Some straightedge hardcore now from Chicago’s ABSOLUTE TRUTH. Ultimately, this is some by-the-numbers youth crew stuff. Certainly not bad, but it’s also not too interesting. When this type of hardcore isn’t done perfectly it just kinda puts me to sleep—unfortunately, this release isn’t any different.
Oh, hello dear new/old friend. Five pieces of brutal Northern California emotive metalcore recorded in 1998, Afaksaakan is what this subgenera should be (or should have been). The songs are pure power, from the soft and quiet to the desperate devastation (typically in the same song, like “Bridge”). Redding’s AFTER THE FALL sounds like a scene and a time more than an emulation of any band or genre…and if there were ever a reissue to take you back to that scene and that time, then it’s this one.
I remember catching this band in 2016 in Croatia or, to be more accurate, I remember having a great time and being quite impressed by them, but actual details are largely lost—I think they played toward the end of the No Sanctuary fest, which was pretty much an obligatory summer migration for crusties in Europe. This album is the nastiest, meanest record I have heard this month. AHNA comes from Vancouver, has been going since 2008, and is the best example of a band successfully blending stenchcore and old-school death metal. They keep the best of both worlds in a seamless fashion. While the majority of bands conducting such a perilous experiment generally fail because they merely make either an angrier dis-oriented version of death metal or a more technical version of stenchcore music with too clean a production, AHNA’s sound is an actual brew which can appeal to both punks and metalheads. If it does sound like a herd of disgruntled, possessed hippos ravaging your hometown, the tastefulness and the mastery are obvious if you are a fan of crust. This is basically how a dark and desperate cocktail blending death metal and crust should be prepared. If BOLT THROWER, SACRILEGE, DISMEMBER, and AUTOPSY engaged in a brawl at the release party of a split between CRUZ and LIMB FROM LIMB, it would be pretty close to this. Crimson Dawn has a thick, dark, and macabre vibe, but still sounds like it could angrily bite you in half like your studded punk friend can tear through a vegan kebab at 2AM after downing eight pints of lager. I especially love the raging work of the two vocalists on this, and singer/drummer(!) Anju does a magnificent impersonation of Tam from SACRILEGE. The best I have heard, in fact. This album was originally released on CD and cassette in 2020, but the always reliable Phobia Records had the good idea to do a vinyl version.
Portland’s ALIENATOR delivers the goods on their EP World of Hate, an angry and intense blast of hardcore punk that takes no prisoners. With great riffs and mid-tempo stomping, ALIENATOR is relentless and pummels you into submission on each track here, from the headbanging opener “Senseless Violence,” to the snarling vocals and screeching guitar leads on “I’m Nothing,” right to the end of the last track “Social Disease,” which closes with a slowed-down and vicious pace that dares you to get into the pit. Really though, the crown jewel here is title track “World of Hate,” filled to the brim with vitriol and chants of “Alienate!” and “World of hate!”—it feels like a bit of an anthem for ALIENATOR. Word is their live show is somehow better than this recording (and includes a POISON IDEA cover). Don’t be intimidated, go see them if you can.
’80s Houston freaks whose only real-time output was sharing the backside of the first PAIN TEENS release, and who might have slipped into total obscurity had they not reformed in the late ’00s and recorded these tracks in 2011 for a CD release. Without dissecting too much, Digital Dark Age sounds like ’80s Texas punk—DICKS directness, off-kilter swing à la REALLY RED (with whom they shared a drummer)…the kind of punk that doesn’t sound like anything else. Fans of the aforementioned bands and/or CRUCIFUCKS, BIG BOYS, WIPERS, and the like will want to dig in here—a worthy vinyl reissue.
Third release from Helsinki trio ANGRY ADULTS. Fun, summertime punk rock, as if they jumped out of the late ’90s Fat Wreck Chords catalog. Uplifting guitar riffs between whiny, slacker-esque vocals and splash-heavy drums keeping a mid-tempo beat. Going nowhere fast, driving the LAGWAGON down Highway 1 in the full sunshine…or some coastal road in Finland. This doesn’t wow me, it’s not trying to change my mind, it’s not genre-bending or new, but after a few listens it’s growing on me, making a whole lot of sense in this sticky summer heat.
Blimey, this is old-school. Well, the record is technically a new release, but the band members are, well, not. As my late friend and mentor, who had been active in the scene since the mid-’80s, used to say, “Let’s just agree that I am an experienced punk and not dwell on the issue that I put on gigs for YOUTH OF TODAY while you still feasted on your own boogies.” I personally love to see how old-timers keep forming new bands, touring, being involved in worthy causes, and delivering relevant political messages. To me it is as important as supporting teenage bands. We all were snotty brats at some point, and we will also all (hopefully) grow older, as punks. Enough cheesiness already. ARMOURED FLU UNIT is from the south of England and have been going for a few years now, made up of people formerly in A.U.K and HAYWIRE (a band I have always loved)—those bands were known for their anarchist political stances, notably on the topic of animal liberation, so it hardly comes as a surprise that The Mighty Roar includes songs tackling an issue that is as relevant today as it was 30 years ago, perhaps even more so with more and more common people seeing the truth behind animal exploitation but with big corporations thriving on animal murder for decades trying to get their capitalist hands on the vegan pound. Lyrically, The Mighty Roar is an angry, honest, direct political charge that is meaningful and contextual (no abstract metaphors about oppression here). Musically, ARMOURED FLU UNIT plays hard-hitting hardcore punk with a metallic edge, mostly inspired by US bands but with a British touch. Classically executed. I enjoy the punkier, catchier mid-paced moments the most here (“Blindsided’’ is ace), but I find the production too clean for my liking. But then, I have been feeding on filthy, distorted hardcore punk for so long that I am probably not the most qualified to comment. They remind me of a cleaner version of ’90s bands like POA or IN THE SHIT, or the more recent CONSTANT STATE OF TERROR. The LP was released on Grow Your Own, a very active DIY anarcho-punk label run by Oscar from ANTHRAX—go for it if you are looking for hard-hitting political hardcore with a clean sound.
Three-piece band from Birmingham, UK who are specialists in the creation of a tortuous and aggressive noise. The rhythmic base maintains an almost mechanical rhythm while the guitar envelops everything with guitars that paint sonic landscapes as sharp as broken glass. The vocals are like that of a person chastened in hell. I really dig it. Check them out right now.
The latest from the Tōyoko Line area—BLOW YOUR BRAINS OUT brings nine tracks of ’80’s/’90s NYHC-rooted metallic hardcore. A rare approach, especially in the crossover/NYHC scene there, is to sing in their own native language, with politically charged lyrics about real life and current societal issues in modern Japan. Heavy, hard-hitting grooves of the aforementioned influences with well-crafted metallic riffage and Godzilla breakdowns that will want you to go Kokkai Gijido and fuck everything up while you’re at it. Artwork by Nicky Rat.
It’s not often a post-punk band is able to find a groove and ride it to the precipice. BODY MAINTENANCE from the United Kingdom is able to find a groove quickly and jam their icy guitar work into the darker corners of rock with their danceable rhythm section. KILLING JOKE meets the SMITHS in a back alley rumble: cold, spacy, and full of hard-hitting twists.
BORROWED MAN does six point-blank punk killers on their first tape. After a misleading little garage rock intro, the band rips into speedy, brooding, and gritty pounders in the vein of early DC hardcore like MINOR THREAT and YOUTH BRIGADE. The songs are covered in exasperated shouts that remind me of a young Ian MacKaye, and punctuated in places by these awesome, piercing, spectral guitars. The songs are concise and potent, and it gets pretty wild. On “Circus,” he talks about wanting to kill a clown, and even starts barking a little bit. Where the hell did these guys come from? Oh yeah: Jackson, Mississippi. It’s good, and they’ve got my attention.
Not Called “Big Old Cup With Ice in It” has a funky, hard rock center with a lot of trimmings. Each song is crammed with instruments, sounds and changes. BROWN WHÖRNET juggles those with a middle-school sense of humor. Luckily, the bad taste arrives without edgelord-ism, but they sound like they could be FRANK ZAPPA fans, so who knows. The first track is brash and loud, while the next two settle into a meandering jam session vibe, although they’re certainly not mellow. At one point they descend into an organ-accompanied thrash metal riff. I’m not sure what to make of this, but maybe that’s the point.
Six-track LP from these Belgian hardcore punks, filled with anger and versing on anti-fascist and anti-racist ideals. From Oostakker near Ghantes, BURNING KROSS delivers violent and fast-paced hardcore punk with crust and D-beat references and deep bass vocals ready to fight. Extra points for the album cover art featuring a KKK scumbag receiving a burning cross right in their torso.
San Francisco’s CAGED VIEW has released two volumes of online demos from 2022 together here on one single tape, totaling seven songs of melodic post-hardcore. The band lists a number of heavy bands from the late ’80s and early ’90s as influences, but to my ears, it’s mostly FUGAZI-worship with a few detours here and there, which isn’t a bad thing! “Back Light Reflection” stands out in particular, featuring a feedback-laden opening complete with creeping bass line before the full crunch of guitars and nasally yelping vocals kick in, leading to a chorus that is surprisingly catchy. “Push” is cool as well, with a fairly punky direction that sounds like DAG NASTY and other Revolution Summer bands. Not my usual thing, but I dig it.
Six-track cassette from this lo-fi, female-fronted fast-paced post-punk/garage band from Chicago, with a touch of Aussies AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS in the intention and style of vocals. “Clock Me Out” is the choice track, creating the right amount of progression—sick bass line and tasty clocking guitars. Give ‘em a listen.
One of the guitarists that shaped punk rock, a cover of the FLAMIN’ GROOVIES, and two DEAD BOYS songs, recorded live in a Galician pub—an EP for mythomaniacs and seekers of those rare and bizarre connections in rock history. There’s little here that adds to CHEETAH CHROME’s extensive career, but it’s still cool to listen to him after all these years, especially “What Love Is” and “Sonic Reducer,” two of the most emblematic tunes of his musical legacy, recorded with an ambient mic during the show, with SEÑOR NO, a veteran rock band from Basque Country, as the backing band. The FLAMIN’ GROOVIES cover was recorded the last day of the tour with Kaki Arkarazo, former KORTATU and NEGU GORRIAK member. A must for all nostalgics.
Seems like there is currently a revival of late ’90s/early ’00s melodic punk, but if your band formed in 2004, is it a revival? Germany’s CLUB DÉJÀ-VU put out their fourth LP this year, with their last album, Die Farben der Saison, having come out in 2015. I listened back to a few tracks from their nearly twenty-year endeavor, and Alles Was Es Gibt delves deeper into the emotional side of their already melancholic sound. Sing-along melodies, downtrodden guitar riffs mixed with bright and quick solos, fast drums, and a high-quality production sound. This reminds me of SQUIRTGUN, or generally anything from the Mallrats soundtrack, but sung in German. If you like this type of thing, they have 60-some songs in their repertoire.
After countless rip-offs of either the TOMS or (god forbid) BIG STAR, power pop’s luster has really tarnished for me over the years. Then I throw on this record, and initially my scuzzy punk brain is saying “too shiny, sounds too good!,” but then I realize this is what I’ve been missing for years in power pop. It’s still referential music, to be sure, but it’s referencing heyday ’90s power pop bands like TEENAGE FANCLUB and especially BUFFALO TOM. So I’m suddenly sitting up straighter in my chair, realizing this is something I didn’t think I’d ever hear again! A band with chops, a singer with loads of character, harmonies, and complex arrangements that hit. It takes a fair amount of confidence to put out music this sincere, and I’m totally here for it. To me, it’s tougher to write an honest-to-god ballad like “The Night” with some wavering fragility to it that beats out a hundred leather jacket ’70s-worshiping ironic rockers. This is so far the biggest surprise of the year for me, something I didn’t even know I was looking for, and I can’t wait to spin it all over again.
