Reviews

For review and radio play consideration:

Please send vinyl (preferred), CD, or cassette releases to MRR, PO Box 3852, Oakland, CA 94609, USA. Maximum Rocknroll wants to review everything that comes out in the world of underground punk rock, hardcore, garage, post-punk, thrash, etc.—no major labels or labels exclusively distributed by major-owned distributors, no reviews of test pressings or promo CDs without final artwork. Please include contact information and let us know where your band is from!

The Adamseed Dancing With Urban Folk Devils CD

This album starts out with some weird noise intro, then launches into some fairly bland rock music. For some reason, I’m compelled to compare this to something akin to SHELTER ditching hardcore in favor of becoming a generic alterna-rock band. Not my particular cup of tea, but I would offer one piece of advice to the folks in ADAMSEED: the internet can be your friend. Use it to your advantage. When searching for any info on this band, it turns out they have zero internet presence, at least as far as I could tell.

Asylum Is This the Price? EP

ASYLUM was an English punk band of short existence. Hailing from the harsh industrial environment of the Midlands, they played a few gigs, recorded a demo tape, and some of their tracks were released on compilations.  Now, you can hear for the first time on vinyl that semi-legendary demo, originally released in 1982 by Retaliation Records. What do we have here?  Six devastating tracks. Basically, it’s the blueprint of the sound of worldwide noisecore (especially Japanese) and extreme music in general: a magmatic mix of ultra-distorted guitars, fuzz-drowned bass, chaotic drums, and desperate, disembodied screams focused on personal and political lyrics. It’s beautiful. Mandatory listening.

Badhabit Detroit 1980–1981 LP

Music-obsessed teenagers from the suburbs of Detroit dream of being in a band, and BADHABIT is formed before anyone knows how to play an instrument. A few years later they are playing Detroit clubs and ultimately take off to New York to record some songs. Those songs are included here, along with one song recorded live in Cincinnati. Their sound is a combination of heavy Motor City proto-punk and poppy punk, with an occasional English accent popping up on a couple of songs. Fantastically naïve and overconfident. I bet “Political Men” was their crowd-pleaser. “The only good politician is a dead politician / Oh yeah.” The songs are really good, but the recording needs a little oomph. Even still, it’s great to hear.

Billy & the Bad Peach Juiced cassette

These guys do a nice post-punk, slightly noisy thing that at its best reminds me of the CUNTZ or even KILSLUG. They’re from Philly and have been around for a minute. Having the luxury of being able to watch YouTube videos of this band, I can see that they might be able to pull it off live, which is crucial with this kind of druggy dirge. No idea what the unfortunate band name is about, but they coulda been on AmRep way back when in the golden ’90s. Carry on.

Catastrophic Dance Ensemble Vol. 1 cassette

Dial Club brings us more drum machine bedroom weirdness with this Ohio duo. But at this point, is it even that weird? This is in that same pocket we’ve been in for a while with bands like FREAK GENES and even some of ALIEN NOSEJOB’s oeuvre. There is, however, a little more of an unhinged feel to this. Bedroom, blown-out howled vocals and space siren guitars bring character to a subgenre of a subgenre I’d otherwise assume I knew everything about. So when a track like “Pay Me” really locks me in, manically bobbing my head at my desk like a true on-the-clock rocker, I take notice. It’s hard to do something the same but different, to innovate on a formula no matter how niche it is, but these two have done just that. By the closing track, “Again, Again,” I don’t know what to expect. Especially not the dissonant dystopian street anthem that devolves into echoey madness that hits a wall and goes dark prematurely. Kept me wanting more, for sure.

Chalk Neophobia LP

For listeners with experimental tastes and open minds, there is something for everyone from this Houston solo project. Sounding like a perfect mixtape of obscured beauty, warm found sounds, music concrète, knotty indie rock, and imploding disco karaoke beats, CHALK gently strolls across genre lines in a way that makes you question genre distinctions in the first place. The album opens with gorgeous gamelan rhythms played over sound collages that sound like SUN CITY GIRLS or Aaron Dilloway at their most introspective. “What is Tot Cannot” features meditative guitar, chiptunes, and tape decay that seamlessly flows into “Sambe Death Now,” a goth exploration with sampled (I think?) operatic vocals. “Slackjaw” and “Root by Root” are twisty, swirling indie rock jams that evoke UNWOUND. Often unironically beautiful, occasionally confounding (“Pig Song” is an odd children’s rhyme sung over junk electronics), accept this as an expert mix of sounds from carefully curated influences.

