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The 1990s was a decade where conformist consumerism triumphed on a global scale, the "greed is good" mentality of the Reagan/Thatcher "revolution from above" cemented a neoliberal world order were the only thing that mattered was transferring more money and power from the middle and working classes to the rich. There were few voices of protest in reaction to this fundamental shift in political economy. A few came from academia, but some of the most strident came from the hardcore punk underground. A generation of young punk rockers had grown up filled with enthusiasm for change espoused by the original punk and hardcore pioneers of the 70s and '80s. As those pioneers moved on to more commercial or artistic pursuits a die-hard group took their proselytizing at face value and founded a truly underground DIY hardcore movement. The result was a countercultural outpouring of protest and rebellion that refused to be commodified or exploited. At the same time, this younger generation took the hardcore punk sounds of the '80s and infused them with speed, power, and a passion for protest and radical change that propelled the genre throughout the 1990s.
Detestation from Portland, Oregon was one of the foremost of these bands. A true outburst of urgent force against the status quo set to fast-paced and powerful blasts of hardcore fury propelled by Saira's scathing vocals. Like many of their contemporaries Detestation brought the fury and energy of the underground hardcore to basements, barns and roller rinks around the country. Anywhere a sound system could be set up, an underground show was promoted. Building upon the network of friends that was making connections through mail and record trading, around the world at the time they also toured Europe and embraced the autonomous DIY scene there. Detestation's 1998 LP was originally released on Skuld records; it has been in and out of print over the years. Havoc Records is making this new pressing available to coincide with the band headlining C Y Fest in Los Angeles.
Sonically Detestation is frequently compared to Sacrilege, but this is based more on Saira’s vocals than the actual riffs. Detestation lacked the metal influence of Sacrilege instead using the basic building blocks of hardcore punk from the 1980’s to create a hard hitting and powerful hardcore punk attack. They combined the structures of 80’s American hardcore with the original Japanese and Finnish hardcore bands then becoming more widely known by collectors and fans. These songs, though a product of their era, have held up much better than many of their 90’s contemporaries due to the straightforward harnessing of hardcore fundamentals into powerful and memorable songs.
Remastered for vinyl by Jack control.