Featured Releases

Indikator B: S/T II 7” (General Speech Records) Here at Sorry State we’ve been big fans of Croatia’s Indikator B since they started releasing music, and we imported both their demo cassette and first EP for distribution in the US. Now their follow-up EP has a higher-profile domestic issue on General Speech Records, which is fitting because these four new tracks are scorching. If you’re a fiend for 80s European hardcore, it’s hard to imagine how you couldn’t love this record… it just sounds so incredibly, authentically old school. Indikator B doesn’t achieve that with a vintage-y sounding recording (though I do love how the record sounds), but more with their general style and approach. The songs are lean and primarily ripping fast (with great, powerful drumming), but Indikator B has a knack for injecting the perfect amount of melody into their songs. That includes both the riffs and the vocals; I love the way the vocalist has two or three notes he can hit, and the simple melodies and strong phrasing always serve as a perfect counterpoint to the riffs. And as General Speech notes, there’s more than whiff of that cold and dark feeling that characterizes so much 80s eastern European punk, particularly on the last track, “Ukopani,” which slows things down and sees the guitars moving from power chords to a moodier, more atmospheric sound. It’s so straightforward that if you don’t have a taste for the era and style Indikator B is steeped in this might fly over your head, but if you love this stuff like I do, there are vanishingly few modern bands that scratch that itch like they do.

Excess Blood: Porcelain Doll 7" (Unlawful Assembly Records) I was really looking forward to this debut 7” from Portland’s Excess Blood, as their 2024 demo on Stucco has been one of my most played demos of the past several years. Whereas a lot of demos fall off the playlist within a few months, I kept returning to Excess Blood, enjoying it more with each listen. Thankfully, the debut EP does not disappoint. Listening to Porcelain Doll brings into better focus what stands out about Excess Blood: I think it’s that they take a sub-genre I can be ambivalent or even skeptical about—post-punk / goth / death rock / whatever you want to call it—and really bring their own voice and flavor to the sound, mostly by giving it a big infusion of hardcore muscle. Yes, they have the spooky vocals, chorus guitars, and two-handed hi-hat beats you expect from a band with those genre tags, but they also have a lot of raw screamed vocals, cool syncopated rhythms, generally fast tempos, and a percussionist who really smacks the fuck out of their drums. Further, each of Porcelain Doll’s four tracks brings something unique to the table. The title track comes first and it’s the spookiest of the bunch, with a vibe that’s like a hardcore-informed version of early Bauhaus. The second track, “Cathedral Park,” is a speedy hardcore tune with a cool choppy drumbeat in the verse and a big singalong chorus keeping it super exciting for its entire 75-second duration. “Turned to Stone” starts with a bass line very similar to Joy Division’s “Transmission,” but as it spreads across its three and a half minutes you get memorable guitar riffs, more cool vocal melodies, and an atmosphere that shifts between menacing and wistful. And then the final track, “Clamor of Please,” is something totally different, a punkier Misfits-esque song with a melodic riff and an upbeat, fun-sounding punk rhythm. Through all these permutations, Excess Blood sounds confident and powerful; it doesn’t seem like all this eclecticism stretches their abilities, but rather hints at their capabilities. It makes me yearn for a full-length that does all this and more, but at the same time I hope they don’t rush it, as the density of inspiration here is a big part of its power.

Traumatizer: Nuclear War Machine 7” (Discos Enfermos) After an excellent 2024 debut EP co-released by Neon Taste in North America and Discos Enfermos in Europe, Haarlem’s Traumatizer returns with a scorching new 5-song EP. The first thing you’ll notice when you drop the needle on Nuclear War Machine is the off-the-charts energy level. Some bands just have that knack for capturing punk’s essential energy on tape, and Traumatizer definitely does; their recordings burst with energy and make it impossible to sit still while you’re listening. After I recovered my senses from the initial pummeling and got into multiple listens, though, I started to appreciate how dialed-in everything about Traumatizer is. The recording is noisy and messy-sounding, but not so much that it obscures the hookiness of the riffs. The songs are fast, but tempos actually vary quite a lot, never letting your ear experience that sense of fatigue that can make the energy level lag even for a fast band. Style-wise, there’s a lot of Cimex / Shitlickers-informed go-for-the-throat d-beat in the mix (particularly on the first track… with a vocalist shouting “nuclear war machine” over a frantic d-beat, you’re gonna get those vibes), but there’s also a lot of that Totalitär-esque flurry-of-power-chords thing happening and other little touches that give each song a unique vibe, like the Tank-esque chords in the standout “Dead End.” Yet these slight stylistic wrinkles never detract from the overall sense of Nuclear War Machine as a blistering hardcore record… like I said, Traumatizer are experts at finding those sweet spots between noisy and articulate, straightforward and daring, etc. It also helps that they have a great vocalist with one of those voices you want to hear yell at you. If you love high-energy d-beat hardcore, don’t miss this one… it’s a scorcher.

