Featured Releases

Nu-Viles: A Taste of… the New Wave 7” (Vinyl Dog Records) Vinyl Dog Records—the label started in 1993 by Mike, singer for the Stitches—returns to the fold after a long hiatus, and their first release back is a ripper. The Nu-Viles are the perfect band for Vinyl Dog to return with because they pick up a few threads from the label’s heyday—the 77-influenced neo-beach punk of the Smogtown and the Stitches and the keyboard-damaged squall of Le Shok—and bring them together with the new wave of No Way Records-style hardcore which has been popping up worldwide, but particularly in California. For someone like me who loves all that stuff, this is a perfect recipe for blazing, memorable punk rock. It’s hardly de rigueur for hardcore bands to release proper singles with just one track on the a-side, but “Lead & Speed” is a great song that deserves to be highlighted as such. Lyrically, the song leans on the age-old analogy between speed the drug and speed as in going fast, while musically the song embodies the rush you get from both. It’s catchy as hell, but it’s not really poppy. In fact, there aren’t even any words in the chorus. Each verse ends with the words “lead and speed,” but as they hit what you expect to be the “chorus” part, the vocals and guitar both drop out and the bassist takes center stage for a crazy little run. Maybe it’s because I play bass, but writing a song with no words in the chorus and a bass riff as the hook is just awesome to me. The two songs on the b-side are a little more standard in their structure (i.e. they have proper choruses built around vocal hooks), but they’re just as fast and exciting. This may be a deep-cut reference, but the Nu-Viles remind me a lot of Rabies, one of the first bands Sorry State put out. Maybe it’s the singers’ similar SoCal accents, but they have other things in common too, particularly the busy bass lines. If you liked Rabies you’ll love Nu-Viles, but the Nu-Viles are even faster, nearly hitting Gang Green-type tempos, and the Screamers-esque keyboards lurking toward the back of the mix give it even more density and an extra unsettling edge. Throw in a classic-looking sleeve and you have one hot punk single.

Plastic Tones: Can You Keep a Secret? 12” (Kick Rock Records) France’s Kick Rock Records (Befa from Deletär’s label) and Japan’s Vox Populi Records team up to bring us the third album from this Finnish power-pop band. We’ve carried Plastic Tones records in the shop before, but only in small quantities and they always disappeared before I got a chance to spend much time with them, so I won’t be able to tell you how Can You Keep a Secret? stacks up against the rest of their discography. I can, however, tell you that it’s a killer power-pop record. The bulk of its nine songs mine a vein of sun-bleached, shimmery pop with a hard rock edge. While there are keyboards and polished production, riffy electric guitars are at the center of the arrangements; consequently, this brings to mind the more “rock” end of early 80s new wave like Kim Wilde or Pat Benetar. Sheer Mag works in a similar space (and I can hear touches of peak-era Fleetwood Mac in both Plastic Tones and Sheer Mag), but Plastic Tones feel even more pop, particularly when their sugar-rush choruses hit with their soaring melodies and stacked vocal harmonies. The middle part of the record (tracks 2-8) is just hit after hit, every song building to a hugely climactic chorus. While there’s enough grit that Can You Keep a Secret? fits on a label known mostly for d-beat, I could see fans of a modern indie rock band like Alvvays loving Plastic Tones too. Interestingly, the album is bookended with two tracks that stand out from the others. The leadoff song, “We’re All in This Together,” has a different lead vocalist than the other songs on the album, and while it’s not that much different than the others structurally, the melody is subtler than in the other songs and its impact isn’t as immediate. As for the last track, “You Can Do Whatever You Wanna Do,” that’s also not a huge departure, but it’s at a much faster tempo than the other songs on the album, giving this song a punkier edge that I love (think Nasty Facts) and ending the album on a high note. While Can You Keep a Secret?’s polish may be too much for some of the Sorry State crowd, if you have a pop sweet tooth and a soft spot for early 80s new wave, this record is like a one-way ticket to your happy place.

