InEffect Hardcore Tear It Down
- david1170
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
Chris Wynne of InEffect Hardcore reviews Tear It Down
An absolute beast of a book here at over 600 pages and 220,000 total words, “Tear It Down, How Crossover Bridged Metal And Punk” continues the strong underground lineage that the UK’s Earth Island Books has created over the years.
Alex Anesiadis attacks the crossover topic in a DIY zine type of way with 180 interviews with bands that date back to the 1980’s to post-2000 and current day ones as well. A key takeaway here is the fact that Alex is an obvious music fanatic and that translates into a serious deep dive into the topic of “when hardcore punk collides with metal” as it did in a big way in the 1980’s.
NYHC fans will probably recognize and appreciate old-school bands like The Mob, Antidote, Agnostic Front, Crumbsuckers, Killing Time, Leeway, The Icemen, Ludichrist and NYC Mayhem being included but things fan out way beyond the 80’s/90’s NYC hardcore realm as they also bring in other players like Power Trip, Combust, and Aggros (who feature Parris Mayhew who also wrote the forward to this book).
Further appeal comes from the fact that they get into what seems like every nook and cranny on the topic with bands like Lethal Aggression, Darkside NYC, Cryptic Slaughter, Hogan’s Heroes, Beyond Possession, Excel and Nuclear Assault also coming into the fold. East Coast, West Coast, UK, Europe, South America, Asia, The Moon and beyond… if they have/had crossover bands within their borders there is a good chance they are mentioned in this book. Record labels, fanzine creators and artists are also brought into the seemingly non-stop coverage.
Covering bands with names such as Electro Hippies, The Legion Of Parasites, Metal Duck, Pre Metal Syndrome, Death In Your Yard and Whoppers Taste Good is further proof of how in-depth Alex gets.
The last line of the synopsis on the back cover here says; “Tear It Down” stands as the most extensive document ever produced on the crossover phenomenon”. With this book seemingly weighing more than an actual brick it will be hard for anyone to debate this statement.
Click HERE to get more info and grab a copy directly through Earth Island Books. Copies can also be obtained through most major book selling websites/stores.
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