One of the most feared bands of the 1990s, Gehenna were the ultimate dark side of American hardcore and cast an intimidating shadow over the HC scene during the latter half of the decade. Their rep was serious shit, and tales of stabbings, narcotic abuse, random violence and general chaos became popular legend. One thing was certain - Gehenna were dead serious about playing the most vicious music possible, and did not give a fuck about how they were perceived within the hardcore scene (or anywhere else). Their releases prior to 1998 were limited and often quite hard to find, but Crimethinc Records finally collected all of their recordings up until that point with The War Of The Sons Of Light And The Suns Of Darkness, which presents their early releases in chronological order, starting with the three song cassette and leading through the split 7" with Apartment 213 and the Birth Of Vengeance 7". What becomes apparent when listening to this stuff now is that is almost baffling that this band was embraced by hardcore kids at all; the music that Gehenna played drew a big part of its vitriol from some of hardcore's most extreme proponents of speed and violence like Infest as well as the chunky Slayer-worship of San Diego straightedgers Unbroken, but merged that with a blackened, bestial vibe that is pure Hellhammer, baby. Long before hardcore kids started picking out tremolo riffs, these thugs were channeling the filthiest strains of early black metal into a stripped down, apocalyptic assault that remains some of the most extreme shit that we have ever heard. As far as we're concerned, Gehenna's fusion of barbaric black metal and psychotic hardcore/power violence is absolutely peerless in it's misanthropic scope, and evokes visions of societal collapse and end time chaos more effectively than anyone else....

The Crimethinc release has been out of print for years, but A389 has unearthed this crucial collection on colored vinyl for the first time with this Lp release, which also comes with a download code for a digital copy of the album.