Bands You Need To Know - Masshysteri
Written by Jason Mazzola Tuesday, 02 March 2010 14:16
This band submission comes from Jason Mazzola of Virginia punk outfit Cloak/Dagger. The band released a full length entitled Lost Art on Jade Tree back in November and just got off a week long tour with Off With Their Heads.
Two of my favorite bands of the past five years are The Vicious and Regulations. Both bands were from Sweden and shared members. They both wrote catchy punk songs that were simple but brilliant. Stripped down songs that got stuck in my head and that made long drives fly by. Live they were everything I expected them to be. They were also one of the first bands to break down my prejudice of European bands and I’m very thankful for that. Before these two bands, the European bands I was exposed to just seemed to mimic whatever was popular at the time in punk or hardcore. The Vicious and Regulations seemed ahead of the curve even if what they were doing was familiar, they were doing it with their own twist.
The Vicious played a house show here in Richmond and it was without a doubt the most packed, annoying, awesome, memorable house show I have ever been to. During Government Warning I was stuck in the hall way looking at the back of peoples heads looking at four rows of the back of other peoples heads. At the end of the night rumor had it there was close to 300 people that paid to get in. At a house! At that show The Vicious had their new 7" Igen with the song Masshysteri on it. They were mainly singing in Swedish on this release and I was not sure if I could fully get into it. I missed understanding what they were saying and I missed knowing the words to all the clever hooks. It was still the band I loved but they were again ahead of the curve.
Shortly after that The Vicious called it quits and formed Masshysteri and released a 7" that I liked and listened to but could not get past the language barrier. Oh naive me. Then they released their LP Var Del Av Stan and it hit me, they are awesome. Dueling female, male vocals and songs that were equal parts Joy Divsion bass heavy and X catchy with that rawness and real sound that I knew so well from their previous bands. They have a feeling to their music that I can only describe as dark but calming and I normally focus on the lyrics but for once this was the first band that I didn’t care if I understood the words. The music and vocals speak for themselves and it has everything I like hearing from punk bands. Passionate, catchy, dark, fast and hard to categorize. They would not seem out of place playing with Sonic Youth and they did not seem out of place when I saw them with Government Warning here in Richmond. They blazed and I mean blazed through their set and I was shocked at how good they were live. I liked them just as much as I liked The Vicious live and that is saying a lot. They kept my attention the entire set and even played two Vicious tracks at the end of their set which ruled and then they played an encore. A real encore, not because it is part of the routine of a show like it can be in Europe, but because everyone at the show wanted and needed to hear more. They played the only song they had left, "Johnny be good." I loved it.
I saw them at a crust punk festival in Germany and they didn’t seem out of place at all playing to that crowd either. They played to a packed, smoky, rowdy beer throwing and drinking German audience and killed it with thier punk meets indie rock slow burn songs. They just recorded a new LP and it will be out on Feral Ward in March and then they are touring the US again. Don’t miss out on one of the best hardcore and punk bands out now before they break up or get huge. If you can get past being confused on first listen, you won’t be let down.
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