McRad
Lion Pure
Not Like You Records


This excellent discog from Philly’s McRad leads with their first 12”, ‘Dominant Force’, a blast of competent skate punk, followed by a few comp tracks, etc. and some ska/reggae mixed in. (No Guns reminds me a bit of the Clash for sure.)There are also tracks from the Thrasher Skate Rock comp and a dub featuring HR of Bad Brains fame.


Their second album, ‘Absence of Sanity’ is their best offering, and burns with a great mix of NY style metal tinged hardcore and occasional tinges of melodic California style Punk that was yet to break huge with the Hot Topics crowd a decade later. The song writing is tight, catchy and mature and only falters with the second to last track, ‘Words of Life’, which is another one of those cringeworthy white boy reggae songs that wears it’s obvious Bad Brains worship on the sleeve. One could argue that the crunchier songs do have a bit of BB’s ‘I Against I’ vibe, with more hooks and groove than the first wave HC every band was trying desperately to move away from at this point, but that’s not a bad thing, and McRad really pull it off! 


Given the scarcity of the originals, this is a great, mostly complete, discog of their earlier material that I can highly recommend. I have digital only, so I’m not sure what’s in the physical copy, but from my check on Discogs, I don’t see a whole lot in the way of liner notes.


Link:
https://notlikeyourecords.bandcamp.com/album/lion-pure-2xlp

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