Face-Off: S/T 7” (Donor Records) The UK’s Donor Records continues their hot streak (having recently released scorchers from Mother Nature and Tormented Imp) with this debut 7” from Yorkshire’s Face-Off. While Mother Nature and Tormented Imp both had an arty bent, Face-Off is undiluted hardcore punk. The a-side starts with two rippers, “Lethal Dose” and “State Surveillance,” and while they’re both pitched straight down the middle for lovers of classic USHC, the energy level is off the charts… they really captured lightning in a bottle with this recording. The b-side mixes up the tempo, but even though the tempos decrease slightly over the course of the record, the EP gets more intense as it goes on rather than less. Style-wise, Face-Off reminds me of the full-bore assault of Jerry’s Kids, but with touches of Tear It Up’s desperation and enough groove to give it a slight west coast US feel, but none of this feels belabored… the focus is squarely on the explosive energy. The packaging is great too, with classic stippled punk illustrations on the sleeve and a cool lyric insert that uses a bunch of different fonts and graphic elements to visually underscore the themes of paranoia and information overload in the lyrics. All in all, a brilliantly executed, highly addictive hardcore punk EP.

Active Ingredients: Discography 2x12” (Street Rats Records) Kentucky punk label Street Rats Records brings us a double-LP discography from 80s Lexington, Kentucky hardcore punk band Active Ingredients. Active Ingredients first came on my radar sometime in the early 2000s. This was in the dark days before every punk record ever had been ripped and posted on youtube, and one of my most listened-to records was a bootleg 12” featuring four killer under-the-radar 80s US hardcore EPs in their entirety: Mecht Mensch’s Acceptance, Clitboys’ We Don’t Play the Game, the Catatonics’ Hunted Down, and Active Ingredients’ Bringing Down the Big Boys. That record (alongside a similar bootleg with EPs by the Abused, Antidote, Urban Waste, and the Mob) was huge for me, and was a big part of cementing my love for / obsession with 80s US hardcore. Active Ingredients had a sneering and sarcastic take on 80s hardcore, reminding me of bands like Dead Kennedys, Adrenalin OD, and the Angry Samoans both in the snotty vocal and lyrical approach and the hooky, punky music (as opposed to the harder, more Discharge-informed end of the spectrum). Eventually I found an original copy of Bringing Down the Big Boys, but for some reason I never investigated Active Ingredients further, and it turns out they released a lot more music during their original run. I didn’t even realize Bringing Down the Big Boys is their second EP—they also released a self-titled 7” in 1984—and there was also a cassette-only full-length called Fly Again in 1987. All this is collected on this double-LP discography alongside an entire LP side of totally unreleased demo tracks. Hearing all this new-to-me Active Ingredients music is pretty exciting. After a handful of listens to the discography, I think Bringing Down the Big Boys is the moment where everything really came together for the band, but all the other material is well worth hearing. The packaging doesn’t make it clear when the demos were recorded (maybe that information is lost to the sands of time), but it sounds like some of them pre-date the first EP given their more 70s-punk-informed sound. These songs have a similar air of sarcastic menace to the well-known material, and I imagine there are some 70s punk heads who will think this is Active Ingredients’ best stuff. The 1984 self-titled EP is also new to me, and that basically sounds like a prototype version of the second EP (the two records even start with the same song, “Service with a Smile”). The recording isn’t quite as good as the second EP and the band isn’t as tight, but the songs are just as strong. If you already have the EPs, the real gem of this discography is the 1987 cassette-only full-length Fly Again, presented here on vinyl for the first time. While Fly Again isn’t (for the most part) as fast as the EPs, it still sounds like Active Ingredients, but with a slightly riffier, maybe even sludgier sound. Fly Again sounds a lot like Fang to me, particularly given the tone of sardonic menace that runs through all of Active Ingredients’ recordings. Of course you get the requisite ephemera and flyers (Active Ingredients must have played with every national punk/hardcore band that came through Lexington) on the insert and inner gatefold, plus a second insert written by Dan from Street Rats detailing his personal history with the band and how the discography project came together (fun fact: this was originally supposed to come out on General Speech). Active Ingredients fans will be stoked to own great-sounding versions of all this material, but even if you don’t know the band, any 80s US hardcore deep head will get plenty of play out of this collection.

