Reviews

SEMTEX 87 C.I.B. demo cassette

Scab-ripping HC that’s newly emerged from the Perth scene (Australia not Scotland—you probably realised this already) and bundles the city’s thrashier and effusive anarcho sides in one unit, with two EXTORTION dudes and one from COLD MEAT, to name but two. C.I.B. is a six-song demo tape whose title refers to the Commonwealth Investigation Branch in Perth, and more specifically a dude who drove a tank into the side of it by way of revenge for a past cop brutalizing. (Search “1993 Perth tank rampage” on Wikipedia if you feel so inclined.) It’s seething, raw ur-hardcore all the way, maybe like the FIX or someone but with gruff-as-hell vocals from Rhys Davies, putting me in mind of Nicholas Sarnella in ARMS RACE.