Ananda - "Habeus Corpus" LP

Ananda was a semi-metallic five-piece hardcore band active throughout the the mid 1990's, and broke up soon after the arrival of the 21st century. They called the picturesque Île-de-France region of central France home. The dudes who played in Ananda also did time in notable French luminaries such as Finger Print, L'Invention De Morel and Jasemine, among others. This, their first full length effort, is nowhere near as fast, heavy or "evil" sounding, if you will, as their second, and more grind influenced venture "Profane", which is a record I did not originally care for, but have found a bit more appreciation for as the years continue to creep along. The later Ananda stuff may have had a more technically proficient aspect to it, but the vocals were more in line with Coalesce (see: gruff) than what they originally started (via original vocalist Chrys Grall or Queen Latfah as she is credited here on "Habeus Corpus"). The deeper, male vox was the biggest hurdle for me to overcome when I originally heard the later record years ago, and I guess it is what it is. They certainly make the whole band sound heavier, if nothing else. I definitely prefer the harsher and more varied female vocals on this stuff.

Here, Ananda plays a more emo style similar to fellow country-folk Anomie. For some weird reason, I'd say it's a bit reminiscent of the weirdo German band Sog, who almost nobody remembers, which means I should probably do a post about at some point. The music is aggressive, yet beautiful when it needs to be. It has plenty of quieter guitar parts which are contrasted by loudly played drums, and overall has tons of rad rocking parts throughout the whole record. The recording is crisp and all of the instruments are well articulated. the booklet has lyrics in both French and English, as well as some brief personal writings. "Habeus Corpus" is a pretty solid example of 90's French hardcore, a scene I feel pretty confident about informing you is more than well worth your time. Hopefully you are already familiar with some of its output, but in case you aren't, this album is as good a place to start as any.

The lyric booklet was pretty difficult to photograph without running the risk of damaging the pamphlet itself, and doing this was obviously something I wanted to avoid. My apologies, but you only get a few shots of that, instead of pics of the entire thing. These songs were recorded sometime in 1997, and this thing was released by Brian Roettinger under the Unfortunate For the Fortunate label, before he did operated the excellent Hand Held Heart (The Red Scare, Song Of Zarathustra, Volume 11, etc.) and played in This Machine Kills.

Tracklist:
1) R.A.S.
2) Conscience et Inscousciance
3) Mourier de Froid
4) Fill Up
5) Atchatcha aka Tolerance
6) Doutes
7) Ecueil
8) Difference
9) Un Soir

- Voila -