Phillyist Reviews... G.B.H.'s Race Against Time: The Complete Clay Recordings

You may not have heard of G.B.H. We hadn't heard of them before we got a copy of their recently released box set, Race Against Time: The Complete Clay Recordings. But they're a pretty popular band in England. And they're now one of our favorites.

Of course, G.B.H. is a British punk metal band, and when we heard that was their genre, we suspected we would like them quite a bit. British? Punk? Metal? That's all good stuff! And indeed the mixture is quite intoxicating. This particular collection of their music takes the form of three CDs containing all the music they released while on the Clay label (which was during the 1980s).

But before we go more into that, let's handle the question we know you want to ask (because it's the first one we asked): what's the deal with the name? Turns out it's an abbreviation used to describe a level of assault in Britain: Grievous Bodily Harm. And during the Clay years, they were actually calling themselves Charged G.B.H., as they had discovered there was a heavy rock band in London who already had the name G.B.H. They've since dropped the prefix. (You can read a bit more about their name here.)

Yes, G.B.H. is still around, and the three core members are still there, although sadly they don't appear to tour America at all. We assume this is because their music never caught on here, although we can't imagine why. It's fantastic stuff. This collection consists of three CDs worth of material: the complete album City Baby's Revenge, a live album called No Survivors '83, and finally a sort of catch-all collection (sharing its title with that of the set as a whole) of all the rest of their Clay recordings, including all the songs off of their first LP (considered by many to be their best album), City Baby Attacked by Rats. (If you want to know what that name is about, it's supposedly an actual headline from a London tabloid. Ew.)

But what does it all sound like, you ask? Well, G.B.H. is the perfect intersection of classic punk, hardcore, and metal, with that special U.K. flavor added on top as a spicy extra. We think they sound kind of like Motörhead crossed with your favorite punk band. That Grievous Bodily Harm they're doing is against your ears; it's an all-out, high speed attack that will beat you down and raise you up. You can almost feel the mosh pit all around you when you listen to these guys. Our favorite disc of the set is probably Race Against Time, as it includes great tracks like, well, the title track, as well as "Knife Edge," "Dead on Arrival," "Generals," and "Self Destruct." And of all of the songs on this disc, only two are over three minutes long. That's the great thing about punk: no time or word is wasted! It's a minute or two of pure musical brutality, and then you're on to the next thing. Brilliant!

So if you are as ignorant of G.B.H. as we were, we suggest jumping right in and discovering them for yourself with this great box set.

Image via Amazon.com