Tear Me Down
Morire di tolleranza

A title that leaves little room for misunderstanding. A cover that only someone trying to be misleading would describe with words less explicit than "ferocious" and "brutal".

Let’s take a look at this cover: an sXe holding a molotov, flanked by an anarcho-punk, a skinhead, and various other figures. Armed to the teeth. In a suburb, at night. Above looms a logo as bare as a picked carcass: TEAR ME DOWN. And below, typed out: morire di tolleranza. The reduced color combinations are perfect.

Culturally speaking, the band’s inspiration is purely HC; there are no ska contaminations (read: Banda Bassotti), no Oi! (read: Colonna Infame), no metal (read: Plakkaggio), or pseudo-emo (read: Frammenti, a great band whose "emo" inspiration is anything but whiny). Musically speaking, what we have here is a handful of vicious tracks, like a punch in the teeth. There is a melodic intent and a certain attention to detail, but nobody cares if a chorus is off key. Or if a whole verse is out of tune, you know what I mean.

Because what matters here is the raw energy of this album. A voice that couldn’t be more HC and an instrumental section going a thousand miles an hour. There’s little point in a track-by-track analysis of songs that last only a few dozen seconds each. Still, I feel like pointing out two as the best of the bunch; "Scuola" has an excellent duality between verse and chorus, with a gang shout that’ll rattle your bones, because the mosh pit is about to toss them around. And then "Emo di merda", with a really great bass line. So the album flows, pounds, is relatively catchy, and meets the demands of that era. It takes a stand against emos, leftists and so on – according to a modus operandi that’s standard for hardcore punk. And for the fascists, Tear Me Down have plenty of kicks to the teeth and punches in store.

In the end, this record was made by young people, whose lives swing from one brawl to the next and who maybe still believe—rereading an old interview with Zerocalcare—that you fight back by sporting a mohawk, and above all, that the fight is on equal terms. Let me be clear: I don’t doubt that the band members knew real change isn’t brought about like that, but they too were products of their time and surely the reality they wanted to portray was more complex than what they managed to do in twenty minutes. We can imagine it, but in the end we’re talking about a group of kids who weren’t especially skilled and who certainly didn’t have the most sensitive souls in history. It’s not tragic, after all. Not everyone is the most important band in the movement. All things considered—some nice choruses, a few worthwhile lyrics, and cool riffs—I don’t think I’m being too harsh in saying that Tear Me Down weren’t musicians (meant not just as performers, but for their sensibility or musical soul) of particularly high level. So what? And yet, "Morire di tolleranza" still managed to change a lot of people, for a subtle reason but not difficult to explain. It’s a wild record, yes, for those who lived in the same cultural context. For those who, in the late '90s, were under the stage screaming "Vecchia scuola punk hardcore!", for those who in the late '90s got beaten by the riot cops, for those who in the late '90s drew Xs on their hands. And for those who today are under the stage screaming "Vecchia scuola punk hardcore!". In other words, the atmosphere our heroes convey may not come through in the best possible way, but it’s delivered well enough that plenty of people can see themselves in it. Because in the end, certain scenes repeat themselves, and the difference between an angry sixteen-year-old now and thirty years ago is just that some years have gone by. More or less. Historical value more than musical? Maybe; the musical side stands firm, but I like seeing records like this as if they were all, together, solid concrete building something big. So give it a spin, you won’t regret it. Rating: 79/100.