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Vol. 2-Complete 1983-1985
Filed under ArticlesJul 25
4 Responses to “Vol. 2-Complete 1983-1985”
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The first four tracks are killer, tight-sounding songs. Take “Up Against the Wall,” off the Peace/War comp: it absolutely rips! And then the live tracks circa 1985 aren’t as great, but the “In This Life” portion of the album, which would be from track 7 to 17, is just completely emo. Yuck! I get an uneasy feeling listening to these whiny songs, and cringe at them. I can hear traces of AFI and Dag Nasty and Tiger Army, and just, well, bands in which I’m embarrassed to even mention their names. What a shameful purchase I’ve made. This’ll go right next to that Cheap Sex album, in the shelved category! “Wait,” “Buy This War,” and “Up Against the Wall” should’ve just been tacked on to the end of Complete Vol. 2. If you’re looking for a glorious punk rock gem, AVOID THIS!
Rating: 1 / 5 -
how can his opinion be valid if he only compares this to “emo”? thats what 12 year olds do when they try to look cool, they also try to wear mohawks and listen to the casualties. articles of faith started out as a political band, when i first heard them it was when they were way more political than the stuff on here. honestly, when you drown your music in politics, the quality of musicianship of your creation gets a little well, boring. i thought it was good: the mastertape comp tracks, the first ep and lp. mostly though i prefered other less-politicized bands from chicago like the effigies. but once i heard the “in this life” lp i knew i had this band totally wrong. thats why you can never judge a band completely by one song, or one record. the music here is an ingenious mix of hardcore with several other musical elements, some kind of latin guitar feel with speedy drums, powerful yet touching vocals(like on “in this life”, and “remain in memory”). if you listen to dustin, you are probably afraid of something stupid just like him.
Rating: 5 / 5 -
That kid who stated AOF’s songs sound emo does not know what he is talking about and comparing it to mostly bands who came after 1990! Hey kid! AOF’s In This Life LP came out way before “emo”. Kid, why don’t you go to Hot Topics and buy a Good Charlotte T-shirt cuz the punk scene whether old or new does not need fools like you!
Rating: 5 / 5 -
Again, I’ve gotta thank Alternative Tentacles for re-issuing the Articles of Faith discography. Volume 2 is extra special because it contains the first ever re-release of AOF’s final LP, “In This Life” (most of the group’s previous material had been re-issued in Europe in the early ’90′s). With “In This Life” the group ditched its political rants for more personal topics, a move that evidently caused a great deal of tension in the band. While Vic Bondi’s claim that this is one of the first emo releases is certainly debateable (I don’t believe that simply writing about personal issues qualifies as “emo”, otherwise you could as easily call Black Flag and Minor Threat emo as you could bands like Braid and Sunny Day Real Estate), there is no doubt that the band was venturing out both musically and lyrically. “In This Life” also displays a bit of a Husker Du influence, which is somewhat understandable considering that not only was Husker Du quite popular at the time but Husker Du frontman Bob Mould is also “In This Life”‘s producer. Still, there was plenty of hardcore left msucially in AOF. Just listen to “Remain in Memory” or “Doesn’t Have To Be That Way” to see what I mean. The unreleased bonus track is actually just a solo acoustic rendition of “What We Want is Free”, one of AOF’s earliest tracks, recorded in May 2002 and I actually found it to be quite good, better that the folky version of “In This Life” on Vol. 1 (not that I think that one is bad).
I could do without the Effigies bashing in the liner notes. As a fan of both bands, I understand that they didn’t get along but two decades later, their differences seem rather petty. But whatever, liner notes aside, the music is great. Fans of ’80′s punk and hardcore will enjoy.
Rating: 5 / 5
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