Crunchy hardcore from Hamburg, Germany that mainly stays in the mid-tempo zone, with straightforward riffs and vocals that alternate between shouting and the scratchiest of scratchy screaming. Definitely enough power and enthusiasm here to drive a circle pit, but not sure if it totally comes across is this rehearsal studio recording. “Hugs Till I Die” is a pretty excellent name for a hardcore song.
Croatia’s NAILED IN offer some pissed, fast hardcore on their Shovel LP, taking clear influence from other pissed-off fast hardcore such as INFEST and the early ’80s Boston bands. If you’re into that type of stuff, then you should dig this slab a fair amount. It doesn’t quite grasp this reviewer as much as it should, but I do like it and would recommend it a listen.
NUEVA GENERACIÓN kicks off this split with two mid-tempo songs that walk the line between almost sliding into pop punk territory, but are just a bit too dark and slow to fully cross that line, “whoa-oh”s aside. BETTER OFF DEAD also contributes two songs which are faster and more upbeat than the songs on the NUEVA GENERACIÓN side, with a dueling female/male vocal combo that works together well. While both bands don’t take a similar approach to styles, the contrast works well.
Taking their debut EP title from Dirty Harry’s legendary “Do ya feel lucky, punk?” speech, Zagreb’s RULES offers up six tracks of appropriately misanthropic, beefy mid-tempo hardcore in a post-Feel the Darkness vein. Shades of heavy hitters like CAUSTIC CHRIST and LONG KNIFE appear throughout, especially in the world-weary, angry vocals and the hard work the bassist does driving the band. There are some interesting melodic guitar flourishes along the way, with “Empty Minds, Talking Mouths” having a particularly interesting, nearly jazzy finish, emphasized but the drummer’s backbeat swing. The super generic, indie rock-style packaging does this record no favors in a crowded marketplace but this is worth tracking down if you dig the aforementioned bands for sure.
Prague’s ANTISOCIAL SKILLS spit out ten tracks of mid-tempo HC that has no right to be as catchy as it is, absolutely reeking of youth, hopelessness, and occasionally series of blasts just to remind you that they can kick into gear when they’re not doing the snotty teen thing. Though a fair bit too melodic for my taste, even someone as misery-guts as myself can acknowledge that this band could easily destroy a house show with this kinda energy, real foot-tapping shit. It’s RULES on the other side of this record, hailing from Zagreb, Croatia, who perplex me. We go from songs that barely scrape the two-minute mark to the five-minute, borderline noise rock of TRANSIENT CARE? The tempo amps up considerably after this, a kind of raw HC crossed with some of the weirder shit on Amphetamine Reptile Records with screeching noise rock coming through with every twist of the guitar in this. It grew and grew on me, especially the harsh, slightly deeper vocals. Highly recommended.
Following their first album in 2018, JARADA comes back with this one-sided 12″ with eight hardcore punk, raw, chaotic, aggressive gem songs. This Tel Aviv band makes us feel the struggle to live in hostile territory, and brings us a cultural and political debate in their lyrics, both in Hebrew or English. If you like bands like EXIT ORDER and ARMS RACE, you should definitely listen to them.
