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Choking Victim

No Gods / No Managers (1999)
Hellcat Records

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

Published on June 14th 2001

This CD has everything: Punk rock, ska, reggae, flamenco, metal and political spoken word by Michael Parenti. Choking Victim was one of the skapunk bands of the 90's that didn't fit into happy-happy joy-joy major label ska revival. Choking Victim are TRUE EVIL for your listening pleasure.. Although there's a cross upside down in the cover and lyrics are filled with references to crack cocaine and satan worship this is done so tongue-in-cheek that you just can't help smiling.

Musically this CD is a lot less evil than you would think from the cover. 500 Channels that begins the album is a mid-tempo punk rock song. When I first got this CD I had heard "Infected" from Give 'em The Boot vol. 1 and I had really high expectations, so when I first heard this song it was a kind of a let down. But fortunately this CD has lots of faster tracks to keep me interested, and soon I grew into the slower tracks too. Definite standouts on this CD are In Hell, Suicide (A Better Way) and War Story which all are fast and agressive more-or-less melodic punk rock anthems.

Fuck America is also interesting because of its slow metal intro, followed by ska parts with overdubbed political speech from Michael Parenti and a slow heavy "Whoah-who, fuck world trade, fuck the State, fuck America" chorus. On the 12th track "Praise To The Sinners" that blends into the last track "Livin The Laws" producer Mike Trujillo does an amazing cameo appearance when he plays a really cool latino flamenco acoustic guitar intro-solo-thingy. The CD ends into a depressing ska/metal burst that makes baby Jesus cry. Hidden after a two minute silence is a really mellow rocksteady version of Crack Rock Steady with horns and all.

There are a few things that make this CD more interesting than the average Epifat melo-HC record. STZA has an "unique" voice which is a kind of "whiny" (in a positive sense) screaming hardcore voice with occasional high blackmetallish screams. Although since the days of Clash and later Op Ivy, ska, reggae and punk have been blended together Choking Victim did it with a such non-compromising style that none of the ska/punk-explosion one-hit-wonders had.

Too bad they broke up, go buy this CD, after that get their EP compilation (Crack Rock Steady & Squatta's Paradise) and get the new Leftover Crack when it comes out!

As a sidenote, this CD doesn't have a barcode. Punk rock!

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Wobeir (March 20, 2007)

True Evil! Fuck Yeah!

miff (October 19, 2006)

oo just a tip
listen to the begining of hate yer state backwards its quite interesting

miff (October 19, 2006)

500 channels a let down?
are you ill?

timmytheturtle1039 (May 17, 2006)

This Cd should have got a 10

expendableyouth (April 13, 2006)

Choking Victim, indeed, they are one of the greatest bands to have existed. Leftover Crack, new name, same kick-ass old sound.

Anonymous (February 9, 2005)

i love everything about this album. i've had it for 2 years and its still at the top of my list. every song is completely brilliant and original. even the recording of it is perfect (i heard the whole album was recorded in only one day). definately an aquired taste, but i think this is the perfect album

Anonymous (January 26, 2005)

Awesome band! Great lyrics, if you hate church and state. Anyone can say what they want about this band, I dont care! I dont care if they're posers. I dont care! Great music is all I'm looking for. I love 'em. Too bad they broke up, but LOC is awesome too! Better lyrics, different sound though, at least Fuck World Trade is. Mediocre Generica stays to the roots of CV
-Peace, Junkine from SLC

Anonymous (March 8, 2004)

this band is easily written off as metal, till listened to, great cd, glad i risked it

Anonymous (March 29, 2002)

Great band. I like the comment about them being posers. Real genius. I've seen these guys dozens of times since they reformed as LOC. I guess the show you saw sucked, because they are a great band live band. Besides, I find it questionable that you saw Choking Victim, because hardly anyone saw them before they broke up which was before this album even came out.

Anonymous (November 10, 2001)

Woah, what's this about the live show, maybe the show sucked that you went to, but I've saeen them dozens of times ince '98, with great sound, stage diving, and energy. I've seen them suck, but most of the time they're great. And this album is great

Anonymous (October 1, 2001)

Posers? Don't know how you can come to that statement. But whatever, Choking Victim is great.

Anonymous (August 5, 2001)

Pretty bad live, the crowd is pretty wild, but the sound sucks and the band
lacks a good amount of energy. The
singer (Stza?) doesn't let anybody get on stage either or anything like that, which is kind of strange.

Geoff_Boyardee (June 20, 2001)

what a great CD. Not exactly musically perfect, but amazing for what it did to parody, thrash, and blow apart a sick and bloated genre. Corrupt in almost every way, it's a treat to listen to.

Anonymous (June 17, 2001)

great review!!

this is one turly great albums that standouts from the masses.

-faceecaf