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The LOONS, led by Mike Stax of Ugly Things magazine, present four cover songs on this EP. As is to be expected, the songs are expertly and authentically performed. Included are songs by the UNRELATED SEGMENTS, the SECOND HELPING, 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS, and the BUSH. Another fun release in Back to Beat’s Moody Garage series.
Heavy powerviolence/hardcore from Portland, Maine’s MISERY WHIP, not to be confused with the death metal band of the same name from Portland, Oregon (wait, what’s going on here?). This eight-song cassette has both previously released singles “Misery Whip” and “Dissent,” the latter having a really brutal breakdown that screams “You are a piece of shit!” Check out the absolutely ferocious “Empty Words” for a good sample of the band. This reminds me of G.L.O.S.S. but darker in its lyrics and imagery. Accept the whip, take a listen.
Alright mates, I’m not going to mince my words here, this is truly complete and utter shite. Four dads who clearly are old enough to know better writing plodding, mewling, anodyne bollocks for the benefit of absolutely no one. Where they get the sheer brass neck to try and compare this to the RAMONES or MOTÖRHEAD is beyond yours truly, because the only thing I can even begin to suggest they have in common is that they all own guitars. Avoid this like diphtheria.
The opening of “Wake Up” reminds me a lot of THATCHER ON ACID, but then the sounds shift into a guitar-forward production that sounds like a slightly downtuned UNDERTONES or even BUZZCOCKS. A heavy infusion of pop, but with a fully punk rock delivery. Lead singer and guitarist Steve Drewett wears his anarcho-syndicalist badge proudly with lyrics about working class problems and the failings of our public education systems. “Get Up and Fight” is a resistance song that outlines methods of struggle that are as equally crucial now as when the song was originally written. In all, this disc plays like a really pissed-off BILLY BRAGG or JOE STRUMMER.
I don’t know what to think about this one. I love and have a lot of respect for what Sealed Records put out. The label makes popular classic anarcho-punk records (from the ICONOCLAST, ZOUNDS, or RUDIMENTARY PENI) finally available again to the grateful punters, giving lesser-known/underrated but absolutely brilliant and crucial ’80s bands like TOXIC WASTE or KARMA SUTRA the reissue treatment at the same time. Clearly a work of passion and good taste I really relate to. But I was a little surprised to see this ORGANIZED CHAOS album. Not that the band is bad—they did play enjoyable enough political, snotty UK punk that makes you want to drink cheap cider and spike your hair (assuming you have any), but they can hardly be said to be as classic or memorable as the rest of the label’s catalogue, although they may have been very relevant in their area at the time (would that make them a ‘’local classic” band’’?). They sound like a mix of ACTIVES, LUNATIC FRINGE, and STUPID HUMANS (the band had a connection with Bluurg Records, actually), if you need points of comparison. If you are a massive fan of British anarcho-punk and undeterred by sloppiness in punk music in general, you should buy the thing, and the amount of work put into the huge booklet is worth supporting in any case, as Still Having Fun is as much a piece of our collective history as it is a record. However, if you are not a completist or an undiscerning fan like myself, I don’t think ORGANIZED CHAOS will impress you much. There are some decent sing-along numbers like ‘’H-bomb Wars,’’ but on the whole it is pretty typical and generic, neither really tuneful enough to be really memorable nor energetic and furious enough to really stand out. I want to like this more than I do.
I had no idea what to expect going into this release. The cover’s aesthetic suggested something somber and self-serious—maybe metal, or worse, metalcore—and the cassette title, which translates to “rejection,” gave me a very late ’90s vibe, really increasing my concern that this was going to be metalcore. On the other hand, “Plague Dogs,” the English translation of their name, gives off more of a shit-kickin’, V-flickin’ street punk vibe. Turns out neither impression was accurate. Not exactly, at least. This trio from Zapopan (a large city on the edge of the even larger Guadalajara), plays something in between melodic hardcore and post-hardcore, and this ten-song cassette appears to be their official debut. The music isn’t a million miles away from early HOT WATER MUSIC or LEATHERFACE—you know, stuff that’s not quite hardcore, not quite pop punk, but definitely bobbing in the wake of DC’s Revolution Summer. These songs are lower-fi than either of those acts, giving the recording a punker sheen, and, while it would be a stretch to say this is street punk, you’re getting that same sort of energy from the tuneless gang vocal shout-alongs. It’s not bad, and it’s a pleasant enough listen. But, aside from a few head-scratching detours they take in the opening track—some weird ANIMAL COLLECTIVE coos and space rock guitar flourishes—there isn’t a whole lot here that really makes the release stand out.
