuck us about it’s a dog with a sheep

Life with no legend, life with no fun

We must keep our pace it’s got to be done

Day by day passes by

Always wary of the peering eye

Superstition grinds through my head

Boiling over and going red

It’s getting hot I can’t take no more

I feel myself hitting the floor

Hot Gossip people think they’re cool

Nice big boat and a swimming pool

Spoil yourself by being rich

We’re left rotting in a ditch

The road to freedom, it’s so long

I need the money can’t get along

Forget the sorrow and keep our pride

There is a future for our fighting lives

The band would then record another mournful tune entitled "Vengeance", dedicated to their murdered comrade Peter "Geordie" Mathewson.

Avenge the death of one of our warriors

Avenge the death of him today

And that’s why we are gonna stay and fight to the death tonight

He was in pain was it in vain

For the crime are they gonna pay

Some may say he was insane

Some may say it was in vain

Take revenge is our game

To kill the scum is our aim

Of all the bands associated with the original RAC movement, Indecent Exposure were probably the ones with their feet placed most firmly in the traditional Oi! camp. Originally formed as the Hemel Boot Boys, Indecent Exposure went through several line-up changes before finally stabilizing to release their first single and LP.

Indecent Exposure is everything Oi! should be. Energetic, hard-hitting and catchy as hell. Their lyrics couldn't be more quintessentially British working class, covering bank holiday excursions, being on the dole, patriotism and weekend fun. Here's to the ultranationalist "England My England"

No one tries to stop it

As they come over from far and wide

To live inside our country

And take our jobs away

It makes me sick and wonder

If people make up lies

To help these bastards overrun

And watch our country die

England my England

We are white forever

England my England

We must stick together

England my England

I won’t let my country die

England my England

The fight is now or never

They say that we are racist

And we’re all wrong and they’re all right

We hate them and they hate us

And that is why we’re born to fight

They’ll take over the country

They think that we’ll obey

But there ain’t no black in the Union Jack

And that’s the way it will stay

Wherever there is trouble

It’s us who get the blame

It’s us who get pushed around

The story’s always the same

But they ain’t gonna stop me from hating

The cunts who cause the pain

And I won’t stop fuckin’ fighting

’Til Britain’s white again

A long lost Nationalist noise once again is rediscovered! Hailing from Kent, Razor Sharp formed in 1983 with Mike on vocals, Bob on guitar, Jon on bass and Penn on drums. Mike was replaced on vocals by Jason after some six months, who in turn would later become the first vocalist of No Remorse. For reasons that should be obvious, Razor Sharp is a fairly unfortunate name for an RAC band but since Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice didn't exist in 1985 you can't exactly blame them for it. 'Proud to Be White' (an unsubtle title if I ever saw one) has a brilliantly belligerent aggressive attack with a four song streak in the middle of the tape that makes things all worthwhile. 'Repatriation' in particular has a cool spoken word intro that would work if sampled by some artist of edgy proportions.

It's a damned shame that the band never got into a proper recording studio to do these songs full justice ('Dying 1234' for example) but the basement sound quality does add some atmosphere. Overall a very good listen and a forgotten part of Oi!/RAC history.

White revolution is what we need

If we wanna save our culture and we wanna save our breed

Stop them coming, send them back

Can’t you see that they all are black?

This is the age of thinking and doing

The black scum have put us on the road to ruin

They are walking our streets with their heads held high

Listen nigger scum go or die

Once they were slaves and under control

Now they are pimps and muggers and they’re on the dole

Deport the lot they have got to go

Do we want the black scum? No! No! No!

White revolution, one day soon it will surely come

We have got to save our England from an immigrant slum

White revolution, it’s about time

White revolution, it’s no crime

Formed in Grimsby, Last Orders kept only the humblest expectations during the entire course of their existence. Playing a total of 15 gigs, including opening for Toy Dolls, founder and bassist Mark Richardson remarked the greatest memory he had was opening for Skrewdriver, where after his bass strap snapped, Ian Stuart lent him his, the same strap still in his possession to this day.

Their entire discography put to record consisted solely of one song contributed to "No Surrender". Curiously, the lyrics to "Just Another Soldier" take a much more cynical tone on the follies of becoming a soldier. Never would've thought a roughshod RAC band would earnestly reflect on the pitfalls of battle.

Mindless yob he had no brain

Joined the Army he was insane

Got sent to Ireland with a gun

Soon he found it wasn’t fun

A-Bomb blows up in Belfast

Ten men dead it was that fast

The I.R.A. don’t give a fuck

Just plant the bombs that blow you up

Life in Ireland’s getting tough

No life there it is too tough

One of these days they’re gonna get you

You’ll end up dead like the rest of them do!

Joining the Army ain’t much fun

Getting sent to Ireland with a gun

You’ll get a bullet through your head

You’re just another soldier. Dead!

1984 was a big year for Skrewdriver. From the ashes of old would rise a phoenix declaring the new day. Signed onto Rock-O-Rama Records and backed with a new line-up, Ian Stuart and company would record and release the landmark "Hail the New Dawn", the LP that would define the band's career and give them the driving force.

RAC bands of the early ‘80s remain in my eyes some of the last rock bands to genuinely have the air of something "cult", mysterious and perhaps dangerous about them. It was the era where extreme politics both left and right collided with youth subcultures, records such as this socio-historical snapshots of a turbulent time. How can anyone not find this fascinating? It doesn't hurt that the music is damn good too – a rawer, darker offshoot from the Oi! scene that many RAC bands were keen to distance themselves from due to its perceived leftist overtones as expressed by Garry Bushell. "Hail the New Dawn" is the aesthetic and sonic peak of this movement. (Note: Literally nobody nowadays would perceive anything remotely leftist about Garry Bushell but you've just gotta believe me when I say - Oi!, it's complicated).

Ian Stuart was above all a fantastic songwriter and if you like uptempo punk with anthemic hooks then you'll have found a new favourite with 'Hail the New Dawn', an album that has muddied the name of Oi! but at the same time is one of the best representations of what the genre can accomplish. Rough skinhead street grit combines with the unsettlingly rousing vibe of 1930s fascist marches in what can only be considered a call to arms. It's menacingly political, but you can wave your football scarf to it. Tune follows tune.

They come here to this country from the jungles and from trees

The traitors in the parliament give them a better deal

Spend the nation's money, to cater to their needs

They all accept our charity, then bite the hand that feeds

Before the night falls, I heed the White call

Before the night falls, when the reaper calls you

Our forefathers fought in two world wars, they thought to keep us free

But I'm not sure that in those wars, who was our enemy

The Zionists own the media, and they're known for telling lies

And I could see, that it could be, we fought on the wrong side

Before the night falls, I heed the White call

Before the night falls, when the reaper calls you

European unity, the North Teutonic dream

To scoop to save humanity, leave Europe with the cream

But now our once proud Europe, looks like a melting pot

But melting pots boil over, and it's getting pretty hot

Before the night falls, I heed the White call

Before the night falls, when the reaper calls you

Calls you!

Before forming Sol Invictus and dropping out of politics altogether, Tony Wakeford formed a band called Above the Ruins which released "Songs of the Wolf", the band's sole full-length musical recording.

Above The Ruins enjoyed a brief existence promoted by the British National Party of which Wakeford had become a member in 1984. Apart from his presence, the line-up of the band behind Songs of the Wolf was never revealed due to the band's open political deployment. Rumors about the identities of the members proliferated, but none of them were ever confirmed.

The record was first circulating on tape as a demo in 1984, but was then reprinted on vinyl in 1986, with "Storm Clouds Over Europe" missing and now presumably lost. No one has ever found and released the tape online. Considering its short length, you'd be forgiven if you thought of this as an EP or mini-LP.

Above the Ruin's music is within the vein of early Death in June, but the approach is much more straightforward, less clumsy and more akin to darkwave not unlike Joy Division, Warsaw or Killing Joke. Despite the production being very rough shod (keep in mind this was originally recorded as a demo) and Wakeford's clumsy performance (especially those nearly atonal vocals on "Under Western Skies"), the band manages to sound professional. The "kicking" songs like Waiting, the title-track and Progress are quite enjoyable even if a pinch awkward.

The lyrics are obviously committed, but have some good meaning even apart from the National Front propaganda: in fact this is the first attempt done by Wakeford to capture the esoteric and regal doctrine indirectly implied in his political choice of the time.

When the earth shakes and the dead awake

To sing us their songs

And we hear the march of fate

And footsteps of the strong

And we hear the call

Carried on a wing

Arise! Arise! Arise!