Cosmic Halitosis How Can I Help You? cassette

Ten-song cassette of slow-to-mid-tempo indie rock/’90s alt-rock worship. Noodly guitar leads and catchy sing-songy vocals over driving, repetitive riffs. Seems like the kinda project that people super into things like DINOSAUR JR. would be hyped on. It’s not bad by any means, but I am particularly confused by the band and the label each billing this as being “punk,” “hardcore,” and even “punk as fuck.” I find the usage of “punk” as a descriptive musical term as a catch-all for any guitar-driven band to be pretty obnoxious. It just makes the use of the term completely meaningless. I wouldn’t even refer to this music as being punk-adjacent. Guitar-driven jangly alt-rock. I guess there’s one song on the B-side entitled “Soggy Hotdog” that is in the modern pop punk realm, but it comes across as a bit of a novelty, as if it’s alt-rock kids being like “ooh, we gotta make a fast punk song.” Pet peeve ramble over, there’s some catchy and pretty songs on here, but even with the warbly, badly dubbed tape, I just don’t hear anything “punk” about it.

D. Sablu Odds & Ends cassette

D. SABLU is on a streak lately, recording wild, weird one-man-and-drum-machine tunes at home before taking it to the stage and fronting a shit-hot live band, playing the most economical but explosive sweat-stained garage punk. I’ve yet to see him live, but I can feel the perspiration already. But when, oh when, will we get a proper D. SABLU record? These short tape releases are just not enough! Taken By Sleep, the first release under the D. SABLU name, was a sleeper hit in the chaotic year of 2020, and has been followed up by two more cassette releases of demos and live sets. This one follows the same path, with two at-home demos of David and a drum machine, along with a recent live set, with the band tearing into a cover of RUDIMENTARY PENI’s “A Blissful Myth.” Now which one of you cowards is gonna put out a record for them?!

Emboscada / Pus split cassette

A raw, blistering onslaught of Argentinian/Peruvian metal punk and grindcore, in the late ’80s-to-’90s sense. EMBOSCADA reminds me of HERPES—Medellin calamity meets a bit of G.I.S.M., while P.U.S. plays a gothier blend of blackened post-punk crust. And they cover LEUSEMIA, plus NIRVANA’s “Negative Creep” (in Spanish!). Both bands are inherently sinister-sounding. Half this tape is flesh-melting grind punk, the other is bone-pogoing death punk. None of it is pretty, and if both bands were on a bill live, I think I’d need some fresh air afterwards. There are similarities, but these two bands go great together on a split tape as complements.

Eyes and Flys Manic AM cassette

This is the kind of gloriously “all over the place’” sound that comes along a little less frequently in a world where every band seems determined to emulate a specific sound (or worse, a specific band). From a foundation of jangly pop, EYES AND FLYS conjure a series of decidedly weird and undeniably unique tracks. Occasional OH SEES vibes, and I can’t help but think that this might be a Matty Luv side project in an alternate universe, and there’s an underlying REV (MERCURY) and/or FANCLUB (TEENAGE) sonic sensibility, with tunes that range from reverb-drenched bombastic sonic slammers to quiet and ever-so-slightly twisted quiet missives. Most notably, Manic AM held me tight from start to finish—I actively wanted to know what they were going to do next—and in a society filled with unnecessary stimuli, that might be the most powerful endorsement of all. “Go to bed high / Wake up in the dirt.” Excellent.

