Abaddon

Reviews

Abaddon Live at CBGB LP

I shouldn’t have to talk about ABADDON in the time of the internet, so I won’t condescend to you when you can use search engines…but please know that they are fucking important. This is probably the only recording of their 2003 US mini-tour you will ever hear ,and to say that it is worth your time would be a criminal understatement. Fierce and honest Polish hardcore originally active in the early ’80s, this recording captures a reformed ABADDON at CBGB blasting through tracks from 2004’s Godzina Krzywd instead of Wet Za Wet or the REJESTRACJA split (aside from opening with “Rewolucja”), and honestly, it’s a really good move. The band was on absolute fire, and the gruff vocals get a little rougher as the set progresses, just like the guitar gets a little looser and…this is what you want from a live recording. Legendary band, amazing set, grateful it was immortalized. Wild that ABADDON, ARMIA, and DEZERTER all toured the US in 2003—it was like our own Jarocin, and we just didn’t know it.

Abaddon Jarocin ’84 LP

With authoritarianism and fascism surging across the globe, we probably have more to learn from the Soviet Bloc-era punk bands now than at any point since the fall of the Berlin Wall.  Captured live at the one state-sponsored rock festival of the year in the Polish People’s Republic, this recording captures the band in their nascent stage, nearly a year before their first cassette release and two before their definitive Wet Za Wet LP (many songs from that album appear here, including standouts like “Apartheid” and “Kukly”). The elements that made them great are all on clear display here: the charismatic vocals, the martial rhythms, the heady and diverse songwriting that careens from reggae/ska to fluid blues-rock solos to driving hardcore. As the recording is sourced from a nearly 40-year-old tape there is a bit of occasional warble and some very minor dropouts but given those circumstances the mastering job is really impressive and on the whole it sounds fucking great. As there’s no crowd noise at all, this could easily be passed off as a live in studio session, a plus for those who would usually avoid live recordings. All the text is presented in Polish, but the beautiful gatefold features tons of photos from the festival and even the typed lyrics that had to be submitted to the censors in order for the band to be able to perform (a chilling glimpse of a potential future to be?). Warsaw Pact are doing amazing work, this and all the label’s other reissues are well worth your time and support.

Abaddon Wet Za Wet LP

This Polish band recently toured Yugoslavia and while there, recorded this album which was then released in France—a truly international effort. Their style is generally thrash with good tunes and out-front guitar—a more melodic approach not unlike TOXIC REASONS or N.O.T.A. They are fine musicians, and on a dub tune you can really hear that well.