Russia Bombs Finland is an essential compilation of Finnish hardcore, and DACHAU was one of my favorite sleeper hits from it. I was bummed that there wasn’t anything else from them accessible, even in the contemporary digitally archived world—“everything” was actually two tapes. I was glad when Finnish Hardcore, the great archival reissue label, put out their Ballaadeja tape with a ton of songs, while this 7” contains the previously mentioned comp tracks along two other ragers, which is basically their demo tape from ’82. The record itself is one-sided and includes a booklet with a lot of information and brief interviews, although in Finnish. It does look cool and fun to flip through, even if you don’t speak the language. If you are not familiar with DACHAU’s music, it’s great manic Finnish hard beat with guitars as interesting as amateurish teens could get in 1982 after being possessed by hardcore. The vocals are the best, capturing a strange mix of emotions between feeling lost and yelling cynically. Sometimes it even gets idiotically playful with group chanting. There is a mid-tempo rager that could easily be a star of a killer mixtape, as well. It’s a great record, the songs are exceptional, and Finnish Hardcore is doing a solid job as always. On the other hand, creating nostalgia-based relics is a bit weird. I wonder when 3D printers will be able to shit out records that will fill our empty shelves during a long weekend? What will it do with such labels and records? Until then, buy or die!
Debut release from this Milwaukee four-piece, whose sound defies classification…according to the album copy on their Bandcamp page. But to be as fair as I’m being reductive, these folks play punky indie rock. That’s not to say that they aren’t pulling from a wide array of influences! Over the ten tracks on this cassette, I’m definitely hearing a broad mix of stuff—the stripped-down garage punk of the GORIES, surfy new wave that’s part NERVES, part B-52’S, bluesy riffing, ’90s melodic guitar rock, post-punk, etc.—all assembled in a kind of rough-and-tumble manner that feels genuine and a little goofy but also cool. But that’s pretty much the whole deal with indie rock! In any case, it sounds like the band had a good time making this release, and those vibes were infectious. I really enjoyed my time with this. The aforementioned ’90s melodic guitar parts make up a bulk of the album and provide an extremely pleasant backdrop for the singer’s upbeat, sort of tuneless but still slightly out-of-key rapping. It’s loose and jammy—I imagine a good chunk of these songs grew out of kernels planted in some improvised sessions—and there’s nice interplay between all the instruments, but it always manages to feel amateurish and fun. I imagine these folks could absolutely turn a party out! Worth a listen.
More sustenance for fans of short-run, short-length tapes, fuzzily photocopied monochrome artwork, and Old English typefaces. Two songs from this so-called “promo” tape are slated to appear on DIALL’s debut 7”, one you’ll only find here as far as I can tell, and the other one is a cover of “Psycho Mafia” by the FALL. Neither this song nor DIALL in general sound much like the FALL, although this treatment of it goes some way to drawing an equivalence between the young Mark E. Smith’s world and their own lumpen hardcore oddness. Elsewhere, slow, sinister intros rise to mid-pace so the first sacrificial lamb can get moshed into a wall, a vocalist (who, pictorial evidence tells me, has been known to don a balaclava for live performance) has his demoncy blown-out and reverb-soaked, and guitars are larded with feedback.
The latest EP from Tampa’s DIFFUSE consists of eight tracks of late ’80s NYHC/youth crew-style hardcore with politically charged lyrics about modern life issues. Straight-ahead hardcore fury with brutal breakdowns, mid-tempo parts for two-stepping, and fast parts for circle-pitting. An honest, direct expression of daily life struggles.
Three-song split from DECENT CRIMINAL (Santa Rosa, CA) and DIRECT HIT! (Milwaukee, WI). DIRECT HIT contributes the first song “Wasteland,” starting off with a surf-rock twang strum and someone saying “I feel like I’m skateboarding in this song,” which leads into scratchy, shouted vocals over tom-heavy drums. The song came out of pandemic lockdowns: a vision of a virtual-reality future, wondering “We’re in the wasteland / Are we even alive?” The sound is nasty and in-your-face; a confrontation. I listened back to some previous releases, and while the surf-rock thing appears, Nick Woods’ vocals, mixed with the indie pop swing of the band, makes them sound like GOOD CHARLOTTE, or some other unfortunate iteration of pop punk from that time. Not that I listened back to all their tunes, but it seems “Wasteland” takes a different approach. Speaking of indie/alt rock: DECENT CRIMINAL. “Dream” and “Time” jangle along with a tambourine and some soft “ooh”s and “aah”s and are generally catchy, though admittedly not my bag. If this is your thing, the 7” also comes with a full-length comic book, Beacon, a collaboration of Nick Woods’ dystopian writing and Walker Dubois’ illustrations. Candy pop punk fans apply within.
When I pressed play on the opener “Carry With You,” I was hit with a drum machine and a dirty, farty synth line—like something you’d hear on a NINE INCH NAILS record—then Haley Himiko (PLEASURE LEFTISTS) came in with deep and dark vocals, crooning through the mechanical soundscape from Noah Anthony (PROFILIGATE), Christopher Brown (CLOUD NOTHINGS), and Paul Ryan (solo project under his name). A little coldwave, a little goth, a little synth punk, and a lot Cleveland. Songs are on the longer side, the shortest being three-and-a-half minutes, so you get good mileage out of these four tracks. The last song (“Make a Wish”) has a music video, if you want to see the team at work. I believe this is the first recording from the group, and I hope they keep at it. Lovers of the off-kilter and avant-garde, apply within.
This Florida outfit has big, chunky, metal-tinged guitars which sound layered upon layer. There can’t be more than six or seven chords on this entire EP, and they all arrive in grand stadium crust fashion. The vocals are just under, not over, the instruments. The tight drumming stands out, but there’s no fills, frills or flair, just an up-tempo apocalyptic galop. The whole thing is over before you can say “stretch jeans and a SELFISH shirt.”
Orlando, Florida’s death thrash pack featuring violent guitars and demonic, crazed, mumbled and in-trance vocals. Great sludgy parts that end on blunt palm-mutes or open strident guitars, and sweet drums that come from the sludgiest tempos into hardcore punk in a millisecond, really digging that combo. Filled with vicious anger and almost a rabid vibe, feels extracted from another era of metal punk with touches from nowadays. Suggested track: “The Night Knocks.” The chains and shackles seem to be shaking in their dungeon chambers.
The A-side is a mid-tempo garage punker with dark vocals that sort of remind me of JOY DIVISION. It’s good. It’s not great, but it’s definitely good. The B-side is a very average cover of the UNDERTONES’ classic single from the late ’70s. It’s delivered at a slightly slower tempo than the original, but for me the real issue is that they don’t do anything with it. If you’re going to cover a classic song, you need to really make it yours. Do something with it. Unless your goal is to be a cover band…
The moment the air raid sirens on opening track “Submerged In Water” morph into feedback, you can feel the momentum of FAIRYTALE’s debut LP Shooting Star pushing you into a hurricane of raw hardcore punk that’s easily a contender for best album of the year. FAIRYTALE brings forth an album that is so cohesive and fully realized, it boggles the mind that it’s a debut LP. In the tradition of classics from the likes of MOB 47 and ANTI CIMEX, the guitar playing is heavy and dense with squealing and swirling guitar leads that balance and compliment the unrelenting rhythm section, a full-on D-beat assault that never lets up. What sets FAIRYTALE apart is vocalist Lulu’s sharp and venomous delivery, which on more than one occasion drifts into borderline spoken-word that is perfectly evil. It’s difficult to pick out a single standout track here as each one is dynamic, layered, and frankly catchy as fuck, but if one needed a recommendation, it would be “Possible to Grow,” two minutes of wretched guitars, brutal drumming, and a chorus that will be ringing in your ears for days to come. Do yourself a favor and give this thing a listen if you haven’t already. Highly recommended, it will be appearing in many top-ten lists come year-end and rightfully so; albums this raw don’t come along very often.
Melodic punk that utilizes upbeat bass lines, the occasional upstroke, and stop/start break parts, with a gang vocal “hey” and “whoa-oh” peppered in here and there. This is the epitome of some dudes getting together and saying “Hey, let’s start a band that sounds like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater,” and I mean that in the best possible way. This is very enjoyable in that it is familiar. These dudes definitely aren’t reinventing any wheels here, but sometimes that’s not a bad thing.
Educacion Cinica keeps bringing the best in South American-adjacent music, now in the form of the duo FANTASMA, formed by two Brazilians who tried their luck in NY. Filtered through the lens of the excellent Brazilian punk and post-punk scene, FANTASMA creates an incredible mixture of moods and feelings. DIÄT and STRAW MAN ARMY come to mind when thinking of the overall style of songwriting. A demo that goes by fast and leaves you wanting much, much more.
Kooky, zany, weirdo hardcore punk from Jackson, MS featuring members of NEUROTYPICALS and BIG CLOWN. FATHER THING blasts through six tracks in just over seven-and-a-half minutes. That’s not a lot of time, and they don’t waste a damn second of it! Switching from spastic, revved-up fastcore to mid-tempo synthesizer squealing breakdowns in the blink of an eye. Okay FATHER, you’ve got my attention. This absolutely rules! Thankfully, the entire demo is available for listen on the label’s Bandcamp page, as the copy I received was indecipherably dubbed and this review would have been much much different if I went solely based on what I heard on my warbly tape. You better believe I have since re-dubbed my cassette off the online tracks, as I plan on getting some serious mileage out of it.
This is the debut full-length from Polish metalcore band FORESIGHT. This is pretty by-the-numbers ’90s-style metalcore here, nothing more and nothing less. Not very much here really grabs my interest, truthfully. The musicianship is competent and if you’re into this kind of thing it might be worth your while, but I don’t dig it very much.
FULLY EVACUATED is a band from Southern California that explores the sounds of garage punk with a proclivity towards psych-rock and proto-punk. There are familiar elements that harken to bands like the VELVET UNDERGROUND, the CRAMPS, and even HICKEY. Songs start and end unexpectedly, and even jangly guitar solos are cut short, which creates a final presentation that uses the sounds from the past with little respect or regard. Kinda punk rock. “Haunted Beach” is a really sick surf track.
Out of Malaysia, this four-piece delivers hardcore punk that reminded me of POISON IDEA, SLAPSHOT, and to a lesser extent, CRO-MAGS. This five-track EP comes fast, hard, precise, and political. A good example is the track “Edu-Cash-It,” which insists “What you have to seek is the education / But it’s been misused for their greed.” An excellent choice for fans of old-school hardcore with a thrashy twist.
This band with members from San Francisco and Oakland delivers vibrant, crusty hardcore punk, with pinched, aggressive vocals and high-pitched guitars that deliver rocky riffs all around. Drums are on-point with bass lines that never seem to stop. The Bay Area continues to give us fast hardcore punk bands. Favorite tracks: “GTFO” and “Hiking Stomp.” Catch them playing live, as it must be a thrill—this cassette exudes groove and aggression.
Hook-laden hardcore, but not in an overtly poppy way; it is as pissed as it is catchy. Seven songs that all clock in under two minutes each, with two that come in under a minute. Fast, short, angry, energetic, with enough variety stylistically to keep one’s attention and leave you going back for multiple helpings all while wanting more.
