Featuring tracks taken from their albums ‘Rise’ and ‘Monolith’ and originally only out on CD Easy Action from the UK have taken the original recordings and given them an overhaul and pressed it on vinyl for the first time.

With dark imagery you might be forgiven for presuming that Amebix are part of the Norweigan black metal community but you would be wide of the mark for that impression firstly because you can actually read the bands name on their logo and secondly they have more in common with early post-punk and crust punk of Crass but I’m sure the band did influence some of the bigger names in Black Metal.

The record begins with some haunting sounds before the band breaks out and ‘Arise’ sounds like it is risen up through the bowels of Hell and the band charge headlong into the set. ‘Largactyl’ rages about a medication used to treat schizophrenia of which I believe at least one member of Amebix suffered with back in the day. With what would amount to inside knowledge of such things the song is a terrifying journey as it thrashes along at a raging pace. “Its only Paranoia” rages Rob Miller.

Its a fairly dark affair and a live show from Amebix would have been an intense affair back in the mid-eighties when there wasn’t a great deal to shout about but the band captured that dark underbelly of life really well as music isn’t always about girls and cars. The sleeve notes by The Baron explains well where the band were at and describes the times as well as anyone.  Amebix was a hardcore band they influenced others and walked their own path that reflected in their music.

It’s great that Easy Action releases such diverse music and with a distance between this recording and its vinyl release the songs often have a menace that no doubt influenced and was influenced by the likes of Venom and Voivod and no doubt Motorhead as the Godfathers of crossover punk and metal. ‘Axeman’ is as dark as it gets and I did smile hearing the crowd in Slovenia being asked to shout ‘Axeman’.

Investigate something dark and dank from the corner of crust punk and metal crossover where two worlds collided and it was captured and preserved for your listening displeasure here

Author: Seb Boyd