Hungarian synth punk that is equal parts fun and gross. These five tracks double-dribble with punk energy, errant sine waves, and unintelligible vocals. The title track sounds like CHERRY CHEEKS layered with an ’80s War on Drugs PSA sound collage. “Get Off My Ass!” captures the catchy joy of the SPITS with rougher vocals, and “N.SZ.K.O.” has some serious pop hooks under the hood, like a bubblegum hit played at 78 RPM. “Whippit” delivers POWER FLOWER’s version of a ballad with noisy chimes, battling electronics, and a rubber ball bass line. I accidentally did a whippit a few days ago—I’m not into inhalants, but I love whipped cream. Be careful when sucking on that can! This is a cool rip through crunchy synth land with infectious results.
The debut LP from North Carolina’s PUBLIC ACID is getting some well-deserved love from the dependable La Vida Es Un Mus label. Originally released in a limited run of 300 copies in 2018, this is a welcome reissue of a straight banger that showcases the band’s twisted take on brutal Japanese hardcore and the speedy, primal poisonings of Italian bands like WRETCHED. It’s a corroded carnival of feedback, buzzsaw guitars, scathing rapid-fire drum beats, and distorted echo vocals, chewing the ears from start to finish. The intense fun doesn’t let up, and when it’s done, I’m instantly compelled to play it again—the mark of a classic.
Four-song demo of synth-supplemented, garage-y hardcore from Boston. Red-faced hollering over revved-up riffs isn’t breaking new ground, but it never goes out of style, either.
Always keep an ear perked for what’s happening in Hattiesburg. There’s been heaps of top-tier punk coming out of there for ages, and this ferocious quintet is no exception. This band hits hard with a grim touch that almost calls to mind DARKTHRONE’s more recent bizarro ’80s output. That’s not to say this is True Mississippi Black Metal, it’s fully its own brand of frenzied hardcore, but it’s coming from a far left field that makes it crushing and crucial. Don’t miss it.
Here comes a new band from Richmond, a town that has had a lot of solid hardcore bands for the past few years (something in the water, I suppose). I am not sure I totally get the recent floral obsession in American punk bands but a compilation with POLLEN, ALLERGY, FLOWER, and SPORE would be ace. Maybe as a benefit for a local garden centre? I had never heard of SPORE before this review, and Rabid Intent is a lovely little ripper and, impressively, the band’s first endeavour into the studio. My favourite thing about SPORE is the supremely angry, harsh, and powerful crusty-sounding female vocals. Fuck me. I am a massive sucker for female-fronted käng-flavoured hardcore, and these songs sound like you are being grabbed by the collar and shouted at for twelve minutes straight, which in real life would be pretty traumatizing but is exactly what you want from a furious hardcore punk band. It would not be wrong to claim that käng hardcore is SPORE’s primary source of inspiration (especially the modern TOTALITÄR-inspired bands and PARANOID as well), but I am hearing a lot of American hardcore as well, especially with the numerous tempo changes and the breaks, so that Rabid Intent often sounds like a US hardcore band having a go at Swedish hardcore rather than the opposite, which seems to be what a lot of bands, like the excellent AXE RASH, try to go for these days. The distorted guitar sound gives the material an additional aggressive edge and some nice textures, too. On the whole, this is a relentless recording with a lot of energy, although there may be a little too many changes in the songwriting for my taste (and too much reverb). I do believe the band has a lot of potential and is very promising, and we will be hearing about them in the future.
Lovely little four-song slab from Ventura, California’s SWEET REAPER. Energetic, vocal-driven power pop with such a clean guitar tone that you’d think they were playing from an original 1950s Telecaster. Vocals are very melodic, and bring to mind MARKED MEN, RADIOACTIVITY, and a slew of other Dirtnap bands. Helps warm the bones on these chilly winter nights. Great stuff.
Leading us by the hand into a grim vision of the not-too-distant-future is the excellently named T.S. WARSPITE with their first LP Stop the Rot on Quality Control HQ. Following a stellar demo from 2020, the Manchester-based outfit plays a supercharged take on early DC melodic hardcore and modern UKHC; think BAD RELIGION and DAG NASTY but also BIG CHEESE and the FLEX. Singer Marco Abbatiello’s rumbling voice serves as the narrator, taking us through the struggles of getting through the hellscape that is modern society including politics, housing issues, and impending environmental destruction. Both incredibly urgent and scathingly intelligent, we’d be wise to listen to what these guys have to say. Standouts include “Scampia,” “Redemption Arc,” and “Slum Landlord.”
A posthumous cassette of the now-defunct WARRIOR TRIBES. Fifteen tracks of relentless, no-frills hardcore punk recorded in 2017. Enough hooks to keep your attention without getting too showy. WARRIOR TRIBES wear their Chicago roots on their sleeve with a sound that could easily be compared to ARTICLES OF FAITH. Maybe throw in a dash of BATTALION OF SAINTS, but with a gruff, lower register vocalist. Repetitive, fast, and snappy riffs that never get boring, with the occasional mid-tempo, flange-heavy dirge tossed in for good measure. This is a real success and it’s a shame to hear that the tribe has fallen. I would have very much liked to have seen this band.