F.E.I.D.L. Wödmusik LP

Definitely not your typical punk record! F.E.I.D.L., a trio out of Vienna, follows up their 2020 7” with their debut LP—eleven tracks of oddball punk miscellanea. The record starts off with some barnyard animal noises then launches into a jaunty little intro that’s part BRIAN SETZER ORCHESTRA, part circus screamer. Maybe not exactly what I’m looking for in a punk record, but it’s an interesting detour and things seem to settle down quickly enough. The next two tracks are pretty straightforward, reverb-heavy garage punk numbers—they sound like an amalgam of Males-era INTELLIGENCE, TY SEGALL, and the stuff VISION 3D is putting out. It’s pretty good stuff! “Gusch” starts off in the same vein for maybe one of the most ripping tracks on the record, but then takes a hard left turn into, like, warped Balkan folk music. Subsequent tracks touch on anything from  MAN OR ASTRO-MAN?-styled ragers to numbers that wouldn’t sound out of place on a post-Swordfishtrombones TOM WAITS album. This strikes me as something that would really appeal to folks who worship at the altar of Mike Patton. For the rest of us, when it’s good, it’s good. When it’s bad, it sounds like GOGOL BORDELLO.

Fogueo Sesion Ao vivo en Le Studio cassette

FOGUEO, oh FOGUEO, wherefore art thou, FOGUEO? “Argentina!,” they replied between violent bursts of rockin’ hardcore. The band dabbles in various styles, with the vocals being particularly schizophrenic. They start off with shouted battle cries on the opening track before switching to a sinister, crusty growl on “Armas,” interspersed noisy whispers on “Figuritas,” and clean, plain singing on some of the songs. It sounds like they had fun making this.

G.A.Z.E. Living the Life EP

G.A.Z.E. from Finland are a band with a pretty unorthodox approach to ripping hardcore, which is always welcome. They have the blistering speeds and riffs of bands like CRUDE SS and TOTALITÄR, but also have quite a few melodic guitar noodlings and some pretty “out there” vocal stylings at times. Living the Life is certainly some pretty crazy stuff, and it may not necessarily be to everybody’s tastes, but I sure as hell dig it! Very intrigued to hear what these guys do in future.

The Grabowskis DOXA LP

German punk with an early Fat Wreck vibe. Mostly sung in German with a few songs sung in English, including a song called “Dinosaur” that may be about an old fool or an actual dinosaur. Another song that is sung in English is “The Knight of the Night,” which has definite nods to IRON MAIDEN. All in all, a solid album and definitely worth a spin or two.

Hogar Todos Contra Todos LP

It’s just like me to wait until the end of summer is in sight for the perfect record for the season to fall in my lap. This tight ten-tracker is bright, fast, and sharp, with more hooks per capita than I can keep track of. Firstly, the bassist is a mad scientist. So many bass players forget how much melody they can pack their toolbox with. Not so with mononymously-credited Javato. I’m spending a lot of ink (or RAM, I guess) to focus on this because he’s so goddamn good. The bouncy tunefulness of early GREEN DAY in the least corny way possible, and it anchors the whole three-piece’s sound, which is chameleonic in how it can slip from hazy, golden hour heavy pop to necksnappers from track to track. Highest marks, though, go to a song the repeat button was made for, “Intruso.” It’s that riff we all love, you’ll know when you hear it. But it goes places with it you don’t expect, and with the whole band backing up the vocals you can’t help but shout along. This is a joyous blast of punk with the faintest whisper of garage—if this were a martini, the garage would be the vermouth and have just rinsed the glass, but I’m damn glad it’s there. Celebrate the end times of summer with this stunner from Spain.

Instruct Death Instructions cassette

Great, chugging, old school hardcore in the vein of YOUTH OF TODAY but crustier and more distorted, Seattle’s INSTRUCT delivers a wall of distorted guitars, crashing cymbals, and howling, growling vocals. The third track of four on this tape, “No Option,” stood out as the rager to get your pulse racing, but there are no duds here. Each track bleeds into the next with guitar feedback similar to “Earth A.D.” by the MISFITS, as if all four tracks were recorded at once in one continuous take.

Lasso Amuo EP

LASSO came from out of nowhere and immediately grabbed the punk world by the balls. This may be a new outfit, but all of the members had previously played in ROSA IDIOTA. Following the Brazilian hardcore tradition and adding a bit of deathrock à la RUDIMENTARY PENI here and there, this debut is all one can ask for. An eight-song EP that will be stuck on your player for a long time.

