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Hello and thanks for reading. I recently acquired this AVSKUM tape, and I wanted to write about it. This is the kinda shit that gets me weak in the knees! I never thought I would see a copy of this in real life, let alone have a copy of my own! I have no idea how many of these tapes were made, but I know it’s at least around 200. The tapes are numbered on the inside, and I have seen up to the number 198 online. I feel like AVSKUM is a band that needs no introduction. They began during the first wave of Swedish hardcore and have (more or less) kept it up since. I previously wrote about them when Prank did the recent reissue of Crucified By The System. I talked about how essential I consider that record, but I also mentioned how much I LOVE their unreleased material. They recorded for their 7” in February of 1984, but there were several recording sessions between July 1984 and September 1985 that were never properly released. Luckily, all that stuff was later compiled onto LP and CD releases, though. If this is all new to you, you can listen to most of these unreleased and early sessions here.
Anyways, this tape is a live AVSKUM performance recorded at Blitz, legendary Norwegian squat. The audio is not from the soundboard, but if you love AVSKUM, it will certainly hit the spot. Yeah, you can hear the crowd sometimes between songs, but AVKSUM sounds like they are on fire!! When I actually got this tape in my hands, and I realized this gig was recorded April 1985 - my mind started to race! I wondered, “Would they play any tracks from the unreleased Mortarhate 12”?” That session was recorded only five months later, and they are some of my favorite songs AVSKUM has done. I thought more as I examined the j-card, “Would they play stuff I have never even heard before…?” Between the 7” and the Mortarhate session they recorded several times, but just like the Mortarhate session, none of this stuff was released. Ah actually, Really Fast Vol 3 features AVSKUM, and they didn’t use any 7” tracks. I am not sure which session those songs are from without looking it up, which I won’t do right now... I know they appeared on a ton of cassette compilations as well, but I am not that familiar with these comps off-hand either. Anyways, most of this unreleased stuff was compiled onto a CD in the 90s by Finn Records, so luckily it could be heard and in one place. Then, later in the 2010s, Skrammel released a double disc compilation that included everything on that Finn comp plus even more unreleased shit that I didn’t know existed. Some double disc compilations like that can get old, but I don’t think AVSKUM is a band I could ever get tired of.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to hear any tracks from the Mortarhate session on the Live at Blitz tape. They play the entire Nov. ’84 session, two songs from the July ’84 session, plus two songs from the 7”. But oh baby… there sure was a song I had never heard before! On the Skrammel comp there were a bunch of songs or alternate versions of songs I have never heard, but this track “Violence is Solution to Create Peace” doesn’t seem to appear anywhere aside from this cassette. I dropped that link above to the cassette, so you can hear it as well if you have not. I could be crazy, but the song sounds really similar to “Gold Digger,” which is recorded later on the Mortarhate session. I know it’s not the same structure, and they drop the guitar solo, but maybe they decided to rework the song or something. They play “Glöm Aldrig Hiroshima” a bit differently than they did on the record as well. Alright, I should wrap this up. Before I go, I wanted to drop this link to this translated interview with AVSKUM. It doesn’t look like I shared it last time, and if you don’t know about it already, it’s a fun read. Cheers and thanks for reading.