Civil Dissident - Menzies' Crack LP 

Label: Prank Records; Year: 1996: Format: Vinyl LP

What we have here is a little known gem of a band from the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Australia is a goldmine when it comes to loud, obnoxious and primitive Rock'N'Roll. What the land "Down Under" is not really known for that well is straight forward bludgeoning hardcore punk. Civil Dissident released officially just one 7" EP in 1985 and the songs on this LP are all from 1982, 1984 and 1985 when they disbanded. The inlay has a nice write up by Scotti from Resistant Harmony Fanzine and Civil Dissident's most consistent line up basically evolved out of three bands: Civil Dissident, Society's Victim and Mad Flowers. As a matter of fact Civil Dissident and Mad Flowers supported the Dead Kennedys in 1983 in Melbourne. Listening to the songs contained on this record I couldn't help thinking of UK bands like Icons of Filth or Antisect. Scotti's liner notes mention that the band drew influences from UK bands such as Crass or Discharge as well as Euro/Japan bands like Stalin or Negazione and of course US hardcore acts like SS Decontrol, Faith or Jerry's Kids. It makes sense as some songs have a heavy Boston influenced sound and are straight fast paced hardcore punk smashers whereas other songs are slower, heavier and lean more towards the UK Anarcho Punk bands. All in all this is a great time document of a band that I am sure does not get mentioned all that often. It is worthwhile to mention that Civil Dissident did end up on internationally quite well known compilation LPs such as Pushead's Cleanse the Bacteria or Life is a Joke on Germany's Weird System Records amongst others, meaning you might have come across this band more often than you think. Cracking LP! 

Update February 7, 2023 to a photo post on Instagram where I posted the link to this review in the comment section. This is what drummer Dave Ross had to say: "thanks for the review, mate! The same lineup did three recording sessions. The first was the officially released our “Fourth Rate American Thrash” in 1984. A limited release, each cassette cover was different, hand drawn by each band member. The tape was wrapped in a polystyrene meat tray! Second session was songs for the “Eat Your Head” and “Cleanse the Bacteria” comps. Third session was meant to be an album but we didn’t have enough money to release it ourselves so we put out the “First Blood” 7” EP ourselves instead. The rest of the songs from that session made it on various overseas compilations and “Menzies Crack”, organised by Scotti and released by a San Francisco label. I hope that helps fill in some blanks. Thanks for your interest!"