A victory saga of sorts

Abuse is a swedish crust punk band that existed between the early and late 90’s. This is their story.

There’s a vague Exploited sounding noise coming from a rehearsal space in Uppsala. Is it perhaps Asta Kask? No, it's Encorpres! Just like the 90’s, their musical constellation had just seen the light of day and consisted of the three dapper boys Jonsson, Joel and Östan. Like many other newly started punk bands, they’re playing a simpler form of punk rock, but it won’t take long before they find their musical identity. More specifically, it’s the fateful debut gig in 1993 that will transform Encorpres into the magnificent mangel band that is so close to my heart that I chose to write this text.

When they decided to share stage time with their friends in Harass, their eyes were opened to d-beat and raw fucking crust. In preparations for the next rehearsal they change their name from Encorpres to Abuse, recruit a new talent in the singer Ante, bring with them a set of Mob 47 and Anti-Cimex cassettes and a not inconsiderable amount of beer. The drummer, Östan, has never played d-beat before and has to try to learn this during the rehearsing. To the band's great joy, it so happened that the d-beat rested latently in Östan, as he turned out to be a natural talent.

Front cover to their first demo cassette "Another Victim"

Despite the fact that the band lacked someone to play bass at the time, Abuse soon recorded their first demo cassette, entitled "Another Victim", which was printed in 500 copies. A nine-piece demo that clocked in at just under eighteen of the king's golden minutes. For the front of the cassette they stitched together the very logo that would follow the band throughout its career. Letters from Iron Maiden's album "The number of the beast" were cut out, stomped on with dirty boots and then copied together (we have to remember that this is the first half of the 90s, computers are only just beginning to enter Swedish homes) to spell "Abuse" instead.

Front cover to their first EP "I Guds Namn?"

As early as the very next year the material for their debut EP, "I Guds Namn?" (In The Name Of God?) was recorded and ready, and it was sent out to various record companies. One of the quickest to respond was Crust Records from the US run by Ben from Dropdead - but he soon wanted something even newer from the band, so they went into the studio once more and recorded the songs for what would become the EP "Mördare" (Murderer). While this was going on, Ben's friend Judy, who ran the label Consume, Be Silent, Die Records, had gotten her hands on the original songs. She released the EP "I Guds Namn?" on her label just before Ben released "Mördare" on his - thus there are two EP:s with Abuse released in 1996. According to Jonsson's memory, "I Guds Namn?" was released in 1995, but there's nothing to back this up - either on the cover nor on Discogs.

Front cover to their second EP "Mördare"

Front cover to their first split LP; Abuse / Diskonto

After this exquisite EP combo follows an intense period of gigs and participation on compilation albums intended for the foreign audience and when 1997 arrives they are once again in the studio. This time they’re recording what results in one side of a split album with another Uppsala band, Diskonto. Once again it was Judy at Consume, Be Silent, Die Records who distributed the vinyl. After this, a darker chapter began in the story of Abuse - where they drank more than anything else and, among other things, missed out on a long-awaited US tour. Ante reluctantly left the band and it was never quite as good with the replacements that were tried out. In 1999, Abuse ultimately threw in the towel.

Band photo

Two years later, a slightly inebriated young man with a twenty in his pocket staggered up to a distro table while soundchecks took place on stage. After browsing the records for a little while, the choice landed on a seven-incher that had the sizzling title "Mördare" and whose back cover boasted a sloppily copied image of a unkempt Belgian blue. "This just can’t be some lame shit", he reasoned maturely and handed over the twenty. Once home in his boy room, he dropped the needle on the record and almost fell off the chair. Sure, he had heard some hardcore d-beat and crust before, but most of it was of the slightly more polished variant. The kind that could find its way into a mainstream catalog without raising too many eyebrows. The primitive crust Abuse threw in his face would completely dominate his musical tastes for years to come. In fact, even today, almost twenty years later, I (Yes, I was the young man!! Wow, twist! Shocker!) still hold Abuse as one of my favorite bands. Of course for nostalgic reasons but also, and mainly, because of a genuine appreciation of the raw sound.

The front cover to their compilation CD "Manifest 1994-2004 – Ten years of Abuse"

What I didn't know, however, was that Abuse was coming together for another recording during 2004. They pulled the band together, except Östan who had to be replaced by Godske (drummer in Diskonto) and an extra guitar in Brief and recorded a couple of songs. They titled this recording "Manifesto" and let it remain unheard for many years because they didn't really think anyone cared. Then, one blessed day sometime in 2011, a letter arrived adressed to Jonsson's mother. It was from Ralph at Haunted Hotel Records in New York who had listened a lot to Abuse and wanted to release a discography compilation with them. The result was the CD (and later the cassette, although it was released by Malaysian Sickhead Records) "Manifest 1994-2004 – Ten years of Abuse". The subtitle reads "The official and complete 55 track discography of Abuse" which is exactly what it is. All songs and recordings with Abuse collected in one convenient release.

When Uppsala punk comes up, it doesn't matter what kind of punk you're talking about, for me it’ll always be synonymous with Abuse. I don’t want to lessen the ridiculously brilliant Diskonto, but I cannot for the life of me let a band as raw as Abuse be overshadowed by another. And that's not how the punk scene is supposed to work anyway so...