...Until The Bitter End

I first heard the Neurotic Arseholes way back in '83 on Bob Slade's crucial Off The Beaten Path show on WLRN in Miami. I would tape the episodes and then edit those tapes down to the best stuff and then dub those tapes for friends. So as far as I could tell, The Neurotic Arseholes were Germany's best punk band of the '80s ...Bis Zum Bitteren Ende was the band's first album, it was released by the Aggressive Rockproduktionen label in 1983. Fast melodic hardcore with forrays into ska and new wave, and the trademark voice of Dierk "zombie" Pastowski defined the Arseholes sound. The lyrics (mostly in German) were fiercely political decrying war and poverty and the myriad of social ills befalling Germany in the '80s. I think these guys have sadly been forgotten in the annals of international hardcore lore, but I think they had a hand in influencing the great Articles of Faith, and later KPF and, of course, a band called Hickey. Seriously, this is mandatory, or as they say in Germany: "Wenn Sie don' t so haben Sie ein dog' s-Ohr und Ihre Mamma ist ein bayerischer Bierhallen-Dirnebeutel."

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