��Looks like we're getting an actual reissue campaign for Bl'ast, as this massive collection is the second release of older material from the Santa Cruz hardcore band to surface on Southern Lord in the last year. Good to see, as the Bl'ast back catalog has been overdue for re-evaluation for some time. Frequently written off as Black Flag's younger, brattier brother, Bl'ast most definitely shared a of similarities to the LA hardcore legends, namely the quirky, progressive riffing style, a fearsome, belligerent frontman and an unusually complex approach to songwriting; these guys were hardly riding Flag's coattails, though, and often played shows with them throughout the mid-80s. In fact, for some people (such as yours truly), Bl'ast's sound could be much more effective, taking that discordant guitar style and offbeat hardcore and making it even darker and more aggressive, and for fans like me, their 1986 debut The Power Of Expression remains a goddamn classic of mutant mid-80s SoCal hardcore. Originally released on Wishingwell and then later by Black Flag's own SST Records, Expression could be a tough album to track down in recent years, but now Southern Lord has worked with the band to release what would appear to be their definitive version, a collection that features an alternate, apparently preferred recording of the album along with other studio sessions of the same material, making this an exhaustive look at the band's earliest full-length effort.

�� The main session featured on the CD version (and on the first LP in the massive triple vinyl set) is as ferocious as this album has ever sounded, with no grit or sweat removed from the mix by the new mastering job; it's a grimy, almost unhinged assault of the band's off-kilter metallic hardcore, and any differences between this and the SST / Wishingwell original are negligible, as far as the songs themselves. The sound on this version of Expression does feel a bit rawer, more feral, more biting, but that's hardly a criticism. The album opens with a squall of radio static and random feedback, garbled voices and aimless guitar chug that quickly coalesces into the ferocious thrash of "Time To Think", and from there it's pedal to the metal as the band hurls themselves through these thirteen tracks. Songs like "Surf And Destroy", "Nightmare", "The Future", and "Fuckin' With My Head" all rage with brute force, guitarist Mike Neider contorting his riffs into topsy-turvy angular thrashpunk and bursts of searing discordant soloing, bringing a mucho metallic edge to his Ginn-esque shred while also introducing his own unique style of string-scraping axe abuse. The songs lurch through sudden tempo changes and oddball time signature shifts, flying at locomotive speeds through their dark, pissed-off visions of societal/personal collapse, then suddenly lurching into some burly sludge-encrusted breakdown or bone-crushing mid-tempo pummel that comes out of left field, like the grim discordant dirge that crawls across Time Waits (For No One)". Might've been cut from the same stained cloth as Black Flag, but Bl'ast managed to turn that sound into something distinctly theirs - it's still one of my favorite albums of dark, nihilistic hardcore from this era, and an essential acquisition for Bl'ast fans.

�� The CD version of Expression Of Power features the definitive "Fane Session" as well as a ferocious alternate studio session that features slightly longer, variant versions of the album tracks with a rougher mix, and comes in digipack packaging with a thick twenty eight page booklet loaded with vintage photos of the band in action from the mid-80's. The massive triple LP set is even more extensive, featuring both of these sessions as well as what appears to be the original album version that came out on Wishingwell, making this the exhaustive final word on this freakoid HC classic.