Back in stock!
Hot on the tailwinds of news that the mighty Amebix are reuniting comes a bunch of reissues, including several on Alternative Tentacles that we'll have
listed in the next store update. The Power Remains, however, was released by the German peace punk label Skuld, first in 1993 and then popping back
up every few years or so in a new vinyl repress.
Amebix are a band that it's hard not to gush over, if you are a fan of their massively influential apocalyptic punk-metal. The UK outfit was crucial in the
formation of what we call "crustcore", and their influence is felt in everyone from Neurosis, Sepultura, Napalm Death, Tragedy, Dystopia, Gallhammer and
about a million other crusty, black-denim wearing, patch-covered, anarchist punk rockers across the globe. Amebix's music is still incredibly moving and
dramatic, and the visions of apocalypse and skies filled with black clouds of war still have a haunting power. The Bristol band stood in contrast to the
stark primal power of Discharge, weilding a sound that was far more atmospheric and weird while simultaneously being some of the heaviest music in the world
at the time by combining the influence of Venom, Hawkwind, early Killing Joke, Motorhead and Black Sabbath into something totally unique. A prescient meeting
of proto-speed metal, post punk, psychedelia, synthesizers and gloomy dirge, played by a bunch of guys who truly lived the life that they were singing about
in their tales of crumbling Western society and oppressive government control, eating out of dumpsters, living in squatted buildings, and likewise existing
on the outer fringes of the grid.
The Power Remains isn't an actual Amebix album but rather a collection of studio and live tracks that were captured at the height of what I
consider the band's creative prowess, right around the release of Arise and Monolith. The four studio tracks are fucking amazing to hear
now, massive metallic gloom-punk anthems that sound like the dark gothy post-punk of Killing Joke and Joy Division fused to the thunderous metal of Celtic
Frost/Hellhammer, filled with crazed guitar solos, buzzing drone synths, beautiful, chiming melodic guitar hooks that border on pop ("Last Will And Testament"), the Baron's awesome Lemmy-style croak, and some of the best lyrics ever written from the stance of young people living under the shadow of
nuclear holocaust in the 1980's: "I awoke in a sweat from the American Dream, They were loading the bomb bay of the iron bird, Giving their blood to the
Doomsday Machine I screamed into the wind my goodbye to the world...". Heavy stuff. The live side of this LP is just as crucial - I'm usually not a big fan of live punk albums from this era, but fuck, the Amebix set from 1987 that is documented on the b-side is incendiary, four awesome psyched-out
thrashers ("Nobody's Driving", "Fallen From Grace", "Arise", and "Drink And Be Merry") with great recording quality and amazing clean passages that were
way, WAY ahead of their time. A essential document of unique, doom-laden endtime punk whose power has yet to diminish.
On black vinyl in a full color jacket with a xeroxed insert.