Three One G Records

Ode to a Pulverizer: Happy Birthday to WARSAWWASRAW’s “Jahiliya” 7”, 9/11/2011

Released on this day nine years ago, “Jahiliya” by WARSAWWASRAW begins as a pulverizing speed-vomit attack then slows into something approaching classic San Diego hardcore before beating your face in again. The French duo’s Three One G 7” single is a mini epic that covers a lot of ground like a suite of classical music, switching through movements that become elegantly beautiful when you listen to them with the right kind of ears. Guitar notes shred and liquify like fingers in a blender over unsettling, death-fury screams. Drums brood, foretell doom, then rip wildly forward. It’s a helluva song that gives and gives and gives.

Digital side B is the “Doomstep Remix” of the same track, which is technically a remix by Leg Lifters. The brutality of side A is reborn for the dancefloor of a goth club in hell. Stretched just above five minutes, the song covers even more ground than the original with a full annihilation storm squall racing toward minimal, unadorned electronic hardcore to weird synth throb scream therapy. Put together the two tracks create one long ferocious avant-thrash soundscape of modern barbarism, ruthless shredding, and innovative ideas for an underworld dancefloor and/or circle pit.

– Adam Gnade (9/11/2020)