Anti-System No Laughing Matter LP reissue
Somewhere back near the dawning of mass home internet access, I came across ANTI-SYSTEM. Upon hearing their blistering anarcho hardcore, I immediately emblazoned ANTI-SYSTEM on the back of my jacket. Fastfoward several blinks of an eye later, and I couldn’t be more stoked to see a reissue of No Laughing Matter, an absolute stellar full-length. First released in 1985, No Laughing Matter contains hardline lyrics about peace, animal liberation, and nuclear war which remain poignant to this very moment. ANTI-SYSTEM strikes that perfect balance of anarcho punk’s chaotic playfulness and the surging rage of hardcore, and inadvertently created the bastard child known as crust punk. In reality, No Laughing Matter is a shifting album—an album that shifts from UK82 hardcore, to sound clips, to harmonic instrumentals and back. This LP is packed with thirteen songs and is an absolute monolith worth listening to in its entirety.