Italy’s grindcore legends CRIPPLE BASTARDS have officially released The Outside World, their anticipated singles collection box set, via F.O.A.D. Records. As previously announced, this monster includes 5 x LPs, 2 x CDs, one lyrics book and one photo book + more! 362 SONGS including a lot of unreleased material! This is the ultimate CRIPPLE BASTARDS singles collection, as it includes every single non album track the band has ever recorded since 1988, almost two hours of unreleased material including never heard before songs from a 2003 studio session, rare demos and live tracks. Book One features tons of rare pictures documenting the history of the band from day one to today, while the second one the complete lyrics of the songs included in the tracklist. Frontman Giulio The Bastard comments:
This boxset is what we think is the most significant way to celebrate the Cripple Bastards’ 30th anniversary. It’s not a complete discography but rather a collection of ALL the (many) EPs/splits and compilation tracks, as well as a selection of unreleased material from the archives, put together in the best possible quality and attention to detail. 7″EP represents the most important format and expression channel through which CB found a way to develop and spread a message over the years, and played a vital role for us, especially in the first decade of existence. Back then the short length of this kind of releases was the ideal dimension to organize with our scarce technical skills and low economic resources those few minutes in which we could concentrate all the hate, repressed violence and what we had to say through the lyrics. The underground of DIY labels all around helping us putting them out and spreading them in every corner of the world has left a much more truthful and effective track than what it would have been to have all this stuff handled by a single “big” label of that time. The songs collected into this work are basically all the CB’s studio and live material ranging from the post-demo era to 2012, except the albums. This also includes every single compilation track. In putting together this boxset we paid particular attention to giving the right focus on what we think has been aging well for CB in 30 years: the (anti)musical content – so every session has been ripped and remastered from the original reels, DAT tapes etc following an endless feverish process, the lyrics and a selection of photos and flyers (most of what we found but of course – not all).
The box set in now available on http://www.scareystore.com/
Check an “unboxing” video HERE!
This amazing release officially starts the celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the foundation of the legendary grindcore band.
The band’s Misantropo a Senso Unico album (2000) was placed at number 6 in U.K.’s Terrorizer magazine’s list of essential grindcore albums of all time.
LP 1 (1992-1993)
Side A:
– Split 7″ with VIOLENT HEADACHE
– Extra tracks from the same session
– Split 7″ with W.B.I.
– Extra tracks from the same session
Side B:
– “Life’s built on thoughts” 7″EP
– Split 7″ with PATARENI
– PATARENI covers recorded at Michele’s studio (unreleased)
LP 2 (1993-1994)
Side A:
– Split 7″ with PSYCHOTIC NOISE
– Split 7″ with SENSELESS APOCALYPSE
– Extra session at Michele’s studio
– Song from “Use your voice vol. 1” Compilation
– Song from “Mit Mir Ist Nicht Zu Rechnen” Comp. 7″
Side B:
– Split 7″ with SOCIAL GENOCIDE
– PATARENI covers from “Obrade” Comp. LP/CD
– AGATHOCLES cover from “Kill Your Idols” Comp. CD
– “Frammenti di vita” 7″
LP 3 (1994-1997)
Side A:
– Split 7″ with CARCASS GRINDER
– Split 7″ with PRÄPARATION-H
– Split 7″ with P.E.L.M.E.
– HÜSKER DÜ covers from “Land Speed Sonic” Comp. CD
Side B:
– 5 studio tracks with GTB on drums
– “Massacrecore” Live 7″
– Extra live tracks from Split 10″ with PATARENI
LP 4 (1997-2000)
Side A:
– Split 7″ with I.R.F.