A once and future king

Waiting for someone

Waiting for someone to call

Waiting

Broken friendships

Can cut like broken glass

Better to keep one eye

On the hourglass

I hear of a visit

From men across the sea

Who settle scores by the sword

Just like they used to be

Waiting for someone

Waiting for someone to call

Waiting

The world is ruled by little men

Too blind, too scared to see

The glory that once was

And yet again could be

The world is sad and cold

The gold has made us poor

But through the cackling gloom

It looks it's getting more the sure

But through the cackling gloom

It looks it's getting more the sure

Waiting for someone

Waiting for someone to call

Could you believe there was such a thing as bonafide '80s Fashwave? Indeed, there was a humble Southampton-based act called The Final Sound. The band formed in January 1983 out of the ashes of the punk band Luftwaffe X, who then became The Grey Wolves (no relation to the PE group of the same name) before they decided on the name The Final Sound. They suffered a number of line-up changes, leaving just Steve X and Tony Mitchell in the band, both of whom were dedicated nationalists. Despite three different women fronting the band, only Steve X would be the one putting his voice to record. Sadly, this song is the only recording of theirs which has surfaced.

The Final Sound plays Post-Punk with a distinct minimal synth/synthpop influence, a sound which should've come to the forefront of the scene. A friend of mine festively speculated this might be what disco would've sounded like had the Axis won the War. His description couldn't have been more perfect. Entering on a crescendoing tone, the song hits us with a funky bassline which sets the rhythm for the rest of the instruments to keep time with. The similarly groovy guitars have plenty of mood-setting reverb and echo as well as the soothing voice of Steve X to lure into his world of racist mayhem.

The Final Sound released one demo titled "Play to Win" distributed purportedly by Defendant Tapes. Absolutely nothing online exists about them save their sole contribution to the compilation "No Surrender". The only reason I even know this demo exists in the first place was its reference in the book "The White Nationalist Skinhead Movement" by Robert Forbes and Eddie Stampton. If this song is any indication, we may be in search for a lost gem. It's a shame something so magnificent was lost to the tide of time. I guess the crowd wasn't ready to receive something so incredible. If anyone finds this demo and shares its contents with us, you'll be crowned a hero.

Lyrics to a (thus far) unreleased song commemorating the soldiers returning home from the Falklands:

The March

Don’t you feel so proud

To be one of the crowd

When they walk by

With their heads held high?

Each man would give his life

For his child and wife

And for his whole country

Which includes you and me

And they walk by

With their heads held high

a lot of these bands had a great message but musical were unremarkable, a lot of the early post-hardcore music coming out by the mid 1985 was more textural and stuff. but decent anthems, Combat 84 and No Remorse as well as Skrewdriver being some of my favorites.

a lot of the neofolk around that time was pretty good though, as well as totalitarian industrialists such as Boyd Rice and Laibach

one more thing, why does Blixa Bargeld hate Boyd Rice?

"Blood and Honour" would mark a significant transition for Skrewdriver. Fading away was the bouncy, energetic Oi! of old and in was the thundering Hard Rock, a sound that defined the better portion of their discography. Equally significant was their transition from being merely British Nationalists to British National Socialists reflected in the title being a direct translation of the Hitler Youth motto.

Opening with the title track, the album warns of a Communist takeover and calls upon the listeners to unite against the Red Peril. Equally as critical of Capitalism as of Communism, Ian Stuart wished to one day see a united Europe where men can freely pursue their destiny away from the wickedness of Capitalist excess and Communist bondage.

"Blood and Honour" earns its status as a fan favorite because each song never wastes a moment or lets up. The lyrics are hard hitting and memorable with incredible riffs to boot.

Arguably one of the first RAC bands ever, Brutal Attack had been thundering in the underground since 1979, releasing a couple demos and appearing on some compilations before finally dropping an LP in 1986. Disillusionment with the increasingly left-wing push from their idols, Brutal Attack formed as an act of defiance. Initially shunned by their local scene, the boys would finally get their groove when Nationalist skinheads started surging.

You'd be hard pressed to find an album that captures the essence of the skinhead revival so vividly - the few, the proud, the feared who stood up in a world of street violence and political turbulence only to feel the scorn of wider "respectable" society come down on their shoulders.

Of course Brutal Attack are infamous for the nationalist slant that they approach many of these themes from but there's such soul and integrity to these anthems that you simply couldn't deny that this is real skinhead and this is real Oi!. The sound is incredible, with fast tempos and barely any breaks for guitar solos the songs simply surge forward unstoppably, true to the grit in the voice of Ken McLellan. In a word - impassioned. But not without killer tunes.

When it comes right down to it, these blokes were just writing about the real issues that affected them in the same way The Clash and Stiff Little Fingers did, albeit from the opposite end of the political spectrum. Something of a classic with a muscular, chunky oi! sound only a high and mighty Antifa blogger could resist.

I AM SAINT GEORGE AND I RECLAIM MY EMPIRE!

What’s this shit about democracy? What the fuck is a free country?

There’s fighting on the streets my country’s killed by riots

But who gets the blame whenever there’s fight?

What’s this shit about democracy? What the fuck is a free country?

They bite the hand that feeds them. They lie, cheat and deceive them

But soon our hands will beat them. Our strength will soon defeat them

We’ll beat them back into the sea. Then England will belong to me!

Oi! For England skinhead

Oi! For England

Oi! For English pride

Oi! For England

Oi! There’s nowhere to hide!

St. George once again will mount his horse

As we reclaim our empire with maximum force.

England must again rule the world.

We will never do as we’re told

The time is right, the time to start

As I feel the pride return to my heart

"England's Glory" epitomizes everything the uninitiated would think about RAC with shouty yob Darren "Dal" Mumford pining for capital punishment so he and his mates may lynch your local rapist all over a steady burst of power chords, tinny drums and cymbal crashes. Public Enemy was British Oi! with all the usual themes about skinhead unity and the good old red, white and blue. This album's no weak sister, though. Unrelenting fierce from start to finish.

Most controversially was their recruitment of later No Remorse frontman Paul Burnley on vocals. Because Public Enemy were merely British Nationlists as opposed to British National Socialists, they sacked Paul from vocals, which prompted Paul to publicly denounce his former bandmates in his fanzine "The Truth At Last", stating "[Public Enemy] sacked their lead singer Paul because of his strong NS beliefs…[Paul] was told “not to raise his right arm” or “Sieg Heil” because they didn’t want a Nazi reputation. Their ex-drummer [Martin] was found out to be a member of a multi-racial gang and played in another band secretly. He left because he did not like Paul’s politics." After Public Enemy dissolved, Paul Burnley would resurrect the band with Martin Cross on guitar.

Hailing from Greenock, Scotland, New Dawn formed in December of 1984 with brothers Wullie and Wattie McClure on vocals and guitar and bass respectively, and "Big" Ronney Scott on drums, who previously played in Intensive Care and White Pact. Between 1985 and 1986, the band played a few gigs including the 1985 RAC Suffolk Fest with Skrewdriver, Brutal Attack and Die Hards. The band split up due to personal differences between the two brothers. Steve Sharkey came in the bass for a while but soon they split up again. The band were asked to record some tracks for the White Noise LP No Surrender. They recorded Free To Lie and Master Race, and Free To Lie was chosen as the better song.

The word of the communist is heard through the media

And the people, they listen to the reds

Country and village, they roam right on through

They’re trying to destroy all our lives

Britain for the British, is what the people shout

Britain for the British, commies, commies out!

Britain for the British, raise high the Union Jack

Britain for the British, it’s time that we fought back

They sell all their papers, across our land

People spend money on their lies

Smash the bastards’ faces, and tear up their conspiracy

It’s time that we ended this scum

1987 was a turning point for Rock Against Communism. After a protracted dispute between several prominent White Noise Club-affiliated bands and National Front, Ian Stuart broke away and founded Blood & Honour, an organization that soon earned strong support from several former White Noise Club bands and even earning new followers. Only Skullhead and Violent Storm were said to have stayed loyal to White Noise Club, the latter issuing a statement denouncing Skrewdriver. This loyalty would soon bite both of those bands in the ass when it came time to release the "Third Way" EP.

By this point, Skrewdriver had already identified as a National Socialist band, and many others followed suit. Equally gone was all traces of Oi! in Skrewdriver's sound in favor of anthemic Hard Rock. Most of those ballads tend to be dreadful since your average RAC frontman's voice was built for aggression than crooning, but some have an odd charm to them. "White Rider" embodied this transition in everything from the music down to the artwork, featuring a painfully obvious homage to D.W. Griffith's "The Birth of a Nation" only this time the whole background's ablaze.

The production job here is very strong, but the trouble is the songs are somewhat kitsch.

