Featured Releases

Plastique Pigs: Weekend Bender cassette (self-released) Raleigh, North Carolina’s reigning Kings of Punk follow up their demo from earlier this year with 6 new tracks. This cassette was supposed to be a tour-only release, but the tour got canceled at the last minute because of a family emergency, so we could get a good stack of them for the SSR faithful. From what I understand, these tracks haven’t been and won’t be released online, and while the originals may get re-recorded at some point, this is likely the only recorded version you’ll hear of the cover on the B-side. As for the music, if you heard the demo, you’ll notice immediately that Plastique Pigs is a changed band, having swapped drummers since their last recording. Usman from Scarecrow is now behind the kit, and he brings a huge extra helping of speed and power to the band. This is apparent on the two tracks from that demo that are re-recorded here, which are considerably faster and wilder than the previous versions. There are also three new originals on Weekend Bender, and while they stick to the fast-n-snotty style of the older material, I think the songwriting is even stronger. The track “Now Lay in It,” in particular, is my new favorite Plastique Pigs song. It starts off with this octave chord part that sounds straight off of D.I.’s Horse Bites, Dog Cries, then there’s an abrupt hard stop and they launch into a bad-ass riff that is as strong as anything on Government Warning’s classic No Moderation (which is obviously one of the band’s big inspirations). As for that cover on the B-side, it’s an unexpectedly straightforward version of “Lust to Love” by the Go-Go’s. The music isn’t miles away from the Pigs’ usual style, but the song’s big melodies really show off how strong Adam’s vocals are. The backing vocals are also killer… I don’t know who this Nail Dixon fellow is, but he’s got some pipes! As I noted above, you might hear these new songs again in a different form, but the re-recorded demo songs and the cover make this feel like way more than a throwaway, and the quick-and-dirty, Peel Session-type live-in-the-studio recording sounds as electric as a sweaty basement show.

Tower of One: Eyes of the World cassette (Barely Fluent) If you live on the East Coast of the United States, there’s a good chance you’ve caught Tower of One live sometime in the past few years, as this young Connecticut band has been road-dogging like mad on a couple of low-key, self-released tapes. Their latest 7-song missive, Eyes of the World, is still on tape, but now has the endorsement of a label, Philadelphia’s Barely Fluent. Tower of One plays exactly the kind of fast, 80s-inspired hardcore we love at Sorry State, but with enough unique wrinkles to give them more personality than your average punks with studded wristbands and bandanas around their boots. I really like the vocals, which are belted out in a clear, slightly hoarse shout that reminds me of Julie from Sin 34 or Donna Damage from No Thanks. Even though the vocals are quite buried in the mix on Eyes of the World, they still catch your attention. The riffing sticks largely to the straightforward sound of USHC, but the songs are peppered with interesting leads that remind me of Zigyaku from Judgement’s balance of melody and metallic flourish. There are also some interesting, slightly unconventional songwriting choices. The most striking of these is the last track, “Eyes of the World,” a three-minute mid-tempo banger with the lead guitarist wilding out across the entire track. I love the songs, the performance pops, and Joe from D4MT Labs captures it all with his trademark warm-n-fuzzy sound. Throw in some eye-catching artwork from Bungee of Personal Damage (one of my favorite current punk illustrators), and you have a killer tape that’ll please both the purists and the discerning listeners who demand a little something extra from their fast hardcore punk.

Military School: School Is War 7” (Broken Skull Records / 11PM Records) 11PM Records and Broken Skull Records team up to bring us this debut 7” from Philadelphia’s Military School. The first thing you’ll notice when you drop the needle on School Is War is that this bad boy is raw… Brendan from Cicada and Hologram did the recording, and it’s full of tape warble, hiss, and analog clipping. It’s a choice, but not necessarily a bad one; the recording might lose some subtlety in the drums and guitar, but when everyone in the band is playing full-tilt and all the little red lights on the four-track are lighting up, it sounds like a sonic bulldozer plowing through everything in its path. As you might expect from an 11PM release, Military School’s primary mode is fast-and-loud in the early 80s tradition, but the songs have peaks and valleys, mixing up tempos and using instrumental breaks to let you catch your breath for just a second before Military School slams the pedal back to the floor. The playing is loose and ugly, particularly the vocals, which are a Darby Crash-esque snarl that treats the song’s beat as a suggestion rather than a dictum for how the vocal pattern should flow. Some people will say this is too raw and noisy (they’re wrong), but if you (correctly) think it’s all about the energy, maaaaan, School Is War will go down like a cocktail of rubbing alcohol and Mad Dog.

