Fang
Gritty, mid-tempo hardcore that trades speed for a heavy, nihilistic crawl. The bridge between 80s street punk and the murky birth of grunge.
Gritty, mid-tempo hardcore that trades speed for a heavy, nihilistic crawl. The bridge between 80s street punk and the murky birth of grunge.
Fang sounds like the exact moment a party turns ugly. While their contemporaries in the 80s hardcore scene were racing to see who could play the fastest, Fang slowed things down into a menacing, mud-caked crawl. Their sound is defined by Tom Flynn's thick, feedback-prone guitar work and Sammytown's confrontational, gravel-throated vocals. It is music that feels physically heavy, reeking of stale beer and asphalt.
What truly distinguishes them is their influence on the 'sludge' and 'grunge' movements that followed. They didn't just play punk; they played it with a rhythmic weight and a nihilistic streak that felt more dangerous than the typical three-chord thrash. There is a specific, grimy texture to their recordings that feels like it was captured in a garage with the door locked and the lights off.
Start with the 'Landshark' EP. It is the definitive document of their early sound, containing the blueprint for the heavy, mid-tempo punk that Kurt Cobain famously obsessed over. From there, move to 'Where the Wild Things Are' to hear them lean further into their dark, experimental tendencies.
Fang is an American hardcore punk band from the early East Bay punk rock scene, established in Berkeley, California, in 1980.
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