Formed by two brothers at Reading in Berkshire, Prime Suspects stuck to the classic Oi! sound at a time when many bands of their kind were going the way of 'White Rider'. The sound quality is appalling but the songs here really shine through, and it's a shame that Prime Suspects never got the chance to properly record these songs but then the same can sadly be said for far too many potentially great bands. Of note are the cool covers of 'Alternative' by The Exploited and 'Belsen Was a Gas' by the Sex Pistols, beating No Remorse to it by quite some time. Of course I get the impression that both bands somewhat missed the song's intended irony…

This country soon will be on its knees

To the black man, from us they feed

We’ve had enough, can’t take no more

So come on skinheads let’s hear you roar

’Cuz we’re white Anglo Saxon patriots

We’re white Anglo Saxon patriots

We’re white Anglo Saxon patriots

And we won’t take no more

What we want is to strike them down

One by one go through our towns

Liverpool, Bristol, Brixton too

Just white power through and through

Soon you’ll realise there’s only one way

Protect our shores from the scum we say

Niggers, Wogs, Pakis, Jews

You've gotta get them or they'll get you

Formed by two friends from Norwich in Norfolk, Vengeance went from being an extremely typical "second wave" RAC/Oi! band alongside Section 5 or Vicious Rumours to being a supercharged metallic RAC band on their debut full-length "Forward Into War." God knows what inspired the change, but it was certainly a welcome change of pace. Rest assured, Vengeance's "1986" still sounds hard.

Late 1986, Vengeance recorded a seven-song demo which would then be released as "1986" by Rock-O-Rama a couple years later. Vengeance rock against Thatcher, rock against nonces and rock for Saint George in the same way you've heard countless times before. But as an accustomed fan I couldn't help but enjoy this very typicality. There's a good anthemic opener and a good trot through "Borstal Breakout" for ya.

He’s never seen the light since that fateful day

Never seen the light since they put him away

They stuck him in the back of an old bill van

A child molester not a man

Evil crime, doing his time

Evil crime, doing his time

Death, death, death….

He was caught with a child in his arms

But standing in the docks where he lost his calm

Putting through grief and strife

Justice has been brought now, he’s doing life

Now he’s in the cells he’s getting paid back

Day after day he’s under attack

The inmates chant an evil name

A child molester going insane

No Remorse may not be as hard as, say, Condemned 84 but they are twice as ugly. These songs are vicious, degenerate, violent and just downright nasty pieces of work. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth but you’ll be hard pressed to find hate rock that can match the imposing power of something like ‘Hail the Order’. Formed by guitarist Mark Smith and bassist Paul [no relation to Paul Burnley], No Remorse recruited Jason on vocals and Stew on drums. Jason had previously sung with Kent-based nationalist band Razor Sharp, who had split up because of ideological differences. After Jason had left, Paul Burnley was later recruited on vocals.

This demo splits tracks between Paul Burnley on vocals and presumably Jason. It's interesting listening to this and noticing the impact Burnley had on No Remorse because with the first singer the band are going in a more typical Oi! direction with obvious right wing sentiments but nothing as aggressive or just plain offensive as what comes on the Burnley tracks like 'Bloodsucker' and 'Six Million Lies'.

The track of most significance is 'Southall 81' that celebrates the infamous riots as a kind of far-right Cable Street, despite ignoring the fact that with this whole pitiful debacle the left and right parties present effectively tainted Oi! forever onwards. There's even a serviceable cover of 'Chaos' to compliment it and songs like 'No Remorse' and 'Fight Them Back' ('Fite Dem Back'?) that feature that aforementioned more traditional Oi! sound would be killer if given a proper recording job. Cool stuff.

About as well-known as Skrewdriver and at times even better, Newcastle-based Skullhead were among the few true northerners of RAC's most well-known bands. Also distinct of the band was their staunch Odinist faith and Third Position political stance, where they were as critical of capitalism as they were of communism. Fittingly, the Oi! here sounds as it were conceived in the dingy, dank alleyways of the city centre. "White Warrior" is borne out of social frustration, sorrow, pain and anger, having been inspired by the brutal murder of a close friend Peter Mathewson. Purportedly, the murder was motivated by Mathewson flying a Union Jack from the window of his flat. A group of six White youths were ambushed by a gang of Black Rastas. They dragged the white kids into a flat, killing Mathewson by stabbing him 70 times before scalding his face with acid and dropping masonry blocks on his head. 17-year-old John Seymour was then stabbed in the head and body. He died twice, both times doctors managed to bring him back with a life support machine. A pregnant girl named Jane was then stabbed and suffered a miscarriage. After their breakup, frontman Kev Turner later became a rave MC - no, really. Just google "MC Techno T".

"White Warrior" is distinctive for being in fact devoid of typical RAC 'Warlord' style indulgence in Hard Rock flirtations and lyrics about Odin or whatever (there was plenty of time for that on the follow up). It's strikingly punky in its approach, just try 'We Don't Trust' or 'Murdered By Scum'. This is in fact one of the very few RAC albums that in my opinion, much like the first Brutal Attack, through grit and street spirit alone crosses over into pure Oi! territory - and that's high praise. All in all, whether left or right it doesn't really matter, 'White Warrior' as track six tells us is all about the politics of the street and it communicates them vividly and purely

Six good mates went for a drink one day

Six good mates and some birds they say

Drinking and joking and having some fun

But the fun it ended when all was done

My mate ‘Matches’ died last night

He didn’t even get a chance to fight

The bastards who did it have it all to come

So remember Peter Mathewson, murdered by scum

Four in the morning ready for bed

Tired in the feet and tired in the head

Seven mouthy bastards came looking for a fight

So they chased those bastards into the night T

hey chased those shitbags up the street

By the time they caught them they made their meet

Fifty kids all tooled to fuck

They had to run, no chance to ruck

Head, neck, heart and as he fell

Acid in his face as well

Geordie, John and Big Dave too

Fell to the blades of the shitbag crew

Skins versus skins the papers said

Was the biggest load of shit I’ve ever heard

I only know that when we’re right we’re wrong

So I wrote the truth down in the song

There really is nothing quite like a scuzzy live recording of a skinhead band from the '80s.

Forming out of the ashes of Public Disorder who released one five-track demo tape (of which two songs have been discovered), Fatal Blow would pick up where their previous incarnation left off with even more blatantly nationalist lyrics. Despite leaving an lasting impression with the local skinheads and even opening for Condemned 84 from which this recording is taken, the band never released anything else aside from a practice session that has yet to be discovered. Plans to release a proper album or studio songs never materialized.

Influences here are strictly old school Oi! free of any fancy Hard Rock ballads a la Skullhead or later Skrewdriver. Riffs are raw, aggressive and pack quite a punch. As you could surmise, the production values here are nonexistent, but the sound is still far from anything I'd call terrible. For a recording taken apparently from someone in the audience, I'm earnestly surprised this sounds listenable. The instruments are all clear and audible, the vocalist is (mostly) coherent and nothing sounds out of place. Fittingly, the setlist contains a cover of "Wonderful World" by The 4-Skins and "The Return of Saint George" by Brutal Attack.

The highlight of this gig is our vocalist Roger with his charming accent, a gent who's every working class Brit stereotype distilled into one nationalist package, complete with, "DO U LUV UR CUN'RY? I SAID DO U LUV UR FOOK'N CUN'RY?!"

Trivia: "Sid" is the nickname of Neo-Nazi activist John Kevin Wilshaw, who came out as gay last fall. He candidly explains his nickname here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3__tiCwyC4

No Remorse and their charismatic frontman Paul Burnley would spearhead the Second Wave with "This Time the World". While Brutal Attack and Skrewdriver would sing the glories of England and cast the Third Reich as tragic heroes, they rarely made it racial with one notable exception from the early years. Fast forward to 1988 and we have "This Time the World", an album telling you what they thought about Pakistanis, Jews, Blacks and whoever else. Named after George Lincoln Rockwell's book, the music remorselessly embodies the principle of evil. Also significant is that it was the premiere British band on French label Rebelles Européens. Rebelles Européens proudly featured records with emblazoned with Swastikas, Reichsadlers and more.

No Remorse revels in their slur-laced poetry and, all things considered, the music is as memorable as they come, for the worst and best reasons. Has to be heard to be believed. Put simply, "This Time the World" is hate with a beat. The principle of evil made musical. This is an 100% scuzz classic. RAC is something many people listen to out of morbid curiosity, and "This Time The World" has to be one of the ugliest albums ever cut to wax. The liner notes claim that leftist campaigners tried to have this banned. How can rock ‘n’ roll be more fucked up?

Apart from the admittedly badass title track and the all-time favourite "Smash The Reds" many of these songs are probably too intimidating to approach again. But this album is just so horrifyingly, disturbingly evocative - read the lyrics to "Mother England". "Tree of Life", full of imagery depicting a virtuous and almost innocent 'Aryan' family (presumably after an apocalyptic race war) would be creepy… if it wasn't so poorly played. Thankfully, that would be fixed on the rerecording for "The Best of No Remorse"

Solomon’s an average guy

He works from nine to five

But he’s got more money than me

He is the owner of a factory

Solly!

