Featured Releases

Abyecta: Inténtalo o Muere 7” (Metadona Records) New two-song single from this Chilean band, and while we’ve carried and enjoyed Abyecta’s previous releases, it really feels like they put everything they had into this record. Though it’s only two songs, there are more ideas here than a lot of bands have over the course of their entire lifespan. Both tracks are like little symphonies with central riffs that get reworked, repurposed, and elaborated on throughout the course of the song, building something that’s far more musically ambitious than your typical hardcore tune, yet never feeling like anything but pure hardcore punk. Take the a-side, “Inténtalo o Muere,” for instance. It sounds like a pretty standard hardcore tune for the first half with a super catchy main riff (which has a pretty heavy nod to the Execute) and a great chorus, but then at around the three-minute mark, it collapses into this flail of inchoate guitar noodling… then—surprise!—that inchoate noodling gradually coheres to something more solid, sort of like a slime monster emerging out of a puddle of ectoplasm, then the band breaks into a scorching new riff that incorporates a little piece of that first riff, yet feels completely new. The two halves of the song—divided by that little noodly part in the middle—are like separate but related songs, not just strung together but in a sophisticated musical dialog with one another. This is like classical composer-type shit, but if it were played by the English Dogs… and I love it! And while I’m blown away with how well-composed these songs are, I also have to shout out the vocals, which are just incredible… they’re punk as hell, but with a far deeper level of musicality than virtually anything else out there, and the melodies are just brilliant. As incredible as the riffs and the songs are, the vocals are right there with them, equally worthy of your attention. I really just can’t say enough good things about this single. Sadly, I think many people will miss it just because of the format, but if Abyecta puts together a 12” with material this strong, you better watch the fuck out.

Pura Manía: La Banda Es La Ley 12" (Roachleg Records) If you’ve been paying attention to the Sorry State newsletter for a while, you know we are fanatics about Pura Manía. I think everything the band has released so far has gotten Record of the Week, and their latest album, La Banda Es La Ley (“The gang is the law”) continues the streak. What do I love so much about Pura Manía? For starters, I love the way they balance their musical ambition with being dirty, grimy, and fucking punk; they’ve got both feet planted in the gutter, but they’re looking at the stars! As an aging punk whose tastes have grown (arguably) more sophisticated over the years, yet remains addicted to punk’s rawness and energy, it’s like Pura Manía gets me. Their music is dense, each song a maze of criss-crossing melodies and rhythms, but thoughtfully—perhaps even obsessively—arranged, moving from part to part in ways that feel natural but not obvious. These are songs that reward close, attentive listening, yet they don’t demand that kind of listening—they’re not precious or pretentious, and they have the energy and directness to tickle the pleasure centers of my punk brain from the very first listen. The individual components of each song—the melodic lead guitar lines, the driving but hooky bass lines, the vocals that move from searing and punk to kinda silly and cartoonish (those rolled R’s!), the infrequent but thrilling eruptions of synth—are so exciting on their own (and frequently have me saying, “whoa! that part was sick!” when I’m listening), but they’re supercharged when they’re stitched together into these miniature punk symphonies. Ditto for the album as a whole, which climaxes with the closing track, “Amor de Coladera (Veneno Y Glam).” This song sounds like nothing Pura Manía has attempted thus far, with a kind of woozy, sun-bleached rhythm and a lead guitar line huge enough to power a hit Oasis single. It might have been too much, but vocalist Cabeza balances it out with his most outrageous and punk performance on the record (really taking the rolled R’s to the next level LOL). The song also has a climactic bridge that almost brings a tear to my eye. You might call it a guitar solo because the guitarist takes center stage and it’s in the spot where a guitar solo usually sits, but it’s not just a bunch of wanky, show-y bullshit… it builds upon and elaborates the song’s central melody in a thrillingly sophisticated way. Pura Manía’s guitarist has the chops to be a classical composer, yet instead of wearing a tuxedo, he’s pouring all that thought and feeling into these grimy-ass punk songs. I fucking love it. And just like with the band’s last record on Roachleg, the artwork is as exciting, innovative, and completely fucking punk as the music, with a stunning jacket hand-screened on chipboard and a risographed lyric insert. Another brilliant and essential record from this band that never repeats themselves and always finds new ways to raise the bar.