The Monsters Du Hesch Cläss, Ig Bi Träsch LP

Listen to this shit. It was records like this that steered Tim Yo away from hardcore (and emo) in the ’90s and damn near turned MRR into a fucking garage rock fanzine. You know why? Listen to this shit. This is punk, you punk! Switzerland’s the MONSTERS have been a band since I was still getting ink on my fingers once a month, and they’re still dropping steaming piles of shit-hot fire on your turntable like they don’t give a shit where they shit. Because these motherfuckers are punk. Their suits are punk. Their two-riff songs are punk. Their blown-out solos are punk. Apparently there’s a version in English, but I’m gonna be so shitfaced before the first side is over that I won’t be able to speak (in any language). Volume is the international language of punk though, so crank the mindfuck titled “Mitfahr Glägeheit” and see god, you punk. If you can’t get down with cranked-out, fuzz-storm garage mania, then what are you even doing with your life?

Narcotic Void Narcotic Void demo cassette

Heavy Xerox aesthetics on the cover art, and the record is just as lo-fi, as if it were sent through a worn-out photocopy machine. I wonder how meta this is to create such noise in 2022 when our pencils can make a studio-perfect recording, yet we replicate the sound of a decades-old era which operated with barely functioning equipment. But this is what we like right, so who cares really? Buried under the fuzz, NARCOTIC VOID plays snotty, catchy, nihilistic hardcore that is closer to punk rock than to thrasing blast. They ride a beat that makes you nod and motivates you to jump around in a crowd with a beer in your hands among a lot of punks, although it is no pogo-punk—rather, each song has the potential to be a title track of a two-song 45 which evokes elevated feelings in the listener and could be your original soundtrack for glue sniffing. The guitar blends into the buzzing white noise of the recording environment and equipment (an asteroid should hit us if this is only an effect, switched on by pushing one single button on a computer), the singer has a great “fuck you” voice that varies between evil melodic and evil vocal-speech while the bass basically keeps it all together and directs where the music goes, to which barely identifiable drums give a rhythmic knocking. If you hate music, you will love this.

Ohjus / Raamattu Raaka Mysteeri… split EP

Here’s a split EP composed of two ripping Finnish bands, OHJUS and RAAMATTU. Both bands play a very old school style of hardcore punk and it rules. OHJUS play fist-pumping fastcore as well as TOTALITÄR-style D-beat at blinding speeds that are bound to leave your head spinning. More fist-pumping madness is on the table on the flip side with RAAMATTU, with bits that sound a lot like HEADCLEANERS or Finland’s very own RATTUS while also keeping the velocity of the previous side. This platter is great! Highly recommended for fans of classic Scandinavian hardcore.

Poison Ruïn Not Today, Not Tomorrow EP

Dungeon punk? Medieval post-punk? Anarcho-goth? Chainmail-core? POISON RUÏN is a super hard band to define as they have so much going on in terms of influences. At the core, they are a post-punk band, and that is very well-defined, but they lean towards Oi!, sometimes deathrock, and even dungeon synth at other times. Like medieval AMEBIX playing WIPERS songs after a few pints of mead. It started out as a solo project of Mac Kennedy, but since then has become a full-band venture. “Not Today, Not Tomorrow” starts out with dungeon synth and it ends with thunder over an epic punk riff. Shall I say more? The highlight is the closer “Edifice,” a bleak, mid-tempo post-punk anthem filled with dread. Throw on your chainmail, and get your dice ready.

Public Opinion Modern Convenience LP

The record begins with a stomping, almost hair rock riff and keeps that spirit throughout. This is a punk interpretation of rock, or maybe rock poured through a punk filter. The rhythm is steady, not raging, and there’s cowbells kissing the honky tonk breaks. The power chords are crisp and the singer is ready to “break down the door” ‘cuz they “were right all along.”

Roughed Up King and Council EP

Clandestine, channel-straddling Oi! outfit ROUGHED UP announce themselves with a cracker of a release here. Terrace-friendly chants waging class war, all delivered in an accent that in another life would have been selling two pounds of pears in a brown paper bag at Bethnal Green market. Plenty of joyful guitar-led choruses replete with a little glammy flourish, not dissimilar to the CHISEL at their most anthemic, too. One to keep an eye on.

