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Assück

Misery Index (1997)
Sound Pollution

Reviewer Rating:

Contributed by: plutocracy
(others by this writer | submit your own)

Published on February 13th 2004

This classic record is the last effort of the Florida-based grindcore trio Assück. For those of you who are familiar with the genre: Don't let the name turn you off. This has nothing to do with gore grind nor joke-grind such as A.C. For those of you unfamiliar with it: This is a very good introduction to the genre.

Assück were by no means pioneers of grindcore. They were however, in my opinion, one of the greatest songwriters the genre has ever seen. "Misery Index" offers 15 tracks of hard-hitting, lethally fast madness, all crammed into no more than 15 minutes. The low growling vocals, rapid blast beats, metal-flavored riffing combined with stop and go-parts, result in a nearly flawless display of what makes extreme music interesting. Even though every song has more or less the same feel to it, the song structuring keeps everything from getting anywhere near dull. Surprise attacks of breakdowns, mosh-parts, fast parts and ultra fast parts are arranged in a way that brutally grabs the listener's attention and doesn't let go until the last guitar stroke. The musicianship is also very impressing, especially the drumming. Guitarist/vocalist Steve Toshiba must have been amazing live, having the co-ordination to perform such high speed picking at the same time as growling equally as fast.

The lyrics are a chapter of their own. If you're fed up with regurgitated, predictable, slogan-based rhymes, look no further. Toshiba's lyrics are refreshingly deep, dealing with topics such as authority, violence, hypocrisy, futility and humanity's hopelessness in general. These topics may sound cliché, but they are dealt with in a very original and well reflected way. In some ways they resemble Bad Religion lyrics, only much crasser and darker. Highlights include "Of the many things worthy of dying there are none worthy of killing" (from "Lithographs"), as well as the opening line of the first track, "Qed": "Dare to speak of hope and aspiration, these are foul words, manufactured idols and the bait of lemmings".

If grindcore is your thing, don't limit yourself to new generation stuff like Pig Destroyer or Nasum, grab a hold of this disc.

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plutocracy (February 24, 2004)

"I thought the vocalist for assuck was named steve heritage?"

My bad. Toshiba is the bassist. That's what you get when you have two Steve's in your band.

Anonymous (February 18, 2004)

I have the Asshole Parade discography, student ghetto violence. If you have aol instant messenger give it to me and I will send you some songs. If you like crazy grind check out CombatWoundedVeteran, I recomend she devolpes crime scene photos. Other good tampa area bands were End of the centry Party, Unholy Alliance, Failure Face, Scrog.
If any of you get a chance checkout The Blackout Terror, by far the best heavy band still together from this area.

Anonymous (February 18, 2004)

Anyone have any Asshole Parade mp3?

Anonymous (February 16, 2004)

Euro grindcore is better...
Patareni
Agathocles
Cripple Bastards...

Anonymous (February 16, 2004)

Anticapital/Blindspot 3 was a far better CD release than this (better vocalists). Assuck liked to be termed "Fast Hardcore" over grind. The singer/guitarist's name is Steve Heritage not Toshiba. Not only did he co-run 403 Chaos reord store/venue in Tampa, he runs Schematics records and used to work at the famed Morrisound Recording Studio. At some pont he became a real DICK..at least every time i had dealings with him....and he now ive thatkfully out of state.

I rarely get into this genre of music but i am blown away by this band. Fuck Phil Spector...THIS IS A WALL OF SOUND.

Anonymous (February 16, 2004)

ZA isn't that great... For me, the crust has to come old school.

Amebix, ENT, and Nausea styles, MFer.

-BSD

Anonymous (February 15, 2004)

Guys, its all about Zombie Apocalypse.

Minor Threat

Anonymous (February 15, 2004)

Besides having a wicked cool name, the dude who reviewed this is right on. Though I prefer AntiCapital to this one, it's about time we see some hardcore reviews on this page.

For the kid a bunch of posts down below "Extreme Music" is a term used widely within the scene to describe the ultra-brutal styles of DIY - Not something Mr. Pluto came up with. Chris Dodge used that word all the time to describe his music.

If you folks wanna hear some more insane grind/HC check out HeWhoCorrupts, Discordance Axis, CombatwoundedVerteran, and the almighty Phobia.

-ken

Anonymous (February 15, 2004)

Landmine and Kungfu Rick? Hell yes! good stuff...

Anonymous (February 15, 2004)

I loooooooove AssucK!!!

Anonymous (February 14, 2004)

I thought the vocalist for assuck was named steve heritage? he also has a band called Scrawl. Scrawl is the weirdest music i have ever heard, ever!
The singer from assuck owned a record store called 403chaos, they had the best shows there, SPazz even played thereone

Anonymous (February 14, 2004)

Grind and crust were virtually the same for a while...

ENT, Terrorize, Napalm Death, etc.

All involved heavy political rants with super-fast metallic/punk rock music.

-BSD

Anonymous (February 14, 2004)

"It's more like crust hardcore...I know tons of people that like this band and none of them would be stupid enough to use the term "grindcore" to describe them."

You are dumb enough to use the term crust hardcore, assuck play grindcore, take note asshole!

Anonymous (February 14, 2004)

"...extreme music..." Is this a parent's reference guide to hardcore? I'm sorry, but you can't persuade people to like grindcore, therefore there is no need to review it side by side Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and the Dropkick Murphys. And why the hell has no one mentioned Spazz, Hellnation or xHIKEx? I have loads of respect for Assuck, but you all sound like you just stumbled upon the next big thing. Grindcore died years ago. Get over yourselves and your record collection."

why did you read this review? I dont think anyone owes it to you to mention the grindcore bands you like. Who cares if people did just stumble onto Assuck

Anonymous (February 14, 2004)

It's more like crust hardcore...I know tons of people that like this band and none of them would be stupid enough to use the term "grindcore" to describe them.

FortyMinutesWest (February 14, 2004)

Wow, we now have our first grindcore elitist, and it didn't take very long. Who needs to get over themself?

Anonymous (February 14, 2004)

how about Landmine or Kungfu Rick??

Assuck is pronounced "ah-sook".

Palatka were my favorite "power violence" band by far. Even though I'm not from FL...

Anonymous (February 14, 2004)

Is this another one of Chris Carraba's solo projects??

Anonymous (February 14, 2004)

Wow. Not only do we get pop punk reviews here, but grindcore ones as well.

I don't know what to make of this.