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Bombardement: S/T 12” (Symphony of Destruction) Debut vinyl from this French d-beat band. Bombardement takes a lot of inspiration from Discharge, as do a lot of bands these days. However, Bombardement doesn’t sound like many other modern d-beat bands. First, the recording is not self-consciously raw. This 12” has a big, clear, and modern sound that is heavy and thick without sounding polished or anything like stadium crust. Second, Bombardement seems to borrow more heavily from the Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing era of Discharge than the earlier singles and Why? MLP. Just listen to the track “Greed Prevails.” The main riff is a descendent of “Drunk With Power,” which is a strange Discharge track in how the riff seems to float rather than rip, rage, or crush, and Bombardement accentuates that quality with an excellent, lengthy guitar solo section in the middle. While I love the moments on this record that feel stretched out, Bombardement can also write a grade A ripping d-beat track, as evidenced by “Wheel of Destruction” and “The Brink of Collapse.” While much of the d-beat world’s attention seems focused on releases that are very noisy and/or psychedelic, Bombardement explores a whole different corner of the Discharge aesthetic here and, in the process, delivers a crushing record.

Warhead: Cry of Truth 7” (Break the Records) Reissue of this all-time Japanese hardcore classic, originally released way back in 1991. Basically, if you like Japanese hardcore of any stripe you should own this record. Cry of Truth was one of the early records I discovered as I started digging deeper into the Japanese hardcore scene. I love how it combines the almost melodic riffing and gang vocals of early Death Side with a sound that’s faster, looser, rawer, and more straightforwardly punk. The main riff for “Fight with No Fear” is an all-time classic, and “You in Corruption” is another standout with its epic chorus (it’s just two voices yelling “ugh!” (or maybe “yeah!”?) at one another in the two stereo channels), ripping guitar lead, and dramatic ending. The visual aesthetic is also perfect, a look that everyone wants to achieve and so few do. While these tracks appeared on the Warhead collection LP on 540 a few years back, I’m happy to see this back on the shelves with its brilliant original presentation.

Disclose: Nightmare or Reality 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus) I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you how great Disclose is, or to convince you that La Vida Es Un Mus is doing the lord’s work by bringing another of their records back into print. The cult of Disclose is strong, and for good reason. Despite being more or less ignored in their time, they’ve become one of the most influential bands on 2010s punk. Nightmare or Reality (like the other two LPs that LVEUM has reissued) is a highlight of the band’s discography, coming at the tail end of what most people would consider their classic era. While Disclose had been releasing music since the early 90s, their final several years (1999 or so to 2004) were productive. Not only were releases coming out steadily, the band seemed to experience a burst of creative energy, experimenting and exploring their sound without losing their essential voice. Once again, kudos to LVEUM for keeping this material in print in an edition true to Kawakami’s original vision.

Celda: demo cassette (Destrozado) Demo cassette from this band from Mexico City. Celda’s big, crashing chords (particularly when they pair them with fast 1-2 beats) remind me of ripping 90s hardcore like Deathreat or Talk Is Poison, though they infuse that sound with the modern pogo-hardcore of bands like Gag or Blazing Eye. It’s a raw, scrappy explosion of anger, though they still make time for a great melodic guitar lead on “Dr. Pisquiatra.” Perhaps this isn’t an essential grip for a dabbler in hardcore, but if you’re interested in the contemporary Mexican hardcore punk scene, this is well worth hearing.

Confuse: Fuckin’ All Media 12” (Fan Club) Another Confuse bootleg rolls off the pipeline, this time compiling the band’s later material: the Spending Loud Night 7", Contempt For The Authority and Take Off The Lie 7", Stupid Life 7", and tracks from the Violent Party Omnibus and Neo compilations. The last Confuse bootleg we carried had truly atrocious cover artwork, but thankfully this one is better. As I've said, there are no bad Confuse releases, and if you love Japanese hardcore and/or noise-punk you should be familiar with all of their material. One thing I love about Confuse is how much they changed from release to release, and that’s on full display here. Spending Loud Night is one of the band’s nastiest recordings, a wash of hiss and treble that barely even qualifies as music. That stuff is great and very important for pushing the boundaries of noise not music, but I love Confuse’s releases with cleaner recordings even more. Case in point, the Contempt for the Authority 7”, which has a crystal clear recording that highlights how raw and crazy Confuse were even better than the noisier and more primitive recordings. The three tracks from compilations here are also essential (particularly the track from the Neo comp, which is the cleanest recording Confuse ever got), and the LP ends with the Stupid Life EP. While “General Speech” is a classic Confuse hardcore ripper, Stupid Life finds the band drifting away from traditional hardcore punk, delving even further into the noisy chaos. The title track even reminds me of 90s noise rock. This reissue includes an insert with lineup and recording info, reproductions of the original sleve artwork, and top-notch sound quality.

