American Dissystema has been going for a while now and what better way to sum things up so far, in time for a coming LP, than this compilation of their works? Forty tracks taken from their "Grim Prospects of our Future" LP, the split EPs with Holokaust and Endless Nightmare, the split 10" with Earth Today, their two demos "Raw Punk Holocaust" and split with Disdrunk, and an unreleased compilation track.
I had to return to what I wrote about their demo "Raw Punk Holocaust" when I reviewed that one four years ago to see if I still agreed to the praise back then. Well, based on the demo alone I do, but since this band has evolved a lot in quality over the years the demo doesn't hold up against their more recent material. And why should it, it's a demo and that the tracks are rough isn't something I'm gonna hold against the band, and it's still good stuff anyway.
What's really good on this CD though are of course the later tracks, especially the LP and split with Endless Nightmare, and I just have to mention the excellent track "There One Minute…" from the Holokaust split which was an instant hit for me when I first got my hands on that EP and has been so since. The split 10" is also real killer and where it might not have the same developed song writing as later it makes up for it in the raw powerful sound. Shit, it's all good stuff really. Intense and ravaging scandi-styled US crustcore which is comparable to a bunch of Scandinavian bands (obviously) and other US bands doing similar stuff like State of Fear on the later tracks and something more along the lines of Disrupt on the demo tracks.
So far I've only seen the cover art to the coming LP (which is promising indeed) but I can't wait to hear the music and just hope they've continued on the same raw hardcore punk path and will deliver more of the killer riffs, backed up by savage drumming and fronted by roaring vocals, as before.
Dissystema are a great band that while not re-inventing the wheel much they still make it roll damn fine. [Krogh - July 19, 2008]