"pagan icons"
review
l.a. times (1981)
Suprisingly, subtletly is one
of the traits SACCHARINE TRUST displays on it's "Pagan Icons" EP (SST
Records). The band's playing is raw, the production crude, and the vocals
have a whiney, nervous quality that tends to irritatingly crawl under your
skin. But Saccharine Trust's creepy-crawly bent is aimed at exposing bare
nerves and displays a sophistication far above that of most local bands.
Many punk groups scream about states of repression, but the South Bay
quartet drives the point home more effectively by ironically taking the
opposite stance in "We Don't Need Freedom": "Freedom is what ruined your
brain/ with creativity, drugs, and pain/ Freedom is what let's you run wild/
explain freedom to your unborn child."
Though "Pagan Icons" seems harsh and brutal
in it's look at social and moral decay, it's not without compassion. "A
Human Certainty" begins as a harrowing look at a man consumed with such
hatred that he's scared to relate to anyone else, yet it ends with a
monolouge filled with tenderness- a sentiment that's become quite rare these
days. But that ony serves to show that Saccharine Trust, by following
neither a punk ethic of blind hatred, nor a top-40 credo of bland
compliance, has found it's own unique voice.
-Craig Lee
