Too punk for metal, too metal for punk. I’ve mentioned crust many times on this blog, but unless you bothered to do the research yourself, chances are you have no idea about the music or the subculture surrounding it. Well, let me enlighten you as I walk you through some of my favorite bands.

FYI, this is in no way a list of “essential” bands, just bands that mean a lot to me that could be categorized as crust punk or one of its inspirations. I also have marginal experience in the subculture so I’m not going to pretend to be some kind of expert. I do have Wikipedia though.

THE MUSIC

Crust punk basically takes sonic elements from extreme metal genres like death, black and thrash metal and applies it to British anarcho-punk, especially taking cues from the anarcho-art-punk band Crass and the hardcore band Discharge, the namesake of the subgenre of d-beat. The drumbeats are often fast and driving, the guitars are deep and bass-heavy and the vocals often leave traditional punk yell-singing far, far behind, taking the form guttural death metal growls and less often harsh black metal shrieks. The recording is also oftentimes bad (or “raw” if you mean it as a compliment), whether as an artistic choice, because the bands’ anarchist politics dissuade them from recording professionally or because they didn’t have access to professional recording equipment.

Lyrically, crust is pure anarcho-punk. Crass‘s anarcho-pacifist point of view is par for the course, alongside more iconoclastic political topics such as animal rights. In fact, one of the best compilation albums out there, This is the ALF, was a fundraiser album for the ALF put together by Conflict.

But without further ado, let’s get into some of my favorite bands.

DISCHARGE AND D-BEAT

I don’t know much about Discharge’s music, but any discussion of crust punk is incomplete without mentioning them. There’s been a lot of truly great punk bands, but few can brag that they made an entirely new genre. Crass gave us anarcho-punk, Choking Victim‘s gave us crack rock steady, and Discharge gave us d-beat. D-beat is essentially hardcore and crust punk built around a particular drum beat that Discharge often used, although it’s debatable if they were the ones who innovated it. Regardless, tons of legendary bands like the Swedish Anti Cimex, the British DOOM and the British Varukers took the formula that Discharge had laid out and ran with it.

Here’s what a d-beat drumbeat sounds like:

As you can see, the beat alone is fun and interesting to listen to. The emphasis on the offbeat not only sounds cool, it’s extremely useful for driving the song forward, almost like it constantly verges on outrunning the other instruments. It makes the music sound as urgent and impatient as the political message crust bands shriek onstage.

DISHAMMER

Like I mentioned before, there’s a lot of overlap between crust and extreme metal. Being a huge fan of both punk and black metal, when I first heard Dishammer’s album Vintage Addiction, I was hooked. The vocals are pure black metal, but the guitar riffs and drum beats are punk through and through. And despite the serious appearence, you only have to watch one of their live performances of the anthemic song “Exterminate the Parasite” to see just how much fun theses guys are having.

Notably, these guys aren’t from Sweden, the UK or the US like most successful crust bands, but Madrid of all places. Regardless, they managed to catch the attention of crust fans all around the world, and they deserve it.

ANTISCHISM

If you’ve got 12 minutes, do yourself a favor and listen to this EP start to finish, because All Their Money Stinks of Death is a well-deserved classic in crust punk circles. The energy of every song is manic. The vocals stand out from the usual death growls of crust, throwing away refined vocal technique in favor of agonized yelps and screeches, like if someone threw a Valley Girl’s yappy purse chihuahua into a wood chipper.

THE SUBCULTURE

The crust punk subculture is kind of difficult to explain. If you want a sense of the fashion, just Google image “crust punks”. You’ll know you found them when you see dreadlocks, septum piercings, face tattoos or pitbulls.

Okay, welcome back. So you might have noticed that crusties are kind of dirty. If a crustie has ever sneezed in your general direction, I’d recommend getting tested. Anyway, the not-so-dirty ones are crust punks, and the somewhat dirtier, usually homeless ones are gutter punks. Some crust punks metamorphose into full-blown gutter punks like some kind of grimy, dreadlocked Pokémon, but others remain simple “house punks” who stay in one place more often. Not that living in a punk house is much more sanitary than just being homeless. Many more flit between the two states. If you’ve ever been to NYC in the spring, you’ve probably seen a bunch of them dumpster diving, panhandling or busking for food (although a lot of it goes to beer).

So why the Diogenesian lifestyle? Like all punks, they partially do it to reject mainstream values, but they also do it out of political conviction. Anarchism is a core value of the subculture, and these are all essentially methods of living outside capitalism. Panhandling and busking is done in place of working, and dumpster diving for food is done in place of buying it from a grocery store and thereby supporting capitalism. You might resent the fact that they would rather panhandle than work, but you should also consider that they also literally choose to be homeless. I personally respect that conviction.

I like to make fun of crusties, but I also have a certain amount of respect for them. Despite their appearance, they’re often very approachable, friendly and kind people. It’s easy to connect with them through music, and they don’t block out people out who don’t fit their subculture. I once saw a bunch of crusties moshing with flannel-laden indie rockers at a Tigers Jaw concert. I half-expected them to go off about gentrification or something, but they were just dancing along to the music.

So the next time you see a crustie on the street panhandling for money, give a couple bucks to let them know they deserve to pop open a forty just as much as the next working stiff. You might make their day.