This is how you do it. Sometimes I think one of the hardest things to do in the context of the current punk scene is to be in a good hardcore band that stands the test of time. Not a generic replication of something that happened thirty years ago; that’s easy. I have so many records I had to buy that now when I flip through my 7”s I can’t even remember what the fucking band sounded like. Records that blend into one by bands that were probably fun to be in, whose friends remember the good times, but… five minutes pass and they are gone. When a band like OMEGAS comes along, who are playing a particular genre/style of HC, sure, but who can actually write songs; who bring to mind a certain era of NYHC, yes, but have their own take, their own personality. The vocals are unhinged, the riffs are classic but fucked up. Their LP ruled my turntable last year and I can’t stop listening to this 7” either. Savage, mutant yet straight-ahead, relentless destruction — no pose, just fucking HC for the HC. Get this and the recently reissued New Breed comp and join the cult. (Painkiller Records)

OMEGAS – “Fevered Freedom”
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To start with, it should be noted that, this record rules. No, “rules” is an understatement. It destroys, it’s magic and it sets the world on fire. RVIVR is one of one best pop-punk bands of the decade. It’s hard to recommend a band more strongly. Lately it feels like they have been turning off a lot of people because they are so outspoken about their politics. Political and social consciousness plays a central role in their music, and their shows. Which is kind of a like a mosquito buzzing around the face for all the folks who are just there to dance and party ’cause the music is kind of feel-good party music, but the lyrics have substance. And when I say “outspoken” I mean “viciously outspoken.” But their messages are always totally right on, they honestly demand our attention. There are lots of records that come out every month that are good, but rarely is there one that’s important. This record is important. And it’s not that the songs are just really good, or just that the message is significant. It’s that they are both happening in unison while recreating everything you like about pop-punk into something new and exciting. Anyway, as the title implies, this is a compilation of all their earlier recordings. On this record they have compiled both sold out 7″s and a 12″ EP only released in Europe. This is the best place to start if you’re discovering the band for the first time, but will be nothing new to folks who have followed this band for the last few years—except for the cover of “Elizabethan Collar” which doesn’t appear anywhere else. Totally awesome, totally essential. (FS)
(Rumbletowne)

Our Record of the Week this time around is a cassette! Duluth, MN’s own Mike Wilson provided this guest review in the current issue of Maximum Rocknroll magazine…

This is an easy one. Get this tape!! Great comp of all Sacramento, CA, bands from 1999-2004. Lots of classic stuff here. Sacramento has produced a specific breed of punk/pop/garage bands over the past 25 years or so that all somehow have a similar feel. This 24-song tape is a great representation of the “Sacramento sound” that we all know and love. I would say that the BANANAS are the band of this category that is the most well known. They have a fantastic song on here, an earlier song of theirs called “Mr. Octopus Is Dead.” Not every band sounds the same though—two bands stand out as being particularly different (PETS and the GYNAS), but all the tracks flow together really nicely. My personal favorites of this tape include the BANANAS, THE FOUR EYES, MILHOUSE USA (I forgot how good that band was! [I know! —ed.]), ROCK THE LIGHT, and HORNY MORMONS. But there is definitely no filler here—every band is at least good, if not great. This tape is by no means a definitive all time Sacramento comp (see SEWER TROUT, NAR, POUNDED CLOWN, LIZARDS, LOS HEUVOS, etc.), but it is a great start to one. (Pleasant Screams Cassettes)

Oh dang! Classic Brazilian crossover-flavored HC, D-beat driven, lo-fi old schoolers ARMAGEDOM deliver two tracks recognizable in their buzzy metallic riffage, snare attack along with the throaty Portuguese yells. This is their same great sound with some good solid songs to appease the metalleros in the punk scene that like their shit raw and intense. On the flip side we are lucky to get two ragin’ tracks from the new Portland band TEROKAL. Their demo ruled and this is even better (especially because you can fucking hear everything). The drums are driving and solid with some flourishes of banged out fills. The bass thumps away at your melon, and in combination with the drums the rhythm section pulls you from the chest in their rapid fire. When the music does slow to mid-tempo you don’t get to catch your breath… the beats pound on your chest and the guitars are relentlessly driving. The two guitars are definitely distinct and full with the occasional well executed solos reminding me that POISON IDEA listened to the same shit this band listens to when they started up. The vocals are my favorite kind of higher pitched scream that is ugly and almost sounds like this dude is intensely complaining about something. Sung in Spanish with some total brutality and urgency. I am really into this dude’s style. This all comes together to sound very early Scandi and raw. If you like TÖTALITAR, you will be into this. The one thing that I could have done without is that the record plays from the outside in which may be problematic if you have an auto return on your player, but WTF… this is a damn good record. The fact that you have to handle it some, makes it that much more memorable. The cover is a limited edish, really nicely screen printed design with black silver and red paint. There is a copied insert with lyrics,  and there is a big ass poster of the cover! Yay! Check this out! (Odio Los Discos: odiolosdiscos {at} hotmail(.)com)

By our new record reviewer Matt Badenhop, from MRR #346.

