Many, many moons ago - as many moons as there have been in the past 12 years - I posted about a 7" by the Swedish band, DOM DAR. This single still haunts me, it still eludes me. I guess I could buy a copy on Discogs, but maybe I'm just waiting for a copy to fall from the sky and into my lap. 25 years after first hearing them, as I lumber into middle-age, they still take my fancy. My reborn obsession comes from belatedly hearing their other recorded works, most of which looks to be collected here on the CD entitled Machine Way. I know next to nothing of the band, and am finding it difficult to scoop any information on them. Their recorded history is curious, since they released music in 1984/'85 and 1990/'91, yet not in the years between. A Swedish friend saw them play in their homeland during their latter period. They were an awesome blend of Discharge-style d-beat hardcore and sludgy, Melvins-ish trudge. In their faster moments, they mostly remind me of Holland's BGK - a classic Euro take on the Discharge-style thrash of the early '80s (and their Nothing Can Go Wrogn! LP from '86 remains one of the finest European hardcore discs of the 1980s) - and the organic, loose miasma of Melvins ca. Bullhead. That's a fine place to stand. I am goddamned shocked at how good the music on this CD is: tight, surprisingly well-recorded 'crust-punk' which is melodic, eclectic (even a goddamn violin thrown - and not just because they could) and 'heavy' without being metal. The CD in question was released on a Japanese label in 1994, and you can bet I searched high and low for it when I was in that very country just a few weeks back. To no avail. Yes, I could just buy one via Discogs... but again: I'm hoping one will just fall from the sky. In the meanwhile, I have the whole thing on the thoroughly unsatisfactory format known as YouTube. You could start your 2017 in worse ways than this.
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