Absolution - 1988-1989 Discography

Absolution were a NYHC band during the late'80s, but they were in a league of their own. They played some of the most creative, energetic and powerful hardcore of the time, with some of the most thought provoking and intelligent lyrics the '80s NY hardcore scene had to offer. Because of their small output of recorded material, and because the second-wave of hardcore in NYC (1986-1989) was overloaded with (mostly) great bands, Absolution kind of remained an obscurity. In my opinion, they were head and shoulders above most of their contemporaries, and every bit as good as any classic NYHC band you can name. Bottom line... they should have been huge.

In 1997, Temperance Records put out a "discography" LP/CD which turned out to be one of the worst documentations of a band's recorded work i've just about ever seen. Various tracks thrown together without any rhyme or reason, not to mention the demo, which was not only incomplete, but suffered from awful sound quality. I appreciate the effort, but it just seemed hastily put together, and is simply a bad representation of this great band's work. The one good thing about the release was the live tracks, which had no info unfortunately, but sounded great. I recently found out the set was from CBGB on 4/17/88, and was thankfully complete. I'll be posting that set as well as some other live Absolution sets in a future collection. For now, you can enjoy this collection, which hopefully does the band more justice than the Temperance release. The first 6 tracks are the band's studio tracks. The track from the Murders Among Us comp 7" (Vermiform/Combined Effort) was recorded in 1989 and released in 1990 after the band had broken up. The next track is the band's incredible opening to the New Breed comp tape, released in 1989 by Freddy Alva and Chaka Malik Harris. It's a killer song that many people will tell you is the highlight of the comp. Tracks 3-6 are from the band's only 7", released in 1989 on Dave Stein's Combined Effort Records. Seems i'm in the minority, but i really like this record. Next up is the band's classic 13 song demo from 1988 (my personal favorite Absolution recordings). I was able to get a nice sounding rip, plus I boosted the sound to just about match the volume of the studio tracks, and also cleaned them up a bit. This is the band at their most raw and aggressive, and just one of the best demos of the late '80s. After that we have 2 unreleased outtakes from the 7" sessions. I spent some extra time on these tracks (removing tape hiss, amplifying the sound etc). The rips of these songs making the rounds online are barely listenable. Ending the collection is an excellent sounding set recorded live at the Anthrax Club on 5/20/88. It's a short set (i'm not sure if it's complete), but it's the best sounding live Absolution i've heard yet. Thanks to Freddy Alva and Eric Himle for the music. Thanks to everyone over at Livewire for the info and help. Enjoy

Absolution Collection

Djinji Brown - vocals
Gavin Van Vlack - guitar
Alan Peters - bass
Greg Johnston - drums

Gavin also played in NY Hoods and Side By Side.
Alan Peters played on Agnostic Front's "Liberty and Justice For..." LP (1987 Combat Core).

Shortly after the release of the Absolution 7", Alan joined Crawlpappy and was replaced by Sergio Vega (Collapse). Greg also left, and was replaced by by John Kricksiun (Collapse / Life's Blood). They played two shows with this lineup before calling it quits.

After the breakup Gavin and John formed Burn. Later Gavin played for Die 116 with members of Rorschach. Sergio eventually joined Quicksand, and Djinji went off on his solo venture, releasing albums of world music inspired hip-hop.

Absolution reunited in 2008 for some shows. I wish i could have been there.

The band's fan Myspace is here.