The first Dicks long-player (and the only one featuring the original lineup), Kill from the Heart captures the band sounding very live in the studio and preserves their grungy, bluesy hardcore, flubs and all. The Dicks hailed from Austin, TX, and their sound at this time was a spongy, grimy mess churned out by novice players; their rootsy influences aren't immediately apparent underneath all the mud and fury. While clumsy, they're also compelling, especially when frontman Gary Floyd lets loose with his enormous bellow or guitarist Glen takes a solo and sounds like he's getting his fingers caught in the strings. The proudly Communist Dicks hold nothing back in their rants against the Ku Klux Klan, Nazis, bourgeois fascist pigs and, more often than not, the police. Floyd spewed particularly vile venom when writing about the boys in blue, resulting in cop-killer material like the title track, "Pigs Run Wild," and "Anti-Klan, Pt. 1" back when Ice-T was still wearing track suits and rapping about breakdancing. Of course, the Dicks are too knee-jerk angry to provide any context for their fantasy attacks, eschewing social commentary for simple, blistering hate. Still, these rabid anti-cop songs are the most memorable cuts on Kill from the Heart, though the pedophilic "Young Boys' Feet" isn't easy to forget ("Those feet really turn me on/Hey Mom and Dad, there ain't nothing wrong!"). "Rich Daddy" provides the best pure rock action, leaving the hyperspeed hardcore behind and letting the band's bluesy tendencies all hang out. In fact, a handful of tracks make explicit the Dicks' musical roots, not to mention the direction in which frontman Floyd would later take the band. "Anti-Klan, Pt. 2" takes a stab at either blues or country (it's hard to say which), slowing down the original to a sluggish shuffle and bringing in fellow Texas punk Tim Kerr for a Dobro solo. "Dicks Can't Swim" is a lengthy funk jam that encourages the listener to "hit your neighbor" over broken-bottle guitar and a surprisingly danceable backbeat. However, the Dicks' version of "Purple Haze" is hilarious in the hands of a guitarist like Glen, and not worth much more than a laugh. Their material on the earlier Recorded Live at Raul's Club features better songwriting, and later Dicks lineups were more musically accomplished, but Kill from the Heart is their most frenzied performance and stands out in the pantheon of hardcore. ~ Fred Beldin