Hydra Head Records: jon chang

Discordance Axis - Original Sound Version 1992-1995 2xLP+7"

Original Sound Version is the beyond-complete retrospective of Discordance Axis' early years. It contains their debut album, Ulterior, along with the contents of their out of print split releases with Capitalist Casualties, Cosmic Curse, and Hellchild, plus demos, live recordings, and unreleased studio tracks. There are 69 tracks in all; however, one of those is a live recording that actually contains 16 separate songs, bumping the total number of songs up into the mid-eighties.

Remastered for vinyl by James Plotkin.
In stores January 14, 2014

Order now at
http://hydrahead.merchtable.com/

"I wanted to eclipse what NAPALM DEATH had done for me at that point. Not to make From Enslavement to Obliteration, but to make the record they would have made after. That was Ulterior for me."

Jon Chang doesn't set small goals. From day one, he was determined to make DISCORDANCE AXIS more than another pack of weekend warrior grinders content with emulating their favorite records. He understood the songwriting and performing prowess lurking in collaborators drummer Dave Witte and Rob Marton and he brought it out by every dictatorial means necessary.

The result was 1995's Ulterior, DISCORDANCE AXIS' first full length album. It was an album that maybe owed too obvious a debt to their influences, particularly the NAPALM DEATH records Chang was determined to top, but Ulterior hinted at the musical and lyrical themes that DISCORDANCE AXIS would perfect on their subsequent two albums, Jouhou and apotheosis The Inalienable Dreamless.

DISCORDANCE AXIS were finding their footing with Ulterior, repurposing grindcore's tropes and updating its lexicon to fit the 21st Century. Band visionary Chang jolted grindcore's stale infatuation with the politics of opposition with his fascination for science fiction and manga. DISCORDANCE AXIS would also make Witte's bones as the most in-demand drummer of the last two decades as he blasted and thrashed his way into fastest man alive contention. But the secret weapon in DISCORDANCE AXIS' arsenal has always been Marton. Unlike his more gregarious bandmates, Marton just quietly went about his business of redefining grindcore guitar playing. Rather than speeding up '80s hardcore, Marton wrote riffs that actually stood up on their own. His technically adept performance owes as much to jazz and VOIVOD as it does Scum and Horrified. DISCORDANCE AXIS distinguished themselves from the grindcore pack by having actual songs. Ulterior hinted at his prodigious talent, but Marton would stake his case for grind guitar godhood on the strength of Jouhou and The Inalienable Dreamless.