Bloody Flag: Crushing Dominion cassette (Bunker Punks Discs & Tapes) Bloody Flag is the solo project from Chris Ulsh of Power Trip, Impalers, Mammoth Grinder, and many, many others, and this new cassette Crushing Dominion follows up Bloody Flag’s self-titled debut cassette from 2023 (which was also released on Bunker Punks). Bloody Flag is billed as “Disbones Goatworship,” and if you get the dual reference in that tag, then you’re almost certainly in the target audience for this. (For the uninitiated: “Disbones” refers to Disclose’s releases circa 2001-2005, when their style shifted slightly, while Goatworshipper was Kawakami from Disclose’s harsh noise project.) Crushing Dominionpicks up where that first cassette left off (in fact, I believe it was recorded around the same time); we named that tape Record of the Week when it came out, and the follow-up is just as worthy. Fans of Ulsh’s band Impalers (and who isn’t a fan of Impalers?) will warm right up to Bloody Flag’s in-the-pocket d-beat rhythms and harsh vocals, while the ripping palm muted parts and spot-on, Kawakami-style “nuclear rain” guitar solos give Bloody Flag its own flair. Along those same lines, Chris Hansell of Warthog contributes a harsh noise track to Crushing Dominion (just as he did on the first tape), and the S.P.K. / Neubauten-style tones fit perfectly with the heavy, apocalyptic vibe of Bloody Flag’s d-beat songs. While Bloody Flag sticks very close to the template Disclose laid out during their Disbones era, Ulsh’s deep knowledge of the style, his talent, and his years of experience playing all different kinds of heavy music elevate everything about Crushing Dominion. In particular, the riffs sound classic without feeling overly familiar, no small feat in a genre so crowded with adherents. If you love d-beat raw punk, I don’t see any way you couldn’t love this tape. Also, note Sorry State has a limited supply of this release; if we’re sold out, hit up the source Bunker Punks to snag a copy.

Future of Despair: S/T 12” (Archaic Records) This second release from Los Angeles’s Future of Despair came out on cassette in March 2024, but Archaic Records liked it enough to give it new life on a fresh 2026 vinyl pressing. I can see why this record caught Archaic’s ear; it’s an ambitious yet ripping slab of metal-punk whose breadth of scope and precision of execution are more than strong enough to be immortalized on wax. After opening with two tracks of brutal, hard-charging d-beat with a fuzzed, HM2-type guitar sound and gruff vocals that remind me of Jeppe from Disfear, Future of Despair takes their first stylistic detour with the third track, “Future of Despair.” This track is a lo-fi instrumental featuring a duo of electric guitar and a creepy-sounding organ laying down a somber melody that sounds like the moment of respite on an atmospheric black metal album. From there, it’s back into the heavy with “The Final Siege,” whose mid-paced tempo brings the band’s crust influences to the fore. Future of Despair’s d-beat and crust songs and parts are excellent: the performances are energetic, the arrangements are thoughtful and interesting, and riffing is original, with a touch of Tank-esque rock and roll flair, but for me the atmospheric / black metal touches really make the album special, whether it’s the atmospheric instrumentals like “Future of Despair” and “Barren Wastelands of a Desolate World” or bits that pop up in other songs, like the melodic, tremolo-picked guitar lead in “Ashes.” Clocking in at about 20 minutes long, Future of Despair leaves no space for redundancy or chaff, and the beautiful cover illustration by Burney matches the tone of the music perfectly. An excellent album deserving of more attention than it appears to have gotten thus far.

Krime: S/T 7” (Autoreverse Records) Autoreverse Records—Jos from Lärm’s label—brings us the debut 7” from this Dutch hardcore band featuring members of Citizens Patrol, who released a couple 7”s on No Way Records during that label’s heyday and an LP on Sorry State in 2011. While Krime largely stays true to the loud-and-fast 80s hardcore aesthetic that was the basis of Citizens Patrol’s sound, these five songs also benefit from the additional experience members have gained in the decade-plus since Citizens Patrol wound down. In that respect, Krime reminds me a lot of R.K.L. and Poison Idea, two bands who grew and even matured (musically, at least) during their tenures, but never stopped playing hardcore punk. You can definitely hear the influence of Feel the Darkness on a track like “Sour Milk,” and Krime’s vocalist has more than a little of Jason Sears’ snot in his voice. But mostly I hear those influences in Krime’s more ambitious songs, which can feel epic by 80s-style hardcore standards. “Brain Fog” is the only song that comes in over three minutes, but even the shorter tracks feel like they’re filled with twists and turns, going way beyond the simple verse/chorus structures most fast hardcore bands rely on. While you might expect more complex songs would be more obtuse or difficult, Krime’s songs are quite catchy and memorable, with big riffs, changes, and hooks scattered throughout every track. If you’re into this vein of hardcore that’s still ripping but also a bit more musically ambitious and mature—Long Knife is another good point of reference—check this out… it rips.