Solly always whines for pity

He owns every bank in the city

All his brothers are just like him

Every one’s as ugly as sin

Now Solly’s proud of all of his wealth

And he is in the best of health

Even though he survived the camps

And his wife is a table lamp

Solly you poor little Jew, tell me boy what’s the matter with you?

Solly you poor little Jew, don’t you like it when your lies come true?

Now we’ll take a trip down memory lane

This time we’ll include the pain

We’re going to bring back Zyklon B

A special treat for our friend Solly

Commemorating the victims of Dresden's bombing, "After the Fire" seems like one of those albums which should've been much greater considering this albumm came one year off the heals of the classic "White Rider". However, "After the Fire" fails to take things to the next level even if the music is there. The uptempo, slightly punkier Hard Rock of "After the Fire" is suitably toe-tapping with a handful of pretty great songs - notably the title track, "Win or Die", "Eyes Full of Rage" and "European Dream" which are no doubt bolstered by good production that’s clear and clean even if flatter than the predecessor.

The standout track proves to be Ian's attempt at folk ballad 'The Green Fields of France' where his performance is undeniably impassioned. What this song is perhaps most memorable for however is its inclusion in a particularly ludicrous scene in the particularly ludicrous HBO documentary Skinheads USA: Soldiers of the Race War - "THIS IS MAH SONG FOR MAH FUNERAL, MAAAN!" The song announces an interest in all things folk that culminated with the two "Patriotic Ballads" albums recorded with Stigger - interestingly the Angelic Upstarts had also covered the song a year or so earlier.

A tragic element this album introduces to the weird world of Skrewdriver that would persist on subsequent releases is his complete butchery of a classic rock song - in this case "Sweet Home Alabama" (apparently they couldn't get clearance for "Werewolves of London"). What purpose ideological or otherwise said covers were intended to fulfill is unknown, but it adds to the pleasing mood of absurdity that defines these cult records. While Ian falls woefully short of the original, it's still fun to listen to and laugh at.

In a year when countless younger RAC/Oi! bands made their Rock-O-Rama debuts - Arresting Officers, New Glory, White Noise and Vengeance being just a few examples - "After the Fire" makes it clear that Skrewdriver were no longer quite at the top of their game. But the album is still an enjoyable, sporadically memorable one.

Keeping with their loyalties to the White Noise Club, Skullhead released a split 12" single entitled "We Want the Airwaves" with Welsh NWOBHM Palazard. Illustrated by Kev Turner, the cover symbolizes the White Nationalist underground to break out of the underground and into the mainstream. Kev Turner dreamed of "destroy[ing] the capitalist system that dominates the music industry, and the heavy influence of left-orientated hacks in the business." On the A-side is Skullhead's epic "Look Ahead". The song marked a turning point for Skullhead where they would blend in epic, riff-driven Hard Rock hooks into their brand of Rock Against Communism. Equally as important are the lyrics.

Where are you when we need you

Cos you’re in pink and your hair has grown

Don’t mean you have to be a cunt

Don’t mean you cannot support the Front

If you were really what you said you were

Then no matter what you’d always be there

Cos loving your land isn’t a craze

Being patriotic isn’t a fashion phase

So nationalists, get your heads together

Don’t stop dead, look ahead

No matter how you dress, stick together

Don’t stop dead, look ahead

You used to be a skin good luck to you mate

Well some of us change

And just cos you’ve turned casual

Don’t let your thoughts rearrange

Cos we’re still together and our minds the same

We all still love our land

Nationalism’s serious it ain’t a game

So don’t let your dress sense get out of hand

On the B-side is Palazard, whose name is a Portmanteau of "Palace Wizard". Palazard was certainly an unusual choice for Skullhead to feature on the split because their sound was foreign to skinhead subculture despite plenty of skinheads privately admitting to enjoying Heavy Metal in spite of its material excesses celebrated by the Rock Star lifestyle. Palpably influenced by Iron Maiden and Motörhead, "Red Light Runaway" tells a tale of a young girl's woe upon falling into the world of prostitution.

SAINT GEORGE IS WITH US NOW TIME TO ATTACK

Woohoo! Now THAT'S more like it!

Vengeance's debut EP/demo had been a pedestrian affair; typical second wave Oi! like Section 5 or Vicious Rumours that was satisfying and enjoyable but not all that memorable.

Fast forward two years with a line-up change and then came the mighty "Forward Into War," an entirely different and almost unprecedented direction these blokes took. Musically, I'd describe them as what happens when Motörhead covers Skrewdriver, but even that doesn't quite capture the album's musical experience. The grunting vocals come together with the tight production in something truly brutal. If you want a summary just go listen to the title track now.

The new vocalist and bassist known only as Vernon is perhaps the man who brought about the complete change in style after replacing the original singer. He sounds like the embodiment of the British Bulldog, a human bulldog hybrid who relentlessly growls jingoist rhetoric in your face. And that's exactly why we all got into music in the first place, there's nothing quite like having jingoist rhetoric growled in your face. RAAAAAAARGH!

And don't ya just love the RAC aesthetic? A squat Union Jack bearing skinhead bloke dodging dragon's breath and scorched earth as a spectral viking and the grim reaper watch above. It seems as well as being a totally dope vocalist Vernon was also a talented artist as the album cover was painted with his own fair hands.

"Forward Into War" is strongly recommended to all real men (and women). Ballad 'Wake Up England' has a lot of cool psychedelic phasing in it too so even if you're a hippy you'll like this!

RAC Bernd is that you? It's nice to see that you continue making thredas about RAC. Godspeed!

Originally titled Rocking for Race and Nation, "As the Drum Beats" became Brutal Attack’s second album. With a completely new line-up save vocalist and songwriter Ken McLellan, the album was a turning point for Brutal Attack, veering between Hard Rock championed by compatriots Skrewdriver. Equally significant was the recruitment of Martin Cross on guitar.

"As the Drum Beats" channels the hard and heavy power of "Stronger Than Before" into more of a straight up rock direction but it's successful at still retaining that raw, skinhead edge. 'Rock Against Communism' sounds like a more politicized (shall we say) version of Blitz and throughout Ken McLellan, his voice perfectly suited to this style, lives out his rock 'n' roll dreams by yelling 'take it away!' or 'hit me!' before every guitar solo. What Brutal Attack do, they do well.

Anyone noticing how the title track takes the chords from "Whole Lotta Rosie" by AC/DC?

Unsurprisingly, Rock Against Communism inspired few women to make music. The earliest known band to feature a female on vocals was one Glaswegian band British Standard. A few years later, a fellowship from Rochdale boldly named Lionheart would emerge to take up the mantle, where Jaki would join as vocalist in late 1988. Affiliated with Blood & Honour, founding member Jon "Icky" Hickson served as editor of the Nazi skinhead zine Viking Review which proclaimed Hitler as the 20th Century's greatest man. After recording a couple demos, Lionheart would sign with Rebelles Européens and record the Better Dead Than Red single, taken from their Stormtrooper demo from 1988. The release fell short of the band's expectations, and their reservations weren't helped by a scathing review from the zine Splendid which remarked, "The singer sounds like Colin Jordan being sodomized at the Nuremburg rally’!"

But, to me, the highlight of Lionheart's early years comes from their first demo "Boot-Boys", recorded some time before Jaki joined. Fronted by an unnamed male vocalist, this demo was recorded live at Icky's house. A live demo was recorded the previous year but never saw the light of day until the release of the "Better Dead Than Red" compilation CD.

Since the band couldn't afford studio time when the rehearsal made it to tape, you can easily surmise how the music would sound; raw and scuzzy comparable to a Black Metal album. Much to my surprise, the budget constraints worked to their advantage. Although not exactly comparable in the strictest sense of the term, Lionheart's session reminded me of Ildjarn in that both bands work with a repetitive set of savagely raw chords; difference is the former wants to be catchy whereas the latter intends to lure you into a sonic nightmare. Also of interest here is the compositional grammar of these riffs. While their leading peers in England moved towards footstomping Hard Rock, Lionheart went back to the basics with this ultraprimitive no-frills Oi! that would've been at home in '85.

On account of the overall monotony and repetitiveness, I would call this an acquired taste. There's hardly a difference between the chords on "Boot-Boys," "Bring Back the Rope" and "Asian Invasion." Rest assured, there's that right amount of passion and fury that makes the listening experience all worthwhile. "Better Dead Than Red" has that characteristic chorus punctuated by a "Sieg Heil!" at the end.

Sometimes, there's that right amount of energy that goes into to recording a demo which can't be recreated in the studio.