Exclaim: Fusillade 12” (General Speech Records) General Speech Records brings us a compilation of two cassettes by this obscure 80s Japanese hardcore band from Akita City, Japan. Aside from those cassettes, Exclaim’s only release during the 80s was a track on the Shodoku Gig compilation LP, and (much like previous General Speech reissue subjects Deef) until this reissue, only the deepest Japanese hardcore heads would have known them (I certainly did not). God bless General Speech, though, because this is cool as hell! The lore GS gives in their description is that Dogma Records (G.I.S.M., the Comes, Gastunk) advertised an upcoming LP from Exclaim that never came to fruition, and the tracks from Fusillade show they would have been a perfect fit for the label. Maybe Exclaim isn’t quite as good as the Dogma releases by G.I.S.M., the Comes, or Gastunk (what is?), but they certainly would have been of a piece with the label’s early output in nearly every other respect. Exclaim just has that sound you fell in love with if you’re a huge fan of the aforementioned bands: the driving, Motorhead-ish rhythms, metallic yet haunting lead guitar, vocals that alternate between gruff growls and spooky melodies, and atmosphere for days. The nine tracks from the original Fusillade cassette (which comprise the bulk of this LP) are the primo stuff, with a powerful recording that rivals any of the genre’s classics, while the final four tracks on Fusillade, originally released on a cassette called Final, have a thinner sound and are more musically complex and ambitious (Exclaim seems to have been following a similar trajectory to early Gastunk). I’m glad to have them together in one package, though, especially since General Speech always keeps its releases at the nice price. A little bit of useful context (a band photo where they look cool as hell, reproductions of the original lyric sheets and cassette j-cards, and a brief interview with Exclaim’s drummer Susumu) rounds out the package. Essential listening for anyone who has binged on the 80s Japanese punk classics and remains thirsty for more.

Destruct / Absolut: Deafen & Disarm 7” (Acute Noise Manufacture) Two of contemporary d-beat’s heavyweights team up for a new 6-song split 7” that, besides providing a welcome new dose from each band, also displays the range of aesthetic possibilities within this narrowly prescribed sub-genre. Destruct delivers three new tracks, and while they’ve labeled their last few releases as belonging to their “Noise Room era” (since the legendary Tokyo-based recording studio has had a big hand in shaping the sound), they’re not a huge departure from the Bastard-via-Disclose style Destruct has been honing since they started. I will say, though, that the pummeling, virtuosic drumming and brilliantly fried guitar and bass tones here are totally dialed in, and Destruct’s side of the split is one of the best-sounding records I’ve heard in some time, a monstrous assault that’ll make your turntable’s stylus beg for mercy. Absolut wisely decides not to compete with Destruct in sounding bigger and heavier on their three songs. If Destruct’s songs are like one of Dario Argento’s vintage 70s giallos, rendered in high-key color and cringe-inducing detail, Absolut’s tracks are like the 1922 Nosferatu film: smudged, distorted, and covered in a thick blanket of atmosphere. While it can be difficult to grasp the particulars of Absolut’s metal-punk sound through the din, the fits of lead guitar that bubble to the surface periodically are fascinating, labyrinthine eruptions of notes that give the most out-there technical thrash bands of the 80s (Watchtower? Forbidden?) a run for their money. While some will prefer Destruct’s traditionalism and others will lean toward Absolut’s progressivism, any true d-beat maniac will love both sides of this raging slab.

