Rancid Hell Spawn are an English punk rock

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran *Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

, originally active between 1988 and 1995, making a return in 2011. Based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England, the band released five

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

s and six

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

s. Rancid Hell Spawn also provided two

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

s for the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

Dennis Worden Dennis Worden is an American comic book writer and artist best known as the creator of the comic book ''Stickboy''. Worden's alternative comics caught the public's attention in the early 1980s, via Robert Crumb's '' Weirdo'' comics anthology, f ...

's ''Stickboy''

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

in 1993. Their

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

is characterized by short and catchy songs with bizarre song titles, with a distinctive noisy and distorted sound, featuring a

Casio is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. It ...

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

and large amounts of

feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...

. The majority of Rancid Hell Spawn songs are short, high-speed punk burnouts with melodies hidden beneath the feedback. Steven Wells of ''

New Musical Express ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' described it as "listening to

Eddie Cochran Ray Edward Cochran (; October 3, 1938 – April 17, 1960) was an American rock and roll musician. Cochran's songs, such as "Twenty Flight Rock", "Summertime Blues", " C'mon Everybody" and " Somethin' Else", captured teenage frustration and desire ...

while wearing a chemical warfare suit full of angry wasps." Rancid Hell Spawn’s record sleeve artwork has consistently comprised simple, but sick and striking graphics. The band was fronted by Charlie Chainsaw, former editor of Chainsaw fanzine which started in 1977 and continued until 1984. Rancid Hell Spawn were DIY pioneers – all of the early releases were recorded on a cheap 4-track portastudio in Charlie’s front room; the only time that a professional recording studio was used was when the recordings were mixed on to reel-to-reel tape before being sent to the pressing plant. The unorthodox instrumentation, which often included three bass guitar tracks, together with the low-budget recording techniques, gave Rancid Hell Spawn a unique sound; and the cheap recording costs enabled the band to record and release a large number of songs in a relatively short space of time. Charlie Chainsaw remains active in the London punk scene, running the Wrench Records

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

and mailorder company. Rancid Hell Spawn reformed in 2011, releasing an EP ''Abolition of the Orgasm'' in December 2011 and ''Eat My Cigarette'' in 2016.

Discography

* ''Festering Pus'' single, Wrench Records, 1988 * ''Jumpin Jack Flesh'' LP, Wrench Records, 1989 * ''Gas Mask Love'' mini-LP, Wrench Records, 1990 * ''Chainsaw Masochist'' LP, Wrench Records, 1990 * Split EP with The Fells, Toxic Shock Records, 1991 * ''Gastro Boy'' EP, Wrench Records, 1992 * ''Axe Hero'' CD, Wrench Records, 1993 * ''Teenage Lard'' EP, Wrench Records, 1995 * ''Scalpel Party'' Retrospective CD, Wrench Records, 2000 * ''Abolition Of The Orgasm'' EP, Wrench Records, 2011 * ''Eat My Cigarette'' EP, Wrench Records, 2016

References

English punk rock groups {{UK-rock-band-stub