Even by 1982 a good deal of what punk or hardcore could be had been rigidly set out. Of course, Black Flag, Husker Du and other progressive acts weren’t ever going to be content with rehashing past works, but a great number of the second crop of American punk bands worked within very narrowly defined boundaries of what the music could be. Of course, some of those groups make those restrictions work all too well. But by and large, the mid ‘80s suffered from a glut of average discs. The So Cal punk scene might be a culprit in living by these standards and on Sudden Death that’s even bared out. That, however, doesn’t mean that the disc is void of entertainment value. And I won’t say that this is the best hardcore compilation ever released – it’s not – but the list of bands below all surpass what could have been expected of them in 1982.
Easily the least known group (to me) represented here. The bandâ??s an interesting distillation of hardcore in that it seems to function in perpetual breakdown mode. But the vocals of Lino "Lousy" Ochoa are able to fill enough of the space left by the tempo to keep things interesting. And oddly enough, the guitar solos actually shred as opposed to just wavering between inept and boring.
JFA is probably the most famous group on this compilation. They also hail from Arizona as opposed to the rest of this mostly Cali-centric bands here. Interestingly enough, the bandâ??s first bassist was Alan Bishop who would go on to play with the Sun City Girls for the next twenty plus years. Here, though, JFA turns in three tracks â?? one being an inexplicable cover of â??Low Rider.â? The other two tracks are paced roughly the same and actually bleed into each other when taking a listen to the disc. But that doesnâ??t mean that it isnâ??t some pretty rough â??80s style hardcore.
The Sins certainly arenâ??t hardcore and clearly listened to a buncha east coast punk. Over the three tracks that these folks offer up, the bandâ??s able to separate themselves from their punk brethren by having a talented bassist and a singer who can actually get melodic after unleashing a pretty powerful snarl. Lyrically, the bandâ??s the same as everyone else represented on Sudden Death. But that just means they canâ??t be faulted for it â?? even if you did though, the musicâ??s more than enough to get these San Diego dudes over.
A female fronted group, Sin 34 trafficked in something between straight punk and thrash. Although, at points, those drum parts move beyond what a Minor Threat homage would be propped up by. Julie Lanfeld, though, ends up sounding as masculine as could be imagined. It might be that she was concerned about the bomb for real, but who knows. The bandâ??s drummer, Dave Markey, would go on to a successful film career which included directorial credits for not only 1991: The Year Punk Broke but also the awful (ly good) Desperate Teenage Lovedolls.