Classic evil anti-authoritarian Japanese hardcore weirdness finally gets some real robust reissue treatment! Re-mastered by Joel Grind, it doesn't sound like one speck of filth has been cleaned off these recordings, I'm happy to say. This definitely is not a replacement for the A Roar Agitating Violent Age LP that Zouo did with Japanese label Crust War - that included a bunch of live material that is not featured on Agony Remains due to album length restrictions. But with the pioneering Final Agony 7" and unearthed unreleased live material, this LP is an essential addition to any hardcore Zouo / Japanese HC fanatic's collection, regardless.

Spearheaded by singer Katsunori “Cherry” Nishida, Zouo was way ahead of its time with their fusion of adolescent metal occultism, anarchic energy, and Discharge / UK82-inspired hardcore ultra-violence. First up is the classic (and absolutely crucial 1984 7" EP The Final Agony with the songs "Sons Of Satan", "Making Love With Devil, "No Power", "Bloody Master", followed by the two songs that appeared on both the equally crucial 1984 Japanese HC compilation Hardcore Unlawful Assembly and then later on the Frustration 7". That essentially gathers together the whole of Zouo's studio recorded material. And it's sick. From the proto-blackthrash of "Sons Of Satan", where creepy crumbling chapel ambience meets crushing D-beat meets bizarre echoing vocals, crazy metal solos being peeled off, this weird reverb enfolding it all. Jesus. These Zouo songs are some of the most fucked-up but undeniably violent hardcore punk jams ever.

It's definitely not like G.I.S.M.'s avant-garde delirium; these guys had the riffs, and delivered 'em much more directly in a manner that is clearly copped from the cream of the crop of U.S. and European HC of the time. But it's also ridiculously distorted and blown out, and Kouo's trademark vocal weirdness is everywhere, "Making Love With Devil" sounding like a legion of demons all fighting for airtime at the same time, but Cherry's FX-dosed growl is at the center of it all. It's just so over the top, vintage hardcore aggression warped by a Venom / Bathory-level malevolence.

If you're an Integrity fan, you'll immediately get why Dwid has always championed this band alongside G.I.S.M.; in 1984, this was the most evil-sounding hardcore punk you could get, save for Void and the aforementioned G.I.S.M.. The metallic influences on these two studio sets bring so much darkness to their already threatening three-chord thrash. And then there are the weird tape-noise bits, that slow gloomy intro in "No Power", the feedback, the filth, the reverb. The insane-sounding falsetto backing vocals and choral texture on "Bloody Master". What the fuck. It sounds like they recorded these tunes in a cave at times. It also sounds like they could have been gobbling mushrooms during the recording sesh. It's awesome.

The later tracks "You Like It That Way" and "Frustration" have a much thicker, more metal-style production and speed-metal attack, but there's still seemingly random weirdness going on, the off-time gang vocals, blobs of gnarly electronic effects, unidentifiable noises, samples of mass warfare (?), brief forays into something akin to death rock, it's constantly fucking with your expectations before rocketing back into the cyclonic, psychedelic (almost space-rock damaged) metalpunk. It is the height of 1980's Japanese devil-core. Those two 7"s are fucking essential for anyone into truly freaked-out, unstable hardcore.

The flip has nine live tracks from three different performances, none of which are the same as the live LP A Roar Agitating Violent Age; to the best of my knowledge, this is all being presented here for the first time. These live tracks are great, raw soundboard recordings of the band pummeling their audience with a load of tunes that didn't appear on the 7" and compilation: "Hate Children”, "System Fuck Off ", "No More Hate", "Fuck The God" all offer straight brutal hardcore punk, while something labeled "Untitled 1" shows up with the bass guitar slapping you in the face while the guitars contort into more discordant forms.”Out Of Order" is primo necro-pogo, a perfect mid-tempo punk anthem with some added speed metal riffing, complete with the most obvious sing-a-long chorus possible. The live versions of the EP tracks "Bloody Master", "Making Love With Devil ", "You Like It That Way " and "Frustration" all sounds pretty unhinged , those hard rockin' solos squealing over the locomotive rush of the rest of the band. Ferocious. I don't know about the "Live At Studio Ahiru" (which sounds like the band was completely cracked out of their skulls) as far as when it was recorded, but I'm presuming that all of these recordings are from 1983-1984, and you can definitely tell that these guys were achieving another "level" by '84. The music is just so insanely berserk.

The music of Zouo makes me want to commit crimes, to walk around my neighborhood with a black baseball bat scrawled in Goetic sigils at 3 a.m. in the morning with these songs blasting out of my Walkman. This LP is sick, a kind of quasi-slaytanic proto-crossover.