S.O.H. Life on Edge EP

L.A. bands are so fucking good. There’s something in the smog and sun that consistently spits out the best rage and primal energy. I was awaiting this one eagerly like a hungry animal, as this is last year’s ass-ripper of a cassette put to wax and unlike the usual waste of resources out there, this one deserves it. SYSTEM OF HATE is what those initials stand for, but it could easily be SICK OF HUMANS from the amount of carnage left in this band’s wake. Featuring a member of the excellent PRISION POSTUMO as well as other notable SoCal all-stars, this all-too-short, six-song steamroller is driven by the fiercest vocalist I’ve heard in some time. The COMES, ULTRA VIOLENT, VARUKERS, blah blah…totally stands on its own and shouldn’t be diluted by old man comparisons. Cover art of the year. Don’t be a fool, fool. Pick it up.

State Drugs / Zephr split 7″

A feel-good track each from Denver’s own STATE DRUGS and ZEPHR. “Mr. Untitled” (STATE DRUGS) is soft, and almost a little sappy, yet earnest. A minor scale lead walks up and down over a jangly rhythm guitar while the vocalist croons out “Are we OK? / The world’s scaring the shit out of me / There’s no escape / No point to stay / No where to leave,” the fatalism of which hits home for, I imagine, too many. “Landline (J’ai Une Âme Solitare)” (ZEPHR) is a little more playful and noisier, with classic ambient shouts from backing vocals under “Hanging on a landline / Feeling low / Can’t get myself outside.” These songs could fit in any of the early-aughts Warped Tour compilations, but are obviously covered in the makeup of our present. All in all, they make a cohesive split—have a rainy day listen.

Suffering Mind Lifeless LP

Latest LP from Poland’s SUFFERING MIND. Pure anti-facist grindcore in the vein of ASSUCK and BRUTAL TRUTH to Peel Sessions-era NAPALM DEATH and CARCASS—yes, the ones punks listen to. Non-stop blastbeats, nothing but short, fast, and loud, driven by the rage and aggression from an oppressive system we live in rather than a technical talent show for metalheads.

 

Team Spirit O.C. Life EP

It’s hard to describe (or review) this record without mentioning how much I know 1997-me would have loved it. 2022-me also loves it, but in more of a nostalgic way (of course). For the uninitiated—TEAM SPIRIT was a positive Norwegian straight edge band, and this is their five-song demo from 1997. Fast and infectious with a heavy USHC influence. One tune is a total clunker, but I can listen to “Outside” and the title track every fukkn day.

Vacancy Shadows 12″

Four tight and well-constructed gems from this Californian post-punk band that navigates the turbulent waters of life in 2022 with songs full of emotion, imagination, and even a bit of drama. Hard to single out one song when they all constitute their own beautiful territory, but I can recommend the glorious opener “Burning” and the very intense closer “Withered.” There’s an LP coming soon to look forward to, so keep VACANCY in the loop.

V/A Radio Dood LP

An LP reissue of a long out-of-print 1986 compilation tape of Dutch hardcore, used to raise money for the all-punk, by punks, and for punks radio station Radio Dood. Notably, this tape contained the final recordings of LÄRM before those eventually found their way on the band’s discography CD. This sounds like a tape from 1986 pressed to vinyl, so unless you are a Dutch HC completist and you love tape hiss and blown-out low end, I’d say this release works better as a historical document than as a home audio experience.

