The System - Is Murder

THE SYSTEM - IS MURDER

In the meantime, over at Spiderleg Records the release of the second EP by The System found them also fulfilling their earlier signs of great promise in a most satisfactory way. Entitled Is Murder, the record revealed that since debuting with their Warfare EP a year previously, The System had continued with their knack of forging together various Punk influences to create their own pounding amalgamation.

Having spent the past year gigging with the likes of Flux Of Pink Indians, Crass, Alternative, and Dirt, their primary source of influence had been all things Anarcho and had now subsequently morphed into a hybrid of all these bands. For some - bemoaning the fact that there was already one Crass too many - this was a problem but the truth of the matter was that being the epitome of a so-called 'Crass band' was actually something to aspire to.

The System had taken essential ingredients from all their Anarcho peers and created a record that was not only pleasing to the ear but also to the eye. On thrashing, fuzzed-out rhythm guitar it could easily have been Crass's Andy Palmer himself playing - which was no bad thing in the slightest. Similarly, the sleeve design was a combination of The Mob's dove of peace, Crass's broken gun, and Dirt's Grim Reaper; all in stylish and stark black and white.

The only let down was that unfortunately The System still hadn't learned to write good, polemical lyrics and this was the only thing that held them back from being a truly great Anarcho Punk band. And alas, as The System were soon to disband after the release of Is Murder, it was something that in the end they would never achieve but instead would leave them being remembered as the band who were almost very, very good indeed.