Anarkophobia

In the late '70s, punk and metal audiences were about as friendly as the Hatfields and McCoys or, to use '90s references, Suge Knight and Puff Daddy. Headbangers, as a rule, detested punk -- and few punks would have been caught dead in a Kiss or Van Halen t-shirt. But it was a totally different ballgame in the '80s and '90s, when the punk and metal crowds were good friends, and the metal/punk hybrid known as thrash combined elements of the two styles. Different thrash bands got different things from punk and metal; R.D.P., a thrash foursome from Brazil, got their heaviness from metal and their speed and political anger from punk. Unlike many of the thrash releases that came out in 1991, Anarkophobia doesn't get into fantasy lyrics or the occult. R.D.P. is strictly a political band, and the South Americans bring an anarchist perspective to nihilistic offerings like "(All I Need Is) Hatred," "Death of the King," and "Mad Society." All of the tunes are R.D.P. originals except the Ramones' "Commando," which offers some comic relief on what is generally a very angry and pessimistic album. Singer Gordo's lyrics (all of which are in English instead of Portuguese) tend to be cliched and rhetorical -- the thrashers don't have anything to say that one didn't hear from the Sex Pistols, the Dead Kennedys, or Black Flag during punk's early years. But what Anarkophobia (the Brazilians' only U.S. release) lacks in imagination, it usually makes up for with passion and intensity. ~ Alex Henderson