Time Signature
Stupid posers deserve to die...
Genre: crust
Tiger Junkies is a project that includes Joel Grind from Toxic Holocaust and Yasuyuki Suzuki of Barbatos and Abigail fame. "D-beat Street Rock 'n' Rollers" is their debut full-length. It was originally released in 2008, but is being reissued this year on the kvlt label Hell's Hedbangers Records in a version that also contains the 'Sick of Tiger' EP from 2006 and two tracks from a split they did in 2011 with labelmates Blüdwülf and Children of Technology.
If we are to compare the music on this album to any of the two member's other projects, it is the most similar to Barbatos' dirty punk-infused black thrash style. Most of the tracks on this album are in the vein of simple d-beating crust punk akin to Discharge and The Exploited - in fact, it features a cover version of The Explited's 'Porno Slut'. Most of the songs on the album are primitive and simplistic crust attacks evolving around punky riffage and politically incorrect lyrics. There are a coupel of tracks which are more in a metallic veisn, such as a cover version of Abigail's 'Satanik Metal Fucking Hell' as well as the aptly titled crossover track 'Sex Sex Sex' and, on the 2013 version, the Celtic Frost-vibed 'Turn It Up'.
The production is extremely raw and lo-fi, and the quality differs from track to track. While this suits the music perfectly, it is bound to turn off many listeners who are used to the pristine sound associated with modern metal. On the other hand, the production may well attract fans of DIY-punk music.
While neither original in any sense of the world nor as dark as most contemporary crust, Tiger Junkies' debut nonetheless captures the energy of crust punk, and, if you can live with the po-fi production, it listening to the album is good fun.