Almen T.N.T. ¿A Donde Vamos Hoy? 7″ reissue

This is a Munster reissue of the first independent Spanish punk single from 1979. After getting assigned it, I realized my knowledge of punk in Spain was pretty minimal, basically having only heard the LOS PUNK ROCKERS knock-off album of SEX PISTOLS covers, the fiery LAS VULPESS, and the brief punky bits seen in the cult film Arrebato. Punk in Spain got a delayed start, bubbling up in the years following the fall of the Franco dictatorship in 1975, with a slow trickling of glam-inspired, proto-punk-ish hard rock. ALMEN T.N.T. was essentially just Manolo Almen, a Barcelona anarcho-hippie protest singer who saw folk on the wane and latched onto the harder rock sound he was beginning to hear. This 7” would be the only thing they would produce, and the leftist politics are up front and center. The A-side translates to “No One Believes in Revolution Anymore,” a song criticizing the consumer capitalist culture that developed in the years after Franco, starting with a sound collage of explosions, police sirens, and gunfire zinging before a heavy fuzz riff charges through the fray. The music on both sides is similar to the post-psych proto-punk street rock of the PINK FAIRIES, while a bit generically bluesy in the leads. The fast evolution of Spanish punk sorta left this in the dust as punks from Madrid to Barcelona dove into the subgenre undergrounds of hardcore and varying strains of post-punk. Its historical importance outweighs its musical significance, but a very cool artifact nonetheless.

Black Dots I’ve Had It / Are We There Yet? flexi 7″

Fast and powerful punk rock tinged with the heartache of emo—think of a more melodic version of SWINGIN’ UTTERS. This flexi release offers up two new songs, “I’ve Had It” and “Are We There Yet?” Although this is a stand-alone release, these songs are paired with three others on a (digital only?) release titled EP2. “I’ve Had It” is a melancholic parting ways track, starting with “I’m packin’ up and movin’ it along / And maybe I’ll just yell about it in another song,” the simplicity of which I enjoy. The rest of the lyrics come off as trope-y and cliché, but the feeling that moves me in the first line, somehow, carries on throughout. “Are We There Yet?” walks a similar line, buts captivates me less with its chorus “How fucking hard is it? / To find compassion past your own shit?” The message may be positive, ultimately, but this is the kind of thing I can take in very limited doses. But hey, if you’re feeling a little whiny, or pouty even, this may be for you.

Bursters Rindcore and More cassette

Blown-out drum machine/synth-heavy electronic music ranging from mid-tempo to blistering fast. Most of these songs feel as if they are over almost as soon as they start. The vocals are delivered with such strain and intensity that you can almost feel polyps forming in your own throat just from listening to this cassette. After almost every track, there is a sound clip about oranges. Presumably that is the titular “rind” that “rindcore” is referring to?

Cramp Suzy Lie Down / She Doesn’t Love Me 7″ reissue

CRAMP was from Portrush, Northern Ireland. This is a reissue of their 1979 7” originally released on Rip Off. The music is straightforward pub rock, played slowly and thoughtfully. The lyrics are sung nonchalantly. On “Suzy Lie Down,” a man sings of trying to convince a woman to sleep with him, including questionably accusing her of being a slut even as he exclaims that he loves her. The B-side “She Doesn’t Love Me” is a song of unrequited love. She does even give him the time of day. Both songs are catchy, but the lyrics make my eyes roll.

Cult Objects Secrets of Pain​-​Free Living cassette

Secrets of Pain-Free Living is the first official release from Philadelphia’s incendiary post-punk/noise rock trio CULT OBJECTS. Swirling shoegaze-y guitars are combined here with Lauren Leilani Iona’s raw, ragged howl, a powerful match for her honest and emotionally vulnerable lyrics. There are moments where all the clangor reminds me of none other than SONIC YOUTH. The noise is at its harshest and most uncompromising in “Glue Trap,” with its layers of piercing guitar squall, while tracks like “Sea Foam” and “When Will a Fire Come?” sound downright poppy by comparison. “Scorpion Grass” is perhaps the most captivating moment on the record, a six-minute experimental epic anchored by a hypnotizing rhythm section. This is pretty potent stuff.

Dead Stoolpigeon Hit the Bastards Where It Hurts 1995–1997 3xLP

I can never figure out why this band flew (and still flies) under the radar, but this collection will surely speak to any deniers. This is the embodiment of passionate political ’90s hardcore—the band was basically MANLIFTINGBANNER without the Van Den Berg brothers, but I always felt like BORN AGAINST/UNIVERSAL ORDER OF ARMAGEDDON comparisons were more appropriate. This release contains everything and it’s packaged with the care and consideration that the band deserves. If you’re going to start somewhere with DEAD STOOLPIGEON, then I suppose you might as well start with everything.

