Man Is The Bastard - Abundance Of Guns 7" [Original Version]

Artist: Man Is The Bastard
Album: Abundance Of Guns 7" [Original Version]
Release: 1992
Label: Self-Released

Tracklist:

1. Regression To Birth
2. Mocha Rebirth
3. Semen In The Eyesocket Of Thomas Lenz
4. Slave To The Bean
5. The Iron Room
6. Incoming
7. Volatile Cocktail
8. Tumult Being
9. Abundance Of Guns
10. Suttee

This post is inspired by both my semi-recent acquisition of this 7", as well as seeing Bastard Noise last night! In case you've been living under a rock, Bastard Noise has recently begun playing with live instrumentation again and it's incredible. Their split with The Endless Blockade is near-perfect and they have just released a new LP, A Culture Of Monsters, that, while I have not received it in the mail yet, will surely be a favorite of mine for the year.

Their second 7", Abundance Of Guns, doesn't sound anything like how they are now, but it's one of the best of the so-called "powerviolence" releases and, in my opinion, ranks only behind Thoughtless as being their best release. The version of the 7" many people are familiar with was released on an Italian label S.O.A., but the band initially released it on their own with both a different cover (as seen above) and an additional track. Why "Regression To Birth" was omitted from the repress is beyond me, as it's one of my favorite Bastard Noise tracks, with the signature squelching from Jeff Nelson floating atop eery female vocals.

The rest of the 7" stands as Man Is The Bastard's most intense "conventional" material. It's the most hardcore of their releases, with a bunch of short, sludgy bursts of unbridled aggression, with the misanthropic Eric Wood and co. ranting against neo-colonization, the military-industrial complex, and a European bootlegger responsible for the Neanderthal/Blantat Yobs split 7". The band slows things down with "Tumult Being" and "Suttee," the former of which is their best sludge moment.

Why it's taken me this long to post any MITB is beyond me, as they're my favorite band (along with the Smiths lol). Still, this is as good a place as any to start on the most interesting punk band of the 1990s (and ever!). Be sure to seek out Thoughtless, though. And the Capitalist Casualties split LP. And Sum Of The Men.

Download Here

-Adam