Huggy Bear: Basic Strategies 10” (Jabs) Basic Strategies is a 10” compiling two Peel Sessions from 90s UK punk / riot grrrl group Huggy Bear. If you aren’t a devoted fan of the group, you might not realize it’s also the first Huggy Bear music released since the band dissolved in 1994. When Huggy Bear split, the members apparently didn’t look back, and their music has remained frustratingly out of print since. I must admit, though, that I’m not one of those devoted Huggy Bear fans. Their records have always been hard to find, so the only one I’ve ever owned is their split 12” with Bikini Kill, and even though I have that record, I haven’t spent a ton of time with the Huggy Bear side. Thus, I am a Huggy Bear novice, but as a novice I assure you Basic Strategies rises well above “for fans only” status. As you might expect from a BBC recording, the fidelity here is striking, but also the band’s performances are electrifying. I can imagine it must be very intimidating to go into the BBC’s studios to record a session. Surely some bands freeze up, but it sounds like this odd environment gave Huggy Bear a burst of energy. Stylistically, the songs range from sassy, garage-y songs that fans of Bikini Kill will flip for (“Her Jazz”) to more pensive, loud/quiet/loud workouts like the Pavement-ish “Nu Song,” with several songs lying somewhere in the middle, with fast, punk-ish drums and layers of fuzzed-out guitars with strong Sonic Youth vibes (some parts sound so much like Sonic Youth, in fact, that it has me wondering if Huggy Bear used alternate/open tunings like Sonic Youth did). Nearly every song strikes a great balance between being energetic, melodic, and immediate, yet also layered and sophisticated. The lyrics are also great, a kind of fractured take on riot grrrl’s confrontational politics, like Bikini Kill lyrics run through Mark E. Smith’s word blender. With eight short, exciting songs, killer period-appropriate artwork, and a tantalizingly cryptic insert, Basic Strategies has me hooked, and I look forward to wandering further down the Huggy Bear rabbit hole.

Hope?: Hell on Planet Earth 12” (Desolate Records) After a tape and a 7” EP, Minneapolis crusties Hope? delivers their first full-length, and it feels like their magnum opus. Hope?’s previous EP had a very 90s crust sound with a two-vocalist style that reminded me of Nausea, and while that style is still a big part of their sound on Hell on Planet Earth, Hope? expands their purview without making anything I’d call a stylistic departure. One of the strongest things about Hell on Planet Earth is the way each song has a distinct vibe. Every track explores a related but distinct nook of the crusty hardcore universe. As you might expect given the cover art nod to Antisect’s In Darkness, There Is No Choice., I hear a lot of UK crust influence in the meditative opener “Another World” and the churning, stenchcore-style sections in “Flowers for Ghosts,” while tracks like “Disconnected” and “Leeches” have more of that 90s US crust sound we heard on Hope?’s earlier material. Throughout the record, the riffs are interesting, with a Nigthfeeder-esque touch of groovy catchiness on “Mycelium” and “The Spiral” getting a bit more metal, its memorable main riff sounding like Metallica via English Dogs. Hope?’s music never colors outside the lines of crusty hardcore, but they find plenty of room to be thoughtful and interesting within the genre’s boundaries. The same goes for the lyrics, which consistently find fresh approaches to familiar topics like animal rights and environmentalism. The beautiful lyric booklet extends this approach, annotating the lyrics with illustrations and collages firmly grounded in the traditional anarcho aesthetic without feeling like a retread. Hell on Planet Earth is so firmly grounded in its crust universe that it might not interest outsiders, but any lifelong crusty will have a hard time resisting the way this album breathes new life into classic sounds.

Institute: S/T 7” (Anti-Fade Records) I wrote the official label blurb for this release, and while I hate writing about the same record twice, I wanted to send up the bat signal and make sure the Sorry State faithful know the new Institute is straight fire and should not be missed. If you missed their recent 12” Ragdoll Dance on Roachleg Records, you might not know that Institute sounds wholly revitalized at the moment. Not that they ever sounded less than vital, but nowadays they sound almost like a new band—hungry, like they’ve got something to prove. And if the three tracks that appear on this 7”—each of which has its own vibe, groove, instrumental palette, and structure (see my official blurb for more details on that)—are any sign, the band is still chock full of fresh and exciting ideas. And while the music here is brilliant, the lyrics are just as noteworthy. I’ve seen a lot of hand-wringing lately about whether and how punk will meet the current political moment, and I can think of few bands writing about the current political climate as compellingly as Institute. Rather than cosplay songs about long-dead politicians or retreads of the same topics Discharge made it safe to write about four decades ago, on these three tracks, Institute writes about things happening right now, and they write about them in a way that’s as direct, confrontational, and powerful as the 80s political punk bands that inspire them. For me, this 7” has it all. I’m not sure how long it’ll stick around since it’s billed as an Australian tour EP, but if you’re one of us who believe contemporary punk can rise to the level of the genre’s classics, you’re gonna want this record.