Fuck yes! Lengua Armada brings us yet another reissue of an old Peruvian punk gem! This time it’s a cassette from 1985, remastered from the original tape. LEUZEMIA (aka LEUSEMIA) kicks it off with three catchy, vocal-driven classics, recorded much rawer than their brilliant LP. Next up is ZCUELA CERRADA with four tracks of fuzzy guitars and basic rhythmic hooks. The vocal delivery is really dynamic, and the singer’s voice is always on the verge of cracking, giving it such an adolescent and honest sound. On to side B and we have the pre-ATAQUE FRONTAL band, GUERRILLA URBANA, with five great rudimentary punk blasts. Last but not least is AUTOPSIA, for whom I recall a great 7” reissue was released a couple years ago. AUTOPSIA pushes their sound into hardcore territory with four aggressive ragers with convincing throaty vocals and insanely catchy choruses. All of the material on this LP is consistently raw and primitive and full of hooks and crafty song ideas. There’s also a great foldout insert with lyrics, art, photos, and a really cool testimony, in Spanish and English, on the origin of underground rock in Peru in 1985. Overall this is an amazing glimpse into the early days of the Peruvian punk scene. Get it!
(Lengua Armada)

Holeeee shit. This is frenetic punk’n’roll featuring Passy (ex-CONFUSE) very much in the vein of the way later SWANKYS records interpreted the SEX PISTOLS. Puerile, stupid, sex-obsessed punk that you can actually dance to! And not some dumb punk dance like the pogo — I bet you could line dance to this shit. There are so many different instruments, vocalists and styles in the mix here it’s crazy. It sounds like if the WORLD/INFERNO FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY dropped the horns and started shooting for burlesque instead of cabaret? All I know is: fuck me, this is amazing. If there’s a better way to start the year than sitting at MRR listening to “Baby Piss” and drinking a beer at one in the afternoon, I can’t imagine it. I can’t even remember the last band that actually made me laugh out loud (these lyrics have to be heard to be believed). This is essential, and may just be the best thing I’ve ever gotten for review at MRR (at least it’s definitely the most surprisingly amazing!). (Strawberry Records)

—Andrew Underwood, MRR #346

GASH sends shivers down my spine in the same way GISM has the power to do so. It’s visceral, it’s violent, and it feels good. “Power Fucker” is the strongest track out of the GASH tracks. Live, GASH has some bloodshed and vivisection videos that can render some faint hearted watchers uncomfortable. This is a band that pushes limits in the way GISM did, and does it with excellence. Shares members with another solid Boston ripper, ASPECTS OF WAR. The CLEANSING WAVE track is just as strong as their demo earlier this year and still reminds me of MORPHEME with the sickest drumming. This is a beautifully done flexi release that is not just a novelty but a must-own record that captures the raw punk brutality of what is coming out of the Northeast right now. The cut and paste on this flexi still smells of glue. Instructions on flexi say to “play loud and throw away” — punk is meant for destruction and chaos. Get this or don’t. P.S. The blood on my test press had not oxidized when it was received.
(Total Fucker)

One of the unsettling aspects of the post-internet explosion furthering punk rock’s globalization is that even far-off corners of the world can quickly absorb cultural influences and styles of the broader punk scene of any country, as opposed to developing in isolation with limited influences towards its own direction, leaving everything up for grabs for reinterpretation. The globalization of punk gives a familiarity to the sounds, imagery (the grim reaper riding a skateboard, the universal symbol of punks worldwide), or even band logos to almost any compilation of bands, whether it comes out of the former Soviet Union, Orange County, South America or wherever. Ultimately there’s more positives than negatives to that equation as punk’s cultural, lyrical, musical and artistic message infects the world, emphasized here by the high quality of this 14 band, 26 track compilation from across the two main islands of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Welcome to the Arse-End of the World is the first NZ punk comp in a decade or more, and there’s exceptionally great music throughout: metal-dosed grind by ABORTED CHRISTIANS, blown out Goner Records-style garage noise by TEEN HYGIENE, sludge powerviolence from CRAWLER, throttling blur fastcore from WASTELAND, seriously raging female-vocal hardcore from ROGERNOMIX, more great female vocalled and female powered proto-hardcore from NATURAL GLOW, almost IN/HUMANITY-styled weirdness mixed with screaming thrash from OILBARRONS, lo-fi assault from CASK GRINDERS, which mixes a MAN IS THE BASTARD lumber with scathing, screechy, dual-vocal thrash; metal crossover skate thrash from ELECTRIC MAYHEM, CAUSTIC CHRIST-style straight-up punk from HATEWANX, a throaty vocalled and buzzsaw guitar straight up punk assault from CONNIPTION, solid, crushing metal dirge from METH DRINKER and OPEN TOMB, and snippets of quick thrash from POLICE LINEUP. There’s a sparkling high quality to these bands and despite casting a relatively wide net of sounds and genres, this compilation plays consistently strong and unified throughout as an album itself, which is the mark of a great compilation. It includes a color booklet of mostly artwork and a few lyrics, which largely express the frustration punks feel the world over. The cover features Peter Jackson, the Rainbow Warrior, a kiwi, and, admittedly, probably more than a hundred cultural references and in-jokes I’m missing… Limited to 300 copies…Great, great comp!! (Always Never Fun Records)