Doldrey Celestial Deconstruction LP

We don’t get to review death metal albums that often here at Maximum Rocknroll, so let’s get to it! In an oversaturated world of ENTOMBED clones, it is hard to stand out without sounding exactly like the next band in line. DOLDREY manages to sound refreshing, but maintains all the tropes of this microgenre some call ENTOMBED-core or “death punk.” Ice-cold HM-2 riffage? Check. Murky vocal delivery? Check. Pummeling D-beats? Check. Groove that makes you headbang? Double check! The curious thing is that DOLDREY worships Swedish death metal, but they come from an improbable place, Singapore. You can tell that they love punk and hardcore just as much as they do GRAVE or CARNAGE. A great record to put on when you burn out your copy of Wolverine Blues.

Eel Men Live at New River Studios cassette

Short collection of excellent power pop/mod revival from this British band. If you like the JAM or even the KINKS, this tape will be up your alley. Catchy, melodic vocals with clean strummed guitars and basketball basslines, EEL MEN use the classic vocabulary of British rock music but create something fresh and immediately enjoyable. It sounds polished and DIY at the same time, carefully arranged but still drawn from punk around the edges. All four songs are jams (get it?) and I look forward to more. And if this was really recorded live, EEL MEN are a band to check out, because the performance is flawless.

Exhibition You’ll Be Next… cassette

Four tracks of riff-heavy, anthemic hardcore out of Buffalo, NY. The first track, “Give It Up,” starts with a chest-thumping march reminiscent of SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, and then it’s off to the races with breakneck rhythms and chugging guitars. “Chaos Unfolding” also stands out as an absolute ripper and includes a quasi-power metal guitar solo. I know that sounds weird, but it works.

The Faction Room 101 and Growing Pains LP

Notable not only as one of the first skate punk bands, but also as a skate punk band with an actual pro skater in their lineup. As can be surmised from the title, these are demo versions that would eventually appear on their first two releases: fast songs about skating, cops harassing them about skating, etc. They’re legends of the style and if you’re a diehard for it, you’re already picking this up. I haven’t ever successfully stood on a skateboard, so skate punk never endeared itself to me. This music usually just reminds me of shitty older dudes at shows I went to growing up, who love to use pejorative slurs and say charming shit like “If you dont wanna get hit, get out of the pit.”

Florida Men Florida Men CD

These Dutch fellers make no bones about wearing their influences on their sleeves here. Pop punk in the vein of SCREECHING WEASEL, LILLINGTONS, etc. played with full-on sincerity and it shows. A lot of times I feel like this type of stuff misses the mark, but this hits it dead on. The homage to the weasel logo on the cover is a nice touch, and made me chuckle.

Heat Wrays Heat Wrays demo cassette

I don’t know if these Leeds-based lads met at uni, but you could assume so from the sound of this tape. It’s all a bit erudite, showing off tidy proceedings of wiry guitar interplay with a healthy dollop of apathetic vocalizing that I’m sure the band is tired of hearing compared to PARQUET COURTS (that first one, though, when everyone thought they’d be the new PAVEMENT). I like the songs here overall, they’re not breaking any new ground but the melodies stick in your head and there’s enough variety to keep you engaged. I’m not entirely sold on the vocals on second cut “The Athlete,” but I stand firm that very few bands can pull off talk verses in this day and age. Leave it to LEWSBERG and URANIUM CLUB, that’s my advice. At the end of the day, this is a demo, and it sounds like it. I wish them well, and with some seasoning in the pan they could cook something with confidence down the line.

Junta Screwdriver / Policia No Me Jodas flexi 7″

Self-released punkers from NYC pummel through two songs of excellent Latino hardcore. “Screwdriver” starts off the flexi by demanding your attention with beaten-into-submission drums and death metal guitar riffs that’ll make your head spin. “Policia No Me Jodas” (“Police Don’t Fuck With Me”) follows up with a repetitive anger and is a rerecording from their 2017 demo Open Veins. Get your elbows out for this one.