Noisy, fuzzed-out, pogo-inducing punk from upstate New York. Early GAI and SWANKYS come to mind, through a backbeat of DISORDER and CHAOS U.K. Nothing less, nothing more. Snotty, fast, and dangerous primitive hardcore. Extra points for the CHAOTIC DISORDER cover.
Raucous alt-rock or witty, angst-driven post-punk are two of the pigeonholes I might jam the latest full-length by GUARDIAN SINGLES into, but either would be a square peg in a round hole scenario. The garage static and fuzz from previous releases is left behind in favor of articulate songwriting and big bop energy. Lyrically, this album navigates our contemporary universal struggles with poetic appeal. Sonically, this album drifts from backcountry rabble-rousers to soft, drifting, emotionally evocative ballads. With all its variation, articulate writing, and relatable material, this album is easy to keep on repeat.
France’s GUMMO brings all kinds of grindcore/powerviolence pain on this compilation of their recorded work. Side A contains their 2019 LP Sheltered Despair, which is hardcore as fuck with droning, grinding bass in your face. The vocals for that album were recorded with various singers from their local punk/hardcore/grind scene, but the cassette A-side also includes a version of the LP re-recorded with their permanent singer, Théo. Their cover of NASUM’s “The Final Sleep” changes up the pace with a slightly slower attack but keeps the gloomy, angry mood unchanged. “Neaderthal Scream” has a chorus worth screaming in traffic or in a public library. Side B has more of the same with their 2019 split Split the Hard Way, a 2021 single for “Heart Shaped Box” (NIRVANA), the 2021 LP A Fresh Breath on the Neck, reviewed by me in in MRR #465, and three exclusive tracks. One of my favorites on this side is “Fucking Monkey Drummer,” which has a chous that spoke to my soul: “Fucking monkey drummer / He strike like a beast / Even with my earplugs / He destroys my feelings.” In fact, most of the tracks on the split, as well as the NIRVANA cover, introduce a good sense of humor, a refreshing break from the unrelenting hate and depression of their LPs. Altogether, this discography is an hour-and-a-half of unrelentingly fast, brutal, aggressive shit, and a must-have for the discriminating grindcore fan.
The hardcore scene in Indonesia has been growing and growing the last couple of years. HAZED is no exception to the rule. Already with a demo under their belts, now it’s time for a devastating EP. They take cues from modern USHC bands that worship old-school hardcore like GLUE and make it their own. Angry and uncompromising, this six-track EP is a high-energy banger.
HEZ has been around for ten years now and I have kept checking for their releases, which concluded with a demo, two 7”s and a mini-LP. I liked them, but always saw more potential than what they actually showed. Finally, Panamaniacs arrived, and it is great, overwhelming hardcore. Great riffs and hectic guitar playing varied with effects scattered around tastefully that sound like a malfunctioning computer. A bunch of plays with tempo usually introduce tense, mid-tempo stompers that also include pedal-manipulated guitars, and also a lot of echo/delay on the vocals. It did remind me of the great DESTINO FINAL, and Panamaniacs could be put next to Atrapados. It’s that good, and it’s that different from the current overload of new releases. HEZ also has their references, but finally they have their own form—it’s hard to achieve quality and features which distinguish you from the others. Even if punk was born from a “live fast, die young” ethos, I welcome when bands take their time, remain together, and craft more releases rather than throwing out a couple 7”s, taking a vacation in Europe disguised as a tour, and then breaking up. If you stick together with your friends in a band and focus on writing sicker songs, it will pay off—at least, I am super happy that HEZ did so, and now I can blast Panamaniacs.
This is a big slab of fastcore fun for fans of early D.R.I., back when their songs were 35 seconds long. Boise, Idaho’s HUMMINGBIRD OF DEATH manages to squeeze 83 of their early recordings onto this comp. Recorded between 2005 and 2008, these tracks remain relevant, as with “Stupid Bills,” which says “Off to the record store / Where did all my money go?” Ain’t that the truth. The lyrics range from the political (extolling LGBTQIA+ rights, shitting on racism, dissing animal cruelty, etc.) to the personal (loneliness, anger) to the simple joys of rocking out and moshing it up. The track “I Wanna Be a Frog” gets cerebral by posing “Bears are always angry / But frogs are always cool.” And just the title of the song “Fadeouts are for Chumps” made my day. Then there are these oddball tracks that stray from the fastcore formula, such as “Coward.” Clocking in at a massive 4:37, HUMMINGBIRD OF DEATH is suddenly a stoner doom metal band with a firecracker fastcore section sandwiched in the middle. “Frayed Nerve Endings” is an instrumental. “Waste” has a nice, D-beat swagger. “No Child Left Alive” manages a guitar solo in its seven-second runtime. This album is one of my favorites of the year. Raucous, angry, sometimes silly—it has everything.
Melodic punk heavy on the crunchy guitars, with vocals that give ‘em just the slightest redneck tinge, like NINE POUND HAMMER on a slowed-down ’90s Fat Wreck tip. Super pro recording, and it’s hard to deny the chops—nice and simple gets the job done here.
This seven-song demo from the UK’s INFLICTER is raw, fast, raging hardcore punk, not unlike the fast, thrashier hardcore of the HERESY/RIPCORD/STUPIDS late ’80s UKHC tradition. It’s more of a modern yet raw and noisy approach, with breakdowns for the moshers out there.
The debut EP from Copenhagen/Barcelona punks JJ AND THE A’S consists of six tracks of urgent, fully driven, catchy late ’70s/early ’80s mid-tempo KBD comp-style tracks. Solid vocal harmonies with no-bullshit rock’n’roll guitar riffs. Somewhere along the lines of a gasoline-injected version of X, VICE SQUAD, Static Age-era MISFITS, ZERO BOYS, AGENT ORANGE, or D.I.—trim out all the SoCal boomer bro-punk vibes for a refined modern version of it. A fierce combustion of pure energetic output.
Montreal’s JOCK comes out swinging with this one. Originally released digitally in 2020, this one ultimately got a cassette release in 2023. Seven tunes of aggro, whirlwind hardcore assault. The Bandcamp description uses AGNOSTIC FRONT, NEGATIVE APPROACH, and Youth Attack Records as stylistic comparisons, which should give an idea of what you’re in for. I also hear a few sprinkling of fellow Canadians URBAN BLIGHT. If all that sounds appetising to you, which it probably should, I would recommend that you give this one a spin.
Trippy. This band, it appears, is actually a collective of various Polish artists from the Szczecin area who all release a lot of material collectively and separately through the Syf label. It’s all a little mysterious, which works in their favor while listening to their Zoom-recorded art-punk jams, sung in their native tongue. There are twenty-three tracks here, many of which are two minutes and under. The spookier, BUTTHOLE SURFERS-style tracks such as “Poeci” and “Po Majowce” are my favorites, but the material ranges from something that could be on a Lumpy Records comp (like “Ponownie”) to the RESIDENTS-inspired “Zebranie.” Maybe there are reviewers more knowledgeable about this group out there, but there’s definitely a long rabbit hole available for one to jump into if they so choose. Dig it. I did.
Yet another new band from Finland, from Oulu to be accurate. KIROS, meaning “curse,” is a young dynamic band having a go at tried and tested male/female vocal anarcho crusty hardcore. I had never heard of the band at all, which makes me think that there are probably dozens of promising (or unpromising, to be fair, but it does not really matter) Finnish punk bands to be discovered. This notion of an infinite supply of snotty Suomi punk is pretty romantic, but as far as I know the bands could be like Gremlins. Just get them wet (or more realistically get them vodka) and they just multiply. Helppo Ja Mukava Tapa is an entertaining listen. I don’t always understand what KIROT is trying to do in terms of songwriting as they include a lot of different influences, from metallic blastbeats, to mid-paced crust, to fast and direct anarcho-punk. It is a bit much to my ears and sometimes it sounds all over the place, not unlike that annoying guy who switches records every five minutes at parties. Less is more—a corny saying often uttered by uninspired musicians to make up for their lazy riffs, but it is relevant here. The album reminds me of a metallic take on ’00s Scandinavian anarcho bands like OPERATION or PARAGRAF 119, and more especially of early RAKKAUS. I like how the angry dual vocals work (I am a massive sucker for those anyway), and I am looking forward to hearing a more focused recording. I’ll be watching them.
German punk rockers LAFFF BOX are difficult to pigeonhole into this or that genre. Driving hard with distorted vocals and a noisy, twin-guitar attack, they switch from rollicking, mosh pit punk on tracks like “Master” to a more melodic, mid-tempo rock vibe on the very next track, “Just a Fool.” The rhythm section stands out, providing a bedrock foundation for the chaotic guitars. One of my favorite tracks is the stripped-down Motörpunk rager “Restart the Program.”
I am a little torn about this one. Not so torn that I would lose sleep or talk about it to my shrink (God knows he’s been through enough), but circumspect enough to be unable to judge if Ordem Imaginada is a solid or average ’20s hardcore EP. There are some elements of the record that I cannot help but find rather generic in terms of production and songwriting considering the current creative context of hardcore punk. On the other hand, it would be wrong and unfair to discard LASSO, as their third EP is objectively, taken as a singular work (out of context, so to speak), a good hardcore punk record. And besides, as a massive fan of orthodox D-beat, I should be prone to love generic music anyway. LASSO’s work sounds angry and very energetic, the seven songs flow with ease, and there are enough shades of hardcore paces (and even some dissonant moments) to please every clique. There are strong elements of the furious years of Italian hardcore like IMPACT or INDIGESTI, but I can also hear some ’80s Mexican hardcore like CLAMOR INEXORABLE or MELI, and even hints of the hardest branch of UK82 punk (say CRIMINAL JUSTICE)—all brilliant influences on paper, but I guess the effects on the vocals and guitars are a little too overwhelming for me, and it actually impairs the raw and direct quality of the songs. I wish I understood Portuguese, because I am sure the band has a lot to say about Brazil.
Split between two hardcore outfits out of the UK. There’s a little bit of a grind/powerviolence element here as well. FRISK is reminiscent of early CEREMONY, while LAST AFFRONT has more of a D-beat edge mixed with NEGATIVE APPROACH. Really love the vocal stylings from LAST AFFRONT. They’re unique and help them stand out from the mix of other bands who have done this type of hardcore countless times in the past. Otherwise, nothing really groundbreaking here. Worth a listen if you’re a moshcore junkie.
Genuinely weird shit coming out of Buffalo, NY! I couldn’t turn up anything about the band, so it’s unclear who all is involved with the project—their Bandcamp profile pic is just an image of what appears to be a teen plucked straight out of one of the audiences in The Decline of Western Civilization. In any case, this appears to be their debut release. It’s eight tracks (a quarter of which are sung in French) of what I would primarily describe as USHC, maybe on the skate rock end of the spectrum. But the production is pretty bizarre—the guitars are both thin and really fuzzy, while the vocals, which are pretty buried in the mix, sound like they were recorded in an abandoned mineshaft. Then, every so often a really faint keyboard kicks in, or a “Careless Whisper”-ass saxophone lick, or even a TALKING HEADS-esque vocal melody. Really bizarre stuff, all of which is wrapped in a J-card seemingly signaling you’re about to listen to some playful European post-punk. I don’t know that I loved this, but I’m certainly fascinated by everything about it.
