108
Creation. Sustenance. Destruction. CD
Equal Vision Records
In 2006 I have pretty mixed feelings about 108. On one hand, I think they were a pretty interesting band who pushed the envelope on what can and can’t be deemed “hardcore.” I also think, listening to this now, that they got a lot better as they went on. The Krishna stuff: eh, whatever. While I find the views of Krishna’s about women and a few other things to be quite disturbing, 108 have always seemed to defy those stereotypes. Thus this discography is a mix of good and bad. Like a lot of discographies these days the disks go backwards chronologically. We begin with Threefold Misery, which is by far 108’s finest record. 108 got so noisy and pissed off on this record. They aren’t quite Black Flag or Deadguy, but you can tell when listening to this record that is what they were going for. Twenty bonus points for one of the best lines ever in a hardcore song during Killer Of The Soul: only a demon would dine on the flesh of the dead. Scandal also makes me chuckle because it reminds me of my earliest days in hardcore and the controversy between Equal Vision and Trustkill Fanzine. Next up is the Curse Of Instinct record, which is pretty much along the same lines. I do wonder why the covers they recorded around that time aren’t on here? Songs of Separation comes next and this record hasn’t held up well at all. Sure there are some great moments. I can hear a bit of influence from the Beyond LP here. I still don’t like the lyrics of Woman though. I’ve never liked Holy Name that much.
Overall, if you like 108 you should pick this up. It isn’t a totally complete discography, but it’s pretty close. I still have the nice letter Kate 08 sent me when I was in tenth grade after writing to get a copy of Krishna Grrrl Fanzine.
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