Total Doom

by William YorkThis CD combines two late-'80s releases by British punks Doom, 1989's Bury the Debt (Not the Dead), and 1988's War Crimes (Inhuman Beings). (Just to clarify, this CD's cover art is taken straight from the original Bury the Debt release.) There are 37 tracks in all, totaling 68 minutes of thrashing, crusty anarcho-punk with revealing song titles such as "Nazi Die," "Police Bastard," and "War Crimes." (The reason these titles are revealing is because the actual lyrics are hard to understand, and they're not included in the CD booklet.) No one would ever accuse Doom of spreading themselves too thin stylistically (or of playing doom metal, as their name might suggest), since these songs are uniformly similar from one to the next, characterized by gruffly shouted vocals, distorted bass (propped way up in the mix), simple guitar chord progressions, and lots of double-time drumming. One track, the brief, ferocious "Circles," could be cited as an early example of grindcore, but aside from that and a few other exceptions, there isn't a lot of variety to this music. However, what Doom did, they did well -- with a lot of energy and conviction -- and, as a result, this music has held up over the years, despite being somewhat dated from a stylistic point-of-view.