Paranoiac: Morbid Psycho / Mental Laceration 12" (Toxic State Records) Toxic State Records brings us the debut vinyl from this Los Angeles metal band featuring familiar faces from hardcore and punk bands like Condition, Blazing Eye, Hoax, and many other. Paranoiac breaks the Toxic State mold (insofar as there is one) in several respects: the band is from L.A. rather than New York, they’re the most purely metal band Toxic State has ever put out, and there isn’t even a screen printed jacket on this one (though the art looks killer regardless of printing method). While the presentation is punk, the music sounds like it reaches almost exclusively back to Slayer’s Metal Blade era for inspiration, with an evil, blackened thrash vibe that sounds so classic it could have been recorded at any point in the past 40 years. Despite this being on a small independent punk label, the band is so tight and accomplished they can occasionally sound as precise as Slayer did in their Def American era, particularly on “Mental Laceration,” whose mid-paced groove sounds ripped straight from Seasons in the Abyss. I don’t want to paint Paranoiac as Slayer copycats, though. The drumming is very different (no double kick!), as are the vocals, which have something of Tom Araya’s sneer but a much raspier, almost crusty grit to them. While there’s a lot of “punks playing metal” about lately, Paranoiac separates themselves from the pack with truly noteworthy, high-level musicianship and a sound that’s just different enough from the typical Bolt Thrower and Amebix influences that typically come from this world. Morbid Psycho / Mental Laceration is one of those records you can throw on at a party full of punks and metalheads and both crowds will pound their fists in the air in approval.

Mirage: S/T 12” (Roachleg Records) After a couple of noteworthy EPs, New York’s Mirage deliver their first proper LP for Roachleg Records. Like Sorry State’s Psico Galera, on this album Mirage seems to take a lot of influence from the later work by pioneers of the “furious years” of Italian hardcore. While bands like Wretched, Indigesti, and Cheetah Chrome Motherfuckers started out creating some of the wildest, most primitive-sounding music I’ve ever heard, all three bands gradually moved toward sounds that were far more musically accomplished and characterized by a uniquely unsettling atmosphere. Mirage seems to be in the same boat as those bands as they matured, committed to punk’s fundamental intensity and heaviness, but augmented with an ambition to spread their wings and make sounds that are more creative, intricate, and varied. And Mirage shows a huge amount of range here. While most songs feature fast, knotty rhythms you’ll love if you dug the latest Psico Galera record, a track like “Morso Infettivo” proves they can still put the pedal to the metal and summon that sense of wildness that made so many of us fall in love with 80s Italian hardcore. And there are a few moments that are downright surprising, like the instrumental interlude “Mirage I.” “Mirage I” is the first song on the b-side, and when I drop the needle on that side, my head always snaps back for a second as I wonder to myself, “did someone press an Eddy Current Suppression Ring record on the b-side of this by mistake?” But nope, that’s just Mirage leaning into a heavy, almost krautrock-y rhythm and letting a refreshing draft of melody into their world. It’s all wrapped in a recording that’s heavy, bright, and textured in all the right ways and a beautiful, insert-heavy package featuring a ton artwork from guitarist Matt Morgantini. A must-listen for anyone who values both originality and intensity their hardcore punk.

Barrows: Tomorrow’s Fear 12” (self-released) Tomorrow’s Fear is the self-released debut album from Barrows, from Japan’s Tajima province. Mike from Analog Attack was talking about Tomorrow’s Fear in one of his recent videos, and he spoke about how Tajima is a provincial part of Japan without the important punk infrastructure of venues, practice spaces, and record stores you find in larger cities/scenes like Tokyo and Osaka. Barrows’ home base seems significant to me because, despite the heavy nods to Disaster and Disclose in so many aspects of this album, Tomorrow’s Fear nevertheless avoids the feeling that it came off the raw punk assembly line. Yes, it’s bathed in the fried tones of Disclose’s Tragedy, but unlike, say, the new Meanwhile EP we were talking about a few weeks ago (which, by the way I love), Tomorrow’s Fear doesn’t feel like a studious deconstruction and reconstruction of Discharge’s songs (not that there’s anything wrong with that!). Because the riffs and songs don’t feel overly familiar, they hit in a way that feels more visceral and direct; I’m never pulled out of the moment by an impulse to figure out exactly what Barrows is appropriating. That being said, Tomorrow’s Fear is pitched-down-the-middle, no-surprises d-beat raw punk, so if that’s your thing (read: you’re still regularly spinning that killer Ultimate Disaster record from last year), I don’t see any reason you wouldn’t love this.

