Featured Releases

Crudity: The Total End 12" (De:Nihil Records) De:Nihil Records brings us a complete anthology release from 80s Stockholm hardcore band Crudity. Crudity was an extremely short-lived band, lasting long enough to make only one studio recording and play one gig, but the impact of those two performances—both of them collected here—has been immeasurable. Crudity’s lone 12-track recording session was laid to tape in 1985, with Åke from Mob 47 at the controls, in the same space (a bowling alley, oddly enough) and using the same equipment Åke used on the Mob 47 EP. As with Mob 47’s EP, the music Åke captured for Crudity is as raw and vital as it gets. All 12 tracks originally appeared on the legendary Stockholm’s Mangel compilation cassette, got dubbed and passed around among collectors for decades (and reissued several times with varying degrees of legitimacy), and shaped a sub-style of ultra-fast d-beat hardcore that would come to be known as mangel. Combining the off-the-rails, Discharge-inspired energy of Swedish forbears like Anti-Cimex and Shitlickers with a slightly heavier, more locked-in groove, Crudity’s recordings serve as a missing link between the earlier Swedish hardcore scene and the next wave that came in the later 80s with bands like Totalitär and No Security. So many bands have drawn influence from Crudity’s sound in the intervening decades that it may take a moment to appreciate how important and exciting they must have been at the time, but today’s listener can still hear a purity in Crudity’s vision that is totally inspiring. Alongside that legendary studio session on side A, the b-side of The Total End features a recording of Crudity’s sole live gig, which featured a slightly different lineup, but is no less raging. The sound on both sides is great, presenting these recordings in the best light possible without compromising their fundamental rawness. As you might expect from a band that existed so briefly, there isn’t a lot in the way of archival material for this reissue, but we get some nice graphic design, a few crucial photos, and blurbs from several musicians about Crudity’s impact (including our own Usman, who takes his rightful place alongside d-beat luminaries like Jacky from Framtid and Jallo from Meanwhile / Totalitär / No Security). An essential reissue for any self-proclaimed scholar of 80s Swedish hardcore punk.

White Cross: Fascist 7” (Beach Impediment Records) Beach Impediment brings us the first-ever reissue of one of the shining lights of United States hardcore punk: White Cross’s 1982 7” EP, officially self-titled, but often referred to as Fascist, after the record’s first song. I know every Tom, Dick, and Harry’s 80s hardcore band is getting a deluxe reissue these days, but White Cross’s EP really is one of the best USHC records ever. Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, White Cross was just over an hour away from the mythical Washington, DC scene, and this EP sounds a lot like the early Dischord hardcore releases. Without a doubt, if you love those, you’ll love this, but White Cross has their own voice… a little looser, a little punkier, a little more unhinged and dangerous. They’re also uncommonly talented songwriters for a band pounding out tunes almost exclusively in sub-one-minute bursts. Of this EP’s 8 songs (9 if you count the fragment “Outro”), three of them—“Fascist,” “Jump Up My Ass” (memorably covered by Socialcide back in my heyday), and “Having Fun”—qualify as all-time punk classics. It’s one thing to play fast and wild, but quite another to get the kids to sing along while you’re doing it. Of course Beach Impediment’s reissue is class all the way. While the packaging mostly recreates the original issue in striking detail, a few subtle upgrades increase the coolness factor without losing the feeling that you’ve come across a perfectly preserved time capsule from 1982. A totally essential blast of 1980s hardcore punk.

Parisian Orgy: S/T 12” (Neon Taste Records) We know Neon Taste Records mostly from the hardcore punk records they’ve given us from groups like Bootlicker, Chain Whip, and Imploders, but the label’s discography includes a couple of curveballs, the latest being the debut vinyl from Calgary’s Parisian Orgy. Parisian Orgy’s debut isn’t a smooth jazz record or anything, but it has a different energy than hardcore punk... adjectives like playful, feminine, contemplative, and experimental come to my mind. To me, Parisian Orgy fits into the same stylistic universe as some of the early Rough Trade Records bands or the wider UKDIY movement. As with the Raincoats, Swell Maps, Young Marble Giants, Desperate Bicycles, etc., you can hear punk’s energy in Parisian Orgy’s creative drive, as well as in the scrappy, very DIY nature of their recording and performance. However, Parisian Orgy doesn’t sound like they’re trying to ape a particular sound (at least to my ear)… just doing something similar in making ambitious music with limited means. People who aren’t looking to slot Parisian Orgy’s music into some extant historical milieu have described them as “slapstick synth pop” and “cabaret meets Pee-wee Herman,” and while I like how evocative those descriptions are, I don’t think they get at the whole wide-screen view of what Parisian Orgy’s music encompasses, especially over the course of this richly varied album. If you’re ready for a break from all the screaming and are up for a record that’s artistically ambitious, homespun, and very un-macho, this is a great pick.

