You know that awful sinking feeling you get when you spend several hours working on something, only to discover that you've been doing it wrong all along and will have to start over from scratch? That's what Hymns: Ancient and Modern does to me. Allow me to explain: Hellfire Sermons recorded these songs, originally released on ultra-short-run 7" singles, between 1987 and 1993...and yet I hadn't heard of them prior to Hymns. Fair enough; thanks to the internet, we're all infinitely more hooked up and musically aware than we were ten years ago. But at the time, I considered myself to be adequately cognizant of new music. If I failed to notice these brilliant Liverpool lads, how many other great bands did I miss?

The important thing, of course, is that I've discovered them now, and so can you. Hymns assembles the bulk of the band's recorded output -- mostly 7" tracks, plus a few compilation appearances -- and it's super stuff. Their forté seems to have been jangly pop with a noisy edge and a punkish undercurrent, rather like an effects-free Kitchens of Distinction collaborating with David Gedge and the Fall's Mark E. Smith.

It's fairly easy to chart the evolution of the group's sound. First single "Freak Storm" starts out optimistic and pretty, then shifts to a grimmer, more muscular tone following the first chorus. By the time it ends, it's headed for fairly bleak territory. Skip ahead a couple of years, to "Not Nailed Down", and you'll hear a more agitated sound -- herky-jerky Fall-derived rhythms, abrupt chord-shifts, fevered guitar-strumming and unexpectedly caustic vocal delivery. There's a great about-face, too -- a sunny, melodic bit in the middle, and a killer chorus, and a marvelous a capella ending. By the time Hellfire Sermons released "Sarasine" and "No Hands" in 1993, they seemed more interested in their abrasive instrumental conflagrations than their melodies -- although, as "No Hands"' "la la la" choruses prove, they knew the value of well-placed, even frivolous pretty bits in the midst of their edgy post-punk storm.

Hellfire Sermons have aged extremely well; ignore the liner notes and you'd easily mistake Hymns for something modern and stylish. And thanks to the efforts of a few devoted fans, you needn't miss the boat this time around. It's a minor miracle that you can still hear these guys -- that a handful of short-run singles from an unjustly obscure Liverpudlian band can now be purchased on CD and delivered to you anywhere in the world -- so don't waste another minute. Get clicking. Hellfire Sermons have waited ten years for your attention.