– Split 7″ with WORLD
– Extra tracks from the same session
– Split 7″ with DENAK (unreleased)
Side B:
– Split 7″ with CORRUPTED
– “Il grande silenzio” 7″
– Split 7″ with COMRADES
LP 5 (2000-2012)
Side A:
– 3 unreleased studio tracks 2003
– Split 6″ with LOOKING FOR AN ANSWER
– Split 7″ with REGURGITATE
– Demo for Split 7″ with REGURGITATE (unreleased)
Side B:
– “Senza impronte” 7″
– Split 7″ with SUBLIME CADAVERIC DECOMPOSITION
– Extra track from “Slimewave” Comp. CD
– Split 7″ with EYEHATEGOD
CD1 (1992-2000)
– Discarded Demo 1992 (unreleased)
– 2 songs with drum machine
– Out takes from “Life’s built on thoughts” 7″ (unreleased)
– Live at El Paso, Torino 3/12/1994 (Split 10″ with CAPITALIST CASUALTIES)
– Terveet Kädet cover
– GTB with IMPACT: “La vostra violenza”
– 3 unreleased songs with 2 piece line-up in 1996
– Out takes from Demo 2000 (unreleased)
CD2 (2006)
– “Variante alla morte” Demo (2006)
– Live at Obscene Extreme Fest 2006
CRIPPLE BASTARDS have also been confirmed for Maryland Deathfest and for the 2018 edition of Obscene Extreme Festival in the Czech Republic.
Moreover, CRIPPLE BASTARDS are working on the highly anticipated follow-up to the acclaimed “Nero In Metastasi” record. The band is currently locked in the studio and the album should be unleashed in the second half of 2018 via Relapse Records. More info soon. In the meantime here is an in-depth interview with the band!
CVLT Nation VS. Cripple Bastards
30 years in the making, no signs of slowing down. When bands of your generation are asked about the motive behind the non-stop course the answers include: passion for music, the fans support and so on. What’s the biggest motive for Cripple Bastards?
The biggest motive lays more on a personal ground, CB to us represent the strongest channel for venting out rage and negativity in contrast with daily boredom and stress. In some ways it’s “therapeutic”. And of course also the passion for this kind of music as we started to play when it was in its early stage and we lived with it from the roots up to now, so it’s a part of us and we want to keep in strong and vital.
“The Outside World” includes all the songs you recorded outside your full-length albums’ sessions. We are talking about 362 tracks. When did you come up with such idea? Was it stressful process?
CB released a lot of singles (around 25), splits and compilation tracks through the years and we always wanted to have them all collected in one place with an accurate remastering of the sound and well made packaging. So we took all the necessary time (around 3 years in the making) and put this monster together. It wasn’t stressful but certainly very complicated. In a first stage I tried to track all the master tapes, reels etc… let’s say the best sounding sources existing, and it took a long time. Then we started to figure out how to compile all this and then we mastered each session with a maniacal care for details. These recordings are equally important as the albums for us because they portray the the growth and consolidation of our style from the beginning to more recent times.
You’re now working on a new album. Is it hard for you to create new riffs, ideas, songs and a “voice” for yourselves in this branch of extreme music, since so much of the genre has now been established before?
Definitely not difficult. There are always new ideas, new influences and since our music and lyrics are very connected to daily life and all the shit happening around us, the things that we live through are a constant inspiration and input to create new material constantly trying to renew our expression without stagnating on established schemes.
Are you still proud of everything you have created so far?
Totally proud, no regrets.
How did you learn to play? Do you use music theory or another method? Did musical illiteracy help or hinder you in learning to make music that sounded the way you wanted it to?
Every member of CB had a different approach with learning to play. In my case, I first started to play guitar in 1987 learning from older friends. Then when I formed my first band I moved on to playing drums. I had no idea at all how to do it, so it was very random and instinctive, I was just trying to beat as strong and fast as possible. Then when we found a better drummer I switched to the role of screamer and once again everything was extremely instinctive, what we were doing in those early years was quite simple, so I was just screaming at the top of my lungs into a mic. Everything took shape through the years. In the first decade above all I always found myself writing songs for the band not only in terms of lyrics but also in riffs and rhythms and this process helped me a lot in learning and growing my “musical” knowledge. Then when CB moved to the second line-up that went on from 2000 to 2014, I found myself confronted with members that were much more experienced on a musical level and for the first time the process of composing songs has become a team-work and thanks to their advices I also learnt to technicize my vocal skills improving the toning, metric modulation and the range of different screams that I use. So back to your question: musical illiteracy helped CB in a first stage, it’s the basics of our way to grind that come from pure instinct. The gradual improvement of our musical knowledge and technique through the years has just helped to strengthen these roots and consolidate into a more creative and particularized style.