Mother Nature: Language of a Peaceful Mind 7” (Donor Records) Language of a Peaceful Mind is the new single and third release from this Leeds, UK band, following up their Loving, Joyful, and Free 12” from last year on Static Shock. We’ve carried all Mother Nature’s release at Sorry State and even though I get the impression they aren’t the typical SSR follower’s cup of tea, I really like the band. Their sound is lumbering and sludgy, sitting in a netherworld between noise rock and hardcore, with the pounding intensity of the latter and richer textures and more ambitious musicality of the former. I guess the lineage that it makes the most sense to connect Mother Nature to is the sort of proto-noise rock end of hardcore… bands like the Scam, the Melvins, and of course the later, sludgier Black Flag stuff. Indeed, in many ways the two songs on Language of a Peaceful Mind feel like music that’s meant to fulfill the promise of later Black Flag. I love side B of My War and even more so the psychedelic nightmare rhythms of In My Head, but even though I listen to those records all the time to this day, I always felt like there was something lacking in them, that they’re crippled by mediocre production, the frequent lack of a second guitar track, and Greg Ginn’s absurdly narrow view of the bass guitar’s role in a band of this type (whether he’s the one playing or just forcing someone else to play exactly what he wants them to play). Mother Nature’s music, by contrast, channels that monolithic, quasi-mechanical sense of rhythm, but lets it breathe and allows the humanity to show through. The A-side, “At Peace,” is slightly faster and particularly in the verse has the kind of rhythm that can get a pit moving, but the way Mother Nature sprinkles little details in the cracks and the way the song builds toward something more intricate and delicate in its chorus makes it clear the mosh is entirely beside the point. While I like “At Peace,” I like the b-side even more. It’s grimmer, sludgier, and vibe-ier, and makes plenty of room for awesome musicianship, particularly some excellent Bill Ward-informed drum work and extremely Ginn-esque lead guitar. Like I said, it’s like In My Headwith its strange sterility swapped out for an atmosphere that’s richer and more organic.

Burned Up Bled Dry: Next Stop… Dead Stop... 12” (Prank Records) Next Stop… Dead Stop… is the debut LP from Fayetteville, Arkansas’ Burned Up Bled Dry. Burned Up Bled Dry has been a band since the 90s, when they toured heavily and released a couple of 7”s, but they went through a long dormant period, getting back together a few years ago and apparently getting right back to work on new material. It’s an unusual timeline for a band to work on, and when you consider that alongside their relative isolation from the national hardcore scene in their deep south locale, perhaps it’s unsurprising that Next Stop… Dead Stop… sounds absolutely nothing like anything else happening in hardcore right now. One of the first things to strike me about Next Stop...is the way it balances musical ambition and maturity with its down-in-the-gutter punkness. The runtime of 26 songs in 25 minutes clues you in this is ripping, but the album isn’t just a string of one-minute ragers. There are a bunch of those, sure, but there are also several ultra-minimal songs (four tracks clock in at less than 15 seconds!), a couple of more stretched out dirge-y or mid-paced songs, and basically all points in between. You have no clue what’s coming at you in the next track, yet as a whole the album feels meticulously composed and sequenced. This makes for some brilliant moments, like when the longest track, “Don’t Care,” finally releases you from its turgid grip after nearly four minutes and the band drops into “Not Your Nightmare,” the album’s catchiest, most fist-pumping punk track. Alongside the wide variation in song length and structure, Burned Up Bled Dry’s palette of sounds and influences is also far wider than most hardcore bands’. I’d say the core of Burned Up Bled Dry’s sound is blasting / grinding crust in the tradition of Extreme Noise Terror, but at least half the music on Dead Stop draws from other wells. I hear elements of hooky, fist-pumping d-beat punk (like the aforementioned “Not Your Nightmare”), OG grindcore (“Death Ruse” could be an outtake from From Enslavement to Obliteration), 90s metallic hardcore (some of the breakdowns wouldn’t be out of place in the early Victory Records catalog), early metalcore (panic chords and warped metal licks that make me think of pre-_Jane Doe_ Converge), and some raw black metal. The distinctions between some of those subgenres are subtle, and maybe some of them aren’t even influences, but listing them gets at how rich and varied Next Stop… sounds. That’s particularly true rhythmically; most bands have two or three gears they can operate in comfortably, but Burned Up Bled Dry is uncommonly dextrous for a hardcore band, and they’re experts at shifting between these gears. Beyond the craftsmanship, though, something about Next Stop… Dead Stop... feels honest and passionate in a way much contemporary punk doesn’t. From the first note, I feel like the band means what they’re saying, that they’re pouring their souls into what they’re doing. So much punk today is overly stylized and beholden to its influences… I often feel like I’m listening past a band’s actual music in order to hear whatever rare Japanese or Scandinavian 7” they’re trying to channel. Burned Up Bled Dry seems to know exactly who they are and what they think of our fucked up world, and it’s hugely refreshing to hear them just let it rip.