Hellish View: Reaper’s Hand 7” (Desolate) The insert for this record reads, “inspiration: Disclose, Disclose, Disclose,” just so you know what you’re getting into right off the bat. Interestingly, though, Reaper’s Hand starts with a mid-paced track, “A.P.O.D.,” that reminds me more of Amebix than Disclose. From there, though, it’s a wash of raw noise. It’s fitting that we’re writing about this in the same update as the reissue of Disclose’s Nightmare or Reality, as that record must have been a big inspiration on this one. While Hellish View doesn’t elaborate on that sound, they nail it with the chaotic, layered production I love to hear from this style of music. If you can’t get enough Disclose worship, this 7” should be up there with the new Physique EP on your list of buying priorities.

Current Affairs: Object & Subject 12” (Tough Love) Object & Subject collects two earlier releases—a demo tape and a single—from this Scottish post-punk band featuring members of Anxiety, Shopping, and others. If you’re a die-hard Siouxsie & the Banshees fan (as I am), that will be the first comparison that leaps to mind as the singer sounds a lot like Siouxsie and the music—while hardly a Banshees rip-off—uses tropes like tom-heavy drumming and chorus on the guitar. Also like the Banshees, there’s a good balance here between pop elements and more brooding, atmospheric passages. To my ears, “Breeding Feeling” is the hit with its big chorus, but the spare “Cheap Cuts” and the more angular, punky “Eyes” are also great. My only complaint is that two of the songs appear here twice in versions that aren’t too different from one another, but it’s a complaint more in theory than in practice, as I’ve played the whole thing a bunch of times without skipping a track. If you’re a fan of recent records by Pleasure Leftists or Public Service, odds are you’ll get a lot of mileage out of Current Affairs.

Oblaka: Insight 7” flexi (Symphony of Destruction) Oblaka is a hardcore punk band from Yakoutsk in the Sakha Republic of northeastern Russia, known as “the coldest city in the world.” Looking at it on the map, it seems very far from anything we’d think of as a cosmopolitan urban center, but Oblaka's blackened crust sounds like it could have come from Japan or the UK or just about anywhere else in the world. The straightforward riffs and relentless d-beating reminds me of a grittier version of Doom, but the vocals are crazier, alternating between gutteral grunts and stranger, pained vocalizations that recall the creepiest, grimmest black metal. With a runtime of only three and a half minutes, Insight is over way too soon, but hopefully this flexi is a teaser for more to come.

Benzin: demo cassette (self-released) Demo cassette from this new band from Berlin who plays catchy, spazzy, hyper-fast hardcore exactly how I like it. Track lengths hover around the one minute mark, yet the tempos are so fast that each song still seems to feature more twists, turns, and changes than a whole season of your favorite soap opera. Despite the blistering speed, catchiness is a priority, with memorable riffs and vocal hooks that remind me of CCTV or classic tracks by the Bags. If your tastes lean toward the fuzzy area where fast garage-punk and 80s-inspired hardcore bleed together—AKA you like the aforementioned bands and/or anything from Henry Fiat’s Open Sore to the Circle Jerks to Acid Reflux—this is a recommended pickup.

