Abstain....

53 song discography of a little grind band called Abstain. Were these guys sXe? Their name and the fact that they criticize big tobacco certainly makes me think so. But then, in the liner notes to this CD, they also state that Straight Edge isn't really what they are about. I bet they are one of those "we're all sXe but we don't want to be in a sXe band" type bands. I loved this band since the first time I heard them. It was on a great 12" compilation by Six Weeks records called "America In Decline". I've followed them sporadically since then. There was a mini 3" CD of theirs that I had, but all the numerous split 7"s (a truly awful format, if you ask me) that they did, I just couldn't keep up. Finally, a few years ago, SOA records out of Italy decided to do this discography which collects everything, even their demo. If you like grind, look no further. There's two types of grindcore in my opinion; the kind that's more on the metal side of things (Assuck, Phobia, Plutocracy, Brutal Truth, etc) and there's the more "hardcore" grind (Early Napalm Death, Terrorizer, Heresy, Unholy Grave); I think Abstain is pretty close to the middle, but leaning more towards the punk side of the grind equation. They don't have quite the chops that say, Brutal Truth has, probably not the expense account for equipment either. Not that I'm holding that against them, or accusing Abstain of being amateurish, quite the opposite. I love this stuff. I wish I had paid more attention to them, as this is quite ripping stuff. I picked my copy on Discogs o the cheap, less than $6 total! Plenty of copies to be found everywhere, I bet if you went to your local punk/hardcore record store, you might even find this in a used bin. It's one of those undeserved forgotten records it seems like. No one I talk to who likes this stuff really remembers them. Shame....

53 songs makes the count at 17803...