The title of this demo tape from Singapore’s AUTO says all you need to know—this is fast, raw, uncompromising hardcore fucking punk rock. Hardcore 2022 contains seven songs in almost as many minutes. Clearly influenced by the classic American and European hardcore bands, AUTO does a stellar job at bringing that same aggression to 2022. Initially self-released in the beginning of the year, La Vida Es Un Mus has given this rager a wider release…so what are you waiting for?
Split LP from two Central European bands hailing from Budapest and Vienna. BEROSSZULÁS (“toxic deterioration”) plays rolling pogo-beat punk that always reminded me of KURO mixed with a lot of hooks that are rather familiar from early hardcore nervous-teenager breakdowns—their songs are both buzzing and stomping. They are not falling apart anywhere at all; rather, they create and maintain a great tension that is varied with witty stretched-out solos, screaming string bends, and well-placed changes which result in a playful bounce. It’s music to shake your fist and lose your mind. Sonically, everything is identifiable—the base of the music might be reminiscent of basement raw black metal elements but it is not a cacophonic sonic warfare, you can hear the bass drawing its own territory with unusual ideas, and the few-note guitar riffs are neither drowning in overdrive, although they do not spare distortion. The whole record has a great momentum, it’s pushed all the way through by the anger of the band. BEROSSZULÁS passes through different styles and tastefully collects from each what they like to hear the most, yet it does not turn them into a showcase of unmatching gimmicks. What are they, then? A great hardcore band. On the other hand, PARASITE DREAMS from Vienna are closer to the already mentioned raw black metal that is basically a punk sort of aesthetic. In their songs, the “sounds coming from next door” effect (which blocks the in-your-face power of the tracks) and the noticeably different recording quality compared to the other side of the record both break the cohesion of the split. They put more effort into creating an atmosphere, building it with intros, outros, and extended tracks where the guitar keeps playing while the drums rest. Mostly mid-tempo, sometimes even slower, each song is built from a catchy primitive riff and very minimalist drums. The vocals change between distant screams and monotone speak-singing. It’s interesting when they turn to a rather atmospheric sound that does not recall tree-hugging metal but vicious post-punk. The big dilemma here is how much a different mixing would butcher their core idea. On the other hand, they are determined to have everything as they imagined and that should be respected. In this current age, attention is at stake, so listening to PARASITE DREAMS could be a good challenge to train your focus, because when attention is paid they are pretty entertaining, but they also easily slip into being background noise. Without the usual dilemma of splits, this is a great record—if you like ugly, nasty hardcore, then check it out.
As a teenager growing up in the Midwest during the first half of the 1990s, it’s perhaps unsurprising that I enjoyed the rock band TAR. TAR was a kind of emblematic middle-of-America noise rock band—they constructed their guitars from aluminum and they put out records on labels like Touch and Go and Amphetamine Reptile. But unlike, say, COWS or LAUGHING HYENAS, TAR was actually kind of a straight-ahead band, playing a sort of glum, deceptively hook-filled mid-tempo rock music. They even pulled a neat trick by having their final album, 1995’s Over and Out, be their finest work. But before TAR, most of the members learned their trade in the post-hardcore group BLATANT DISSENT. This collection LP pulls together two different recording sessions that resulted in a couple 7”s and the Hold the Fat album, and includes unreleased versions of some tracks. The first side was recorded with famed engineer Iain Burgess, who recorded many classic T&G sides, while the ’86 side is the early work of one Steve Albini, who also remastered this material from the original tapes. What’s interesting is that a lot of the 1985 material isn’t that different from the sonic trademarks of Washington, DC’s concurrent Revolution Summer scene. Even the lyrical concerns, often addressing their fellow punks, echo these sentiments. Hell, “Undermine” is practically a straightedge anthem. “Is There a Fear?” channels NAKED RAYGUN like they were born to it, while “My Hands Are Tied” opens with a PINK FLOYD-like acoustic bit before erupting into a tuneful swift kick that isn’t far removed from a late ’90s “melodic hardcore” band. “Eleven Days” shows how the band is able to give shape to the bleak, colorless days that dot the Midwestern calendar year. “How Can I Lose?” and “Status Quo” are highlights, all nervous energy and killer hooks. For obvious reasons, the 1986 sessions reveal a far tighter and more powerful band. By this point, BLATANT DISSENT had locked down its sound and it was only a matter of time until they would craft their aluminum guitars and solidify the sound of TAR.