Hot Load: Fate Unknown 12” (Going Underground Records) Los Angeles’s Hot Load has released a couple of tapes and a 7” over the past few years that have flown under my radar, and now their debut LP is here courtesy of Going Underground Records. Hot Load plays fleshed-out, rock-informed hardcore punk that would leave me very surprised if at least one member didn’t have the Motorhead snaggletooth logo tattooed somewhere on their body. The reference point that jumps immediately to my mind when I listen to Fate Unknown is Feel the Darkness-era Poison Idea, though you hear shades of other bands who plied a similar trade: Long Knife, later-period Anti-Cimex, Turbonegro, or even Annihilation Time (if you turned down the Thin Lizzy knob and turned the Motorhead knob way up). While Hot Load’s music is as ferocious as most any hardcore punk you can compare it to, the band has grown past blowing their (hot) load immediately in a 30-second gasp of riffage. Most of Fate Unknown chugs along at a fist-pumping tempo, but that baseline can sink down into something slower and grimier or crest into a mighty crescendo when the tune calls for it. I think this kind of stuff gets boring quickly when it’s too slick, but Fate Unknown has a recording that’s beefy and intense, yet natural-sounding and clear enough to hear the band’s very accomplished musicianship. If you’re a fan of the aforementioned bands, this is well worth checking out. And if you don’t wanna take my word for it, they got Mike Lohrman from the Stitches to contribute a glowing promo blurb… you can’t ask for a cooler endorsement than that.

Unidad Ideológica: Choque Asimétrico 12" (La Vida Es Un Mus) La Vida Es Un Mus brings us this scorching new full-length from Bogota, Colombia’s Unidad Ideológica. Maybe you heard Unidad Ideológica’s first album from four years ago, maybe you’ve seen them live (I was lucky enough to catch them at the K-Town hardcore fest a couple years ago), or maybe you’re familiar with the recent spate of great hardcore punk releases pouring out of Colombia. Regardless, you aren’t ready for how hard Choque Asimétrico (“Asymmetric Shock”) rips. Trevor (in his inaugural Sorry State staff pick!) compared them to New York’s Salvaje Punk, and I think that’s a great point of reference… I remember Salvaje referenced Colombia’s “ultra metal” scene as one of their key inspirations, and there’s something similar at the core of Unidad Ideológica’s sound, a from-the-heart sense of wildness, the intensity spilling over beats and measures and bleeding together into a frightening tidal wave of intensity. But while Choque Asimétrico makes you feel like the pedal is constantly on the floor, if you listen closely, you realize how adept Unidad Ideológica is at changing things up so the energy never lags (sort of like how Gauze said they wanted to create the impression of speed rather than simply play super fast). They have a deep bag of tricks for this (“Asymmetric Shock” is an apt title for the album!)… sometimes the drummer lays off the cymbals for a moment, sometimes the band will depart from the relentless d-beat and recharge with a staccato buildup part, sometimes the whole band might just pause for a fraction of a breath, and sometimes a lead guitar overdub will crash into the mix and turn everything up to eleven. The result of all this masterful hardcore execution is not only a more effective pummeling but also a record with depth and variety that will reveal itself to you gradually over many listens. I know everyone is talking “Best of 2025” lists right now, and while the fact that Choque Asimétrico landed at the end of the year may have prevented them from appearing on many of those lists, the true hardcore faithful won’t want to miss out on this crusher.

Deceased: Never Rest in Peace 12” (Merciless Records) Merciless Records, the label that brought us recent reissues from 80s Philippine punk legends Dead Ends, once again digs into that archipelago’s 80s underground music scene and comes up with gold. I have to admit, before those Dead Ends reissues came out I was only dimly aware the Philippines had homegrown extreme music in the 80s, but that band and their records blew me away, and this reissue from Deceased has me wondering how deep the well goes. As with Dead Ends, Deceased’s music only came out on cassette in the 80s, which—along with the the many other logistical hurdles that come from living in a small island nation run by a sadistic, petty, and psychopathic kleptocrat—helped to keep them below the radar of vinyl nerds like me. But thankfully that’s been rectified here with a great-sounding vinyl reissue that presents the music in its best light without erasing the lo-fi quality that gives this so much of its charm. As for Deceased’s sound, they’re billed as thrash metal, and I guess that term feels apt if you mean it as a catch-all for 80s underground metal. However, Deceased sounds nothing like Nuclear Assault or Exodus or any of the more mannered thrash bands. Instead, they incorporate a wide range of influences from across the metal and hardcore punk spectrum. I hear a lot of D.R.I. circa Dealing with It and Crossover, but there are also moments that remind me of Hellhammer, some proto-black metal blasting that sounds like it could have come from 80s Brazil or Colombia (“Abused by Authorities”), and even a bit of death rock/ gothic metal on “Shoot You Down.” And then, rather unexpectedly, the back half of the record takes a punkier turn, with songs like “Frustrated Sperm” and “Damn You People” recalling anthemic punk rock like Toxic Reasons or D.O.A., but way more raw and grimy. It’s eclectic, but I really like that… this might not be the case at all, but I feel like when you’re one of the few metal bands in an isolated scene, you have a freedom—maybe even a responsibility—to dabble in the full range of styles that fall under that umbrella. Splitting hairs about which subgenre tags best describe Deceased feels beside the point, though… the selling point here is the raw, youthful energy that keeps nerds like me endlessly fascinated with the worldwide 80s music sub-underground.