V/A - A Compilation For Atonement

Label: Dog Collar

Year: 1996

Dwid and his buddies were nothing if not prolific in the middle if the 1990s. All the Dark Empire, Blood Book, Holy Terror, the splits...there was a lt coming out of Cleveland from a relatively small group of friends(?). Most of it was fascinated with serial killers, Francis Bacon, and Japanese hardcore, and trying to forget about the whole Youth Crew "thing" they had been into.

This compilation is no different. And that's cool.

Bands:

Integrity - a Humanity Is The Devil era quick hitter. It's got the Melnick's involved, so you're dealing with gold standard Integrity lineup material. Metallic crusty hardcore par excellence.

State Of Conviction - very "Cleveland" sounding, in that it has a distinct Integrity feel, but it also has a lot of Necros-on-half-speed vibes. One of the dudes went on to that weird Mushroomhead band. 

Psywarfare - you get two tracks of manipulated noise from this Dwid offshoot. I can recall when a lot of the hardcore universe was enamored by Merzbow...Dwid REALLY was.

Rape Whistle - surprise; it's another Dwid project! This time he joins up with one of the guys from State Of Conviction to play what could be fairly described as "a State Of Conviction song with Psywarfare playing on top of it". I guess it's technically three songs...but you would never know that.

DL