I’m going to make up a new subgenre: Outsider Tech Death. If you can imagine kids weaned on SLIPKNOT and SYSTEM OF A DOWN who create a DIY metalcore band…that’s what we’re looking at with Florida’s C0MPUTER. It doesn’t make sense, but in the same way that JANE and SYSTRAL didn’t make sense in 1998, maybe the punks just need to grow into these sounds. Maybe the future is Outsider Tech Death. Maybe the future is C0MPUTER.
Melodic punk from Spain that is on par with most of the modern Fat Wreck/Red Scare types. It’s good for what it is and hits all the marks that a band of its flavor should hit, but for whatever reason, it just doesn’t do much for me personally. It’s not bad by any means, it’s just not interesting enough to hook me.
Melbourne, Australia five-piece that plays in a comfortable place between garage and indie. With all five members contributing to vocals, these songs keep you guessing. “Wear It Well,” and generally the female-sung tracks, remind me of contemporaries AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS, and are scrappier than the male-led songs, which have a more breezy, indie flavor. Lots of trebly guitar riffs on these longer-format songs, with plenty of instrumental breaks between verses featuring carnival keyboard lines. “Baader Meinhof” has a music video on their Bandcamp site, if you want to see these Aussies in action. It took me a few listens, but I think there’s a lot of fun stuff here.
Blistering collection of 30-second-long fastcore/crust blasts from Chiba’s DUSTPAN. I’ve come across some doses of their brand of mania before (the band has been kicking around since the early 2000s), but Out of My Mind is next-level; FLASH GORDON-caliber fury with LIFE assault and production. Might be tough to snag this one outside of Japan, but it’s well worth the effort.
Live recordings are a tough sell in the best of circumstances. I tend to avoid them, even with bands that I love. I do not love EARTH MOTHER FUCKER. They’ve apparently been around since the late ’80s, though this was my first time hearing them. IVF is a seven-song live set of bog standard angular noise rock. The bulk of the songs appear to come from the band’s early era. Maybe they sounded more inspired then. Their signature track is titled “I Fuck Therefore I Am.” Cool. This is like hearing JESUS LIZARD overdose on Ambien and boredom. Snooze.
ELLA SE PELÓ shifts musical gears throughout this record, usually at a manic pace. It’s not that thrash metal riffs, post-HC noise, or melodic hardcore are so different from one another, but the frequency with which they’re rotated here left me spinning. It felt like I was listening to a sampler of 30-second-long songs by different bands. Luckily, each of those bands was quite good. ELLA SE PELÓ is incredibly tight and executes all those riffs, breakdowns, and instrumentals with skill. Each part, however different, sounds great, if a bit brief. I would have preferred to stay with one or two styles the whole time, or for longer stretches.
A fluctuating debut EP from a Canadian four-piece that brings together what sounds like (and comes off as) unfinished song after unfinished song. This is rough, I can’t grasp any of it without pondering what the amount or type of substances consumed to produce this body of work could possibly have been. Each song becomes progressively more annoying throughout the six songs, with the climax at the end with “Your Shopping Cart Misses You.” Blag Dahlia is somewhere on this EP, but I could not make him out on any track. Bad apples.
It’s a great day when I get to hear an unknown (to me) 1980s USHC band, especially from the South, in an age when dug-up material that’s better off unheard is spewed all over the internet daily like rancid old discharge (not the band). I immediately recognized “My World” from my well-worn-out copy of the Party or Go Home comp. Everything else here is new to me, not being from Richmond, VA, where they reigned for a good year or so (a long time in teen ’80s hardcore years). They have a lot in common with bands from the era like WHITE CROSS, NO ROCK STARS, or HONOR ROLE—GRAVEN IMAGE’s half of a ’82 split tape with the latter called Your Skull is My Bowl! (best title) is included here. You also get their Kicked Out of the Scene EP, as well as some unheard gems from each session. Shit. If you’re really feeling it, the band has a live set on their own page for your listening pleasure, and there’s a really good article out there on the tragic demise and death of their singer Dwayne Curd if you search for it. Thanks once again to Beach Impediment for the education and just for bringin’ it.
Vinyl reissue of their limited 2019 tour cassingle (which, if you’re keeping score, was issued thrice for a total edition of 560 copies). And it’s quite the upgrade! Despite the waning popularity of the 7”, I gotta imagine this would still be the preferred format over a two-song tape. Plus, this art looks great blown up, and you’re getting a hilariously unnecessary lyric sheet! This initially came out between 2018’s self-titled LP and 2020’s Use Me EP, and it definitely sounds like it. HANK’s still rapping, but he’s getting further away from the early ’70s JAMES BROWN-aping of that LP and closer to that Anthony Kiedis patter you got on the EP. “You Could Have It,” with its motorik, loud/quiet groove and searing but tuneful guitars, sounds like a more profane and anti-social EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING. It’s great! “I’d Rather Be With Me” sounds like it could have plucked off their 2018 LP, except it’s got this odd, atmospheric, almost indie rock guitar running through it. It reminds me a little of MODEST MOUSE’s “Float On”…which I don’t think I mean as a negative. In any case, HANK WOOD AND THE HAMMERHEADS are one of the most important acts of the past decade, and this release is accordingly essential.
