Disaster (2)

History writer by Russ (the singer) It was 1989 and a bunch of lads from Halifax, West Yorkshire formed a band. The influence was Discharge as well as the bands coming out of Sweden like Discard, Anti-Cimex, Totalitär etc. In the UK, Doom were doing something similar, but where Doom were basing their sound on the Scandinavian Discharge copies, we were gonna sound just like Discharge. Our first practice session was arranged and Browny came along with the first incarnation of the song "Devastation"—it certainly sounded like Discharge. Week after week he would arrive wth more classic riffs, and the rest of us would go home and check our records to make sure they were not Discharge songs. Soon we had enough songs to play a short set and we played our first gig at a squat in Leeds. Rumours had got out about us and the venue was full we could barely move. A demo was released and tracks from it were used on a couple of compilation tapes—Mother Earth Is Screaming and Die Freiheit Volume 3. Tony and a friend living in Leeds had decided to set up a record label (Tone Deaf) and expressed and interest in putting out a Disaster release. We didn't have enough songs to release a full LP, so we decided to do a mini-LP like Discharge's Why?. War Cry was recorded in July 1990 and the sleeve design followed the Why? format. Initial feedback from War Cry was good; reviews in Raising Hell and the US zine Maximum Rocknroll helped spread the word. The record also benefited from air play on Radio 1's John Peel show. We began gigging more, mostly at Bradford's 1-in-12 club and Liverpool's Planet X. Our friends Hellkrusher from the Northeast and Trashed from Leeds were often on the same bill. We also got a chance to support some of our heroes, including Chaos UK, Corrosion of Conformaity, and Kulturo (ex Antisect). We entered the studio for what would be the last time to record "Death Race" for the 1-in-12 compilation LP A Nightmare on Albion Street. We also used "Mania for Conquest" which we had recorded during the War Cry sessions for a Discharge tribute CD put out by Dean of Extreme Noise Terror, which featured Concrete Sox and Raw Noise. No more studio tracks were ever recorded, however the War Cry CD reissue includes the songs "BNP" and "Air Raid" recorded live at the Irish Centre in Newcastle. These are among the last songs we wrote