In what ways does the place where you live (or places where you have lived), affect the music you create, or your taste in music?
The different places I have lived have always played a fundamental role in my taste in music, song writing and urge to create. In my personal case I grew up divided between long periods of time spent in ex-Yugoslavia (as part of my family comes from there) also through the early 90s war, and part living in a boring and suffocating small town in northern Italy. In the time spent in ex-Yugoslavia I was very influenced by their metal/punk/noise scene of the late 80s and early 90s, tape trading, shows etc.. and that’s the basics of my taste in music and underground culture. On the Italian side, the monotony and coldness of the place where I lived was somehow an input to break the rules and create something so extreme and disturbing. Also, the proximity to a city like Torino (Turin) that had one of the best Hardcore/Metal scenes of the 80s and 90s in Italy helped me a lot in shaping a certain taste and musical identity.
What’s the most unusual place you’ve ever played a show or made a recording? How did the qualities of that place affect the show/recording?
In 30 years of Grindcore, we have played in many unusual places… including refugee camps, courtyards in abandoned neighborhoods, even a squatted swimming pool (!!). Strangest place where we have made a recording – I don’t recall anything in particular. Oh, there was this cult underground studio (that no longer exists) nearby Turin… I remember that once we went there to record a 7″ but it was heavily raining and all the surrounding areas got flooded so there were constant drops in electrical voltage and blackouts. I remember that we recorded each song rushing in the very short lengths of time when electricity was returning. If our songs weren’t so short we would never have succeeded!! Of course the atmosphere of a place affects a show and a recording, especially when you play a musical genre all focused on nerves, violence and aggression like what we do.
Are you a very different person day-to-day from the musician that performs on stage?
Definitely not. CB is a band that has developed in step with what we are in everyday reality, on stage we try to express ourselves in the most sincere and natural way possible without a mask or a pose.
On the subject of touring and playing live, you have been doing this for quite some time now. How in that time has the process of playing live changed and what is different now that you’re older, more settled, different lifestyle, more mature, etc? How does the live experience work nowadays as opposed to how it worked when you started?
When CB started and for the first 10 years of existence our line-up was changing all the time and the guitarist that founded the band with me was mostly hating to perform live as he couldn’t stand any social environment, so our approach with touring and playing shows was very negative, in some ways painful.. and that was creating a very hostile and dark mood when we were on stage. With the second line-up the members that followed were enjoying much more to play and tour all around but in my personal case I have always kept inside that anti-social mood inherited in the first decade, so in many circumstances I fee a sense of hostility and hatred towards the audience and people that I meet at shows, but I learnt to live with it and transform it into energy and rage to vent out on stage. The fact of being more settled, older and mature doesn’t change this perception that much. The positive aspects that I mostly enjoy when touring are the simple fact of traveling, visiting parts of the world that I have never seen and beyond the dimension of a gig confronting different cultures and mentalities. Obviously this is about myself, the other members of the band have a much more friendly and social vision on this subject.
I guess you feel very lucky to have reached a point of respect and success with the band, something that obviously was just a dream when starting. What are still dreams to fulfill and achieve with this new box set and the upcoming new album?
We don’t have great ambitions we just want to keep on doing what we like, what is part of ourselves, our identity, keep up our creativity and expression unchained from trends, schemes and cliches. And hopefully play in countries that we haven’t visited yet. Quoting PATARENI, an old Grindcore band that I sung in for a while and that always inspired me: “MAKE THE NOIZ BY HEART”!!
