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Virulence
Virulence - If This Isn’t A Dream…1985 - 1989

1. Dead Weight
2. Wrapped Up
3. Worse Than Misery
4. Spilling It Out
5. Blank Stare
6. Kindergarten
7. Sleep
8. The Curse
9. Empty Head (Live)
10. Stall (Live)
11. Blank Star (Live)
12. Dead Weight
13. Wrapped Up
14. My Rules (Void Cover - Live)
15. Blacktop (Live)
16. All
17. Look At It Closely
18. Something Went Wrong/Promise Is Shot
19. Fatal Crash

Many years ago, Virulence, better known nowadays as Fu Manchu, recorded ‘If This isn’t A Dream’, now available as ‘If This Isn’t  A Dream…1985 - 1989’. With added live tracks, this is something stalwart fans of the Californian stoner rock/punk veterans will doubtless be looking to add to their collection.

‘Dead Weight’ has the disturbing murkiness of a dirty needle in a motel bed. The sludgy groove of stoner rock is all over this track, bending to the more aggressive bursts of punk with its rumbling bass and hollered lyrics. ‘All’ is punk in its rawest state, messy, angry and uncaring. This lack of refinement runs through all the tracks, especially the super short ‘Look At It Closely’ and the dishevelled ‘No Fun’.

Real punk fans will love this album. Everyone else will struggle with it. The production value is, true to the punk ethos, convoluted and crude. The live tracks were poorly recorded and are difficult to hear and some of the songs such as ‘Worse Than Misery’ are just pure lazy in both writing and playing. For hardcore fans only.

Reviewed by Annette Simmonds
‘If This Isn’t A Dream…1985 - 1989’ is out now on Southern Lord Records.






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