Noisy without being noise music, overtly political without being preachy, Brooklyn’s HYSTERIC POLEMIX’s demo cassette reminds me of CRASS’s Penis Envy as filtered through post-punk. Danceable bass lines abound on this recording while the flanged guitar soars around. “Urtication” and “Saturn Square Uranus” are both sung in Portuguese, which seemingly increases the impassioned vocalizations.
IVY GREEN was a bunch of teenage punks from the Netherlands. The A-side was written by their singer in 1972 when he was fourteen years old. He got the band together a few years later, forming one of the first Dutch punk bands. “I’m Sure We’re Gonna Make It (Wap Shoo Wap)” was originally released as a one-sided single in 1978. It’s a snarly, attitude-filled joyride. This reissue has a second side—“Pak ‘m Beet” is a wild song on 45 for the first time, and the only one the band ever sang in their native language. This is worth it for that alone, but both songs are fantastic. You need this reissue.
This eight-track cassette is filled with twenty-three minutes of gloomy metalpunk from Helsinki, Finland. Heavy metal-infused punk with sludgy cadences and deep smoky vibes—the vocals are anger-filled and sickly crazy, the guitar riffage is mental, and the bass lines resemble a consistent hammer. All of these aspects combine efficiently to create a vibe of their own, a great effort that achieves a unique sound for the band. ”Vannoharha” and “Pirulukee Pyhää Kirjaa” are my suggested tracks, the first one for its crazy drums and “predator hunt experience” sound, and for the sick bass lines in the latter. Helsinki’s metalpunk is alive and well.
I would recommend blasting this one on a Monday morning—which is exactly what I am doing now, perhaps against my better judgement—as, not only will it wake you up efficiently if abruptly, but it will allow you to mentally pogo your way to Christmas and make the week more bearable. Iron Lung has been very busy in 2022 with no less than 27 new releases (which is more than the average number of baths a French person takes in a year), and LEXICON’s LP would be my favourite of the bunch. This Seattle band is seriously ferocious and relentless. The most immediately striking things about this work lie in the contagious energy of the songs, and the level of distortion which one would rightly associate with classic Kyushu noise punk or modern crasher hardcore—saying that LEXICON’s sound is close to ZYANOSE covering GAI in D-CLONE’s practice space is not irrelevant. However, in terms of songwriting and structures, I think LEXICON is significantly closer to USHC than they are to an Osaka distortion fest, especially since the music is crust-free (perhaps bands like NERVESKADE or SEX DWARF should come into the equation). I suppose Devoid of Light would probably appeal to all hardcore crowds, and the implacable intensity and furiousness make up for the work’s relative shortness and lack of really catchy hooks (I’m being picky here). I love the vocals as I think they convey seething anger very well, and they remind me of Jorge’s from the CASUALTIES, which I am sure is not what LEXICON’s singer was going for but there you go. A solid ear-splitting hardcore release with brilliant punk-as-fuck artwork, too. Europe soon?
I don’t know about the rest of you, but power pop has always struck me as one of the most “dangerous” forms of music—even more so than hardcore and the like. Something about a bunch of tatted-up dudes having the confidence to play sugary-sweet rock’n’roll has one hell of an edge. Lovely album from this NYC quartet. Very reminiscent of EXPLODING HEARTS and EDDIE AND THE HOT RODS, especially with the vocals. They’re not reinventing the wheel here, but the songs are catchy as all hell and the guitars sound great with crisp, soaring riffs. Makes me nostalgic for my younger years, wandering the streets of Chicago after a couple drinks.
Industrial dance punk from L.A. Skittery tech beats, slogan lyrics, chirping synths, and news clips about war and societal collapse put this somewhere between a DIY MINISTRY and a less brutal L.O.T.I.O.N. These five churning tracks would work on a club floor or a punk dive equally well, and sound like a call-back to the ’80s Wax Trax! sound with their earnest lyrics and everything-to-the-front production. The lyric and delivery of “Who’s laughing now? / That’s what I thought” from “Perleche” would fit a vintage NINE INCH NAILS song. It’s a very particular era and sound to base your band around, but NEOCONS do it well. Check it out if you’re pissed but still wanna dance.
