Long has it been since I heard the name "False Prophets," and longer still has it been since I actually heard them. To be exact, the last time I heard anything by these guys was 1985, when I heard "Taxidermist" on one of Adam Bomb’s weekly installments of KXLU’s "The Final Countdown." What you get on this compilation, spanning the years 1980-85, is their 1984 album, a couple o’ singles, plus oodles of rare and unreleased stuff. If you’ve never heard these guys before, they play a beautifully eclectic blend of thrash (the 1982 definition of that term, not to be confused with speed-metal, which is apparently what it means today), mid-tempo hardcore, gloomy post-punk dirge rock, with the occasional nod to rap and Latin music. Those newer to this punk "thing" or those who might have missed False Prophets the first time around would do well to pick up a copy of this, ’cause they were one of those rare, original gems back when all of the bands were trying to sound like America’s Hardcore or the Adolescents instead of Pennywise or NOFX.
–jimmy (Alternative Tentacles, PO Box 419092, San Francisco, CA 94141-9092)