B.O.R.N.: 8 Tracks 12” (self-released) Alabama d-beaters B.O.R.N. have been kicking around for several years, and while we’ve carried a couple of their tapes at Sorry State, I believe this one-sided 12” is their debut vinyl (I say “I believe” because B.O.R.N.’s online presence is spotty… they have a Bandcamp, but I can’t find a page for them on Discogs). On an earlier tape, B.O.R.N. revealed their name stands for “belligerent onslaught of relentless noise,” and if that doesn’t tell you what they sound like, listening to about five seconds of music will show you B.O.R.N.’s style lies firmly in the Disclose / Physique end of raw d-beat hardcore. However, B.O.R.N. has their own take on the genre that makes them stand out in the glut of bands plying this style. First, while a lot of similar bands (including Physique) go for a piercing, trebly tone in their recordings, B.O.R.N. has opted on this record for a warm recording that sounds very organic, more like the earliest Disclose releases than the more brittle, later-era Disbones releases. While the sound is not as harsh, it’s no less intense or aggressive, and the recording style really highlights B.O.R.N.’s strong ensemble playing. I’m not sure if B.O.R.N. tracked these songs live, but it sounds like they did, and it’s a welcome contrast to the more industrial-sounding recordings a lot of noisy d-beat bands go for nowadays. B.O.R.N.’s other key strength—and this is something I called out when I wrote about one of their previous tapes—is the lead guitar playing. Since the riffs are so straightforward in this style, the leads are where a guitarist’s personality can really shine. B.O.R.N.’s guitarist doesn’t really do the “nuclear rain” style with lots of hammer-ons, but something more like Bones’s leads in Discharge, an intuitive style where the guitar is wielded like a rusty shiv in a prison fight and might erratically change direction or approach at any second. It’s totally thrilling. While B.O.R.N.’s 12” might not be the loudest, fastest, noisiest, or meanest d-beat record you’ve ever heard, there’s more than enough personality and energy here to get any self-respecting crusty’s fist in the air.

Mem//brane: S/T 12” (Phobia Records) Phobia Records brings us the full-length debut from this crust / stench band from the Pacific Northwest. Mem//brane’s take on crust is straightforward and over-the-plate, and when you combine that with the clear recording and precise execution on this full-length, a casual listener might be apt to dismiss this as generic. However, when you give Mem//brane your attention, you hear what a great band they are. The playing here is tight but agile, moving between several rhythms, from a galloping charge to the churning, chugging stench rhythm that’s a huge part of so many of my favorite bands in this style, from Amebix right through to Rigorous Institution. The riffs are strong, the rhythm section is thick and bruising, and the leads do a great job of bringing in additional melody and texture. The vocals are deep, hoarse, and powerful, and while it sounds like they’re bellowing forth from the depths of hell, I can’t help but wish they were a little more articulate. You’d be hard-pressed to identify a single word of lyrics in most of these songs, and while the vocals sound cool, it would also be cool to have a big chorus or two I could shout along with. I’d love to hear what Mem//brane would sound like if they took some more daring choices with their songwriting. They are talented players and they lay down a spot-on heavy crust vibe here, but a couple of big choruses or an unexpected-but-exciting stylistic detour could propel this from really good to truly outstanding. In the meantime, though, if you like this style of crunchy metallic crust—particularly when it has clear, powerful production—Mem//brane’s debut will scratch the hell out of that itch.