Of course PHIL & THE TILES are from Naarm (so-called “Melbourne”). The debut EP from this six-piece(!!) is like a Stars on 45-style romp through the city’s 21st century musical underground, from jaunty janglers like TERRY and PRIMO!, to smart-assed neo-FALL twang (the SHIFTERS, most obviously), to TOTAL CONTROL/CONSTANT MONGREL downer punk…the TILES are young enough to cite teenage show-going experiences seeing bands like EDDY CURRENT SUPPRESSION RING as formative influences, and their mashup of ragged garage and pointed post-punk definitely feels like a Gen Z throwback to that particular moment in time (like, 2006–2010). “Health/Body” starts out with some jabbing, single-note guitar over a tumbling tom-heavy rhythm before bursting into a frantic synth punk stomp with dueling male/female vocals like an Aussie ANGRY ANGLES, while the janky keyboard buzz and shambolic motorik groove of “Elixir” is clearly chasing after the UV RACE. On the B-side, “Nun’s Dream” is a modern OZ DIY reboot of the unabashed pop songs that Brix Smith brought to the mid-’80s FALL table (think “Cruiser’s Creek,” “2×4,” “Shoulder Pads,” etc.), and “Trepanation” could almost be an early Flying Nun band gone goth, with steady tambourine shake, gauzy, dissolving synth, chorused-out guitar, and lyrics wallowing in depths of human misery that would put the SMITHS to shame (“I want to vomit so I don’t have to cry anymore”). I can only imagine how much ground they’ll cover if they follow this thing up with a full LP…
To me, this sounds like DEAD TO ME meets MARKED MEN with vocals sung in Swedish. Pretty good. It’s catchy, kinda lo-fi sounding, toe-tappin’ stuff. Definitely worth a spin or two!
Punk from Perth? Sign me up, always! This is righteous and rage-filled, with densely-penned and poetic lyrics delivered masterfully by vocalist Ange. There is an intimacy only harder driven home by the fearsome playing, especially on tracks like “Integrity” with perfect turns of phrase like “I’m a chronic committer, but I want to quit you.” While everything feels incredibly personal, there is a political fire in this band’s belly as well, serving rallying cries for bodily autonomy and against neoliberalism, crypto, and the climate crisis, while always tying it back to the heart. Overall, this cassette feels like an above-average, sophisticated exploration of big world ideas through a small and focused lens. The results are dizzyingly good.
A limited-run reissue of these first-wave Portland punkers’ sole release. Produced by Greg Sage, you can definitely hear the WIPERS influence in the thick, fuzzy guitar tone and power chord-charged songs. Ramalama riffs and rants about Russia, it should be an instant grab for the KBD collectors out there.
Thanks to TODD KILLINGS & THE CONTRACTS, I’m now aware of the proud Vancouver punk pastime of “fuck bands,” or bands with members swapping instruments and opening for themselves at shows, playing joke songs that were more than occasionally actually very good. You see, at the time, the scene was so small that there weren’t enough bands to play opening slots at shows. Thus, the “fuck band” was born. Inspired by this tradition, (I’ve) Got Your Contract was recorded by Josh and Pat of CHAIN WHIP during COVID lockdown with minimal takes to keep it raw, and it sounds great. You can clearly hear the pent-up energy of two punks having a good time without giving themselves many restraints. Fun and rowdy pogo-punk, for fans of Killed By Death comps and rare punk 45s, this will be a fun discovery for crate diggers in the future.
Had the pleasure of booking a show for UTOPIE a while ago in this tiny vegan restaurant, and they completely tore the place apart. Such a powerful band that delivers both in a live setting and on wax. The best way to describe the sound that this French powerhouse makes is “cold punk.” The mix perfectly encapsulates what this band is capable of. A cold night walk home comes to mind when listening to these tracks, a mixture of post-punk, dark punk, and even a bit of Oi! Includes a great adaptation of “Ghost Town” by the SPECIALS, here renamed “Ville Fantôme.” A must for late-night trips.
This one is heavy for all of the right and all of the wrong reasons. Active in the 2000s, Philadelphia’s WORSHIPER created a misanthropic cacophony that would make fans of UNSANE, 16, and BUZZOV•EN swoon, and offer a wake-up jab to fans of UOA, SLEEPING BODY, and other pillars of ’90s DIY discordance. Fronted by Mike Parry’s vocals that sound like rusty razor blades desperately trying to saw through stone walls, their controlled chaos translates to the recorded medium in a way that makes it clear you’re only getting a small taste of how massive and overwhelming the live experience must have been. But while the sounds are heavy, the context is devastating. After years of struggle that contributed to the dissolution of the band, To Binge and Purge in LA was given a new life by friends of Mike’s after his relapse and overdose in 2021. A six-song tribute to a friend, to a band. A six-song release dedicated to a release from pain and benefiting people still fighting through it. Without the context, WORSHIPER’s posthumous release comes highly recommended. But when you take everything in, it feels cathartic and necessary.
