Deadless Muss: 5 Years Imprisonment 12″

Description

Fan Club reissue of this Japanese hardcore band’s 1998 album, originally released on Selfish Records, with 3 bonus tracks.

Our take: Deadless Muss was an 80s Japanese hardcore band from Shizuoka. Deadless Muss was on my radar and I have a couple of their records, but I dont think Id ever heard this album before this reissue arrived. I was more familiar with Deadless Musss earlier material, their 8 flexi from 1984 and their I Will 7 from 1985. Those records are more in line with the gruff and murky 80s Japanese hardcore sound that I can never seem to get enough of. However, when the band signed to the legendary Selfish label and released their 860 Seconds Cooking 7 in 1987, their sound changed. Besides the layout getting more colorful than their previous records, they got way faster, moving toward a skate-thrash style that reminds me of their label mates at Selfish, Systematic Death. While there are a few moments on 5 Years Imprisonment that sound like holdovers from the bands earlier period (Texas Chainsaw in particular), the band I keep thinking of when I listen to 5 Years Imprisonment is the Stupids from the UK. Obviously the lyrics and vocals are different, but the music is similar, blistering fast skate-thrash with lots of gang vocals and a hint of melody in the guitar playing. If youre into that late 80s / early 90s Japanese skate thrash thingbands like Systematic Death, Chicken Bowels (who I wrote my staff pick about last week), early SOByou cant go wrong with this well-done Fan Club pressing.