Along with that crazy 7" box-set from Off The Disk that I reviewed on our last new arrivals list, the long-dormant Swiss label has also resurrected this classic slab of extreme hardcore from the short lived New York band Citizens Arrest which has been out of print for over a decade. Probably best known outside of extreme music circles as one of the early bands of indie rocker Ted Leo, these guys came roaring out of the NY hardcore scene in 1989 with a brutal blend of Infest/Siege-influenced blastcore and furious old first-wave hardcore a la Negative Approach / Void / SS Decontrol, and one of the most vicious vocal performances ever in the form of frontman Daryl Kahan. Kahan's throat unleashes an awesome bestial howl that has been accurately described as "some unholy alliance between the first Bathory lp, the Void split, and John Brannon" by Chris Corry over at Bidhardcore.com, and it's easy to see how he later moved on to even more extreme bands like Abazagorath, Taste Of Fear, Forced Expression, Funebrarum, now holding down one of the guitar positions in death metal atavists Disma.

Anyways, A Light In The Darkness was the band's first 7" and came out in '89 on the Wardance label, and it introduced their super-fast aggression with six songs of raw, compressed power. Reissued to coincide with the band's recent reformation (which led to a blistering live set at the 2011 Maryland Deathfest - these guys were one of my favorite sets of the entire weekend), A LIght In The Darkness is back in print, issued in a deluxe gatefold jacket in a limited hand-numbered edition.

The Don Fury produced Ep begins with a steady tide of dark ambience before the band rips into the grinding anti-cop anthem "Serve And Protect", a brutal blasting metallic hardcore eruption that combines a distinct youth crew vibe with the over-the-top blast violence of Siege. Then it's on to ripping speed attacks like "In The Distance" and "Fortress", which further reveal the New York hardcore DNA that was present in Citizen's Arrest music, but amplified to nuclear strength levels of noise and speed. The bonus track "I Won't Allow" (originally off of the Look At All The Children Now compilation LP) begins with a catchy pogo intro before launching into another hyperspeed volley of hardcore riffs and locomotive drumming. On the b-side, the title track and "Woodstock" kick out more anthemic mid-tempo hardcore jams, fueled on a total classic NYC hardcore sound but with a mucho heavier attack and with the distortion and grind dialed way the fuck up, then sets the whole thing on fire with the dual knockout psychoblasts of "Without Peace" and "Death Threat".

Essential listening for fans of extreme hardcore / powerviolence.