Amdi Petersens Armé: Discography 12" (Havoc Records) DIY hardcore’s retrospective lens turns it attention to the new millennium, and Havoc Records skims the cream right off the top with this discography LP from Denmark’s Amdi Petersens Armé. As I remember it, there were three things that happened in relatively quick succession around 2001-02 that changed everything for me. The first was seeing Japan’s Total Fury on their first US tour. They were the first band I ever saw whose members all dressed as if it were still 1982, and their record and live show were both incredible. The second was Amdi Petersens Armé’s first 7” and US tour (which I sadly didn’t catch… I’m still bummed about it to this day). The third was seeing Direct Control for the first time, which meant this new (old) thing was happening in my neck of the woods and not just in distant, far-off lands. I don’t think I can accurately convey how revolutionary Amdi Petersens Armé’s scratchy guitar sounds and simple, catchy riffs felt at that time. I had been going to gigs for five or six years at that point, and while most of what I was listening to during that time was nominally punk rock, in retrospect it had so many trappings of the bloated era of 70s rock that preceded punk: (comparatively) lavish studio production, (again, comparatively) technical and precise musicianship, slick and professional presentation and marketing, etc. Then, just as the Sex Pistols did in ’76, a new wave of bands like Amdi Petersens Armé called bullshit, wiped the slate clean, and took everything back to its most basic and immediate form. For me, it felt revolutionary, and these bands not only changed the records I bought, but also changed the way I dressed, the way I talked, my politics, and many other aspects of my identity. Amdi Petersens Armé’s music has never really left my turntable in the 25 years since, and revisiting this discography LP in 2026, it sounds just as powerful as it did back then. APA wrote great fucking songs, and if you’re not skanking to “Stalinjugend” or “Skate & Dø,” then we have very different ideas about what makes for great hardcore punk. I’m sure a cynical person could say APA’s music was rendered redundant by the legions of similarly-minded groups who came in their wake (not to mention the early 80s originators who preceded them), but I’d counter that there’s something ineffable in these songs that inspires and captures the imagination. There’s a reason the tracks collected here were ground zero for a whole sub-scene that has flowered repeatedly over the two and a half decades since APA called it quits. While thousands of young punks have been inspired by APA’s music after listening to crappy youtube rips, Havoc Records gives the band an appropriate epitaph by repressing this discography LP, which originally came out on the Danish label Hjernespind in 2013. The LP is beautifully produced, capturing all the band’s essential tracks alongside a huge 32-page booklet full of photos, flyers, and other scene ephemera. The 2013 pressing was downright impossible to get in the States; I wanted one desperately when it came out, but even someone as record-mad as myself couldn’t nail down a copy. (When I finally came across one in a Helsinki used bin in 2025, I snatched it right up.) I imagine that if, like me, you’ve been lusting after this record for more than ten years, you’ve already picked up your copy. For the rest of you, snag this while you can and enjoy getting acquainted with one of the best bands hardcore has ever given us.

Meanwhile: A Conflict of Memory 7” (Kick Rock Records) In conjunction with their appearance at the Kick Rock Festival in France earlier this summer, Kick Rock Records brings us the first new Meanwhile record in 18 years, and boy-oh-boy is it worth the wait! Usman—whose detailed knowledge of this vein of hardcore is something to behold—tells me the sound on this new record resembles Meanwhile’s 2005 EP Ghostface Democracy (one of his favorites in their discography), but the main reference point that comes to my mind is Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing. For all the hundreds of bands whose music is firmly grounded in Discharge, relatively few explore HNSNSN’s layered sound, and fewer still capture anything like that album’s power. A Conflict of Memory, though, gives me a very similar feeling, that distinctive reverb, the multitracked guitars, and the wandering, heavily chromatic lead playing coalescing to make me feel like I’m in the middle of a swirling, violent tornado of sound. As with many bands who follow Discharge’s template so closely, there’s an element of collage to Meanwhile’s composing process that might turn people off, and there are several points on A Conflict of Memory when anyone with a well-worn set of Discharge vinyl will be tempted to shout Discharge’s lyrics rather than Meanwhile’s. However, I’ll assume that if you’ve gotten this far into reading this, you acknowledge the value of contemporary bands elaborating on and iterating Discharge’s work. And, indeed, if you’re one of those maniacs who can never get enough Discharge-style hardcore, just know the new Meanwhile EP rips and you definitely need it.

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.