The initial inspiration for the crust punk scene came from the anarcho-punk scene which included bands such as Crass and Flux of pink indians (both of Crass Records)The. City genres structure then pulled inspiration from D-beat, of which bands included Discharge from the english wave of the genre,the sound was then fused with Anti Cimex,Mob 47 and Rattus' sound of the swedish wave of D-Beat and extreme metal bands included celtic frost and venom.
Amebix a band of the English City Bristol, also brought in influences from various post-punk bands, including Public Image Ltd., Bauhaus, Joy Division, and especially Killing Joke. The doom metal sound of Black Sabbath and Motörhead was also a big influence on both Amebix and Antisect. Amebix to this day are noted as the originators of the crust sound, with there 1985 release Arise they laid the foundations of the genre with atmospheric undertones.
Antisect from Daventry in Northamptonshire , quickly added to said foundations that Amebix laid out , almost in homage to Amebix's release with their single entitled Out from the Void. Antisect added to the foundation with a quicker pace guitars but moving away from lyrical themes of bleakness and tragedy to subjects consisting of animal rights and social justice.nuclear war, militarism, animal rights, police, personal grievances, oppressive states and fascism are among other subjects covered by most crust punk bands.
CRUST WAS COINED
The term "crust" was coined by Hellbastard on their 1986 Ripper Crust demo.
It
was widely regarded as the first time the word 'crust' was used in
the punk context, and hence the specific starting point of the whole
crust-core genre, although some would attribute that accolade to the
likes of Disorder, Chaos UK, and Amebix several years earlier.
Upon
the term being coined by Hellbastard, in an interview
vocalist
and guitarist of the group,Malcolm "Scruff" Lewty
commented,
A
lot of people say we started the crust-punk genre, but whatever. If
they wanna say that, I don't mind, but I'm certainly no Malcolm
McLaren, saying I invented something I didn't.
Sub-genres
A
number of sub-genres began to develop in the 80's as people took
crust in as there own as moved the foundations slightly. a fantastic
example of this would be Stenchcore, a term started by Deviated
Instinct from Bradford , bringing both the look and the sound of
crust to a even heavier and dirtier level .They decided to add
influence from metal bands, which from a band who started out as an
anarcho band seemed odd to say the least.
Vocalist
Julian 'Leggo' Kilsby said this was the reason for change ;
We
were very much a part of the anarcho scene, to start with, very
politically motivated... all the way through the band's existence,
really, although it got less obvious as time went by. But I never
really liked the straightforward 'War is bad...' lyrics that were so
prevalent at the time, so as my writing skills improved I wanted to
add more depth to our lyrics and make them more metaphorical; I'd
always been into horror films, so that started to manifest itself in
the imagery I was using.
Other
sub genres of crust punk include blackened crust which was a term
coined by japanese band Gallhammer and other acts include canadian
band Iskra.
Clothing
Crust
punk also has an associated DIY-oriented branch of punk garb. Similar
to anarcho-punk, most clothing is black in color. Denim jackets and
hooded sweatshirts with sewn-on patches, or vests covered in studs,
spikes and band patches are characteristic elements of the crust punk
style of dress. or pants covered in band patches. Crusties sometimes
wear dreadlocks.
