Official reissue of the first Nabat demo from 1982 on cassette for the first time. I wanted to give stores the option of carrying an authorized release with much better audio than the crappy bootlegs floating around. Two-tone cassette shells with thick cardstock covers, limited to 100 copies.

Our take: Foreign Legion Records presents a reissue of the 1982 demo by the Italian oi! band Nabat, originally released as a split cassette with Rip Off. Foreign Legion notes there were a lot of crummy bootlegs of this recording floating around (including crummy YouTube rips), so they released this edition of pro-printed cassettes with great sound so people could hear these tracks with all their original impact. I’ve seen a lot of Nabat merch around the punk scene over the past several years, so I think they’re not as obscure as they once were, but I’m sure many people aren’t familiar with this excellent band. While taking inspiration from the British oi! scene, Nabat had their own take on the sound, with stripped-down riffs and arrangements and a raw, biting sound that’s miles away from more polished and melodic oi! groups. I get the impression the members of Nabat used records like Blitz’s All Out Attack EP as a template for their sound, accentuating the gruffness and toughness. The recording’s raw guitar sound and punchy drums make Nabat sound a bit like S.O.A. or Negative Approach here, albeit with slower tempos. Not being in such a rush helps these songs pop, with the terrace-chant choruses planting themselves in your head after just a listen or two. While Nabat’s debut 7” (also released in 1982) is an Italian punk classic, I must admit I hadn’t given these earlier tracks their proper hearing, and I’m very pleased Foreign Legion Records has righted that wrong.