Band...........................State Manufactured Terror
Album.........................The US Government is a Kleptocratic Doomsday Cult
Year.............................2024
Genre..........................crust punk
Format.........................vinyl EP
Country........................USA
Label............................Autsajder Produkcija, Peace of Mind Records
do you know this feeling when walking on some muddy road and after your shoe get stuck in a big, wet and deep pile of mud and you step into it barefooted?! - it's ugly feeling, indeed.. and it's supposed to be a common accident in those rare moments when your drunk ass is trying to live healthy and be the one with the nature.. and if you didn't experienced such terrifying and obnoxious fail yet - just try this EP, it will give you pretty much the same feeling.. although I absolutely hate when I step into pile of mud with my fancy 10€ hiking socks, on the other hand I bloody like the ugliness of State Manufactured Terror.. damn, if there is some award contest for the ugliest crust punk record, they would definitely win it with this one!
SMT are one of the newer bands in, as it seems currently pretty strong and alive, NYC's noisy crust punk swamp gathering around D4MT Labs studio and Peace of Mind records and they already shake the ground well in 2023 with their absolutely crazy (and even uglier) demo tape and during last summer while on a short trip in Europe where they were supporting mighty Flower on one part of their Euro tour..
on this record they continue in the same tone, bringing just little over 10 min of noisy crust punk madness, like a savage mashup of everything old and primeval in punk - there's this raw and primitive UK and euro inspired crust sound from late 80s and early 90s, there's grind, there's anarcho-punk, stench core elements, even american hardcore can be heard in traces, then occasionally everything flies into crasher crust waters with absolute madness and distortion, all together rounded with again ugly (on some parts dual) vocals shouted in this anarcho-styled way.. just imagine blend of Deviated Instinct or Hellbastard on one side with Destroy and ENT or even early Napalm Death on the other, spiced with anarcho scent of acts like Scatha, Antischism and Nausea and then for the end add few drops of Confuse just to make it more confusing (see what I did here!? hahah).. they even manage to blend in some media samples here and there which perfectly fits in songs.. and all that packed in 10 bloody minutes - although at the first it doesn't seems this way but at the end all together have perfect sense..
there are 3 songs on one and 2 on another side, which means pretty short trip in this sonic mess but it does leave some serious damage behind with its raw and violent production..
from the titles of the song and name of album (damn, and even from the band name) you can figure out about what they are lyrically dealing with, as expected themes and problems which are actual in US last couple of years and now with this MAGA madness, probably more than ever..
visually it looks similar as it sounds, obvious legacy from above mentioned bands is present in artwork also, it's chaotic but with a bunch of tiny details, all standard anarcho-punk imagery is here - celtic knots, doves, chaos symbol, witches, demons, skulls, hand written lyrics, etc. (similar like on Flower's EP for example), and all together it really looks great and transmits the whole vibe of extreme (noise not) music of the record itself very well.. also, inside is included really nice A4 poster with great artwork in the same style as on covers (hundreds of smaller drawings blended together creating the shape of dove).. it's worthy to mention that all this visual style is work of Wombat, who is the vocalist here if I'm not wrong..
and for the releasing of this little hell of the record is responsible international cooperation between Croatian label Autsajder Produkcija (sub-label of more known Doomtown Records) and Peace of Mind Records from US, it's released in all together 350 copies, my is in "swamp" green color but it also comes in regular black version and few copies are still available for the price of 9€ from Autsajder crew or I've seen it on some other distros as well, at least here in Europe..
there was also tape version of this available on Filth Holocaust Rec. from Indonesia but in some minimum print run which is most likely already sold out long ago..
in short, State Manufactured Terror are not here to please you or make you happy, they sound like they landed from some older times and they are here just to fck up things in this already fckd up and doomed world we live in..
hopefully they will continue to deliver the filth and I'm really looking forward to possible future full LP of this monster of a band.. until then I will torture my ears and brain with this little banger countless times more, that's for sure..
