Hardcore Outcasts Revisited `82 -`84

Album Review

The Outpatients were western Massachusetts' second hardcore band, forming after bassist Scott Helland left the now legendary first one, Deep Wound, to join two other teens, his brother, guitarist Vis Helland, and drummer Mike Kingsbury, from the more speed metallic Mace. (Deep Wound included later Dinosaur Jr. members J. Mascis and Lou Barlow, the latter of whom would also lead Sebadoh.) These old unearthed basement tapes (well preserved from cassette; the original reels are not extant) recapture the sound and fury of their Boston neighbor kids to the east. In fact, had the Outpatients convened a year earlier, they could have been included on the This Is Boston Not L.A. compilation, which included the non-Boston, Cape Cod band the Freeze; this early style would have slotted well with the primal thrash of young Gang Green or Jerry's Kids. More fluid than SS Decontrol, and possessing a topflight bass/drums combo (Mace's frequent covers of Motorhead predate the chops and heavy attack here), the Outpatients blister and scream. Of course, this sound and style is now as old hat as CB radios, but at its onset it sounded fresh, and head-banging smashers such as "Go Play" bring that back as much as a current Outpatients gig, 15 years after their birth.