Tangled Up / Live Or Else [Original recording remastered]

The Necros | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 5, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Restless Records
• ASIN: B0007Y098C
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #304,004 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Gun

2. Blizzard Of Glass

3. Big Chief

4. Open Wound

5. Tangled Up

6. Power Of Fear

7. Black Water

8. Noise

9. 500 Years, A Pack Of Kools

10. Nile Song

11. House Full Of Drunks

12. Tangled Up

13. Blizzard Of Glass

14. Love Dagger

15. Gun

16. Black Water

17. Race Riot

18. Youth Camp

19. Open Wound

20. God's Anvil

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Ohio punk-rockers The Necros burst onto the scene in the early '80's with a series of influential punk-thrash 45's. Tangled Up, their second (and final) studio album is one of the finest early examples of punkmetal fusion. Now it's back in an expanded edition, including a while album's worth of bonus live tracks from the Tangled Up tour, including their devastating Ted Nugent Medley!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Record(s) That Infuriated The Freezer "Kids", November 16, 2005

By 

317 East 32nd (Toledo, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tangled Up / Live Or Else (Audio CD)

Interesting choices for reissue. This disc contains the last two Necros LPs, generally comprising their least essential recordings. Not to say there aren't a few blistering cuts here.

Prior to Tangled Up's release, my metal-oriented friends and I had been hanging at singer Henssler's place practically every weekend, where we'd hear rough mixes of the forthcoming LP, plus we played a few shows with them in Detroit, so we really got to know about half the new material pretty well. To cover Pink Floyd's "Nile Song" was an ambitious move back in '84-'85, but, coming as it did hot on the heels the Necros recording of "Walkin' The Dog" (on the Jail Jello EP) this sort of long-haired semi-stoner rock did not go over well with the "hardcore" Detroit contingent.

If you've heard bootlegs of Necros recordings like the I.Q 32 nine-song EP and the Conquest For Death LP, the out-and-out rock 'n' roll of many of these tracks ("Tangled Up," "Power of Fear," "Big Chief") may leave you less than impressed. At the time, the move away from thrash represented the band's dissatisfaction with the hardcore "scene," a denunciation of misguided Straight Edge fascism in that scene, and a strong assertion that irony, humor and "rock" should always have a place in "punk." Plus, these guys have always dug Motorhead, The Nuge, etc.

Thus, guitarist Andy Wendler frequently freaks freely on his Hamer Standard, Todd Swalla's drum sound boasts a metallic edge (courtesy of producer and Seduce manager Ken Waagner), and bassist Ron "Smythe" Sakowski finally gets his thudding plonk on tape, having been in the band for a couple years at this point.

It's quite obvious which tracks were most recently added to the bands repertoire; there are a few surprisingly effective thrashers (older), the aforementioned uptempo rockers (newer), and, complementing the extended jam at the end of "Big Chief," two pieces of instrumental filler ("500 Years," "A House Full Of Drunks") originally intended to take up space and push the LP's length toward the half-hour mark. These "fillers" do possess a certain charm, and it's nice to hear Ron tinkling the ivories on "Drunks," but the overall result left some in the "community" bellowing "sell-out," which really irked the band members. In fact, for some Detroit "punks" it was the last straw, leading to physical threats after one memorable Detroit show. Personally, having been very impressed at the time, I still dig the record for what it is. Hey, Why Be Something That You're Not (Anymore)?

Faced with a "contractual obligation" a couple years later (after a tour with Megadeth), the band returned to the studio to record their fake "live" final LP. Here humor and irony take center stage, so to speak, with "screw it, we're breaking up anyway" and "gee, people sure are stupid" watching from the wings, resulting in both an acceptable rock LP and, simultaneously, a passable comedy album.

This two-fer is an accurate representation of a band's eagerness to move on and get beyond the hardcore pigeonhole. There's plenty of wise-ass Midwest humor here, along with an acknowledgement of '70s influences, and a much more "polished" overall sound. For better or worse, this is what Necros sounded like in the mid-to-late '80s. Of course, we'd all like to see the early stuff reissued (Sex Drive, Nine-song, Conquest... Ambionic Studios Demos??), but it ain't gonna happen, so we get this, and I suppose we're grateful, I dunno...

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not hardcore, not metal - just rock!!, July 30, 2008

By 

Woodrow (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tangled Up / Live Or Else (Audio CD)

Back when this came out noone knew what to make of it. The hardcore audience HATED it and it wasn't heavy enough for the metal crowd. I saw them open for the Circle Jerks when "Tangled Up" came out (1986? 87?) and they did not go over well at all. The crowd just sort of stood there not knowing what to do.

If the idea of a hardcore band rediscovering Aerosmith and Ted Nugent interests you, then you probably own this already. The fake live album is pretty good, too.

Check out Mighty High...In Drug City.