Distort mag started in 2003 to document kvlt hardcore and World War III. The contents of Distort have been dominated by impulse, excess, insomnia, stimulation. No editor, no proofread, no nerd. Out of the 2000+ pages published over the past couple of decades I am skimming the C.R.E.A.M. into an archival book. I'm raising funds to print this by making backissues available again via PDF. You can also purchase a onetime subscription to all Distort here which this issue is part of. Distort #7 (2005) Integrity The first full length issue of Distort included an interview with Integrity guitarman Aaron Melnick. Do you hear Integrity? Cleveland hardcore band from the late 80’s, started as straight edge thug hardcore and evolved into something strange and unprecedented, absorbing interests in Gnosticism, terrorism and heavy metal. Their mid 90’s records are exceptional. I got in contact with the original Integrity guitarist and song writer, Aaron Melnick, to get a history of the band from before the reunion, to counter herdcore Integrity. Aaron Melnick’s style defined the band at their peak, and the work he did following leaving Integrity with Inmates, In Cold Blood and Brainwashed Youth are recurrent corruptions. Particularly Inmates – this band above most anything captured my imagination at the time of this issue of Distort. Integrity Response from Dwid I posted a polemic against nu-Integrity in some obscure corner of the internet. Dwid sent me an email expressing his feelings on my diatribe. I printed an extract in Distort. Dwid was a brutal shit talker and brilliant troll of the placid 90’s hardcore scene, and the fact he was ripping off a bunch of naïve cows with his substandard reunion records doesn’t bother me at all today. In fact, compared with much of the time and much that has come since, 2005 Integrity doesn’t sound all that bad. I come across as an uptight pedant in much of these early issues… it’s mortifying… my heart in right place, I was feeling very strong, much passion… but maybe you could say… uptight and serious… a little on the nose… Integrity Propaganda by Juz D Juz worked at the youth centre in Wollongong and I got to know him when I spent my afterschool hours making propaganda for my hardcore band, called XThe PactX. He was a mentor at a time when I was adjusting to life outside the nest. He offered a perspective of apocalyptic holy terror on my teenage atheism. Integrity was the soundtrack to our time together. Juz writes acerbic poetry full of revenge, much based in his experience as a youth worker providing support to the most vulnerable. The attempt to reconcile a Loving Creator with child abuse rings that operated in 1990’s Wollongong was a trial that Juz and I discussed for endless hours. At the point these conversations evolved into the dangerous territory of vigilante justice he was a valuable spiritual mentor. Years later, when I asked him to write something to accompany the interview with Aaron Melnick, he honoured me with this contribution. Abraxas Annihilation This piece of writing about Integrity and the gnostic god Abraxas was influenced heavily by reading Herman Hesse’s Demien. The Wit and Wisdom of Anton Szandor Lavey 2005 would have been about the last time I read the Satanic Bible and any Satanic Church propaganda – I was charmed by the hustle and fascinated by the cult. The taste soured. I associate Lavey’s Satanism less with some underground cabal of anti-Christ Mansonite terrorists and more with narcissistic war pigs like Obama that send drones to obliterate children. Satanism is a good racket, but it’s not nearly as good a racket as Christianity, which in my view makes it far less compelling.
