Crucifix

Crucifix

Dehumanization

Kustomized

BACK IN STOCK!  Dehumanization is the only full length album from the band Crucifix. Recorded in 1983, it is considered a classic American hardcore album and a landmark of anarcho-punk. Dehumanization delivers a raging critique of war, violence, displacement, and the decimation of human rights and human dignity—themes at once global in scope and also completely endemic to Reagan-era America. The intensity of this message is matched only by the intensity of the sound: a heavy minimalist construction built on brutal guitar riffs, low-end distortion, hardcore fury and teenage speed. It is an album of pure raw power, a hot blast of personal and political outrage and musical adrenaline. Fusing California hardcore with metal and second wave British anarcho-punk, Crucifix carved out their own highly distinctive wall of sound on this release. Ignoring the rules of punk purism in favor of a well produced huge guitar sound, the album preceded much of the hardcore metal crossover of the mid-80s and played an influential but often unacknowledged role in the punk and metal subgenres that followed. “Annihilation,” the album’s opening track, has become iconic. Quoted often, it’s been sampled by Orbital and covered by A Perfect Circle and Sepultura.  The original vinyl version of Dehumanization was released on the Crass Records offshoot label Corpus Christi in the UK, and has been out of print since the 1980s. This new Kustomized rerelease has been carefully remastered from an original vinyl source and adheres closely to the audio quality of the...

Crucifix

Crucifix

Kustomized

Reissue of 1981’s classic first recording by legendary San Francisco band Crucifix. This EP’s raw Sabbath-fueled punk, Shaggs-like musicianship and honest teenage angst provoked one reviewer at the time to write, “it makes you feel like going out and bludgeoning an old lady to death.” Recorded at Tom Mallon Studios in San Francisco in 1981, and originally released on Universal Records, this long out-of-print five track EP contains the band’s defining anthem of the period, “You’re Too Old.”

Crucifix

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Kustomized

Originally released in 1982 on the band’s own Freak records, this classic single was a massive musical leap for Crucifix, providing a link between the initial self titled 12-inch EP and the Dehumanization LP, an undeniable classic of Reagan-era hardcore political punk. Nineteen Eighty-Four is a lo-fi, live-in-studio 2 track recording capturing the band at full intensity, an onslaught of volume and distortion. This recording marked the band’s move into the area of political engagement through message, graphics, and a DIY ethos. In the spirit of the original Freak release, this reissue includes a remake of the patch that was silkscreened by the band for the first pressing in 1982.

Crucifix

Exhibit A.

Kustomized

***Your fucking eye raked on a seven-inch hair spike is just the beginning of this 1979-1984 retrospective look at one of California’s most seminal hardcore bands. Compiling the tracks from their out-of-print eponymous 12-inch, their 1984 7-inch, “Steel Case Enclosure” from the Rat Music For Rat People Volume 2 comp, “Annihilation” from MRR’s All Quiet on The Western Front, comp., plus five live motherfuckers recorded at CBGB’s in 1984. Sixteen tracks compiled and digitally remastered by the band and released on their own label, so it sounds a lot better than any of those expensive “fan club” things floating around.