Someone once said that LEATHERFACE was the best British punk band from the ’90s—I think that is an understatement. There’s no other group that sounds like them. Their style is unique and unrepeatable, a race between two ambitious guitarists that wanted to find the definite riff, the weirdest, sharpest, most outstanding guitar lick. Mush is by far their best work, but Minx is probably their second-best, a perfect example of their style: that strange and warm fog of derailed guitars, complex and perfectly executed arrangements, topped with a rugged and deep voice which feels straight out of a sailor’s tavern down on the misty docks of Sunderland. The reissue by Call of the Void is a good chance for the collectors, since it’s not easy to find original LEATHERFACE albums just lying around. A trip across one of the most nostalgic, intelligent, and passionate punk bands that probably ever was.
With a number of releases already under their belt, LECHE from Austin, TX returns with a new six-song cassette EP. A band that is rather difficult to pinpoint with a specific sound, LECHE meanders around many subgenres contained within the greater, all-encompassing “punk” umbrella. Best I can come up with is that they are a cowpunk take on Southern rock (maybe mostly due to that wildly long “Freebird”-type guitar solo to end one song, yeesh) with a peppering of noise rock and speed metal, all tied together by the satirical stream-of-consciousness style ramblings of the vocalist—that last part is most prevalent on the song “Premium Suffrage,” written from the perspective of a country club member kicking non-members off the basketball court that has been reserved for his company two-on-two basketball tournament.
This recording is awful. The band could potentially be alright, but this recording does them no favors. This sounds like it was recorded in a garage on a laptop with no mixing or overdubs or what have you. The only thing that sounds like it was done halfway decently are the vocals, as they sound marginally better than the rest of what’s going on here. I’m honestly in awe that they thought it was a good idea to spend money on putting this out into the world.
This is a mechanical, corrosive delivery of ’90s industrial punk metal, like an adolescent era of cyber-thrash with PITCHSHIFTER or MEATHOOK SEED, but played at the pace of GHOUL, LSD, KURO, and ZOUO, and tweaked to CHARRED REMAINS in its final form. Maniacal, gnarly vocals burble under sizzling riffs and mechanical percussion. NIGHTBREED recently had a similar effect, and that shit was blissful lunacy—ELECTROCUTIONER as well, though more guttural and GISM-like. This is a tape that is perhaps even darker than both in its skeleton, adding layers of amorphous calamity, a wash of static punk chaos. This is for the slightly disturbed and raw noise enthusiast, waning and mocking at times, others downright mind-numbing. “Missing Nasty Men” truly reminds me of KURO burning in hell. Digital. Evil. Lifeless raw punk meddling in the UK.
First off, this EP’s cover is a still from Electrocuting an Elephant, an early 20th century film in which, you guessed it, an elephant is killed on screen. If there’s a good reason for using this image, the band doesn’t provide it. Yuck. Luckily, the edgelord antics end there. The rest of the album really splits its time between plodding hard rock riffs and brittle pop tunes with a menacing bass-and-drums undercurrent. This band could be playing something from the Doolittle outtakes and the rhythm section would still sound like it’s about to throw a floorpunch. The last track is a thrashing noise piece whose lyrics consist of the singer screaming “beans!”—the whole record is filled with this back-and-forth between sillines and severity.
With some power pop, it’s hard to dig deep and really dial in that critical ear. But dig I must, even when part of me just wants to say that like 90% of the genre this album is “fine.” These Londoners probably have the right record collections among them, with touchstones spanning from the ’50s R&B-indebted stabbing piano of the opening track to the more contemporary nod to GENTLEMAN JESSE on “Anecdotes.” Even when the band loosens the collar a bit with crashing guitars on a cut like “Keep Me Alive,” it sounds like they’re still on the leash. It just doesn’t punch through like I want in a good, modern rock’n’roll band. But that’s not to say there’s anything glaringly bad on this full-length. It’s just…fine.
Oh Jesus. I could be totally wrong, but this reeks of a one-man bedroom project where some technically knowledgeable human decides to put down the video game controller, make self masturbatory guitar music (debatable), and put it out to the world in hopes of gathering praise or in a sadistic attempt to force one’s art (debatable) down people’s throats. Sure, you could say this about much of the great black metal music of yore, but this ain’t that, my friend. If you check online, you can even see videos of this talented soul self-stroking his stringed member over a video game rhythm section, and it’s very much a Guitar Hero version of thrash metal punk with some prog moments. Message to our readers: “If you feel the overwhelming urge to put your homemade laptop music on a viable punk format and send it in, please don’t. Thanks and goodnight. -RR.”
Debut release from this Buffalo three-piece following a couple of short digital-only demos. Here you’re getting ten tracks of perfectly adequate, lowish-fi punk—a beige blend of early ’80s US punk, ’90s garage punk, and, like, late ’00s Fat Wreck Chords. Maybe the most memorable thing about this release is the band’s zany-face emoji sense of humor. Track titles include “You Can’t Fart On My Head & Get Away With It” and “Lemmy + Your Mom = 42.” LOL, I guess.
Baltimore’s MALLWALKER have compiled their unreleased studio recordings along with a live performance on their Danger cassette, sadly released in unfortunate circumstances as a memorial to their late lead singer Sarah Danger Underhill, and released at her memorial earlier this year. As the band graciously chose to honor her by releasing this tape, those who missed the chance to see them play live will still get to enjoy these stellar songs. MALLWALKER played classic punk with a sneer and a big two fingers up, reminding me of CRASS, SEX PISTOLS, and U.K. SUBS (whose “Tube Disaster” they absolutely crush). Sarah rants and raves with sarcasm and wit, mostly preserving her scathing barbs for the likes of creeps in the punk scene, from emotionally draining partners (“Taker,”“Spell It Out”) to gaslighting perverts (“Hunt You Down”). She even saves some venom for mom and dad on the clever “Parent Trap,” a big eyeroll to all the rules given to you as a youngster living under their roof. For someone who never knew Sarah or saw MALLWALKER play live, it’s easy to see and hear what so many people miss.
MERGER doles out free-jazz-sounding instrumentals before some brief post-hardcore bursts. I think this is an awkward choice for HC/punk because it pushes against both the genre’s brevity and simplicity. It’s not a side show either; the band really emphasizes the noodling that builds up to the screaming and buzzing. This combo always feels like it’s using experimentation in the service of faster, angrier parts. I think that’s not a good use of either style.
I think it takes a certain level of self-awareness to be able to acknowledge when you just truly do not understand something. I wholeheartedly admit that MISCOMINGS from Seattle are very much that for me. Structureless, angular, plink-plunky, riff-less guitar licks over math-rock drums that incorporate blastbeats, disco beats, and many things in between, with vocals repetitively yelped on top. Kooky, artsy no wave/noise rock that leans into that nu-metal-feeling groove pretty heavily. Maybe it’s just over my head and I’m missing something.
Meat and potatoes, right? Bit of protein, something nice and filling on the side, and no unnecessary flash that adds nothing to the plate. That’s exactly what you get with this nasty little delight of an EP. BART AND THE BRATS lay it down with thick bass and suitable-to-the-name vocals. It’s crunchy, economic garage punk just the way I like it. Then on the flip we’ve got Connecticut-based KRAMER, whose every song fittingly uses the word “drunk” or “drinking.” These tunes sound more like a mean drunk whose edges somehow get sharper with every boilermaker and who, under no circumstances, should you recommend “taking it down a notch.” Both groups bring a blissful anarchic racket to the table, and to belabor my first metaphor into the grave, I’m hungry as hell for all of it.
Kyiv-based MORWAN’s third release of post-punk/darkwave was recently made during the most challenging circumstances any band could face (for obvious reasons). This is Alex Ashtaui’s document of life during wartime, and for that reason alone, it should have your full attention. The record pounds an atmospheric, tribal, surf-inflected psych sound into each track, addressing war and the havoc that surrounds it. The cassette needs to be heard in full, with each song building on the next. It is one of the more impressive pieces of music that I have heard this year. Start with “Полетіли” and “Земля палає,” and it’s hard not to see the importance of this recording.
Not quite what I expected here, prematurely judging it from the primitive biker scrawl of a cover. This Cincinnati band made up of Ohioan and Welsh members who’ve done time in other bands you might know (look it up, lazy) has made the connection between MOTÖRHEAD/ROSE TATTOO-style hard-charging rock’n’roll and the shoegazing Britpop of OASIS/MY BLOODY VALENTINE. No, really. It’s post-punk metal-ish hard rock that leads one (well, me) into visions of a subtler, more introspective MC roaring through the Ohio flatlands, stopping only to talk philosophy at the local coffee mill. The title track, “Throttle,” “Life Is Hell,” and “Pressure Cooker” are tops. Swell. Vrrooooom.
Genre-benders MSPAINT’s LP Post-American is a fitting album for the bonkers times we’re living in, properly capturing the hectic speed and exhaustive nature of the present. Stuffed to the brim with mercurial sounds and ideas, it’s plastic-y and bendy with a sheen of metallic synth. It’s a difficult album to pin down, as every genre I try to attach to it doesn’t quite nail it. Synth-punk? Sort of, but vocally more indebted to hip-hop than punk. Hardcore? At times, yes, but more often it sways into industrial and even techno. It really is a fusion of sounds, and regardless of how you choose to label it, Post-American is a modern and vital album that is lyrically filled with optimism, an interesting juxtaposition to its frantic and at times paranoid sound. Check out “Delete It” and “Titan of Hope.”
Post-hardcore gooners salute, as Richmond’s MUCK comes to provide the rage-compressed vocals and frenzy cadences you crave. Mid-paced tempos with clockwork rhythms that go full straight-up hardcore punk with accompanying guitars that tweak and screech from time to time. Great demo, eager to hear more.
On the strength of NIX’s four-song debut demo, this one’s no-messing, no-frills hardcore with velocity and bellicosity. The bona fides of the lineup—Reid Allen, Andy Bottaro, Dan Bulford, and Tallulah Hoffman—does not render this a great surprise, but NIX sounds in a real attack-dog mood here, and ensures this eight minutes is only predictable by virtue of how good it is. Tuned down pretty thick and rarely exceeding mid-pace, it’s a textbook example of how to do gruff, burly HC without throwing in metal flamboyance or beatdown sections, and on “Gospel for the Modern Age,” an almost melodic hook pokes out of the maelstrom, along with the sung refrain “Turn my body into dust.” NIX feels very much like a band who are a product of the 2023 London scene—or conversely a few of them, from the Knuckledust/LBU old-timers to so-called NWOBHC acts like ARMS RACE to the fresher likes of ANTAGONIZM.
If you’re desiring some melancholic, synth-driven post-punk, then maybe give Vancouver’s NOUVEAUX a spin. This full-length draws inspiration from a variety of musical spaces and mixes them into a haunting, brutalist approach to pop. Like a cold, grey monolith, each song builds a heavy foundation upon underground ’80s music scenes. You’ll soon find yourself wanting to vogue while you’re gently reminded of our bleak future.
Great record from Swedish post-punk shoegazers. Very drifty set of songs, led by stabbing bass lines wrapped in soft vocals. The band brings a melancholic siren-song quality to Bracklig Jord, which, after doing a bit of research, looks like the band’s first full-length. All in all, the vocals from Sanna Lodin are the most resounding throughout the record. This is straight from the mid-’80s 4AD playbook. Worthy of many more listens.
The first in what is (hopefully) a series of releases celebrating the early works of underground Polish dark/post-punks ONE MILLION BULGARIANS. Brooding and cold mechanical wave sounds with a bass-heavy recording and a deliberate, plodding pace, this collects recordings from 1986, at the very beginning of the band’s run. You know SIEKIERA…right? Considerably less accessible, which is precisely what makes this release so compelling.
