Antisect

Antisect are an English punk and metal group from Daventry, later based in Northampton and the East Ham area of London. They are active from 1982 to 1987, and reform in 2011. Their music sits at the meeting point of anarcho-punk, hardcore punk, punk rock, metal and crust punk, although they do not use every one of those labels for themselves.

Background and style

The band forms around a core of four friends in Daventry: Pete Lyons on guitar and vocals, Pete Boyce on vocals, Renusze “Wink” Rokicki on bass, and Pete “Polly” Paluskiewicz on drums. In Northampton they add Rich Hill on male vocals and Caroline Wallis, later Caz Eden, on backing and occasional vocals. Other people also contribute ideas, artwork and practical organisation, reflecting the collective approach common in the anarcho-punk scene.

Antisect are closely associated with anarcho-punk, but they also describe themselves as a metal band with a message of freedom and peace. Their early influences include Slaughter & the Dogs, the Damned, the Ruts, the Clash, the Ramones, the Vibrators and ATV, alongside post-punk, underground rock and metal acts such as Gong, Hawkwind, Magazine, Public Image Ltd, Rush, Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Metallica, Basement 5 and Psychic TV. Their political and ethical interests include peace, individual freedom, human justice, compassion, cooperation and opposition to animal abuse.

Recording and releases

Their best-known release is the 1983 album In Darkness... There Is No Choice, issued on Spiderleg Records and recorded at Southern Studios. The record receives positive attention in the British music press and becomes their most important early statement. It combines fast, thrashy material with slower, heavier sections and an instrumental studio piece using tubular bells and bass. Its subjects include war, conformity, oppression and animal rights, and it presents a broad anti-system message centred on peace and humanism.

In 1985 the band issues the 7-inch Out From The Void, which moves further towards a metal sound and focuses more on inner struggle and self-imposed limits. John Bryson sings the A-side and Pete Lyons sings the B-side. Antisect also record a further album, New Dark Ages, for Mortarhate Records, but vocals are never completed and the album is abandoned.

Live activity and scene role

Antisect play widely in underground spaces such as squats, community centres and small venues, often for expenses only and with low admission charges. Many of their shows are benefit gigs supporting peace campaigns, animal rights and striking miners’ families. They play frequently with Discharge before their first album, and later with Amebix, Chumbawumba, Dirt, No Defences, Sacrilege and Sedition. In 1984 they tour the UK with Crucifix. They are also among the instigators of the squat venue scene in the mid to late 1980s.

The band’s performances combine music with political statements, poems and spoken passages, including “Channel Zero - Reality”. Their 1985–1987 line-up changes shape their sound toward a darker, more experimental direction. Pete Lyons and John Bryson share vocals on the 1985 period, and later line-ups include Laurence Windle on bass and Tim Andrews on vocals from Sedition.

Break-up and later activity

The original run ends in 1987. Pete Lyons and Laurence Windle continue for a period in London in a group called Kulturo. Lyons later works as a music producer and recording engineer at Zed One Studios in London and contributes to Ian Glasper’s The Day The Country Died. Pete Boyce settles in Daventry and runs the band’s website. John Bryson forms Split Pigs. Wink dies in 2000.

The band reforms in 2011 with Pete Lyons, Pete Boyce, Laurence Windle and Tim Andrews, later joined on drums by Joe Burwood. Caz Eden is back in the group but does not perform after the first show. Pete Boyce leaves in 2012, Tim Andrews departs in 2013, and Chris Caps becomes vocalist later that year. Pete Lyons later requires emergency heart surgery after a show in Sweden, but the band continues with performances in Belgium, Sweden, Russia and other territories while recording material for a second album. In 2016 Chris Caps and Laurence Windle leave and John Bryson returns. Antisect later sign to Rise Above Records for The Rising of the Lights.