Esperanza: Freedom and Equality 12” (Educación Cínica) Educación Cínica, Cromi from Ayucaba’s label, brings us the debut full-length from this long-running band from Hiroshima, Japan. We carried Esperanza’s debut 7” on Todo Destruido way back in 2014, so this one has been in the cooker for a long time! Since then Esperanza has also released records on Hardcore Survives and Pogo 77, but it’s only now that we get more than a brief taste of their music. It’s funny this landed at Sorry State around the same time as Raw Distractions’ debut full-length on La Vida Es Un Mus and a D.S.B. reissue on General Speech, because I hear a lot of similarities between those three bands, particularly vocally. The three vocalists have similar accents and timbres and a similar approach, encompassing both a throat-ripping bark and a triumphant shout that begs you to join in on the anthemic choruses. Also like both D.S.B. and Raw Distractions, Esperanza is a hardcore band with a guitarist who isn’t afraid of melody, working in cool little surfy, Dead Kennedys-esque licks (“Decay”) and melodic solos that recall the catchiest end of the UK82 spectrum (“Oppression”). There’s also something about Freedom and Equality that reminds me of Tàrrega 91’s brilliant album from last year, Ckaos Total. Perhaps it’s the way you can hear a clear influence from Discharge (particularly on the fifth track, “雨”), while at the same time Esperanza avoids the tendency toward density that colors so much d-beat punk, focusing on Discharge’s agitated rhythms and simple, driving riffs. As befitting their name—which means “hope” in Spanish—there’s something wonderfully earnest about Freedom and Equality, a quality the beautiful screen-printed packaging perfectly accentuates. It’s the kind of record that makes you feel proud to be a punk.

Spont Ar Stad: S/T 12” (Discos Enfermos) Discos Enfermos brings us the debut release from this anarcho-punk band from Brittany in northwestern France. When I looked over Spont Ar Stad’s record, one of the first things that stood out was the unfamiliar language. I do my best to be a pretty cosmopolitan guy and I’m a lover of language, but I am totally unfamiliar with Breton, the native language of Brittany. It’s a really interesting one too, a Celtic language that’s more closely related to Welsh and Cornish than French and the other Romance languages. That’s something I’d love to learn more about! As for Spont Ar Stad’s music, it also feels very connected to the world across the English channel, evoking aspects of vintage 80s UK anarcho punk few modern bands pick up on. While most contemporary anarcho influenced bands look to heavier bands like Antisect, Conflict, and Flux of Pink Indians, Spont Ar Stad (which, incidentally, means “State Terror” in Breton) pulls more from Passion Killers and Crisis, bands whose music feels closer to post-punk than the hardcore branch of punk’s family tree. The vocals are often unashamedly melodic and earnest-sounding, but a lot of that post-punk flavor comes down to the guitarist, who has a unique and creative style. I love that weird little slide in the main riff to the first track, “Ur Bed Kri,” and “Polis Peplec’h - Justic Neblec’h” is another highlight with its dense, chiming riff recalling the most inspired moments of Joy Division’s early era as Warsaw. While I think the guitarist is a really interesting player, Spont Ar Stad is not virtuosic by any stretch of the imagination, with scrappy production and playing and skittering drums helping to create that edge-of-chaos feeling that makes things sound really grimy and punk. That homespun quality to the production might be the make-it-or-break-it quality to a lot of listeners, but I love it… you can almost smell the sweat and stale beer of the rehearsal space. But while Spont Ar Stad’s music is simple and direct, it’s hardly artless… just listen to the closing track, “Da Reuz,” which ends the album on its biggest, most memorable chorus before closing with a brief acoustic coda. While Spont Ar Stad is bound to appeal to lovers of old UK anarcho, what’s noteworthy about their record isn’t its style, but the way it seems to tap similar veins of passion and musical curiosity.