London Clay: Private View 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus) La Vida Es Un Mus released this full-length debut from London Clay late in 2025, but it seemed to fly under many people’s radars. Which makes sense, I suppose, because Private View is a wallflower of a record. While most records burst into the room screaming “LOOK HOW COOL I AM! LIKE ME!,” Private View sulks in the corner intriguingly, reading a book that’s too smart for you, daring you to engage. I contend that Private View is a beautiful, fascinating record, but it reveals itself slowly. The notes I made while listening to Private View are full of words like “smudged,” “smeared,” and “blurred,” and when you compare London Clay with the crispness of groups like Modem or Fatamorgana (ostensibly similar bands, in that they feature feminine vocals and primarily electronic instruments), the difference is striking. With those artists, the beats are insistent and the melodies are crystalline, so clear it’s like they beamed them straight into your brain. But there’s something tantalizing about the way London Clay buries their melodies in distortion and delay and the way the singer murmurs into the microphone like she’s afraid of being overheard. The object of my desire—that glorious pop nugget that lies just below the surface of these songs—drifts in and out of focus, but lives mostly in a space that’s just out of reach. On “Faraday” it’s right there, while “Clifton Rise” teases you for nearly five minutes before it delivers its blissed-out, shoegaze-y crescendo. And then there’s “The Obelisk,” a patience-testing eight-minute track (song? piece of musique concrète?) whose rhythm track loops a screeching 70s/80s-era dot matrix printer… the song makes me feel like I’m trapped in an office that doubles as an outer circle of hell. The handful of similar records I can think of—the Fall’s Dragnet, SPK’s early singles, the new Puppet Wipes album from last year—also have their difficult moments, and those moments are important. By pushing you away with “The Obelisk,” “Clifton Rise” shines that much brighter. The packaging extends this aesthetic beautifully, particularly the half-size zine that accompanies the vinyl. Page after page of mostly text-less collages grounded in the Crass / Poison Girls aesthetic (and similarly beautiful), but with a Situationist-like inscrutability. So, if you’re the kind of uncomplicated person who can get out of your own head and just enjoy a dumb pop tune, then maybe Private Viewisn’t for you. But if you’re a worrier, if you like arty films, and if your most valued experiences with art tend to start with disorientation, then maybe it’s worth making space in your life for London Clay.

Pray to Be Saved: demo cassette (Sex Fiend Abomination) Not to be overshadowed by last week’s Record of the Week by System Maintains, Sex Fiend Abomination also dropped this scorcher from Washington, DC’s Pray to Be Saved. While the band’s name might seem strange, once you know it’s a song from Extreme Noise Terror’s Phonophobia, it makes perfect sense. I didn’t get the reference at first, but ENT was the first band I thought of when I heard this demo. In other words, this is blistering fast and noisy d-beat hardcore with a harsh, almost industrial edge to it. The drummer feels like they’re playing as fast as they can, constantly on the verge of losing control, yet always landing perfectly on the tight, Gauze-esque punches that punctuate the songs. I love it when bands burst out of the gate intense as fuck, yet continuously find new ways to up the ante, and that’s precisely what Pray to Be Saved does here. The songs always feel like they’re at maximum intensity, but then a blistering solo will come out of nowhere and make things even crazier. The vocals are also strong, occasionally breaking out wild screams (like the beginning of “Guillotine”), but primarily using a slightly guttural shout that works great when it’s time to deliver a big vocal hook (see, once again, “Guillotine,” particularly the chorus, when the singer screams “Guillotine!”). While this is Pray to Be Saved’s M.O. for the first three tracks, on the back half of the demo they get a little weirder. A phaser-drenched guitar grows more prominent over the last few songs, then the demo climaxes with the five-minute closing track “When Will We Learn?,” a mid-paced song that leans into that quasi-industrial, post-Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing thing I mentioned above. This is a bruising demo, and honestly it seems like a shame that it’s just a tape. If someone wants to press this on vinyl, I’ll be your first customer.

Streets of Separation: Faux Fur 7” (Helta Skelta Records) The long-running label Helta Skelta Records brings us the debut six-song EP from this three-piece band from their hometown of Perth, Australia. I’ve grown to trust Helta Skelta over the years; they don’t release many records, but when they release something, it’s worth paying attention to . I’m glad I paid attention to Streets of Separation, even though they sound nothing like the music I usually listen to nowadays. The label’s description mentions “a strong mix of post and pre Y2K,” and that’s a great way of putting it. There’s something very 90s about Streets of Separation; this mostly comes down to their riffs, which can be (but aren’t always) grungy and sludgy. Sometimes the band wallows in the muck—see the Incesticide vibes of the closing track, “Sludge Fuck”—but more often these sludgy riffs are implanted into songs that are kinda poppy, or at least have strong vocal melodies. And speaking of vocals, all three members sing, and their rather disparate approaches to singing are a big part of what makes Faux Fur so dynamic and interesting. Back to the “post and pre Y2K” thing, though; while Streets of Separation has the aforementioned characteristics that remind me of the 90s, they don’t sound like a 90s throwback at all. Their particular brand of lo-fi feels very of-this-moment, and while they don’t sound like any of the contemporary Australian garage-punk bands you’re probably familiar with (most of which aren’t from anywhere near Perth anyway), there’s something similar in how Streets of Separation approaches songwriting, particularly how they aren’t afraid of hooks. I also love how this doesn’t sit comfortably in one stylistic lane. Some moments have a grimy, garage-y quality that reminds me of Deaf Wish (or maybe a less jangly Gun Club?), while others sound like noise rock filtered through modern lo-fi punk. Whatever lane Streets of Separation find themselves in, though, the music and the songs are always interesting, making this EP well worth a listen.

