Hydra Head's vinyl reissue campaign for the classic Discordance Axis catalog continues into 2014 with this deluxe new double vinyl (and seven inch) set featuring the band's comprehensive collection of early album and EP material. Originally released on CD in 2003, Original Sound Version 1992-1995 (Perfect Edition) is unquestionably essential for anyone even remotely into modern grindcore. Seriously, if you're into grind and you don't have these (and everything else that Discordance Axis ever released) in your music collection, you've got a major malfunction occurring. Beautifully packaged with enormous booklets loaded with lyrics, liner notes, photos, artwork, and TONS more, these reissues are crucial.

Original Sound Version 1992-1995 is an exhaustive, exhausting collection of the entire output of Discordance Axis' early years. It's all here: the debut album Ulterior, the DA tracks from the split releases with Capitalist Casualties, Cosmic Curse, and Hellchild, along with demos, live recordings, and unreleased studio tracks. We're talking about 69 tracks of ultra-abrasive grind, innovative structures and spastic stop/start rhythms, vicious angular cheese grater riffs, and some of the greatest grind drumming of all time from drum titan Dave Witte (Melt Banana, Human Remains, Burnt By the Sun, Municipal Waste, East West Blast Test, Phantomsmasher, Black Army Jacket). Jon Chang's lyrics are the most poetic verses you will ever find in grind, drawing from a combination of mathematical language, Japanese Otaku fandom, and abstract political criticism, but there's zero chance of deciphering any of that sans the program guide because the man's vocals are fucking RABIES, switching from the most insane nut-flattening shrieks imaginable to murderous gutteral roars. Of course, since these are the early years and there is a wide variety of stuff collected here, the sound quality tends to range a bit, especially when you get into the ancient rehearsal tracks. That shit is just ridiculous, total noisecore, like someone taking a shitty boom box and recording a drunken Mick Harris blasting over a 10th-generation Incapacitants tape. Rules. Dig around in here and you'll turn up Discordance Axis' goofy rendition of Black Flag's "Gimme Gimme Gimme," too. One of the things that always set DA apart from almost all of their peers in grindcore was the impeccable visual design aesthetic that Jon Chang brought to the band, and the layout and booklet here are as classy and detailed as you could hope. The thick 28 page booklet is loaded with complete documentation of this early period in the band's career, and the extensive liner notes and song-by-song commentary written by Chang are a must-read for DA fanatics. CRUCIAL.

With this 2014 vinyl reissue, my opinion remains unchanged: this is some of the sickest grindcore to come out of the 1990s, a flesh-blistering avant-blast assault that is still as savage and sonically twisted today as it was when these assorted EPs and compilation appearances first appeared nearly twenty years ago. This new vinyl version also includes the same DVD-sized booklet, and comes in a slick-looking black jacket with black spot varnish printing.