Considered by some as the most handsome and slender hardcore band in Portland, Oregon during the mid-nineteen-eighties, Final Warning was known for their appreciation of English punk and metal as well as Olde English malt liquor.
The "classic" Final Warning line-up consisted of Jeff Paul, vocals; Jeff "Simon" Simoncini, guitar; Tim Paul, bass and Dan Cunneen on drums. The band originally formed in 1982 with Simoncini, Cunneen and Tim Paul (on vocals), with past and future Poison Idea alumni Glenn Estes and Charlie Nims (aka Myrtle Tickner) each doing turns on bass. In early 1983, Tim Paul switched over to bass and Jeff Paul (no relation) joined the group on vocals. This line-up would remain unchanged until Final Warning disbanded in 1986 (except for a brief period at the end of the band's career when Poison Idea drummer Steve "Thee Slayer Hippie" Hanford played several shows with F.W. on second guitar).
Final Warning was influenced by late 1970's and early 1980's U.S. West Coast hardcore (Germs, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys and Circle Jerks) and the second wave of English punk (Discharge, G.B.H., Disorder and The Exploited). What set Final Warning apart from other hardcore bands of the period was the merging of heavy metal into their sound (bands like Metallica, Motörhead, Venom and early Mötley Crüe.) Final Warning would combine these influences to become one of the early bands to break down the wall between punk and metal.
Speed was king in the 1980’s hardcore scene and Final Warning was no different than their counterparts in that respect. With blindingly fast tempos and words spat out like bullets from a machine gun, no song in their early sets was longer than a minute and a half. Later, the band would vary their tempos and develop further musically, but they never sacrificed the intensity and punk rock attitude that originally inspired them.
The most common lyrical focus of Final Warning's music was their stand against violence and war. Final Warning picked up on many of the anti-war themes that the U.K. band Discharge used and expanded them to include their own take on the conformity, complacency and militarism in the United States during the Reagan era.
Final Warning would share the bill with many legendary bands during their career. Among them: Dead Kennedys, Scream, Dr. Know, The Exploited, G.B.H., Hüsker Dü, The Minutemen, D.R.I. and Mercyful Fate, but they never played outside the Pacific Northwest.
In 1984, Fatal Erection records released the 4 song Final Warning EP and a year later the band had a track on Fatal Erection’s Drinking is Great Portland Punk compilation. Unfortunately, the ill-fated cocktail of apathy, innocence and chemicals would spell the end of Final Warning in 1986, before the band had a chance to release a full-length recording.
Members of Final Warning would go on to have marginal "success" in various other Pacific Northwest bands, including: Napalm Beach, Poison Idea, Obituaries, Big House, Gruntruck, Zipgun, Kill Sybil and the Nightcaps.
Along with their contemporaries like Poison Idea, The Accüsed, Lockjaw, E-13, the Fartz and Sado-Nation, Final Warning was a vital part of the Pacific Northwest underground music scene’s evolution from “punk†to “hardcore.â€
-Herb Neely, Los Angeles, April, 2007
