Direct Action

***1984 was a pivotal moment for hardcore punk. After several years of rapid progression and intensification, outfits around the world were beginning to add a new heaviness to the sound, fortifying the speedy rush of the early eighties with a burlier, even more aggressive delivery. Taking the basic Discharge model as their template but amping up every element, groups like Britain’s Chaos UK and Varukers, Sweden’s Mob 47 and Anti-Cimex, America’s Poison Idea and COC, and Italy’s Raw Power and Wretched dropped 1984 records that marked the next step in this music’s evolution—and DIRECT ACTION's first tape was Canada’s contribution to that evolution. There’s little in the way of subtlety here, few concessions to nuance or melody: what Direct Action provide is sheer firepower, an attack of blazing speed and monochromatic aggro that reflects the group’s name perfectly in its simplicity and overwhelmingly energy, but nonetheless boasts a certain metallic heft absent from earlier hardcore outfits. Capturing the band raw and unrefined, the urgency and rage of this music make it the definitive Direct Action recording, and some of the most impressive punk rock that Toronto has ever produced. This new LP is the full session’s first-ever appearance on vinyl, complete with new title based on the TOHC book of the same name.