This is a nicely packaged unreleased 1996 album by unknown SoCal sillycore band OUTAHAND. Who, you say? It’s a speedy fifteen songs in like twenty-something minutes. Movie sound bites, rapid drum beats, clowny vocals, and some melodic moments are all included here. They played with the likes of RKL, GOOD RIDDANCE, and NO USE FOR A NAME, which is a great predictor of what your ears will encounter. Not much joy is sparked here. I’m not really sure if this warranted more clogging up of the pressing plants, but if you ever owned a pair of baggy shorts or colorful Ray-Bans, this could be just what you needed.
The Pain & Pleasure LP by PARANOIA is a compilation of songs from cassette tapes that were originally only available directly from the band during the mid-’80s. PARANOIA plays a type of punk rock that is heavily influenced by goth and post-punk, and at times even explores the prog rock field. There are portions of this album that remind me of PENDRAGON or other prog bands that used fantasy-based fiction to create sonic environments. Looping riffs that seem to continue endlessly before exploring another, while vocals explore lyrics about swords, battles, and other medieval imagery.
Four-piece Detroit four-piece with an EP that exudes a crunchy sound all around—blunt force mayhem hardcore punk and chaotic vibes. Demonic vocals and aggressive drums, creating groovy crust punk filled with guitar pick-ups generating disturbance. Suggested tracks: “End of Days” and “Relax.” Abrasive palm-mutes and raging vocals for blasting your mind, in six tracks averaging out to less than two minutes per song.
Stripped-down, discordant, gnarly noise punk with screamed vocals. The tunes on this tape are not quite as disgusting as its cover art, but almost! Nothing subtle or melodic here. PIGMILK blazes through seven tracks faster than an electrical fire in a slaughterhouse, with nary ‘a one cracking the two-minute mark. Most songs are uptempo and brisk, but don’t be shocked by the occasional breakdown or off-kilter interlude. There’s something slightly left-of-center lurking beneath the surface, gurgling up in the angularity of shrill guitars and subverted harmonies. This is evident in “I Tried,” which is the most overt nod to emotional hardcore. “Know Thyself” reels that impulse in and delivers a no-frills ripper. Good stuff. Analogous with life, this demo is brutal and over before ya know it.
Swiss punkers PIG SWEAT bang out a barrage of sputtering and scrapping hardcore punk like a gut punch. Tracks are fast and furious, clocking in at around one to two minutes each, yet they are chock full of attitude with blistering riffs and changes. Some moments are mid-tempo jackhammers, others are blazing hardcore. A lot comes to mind here, from contemporaries GOLPE and EXIL to NIGHTMARE (huh, that’s the title of track three) and POISON IDEA. Guitars are in the higher register like DIE KREUZEN, while the rhythm section plays with a ton of heavy umph, think SEVERED HEAD OF STATE. The balance of punk rock groove and insane hardcore meltdown, all done, again, in just a couple minutes each, is impressive and concise. The outro track “Dictators of Austerity” is a perfect melody-churning send-off and seems like their ballad track—but it’s only two minutes! And it is just as impactful as the 45-second “No Aims” into the title track.. A fuckin’ winner from PIG SWEAT.
Environment and landscape are concepts that don’t always factor into the listening experience of music. It’s why critics sometimes use words like “cinematic” to describe music, which isn’t exactly something I grab for in listening to this album. The major credit I give to this Israeli band is the ability to create an inner landscape of turmoil and a claustrophobic environment with a more or less rudimentary setup. These songs are intimate, noisy, and fraught with existential stressors and even terror. Conscripted service (a beyond troubling reality in the group’s country) as well as frustration and hopelessness are explored in a direct way both lyrically and musically. Noise and deathrock templates are used and augmented to create something of suffocating and grim value. But environment isn’t everything, there is great use of melody between the interplay of instrumentation (including smartly used organ, saxophone, and the play between bass and guitar) that cuts these songs into the muscles of the heart. It combines a lot of flavors, including no wave influence, especially in singer/songwriter Dean Klein’s guitar and vocal work. The punctuation from track to track is pretty phenomenal, stabs of rhythm and vocal expression helping to wallpaper the rooms of gritty despair. As a whole, it creates a cathartic world that mirrors our own while helping to break through the horror of the day-to-day. An artistically cohesive and impressive album that begs for repeated listening.
Melodic rock’n’roll straight out of Montreal. PRIORS’ newest release is their fourth LP in five years, which is impressive in its own right. Power pop akin to MARKED MEN, FIDLAR, or MIND SPIDERS, great use of synthesizers that pairs well with the catchy guitar licks that are laden throughout each track. Although the guitars are the most prominent here, I was really drawn in by the rhythm section—lots of great bass runs and the drums sound crisp and tight as all get-out. Solid album, although it’s a pretty standard garage rock piece. Definitely worth a spin if you’re a fan of the genre.
I don’t like to be mean about DIY punk bands as they are the fabric of all local scenes, the lifeblood, the passion, often what unites us. They are our culture. A place without punk bands is a dead place. It does not mean, however, that one should embrace everything uncritically. In fact, you could argue that the intentional lack of a critical perspective on any given punk work is insulting. All art deserves to and should be critiqued, in context, fairly and honestly, and, in the case of punk music, with the idea to support and encourage and create bridges. Now that I’m done with all this hippie bollocks, let’s just say that I was unable to listen to the split LP between Czech bands OUT OF CONTROL (from Hradec Kralove) and PRISONERS OF WAR (from Omolouc) in its entirety. If you are into beefy, American-styled, hardcore-tinged street punk, this would probably be your thing, but it is a style I do not relate to at all. OUT OF CONTROL may be a little more on the Oi!-core side, while PRISONERS OF WAR are more aligned with the sing-along hardcore-ish street punk philosophy (if I had to pick one, it would be them). The production is very clean and I guess the two bands are dynamic enough.
There is an underground scene in Mexico City focused on ’80s dance music (HI-NRG, synth-pop, Italo disco, rare disco). These dances are attended by the working class, elaborately dressed and totally DIY. Every weekend they challenge each other to dance-offs and have an amazing time. All this music is part of the DNA of the city—some hits can be heard every day on local radio stations, and it has become a great local tradition. It’s fun, sweaty, and democratic. PROSPEXX’s music reminds me of all this, “The Devil Has Won” would be a dancefloor classic in this scene. It’s timeless, romantic, fun, and seductive music. Think SYLVESTER or TRANS X. I would like to give a tip to PROSPEXX and invite them to visit Mexico City, they would have a brutal success down here.
The latest release from PSOAS of Buenos Aires consists of eight tracks with a unique approach to thrashy fastcore fury. Airy, psychedelic, cleaner garage-rock-sounding overdriven guitars, screamy vocals, a hint of psychedelia at times, but somehow doesn’t scream “math rock.” Reminiscent of the weird side of the tail-end of Y2K thrash, buried somewhere in the 625 or Sound Pollution catalogs with bands like the SPROUTS, MIND OF ASIAN, the FUTURES, or earlier period MELT BANANA, except with better breakdowns. Recommended.
Good old “rager” there, mates. Bristol UKHC that goes full-on raging hardcore punk, coming near fastcore speed as well. Anti-conservative message in a British context and anti-politics stances with solid lyrics. Suggested track: “Feels Like the End,” for a padded cell experience.
Poland’s RED CRAP brings you traditional punkabilly with a little bit of a surfy goth-rock edge. The kind of band you might see at a hot rod show or a very large tattoo convention. Recording quality is fantastic, but that isn’t automatically conducive to an interesting album. While the talent is obviously there, The Truth is Still Out There is chock-full of old punk tropes that we’ve heard hundreds, if not thousands, of times before—very reminiscent of the early Fat Wreck bands. They would have fit in well with the Lookout! crowd in the late ’80s and early ’90s, but at this point we’ve heard this all before.
Saskatoon’s REPAIR kick out some great The Way It Is-core on this tape, with the vocals reminding me most of that era of Raybeez in particular. The songs are relatively distinguished from each other, and while the songwriting would benefit from a little more nuance, their ability to write big, circle pit-ready riffs more than makes up for it, and there’s exactly the right amount of early youth crew signifiers without devolving into template-filling bullshit. Yes, there’s a song called “Stabbed in the Fucking Back” (which is ironically the least youth crew song on the tape), but it’s good so I’ll let the title slide. There have been way too many MINOR THREAT covers in the world, but their rendition of “Betray” is decent and actually fits here.
First they put something in his drink, and now they’ve gone and stolen his wig. I’m talking, of course, about RICHIE RAMONE! This talented drummer/songwriter/singer is still out here rocking all these years after he began his iconic tenure with the RAMONES back in 1983. Live to Tell is his latest solo LP, containing twelve jams that showcase a fresh take on his classic punky sensibilities. With songs like the smoky and haunted “I Sit Alone (Yeah, Yeah)” and the catchy riffs of the stellar “When The Night” (love those backing vocals), to speedy blasters like “Suffocate” and “Who Stole My Wig,” and even a decent cover of the Lost Boys anthem, “Cry Little Sister,” there’s plenty to chew on here. It’s a smooth listen and a nice follow-up to 2018’s also very good Cellophane LP, proving that the guy is still at the top of his game. Fans of the Animal Boy/Too Tough To Die era should especially dig it.
Raven Mahon (of GRASS WIDOW and GREEN CHILD) and Xanthe Waite (of PRIMO! and TERRY) have paired up as ROCKY, and their debut LP is a work of quiet beauty, a minimalist grid painting of meticulous post-punk brush strokes on a paper-thin pop canvas. Most the album’s nine songs are primarily constructed around the hypnotic drone of a drum machine, stark bass lines pushed to the forefront, and wiry guitar dropping in and out as single-note stabs and knotted melodic counterpoints, nodding to both of their previous/other groups—Raven and Xanthe’s intertwining and overlapping vocal harmonies definitely give those familiar GRASS WIDOW goosebumps—but even more so displaying a very YOUNG MARBLE GIANTS-inspired balance between chilliness and warmth; simplicity and complexity. Things get slightly more raucous (in a deadpan post-punk sort of way) on “Repeater,” one of a handful of tracks to introduce a full drum kit, further accented with subtle synth buzz and even a bit of warbling violin, and the wound-up, off-kilter ’78–’83 art-punk bounce of “Blackout” (one of the best examples of that particular form since those two HOUSEHOLD records from around a decade ago), which only makes the austere and brittle atmosphere of songs like “Contents” and “Nothing Tuesday” hit that much harder. I’d expect nothing less than genius from these two, and they certainly didn’t disappoint.
I know. This record cover is absolutely begging you to scroll on by. And I wouldn’t blame you if you did—I certainly let this thing sink to the bottom of my listening pile because of it. But do yourself a favor and listen to these tunes. ROMANCE is a four-piece who formed as part of First Timers, a 2018 Sydney music festival put on by Bryony Beynon (whom you might know from GOOD THROB, BB AND THE BLIPS, or numerous MRR contributions!) to promote representation in music. All bands who participate are playing their first live set together and meet two of the following three requirements: 1) at least one member has never played in a band before; 2) at least one member is a woman, a person of color, an LGBTQI+ or gender non-conforming person; and 3) at least one member is playing an instrument they’ve never played before. With this being vocalist Jane’s first time in a band and Ben’s first go at drums (he’s done non-drumming stuff in DUMBELLS and SHRAPNEL), I believe they meet all three. The band is rounded out with Max from BB AND THE BLIPS on guitar and Greg from DISPLAY HOMES on bass. This is their debut release, which is just seeing the light of day after being recorded back in 2019 and shelved for an extended time due to COVID. Speaking of GOOD THROB, it’s hard not to hear their influence on the six tracks that make up this EP. It’s a similar brand of rhythm-section-forward, garage-y post-punk with a nasty edge, provided in large part by a strong vocal performance seemingly delivered at the edge of sanity (Jane’s really going for it here, taking things to near Dani Filth registers at times—it’s quite impressive!). But whereas GOOD THROB leans post-punk, ROMANCE puts more emphasis on the garage-y side, almost pushing it in a surfy direction, while keeping things keenly focused on punk. Everything just sounds crisp and vital. It’s raw, it’s fun, it’s cool. It’s a great record!