Speaking of British Standard…

An ultra-primitive slice of first-wave RAC, the suitably named British Standard’s pagan plundering sets its own course, delivering exactly as promised; shoddy, raw skinhead Oi! which sounds surprisingly fresh in spite of its flaws. As my esteemed colleagues have mentioned, these Glasgow skinheads stood out from the pack as the earliest known RAC band to feature a Chelsea named Lorraine as lead singer. She later earned notoriety for performing live at National Front’s White Noise Club, but beyond that, little is known about the band’s first and only frontwoman who never made it beyond this demo.

The demo’s rawness can only be rivaled by Mayhem’s “Pure Fucking Armageddon,” but unlike the latter’s malevolence and evil caused by the budget constraints, the production simultaneously helps and hinders the musical experience. First-wave RAC was never a polished affair to begin with, but even here, the rough shod quality may test your pain threshold. The riffs here are your standard fare Oi! reminiscent of Peter & the Wolf or The Ovaltinees, but played a bit slower. The plucky bass sets the tone for the demo as the distant sound of drums and guitar gradually join the fray. Through this raw mess of instruments comes our vocalist, yapping some indistinct lyrics which, against the odds, still sound quite fierce before a male joins on the chorus here and there. The yappy female vocals add a strangely ethereal, ghostly quality to the music, particularly on the second track. On occasion, the guitarist plays a shoddy solo. Only a couple tracks outstay their welcome while the rest deliver on their promise. The good tracks here would later be rerecorded for Celtic Connections, receiving the proper studio treatment they deserved.

After the rather sprightly tunes of the somewhat lacking "After the Fire", "Warlord" verges towards the sound of "White Rider" and stands out as Skrewdriver’s most Hard Rock album. With that raw, dry production throughout it certainly sounds pretty heavy.

Much like its predecessor, "Warlord" is undeniably inconsistent. We have some truly great moments like the title track, "Their Kingdom Will Fall", "Excalibur" and "The Warrior’s Song" with Ian Stuart going all out with high fantasy imagery of defending a medieval land in peril through sword and sorcery. But then other songs are simply unmemorable and in the case of the cover of "Back in Black", pure, unadulterated shit; it's fucking dreadful and an insult to AC/DC. If you’ve ever wanted to hear the worst thing Ian Stuart ever did then it is surely this lumbering, embarrassing, turd-like attempt to channel AC/DC.

The album's patchiness can be attributed both to the dreadful cover and the somewhat middling production, although plenty of good songs can be found. There’s still enough scattershot brilliance to make it rewarding for fans – the closer "Suddenly" ascended into the ranks of the all-time Skrewdriver classics, covered by virtually every RAC with half the passion.

Final note: anyone else feel the album cover looks like a late 80s video game's box art?

1989 saw a very curious shift in the career of Ian Stuart. As Skrewdriver kicked up quite a fuss, Ian Stuart forged two new projects: the Klansmen and his solo career. "No Turning Back" was released shortly after Skrewdriver's "After the Fire." It's quite punky and more so than most of Skrewdriver's later Hard Rock material, although the album's Hard Rock counterbalances the Oi! "Fortress Europe," "Battle Cries" and most of all "Firepower" sound like what they were playing on Hail the New Dawn. Even the title track, though based on a metallic riff, clocks in at under two minutes and has a lot of punk ferocity. "Red Flags Are Burning," "Campaign in the East" and "Triumph of the Will" are three of the best of Stuart's hard rock compositions, not just on here, but anywhere.

As with Skrewdriver, Ian Stuart was no stranger to goofy covers. "No Turning Back" has three, and the first is the most logical, "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who, Ian's second cover of theirs. Thankfully, this version is rather rote; playing by the numbers, but true to the original. He didn't alter the lyrics, but when references to a bad man and sad man behind blue eyes is sung by a white power band, it gives the song a political double entendre that was not intended by the song's original meaning. Curiously, Roger Daltrey made international headlines and faced heavy criticism for saying that liberal politicians in the Labour Party failed and betrayed the UK by flooding the country with immigrants that took jobs from the British working class as recently as November of 2013. Of course, Daltrey exercised taste and discretion, but his thoughts aren't really far from those Ian expressed on all of these LPs. I'm certain he would have felt some sort of vindication had he lived to hear Daltrey's comments.

As for the other two cover songs, they are both moronic and terrible. Ian really should've laid off covering AC/DC! Reworking "It's a Long Way to the Top" as "It's a Hard Road", with Ian complaining how difficult it is for him to carry on his career. The last song on this LP is a laughable remake of "In the Ghetto" by Elvis Presley, where once again the lyrics are changed, this time to make references to white ghettos and the song ends with Stuart chanting "white pride." While terrible, these tracks are still VERY entertaining and 25 years after its release they still make me laugh, and the tracks that are good are extremely good.

As such I highly recommend Ian's "No Turning Back" to all fans of hard rock, comedy rock, punk and Oi! alike. As always, I can understand that a lot of people will be turned off by the racist lyrics, but when they are intermixed with Elvis covers I don't even understand how anybody can even take these lyrics seriously.

Side note: the 90 second introduction to this album "To Freedom We Ride" was fleshed out into a full five minute song by Stuart and Stigger three years later for The Power and the Glory. Those guys didn't let anything go to waste.

Only few men in history achieve a lasting goal

Standing firm against adversity, they reach your very soul

The people stand behind these men, their hearts and minds are one

They wanna share the destiny, until the job is done

Well this is the triumph of the will

Well this is the triumph of the will

History books are written by liars, it’s not often that you read you’re true

If they don’t want you to know about something, they keep the facts from

Some now say that Marx was great, and communism’s good

What they don’t tell is that Marx is in Hell and his flag is drenched in blood

Well this is the triumph of the will

Well this is the triumph of the will

We are the vanguard, the blood and the honour, the troopers of freedom and light

Government pressure, the scum on the streets, the communist media we fight

Remember places, traitors’ faces, they’ll all pay for their crimes

All of their lies will someday die, well I told you six million times

Well this is the triumph of the will

"Tales of Glory" continued in the vein of Hard Rock established by the immediate predecessor and their contribution to "Gods of War". Recorded in just three days, "Tales of Glory" thunders hard with hook after hook.

I am a warrior, my hand on my sword

I am a warrior, honour is my word

I would rather die than be in flight

My only desire, turn the darkness to light

The warrior awaits for your call

Would you follow me to hell and back?

Can you stand and fight with the devil on your back?

If you think you could, come and stand by me

And we will march together for eternity

Let’s join hands unite as one

Pick up pride when you pick up a gun

Blaze a path to the Kremlin’s gate

The final hurdle and the warrior awaits

One bond, our blood, a crime of passion of undying love

I would die, I’d never lie I take my strength from the gods above

They stand in our way

They are the darkness, the eternal grave

He is bad, he is the beast

From his poison den in the east

The blood is strong

Hear my song

We’re gonna end this confusion

This is the final solution

Our turn, they’ll burn

From the ashes this lesson they’ll learn

It’s no sin, we will win I can’t wait for the fight to begin

But he’s there, the red bear

He keeps the masses shackled in fear

But just wait, the chains will break

The red empire will be there for the take

This time the world

We stand proudly as our standards unfurl

On the march, forget the past

The white flame burns lighting our task

No one will overcome,

We’ll fight forever till the battle’s done

Our story is one of glory

To go down in the realms of the great

No one can say that we don’t deserve it

After the blood that has been spilled

The battle is won The war has been done

Now the Jew must pay the bill

Now it’s crystal night once more

Your race once again burns

Look at me, I am the law

Under the hammer, it’s your turn

We are under the hammer, but we’re still here

Back in ’23 in the beer hall putsch

Those men of steel had tried and failed

Was it the end or just the start

Of the thousand-year Reich

Or the battle beheld

Ten years later they seized the beast

Europe had its trust replaced

Scared the rest out in the west

The flame was doused before it caught

This time’s gonna to be no mistake

This time there’s no corpse to rape

The body and spirit lives in our soul

We saddle up we’ll never fall

Let’s see out the Führer’s dream

To break the back of the eternal Jew

Rid the world of the evil we’ve seen

Make it safe for me and you

After premiering with the mighty "White Warrior", Skullhead returned to release the even mightier "Odin's Law". The band stood out among the RAC movement not only for pushing an "Odinist" neo-pagan spirituality but also declaring themselves as politically "third position." The album continued the themes from the first while delving further into Neopaganism.

The album sounds like one of the purest fusions of Oi! and Hard Rock to be found, with strong melodies and a driving, heavy sound that's bolstered rather than hampered by a raw recording job. Hooks! Way more sprightly, summery hooks and general songcraft than you’d expect from a bunch of skins from Newcastle without sacrificing any roughness or rowdiness. Even the cover of "Chaos" is strong, and RAC bands covering first wave Oi! is pretty much always a no-no in my book. Similar to Brutal Attack's "As the Drum Beats", this is undoubtedly one of the top albums of the era. Even more than ISD’s bands, you can't help but wonder how successful they could’ve been if they were a bunch of mild mannered Britons who didn’t mind the demographic displacement of their people.

