Customer Reviews

Screams from the Gutter

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And what a cd it is! Their classic Screams From The Gutter album was such an intense masterpiece, it's hard to say for sure if they ever reached this kind of greatness again(their still puttin' out strong releases to this day, unfortunately, their guitarist and founding member Guiseppe Codeluppi passed on in Oct. '01, but his brother, and other founding member, is keeping the band together and may be back in North America next spring('04), if they do and you haven't seen 'em, do yourself a favor and go, their live show is said to be amazing). However, the 17 songs that make up Screams... are all hardcore gems, State Opression, Hate, No Card, Don't Let Me See It, Raw Power, just to name a few. After Your Brain, released in '86, is pretty well more of the same, the only difference is their original guitarist plays on this one(apparently, he couldn't come across with them on their first US tour, so they brought Davide, who played on the Screams... album as it was recorded at Paul Mahern's studio in Indianapolis.), but the songs are just as strong, You Are Fired, We Shall Overcome, After Your Brain, Shut Up and Buy And Pay just to name another few. 30 rippin' tracks of pure, unadulterated hardcore to make your ears bleed. Again, Blink 182 and their ilk could learn a thing or two from Raw Power, but they probably won't.

One of the greatest hardcore punk bands to ever come out of Italy. They play a loud, fast, "raw," and furious brand of hardcore. This CD combines thier first two "American" releases "Screams From The Gutter" and "After Your Brain" which were both originally released on Toxic Shock Records back in the early eighties. It's worth every penny I paid for it just to have these two classic albums in my house again. Trust me it's worth it just for the anthemic track "We Shall Overcome" alone. Sadly guitarist and founding member Guiseppe passed away this past November 2002, after playing a footbal game in his hometown. R.I.P.

This is one of the finest punk albums to come out of the 80's,with frantic and some times indistinguishable lyrics. It is the thrid full lenght release from this dynamic outfit from Italy on Toxic Shock records from 1985. Absolutly worth it.

When Screams came out in 1984 it was certainly the first Italian HC record to get wide attention in the world of punk, outside of Italy, particularly in the U.S. as it was released by a U.S. label cuz it was recorded in Indianapolis two thirds into RAW POWER's first U.S. tour. Paul Mahern of Zero Boys produced it at the studio he worked at. It was recorded in one day.

Davide was the only non-original band member. He took the place of the original bassist who was also the original screamer who did about 6 songs including the classics 'Raw Power/F. Authority'. Davide brought a tinge of more metal hint to the guitar but mainly filled in great and he did a nice version of the screaming. What's really cool is that the band was already tight but they got to weave Davide into the set really solid playing about 15 or so gigs together before recording this album.

Once it came out it was, besides BGK from Holland, maybe the single most enjoyed and known non U.S./non UK punk album. There was PANDEMONIUM and LARM from Holland and [...] and TERVEET KADET from Finland. I think the 1984 tour also helped them get more known cuz I'm sure after punx saw them that many looked for the album and anything else by them cuz they were consistently powerful and musical and real alive on stage. I never met a single person who said they didn't completely dig one of the 1984 shows. I was lucky enough to see most of all 24 shows cuz me and my partner and my wife (still got the same wife!) organized the tour.

I don't have much knowledge of AYB. I've heard it like once. It's pretty good. Their albums, over time, got a bit more metal or rock until they just got out of hand until they turned it around back to great punk in the late 90's. Take my word for it, the guys were terrific. I'd never known anyone who had to each 3 meals a day pretty much on time and no snacks. Course, there was no weight problems either. Giuseppe and Dode spoke like 5 words in English. If I could scare up some Spanish they always knew what I was saying cuz the two languages are very similar. And when I used punk words like 'gig' or 'Minor Threat' we could communicate. Screams is a classic. You will not be disapppointed, assuming you did HC especially with double guitars and double bass drums and throw in a big 'ol rough Italian cow bell. Yow. A friend of Paul's actually video taped about 5 of the songs during the recording of this album. If anyone stumbles on him or his video please tell the band and/or me and Mr. Video taped the Philly show and UPS (the band) video taped them in Tucson. chrisbct@hotmail.com