Powerviolence out of Albuquerque that draws comparisons to SPAZZ and CAPTAIN THREE LEG. Great barking vocals more reminiscent of youth crew than grindcore. Drums and bass sound huge on this and drive more of the record than the guitars. That might sound counterintuitive for a hardcore album, but it works here. Groovy as hell. I may be biased, but bands who reference Altered Beast in any way get a gold star from me. My only complaint is the samples at the beginning of some tracks. I know this is a classic grind trope, but it kills the momentum on such a short record.
This split EP is a really fulfilling piece of plastic. AUTOBAHNS deliver two delicious Killed By Death-style gems of crude and fun punk, while S.G.A.T.V. has a knack for infectious synth punk that reminds this writer of the best LOST SOUNDS ditties: chaotic and melodic at the same time.
The New York scene which is largely represented by Toxic State records is still actively producing great punk music. Many of these bands sound as if hardcore nerds are digging through their well-curated record collections and forming new bands to play music that could be linked to a certain micro-scene that existed for a fraction of a second. As dorky as it sounds, I like this approach when it feels as if they genuinely love what they are referencing, instead of half-assed borrowing of established sounds. Therefore, I was super excited when I learned about this band—their name already sounds good, and stupid just like HP.HC, who had an even dumber record title (Thrash/Hardcore/Punk). SALVAJE PUNK draws major influence from the ultra-metal/hardcore scene of Medellin, Colombia from around the beginning of the ’90s. That was a savage scene in a savage town and each band played näive, chaotic music with a shit-fi distorted sound—something that is not easy to recreate if you are an established musician, and these members can definitely play. Instead of hitting their hands with a hammer to be more loose, they creatively create chaos. Drums are as dense as proto-grindcore, and the guitars drop those crazy solos I loved so much with the ultra-metal bands. The structures are interesting too, with occasional short tempo changes, and their whole sound rumbles—when other bands would stop it, SALVAJE PUNK rolls towards building the bumps into the songs, creating a great mess. It is a wild listen, grabbing and dragging me for the entire play time. Obviously the recording is sonically much more listener-friendly, which is a bit of a bummer, because daring to sound like ATAQUE DE SONIDO or HERPES in 2023 would be great. Trying to write songs that are as crazy as the sound of the previous bands is, although more difficult, finely executed here. If you took your favorite parts from raging hardcore and chaotic death metal and blast them on full volume at the same time, then you’d get close to how this record sounds. I love it. The record includes a huge poster with a demon that looks super sick. Get this!
Heavy-metal-infused party punk rock from Dekalb County, IL. Mostly pretty formulaic, with a couple of little curveballs thrown in that are likely little goofs between the band members—for example, the intentionally sloppy blastbeat part of their song “Scumbag Black Metal.” That one makes sense to me, but the disco beat on “Red, White, and Brew” is over my head. With song titles like that, I kind of imagine everyone more or less can tell what they’re getting into with a band like SATIN BLACK.
Hard to believe this dropped ten years ago, but here we are, and To Lie A Lie is giving new life to this Arizona powerviolence slab. Ten tracks, overloaded with low end and a lumbering, awkward approach to the fast part of the equation, while the slows just hit you in the gut and then take up residence there. This record still crushes, their approach to PV is legitimately unique and totally holds up…but it would be a copout to review the record without noting that the band name has always sucked and still does.
NYC punk that sounds like it was transported from another dimension. Anthemic and addictive, but dark and dreary, like London and pre-hardcore L.A. mingling somewhere mysterious. The psychobilly tinges and warbly vocals really solidify SHOP TALK as a band who sound like…SHOP TALK. Which is a feat in itself, but they’re also really fukkn good at it.
New San Francisco hardcore punk band featuring members of ACRYLICS. Stylistically, this is nothing new, nothing mind-blowing, but the heavily distorted riffs are catchy enough that they feel very familiar and I have heard them running through my mind since my first listen. Staying mostly in the mid-tempo range, SIMULATION plods through these four songs, and as soon as it’s over, you’re gonna wanna flip the tape and listen again. Pretty cool first release, and I can’t wait to hear where they go from here.
It’s hard to deny interest in a release that offers a glimpse into the history of punk. Courtesy of Refuse Records, we get just such a peek in the form of a double LP compiling the output of one of Germany’s first hardcore bands to embrace the USHC sound. Among the 42 tracks, you’ll find covers of FAITH and NEGATIVE APPROACH, which is a good starting point for what SKEEZICKS were going for, but it also sets a high bar for comparison. More so than either of those bands, I hear nods to CAPITOL PUNISHMENT (especially in the vocal delivery), RICH KIDS ON LSD, and CIRCLE ONE. The songs are fast with a lot of gang vocals and palm-muted guitar riffing. Though not exactly youth crew, it came as no surprise to see that SKEEZICKS were straight edge. There’s a lot of material here! A few songs appear multiple times in varying versions, including some live takes. From what I can tell, SKEEZICKS had a blast during their brief existence and helped to pave the way for German hardcore bands like SPERMBIRDS and HOSTAGES OF AYATOLLAH. Fans of obscure bandana hardcore will want to give this a spin.
I really liked this band’s debut self-titled full-length, and was excited to see what they’d cooked up in the past couple of years. I’m mostly happy to report that while the sound is just a touch slinkier and snakier, it maintains its core of driving rock‘n’roll that carries echoes of giants like the ROLLING STONES without merely staley worshiping at the altar. The recipe hasn’t been tweaked much, the guitar work relies heavily on that back-and-forth boogie sound lifted from classic rhythm and blues music for decades, and the drums keep your ass wiggling throughout. What I will say is that I’m missing some of the warmth and recklessness of the band’s debut. Everything’s dialed-in and tidy, but that’s not what everyone wants from rock‘n’roll, is it? With some extra polish, I feel more distanced from the material. It lacks the immediacy, the broken glass on the floor, the stains on the bathroom stall door at a really great dive. Maybe that’s all artifice in itself, but if I get to choose the dream world I live in, I prefer one with cheap drinks where I can smoke inside. This time around, it’s more of a signature cocktail lounge and I’d better take my cigs the hell outside or else.
SMRT RAZUMA (“death of sanity”) brings the “new age of darkness,” or so the title of this Croatian band’s debut claims. They play heavy crossover with a well-mixed balance between the thrashing riffs and a hardcore bounce of the toughest order. After two demos, this debut solidifies their thirst for chaos. If you miss POWERTRIP or want an alternative to ENFORCED, you should look here!
From Novato, California comes SPAM CALLER with their second release. A slab of aggro, pissed-off hardcore, but there isn’t too much to latch onto here, either. Not bad by any means, but not super memorable to these ears. It’s worth your time if you like your hardcore angry and aggressive, but I didn’t come out of it with much.
Egg-punk often feels like a reductive term, but SPEWED BRAIN is out to scramble your noggin’, and I gotta say it when the shell fits. Carrying the torch passed down from fellow Hoosiers CONEHEADS and LIQUIDS, SPEWED BRAIN plays the kind of tight, catchy lo-fi punk that is best served on cassette tape. Unlike their forebears, they veer away from worshiping at the altar of DEVO, choosing to inject some good ol’ rock’n’roll into the mix instead, with ‘50s-inspired guitar work and pop sensibilities. The vocals are rapid-fire and snotty, acting almost as an instrument unto themselves. The guitar riffs tend to be the driving force in most songs, but the drumming is certainly nothing to scoff at, with plenty of meticulous rolls and precise hi-hat work. Including the synth, everything rolls up into a nice, gooey, omelet. Fans of the GOBS, CHERRY CHEEKS, and GEE TEE will find something here to sink their decaying teeth into.
Malaysia-based SPLIT TONGUE leaves a good impression on this 7″. The style is Oi!-tinged hardcore punk, not dissimilar to bands like 86 MENTALITY. It’s raging, it’s driving, and it gets the blood (not to mention the fist) pumping. This is a super solid record, and I really look forward to hearing more stuff from these guys. Recommended!
What if it was GUNS N’ ROSES but, like, also Sylvester Stallone? If you’re thinking that doesn’t really sound like a joke, I’m right there with you. But considering this Cincinnati band’s logo—the Appetite for Destruction cover art with various Sly characters irreverently photoshopped over the GUNS N’ ROSES members’ skeleton heads—that appears to be what we’re being asked to laugh along with. Lame sense of humor aside, the more interesting question this band is asking is: what if the SPITS were more power pop? And the answer ends up being: not bad! The lo-fi, dum-dum foundation that these guys lay down is more than sturdy enough to support a good melody, and more often than not, the tunes they end up crafting turn out to be listenable. In their best moments, the band comes off like a dumbed-down version of LIQUOR STORE. At their worst, they sound like a budget MEAN JEANS. The release ended up managing to exceed my expectations, but probably only by setting them so low with this band name.
After a ten-year or so run, STELLA RESEARCH COMMITTEE treads on with what I am reading as the trio’s seventh and final release/onslaught. Which is very much the experience with Killed Alive…bombarding, repetitive spoken word to a backdrop of dark ambient noise and loops. This band has discovered power electronics and deploys the usual expectations of the genre within each DNA-influenced track. The result comes off like Mark E. Smith fronting an ATARI TEENAGE RIOT cover band. That might be good?
In a sea of power pop with garage muscle, STEVE ADAMYK has always sailed truer than most. Likewise his bandmate Dave Forcier, who plays (and drinks) here with ADAMYK, blasting through classics of the genre (including one from ADAMYK’s earlier band SEDATIVES). I’ve always dug the Drunk Dial series in its simplicity and novelty. Get rockers in a room, get them loaded, and let ‘em rip through covers. The results are always fun, and it’s remarkable how tight this installment is considering the case of Coronas that laid the foundation for the session. The update to “Slip Away” sounds note-perfect to the original, and the version of the KIDS’ “Do You Wanna Know” is a perfect love letter to that late ’70s sound that never grows old. If you’re into this stuff, it’s a great addition to your collection, even if what you get on paper is what you get on your turntable with few surprises.
Mouth of Madness has re-released the sole release by these Quebec death-grinders, originally from 2000. Recorded in their jam space, the sound quality is what you’d expect from the turn-of-the-century DIY metal cassette scene. Nevertheless, the hissy tape sound works for this raw, aggressive style. The pounding, marching drums are slightly forward of the relentless, fuzzy riffage. The two vocalists swap growls of mostly French hostility. Not sticking to the conventions of the genre, they make bold choices as on the track “Torturer,” where the bass and drums take center stage and the guitar hangs back through most of the song. Never fear, the guitar comes back toward the end with a manic, noisy vengeance.