Kpax! Kpax! LP

Don’t believe the cover, as the mutant-looking creatures in a melting town suggested this might be some falling-apart, naive hardcore. It is quite the opposite—KPAX! from Belgrade plays rigid Oi!; there is no song under two minutes and the pace rarely goes above mid-tempo. Big-scale melodies mix with simplified rock-ish sound, all in Serbian. The singer has a great voice, and the mixing makes it sound like one person singing in the name of at least a factory of desperate people. Guitars have a nicely adjusted sound delivering post-punk tones here and there, and the parts are way more creative than Oi! usually is. Overall, they have a great balance between modern and classic local sounds, between Oi! and post-punk, between careless and determined vocals. All these dualities make the record interesting and fun—for my preferences, it is really long, but at least you got material for your money.  

L’Appel Du Vide Abwärtsspirale EP

This is a great EP from an up-and-coming band straight out of Germany. They mix elements of melodic deathrock darkness, surf guitar riffs, and the hypnotic momentum of the most nocturnal and romantic English post-punk (Sturm und Drang-style). Four songs that feel like four anthems. You don’t need more.

Liquid Lunch Come Again! cassette

Writing this review took me far longer than the tape itself takes to play, because it put me in another existential mood about genre and style. I just really don’t know what more can be written about this kind of music. If you’ve listened to CHERRY CHEEKS, RESEARCH REACTOR CORP, the current crop of Lumpy bands, etc. etc., then you have a clue to what this LIQUID LUNCH tape sounds like: stiff rhythms (with manic militancy on the hi-hat and snare) played at ultracore tempos, protractor and T-square guitar riffs played with pinpoint accuracy alternated with thrashin’ bashers, sprinkled with synth squiggles, and topped with muffled mutoid man yelling. But what are they yelling about? There’s a song on it called “Obamacare,” in this year of our lord 2022. Is this a political song? Is it a goof? Have we reached the Final Devolution of CONEHEADS-core? Are all of these bands just pizza punk with more right angles? Am I thinking about this too much? The answers to all these questions: probably, and who cares?

Mock Execution Killed by Mock Execution LP

Chicago’s MOCK EXECUTION leaves no crust boxes unticked. Part UK traditional crust like DOOM or E.N.T., part Japanese crasher crust like GLOOM or GAI. Even though many bands follow this route in terms of style, MOCK EXECUTION seems to have developed their own distinct sound, with a brutal display of ferociousness throughout the nine songs that make up Killed by Mock Execution—and you will indeed be killed by this noise bomb.

Multiplex Segway Cops cassette

Latest cassette release by MULTIPLEX from Bremen, Germany. Sounds like something along the lines of a three-month-long DETESTATION European tour during the ’90s, a PARAGRAF 119 set at Ungdomshuset, or Venezuela’s APATIA NO. Cover consists of a crew of lazy cops riding on their Segways drawn in MS Paint. Something like this needs to be listened to on a thrift store boombox with blown-out speakers while taking over some unoccupied building in your town—just don’t bring the dogs to the show.

Night Court Nervous Birds! Too cassette

NIGHT COURT plays smart jangly, just weird enough lo-fi punk—which is still harmonic at heart—that draws both from late ’70s power pop and ’90s college radio. It’s the kind of release that would stand strong on the Recess Records or Dirtnap rosters. There’s a complex interplay between the reflective lyrics, fuzzed bass riffs, power guitar chords, and clangorous drums, that while being deftly executed, comes off like it was just an “aw shucks” accident. Extra bonus is that this is the second album in the band’s debut duology, and the first album is just as good.

NightFreak Speed Trials cassette

Gruff rock’n’roll stewing in a suburban storage unit packed with knuckle-dragging, burnout used-to-be-punks all half-drunk on Beast. Things are getting tense—it’s sweaty and it smells like shit, motherfuckers are running low on warm beer, and no one is brave enough to walk to the store alone because the night is about to get a lot hotter. The NIGHTFREAK is coming. They launch into “I’ll Show You Heaven” and everyone in the room questions their life choices in unison, but it’s too late. The doors are locked and the stench feels like it’s going in your ears but it’s just another guitar solo. There’s no escape. This is your life.