S.O.D. (Swe) - "Sounds of Disaster" 7", 1985

Discharge was one of the most influential and best hardcore bands, inspiring an entire genre based on one drum beat that is still quite popular today. Listening to the early records before they poofed their hair out, its quite easy to see why their influence was immediately felt within the punk scene. Bleak, hopeless and noisy songs that dealt with the abstraction of violence, nuclear war and government corruption struck a certain chord amongst disillusioned people in the height of 80s cold war paranoia. Discharge's influence was felt not only inside the English borders, but worldwide as well. Sweden in particular had a large number of bands that were played a similar style of punk rock.

S.O.D. had tracks on the compilations "Really Fast, vol. 2", "1984 the Second", and "24 Love Songs", but their only vinyl release where they were the sole band was in the form of this epynomous 7". A classic from start to finish, these six songs are noisy, dark, simple, and sloppy, in short, everything that makes hardcore from this time period great. Much like Anti-Cimex's two classic 7"s "Raped Ass" and "Victims of a Bombraid", this is very abrasive music with very little polishing or finesse. The drummer tends to fall behind the rest of the music in various places; as the music is played at a reletively fast pace, this tends to give the recording a slight plodding feel, adding to the already oppressive atmosphere of the music.

Like many of their Swedish contemporaries, S.O.D.'s lyrics were largely sung in Swedish. However, judging by the manner in which the vocals are delivered, it would appear that the lyrics are as minimalistic as the music is. The vocals are extremely hoarse, completely devoid of any melody, and shouted to accentuate the beginning of each musical phrasing, often in the form of three or four words per line.

Tracking down the original 7" can be rather pricy, but fortunately there is a rather good looking and sounding bootleg floating around which can be acquired without incurring any serious debts. The band's second 7" from 1990, "Speak Swedish or Die" (a rather obvious jab at the more famous S.O.D. from New York) and their compilation appearances are certainly worth listening to as well.

This kind of music will not only appeal to hardcore fans (in fact, I'd be surprised if there are many people who are into Swedish hardcore that do not know this 7" already), but fans of the lo-fi fuzzed out black metal from the late 90s might enjoy this as well. While S.O.D. and their ilk came from a completely different musical scene, and often times, a completely different side of the political spectrum, the end result is often similar in tone; very bleak and dissonant destructive music.