TATXERS sound like a melancholy, rainy afternoon drinking beer at a pub in old downtown Iruña. Hiruzpalau Amets Larri was a breath of fresh air that hit every squat party in Spain last year. They follow in the tradition of the solid Basque Country scene, but with a brand new approach. The band is more influenced by the sense of melody and arrangements of the early records of punk pioneers ZARAMA than by the cornerstone of the genre in the region, ESKORBUTO—who were coincidentally named by ZARAMA’s singer, Roberto Moso. The guitars are playful and clean, with almost no distortion, snailing through repetitive riffs. You can see the trademark of Julen Urzaiz, engineer at Sound of Sirens studios and godfather to a handful of the new Oi! and Basque punk bands: KALEKO URDANGAK, STREETWISE, AGAINST YOU, HERDOIL. The four songs on this EP have that certain feeling of nostalgia in their own subtle ways, but without turning their backs on a powerful chorus and a fair share of rage. When I listened to Hiruzpalau Amets Larri, thoughts of green and mountainous valleys, old cobbled towns, and endless drizzle, but also riots and pub shows, came to my mind. It’s one of the most outstanding punk records I’ve heard in a long time.
This is the second release from French Oi! band TCHERNOBYL and, as is the case for a lot of the country’s Oi! for the past 40 or so years, it’s a winner! Ruff ‘n’ tuff but packed full of hooks and melodic guitar lines in the grand French Oi! tradition. I dig this slab of sound a hell of a lot! Three tunes of driving punk rock’n’roll done very well. Music to shave heads to.
Synth punk is a style that was born perfect. Distilled down to its most primordial elements, it can be taken and re-created over and over again, and you know what? It is made of such noble stuff, that the results are always highly enjoyable. In the case of TELEGENIC PLEASURE (a band composed of members of the GAGGERS, ISOLATION PARTY, MONONEGATIVES, and MISCALCULATIONS), in addition to the aforementioned genre potentialities, you can expect the great talent and experience of such prolific people to generate great songs. And there are plenty of them on this album. Think of the unbridled energy of LOST SOUNDS and the fun and snotty attitude of late ’70s bands from the San Francisco and Los Angeles scenes. Plus, they have an excellent cover of Canada’s the DEMICS that is sure to become a cult classic.
The BLOWTOPS spew forth 27 blasts of industrial-tinged psychobilly, with vocals that sound just like an ELVIS from hell wrestling a microphone away from Lux Interior’s mummified corpse. Demented and fuzzed to oblivian (sic), there is indeed zero here to dance to. I imagine this is what PUSSY GALORE would’ve been like if Jon Spencer was on an actual homicidal rampage during the recording of Dial “M” for Motherfucker—I recently learned that the original title for that album (mysteriously rejected by Caroline Records) was Make Them All Eat Shit Slowly, which I’m convinced is what the BLOWTOPS desire for their listeners. Courtesy of Big Neck Records, Zero Dance compiles all of the band’s singles from an eleven-year span between 1998 and 2009, which is fitting considering that Big Neck’s inaugural release was the BLOWTOPS’ Voodoo Alley EP. The band’s trajectory goes from gnarly and blown-out to more gnarly and more blown-out, trading melody for mechanical noise along the way. Gross, disturbing, and quite possibly brilliant.
Holy shiiiiiiit, this is what I want from teenage punk! Snotty, fast, raw swinging in-yer-fukkn-face Brooklyn punk of the highest order, the CUT-UPS do everything that they’re supposed to here (including the “These Boots are Made for Walking” cover, for fuck’s sake), and I’m hoping that future releases (or endeavors) are going to be even better. I Hate is straight fire—highly recommended.
If you can’t rock, I guess you can try and be funny. If you can’t do either—ask to audition for the DROLLS! You’d fit right in. These two songs, referencing (in title only) MC5 and GUIDED BY VOICES respectively, had me following the run time as I listened. When there’s two songs each under three minutes, that’s kind of brutal. Musically, the tunes are forgettable. Compressed rock music that doesn’t have any heft to it and vocals way up front in the mix so you have to focus on the lyrics. And they’re supposed to be funny, but even in that department this release is limp. A track about being old and wanting to get in your jammies, and the other is about… I dunno, having a boring job? The B-side muses in the chorus, “I am a data scientist / It’s really not as cool as some insist.” Agreed. While this isn’t, like, offensively bad, it just sort of makes me wonder what’s the point? Comedy can be a great tool for tackling the mess of a world we live in. A lot of my favorite bands often get mislabeled with the “comedy band” signifier (most notably the DEAD MILKMEN, whose songs are often funny but go way deeper than just that). These tracks just sort of sit there and exist. They’re easily forgotten, or best yet ignored.
Blimey, a reissue of the EJECTED’s first album, A Touch of Class. I know the name of the record was supposed to be ironic and tongue-in-cheek, but even that intent does not make up for the pictures of the lads with their girlfriends that already looked awkward in 1982. A rather tasteless choice for a cover, akin to your average chauvinistic heavy metal band. When I was a teen, I played this LP to death (I owned the 1996 reissue for some reason) because its simplicity, sing-along choruses, and energy really appealed to me, and as a consequence, I know the thing by heart. I cannot say that it aged well, though. Overall, it is pretty sloppy, if not generic. It does get the feet tapping, but it could be out of nostalgia and my natural disposition to love naive ’80s British punk, as there were objectively much better bands at that time. The lyrics are what you would expect from an Oi!-inclined UK82 band, about being working class, being fifteen, fighting, England not being dead, and not having 10p. Despite all this, I still get goosebumps when I listen to the shower-tested “Carnival,” a quintessential teenage punk song with an unlikely, out-of-tune reggae moment right in the middle and a chorus that just goes “Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.” There are two ways to look at A Touch of Class and at the EJECTED. If you think that Riot City Records was the most meaningful ’80s punk label and that getting hammered in front of a brick walls is a way of life, then you can probably already sing along to all the EJECTED’s lyrics, and if you buy this record, it is just because you could not afford the original version. If you are just looking for some solid, tuneful, old-school British punk music but are not a fanatic of the genre, then you can definitely find better bands to listen to.
The OWNERS play pop punk so smooth, so harmonious, it veers into power pop territory. The squeaky-clean sound on their self-titled LP contrasts a bit with their world-weary, jaded presentation, but it’s not a dealbreaker or anything. The vocalist has a big, swing-for-the-fences style, which gets a workout since most songs break the two-minute mark. That length made me feel like they lost steam at a certain point. I mean, it’s not Hidden World, but still, punk favors brevity. The lyrics often have a real story to tell and it’s easy to get swept away by the rants and reminiscences.
Sydney, Australia’s the PARTICLES started in 1977, directly inspired by the punk’s year-zero explosion, but the trio of EPs that they eventually released between 1980 and 1984 responded to the “anyone can do it” call of punk with a much more playful and colorful palette: shards of spiky post-punk rhythms, smudges of proto-twee/pre-C86 jangle pop, insistently catchy melodies modeled after the ARCHIES and the MONKEES as much as the BUZZCOCKS. 1980s Bubblegum compiles all of the PARTICLES’ recorded material (everything from those three EPs, some comp and live tracks, and a few unreleased bits and bobs), and it’s an utter joy—if it wasn’t already apparent where the latest wave of OZ DIY bands like TERRY and PRIMO! sourced most of their crib notes, it should be now. 1980’s Colour In EP featured three minimalist pop songs with an understated post-punk tension, most notably on “Zig Zag,” where Astrid Spielman’s vocals shift from delicately airy to conversationally detached (think DOLLY MIXTURE/GIRLS AT OUR BEST) over a nervous and jittery beat that’s up there with anything bearing a Postcard Records logo. The PARTICLES’ drummer departed before 1981’s Advanced Coloring EP and the band opted to continue on with a drum machine, which, coupled with some dance-demanding DELTA 5/MO-DETTES-style bass lines (that groove in “(Bits of) Wood” is pretty undeniable), further aligned their sound with the UK’s concurrent femme-centered Rough Trade faction, while the group’s final 7”, 1984’s I Luv Trumpet, circled back to sparse, pastoral pop with the addition of bright, melodic horn parts (that title wasn’t an empty promise). The stark, stilted rhythmic jab of the previously unreleased “Family Life” might just be the highlight of the whole LP, and that was an outtake! The mind boggles at the depths of possibility. Such an important and worthy history documented here.
I’m a sucker for female-fronted punk rock. In this case, the band is all-female. I’m a sucker for bubblegum punk. It’s almost a fault of mine. (Some would say I should remove the “almost” from the last sentence.) So, it was a given that I’d like this record. And I do like it, but I wouldn’t say that I love it. It’s got this ballad/doo wop/’50s feel that just isn’t my thing. Here’s a fun fact: they cover the band HELLO, who I’ve never heard of.
This record took a couple rounds to get my footing, but I’m connecting the dots. The STOOLS have put out a pretty substantial amount of material since 2017—I slightly remember the split they did with TOEHEADS and really digging it. This is a great record straight through, with a style that always does it for me. R U Saved? will make a fan out of anyone who loves the SCIENTISTS, ZZ TOP, or LAUGHING HYENAS. This is pugnacious, beer-stained Detroit punk. Blues à la John Brannon. Listen to “Tunnels,” and I will bet you five bucks you will agree.
There must be something in the beer out there in the Midwest, because I swear that region is consistently churning out some of the best pop punk. This has it all. Hooks, “whoa-oh”s, songs about drinking, cool guitar licks, melodies out the wazoo, a singer that has that kinda RAMONES yet kinda vaguely Dan Vapid-esque style while not being either of those things. This one is gonna be on repeat for a while. Solid album. I dig it.
It looks like this is a re-release of an EP that was originally released in the late ’70s. It also sounds like that. From Spain, it’s got a pleasant poppy sound, with really jangly guitar. The vocals are focused on harmonies and are well-done. It’s mid-tempo and catchy, which is always a plus for me. Labeling music is kind of a funny thing for me, but I do wonder if this would have been considered punk in late ’70s Spain, or some sort of alternative pop. It’s pretty cool, either way. I like it.
TOXIC RITES have a sound based solidly in the anarcho-punk tradition with a similar delivery to CONFLICT or ACTIVE MINDS: straightforward punk rock with all the speed and aggression intact. Lyrically, TOXIC RITES uses logic-driven dialogues to progress ideas about social, economic, and environmental concerns. Check out the song “Modern Nightmare,” it rocks hard and is as honest a message as you’ll find these days.
German noise rockers TRIGGER CUT have really gone through it during the last few years. First, a devastating fire at their rehearsal space destroyed all their equipment and the early recordings for this album. Through determination and the aid of six (!) community-organized benefit compilations, they finished Soot, their third record. The band then hit another snag when starting their UK tour. Due to post-Brexit bureaucratic red-tape bullshit, they were turned away at the border, sparking international concern about the treatment of foreign touring bands, even appearing in mainstream publications like The Guardian. So, it has been a lot for a small touring band, but how is the album? It’s really good. “Water Fukkery” kicks it off with a mathy, DON CAB-style riff that explodes into trebly, sandpaper guitar and spoken/shrieked vocals like SHELLAC. “Soot Song” begins with fire alarm guitars that then run through several movements of hold-and-release tension that end in a quiet, chiming outro. “Slipstream” might be the perfect TRIGGER CUT song: it opens with a catchy figure and rolling drums, moves from textured guitar and hollered vocals down to near silence, and then takes off again into full-rocking mode. The songs are complex and emotional, and while not necessarily melodic, there is a compositional arrangement that is always interesting. A compelling and exciting record throughout, and a testament to tenacity. I’m glad they stuck it out.
TULIPS are from Germany, they love both Sylvia Plath’s poetry and SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES, and they are able to create songs of ethereal beauty, where they spin a constant tension as if an eminent external danger was about to engulf us all. More than a band, I consider them painters of urban landscapes in the style of German expressionism, searching for ineffable beauty at the bottom of an abyss.