What the fuck is going on with Roachleg Records? It feels as if the label has a secret laboratory where they hold each of their bands in a dirty basement where they have been conditioned or animated to play such amazing punk music, and then sometimes vanish as fast as they have appeared. Either they have a great scouting agent, or they have created a scene where bands with the craziest ideas and obvious love for obscure punk can be free and fuck everything up. ACID CHILDREN fits perfectly into this scene. Lo-fi freak sound, drums mimicking when two metal sheets are slapped together by drunk kids, the not-always-on-rhythm beats mixing well with the rusty-sounding guitars, and the rest of the sound based on constant collapsing, as if the different parts were thrown together and still merged perfectly. When fast, when slow, the pace connects to the people—it has that human element I always look for; it always feels natural, and within such an environment we can witness the ups and downs of a psychedelic trip. Those fucked-up solos, the bit of black metal-ish tone in the vocals, the chaotic fast parts, the melting-apart breaks. This is great thrashing freak music. Each song is over two minutes, which is something I am always picky about, but here the four songs rather sound like eight different ones—that much shit is happening, or that is how easy it is to listen to. Super interested in whether they will continue and make more greater, stranger records. If not, then in twenty years, Roachleg will be this cult classic label having their tapes going for triple-digit prices. Be smart, get their tapes now.
I wanted so badly to like this. On paper, ÄNI(X)VÄX (which is apparently code for “animal vaccination”) are legendary. Birthed from the fertile mid-’80s German punk scene, stories abound of post-gig punks-versus-police street fights, and something referred to as the “Odeon Pizza Battle of 1988.” Sick! Despite appearances on a handful of comps, they were unable to release any records during their five-year lifespan. That gives them mystique. One of their guitar players is named Fast Gonzo! What’s not to like!? Cue the first song…of the thirteen tracks on Schock und Drama, six are studio recordings and seven are live takes from various shows. Obviously, the sound quality is not going to be the best on some of the live tunes. That’s not the issue. What it really boils down to is that the songs are just not that interesting. It’s your basic four-chord, mid-tempo boilerplate punk. Sloppy but lacking chaos, the tracks overstay their welcome by being too repetitive. The vocalist has an uninspired sing-the-riff delivery that doesn’t hold my attention the way that the pictures and stories of the band do. To be fair, nothing here is egregious or even bad, but the mediocrity makes the disappointment somehow worse. ÄNI(X)VÄX, as represented here, just doesn’t compare to the heavyweights of the era. If you are interested in Deutschpunk, check out VORKRIEGSJUGEND’s excellent 1983 EP Heute Spass, Morgen Tod, INFERNO’s The Son of God EP from ’85, or the Let’s Have More Fun compilation on which ÄNI(X)VÄX appears. As a historical document, Schock und Drama is quite fascinating. I’m glad that it exists. It’s just a shame that the music falls short.
From the start, Tiempo Vacio sets BOSQUE ROJO up for greatness. This power trio from Montreal plays post-punk that leans more towards the punk side of the spectrum, but done in a perfect manner. They definitely have a gloomy aura about them that sometimes gets mixed with some Oi!-style hooks, and the vocals in Spanish just add to the dramatic and urgent effect. Like a darker version of the WIPERS. An essential record for 2022.
Whatever anyone’s feelings are toward “old-head punk” or this release, one has to admire three former hardcore kids for regrouping years later to create something ultimately quite modern that doesn’t feel out of touch by today’s standards. While I initially expected this to be undoubtedly indebted by early ’80s American bands such as AGRESSION or whatever, their influences range all over the place, from ’90s chug-core alluding to the likes of the Victory Records catalogue to…reggae? What the fuck, indeed. Albeit, I’ll admit I really enjoyed some parts of it, given I wasn’t expecting to at all. However, while “old guy” punk is always going to be hit or miss, by the standards of today’s releases, this isn’t something I will go back to frequently.
Reissue of the 1985 full-length from this German no wave crew—Thurston Moore is apparently a big fan, even claiming that SONIC YOUTH was inspired by CAMPINGSEX, but the admiration was almost certainly mutual; 1914! came out two years after Confusion is Sex (which might as well be the lost-in-translation origin of CAMPINGSEX’s bizarre band name), and it’s a similarly harrowing trip through a shaking hell. Industrial terror-clang rhythms nicked from EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN and filthy BIRTHDAY PARTY-descended bass grind beneath stern, ranting vocals that frequently lapse into distressed primal screams, channeling the bombed-out urban decay and no-future nihilism of Cold War-era Berlin into a series of eight howling, pitch-black post-punk dirges. But much like with mid-’80s SONIC YOUTH, there’s some gnarled moments of melody to be found lurking within CAMPINGSEX’s fucked-up feedback sprawls—the male/female trade-off backing shouts intersecting with Max Müller’s raw, unraveling vocals in “Schließ Die Tür,” or the almost sing-song break toward the end of “Liebe” where the guitar squall briefly drops out, or the Peter Hook-styled bass run that launches the droning bile-spew of “Guten Morgen.” Brutal and brutalist.