Hailing from Croydon, Sudden Impact enjoyed a rough reputation as one of Britain's more directly racist RAC bands. Aside from releasing stickers featuring hooded Klansmen holding up a black victim's severed head with the tagline "Death to Nigger Scum," the band would publish nasty numbers like "White Slag" under the pseudonym The Croydon Criminals. Their close connection to Ian Stuart and company eventually earned them a deal with Rock-O-Rama Records, debuting with an appropriately named, rough shod Oi! album "Storm." Their music was fittingly spirited if a pinch awkward due to the clunky lyrics.

This one's got what is probably my favorite opening line that's palpably stupid, yet moving because the sentiment is too sincere, "Do you remember the time when our forefathers were young?" I'm afraid not, mate. Kinda hard to remember something you, by definition, never experienced directly.

By 1989, Skrewdriver and Brutal Attack were gradually shedding their Oi! sound in favor of something harder, so Sudden Impact stormed the scene, as their name would imply, returning to RAC's roots as a much more punky and uptempo band than some of their peers.

While not half as memorable as their more successful contemporaries, "Storm" stays true to the sound of British Oi! and boasts some pretty strong tracks like "Ready and Waiting" and "Strength of a Nation". There's even a cover of Motorhead's "Bomber" that's surprisingly serviceable; not great, but passable. Certainly worth hearing.

this thread has nothing to do with music

stop posting 4cuck memes

Sudden Impact would hit the studio again to release a sophomore album "Rock & Roll Rebels." Eddie Stampton published a scathing review in "The White Nationalist Skinhead Movement," lambasting everything from the album cover to the music itself. While the songwriting here is cringeworthy with some sour notes to boot to boot, a skinhead band trying their hands at ballad-driven Hard Rock has that inimitable charm characteristic of passion-driven amateurs which lasts long after the first listen.

First thing's first, the cover doesn't do the record any favors. Apart from everyone posing uncomfortably around a motorcycle, they brought in a featureless, disheveled slag with either a terrible wig or the worst possible dyejob. I don't know if this is supposed to be titillating, but stirring my libido, she isn't.

The music here isn't far off from the band's idol Ian Stuart who was no stranger to ballads himself. The release of "White Rider" set a precedent for many to emulate, but if the interviews with Sudden Impact are any indication, Hard Rock was a natural framework for inspiration. They grew up on a steady diet of AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Motörhead, so it's hardly a surprise they'd incorporate these ideas in the development of their sound. Other skinhead bands would later turn to that sound to a much greater degree than these gents had.

A raw, buzzing yet faintly hollow blues riffs define the heavier tracks here with the occasional guitar solo belted out for good measure. The album opens with a punky but tepid "See You All in Hell" with made distinct by its shouted refrain and sweet solo which comes roaring in towards the middle. "White Heat" and "Quest for Fire" are much bluesier than the preceding tracks, but much similar in all other respects. "Hail the Warriors" stands out as the album's highlight. Full of simple, but energetic riffs to keep your blood pumping and keyboards to deepen the impact, the song achieves everything it sets forth.

The first real ballad is "God of Thunder," which opens with a soft acoustic before our vocalist proudly hails Thor, hopeful he will return to earth to deliver Europe from the red menace. Kudos to whoever thought it keen to add some delay to the vocals. The song electrifies midway for the refrain before returning to the acoustics. Horribly off-key vocals hinder the impact of "'til Your Dying Day" which mourns Adolf Hitler's last moments; a forgettable and worthless track. Towards the B-side's end is "Fight to the Finish." Full of keyboards and acoustic riffs, the singer boasts of Nazi skinheads marching through the streets, optimistic they will one day win. The instrumental "Anthem" closes the album with its wailing guitars and gritty riffs. The track drags on but belts out a memorable solo here and there.

The rest of the album more or less veers between Hard Rock and Skinhead Oi!, but even with a few duff tunes, the music succeeds on its own merits and those curious about RAC's transition from Oi! to Hard Rock will find this listen rewarding.

Highlights: "Hail the Warriors," "God of Thunder," "Fight to the Finish" and "Anthem"

The final nail in the coffin for the National Front.

After White Noise Records's demise, the National Front's second noteworthy attempt to release music would manifest in Counter Culture Records's sole issue of a split EP "Third Way". Infamy followed after Kev Turner called for fans to boycott the release, stating the label ripped off the artists. Billy Bartlett of Violent Storm offered a similar account, but merely spoke of being shorted 100 in royalties from the promised 200; Turner was completed cheated. The National Front's unsavory practices alienated their longest standing supporters.

So what's "Third Way" all about? No, Skullhead and Violent Storm were not proto-Blairites. The title refers to Third Positionism, an ideology pursued intermittently within the National Front of the mid to late '80s by its more…cosmopolitan elements. Charmingly dubbed "the Nutty Fairy party" by its hard-nosed right-wing rivals, Third Positionism came to prominence when elements of the British Third Position sucked up to Farrakhan and Gaddafi, perhaps forgetting (or ignoring) Gaddafi's arms dealing with the Provos. "Third Way" functions as a period souvenir. Most prominently it features Skullhead – ever the thinking man’s Nazis (just don’t call them Nazis) – belting out the closest RAC came to an anthem of interracial solidarity, via good old anti-capitalism. As you can imagine, from a political standpoint "Blame the Bosses" is pretty awkward and ironically enough it is this yearning to be "intelligent" that leaves the band perhaps even more open to criticism than simply relying on crude sloganeering. In this age of post-fact politics, many wouldn't bat an eye at the latter option. The line about how the reds are "worse than the bosses", for instance, seems counter-productive in a song that makes criticizing the bosses its main focus, especially when said reds – even if they would abhor all of Skullhead's other views – would find something agreeable in the song’s anti-big business fervor and critique of the exploitation of cheap labor.

But give ‘em credit, and ‘Blame the Bosses’ is one hell of a song with that dark, simplistic riffing enveloping you like Tyneside fog and Kev Turner’s Geordie terrier-like yap never failing to send a tingle up my spine. As for Violent Storm, ‘Celtic Warrior’ is the same ancient warrior spirit attested to in black metal only expressed in brittle, manic punk rock. ‘Unemployed Voice’, meanwhile, keeps the punk rock but momentarily ditches the mysticism for something that musically and lyrically sounds like it could have been on one of the No Future ‘Country Fit For Heroes’ comps. Violent Storm were so into this anti-capitalist stuff at one point they even accused Skrewdriver and Blood & Honour of holding on to capitalist tendencies. I guess above all ‘Third Way’ is evidence of a period – a short one at that – when UK RAC was actually a flourishing scene with an active political consciousness rather than just the flatulent Ian Stuart personality cult it has been since the ‘90s. The songs are ripping and it’s certainly interesting politically – this is a good one

1989 was a busy year for Paul Burnley. Not only would he helm three No Remorse albums at the close of the decade, he would resurrect Public Enemy with Martin Cross to release one brand new record.

"See You in Valhalla" was a marked turn away from the primitive sounding Oi! from "This Time the World". Quite like their contemporaries, No Remorse embraced anthemic Hard Rock. The songs here sadly aren't too memorable, but "Invisible Empire", penned by none other than Ian Stuart, closes the album nicely. Most humorously is the parody of The Specials "Free Nelson Mandela", prescribing their preferred treatment of South Africa's (later) new leader. So much for "Hold On, South Africa".

In case it wasn't screamingly obvious, Public Enemy is completely unrelated to the rap group of the same name, though I'd imagine both sets of boys would find a few things to agree on. The first wave RAC band of the same name called it quits shortly after releasing their only studio album "England's Glory" in 1986. One year later, American Hip-Hop legends would drop "Yo! Bum Rush the Show," but rather than take it lying down, Paul Burnley hit the studios with Martin Cross on guitar to record an album flipping the bird at the Long Island rappers. Prior to the original line-up's disbandment, Paul had been called in to perform on vocals. Previously mentioned, the original line-up sacked Paul, prompting him to denounce his former bandmates, so I can only presume he continued the project without their authorizaiton. What's even more curious is that Public Enemy might not have been resurrected if it weren't for the Rap group ruling the airwaves and also if Sean Heywood of No Remorse had followed through on a deal to record an album with Paul.

To be quite honest, I didn't get what all the hype was about. The original band packed such a punch with their aggressive brand of Oi!, so hearing this downtempo lo-fi Hard Rock wasn't expected. Overtime, I came to appreciate Burnley's Public Enemy for what it is, for the music here is both exciting and disappointing. The drumming is seriously propulsive, giving that footstomping energy to the rhythm driven songs and intensity to the campy love ballads. The riffs sound like your standard fare Hard Rock, but the guitar tone has a distinct crunch due to the lo-fi production values. Whether this helps or hinders the music is up to you.