Seven DICKS standards from all over the globe. The lineup is mainly European, by way of Melbourne and Connecticut. I could go 30/70 with the material—there seems to be a feeling left with some of the recordings that the bands (hello, GOODBYE JOHNNYS) could very well have punched a clock before the process began. The EP, however, is not devoid of meaty morsels that do kill from the heart (jesus, sorry). La Rochelle’s BART & THE BRATS’ cover of “Fake Bands” is a savage kill, and BRAT FARRAR replicates “Dead in a Motel Room” with a tone and feel that would make Gary Floyd proud.
The URINALS started Happy Squid to release their debut 7” in 1978, but this 1980 label sampler effectively foreshadowed some of the scattered directions that the members of the band would follow as they drifted further away from ramshackle punk into the ’80s, from their soon-to-be reinvention as tense post-punks 100 FLOWERS to the moody college rock of DANNY AND THE DOORKNOBS and TROTSKY ICEPICK. The EP leads with three tracks directly from the URINALS family tree, starting with a perfect half-minute of the parent group’s primitive bashing (“U”), followed by DANNY AND THE DOORKNOBS’ “Melody,” a dark, lo-fi punk jangler like the URINALS gone Paisley Underground, and then an organ-buzzing improv noise instrumental called “Get Down, Part 4” by ARROW BOOK CLUB (actually the URINALS incognito). For the remaining three tracks, things are turned over to a handful of URINALS peers from the L.A. underground—VIDIOTS (featuring Rik L Rik on vocals) offered “Laurie’s Lament,” a speedy, Dangerhouse-style burner that’s weirded-up midway with a PERE UBU-ish synth break, PHIL BEDEL’s “Caterpillar Stomp” is squelching, instrumental post-DEVO synthwave, and NEEF rounds things out with a lengthy (the EP’s entire B-side) neo-musique concrète jam. Punk to waaaaaay beyond punk in just six degrees.
What we have here is apparently the fifth cassette in a series of annual compilation tapes released to coincide with an all-day event in Detroit, MI. Such a cool idea. Thirteen different bands, mostly all within the dingy, garage-y rock’n’roll world. I really like this concept and the event seems like it is probably a blast. Hell, some of the tracks on here are really good! My big gripe is that I can’t possibly explain which bands on the tape I like because there is no track listing to be found for this release—neither on/in the physical tape case, or anywhere online that I was able to dig up. There is a jumbled list of band names on the front cover, but no song titles and no way of knowing if I am to read the names vertically or horizontally as to which bands play in which order. I assume these tapes were made in bulk as a giveaway at the event, but I would highly recommend splurging on an insert stating the band names and song titles, or at the very least including a back flap on the cassette’s J-card cover listing all of the pertinent information. In terms of printing costs, I’m not sure how many more tape covers can fit onto a sheet of paper when you only have a front cover and spine for the cassette, but it can’t be a big enough difference to justify this level of confusion.
Four-way split between four different hardcore bands that all sound pretty similar. Typical gruff, tough-guy riffs written solely with the pit in mind. HUNDREDS OF AU stands out from the other three with more of a classic ’90s emocore sound similar to GRADE and early THURSDAY. The rest are reminiscent of the slew of Victory Records bands that were huge in the late ’00s. I’ve always loved this type of compilation 7”, but you really gotta diversify the sound if you want to make it interesting.
Great compilation for a great cause. Nice mix of different-sounding bands, ranging from snotty garage rock to grind-influenced hardcore, from catchy to brutal all within fifteen minutes. Each band hails from the same region, so suffice to say Philly has a pretty healthy scene. Lovely stuff here, reminds me of the old compilations of my youth. Well worth a pick-up.
Re-recording of a seminal and classic V2 track alongside one new one, “Car Crash.” This appears to be a predecessor to a forthcoming full-length in the works. The band has reformed somewhat recently, with the only original member being the guitar player. Nonetheless, the tracks sound good and have ’77 Manchester written all over them.
Oddball five-piece from Slovakia with their second LP, Tlak. The music ranges from straightforward chuggy punk to post-punk-styled guitar lines to polka-tinged ska rhythms (plus a surprise ending). The singer wields a trombone, using a plunger as a mute, they all wear matching short-sleeved white shirts and striped ties, looking like begrudged office hacks, and they’ve collectively donned “Potreba” as a last name; has a cult formed here? I couldn’t find much in English about the band, but it seems like we have a group of middle-aged punkers giving it their all and having a bunch of fun (the live videos are really great). This release is available on CD or plunger-shaped USB drive (which also gives you their first album, V Rohu). Tlak is a pretty long album, so if you want a taste, try out the penultimate “Vypeníš,” which has a breezy, nostalgic air to it. And hold the front door! What’s that last track? “TRAPenie ľudí” is yes, a trap song, with all the auto-tuned, click-beat trap-ings. That’s a first for me in an MRR review. I’m out of answers, you be the judge.
I love rooting for an underdog. So, despite a handful of red flags—bad record cover, self-described RAMONES-core, cringe-ass song titles like “Gimme Ritalin”—I was really determined to like this record. I mean, sure, this cover kinda sucks, but, at least the color combination is nice. And RAMONES-core unfairly gets a bad rap. The RAMONES are one of the best bands ever, why not sound like them? And, yeah, the song title thing is gonna be tough to get over, but these tracks could still be good! Unfortunately, underdogs tend to have trouble winning. WATERMELON, a three-piece out of Chicago, packs plenty of amateurish charm into the twelve tracks on this LP. The problem is that you can only coast so far on charm. This particular genre requires you to write some catchy tunes, and this act can’t quite muster that. The vocals are a big part of the problem for me. Not only are they tuneless and multi-tracked with just enough dissonance to let off a really unpleasant trill at times, they’re also really buried in the mix. I know that kinda sounds like a “this food is terrible…and it comes in such small portions” type of complaint, but it just sounds bad and wrong. I wish these folks the best of luck, as I did really like the cut of their jib, but I will not be will not be going back for another slice of this one.
The latest cassette from Chicago’s WEAK PULSE is eight tracks of ’80s-style USHC somewhere along the veins of VOID, CRUCIFIX, a lo-fi version of MINOR THREAT, and ARTICLES OF FAITH. Raw yet fast sonic texture of full speedcore mayhem. No hesitation, non-stop straight-ahead hardcore. Nasty, gritty output coming from these mutants from Chicago.
Debut release from Victoria, BC’s WHITE COLLAR. Nasty-sounding anti-capitalist tracks from the city of the newly dead. Aside from the UNITED MUTATION vibes and perhaps some influences borrowed from the Crass Records and Riot City catalogs, it’s also reminiscent of ’80s Montreal mutants CAPITALI$T ALIENATION. WHITE COLLAR not only sounds pissed-off, but reminds us of the ugly realities of our society.
In these post-everything times where there seems to be less and less room for truly idiosyncratic expressions, it is very pleasing to realize that there are still people playing with the space-time equation of underground music history, not to simply recreate greatness lost under the weight of memory, but to found new lineages of sound. Iowa’s WHY BOTHER? is just such a band, with a lo-fi sound that takes certain melodic ideas from late ’80s indie music (HÜSKER DÜ) and classic Midwestern punk, mixed with melancholic poppy hooks and, in this case, lyrics about unsolved murder. The result is shattering, an album full of instant left-of-the-dial anthems, with layers of synth that create eerie atmospheres for what is essentially a kind of mutant garage rock album. I read somewhere that WHY BOTHER? doesn’t play live, but I hope they keep producing music of this quality forever.
The first thirty seconds of this cassette might lead you to think that you’re in store for some doomy stoner rock, which is most assuredly not the case. Instead, WILLFUL DISOBEDIENCE plays fast and aggravated punk rock with bouncing bass lines and shouted vocals. There does seem to be a subtle metal influence creeping in, but I think it’s just the way the drummer uses a china cymbal to accent certain parts. The song “Butthole to Butthole” inexplicably sounds like a DWARVES B-side and detracts from a release that otherwise seems to have fairly thoughtful lyrical content. All in all, this isn’t terrible, but it’s hard to commend something so average in a time when there are multitudinous bands pushing the boundaries of what punk can sound like.
With maybe the best emotional/melodic hardcore band name ever, WITH ARMS STILL EMPTY puts out all twenty songs from their tenure of 1998 to 2002; the sweet spot of the genre. Think of bands like DEATH BY STEREO, THRICE, DROWNINGMAN—fast, technical guitar riffs, probably a drum kit with a million pieces, call-and-response screamo vocals that shift into sung harmonies, you know the deal. I can only digest this type of music in small doses, indulging my angsty inner teen, so listening to the whole discography in one shot was a bit of a slog. But for fans of the genre, and the band, who apparently had a good run in their heyday throughout the Midwest, this may land as an important piece of history. Again, I think they really nailed the band name, and the songs are just as good, with titles like “Even With Warrior Screams,” “Every Goddamned Butterfly,” and “Lunar Fuck, ”and while I may be laughing, you know these dudes were dead serious. Jump in with both feet or pass on by.
This album is a documentation of a gig played in Jarocin, Poland in 1985 by ZBOMBARDOWANA LALECZKA. Raw anarcho-punk merges into the hardcore lane without signaling, occasional psychedelic guitar fills a small gap in time, and you’ll find yourself bouncing to the primitive but tight rhythm section. The spirit of a “live” performance carries through on the recording and gives the songs a presence of a time and a place. At times it’s possible to hear the kick drum reverberate with the walls of the club as the crowd stomps and shouts along. ZBOMBARDOWANA LALECZKA created a style of punk that jams hard, unafraid to explore repetition, without getting too noodly, which makes for great background music or a full-on listening experience.
Four songs recorded by members of ZLODZIEJE ROWEROW, APRIL, and OREIRO as a tribute to their friend who passed away in the summer of 2020. Rather than write some songs of their own, they chose to play some VERBAL ASSAULT and SERENE songs and record their own lyrics. I can only guess that perhaps these were among some of their fallen friend’s favorite songs and the lyrics are in remembrance of them. The songs are sung in German so I’m just assuming here, but the last line of the last song is sung in English with the words being “We say goodbye,” so I’m pretty sure that it’s a safe bet that I’m right. All in all, it’s a cool way to honor a friend.
First release from Grand Rapids, Michigan’s ØBVIOUS APPROACH. Five songs split between two 7” discs, all with really long titles, like the opener “…No, It’s My Face! It’s Like Your Face is Made Up of 1 Million Tiny Versions of My Face,” delivering a moody, poppy blend as if you smashed MXPX and AFI together. Generally, a clean and well-polished recording, with strained-to-crooned vocals over tom-happy drums, breaking way into pick-sliding guitar chugs. Catchy, poppy, melancholic, self-described as “dumbestic punk.” Did these guys grow up listening to the Warped Tour CDs? If you did, and are hungry for more, check out Pre-Rhetoric.
This is a cool one: punk from Tel Aviv sung entirely in Hebrew. JARADA plays tough and heavy hardcore songs about the oppressive system they live in, and boy, do they seem pissed. Each and every song here is angrier than the next, and rightfully so! These guys are living in a world of corrupt police, religious extremism, and general apathy towards it all. Sound familiar? Loud, fast, and hard is the name of the game sonically, each song pummeling forward with crunchy riffs and hoarse vocals, and even though I don’t understand the language, I can understand loud and clear what these guys are expressing in songs like “Inertia,” or the excellently titled “Tear Down the Settlements and Sentence Their Leaders.” If you like your music politically minded and desperate, check this out.
