Fugazi
Steady Diet Of Nothing

THE REVIEW

I must admit that I had never listened to them before. Fugazi. The review published here of "Repeater" got me off my butt to go look for them and, after a few hours, I come home with this CD in my hands... Although, to be honest, I had no idea what to expect while listening... Hardcore... for people like me, a definition to take with a grain of salt; Hardcore has never driven me crazy. I've always been crazy about Post-Everything. Post-Hardcore for example.

I place the CD in the player, a few seconds pass, and I start to have strange twitches, as if the initial distortion of "Exit Only" reminded me of something (Jesus Lizard?), listening to the rhythmic section with skewed, irregular, obsessive, mad, frantic, hysterical tempos; that screamed voice... at times graceless. I listen at unreasonable volumes to the other tracks as well, focusing my attention particularly on "Latin Roots" and the instrumental "Steady Diet". Stripped-down riffs, deprived of emotion alternate with concrete saws of sound tissue that float repetitive, bare, jerky, irritating symphonies, with the voices of the two singers tearing their throats and competing to see who can shout the loudest into the microphone, alternating between fullness and emptiness. All very Hardcore. All very Post.

Without lingering too much, I listened to this album three times in a row, astounded by the fact that I had neglected this band for too long. I knew they were Hardcore. But not this type of Hardcore. Which can also be called Hardcore with strong noise-rock or post-hardcore shades. In the sense that they were too far ahead compared to the bands that played it in those years.

What else to add... the discovery of this band has opened new frontiers for me... I think I will make their entire discography mine, starting with 13 Songs, their first work, then moving on to Repeater and all the others. Listen, for example, to track number four "Stacks", and you will realize you are facing a band as insane and non-conformist as few. Venture into the depths of a geometric sound, never predictable, never banal, always monstrously current. But don't call them songs. I beg you. Don't belittle this band and this rare gem from the '90s.