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 | The Faith / VoidFaith/Void/Faith1993 Dischord 
 Review by: BSD See others by this writer The Faith / Void @ Dischord (link) Only registered users can post comments 
 
Published on October 1st 2004
Dischord put two of their most underrated harDCore records onto one plastic disc in the early 90’s... Recently (2002, I believe), they were re-mastered and re-released sounding cleaner than ever. The first 30-some minutes of the disc are the brilliant "Faith/Void" split from 1982. The Faith were Alec MacKaye’s band after the Untouchables (who were also great in their own right and are featured on the Flex Your Head compilation). Their sound is fast and brutal, pretty standard hardcore, sounding like a more calculated, negative Minor Threat. Alec’s nasally vocals and lyrics, with their mean spirited finger pointing, have more in common with Boston bands like SSD and Negative FX than their Washington contemporaries. Their twelve songs are good, but unremarkable. On the other hand, Void throw the unsuspecting listener through a loop. Their 12 songs (also the only stuff of theirs ever legitimately released) are probably the most influential on the punk-thrash scene of the 90’s in that their songs are barely held together structure-wise. Bubba Dupree’s guitar work combines the distortion of Black Flag and the chugging, speedy riffs of Motorhead, developing a sound that’s probably the most chaotic of all early hardcore. John Weifenbach’s vocals are those of a demon screeching from the pits of hell, a Catholic school boy possessed to murder all his classmates. Subject matter ranges from a pre-Slayer Holocaust story (“Condensed Flesh”), to laughing at all of the tools of the world (“Ignorant People”, “Ask Them Why”, “My Rules”), to social commentary (“Self-Defense”, “War Hero”), and school-sponsored sports (“Organized Sports”). In short, Void’s 12 songs are worth it, alone. Finishing off the CD version of this release is Faith’s “Subject to Change” EP, which is polished off, melodic Hardcore from 1983. It ends up sounding like a not-as-good “Out of Step”-era Minor Threat, with lyrics that are pretty corny. For all his preaching on the “Faith/Void” split, it seems brother Alec is now “Subject to change in ever way”. If you can get past the awful lyrics, you’ll be able to enjoy some of the last hardcore to be released by Dischord, an important document in being one of the first hardcore bands to slow down and go melodic. Anyone into more popular hardcore bands like Minor Threat and Bad Brains should probably pick this up, and if you get hooked on Void, you can find their Hit & Run demo on Soulseek pretty easily. People who liked this also liked:           Please login or register to post comments. What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?
To the guy below me; anyone seen the live footage of Void on the dischord box set? it's pretty funny/great, their guitarist looks like he stepped out of the movie Lost Boys and their singer, ironically, looks like a he just got out of gym class. they couldn't fucking play too well, they were never in time with each other, but it worked. good band. yeah, the egghunt single is a good time. but more importantly, get the fucking skewbald/grand union single. it sounds like 2 lost minor threat songs (ian and jeff plus eddie from rites of spring/faith made after minor threat broke up the first time)! i just got the remastered version of this, so i've been listening to it a lot lately. i think the faith stuff doesn't get the credit it deserves. if the faith stuff was on a separate disc from void, it would be more highly regarded, i think. i love both bands. These are two of the most criminally underappreciated HC bands out there, along with Scream. fucking amazing record...i suppose you could call the faith unremarkable, but i think that's an understatement...those faith tracks are just great old school hardcore, played the way it should be...although i think subject to change is better, there songs are still awesome... I love all the subtle shots takin at me because Las Vegas only has ONE real independent record store. Maybe some of you kids live in a City with a music scene. I don't "I never thought I'd see this reviewed here. Great record, even though I've never been able to track it down so I just have a burned copy. "Rat Patrol" by the Untouchables is one of my favorite hardcore songs ever. The two takes of Authority on the Dischord Box set take that title for me. Yeah, their Flex Your Head songs aren't as tight, they sound like a mix of their H&R demo and this. Still good stuff, and "Dehumanized" is possibly their best song ever. BSD, Void had songs on Flex Your Head, and also a legitamite collection of demos was released as the 'Condensed Flesh' 7". It's probably pretty hard to find, but a rip of it is up on the Unixpunx FTP server. I highly recommend it. This deserves the 10. Good review, too. "Also I have a MacKaye related question for anyone out there. Anyone heard Pailhead? I guess they were an early mix of industrial, and hardcore featuring Al Jourgensen and Ian MacKaye. I can't find anything by them or any info (other then a paragraph in "American Hardcore", and I love Lard so i'm sure i'd dig this." Sometimes I think you're a jerk, but BSD, this stuff is great. Really, the rating thing is because I want people to read the whole review, not just see a 4 or 3 stars and assume it's mediocre music. BSD yoiu dumbass stop giving every fucking cd 5 stars i found some pailhead on audiogalaxy (i think) a bazillion years ago it seems. "some bunny" and "i will refuse" are the only two song titles i can recall. they had like 1, maybe 2 twelve inch singles on Wax Trax (the earliest KMFDM label), and it's all about being super rare nowadays. i'm sure you could find some mp3's on the various filesharing sites, and it's worth it, to hear ian mackaye vocalising over ministry type mayhem. if you read the "dance of days" book by mark anderson about the DC scene through the eightes he writes a little about how/why ian and al got together. i guess al was at a crossroads about what to do musically, as he was tired of the lame disco-techque electronics scene that earlier ministry was all about. Absolute ten. I never thought I'd see this reviewed here. Great record, even though I've never been able to track it down so I just have a burned copy. "Rat Patrol" by the Untouchables is one of my favorite hardcore songs ever. nicely done. This shit is weak as hell! |
