HELLBASTARD

 

Hellbastard appeared at a period  in music when mainstream heavy metal fans listened to poodle hair bands while underground music of the kind they played (being absent from metal magazines and TV shows) was the preserve mostly of the great unwashed impoverished outcast hordes.This was also a time when UK bands of all sorts(including mainstream ones)  still had a political outlook.

The world has changed.The cold war is over and there are no longer 5 million unemployed in Britain.The Poll Tax was defeated and the fast aggressive music of the underground scene has become mainstream and commercial- now stripped of any worthwhile political content and given regular exposure on MTV and worldwide cable TV channels.The audience is now mostly affluent suburban kids.The rage which Hellbastard once directed at nazis,multinationals and environmental death is now directed at any trivial thing which upsets the self-absorbed new breed of metal singer.

Being extremely scruffy,poor and with anarcho punk origins HB unfortunately did their bit to unwittingly promote the 'crust' look before it became yuppified by wealthy Levellers fans.

Hellbastard were never the greatest band,but nor were they ever just trendy.Here's to Hellbastard - hardcore grind music at its most basic and brutal.