Featured Releases: February 3 2022

Guerra Final: S/T 7” (Desolate Records) Desolate Records brings us the debut EP from this new band from Texas. On first listen, Guerra Final made me think of their fellow Texans Vaaska. Like Vaaska, Guerra Final has a locked-in d-beat sound, hoarse and catchy vocals (Guerra Final’s vocalist sounds quite similar to Eddie from Vaaska in places), and occasional flare-ups of lead guitar. While I think anyone who loves Vaaska (i.e. people with good taste) will like Guerra Final, they don’t sound exactly the same. Guerra Final is a little heavier and crustier, as you might expect from a band on Desolate, and their lead guitar parts tend more toward big, memorable melodies than flashy explosions of hammer-ons. I love that there are seven tracks here, making this weighty EP feel like a full helping rather than just a taste. While Guerra Final’s passion and power are undeniable, the real selling point for me is how infectious the riffs and songs are. Guerra Final strikes me as a band who knows what they’re trying to do and they nail it here.


Fear of the Known: Cabal 7”+flexi (Phobia Records) Cabal is the first release from this international project featuring a bunch of old UK punk heads playing with some slightly younger Japanese punks. Kaos from Chaos UK is on vocals, and you’ll recognize his surprisingly tuneful growl if you followed Chaos UK’s recordings into the 90s, and the lyrics are as bile-filled as you might expect from someone who came up in and remained part of the punk scene for decades. While F.O.T.K. pulls members from Chaos UK and Disorder, don’t expect the bare-bones noise of those bands’ early records. These are songs with structures and catchy choruses, and a big sound that seems to pull as much from industrial music and black metal as punk. It’s not retro, but it has the energy and bite you want. Besides the 5-song 7”, this package also includes a flexi where the band does one track each from the members’ old bands Chaos UK and Disorder in F.O.T.K.’s harsher industrial-punk sound.


Last Affront: 10 Track EP 7” (11PM Records) 11PM Records brings us the debut EP from this London band who has (what strikes me, at least) as a very British approach to US hardcore. The label’s description mentions Socialcide, and Last Affront sounds a lot like them in places, but they also remind me of Heresy and Ripcord. You know how every Chinese restaurant’s General Tso’s tofu tastes a little different? They’re probably all using the same ingredients, but they put them together slightly differently. Take a lot of USHC, a touch of crusty UK metal, and play it fast as shit (though there are only a couple of moments on Last Affront’s EP that qualify as a blastbeat) and you’re gonna get something a bit like this. The vocals are throaty and desperate a la No or Permission, which adds to that gloomy British vibe I get from Last Affront. All the bands on 11PM approach US-style hardcore with their own unique sense of style, and Last Affront fits that mold to a T.


Fragment: Mind Convulsion 7” (Desolate Records) These Nova Scotian d-beaters return with a new EP on the world’s greatest current crust label, Minnesota’s Desolate Records. As on their last record, Serial Mass Destruction, the sound on Mind Convulsion is strikingly raw… it seems like most noisy bands nowadays get their sound by starting with a good recording and cranking every knob to oblivion, but Fragment’s thin and scratchy sound makes it seem like they threw up a cheap microphone in the corner and let it rip. And rip they do! Fragment’s sound here reminds me of Gloom… full-bore crasher crust blown out to oblivion. While the last EP had one slower, Amebix-y track, Mind Convulsion is a dead sprint, a jagged and jarring assault of non-stop riffs. Dilettantes stay away, because this is raw and ugly enough to scare away the poseurs.


Xenofobia: Discografia 12” (Fuego a las Fronteras) Xenofobia is one of the oldest and best-known punk bands to emerge from the 80s Mexican punk scene, and this LP on the new label Fuego a las Fronteras collects both of their studio recordings, 1987’s Muerte in America 7” and 1989’s Presionados LP, along with a thick full-color booklet featuring a band history (in Spanish and English) as well a ton of archival material. Xenofobia’s records have been reissued several times before (in fact, we carried a reissue of the Muerte in America 7” just a little while ago), but these recordings are crucial to the story of worldwide punk and should remain in print as long as possible. Xenofobia started in 1980 and coalesced around a group of three brothers—Jorge, David, and Raul Varela Aguilar—whose parents valued music and made musical education a priority for their children. However, despite being skilled musicians, Xenofobia remained dedicated to their rough and nasty hardcore sound. Though their 7” and 12” came out 7 and 9 years into the band’s history, both recordings keep the raw and wild character that draws comparisons to international bands like Disorder, Chaos UK, Wretched, and Negazione. Like those bands, there’s something very musical at the core of Xenofobia’s songs that elevates them above thrashing gestalt and gives them the power of classic hardcore songs. The music collected here is unimpeachable (and is reproduced with great sound quality), but the full-color booklet is just as exciting. It can be difficult just to hear recordings of a lot of the classic Mexican punk bands, but the archival material in this booklet gives me one of the clearest pictures I’ve found yet of Mexico’s fascinating and unique 80s punk scene. Kudos to Fuego a las Fronteras for giving these landmark recordings the top of the line reissue they deserve.


Aihotz: Matar Al Superhombre 7” (Discos Enfermos) The long-running Spanish label Discos Enfermos brings us the debut vinyl release from this new punk band from Bilbao, Spain. Aihotz has an interesting and unique sound, mixing hardcore and pogo punk with spacey synth elements that are an unexpected touch for either style. A track like “Humana Esperanza” might remind you of Exotica or La Misma at first, but halfway through the song Aihotz drops into a half-time part, turns the delay knobs up to 10, and by the end of the track the bass player has wandered off onto a solo odyssey. While Aihotz’s hardcore parts may not have the brute strength of bands who make that style their sole focus, I love that you never know what the next moment of Matar Al Superhombre will bring. I recommend you give this band a shot if you’re into the adventurous punk sounds on labels like Iron Lung and Toxic State.



Leave a comment