Face LP
Purge / Sound League, 1988

My initial exposure to Chicago’s Of Cabbages And Kings came from scoring their sophomore album Basic Pain Basic Pleasure, which I nabbed for less than a dollar at a record store clearing our their vinyl racks to make way for the newest media format for “superior” audio at that time: Compact Discs. In fact, the only thing besides the very low monetary risk that made me bother to even take it home for a spin was that it was on the Triple X label, which I was familiar with from releases by The Adolescents, The Angry Samoans, D.I., Social Distortion and others. Needless to say, Of Cabbages And Kings didn’t exactly scratch the itch that those other bands did, but it did hook me in with a stark and unapologetically melodramatic gothy rumble that made me roll my eyes less and less with each listen. Over the years it slowly earned its status in my collection and pushed me to seek out other releases by this mysterious group. Luckily, the cutout bins of used record shops across the country were often well stocked with the output of this inexcusably underappreciated group.

By far the noisiest release by the band, Face unleashes a beastly lead track “Sister”, which launches its attack after a haunting accordion intro and features a gnarled bass rumble with sparse, primal percussion that comes off like a twisted interpretation of early Swans records. Track two, “The Last Ripper”, veers into an extreme blues pummel crossed with a militant snare and piano, resulting in an aural equivalent to a cabaret from hell. Side A finishes out with an unnamed track, literally represented as a blank line on the back cover and label, pounding out a hypnotic and oppressive dirge that hints at the lead track on side B, “Easiest Room In Hell”. This track methodically lurches along with groaning vocals that sound a bit like the hoarse Caspar Brötzmann chants that were also being unleashed at the time. “The Descent” is simply the heaviest song they ever made and one of the heaviest you’ll hear from any band, fortified by noisy shreds of guitar that peel off as a relentless rhythm section pounds away with a fervor that might just out-Swans Swans. This monstrosity could’ve ended the LP, or life as we know it, except for the final track “Bünga Bünga Bünga”, which waltzes in with an peculiar swagger before ending Face with the same haunted echoes of the ghostly, Old World accordion that started it.

I was able to find all the band’s other releases before I finally snagged Face, so I can now officially declare that this, their debut album, finds the band at their most intense peak and sits at the top of their excellent discography. While Of Cabbages And Kings’ stark harshness and dour tone sit right on the edge of pretentiousness, the initial flinch you may have will likely give way to a growing appreciation for the earnest heaviness the band delivers.

Of Cabbages And Kings – Sister

Of Cabbages And Kings – The Last Ripper

Of Cabbages And Kings – ___________

Of Cabbages And Kings – Easiest Room in Hell

Of Cabbages And Kings – Short Line of Angels

Of Cabbages And Kings – The Descent

Of Cabbages And Kings – Bünga Bünga Bünga