State of the Union “To the Bitter End… a Discography” CD

6.12.2008

State of the Union - To the Bitter End... a Discography This nearly 80-minute disc (released by Profane Existence) collects the entire recorded output from the sorely overlooked State of the Union in reverse chronological order: Their final five tracks from 2000 (intended for a 12" that was never released), their self-titled full-length, and the "Rez-Erection" and "God of Another Faith" 7"s. State of the Union formed in Rapid City, SD in 1992 (they relocated to Seattle a few years later), and I have to say that this material is far different and more intriguing than I remember (it's been years since I gave their LP a spin). Distinctly removed from the more crust punk/anarcho direction that tends to come to mind when Profane Existence is involved, this material has much more in common with another of the label's Seattle standouts, Christdriver—longer songs, occasional industrial-tinged forays into samples and experimental noise textures, eerie clean breaks and darker atmospheric elements, etc. However, their approach is incredibly diverse, so they combine all of that with a strange twist of assorted forms of 90's metallic hardcore, even accenting their riffs with math metal-esque time signatures and sparse hints of sludgy, almost rocked out sounding rhythms. It's almost like a strange fusion of bands like Bloodlet and Dystopia, if you can imagine what that might sound like—chunky and aggressive, sinister, technical, yet still raw... The production values vary fairly significantly between some of the sessions and never quite do the band full justice, but killer bass work and intense vocals round out the already impressive stylistic shifts, and everything basically gets the job done. For some reason there's not much of a mastering job (the final tracks are way quieter than the rest), which is unfortunate, but... what can you do? I'm definitely surprised by this collection as a whole. It's a shame that the odds somehow stacked up against this band over the years in terms of preventing them from reaching the true number of listeners that would've appreciated what they were doing, but hopefully this discography can still introduce them to new fans long after the fact. Better late than never...