Brain Tourniquet: Sinking Deeper into Madness 12” (Iron Lung Records) Washington, DC’s Brain Tourniquet returns with their second album, on which they continue stretching their sound beyond the vintage power violence that influenced their first few releases. If you loved the direction Brain Tourniquet was moving in on their previous LP, An Expression in Pain (which we named Record of the Week when it came out in 2023), then I’m pretty sure you’ll love Sinking Deeper into Madness since it continues along that same path, summoning the grimness of first-wave power violence while all but throwing out that genre’s established templates. After starting with a sub-one-minute rager that feels like a concession to the PV heads, Sinking Deeper into Madness feels like it really gets started with the second track, “Concentrate.” That song begins with this eerie tapping on the hi-hat, which feels like something in a horror movie that would build tension before a jump-scare, but the industrial-sounding snare and the intriguing balance between airiness and density make me think of Swans’ early recordings. That dynamic between positive and negative sonic space plays out across the album, not so much swaying between heaviness and lightness but bringing them together, like an anvil floating away peacefully into the atmosphere. While doom and sludge metal both deal in these slow tempos and big power chords, Brain Tourniquet’s odd timings and unique arrangements (in which the players often lay out, staying silent or softly feeding back while the bass, drums, or guitar plays solo) feel more like prog rock than punk or metal. One exciting moment when all this collides is on the track “Eyes Wide Open,” when the band breaks into a Cro-Mags esque gallop, but after a few bars stops cold and segues jarringly into a long tom roll that sounds more like timpani. I should also mention that Sinking Deeper into Madness is a concept record. The album tells a story about a person whose family encourages them to get a lobotomy after they experience a manic episode. This story climaxes with the penultimate track, “Castrated Mind,” which flows into the cover of the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” that ends the record. I always thought the Beatles song was about the experience of “ego death” that often accompanies a strong psychedelic experience, but within the context of Sinking Deeper into Madness the song takes on an entirely different meaning, its gently moaning vocals and hazy waves of feedback reading as menacing rather than tranquil. What are we to make of our protagonist’s journey? Happy ending or tragedy? Sinking Deeper into Madness is a heady experience, but if you’re the kind of person who gets down with King Crimson’s Red and Swans’ Filth just as much as Crossed Out and No Comment, you’ll love taking this ride.

Daddy’s Boy: Four Hombres 12” (Drunken Sailor) Drunken Sailor Records released Great News!, the debut LP from this Chicago kinda-hardcore band back in 2022, and now they’re back with a new one. I almost let this slip past me without a listen because the band name and album artwork didn’t catch my attention, but I’m glad my trust in Drunken Sailor prompted me to give this a chance, because it smokes. Daddy’s Boy call themselves “questionably a hardcore band,” and that tag makes perfect sense in light of Four Hombres. The music is heavy, hardcore-fast, and very intense, but it’s as if Daddy’s Boy is trying to cram a world of angular and rhythmically ambitious post-hardcore music uncomfortably into hardcore’s loud-and-fast template. The guitarist uses power chords sparingly, preferring squealing, high-on-the-neck flurries of notes that make me think of Fugazi at their most aggressive. The rhythms are similarly diverse, periodically breaking into a hardcore charge only to drift back into odd, syncopated patterns that are nevertheless performed primarily at hardcore tempos. Atop the din, Daddy’s Boy’s singer spits rapid-fire observations on divorce, cell phones, corporate culture, man’s inhumanity to man, and more in a slightly higher-pitched, nerdy-sounding talk/shout-squeal, their nimble rhythms recalling the almighty Mark E. Smith of the Fall. The only halfway decent comparison I can come up with for Daddy’s Boy’s sound is Chris Thomson’s groups the Monorchid and Skull Kontrol, both of whom twisted hardcore into a more musically ambitious, slightly intellectualized form. If this amalgam of artiness and intensity moves you, I encourage you to check this out… I can’t think of a contemporary band doing anything like this with half of Daddy’s Boy’s verve and vigor.

The Easy Eight: The Easy Way Out 12” (Static Shock Records) Static Shock brings us the debut vinyl from this London group full of familiar faces from bands like the Chisel, Stingray, Arms Race, and Last Affront, including Chubby Charles of Chubby and the Gang on vocals. What caught my eye about Static Shock’s description of the Easy Eight was their comparison to 80s-era Ramones and the Misfits. Sure, bands get compared and compare themselves to the Ramones and the Misfits all the time, but usually those bands are super stylized adherents of the sub-genres based on those bands’ music. I had a feeling that wouldn’t be the case with the Easy Eight; based on the members’ backgrounds, I took those comparisons to mean the Easy Eight is going for something classic-sounding and pop/hook-forward, which is exactly what you get from The Easy Way Out. Chubby’s vocals are similar to what he did in Chubby and the Gang, but in the Easy Eight he occupies a lower register and has added a bit of a croon, stretching out syllabus for that extra bit of sing-along-ability. The music sounds appropriately classic as well, with upbeat but uncrowded rhythms, a big guitar sound, and timeless chord progressions. The melodies are also strong and immediately appealing. The only thing I wish was a little different is that I think the lyrics could be more clearly enunciated. That’s a big part of what made the Ramones and the Misfits so great… being able to hear the words and sing along, especially when you’re young and those lyrics are thrillingly transgressive. That’s a minor quibble, though, and more than offset by high-water moments like “Fear as a Gift” and “Going Home,” both of which feature memorable choruses and cool “Bonzo Goes to Bitburg”-esque synth parts that bring both tracks to a strong climax. Static Shock also notes that the A and B-side are from different sessions, with the B-side tracks being more recent. On the b-side the hooks are bigger and the playing more confident, the Easy Eight sounding more comfortable in their skin. That points toward exciting things for the future, but in the meantime this is a solid slice of singalong punk.