The sound of the new wave of Oi!—the CHISEL and MESS are leaders of the pack, and this is a perfect snapshot of some of the best of what this genre has to offer. MESS fares excellently on their side with “Don’t Look Back” and “I Don’t Like You,” the former proper BLITZ-worship and the latter a catchy belter with some nice BUZZCOCKS-style guitars. The CHISEL’S contributions are fantastic as always with “Keep it Schtum,” a hard one that reminds me of something off their first EP Deconstructive Surgery, and “Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet,” their catchiest and most celebratory since “Not the Only One.” Don’t be a square, shave your head and listen to this!
In 1986, a crusty nuclear bomb hit the punk scene. A gloomy fascination with the darkest of punk (at the time) in the form of AMEBIX and ANTISECT, plus some bits and pieces of thrash and death metal, gave birth to a subgenre that still stinks (pun intended) to this day: stenchcore. Thirty-six years later, Terminal Filth Stench-Core, the classic demo by DEVIATED INSTINCT, gets a proper vinyl issue via Agipunk in partnership with Terminal Filth Records (run by bass player Snapa), featuring new artwork from Mid and remastered by Bri Doom of DOOM fame. A solid classic stenchcore demo that stinks all over, but in a good way.
Debut LP from Los Angeles’s DIMBER. This sounds like if the lead singer of COHEED AND CAMBRIA started a melodic pop punk band, and was serious about it. Introspective, confessional lyrics, so that, with their style in mind, we get…an emo band? On the other hand, in a track like “Tyler” (featuring a different vocalist, I believe), I hear something closer to college rock, à la the DESCENDENTS. If you need an outlet for your sass and angst, here it is! The cover of “Better Off Alone” is hilarious and surprising, and made the whole thing worth it for me.
Tough-as-nails hardcore from Indonesia. There’s a lot to like here. Stripped-down, concise songwriting with no time for bullshit or solos. A UK82 influence rears its head on tracks like “Torture Dance” and “Scum.” They must really know how to pogo in West Borneo! Cliches be damned, you can judge this record by its cover; the artwork by Renaldy Armanda is sick. The slow, mosh-y dirge of “Fool” doesn’t appeal to me, but it is the shortest of the five songs at least. All around, this is a solid release. Well worth checking out.
Mid-’90s UK crust was a huge part of my interest in the heavier spectrums of punk rock as I was finishing up school and entering a world where I really made my own decisions for the most part. This scene of music, including the Bradford 1 in 12 Club and Flat Earth Records, was very formidable for me lyrically, culturally, stylistically, and musically. HELLKRUSHER, EXCREMENT OF WAR, DOOM, ENT, CONCRETE SOX, EXTINCTION OF MANKIND…all a huge deal to me. Okay, enough about me. I haven’t even started listening to this yet! Objectively, Baptised in Shit is a walloping heavy crust album. Dirgelike, epic, D-beaten, metallically riffed crust punk. It reeks of bitter pessimism, channeling earlier UK bands such as ANITSECT, ICONS OF FILTH, STONE THE CROWZ, NAPALM DEATH, and AMEBIX, and certainly pulls inspiration from European thrash metal from about a decade earlier such as ONSLAUGHT and CELTIC FROST. There are also peace punk moments reminiscent of OI POLLOI, LIBERTY, or OMEGA TRIBE. It is not the fastest of their ilk, but it flows and is immersive. If you’ve never checked out this debut album, now is your chance to get a good deal. This remastered reissue really brings out the metal guitar tones and rolling drum moments. INSTINCT OF SURVIVAL, VISIONS OF WAR, GUIDED CRADLE, even EFFIGY and HELLSHOCK really would not stand out as they do today without a nod to albums like this one.
Now we’re talking. Originally released in 1984, this short-lived Long Island act expressed their sound on a demo which is all killer, no filler, just true outrageous early American fastcore. While a little bit late to the game, it’s brilliant that this demo finally sees the light of day with a wider audience in HC thanks to the internet. Ultimately, what comes to mind is other contemporaries who were perhaps a bit earlier than them such as the MOB (NY), but more so, you can see where influence from acts such as the ABUSED came in with slower, trudging guitar sections that we would all come to know as “mosh parts,” so it’s sick to see bands in Long Island getting influenced by that as early as this. However, the vocalist really reminds me of Sab Grey from IRON CROSS meets the madness and franticness of Springa or Jackal from YDI, which is just awesome. Go listen to this.
