"leather, bristles, studs and acne"
Year: 1981
Country: UK
City: Birmingham
Label: Clay
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 12
Time: 30 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk Hardcore
Year: 1982
Label: Clay
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 14
Time: 36 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk Hardcore
Year: 1983
Label: Clay
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 14
Time: 36 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk Hardcore
Year: 1986
Label: Rough Justice
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 12
Time: 36 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk Hardcore
"a fridge too far"
Year: 1988
Label: Rough Justice
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 12
Time: 40 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk Hardcore
Year: 1990
Label: Rough Justice
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 12
Time: 40 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk Hardcore
"punk junkies"
Year: 1997
Label: We Bite
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 15
Time: 47 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk
The mid-'90s was a time of tribulation for GBH, having in quick succession been dropped by their label, fired their manager, and seen their drummer deported. Thus, when the German indie label We Bite offered them a deal, the group bit quick. The resulting album refracts much of this turbulence, ferocious in sound and delivery, and echoing with the band's frustration and fury. It's also longer, by four tracks, than their previous sets, a reflection of the extra time they'd been saddled with between full-lengths. And so across 16 numbers, GBH seethe, boil and roil, in an aural exorcism to finally conquer the demons that were dogging their lives. In times like these, even everyday annoyances can become overwhelming, as the raging "Impounded" makes clear, the angriest song ever written about having one's car towed. And the band's bitter mood permeates everything, even the delights of "Tokyo After Dark" quickly sour, with a "Damn Good Time" to be had by none. That latter number is a dire warning about casual sex in the age of AIDS; the making of a child murderer, life in death row, and sleazy politicians also raise their wrath, while life itself is mostly misery. But it's this sheer fury that makes the album so compelling, along with the band's vociferous sound. "We had a great time making this record," they claim in the sleeve notes. Not surprising, having finally been able to put their fury to bed. And although Punk Junkies was released in 1996, it was available only briefly, thus this reissue is welcome, as are the inclusion of three bonus tracks (Review by Jo-Ann Greene ).
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"ha ha"
Year: 2002
Label: Go Kart
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 17
Time: 48 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk
"perfume and piss"
Year: 2010
Label: HellCat
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 13
Time: 40 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk
"momentum"
Year: 2017
Label: HellCat
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 12
Time: 40 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk
The 12th studio long-player from the British punk stalwarts, and their first outing since 2010's Perfume and Piss, Momentum finds G.B.H. both raging against the machine and taking in the scenery. Recorded in Birmingham with engineer Michael Rosen and producer Lars Frederiksen (Rancid), the 12-track set opens with the fiery "Birmingham Smiles," a heartfelt ode to the band's industrial stomping ground that muses "Everybody's got a hometown/Not everybody's got a home." "Tripwire Strange" continues to mine nostalgia and the banality/weirdness of a life spent on the road, but that maverick benevolence is quickly dispelled via combustive, old-school pit offerings like "No News," "The Perfect Storm," and "Population Bomb." The band addresses their longevity on the feisty title cut, and again on the surprisingly sultry (sounding), groove metal-laced "Fifty What," the latter of which manages to lament the socio-political aimlessness of the 2010s musical zeitgeist -- "If we borrowed and we stole/well at least we had a goal" -- without coming off like a gang of addled, lager-headed ex-hooligans defending their lawns. Late album cuts like "I Never Asked for Any of This," the Give 'Em Enough Rope-era Clash-inspired "Blue Sky Thinking," and the boozy "Liquid Paradise" deliver the goods as well, confirming that even after nearly 40 years together, G.B.H. have plenty of petrol left in the tank ( Review by James Christopher Monger ).