Bikini Mutants: Let’s Mutate 12” (Sealed Records) Sealed Records once again dips into the 80s UK anarcho scene’s sub-underground and comes up with this obscurity from Yeovil, Somerset’s Bikini Mutants. Having only released a cassette during their original run, Bikini Mutants’ music was previously known only to the deepest 80s anarcho heads, though they have a pretty big claim to fame in that their bass player, Deb Googe, went on to play in My Bloody Valentine. While Bikini Mutants mostly gigged around the anarcho-punk scene (they were good friends with the Mob), as Sealed’s description notes, their music owes less to heavy punk and more to the post-punk, UKDIY, and indie pop worlds, with a delicate, ethereal sound, scrappy execution, and a healthy reggae influence. It’s a mix of influences tailor-made to my taste, but beyond just having a cool style, Bikini Mutants also has a lot of personality as a band. The bassist leans on repetitive, reggae-tinged grooves of the type I could listen to literally all day. The guitarist plays with a very light touch, leaving a lot of space and silence in their lines, and when they do come in, the playing is often abstract and textural in a way that, I imagine, owes a lot to Keith Levene of Public Image, Ltd. The drummer sounds like the most musically accomplished member of the band, playing grooves that are repetitive but dense with syncopated accents… very cool stuff. And the vocals are unique too: breathy, ethereal, and strangely introverted. While the vocals are quite melodic, the singer often holds notes for a long time in a way that makes the vocal lines fade into the rest of the song rather than demanding your focus. Tonally, songs range from the delicate and ethereal (fans of Marine Girls or Young Marble Giants will love this side of the band) to more abstract and heavier moments that remind me of a less produced, more feminine version of PiL’s Metal Box. While the basement-level production quality means Bikini Mutants weren’t likely to trouble the charts, their music remains a testament to what an explosion of creativity that UK anarcho-punk scene was, nurturing brilliantly idiosyncratic groups like Bikini Mutants whose music feels miles away from punk stereotypes. As usual, Sealed’s packaging and presentation here are top-notch, with a beautiful sleeve design and a thick booklet that seems to compile every scrap of paper ephemera featuring the band. Let’s Mutate is a deep cut, but well worth your time, particularly if you have a well-developed taste for the sounds of the 80s UK underground.

Screaming Fist: Santa Plaga 7” (Convulse Records) Oakland’s Screaming Fist released a 7” on Iron Lung Records back in 2019, and now they’re back 7 years later with five more songs. They’re worth the wait, too! If you don’t remember what Screaming Fist sounds like, I’d call them a straightforward hardcore punk band with low-key virtuosic chops. A good contemporary comparison might be the Faucheuse / Bombardement axis of bands in France—groups that have similarly crazy chops, yet remain committed to the old school hardcore punk style—but what I was really reminded of when I listened to Santa Plaga is Vaaska and Criaturas… and it turns out Screaming Fist guitarist Matt Badenhop is an ex-member of both bands. Like all the aforementioned groups, Screaming Fist tends to hang in the space of deep-in-the-pocket d-beat with riffs that are catchy but not overly technical, reserving their more technical playing for those transitional moments that serve as counterpoint to the hooky main riffs, giving the songs a sense of depth and sophistication. I love the off-time rhythm in the intro to “Está Detrás De Ti” and the brief, almost prog-y part before the breakdown in the closing track “Santa Plaga,” and these forays into the technical make it hit so much hardcore when Screaming Fist drops back into one of their mega-hooky riffs. The vocals are also excellent, much more melodic than your standard hardcore vocals, but not skimping on speed or intensity. I also love the way the recording uses double-tracking on the vocals to create a strong sense of dynamics. Hooky, raging hardcore with airtight execution… what’s not to love?