This shouldn’t be a sudden realization to anyone, but every era, generation, and microcosm of punk/hardcore has its benchmark records that define the sound, attitude, and climate of what is going on in the moment. To me it’s records like Young Loud and Snotty, (GI), Jealous Again, Pick Your King, Loud and Clear, Dehumanization, My War, Can’t Close My Eyes, You’re Only Young Once…, Wind of Pain, Severing the Last Barred Window, the TALK IS POISON 7”s — I could go on for a while — that embody this, and I personally consider 1993’s lone 7” from the Bay Area’s JOHN HENRY WEST to be among them. Not only is it one of the best of its time, but one of the best of all-time, so the review gods are a-smiling on me this month.

Much like HEROIN, people like to throw around words like “emo” and “screamo” when referring to JHW, but that shit can be left at the door, ‘cause this is hardcore, plain and simple. Hell, even with its near complete lack of machismo, there are some parts in here that could be described as “hard” by some standard — and I just now noticed some riffs that were definitely copped by another popular Bay Area hardcore band from a few years back, that I won’t name, but in hindsight it makes perfect sense to me. JHW’s songs were usually fast, incredibly driving, dynamic, pissed off, technical, noisy and often chaotic, with great, tuneful chiming guitar melodies similar to Revolution Summer-era DC punk; a great light shining on my ideal sound for youth in the early 1990s.

Front to back, this record is like one guitar flourish, vocal pattern, and stomping intro after another that will no doubt get stuck in your head once these tunes get enough spins to become familiar. The vinyl part of this reish has the 7” on the A side, and the trax from the 3/12/93 and A History of Compassion and Justice 7” comps, plus two unreleased joints (!!!!!) on the flip. The two new ones, “John Henry West” and “Ammunition Aired,” fare perfectly well alongside songs that have been with me for the last eighteen years, and I can’t help but listen to them one-by-one, several times in a row like they are in catch-up mode, before moving on.

To be honest, I only bought this reish for the unreleased stuff, since I already had the rest, but that was before I knew about the accompanying 22-track CD, which has JOHN HENRY WEST’s demo tape, seven live songs from their 50th/last show at Gilman, and nine songs from the band playing a radio sesh at WUSB on Long Island. None of the songs here are exclusive and are all better represented sonically on the releases and non-releases that are on the LP part of this package, but the Gilman set is definitely chock full of that reckless abandon and chaos that one would expect from this band in a live setting (sadly, I never got to see ‘em), and similar can be said for the radio show, which ends with a short interview; all of which I’m stoked to have. I’m normally not one for reissues, but this package got the full glorious treatment that it was due and I can’t recommend it highly enough to those unfamiliar with one of the all time greats, and still worth it for those in the know for the two new tracks alone.

(Ebullition Records)

After doing reviewing records for a long time, you start to notice there are very few bands doing something completely original. Or even modestly original. Most bands create music that reflects (at times shamelessly) the music that inspires them. And that’s great, that’s fine. No problem. But every once in a great while you come across a band like SHARKPACT who create music utterly unlike anything you’ve been hearing. And that’s something extraordinary. But this album isn’t just original; it’s also really really fucking good. My attempts to describe the music are going to sound awful, so you’ll have to trust me on this one. The band is just two folks; one on the drums, the other on keyboard, both singing. And what comes out is like a mutant combination of goth and heartfelt pop punk. Wait, wait don’t stop reading, I swear this is awesome! The synthesizer has a late ’80s goth vibe while the drumming has a WARSAW-era JOY DIVISION on meth approach. But then add ONE REASON style vocal harmonies. Heartfelt, urgent, unrelenting. This album is obviously not for everyone, but I’m sold, album of the month, for sure. (Rumbletowne Records)