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Mecht Mensch: Anthology 12” (No Coast Records) Wisconsin’s No Coast Records brings us a release hardcore punk collectors have been salivating over for years: a complete anthology of recordings by their 80s hardcore hometown heroes Mecht Mensch! If you love 80s US hardcore and don’t know Mecht Mensch’s 1983 Acceptance EP, then boy do I have a treat for you. This is quite simply one of the greatest American hardcore records, and that it hasn’t been repressed since its original release is practically criminal. Of course, that gets rectified here, with all five tracks from Acceptance right up front on this collection, sounding great mastered from the original source tapes. One thing Anthology brings into focus is how crucial Butch Vig’s recording was to Acceptance’s awesomeness. Don’t get me wrong; Mecht Mensch was a great hardcore band, as evidenced by the other recordings that appear here. They had great songs, played with power and precision, and did their part to the highest standard, but when you combine that with Butch Vig’s production on Acceptance, it really launches this session into the stratosphere. The guitar sound on Acceptance is just perfect for me… warm, subtle, beefy, and just a little sparkly. I’m no Butch Vig Stan, but he did a great fucking job on these tracks. (One tiny nit-pick with the sequencing… I wish the two outtakes from the Acceptance session, which originally appeared on The Master Tape Vol 2, were right next to the Acceptance tracks rather than in the middle of side 2, but that’s a minor quibble.) Everyone needs those Acceptance tracks, but hardcore heads also need the rest of this LP, which gathers all of Mecht Mensch’s material into one place for the very first time. There’s the split cassette with their buddies the Tar Babies (which I’d only heard as sub-par cassette rips) and all the assorted appearances on compilations like Party or Go Home, The Master Tape, Meathouse, America’s Dairyland, and Barefoot & Pregnant. While these tracks aren’t as utterly perfect as Acceptance, they’re fucking great, and essential for anyone who loves Acceptance and wants to hear more. Anthology also comes with a thick booklet full of flyers, paste-ups, and other ephemera, as well as some beautiful photography on the gatefold and poster insert. The liner notes by Robin Davies tantalizingly mention post-Acceptance material that never got recorded, and that will haunt my dreams… I can’t tell you how much I would love to hear the “post-hardcore” era of Mecht Mensch. Thankfully, though, No Coast has crossed “great quality version of the Tar Babies split cassette tracks” off the long list of things I need to hear before I die. Whether you’re getting Acceptance into your collection for the first time or filling out your picture of Mecht Mensch beyond the EP, this LP is one of 2025’s essential releases for the 80s US hardcore fanatic.