Spazz is the result of a few kids on the West Coast skating around, throwing each other’s skateboards with a “give me a spin bro, I’ll fly off this thing” attitude and never returning them, then deciding to turn their hyperactive, high-tension, rollercoaster-like mental chaos into noise-making in the studio. Naturally, for those who love the powerviolence craze, Spazz holds a special place. Despite their very short active period, it is true that they are among the most cult hardcore punk bands in history. In this respect, it’s clear that Spazz created a unique structural bridge between grindcore and hardcore punk. Even their 12" LP Crush Kill Destroy, the full-length record they released before vanishing without a trace after a career filled with numerous 7" splits and EPs, shows how much meaning can be extracted from Spazz.
They always had a lyrical attitude that could leave you questioning; the messages behind their lyrics were not easy to grasp. You can see how the members, who know what they’re doing, prefer to use their sarcastic humor or touch on social problems and political inconsistencies in unusual ways, hiding these messages behind bizarrely long song titles. It’s easy to think Spazz has a carefree, non-serious nature, but that’s exactly where they mislead you—because a seemingly nonsensical Spazz track is actually aimed at correcting the nonsense within society. So these guys often provide glimpses of events happening around them, write songs addressed to their friends, explore hardcore-metal-punk intersections to gauge people’s thoughts and reactions, remind us abundantly that humans have lost their minds, and play with politics lyrically while also touching on famous people. So that’s worth mentioning.
Actually, Spazz never claimed “We played grindcore,” but they left a huge mark on grindcore in their short career, and that deserves respect. I’ll make a separate note for Siege, but along with their Californian brothers Capitalist Casualties, Man Is The Bastard, and Crossed Out, as well as their peers or influences like Charles Bronson, Larm, Infest, and Dropdead, they stitched hardcore punk and grindcore together tightly and took it to an important point. On this record, Spazz’s familiar high-tension, heart-racing, nerve-wracking excitement flows through Crush Kill Destroy’s 24 tracks with more mature lyrics and well-balanced instrumentation, electrifying your ears. It’s like they decided to have such a wild and crazy last session in the studio that people would be blown away. In short, Spazz took their simple music up a notch to a more mature level.
Outstanding dual vocal attacks compete with each other at top level; Chris’s unique vocal tone brings a suffocating hardcore vocal style complemented perfectly by insanely skilled drumming, and Max’s furious scream vocals paired with pounding blast beats add even more intensity. The crispy, raw thrash-grindcore guitar sound is one thing, but the motor-like bass tone adds an extra layer of madness to the music, and the fast bass solos bring aggression, creating a great balance. The bass plays a complementary role almost throughout the whole record. Also, all three members put great effort into their unique vocals. As usual, the tracks are short, mostly under 1 minute and 30 seconds. One of these, “Bobby Dee In The Hour Of Chaos,” which supports bands like Artillery and Hirax, opens with brutal hardcore vocals, roaring motorized bass, and drumming noise like a drill, showcasing an ultra hardcore frenzy with screams and brutal vocals back-to-back.
Similarly, “Chris Pooped At The Skatepark,” which is one of the tracks dedicated to themselves, their crew, or friends, is a manic piece with stop-and-go tempos, sweeping drum rhythms, and consecutive dual vocal attacks that drive you crazy. A different kind of song, “Jeb For Ruler Of The (Formerly) Free World,” opens with excellent bass tones, features slow sections with a dominant tempo that rapidly shifts near the end, hooligan-style chorus vocals, and drumming that blasts away to create chaos, inviting you to lose your mind.
Among the tracks worth mentioning is the 16-17 second “Black n’ Dekker Crusty Wrecker,” which delivers a ruthless societal critique from the perspective of animals. Also, “Heynerdshovetheinternetupyourgapinganalcavity@dork.com” critiques the social life stuck in the virtual realm with lines like “All your light comes from a monitor’s glow, you download millions of megabytes but have nowhere to go.” Another harsh message to the increasingly popular hardcore scene comes in “The Complete And Utter Eradication Of All Generic Pop-punk.” After calling out the melodic hardcore plague and crappy harmonies, they finish with a critical perspective aimed at NOFX and their copycat nonsense bands, telling them to stop being “just another NOFX.” The first part, “Now 50% More Pants Shitting,” which features industrial experimentation, questions the rising ethnocentric thoughts infiltrating the hardcore scene.
If you have a hyperactive kid who can’t sit still, never let them listen to Spazz; otherwise, the drum and vocal assault might cause chaos, and they might even beat you up. The 19-minute rollercoaster Spazz attack and the hardcore-thrash-grindcore destruction are some of the last powerviolence legacies from the ’90s. For those who haven’t seen this movie before, check it out. While Spazz’s 7" releases are a category on their own, this classic 12" holds its special place as well.