"mean"
Year. 1990
Country: Sweden
City: Falun
Label: Earache
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 18
Time: 36 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Grindcore
Fortunately this album came out in the days when I was really into crustcore and grindcore. There weren’t that much bands releasing full length albums in those styles which could be bought anywhere so Filthy Christans’ ‘Mean’ immediately reached my collection thanks to Earache records. Years later I must however conclude that despite still being a good album, it is not one of the all time grindcore classics. It’s still a well known name from those days but the album has lost much of its impact.
Whereas now in the 21st century the grindcore scene is a matter of quantity, the competition in ’87-‘90 was hard in terms of quality. Of course we had Carcass and Napalm Death from the U.K., Agathocles from Belgium, Old Lady Drivers and Terrorizer from the U.S. and the remembrance of Fear Of God and Genocide/Repulsion hauting all those bands. Say what you will but all those bands had something highly characteristic in their sound. Be it compositionally, vocally or whatever. They all were easily recognisable. Filthy Christians did indeed have more hardcore punk influences in their sound (just like Napalm Death they were a punk band earlier) than the average grindcore band but didn’t go as far as sounding like Extreme Noise Terror, Intense Degree or Heresy.
Filthy Christians mixed crustcore with grindcore but a lot of songs lacked character - as said – compared to contemporary competition. Mostly this was because of the generic grunting vocals (which sound much better on other FC releases) and the rather tame production this album had. There are some great riffs here and there but the foggy guitar sound really damages the intensity of the material. A real stand out track here is “Party & Fight For Your Right?” with its catchy clean intro and great breaks. Quite logical this song made it unto the Grindcrusher compilation album.
Now lyrically the album wasn’t really on a par with Napalm Death who already had a slightly more philosophical and eloquent approach to their preachings nor did Filthy Christians go for the full scale horror and gore attack Carcass and Repulsion had explored earlier. Just like the early works from Agathocles, Filthy Christians combined some gore lyrics with pubescent left wing dogma, PC lyrics about drunk driving and statements about the hardcord punk scene during the late eighties. Nothing new under the sun.
As a whole though not much songs really stand out and the album can best be listened to as a whole. When doing so it is highly enjoyable. But honesty compells me to say it’s more sentiment than sheer quality.