The two flaws working against the listening experience is the rough shod production and unrehearsed musicianship. Tellingly, Burnley had stated in an interview the first album "There Is Only One Public Enemy" was practiced and recorded in exactly one week. For the sake of appealing to the romantically-inclined segment of his audience, Paul has these creepy racial love songs where he hits sour notes promising to save his English maiden from all that imperil their race and nation. They're contrived and chuckleworthy at best, more often than acceptable, they come across as grating and disingenuous.

Public Enemy would improve dramatically for the sophomore "Our Weapon Is Truth," where the production values are given a much-needed upgrade and the riffs hit hard. Burnley still couldn't avoid showering us with sappy love ballads, but at least they hit their mark for the heavier tracks.

Formed out of the ashes of Guttersnipe Army and originally called White Aggression before changing their name to avoid being confused with the Swedish band of a similar name, English Rose were bound to be a troublesome band. Before recording their first studio single, vocalist had done some prison time before getting out at the end of 1988. The band would get together and hit the studios to record "Proud Nationalist Warriors" which was then issued and distributed by Rebelles Européens.

The songwriting here is the standard fare skinhead themes of Nationalist unity and the perils of imprisonment, but what's not standard here are the punchy riffs and energetic tone. This is some seriously fierce stuff.

Proud nationalist warrior, he’s standing strong

Fighting for his country where he belongs

With pride in his race and pride in his land

Proud nationalist warrior is gonna make a stand

Proud nationalist warrior, he’s standing strong

Proud nationalist warrior, this is where he belongs

Proud nationalist warrior, he’ll always fight

Proud nationalist warrior, he’s proud to be white

On the streets with his head held up high

Fighting for his country until the day he dies

He’s a loyal warrior to the nationalist fight

Nationalist warrior, he’s proud to be white

He’s a warrior fierce he’s fighting for his cause

Showing no mercy, showing no remorse

Fighting for his future and his country’s pride

From a nationalist warrior you can never hide

He loves his land and wants to set it free

From the scum on the streets in our society

Keep out of his way because the weak will fall

The warrior will rise and he will take all

Formed in Essex around late spring of 1989 by Alex and J, Battle Zone recorded one demo that successfully earned them a deal with Rebelles Européens. Unlike most RAC bands featuring motifs of Vikings, Nordic Gods, Swastikas or Third Reich iconography, Battle Zone instead opted for something a little more menacing. Conscious of the ill effects of drug addiction in the underground, "Way of Death" indicts the drug pushers who poison the youth while "Nation of Sorrow" describes the pains of being a British Nationalist. Despite these themes, Battle Zone steadfastly claimed not to be a political band. In an interview with Last Chance, they never identified as a political band because the band never had a platform from which they operated from. They simply sang about life as they saw it.

Would you believe an RAC band made its way to BBC airplay? In a move that surprised the band greatly, they heard their played on BBC Radio Essex one Sunday. Sadly, they would never be heard again, but the fact the band got that far is remarkable

Why do you do it, it ain't that cool!

The misuse of drugs it's just for fools

They say nothing ventured nothing gained

But if you try drugs it will always end in pain.

Pusher you've made your bread

No guilty conscience for the dead

Junkie change your ways

Or you'll be counting your days.

Just trying it out that's all it will be

Well I'm sorry mister I just don't agree

Once you get involved in that filthy trap

That will be your lot There will be no turning back.

Pusher you've made your bread

No guilty conscience for the dead

Junkie change your ways

Or you'll be counting your days.

Acid and coke it's all the same

You're just the pawns in the barons games

He's making a fortune from the weak few

Once you've fallen in there's nothing you can do.

Pusher you've made your bread

No guilty conscience for the dead

Junkie change your ways

Or you'll be counting your days.

Addiction sets in then you're too late

Pathetic useless wreck your lifes a state

Drugs say be in fashion than whats left

It ain't a way of life it's a way of death.

After dropping that silly demo in the form of vinyl split up between the "Better Dead Than Read" single and their part on "Debout Vol. 4", Lionheart debuted with their first proper full-length album "A New Beginning" in 1989. Their efforts towards this album were in vain with Jaki's feelings reflecting the same dissatisfaction as before. By her own account, the studio staff's amateurish efforts to correct the drummer's inability to keep a beat with a drum machine were further compounded by mishandling the mixing of the vocals. Due to budget contraints, the band could not remix the album and just sent the tapes to be put to wax.

I appreciate Jaki's honesty towards her own work, because Lionheart ranks as one of the most aggressively mediocre RAC bands to ever release music. The album stumbles out of the gate with its title track with the off-key duet setting the tone for the rest of the album. If you thought the vocals were bad here, they're about to get worse.

The studio seemed dedicated to fucking this up, because the poor mixing renders all the instruments as a formless over-reverbed mess. By far, the biggest problem is the vocals, because Jaki can't sing worth shit. If she isn't audibly straining to belt, she's flatly going through the lyrics with no apparent attempt to carry any of the songs. Whoever thought it keen to add delay to her voice on "Time to Die" and "Sons of England" should never work in production again, although it lends a fascinatingly bizarre quality to the former. A pal of mine astutely described this as sounding though she was singing from the bottom of the well with the microphone suspended over the top.

To Lionheart's credit, the riffs sound surprisingly bluesy with a pub rock kick unlike anything their peers were playing at that time. The A-Side has plenty of energetic foot stompers propelled by power chords, with the main riff to "A Waste of Space" sounding righteously powerful. A personal highlight here is the sappy, yet heartwarming love song "Thinking of You," one of the few RAC love songs sung by a skinbyrd. Jaki has the courtesy of keeping her voice in range, so everything sounds smooth.

The B-Side is a near total waste. On "Jochen Peiper" and "Sons of England," Jaki and the bass drive the songs with the guitar coming in on solos and choruses, allowing her ineptitude to be front and center. When she isn't filling the air with her weak voice, the instruments gimp along with the drum too loud. "A Nation Divided" does its best to redeem the otherwise lackluster music with its heavy, metallic riffs, although it's too little, too late.

The band would hit the studio again to release one more album with RE, and likewise, the music there was hardly better. For an RAC band which boasts of having a woman lead the band, they fell woefully short of the expectations they've set. The day may come when this is celebrated as a work of outsider art, but the day will never come when this will be seen as good.

>>91996

>this thread has nothing to do with music

>stop posting 4cuck memes

Uh what? How isn't this thread discussing music? This thread chronicles and reviews bands and their discographies, careers, impact within the scene and so much more. Yes, there is a massive amount of content with little discussion between my posts, but I'm trying hard.

>>92012

It's some refugee from halfchan posting it in every thread in a attempt to discredit the anons who are actually against halfchan from coming here, by using it wrongly and making the "anti-cuckchan" position look bad.

At least that's what i think he's doing it for.

Ah, "The Strong Survive", or Skrewdriver's surreal lo-fi attempt at 80s Metal…released in 1990. A little late there, Ian. "The Strong Survive" has always seemed like the most overlooked Skrewdriver album. This particular release doesn't have any songs at all that have take on wider significance as part of the Ian Stuart canon. Hell, before listening to this only one or two track titles were previously familiar to me. But, ranking as probably the band's weakest album, this should be expected. Quite frankly, the title track is about as good as it gets here.

In its favour "The Strong Survive" moves away from southern tinged Hard Rock and back to the band's roots in a more uptempo sound, certainly a good creative choice. The experimentation with Metal can be safely chalked up to Stigger's arrival and his fondness for all things pyrotechnic on the guitar. Ian Stuart and Stigger would later form White Diamond to further go in this direction, a good choice for Skrewdriver's legacy, but in terms of quality, White Diamond is best forgotten.

Much like the preceding effort this album is damn patchy though at least nothing can be said to lumber! The first five tracks are in fact very strong, as is "Mist on the Downs", a haunting ballad that comes with the pleasant surprise that it's a Stuart original - I'd probably have thought this was a traditional song! The Judas Priest cover is pretty decent too, serving mostly to illustrate how indistinguishable motivational Heavy Metal anthems are lyrically from generic RAC. In fact the only songs that are bad would be the clunky "Hail and Thunder" and the even clunkier cover of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid", though it's worth noting that the band had been covering this particular song since at least 1983 with the "Back With a Bang" lineup as bootlegs attest. What lets down "The Strong Survive" mostly is its thin recording job and poor mix that renders many of the songs sounding pretty flaccid and Stigger's loud and shrieking guitar overdubs out of place.

