Wretched

WRETCHED were an Italian hardcore punk band born in Milan in 1981. They were inspired by the English anarcho-punk bands of the time, as Discharge and Crass, but they immediately developed an original and radical sound ("chaos not music" they said) which at the time made Italian HC punk unique.

Their work is distinguished by the strong anarcho-pacifist, libertarian, anti-militarist message: their was counterculture action, not just simple musical activity. The band's activity was inextricably linked to that of the squat called VIRUS, one of the first self-managed punk realities in Milan (it existed from 1981 to 1989).

WRETCHED were among the first bands in Italy to print self-produced records, and to claim this choice as a declaration for independence from the music business.

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WRETCHED stopped their activity in 1988, after dozens of concerts and a good amount of self-produced records with their own label called Chaos Autoproduzioni. WRETCHED are among the few italian HC bands of the 80s (or perhaps the only one?) who have never been on stage since. Today there isn't a punk community around the world where you don't meet someone with a WRETCHED tattoo, t-shirt or patch!