Customer Reviews

Vanguard

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I was somehow unaccountably into both militant veganism and syncretic Islam when I was younger, and Vegan Reich combined both, so of course I owned this and the Jihad ep and the original Hardline record which I bought off ebay. My friends all thought I was nuts, because I mostly hung out with a bunch of scummy and morally ambiguous people but was listening to a militant straight edge vegan shia band, and was no saint myself when you get right down to it. So with that ideological baggage behind me, as an (occasionally) meat eating and booze drinking atheist, what does it sound like now?

It's actually not bad. The lyrics aren't exactly Richard Wright, but it's hardcore, you can't understand them anyway. Also, unlike many later-day hardcore bands, Vegan Reich were willing to do some interesting stuff musically and incorporated some cool ideas. The metal is tastefully blended with the punk rock and doesn't sound like the cheesier crossover stuff that was so huge in the mid-80s. The instrumental track "mystic warrior" is atmospheric and pretty killer, kind of like Reverend Horton Heat's 'Big Sky' with a slightly Eastern feel. Other songs have elements of Bad Brains, Broken Bones, Discharge, and a little bit of Maiden. The liner notes, lyrics, and general slant of the band present a very black and white view of a multi-hued world, and "mystic warriors" have probably caused more death and destruction than any other wide grouping in history. But I believe that they were sincerely motivated by the often inexcusable way animals and the planet are treated, so I don't think it's 'fascist' per se although I can now see why people used to describe it as such. It's a fairly solid hardcore album if you don't care too much about lyrical content.

I'm not even vegetarian, much less militantly vegan, but musically and lyrically, this is one of my favorite hardcore albums of all time (after Minor Threat's discography and several of Bad Brains' releases). My favourite song is definitely Mystic Warrior, with its chillingly poetic guitar that brings one back to the time of Muhammad (sallallaho alayhi wa salam) and his band of Medinan warriors, galloping through the deserts of Arabia.

Music, average fast paced hardcore. Nothing special it's been said before they sound like a mix of Suicidal Tendancies (1st 2 LPs) and Minor Threat and that just about sums it up.

Lyrics, well lets see..... Well each to their own but have to say, when they first came out most people thought they were a joke band with all the hardline 'life for a life' stuff. Sort of like a reaction to the growing vegetarianism that was coming into straight edge (just as Slapshot would become the 'vanguard' (pardon the pun) of meat eaters) or just as Crucial Youth had done with their 'posi machine' LP. Sad thing is they were serious. I honestly think it was bands like this that killed off the second wave of straight edge in the 80s because it was from here that it went to Krishna, Hardline, Metal, Crust-punk, indifferance.

On the inside cover of the CD there is all this talk like they 'started a movement' (suppose in a way they did what with earth crisis and all) but come on, its all getting a little boring now.

Buy it if you must. If you dont, you are not missing much.