Search - Dys :: Brotherhood

Classic Boston Hardcore

Ferguson | Evolving | 09/15/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"S.S.D were the first Boston straight edge hardcore band (even though Springa was far from being Straight Edge) and pretty much ran the scene with many of their cult followers starting groups who made up the infamous Boston Crew aka The Wolfpack, a mob of cleancut, clean living, suburban kids from Boston ("a mini-army of angry youth" as D.Y.S themselves put it) who'd beat up kids at shows who weren't straight edge, particularly New York and Jersey kids. D.Y.S (that's Department Of Youth Services and not, as some people suggest, anything saucy to do with your sister) were one of those groups.



3 or 4 years before Dave Smalley would go on to front the second Dag Nasty line-up that'd make the classic D.C album "can i say" he was a gawky, shaven headed teenager sporting jeans with the Black Flag logo drawn on screaming about brotherhood, standing proud and Straight edge unity. "Brotherhood" was their original 12" released on Al Barile from S.S.D's X Claim Records in 1983 and it's everything you could possibly want from an early 80s hardcore album. Musically, it's a blast full of raw agressive buzzsaw guitared Boston H.C and chant along anthems. As with most of the key Boston bands of the time, D.Y.S were adept at doing mid-tempo growling as they were at doing fast and furious. Naturally, the godly Lou Giordano helped produced and engineered it. Was there ever another producer who knew how to capture the raw energy of hardcore that quite so well? Historically, it's a crucial snapshot of the early Boston scene and the blueprint for the whole '86 - '89 Noo Yawk Youth Crew.



"Brotherhood" got re-released by Taang in 1991 as "wolfpack" with four terrible comedy songs including an atrocious cover of Sabbath's "iron man" and a really hilarious (or so the band thought) reggae song with Dave Smalley doing an embarassing faux-Jamaican accent. You can find this on the cd alongside the second self titled D.Y.S album where they went metal (which is now called "fire and ice" for some reason..confusing, huh?) called "fire and ice"/"wolfpack" but you really shouldn't waste your money on that as everything D.Y.S recorded that you need is right chea on "brotherhood"."

Great music, questionable marketing by Taang!

Bangsmith | Cumberland, RI | 08/16/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is the original 12" by DYS before it got lengthened into "Wolfpack" (I know, I had all the original releases!). If you're a collector, you'll want this, but otherwise, you might as well get "Fire and Ice/Wolfpack", since it is all on one CD (If you can still find it) which originally sold for the same price as this abbreviated CD does! What Taang! should have done is re-release the two albums separately and complete if they really wanted to highlight the original albums, as they did with Jerry's Kids. At least the music is all top notch!!"