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I’ve been thinking about crossover a lot lately. A “genre delineation” you might say, and a meaning or concept that has been occupying my brain space for many different reasons as of late. Metal meets punk… Or punk meets metal? I guess you could lazily describe the sound in this way, but I feel like the term “crossover” references an explosive saturation of bands during a very particular moment in extreme music. During the mid-80’s, in the United States in particular, a flirtation crept to the surface between underground hardcore punk and the emergence of thrash metal. It’s wild to think about Metallica interviews appearing in DIY punk fanzines, likely around the time when Kill ‘Em All was still on an indie label, and well before Ride The Lightning brought the band over to Europe and they exploded in popularity. I do have a bit of North Carolina pride thinking about how Corrosion of Conformity was a prominent force during this era. Around the time Animosity was recorded, I think COC was practically fully embraced by the West Coast punk and metal scenes alike. I’ve personally drooled over tons of flyers from 1985 of gigs that COC played while in California, with like GBH and Metal Church on the same gig. Or at a venue like Ruthie’s Inn, a famous hub for hardcore/thrash metal crossover gigs, where COC played with Bl’ast! and Possessed on the same gig. Wild.
So, what is crossover really? Was it simply a moment when hardcore punk intermingled with heavy metal, and those bands incorporated elements of thrash as the once primitive hardcore musicians got better at their instruments? Sure. But as with all genre-defining terms, you can’t so easily confine every band into a box. For me, I like to think of crossover as maybe sonically resembling metal influence in the musicianship -- BUT also maintaining the politics and social awareness of punk. I mean mostly in the band’s attitude and in the lyrics, rather than singing about Satan or death and mutilation or whatever. I mean, yeah, beer-guzzling skids are gonna love it… also, the record’s gonna have insane, gnarly, bright and colorful Pushead cover art… And the record is gonna sound particularly fucking good while you’re watching a dude blasting a huge air out of a bowl while riding a Powell-Peralta Caballero board. It all goes together.
Now my point, if there’s one band that is emblematic of the balance between the over-the-top, dayglo splatter ridiculousness and radical social consciousness, then it’s Italy’s almighty Raw Power. Gah-deyum, I fuckin’ love Raw Power. And yeah, I know my opening salvo was all about punk and metal in the States, but I’m flying us all the way over to Italy for my staff pick. Certain friends of mine would probably argue that Raw Power isn’t really pure crossover. They definitely don’t sound like M.O.D. or some shit like that. But to me, they’re part of the conversation. If for nothing else, because of the presentation, the sound, and the era when Screams From The Gutter was released. Guilty by association, you might say.
Recently, Sorry State stocked a new reissue of Screams From The Gutter, and it seems like we haven’t really been selling many of them. My gut reaction is what’s wrong with yall? But I do feel like we’ve had several other reissues of this Raw Power record released on several different labels as well. I don’t wanna call Raw Power a “cheap date” or anything, but I don’t really understand why it’s been so easy for reissue labels to get the official license or publishing of this classic in order to keep re-releasing it. I would like to think it’s because these labels understand this record is such a colossal ripper that it needs to keep being in print! I remember Back On Black did a reissue a few years back. This most recent reissue that Sorry State is stocking is on the prolific FOAD label. I gotta say, because the cover art on this record is so iconic, the reissue had better do the image of that melting mutant emerging from the sewers justice!! Compared to previous reissues, FOAD’s treatment of the cover art looks much better – less dull, super vibrant colors. I might even say the palette uses more of a hot pink in exchange for the more subdued purple on my original Toxic Shock copy. Tangent warning: Speaking of Toxic Shock, there is a Raw Power and COC connection. I think Screams is Toxic Shock catalog #3. Then Toxic Shock #4 is the 80s repress of Eye For An Eye, which came out right after COC initially released it on their own No Core, which surely got their record a ton more distribution. Very cool. Funny enough, the Toxic Shock catalog insert pictured below was the inspiration for my recent design of the Sorry State ad for Deletär and Fugitive Bubble ;)