Boston Hardcore might not be so sublimated as New York Hardcore or (Washington) DC Hardcore, but still there are some legendary records made in Boston. I’m thinking about SSD “The Kids Will Have Their Say”, with the most iconic Hardcore Punk LP cover ever made in my opinion. But also the SSD “Get It Away” twelve inch ep is great. So I wanted to check out more of that early Boston Hardcore material.
I came upon this self-tilted release from 1985 from DYS on Discogs .com. Several people told me this is their favourite DYS record. So all of the above reasons made me decide to buy it. Also the price was alright.
The cover art is a snippet from the painting “Triumph Of Death” from the painter Pieter Breughel The Elder (a Dutch renaissance painter).
DYS stands for Department of Youth Services.
back cover and vinyl
DYS was actually Dave Smalley’s earlier band before Dag Nasty. The record is cool, although far from what you’d expect musically. It’s not that stereo-typical crushing Punk anymore. The vocals are more melodic also, more a metal kind of singing. Also some slower ’emotional’ parts in their delivery. The record was recorded in 1984 and was released the year after in 1985.
I think it’s a cool record but it takes a few spins to get into it. I repeat; already a remarkable relatively high Metal influence for that period in Hardcore.
The second remarkable fact is that this second LP of DYS goes approximately ten times less than the original “Brotherhood” LP. That one was their first. Probably because it lacks that Straight-Edge Hardcore Punk touch, that is so much fancied by collectors. Any other opinions?
2 responses to “DYS self-titled LP”
I agree with your opinion. Your description is correct. Makes me wonder why they wanted to play more heavy metal instead of staying true to the pure punk?
… other opinion: I think that the first one is actually a lot better musically, it has another great iconic cover and it´s much rarer, therefore the price must be higher. On the other hand this LP (along with the SSD How we rock) isn´t as bad as everyone thinks. What´s really annoying with these records is the deplaced heavy metal / rock influences which somehow don´t really fit in. These guys were punks not rockstars!