System Maintains: 3 Song Demo cassette (Sex Field Abomination) One of the most exciting new labels in recent memory—Richmond’s Sex Fiend Abomination—brings us a short but brilliant 3-song demo by this punky metal band from Charlotte, North Carolina. This tape dropped digitally a couple of months ago, and from the moment I hit play I was enthralled. I mean, the band says it all when they describe themselves as “your sketchy uncle’s Metallica and Bathory tapes played through a wrecked boombox,” but that pithy description doesn’t get at how unique that combination is and how great System Maintains is at throwing the right ingredients into the cauldron to create this poisonous brew. Regarding the “broken boombox” part, the production here is a perfectly vintage-sounding, fuzzy scrawl akin to what contemporary punk bands who record on 4-track are producing… imagine the blown-out roar of Cicada or Shaved Ape, but metal. When the whole band plays at full intensity, it bleeds together into a wall of fuzz, but there’s enough room in the production for the key riffs and vocal lines to stand out, particularly since the songs are often arranged so those parts get highlighted as instrumental breaks. As for the songs and riffs themselves, they are fucking killer. I had an epiphany at the gym after listening to this tape like 5 times in a row and pondering how they can write such great riffs… then it hit me: the killer riff that starts “Final War,” the first song on the tape, is just a slightly reworked version of the intro to Metallica’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” And then the riff they play immediately after that—which also totally shreds—I’m pretty sure I recognize from a D.R.I. song. Some people might worry about this, but not me. As I like to say, there are only 12 notes, and I don’t need every band to reinvent the wheel. Even if there is source material for some of these riffs, the way System Maintains absorbs them into their neck-deep vibe—and creating that vibe is, I think, the real standout strength of this demo—completely transforms them. This is just thrilling, and by the time its 5-minute runtime is up, I’m so stoked that the only thing I can think to do is play it again… and again, and again…

Ratos De Porão: Ensaio Para O Lira - 1985 7" (Morrer Discos) Alongside an official reissue of the band’s landmark debut LP—1984’s Crucificados Pelo Sistema (which we also have in stock)—Morrer Discos brings us this lesser-known but killer slice of Ratos De Porão ephemera. It’s worth taking a moment to understand what this release is and how it fits into RDP’s (and hardcore’s story). After Ratos De Porão recorded Crucificados Pelo Sistema, the drummer and vocalist left the band. Original members Jão and Jabá—bass and guitar—reconnected with original drummer Betinho, with Jão taking over vocals, reconstituting the group’s 1981/82 lineup (the same iteration of the group that contributed six scorching tracks to 1983’s brilliant Sub compilation LP). What’s crazy isn’t so much that the original band got back together, but that they basically turned the clock back and picked up right where they left off. Thus, even though it says 1985 on the cover is this record, the music here is pure 1981/2 hardcore punk. I have always loved recordings that date right from the birth of hardcore, and that’s what this sounds like… moments remind me a lot of Bad Brains’ Black Dots tape, though what it really brings to mind is the earliest Riistetyt / Cadgers stuff. Of course there was a lot of cross-pollination between the Brazilian and Finnish scenes, and bands like Ratos and Cadgers just had to be working with a very similar set of inspirations. The recording here is very raw… I could be wrong, but it sounds to me like a rehearsal recording rather than a multi-track session, since there are bits of chatter and tuning between the actual songs. Nevertheless, it sounds fantastic. You can hear everything (well, maybe the bass gets kind of lost in places…), the guitar sound is brutal and powerful, and even though there are no overdubs that I can hear, there are backing vocals make the songs sound really dynamic. And the songs themselves are brilliant… trimmed-to-the-bone slices of minimalist hardcore punk with that infectious sense of excitement and discovery that you get from the first-wave classics.