Deep Wound
S/t

I almost stumbled upon this precious piece of vinyl by chance. Realizing what was hidden under the name Deep Wound, I certainly didn't let it slip away. Specifically, it's a collection of 24 songs that are the testament of this seminal yet little-known Hardcore band, active in the Boston area in the first half of the '80s. To be precise, the band where none other than J Mascis (later in Gobblehoof and Dinosaur Jr) and Lou Barlow (later in Dinosaur Jr and Sebadoh) debuted.

Here, the two respectively play drums and guitar, while Scott Helland is on bass and the screamer Charlie Nakajima is on vocals. The value of this record shouldn't be just historical; the band's sound proposal was very original and a bit ahead of its time, considering the first EP is from 1983. Tracks characterized by rare ferocity, tense, edgy, and very fast, situated in territories close to what will later become Thrashcore (this time I remembered the 'h', see my review of "Money Talks" by Cryptic Slaughter). Although metal is distant, it's an early attempt at crossover. Some have called it Hatecore, but I'll leave it to you to decide how to label it.

The sounds are very raw, and together with the rawness of the recording, they retain that Garage band flavor that many Punk groups had. It starts with "I Saw It"—powerful and distorted bass line, guitar whistles, a fractured pace that then shifts into high gear in the following pieces. Listen to "Sisters," "Don't Need," "Lou's Anxiety Song," all insanely fast, ruthless music. Tension doesn't lessen even when it slows down, as in "Dead Babies." On the B-side, you'll find the tracks from their 1982 demo.

The sound quality, as you might imagine, is a bit flat, but if you're inclined towards noise, even these tracks will give you great satisfaction—just turn up the volume!