Useless Eaters: Music for Clout 12” (Total Punk Records) I’ve been a Useless Eaters fan since their 2011 LP Daily Commute, which lived in the “recently listened” pile next to my turntable for years before I could bear to file it away. Useless Eaters racked up a hefty, consistently strong discography between 2011 and 2016, going dormant for nearly a decade before returning with a surprise single on the Italian garage-punk institution Goodbye Boozy Records late last year and now this (comeback?) album on American garage-punk institution Total Punk Records. If you’re a fan of any of Useless Eaters’ previous records, you’ll have no trouble warming up to Music for Clout. The revived Useless Eaters still features hooky riffs, buzzing synths, angular rhythms, and Seth Sutton’s trademark disaffected vocals. Yet the sound has evolved, too. For starters, Music for Cloutsounds more layered than the Useless Eaters of old, with criss-crossing rhythms, textures, and melodies constantly vying for your attention. Alongside the density and the fuzz-drenched production, the way these songs venture out on punk’s progressive / experimental limb without losing their hooks reminds me of Swell Maps’ seminal debut A Trip to Marineville. But there’s no mistaking Music for Clout as anything but a product of today, particularly thanks to the album’s numerous samples, which sound like they’re taken from Instagram reels and sound blown out like someone is blasting them through their phone’s speaker a couple seats away from you on public transportation. The album’s lyrical conceit is also worth mentioning: an extended call-out of the fakes and poseurs who see music as the most expedient way to climb the social ladder. If you’re looking for something that balances the hooks with a heaping helping of aural and lyrical bite, this does the trick nicely.

Moyamoya: Hol Newland 12” (Permanent Residence) Debut album from this art-punk trio from Perth, Australia, often referred to as the most geographically isolated major city in the world. As you might expect given their locale, Moyamoya sounds wonderfully out of step with contemporary music, evoking (if anything) the quirky art rock and angular punk of the late 70s. With punk/funk bass lines, slashing PiL-esque chords, and a vérité recording that sounds organic and live, like a band playing together in a room, Hol Newland brings to mind Talking Heads’ earliest work, with the singer’s heavy accent and the way he stuffs a zillion words into every song recalling TV Smith of the Adverts. The songs’ compositions and arrangements are similarly dense, featuring odd time signatures, lots of parts, and diverging bass and guitar lines, sort of like a maximalist version of the Minutemen. Like all the bands I referenced above, Moyamoya’s lyrics are also well-considered. The songs are dense with verbiage and the vocals are very alive rhythmically, the singer often adopting patterns that remind me more of poetry than song lyrics, creating yet another counter-rhythm to the band’s already packed arrangements. The topics Moyamoya addresses tend to revolve around Australian identity, which gets examined from a wealth of different angles, from the polemical to the nearly abstract. Certainly Hol Newland isn’t for everyone. Some will find it too arty or get frustrated by that feeling that much of what’s happening is going over your head. But if you’re looking for aggressively intellectual art punk that’s totally on its own trip, this is well worth a listen.

System Shock: Hardcore Mania cassette (Poison Vision Records) Poison Vision delivers another ripper, further cementing their growing reputation as the go-to label for old-fashioned (North) American hardcore. System Shock is a two-person project from Canada, with “Tommy Käng, MD” playing all the instruments and D’arcy Rix Hayes handling lyrics and vocals. Maybe it’s the “one person playing everything” thing or the fuzzy four-track-style recording, but System Shock reminds me a lot of Shaved Ape. They have a similar riffing style and similar vocals too, the singer pulling air from so deep it sounds like they’re in danger of coughing up their esophagus. System Shock isn’t as tight or as precise as Shaved Ape (what is?), but the scope of their sound is a little wider, making room for flourishes like the lead guitar parts at the end of “Corporate Rats” and “Boring Apocalypse.” There’s no room for slow in their sound, though, as this barely deviates from a blistering tempo. System Shock sticks closely to the standard USHC template, which is fine by me and likely anyone else who likes it fast and raw.