The Snails

The Snails were an early 80's anarcho-punk band from London. There were a whole host of anarcho-punk bands out there in the early 80s, but it seems they're all forgotten -APF Brigade, The Apostles or The Snails. They only released the 'Shitting Bricks' tape. It's very, very lo-fi indeed, and most of the time all you can hear are the drums and vocals, and our vocalist is no Steve Ignorant with his second-rate Johnny Rotten sneers. The most obvious criticism of anarcho-punk is that many of the bands put message before music, and that's the case here as many of the tracks on here are more on-record rants than songs. Yet anarcho-punk lyrics never fail to be interesting, indeed "From Foxhunts to Oblivion" is a very thought-provoking affair that starts with fox hunting and ends with an image of nuclear apocalypse. It's that typical Crass thing where you begin with one topic that you present as a microcosm of a bigger issue before hitting you over the head with said bigger issue. The sparseness of this tape is intriguing, and though it never really 'rocks', you certainly feel it. Not perfect, but recommended. [SOURCE: RATE YOUR MUSIC]