Early Grave: Winter Promo + Live 2026 cassette (self-released) Philadelphia’s Early Grave’s debut LP is coming later this year, and this tape previews three tracks from that release and significantly increases the value-for-money ratio by tacking on a full live set featuring even more songs from the upcoming album. While this tape may seem like a stopgap release, I’ve been letting it run on repeat while I’m working, and it’s really gotten its hooks in me. In particular, listening to the live songs next to the studio tracks has been enlightening. Early Grave’s M.O. is writing catchy, old-school punk/hardcore songs and imbuing them with atmospheric touches borrowed from various strains of underground metal, and the two parts of the tape showcase how strong both those elements are. The live recording is very bass-heavy and reveals the songs’ solid bones, particularly the rumbling yet catchy bass lines that serve as most songs’ center of gravity. Early Grave’s bassist, Cassidy, was Devil Master’s original bassist (she’s been in many other bands over the years too), and her knack for crafting eerie yet driving bass lines is on full display. Then the tape flips back around to the studio tracks, and you realize how layered and detailed they are, dressing up that raw punk skeleton with a more precise execution and a host of subtle but impactful overdubs. I don’t think I noticed the atmospheric synth lurking in the background of “Evil Terror” until like my fifth listen, though I felt its impact on the song’s haunting atmosphere well before I noticed it. Maybe the upcoming album release will render the studio portion of this cassette obsolete in a few months, but in the meantime this will get a ton of play.

Powerplant: Bridge of Sacrifice 12" (Arcane Dynamics) Powerplant finally brings us the follow-up to their much-loved 2019 LP People in the Sun, and they swing for the fences, delivering one of the most exciting, original, and challenging punk records I’ve heard in some time. While Powerplant didn’t disappear in the years since People in the Sun, the EPs they released didn’t exactly mark a clear trajectory to the second album, so I didn’t know what to expect from Bridge of Sacrifice. It turns out it’s an album full of surprises, smashing genres and moods together in a way that feels bold and inspiring. The first thing you’ll notice is that black metal is a big part of the mix. Maybe that’s always been in the background of Powerplant’s sound, but it’s a big part of Bridge of Sacrifice, which features lots of blasting drums and vocals that are both growled and demonically hissed. Sometimes these elements appear together in straightforward black metal part, but more often black metal’s corpse is raided for parts, with these tropes re-contextualized within Powerplant’s swirling, psychedelic blend. One thing I really love about Bridge of Sacrifice is that you never know what’s coming at you next. There’s the black metal stuff, the plaintive, emotional punk we know from People in the Sun, but also quirky, Wall of Voodoo-esque new wave, huge vocal hooks that wouldn’t be out of place on a New Order record, touches of alternative rock, blissed-out space rock, and a big helping of gothic metal that’s like some strange, distant cousin of Type O Negative or Danzig (listen to the a-side closer “Transactions” and tell me it’s not chock full of Danzig III!). But while Bridge of Sacrifice is thrillingly diverse, it never seems scattered or schizophrenic to me. I think that’s partly because Powerplant has such a distinctive voice that, no matter what they do, they’re always gonna sound like Powerplant. But I think there’s also some low-key musical genius / mad scientist shit going on that allows them to weave all these crazy parts into songs that feel epic and sprawling, yet unified. Not that it’s an easy listen. The combination of abrasive and tuneful elements can jar, and if you’re just not on board with one of the many genres Powerplant flirts with, there will be moments on the record you simply don’t like. But for the wide-eared listener with a craving for novelty and a love of brilliant pop hooks, Bridge of Sacrifice delivers thrills you won’t find anywhere else.

Ismatic Guru: Crocbrain, or, Two Big Steps For Mankind cassette (Swimming Faith Records) We’ve been carrying records by Buffalo’s prolific Ismatic Guru for years and I haven’t featured them in the newsletter, so I thought I’d get a little more acquainted with their latest release, Crocbrain, or, Two Big Steps For Mankind. It was an excellent decision! This project has been percolating for a while and has developed a unique sound all its own. The rhythmic foundation is my favorite part, relying on dub-y and funky beats that evoke the original post-punk era… a little early Rough Trade Records, Delta 5, some Contortions, even Tom Tom Club in places. I always loved the joyful, energetic vibe of that music, and Ismatic Guru summons that vibe here. While that foundation is fairly consistent across these five tracks, the guitars take several tacks, some with fluid, snakey-sounding runs, some with scratchy rhythmic parts, and other parts that are more textural rather than rhythmic or melodic. It’s a great combo… a consistent, danceable beat and guitars that feel boundless. The vocals are also really strong. John Toohill from Science Man handles the vocals, and he’s matured into a powerful and expressive vocalist, wrapping Ismatic Guru’s strange lyrics around forceful melodies and delivering them with a big helping of rock and roll panache. Ismatic Guru has compiled an impressive catalog over the past few years, but if you’re new to them, this bite-sized, all-hits EP is a place to dip your toe into their weird world.