No Remorze - The End (MZEE 1995)

Germans loved hardcore UK hip hop. Well some at least did (and still do). They loved it so much that they took the classic sounds of Silver Bullet and Gunshot and made those sounds harder, faster, angrier and noisier. No Remorze were a perfect example of this and their “The End” album is a case in point of Germans taking britcore and putting their own stamp on it. Look no further than the album cover and you know you’re not getting sweet ballads from these guys ie. three mean looking hooded hombres gazing at you with nothing but a cold, dead, barren wasteland as their backdrop.

In fact, very reflective of album cover is the title track “The End” which sits appropriately as the last proper track of the album and has a great sample of Busta circa LONS era stating “you’d better beware coz the end is near”. Accordingly it’s a very dark, apocalyptic track with the malicious mic slaying vocal talents of MC Crak proclaiming eminent doom for humanity due to their own actions throughout history leading to their self destruction. The song is very angry, highly political, message laden and very much exemplifies No Remorze’s mission statement throughout most of their tracks – musically and lyrically. Significantly the track runs directly into the albums Outro which quotes Gravediggaz “nowhere to hide, nowhere to run” over an absolutely huge earth shaking beat which all comes to a halt after a minute or so with the sound of nothing but a heart beat monitor “dead line” ie. death, the end. It’s actually one of the best album finales I have ever heard (which is why I mentioned it first here).

Not everything was new at the time of this album though as 4 tracks were released prior to this album but had slight re-workings and given a “95” suffix for inclusion in it. Without a doubt two of those re-worked tracks, “Condemned to Death” and “Dark Malice”, were classic No Remorze tracks in their original forms and still are here. I’ve already spoken on “Dark Malice” on my Joining Forces review and “Dark Malice 95” (thankfully) hasn’t been altered for this album very much, if at all. “Condemned to Death” is a classic too and is a far more sparse production than "Dark Malice" with mid tempo punchy beats sitting over the dramatic rhythm sample taken from Rakim’s “Let the Rhythm Hit Em”. This newer version does however have far too prominent church organ keys in the chorus as an “add on” which doesn’t really work that well for me.

“Killa Squad 95” and “No Justice 95” could be twin sister songs as they are quite similar and are both absolutely breakneck speed sonic assaults with screams, sirens, high BPM’s and manic DJ work in full effect. Especially “Killa Squad 95” which is probably the fastest I’ve ever heard Crak rhyme and it’s truly something to behold (I’m sure teenagers into their mellow, lightweight, moody hip hop these days wouldn’t be able to comprehend an MC bringing it like this). None of these “old come new” tracks are really that different to their original incarnations but for some reason the recording/playback quality is somewhat “muddy” and Crak’s vocals are buried far lower in mix than they were on the old versions. Therefore they don’t blend in all that well with the new songs which are noticeably cleaner recordings. Having said that, it's a fact that some of my favourite hip hop albums of all time were recorded in dubious quality and I've learnt to live with it.

The majority of those new tracks are pretty wicked. “Slaughter of the Lambs” gives Crak a chance to catch his breath with its more laidback pace and presents us with relatively crisp and busy drums over the lovely “Nautilus” sample cruising below. “Remorse? No!” sounds like it could easily be a track from the first Def Wish Cast album and is britcore to the nth degree. It has ominous, dramatic and crisp production and fantastic DJ work from the legendary DJ Style Warz with cutting that’s cannot be described as anything but scythe like ! “Hunted” shares a similar blueprint but bumps up the noise, drama and darkness.

Not all is perfect here though. Although they are both very hard and aggressive tracks, “Pros and Cons” and “Fascists Must Burn” do very much sound like the left and right arm of “Dark Malice” as they are both structured almost too similarly to it using heavy guitar riffs as their main driving forces. No denying Crak sounds rough and rugged on both though. Not so on “Bitches” however, which threw me a real curveball the first time I heard it, and it still does. Yes it’s a noble message bigging up women but a soft R&B female crooned track in the middle of a hardcore hip hop album just does not sit right for me at all (especially wedged between Killa Squad and an interlude stating “hardcore we’re giving you more and more”!) and it’s something I wouldn’t have ever expected from a group like this.

A couple little curios to finish off with, one strange and one cool. Strange - the Intro is listed as having a run time of 1.62 (1min 62 seconds - huh ???). Cool - there are lyrics provided in the CD booklet for each song in their original English and ALSO translated into German – now that’s a nice touch. It is bit of a shame though that Crak never rhymed in German, which would've been pretty cool and potentially added to the hard sounds (some German language MC's sound wonderfully MENACING), but i guess the English rhyming let his message be known to wider audience outside Germany (especially the UK crowd) which may have been part of the reason why.

Any fan of the old UK hardcore sound or anyone interested in hearing one of the best groups of all time from Germany should track this down.