The album cover reflects the seemingly slapdash nature of this album, though I can't make the decision whether or not it looks awful or in fact rather charming. It's still a good, fun thirty minutes for fans though so don't be put off. Remember that the upcoming "Freedom What Freedom" was a whopping return to form

Actual Body Harm (or A.B.H.) were one of the few nationalist Punk bands as opposed to skinhead bands. They start in Lowestoft and their vocalist Pete came from Cycle Sluts, a joke band. In 1981 two of their members (bassist Nigel and drummer Tony), they start play under the name Stretcher Case fast covers in songs of Sex Pistols and Damned. The guitarist Chris Brinton and vocalist John Brinton, leave the band and replaced by Steven and Pete. With the new line up, they change their name and in July of '82 they wrote their first demo tape with 4 songs: 999, Country Boy Rocker, Wanna Riot and Teenage Aggression. Two of them take a part in compilation "A Country Fit For Heroes" (slogan of Mosley!). In May of '83 came a second demo tape with the songs: Concrete Jungle, Kids of the Nation, Pisssed on Arrival and Don't Mess With the SAS. The song Don't Mess With the SAS take a part also in compilation Oi! of Sex.

In 1984 before they split up, they wrote the song Nerves of Steel for the cult 7 Τhis is White Noise. After the split of the band, Pete and Nigel goes to The Silly Vicars. Pete was also soldier in Bosnia and the years '86-'88 in Afganistan. Tony played in many other bands out from scene with different sounds, like: Phreaker, Dlae, Switch, The Suffer and Live&Loud. The line up was: Pete Chilvers-vocals, Nigel Bulton-bass, Tony Cullingford-drums, Steven Curtis-guitar. They had also a promo video clip in 1983 of their song Dont Mess With S.A.S and the song came from 7 This Is White Noise.

"Nerves Of Steel"

I look around, what do we see?

A nation once proud & free

Nowadays a Yankee state,

Unable to decide your own fate

We are here for our nation

Victory or damnation

It don’t matter how we win

Even murder is no sin

Kentucky Fried Chicken and Coca Cola

The Yanks are coming, they’re taking over

Reagan’s hands around our neck,

It’s our nation he wants to wreck

It doesn’t matter which way you turn

There’s always someone trying to pull you down

A student bastard, a communist

Trendy liberal or multiculturalists

At this point, Brutal Attack was repeating themselves, but rest assured, this album is as strong and as consistent as the title suggests. Sadly, Brutal Attack would hit a few bumps after this album following some trouble with the law, forcing them to go on a temporary hiatus. How's that for irony?

Recorded February of the year before, "Blood Against Gold" would drop in 1990, beginning the trend of No Remorse further experimenting parody. The problem with acts that position themselves as 'extreme' from the outset is that pretty soon they have to tone it down or risk repeating themselves. After "This Time the World", it seemed the only way forward was a more restrained form of nationalist hard rock following the skinhead stomp hatefuck of the debut. And "Blood Against Gold" is pretty good stuff really, even if it does lack the memorability of what came before. Mr. Burnley seems to have developed a serious God complex too, calling himself "the scourge of evil and son of good", claiming to have "seen the future in dreams and visions" like some kind of mystic and even declaring himself "more sexy than Jesus Christ" in "High Priest of Love" (though to be fair, that song is a cover). Quite who they were hoping to appeal to by covering a song by some obscure UK Glam Metal band (Zodiac Mindwarp) is unclear, but hey, welcome to the weird world of No Remorse. We also get a nice long guitar solo track for no apparent reason.

Of course the only real reason anyone remembers this album is for 'N.R. Rap', some kind of Run-DMC/Salt 'n' Pepa parody that is generally one of the most fascinatingly, absurdly terrible pieces of art ever conceived with the most offensively white attempt at a hip hop beat of all time. Gotta be worth something then

"From the dawn of time we came; moving silently down through the centuries, living many secret lives, struggling to reach the time of the Gathering; when the few who remain will battle to the last. No one has ever known we were among you… until now."

Unlike other British skinhead bands who gradually discovered Der Führer, Squadron proudly declared themselves National Socialists from the start. After going through several line-up changes which included the leave of the original songwriter, the band stabilized for the release of "Our Time Will Come" and "Take the Sword".

Opening with the epic yet ominous narration from Highlander, Squadron hits with direct force on the opening "Master Breed". Fusing the footstomping beat of old school Oi!/Punk with the aggression of Hardcore Punk and later Thrash Metal, tracks such as "Full ov Shit" and particularly "No Red Flags" are like Condemned 84 or the Ovaltinees played with the teeth-grinding metallic propulsion of Motörhead or Vengeance. One of the best albums of its kind.

Due to some horrible delays, "Ride of the Valkyries" would be released the same year as the classic line-up's final album "Chasing Dreams". While a step up from the predecessor, the album still sounds incredibly weak on account of the dreadful production values. The rerecording of "Better Dead Than Red" somehow sounds even worse than the original and the rote cover of "One in a Million" by Guns'n'Roses sounds just lame. The album isn't bereft of some good songs, and they'd rectify things by the time they got around to "Chasing Dreams".

After a battery of intolerable delays from Rebelles Européens, Lionheart would finally sign with Rock-O-Rama to record what would effectively be their only consistently good studio album. This was also Jaki's swansong, as the following album would only feature Jon Hickson remaining from the original line-up.

"Slay the Saracen" slays virtually everything else they've done. The rest is a forgettable mix of Oi! and Hard Rock with Metal underpinnings, but start here if you feel compelled to listen to Lionheart and keep your expectations level for Jaki's voice is an acquired taste. I must say that "Slay the Saracen" sounds good in part because the chords are taken from Black Sabbath's classic "Electric Funeral".

Violent Storm was a Welsh RAC band from Cardiff which formed in 1986. They released a couple of EPs and one full length album.

The band immediately ended following a fatal car accident on Saturday 14th March 1992. They were booked alongside Division 250, No Remorse, and Battle Zone to play for the NS Accion Radical in Spain. Violent Storm made their way along the M4 motorway to the airport near Bristol, the car they were traveling in suddenly careened out of control and slid into a ditch. Paul Casey, Brian and Darren Sheeley and their friend Jason Oakes all were killed.

Billy who was driving was the only survivor who staggered from the wreck. Following its demise, Celtic Warrior was formed, named after Violent Storm's only album.

The 1990s was a turbulent time for the British Skinhead scene. The violence that followed the skinhead scene would continue to court media attention, forcing several skinhead bands to retreat from major cities or to lay low until the dust settled. With Brutal Attack going on hiatus and Skrewdriver leaving London for the Midlands, Martin Cross grew concerned their absence would impact the local scene, so he recruited some other musicians on drums, bass and vocals to form the thematically appropriately named Empyre. Later changing their name to the proper spelling, Empire existed entirely as a studio project, failing to play any live shows to promote their LP. Plans to record a sophomore album fell through.

Characteristic of RAC records from the early '90s, the message was channeled through propulsive, thundering Hard Rock in lieu of the energetic Punk/Oi! of yore. The greatest test will be vocalist Wayne Wakeford, who suffers the same curse as all others within the genre of RAC in that not one of them could carry a soft ballad. The soft "Other Losses" is particularly inept, but the hard and heavy tunes like "Ango-Saxon Troop" has some solid balls. There are times you will begin to feel the album's length as each track makes a point of wearing out its welcome, but if Z-Grade Hard Rock from the late '80s/early '90s appeals to you, then you're in luck. Special mention goes to "Tribute", a song celebrating the life of Oswald Mosley.

The Muslims can do it but why can’t we?

We should be allowed to march on our streets

But when we try and march for our beliefs

The old bill stops us our voice can’t speak

We want the right to march

Why should we have to ask?

Give us the right to march

Give us the right to march

Every day I see Muslims on our streets

Inciting violence and disturbing the peace

But nothing’s ever done they can march freely

It’s all fucking wrong and why should this be?

They march because they’re victims of racists!

Attacks are common on our unsafe streets

But there’s one thing they can’t understand

It’s us who’re the victims in our own land!

We can’t do what we want and express our views

No matter what we do we’ll always lose

Blacks march against whites that’s been accepted

But when a white marches for his land they call it racist

We need more of the RAC attitude back. It would not only revitalize some creativity to Rock, but it would also serve as a rebellion to current cultural marxist system we are in.

Polite bump.

Hey OP, are you the same guy who posted on krautchan?

I want to be your fren

>>93609

m8, who else would it be?

>>93688

He is posting on kohlchan now too.

yes

Sieg heil :DDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Is George Burdi still a cuck?

http://archive.fo/I6x9B

http://archive.fo/f2vDO

>>95709

Not as far as I know. He was just ordered by the state to shut up or go back to jail. He talks about this in an interview conducted late spring of 2017.

Bump

Bumperino