Haiboku: Un Nuevo Poder 7” (Destrozado) Un Nuevo Poder is the second EP from this band out of Mexico City, and I’m bummed I missed the first one because this is killer! Haiboku worships at the altar of late 80s Japanese hardcore: their first EP’s artwork is an homage to the underrated Half Years 7”, their name is Japanese, and you can even find a sick Gudon cover on their BandCamp site. More than just referencing this style, though, Haiboku nails it with a sound ripped straight from the early Selfish Records catalog, particularly bands like Gudon, Lip Cream, and Outo. Where there are guitar leads on every track, the music doesn’t have the epic Death Side influences of most bands that rep this style of Japanese hardcore. Instead, Haiboku trade in sloppy, fast drumbeats, gnarled vocals, and gang choruses. It sounds exactly like music like this should sound. If Haiboku was from a large Western metropolis, people would have hyped them to death by now, but I’ve heard no chatter about them. I’m hoping that changes, because this band deserves all the attention we can throw at them.

Bato: Ravages of Time 7” (Not for the Weak) Debut vinyl from this hardcore band out of Virginia Beach, Virginia. I grew up in the Virginia Beach area so I’m always interested in hearing good new music from there, but traditionally that’s been in short supply. Bato’s brand of fast and angry 80s-style hardcore reminds me a lot of that region’s greatest export: the almighty Socialcide. Like Socialcide, they take the most inspiration than the faster-than-fast 80s greats (YDI, Deep Wound, Pick Your King) but also have a whiff of straight edge hardcore in their style (particularly more early 80s-sounding bands like Straight Ahead and early Youth of Today). The songs hover around the one minute mark, heavy on the rage and light on the tough guy posturing. If Bato was around in the mid-00s I’d expect to see them on the next volume of No Bullshit.

Confuse: People Are Nuclear Poisoning 12” (Fan Club) Fan club release compiling the early material by one of the all-time greats of worldwide hardcore, Japan’s Confuse. This 12” compiles their Indignation cassette, the Nuclear Addicts flexi, their tracks from the Jisatsu Omnibus compilation, and three live tracks (including one unreleased song). Every official release by Confuse is mandatory listening. Along with Disorder, Chaos UK, Shitlickers, and a handful of others, they pioneered taking Discharge’s stripped-down formula and removing any remaining bells and whistles, distilling hardcore punk down to a kind of abstract expressionist stab of rage. The band’s debut cassette-only album Indignation—presented in its entirety here—is my favorite Confuse release. The guitars are high in the mix on this session, and they are wild and unhinged, up there with Negazione’s Tutti Pazzi EP as some of the most crazed and inspired guitar noise of all time. The vocals are also downright feral, and the music is a chaotic swirl of noise, distortion, and feedback. It is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard in my life. Confuse’s later releases—including what’s compiled on the b-side of this LP—tend to highlight the drums, and while they're still great (up there, in fact, with Mob 47 as far as this style goes), they're a little more familiar and less magical. As I said, though, there is no bad Confuse material, so let’s hope they follow this collection with another volume featuring the balance of their discography.

Sunn O))): Pyroclasts 12” (Southern Lord) I should preface this by saying that I am hardly an expert on Sunn. While I’ve listened to them over the years and enjoyed it, I couldn't tell you how Pyroclasts differs from any of the other records in their extensive catalog or what it brings to the table that's new. However, I can tell you I like Pyroclasts. As ever, I appreciate Sunn on two levels. The first is a visceral level; I love how their music seems to bypass my ears and go straight to my gut. Even more than something like Black Sabbath, they make music that you feel in your bowels, and there’s a physical pleasure in turning up the volume loud and letting it wash over you. However, I also appreciate Sunn on a conceptual level. I love how Sunn distills their music to pure sound. It reminds me that much of what I think about in music—rhythms, harmonies, melodies—is abstract and intellectual. Sunn seems to ask, “what is music anyway?” If you’re a Sunn dabbler like me, Pyroclasts is a solid pickup as it provides what I want from a Sunn record, and its meticulous production (recorded by Steve Albini and pressed with an all-analogue process, unlike 99.9% of the records produced today) ensures that it’s as warm, rich, and clear as it can be. Also, this limited pink vinyl pressing is a benefit for Gilda’s Club NYC, an organization that provides community support for both those diagnosed with cancer and their caretakers.

Foster Care: El Abuso 12” (Total Punk)  Third 12” from this New York band (their second for Total Punk), and holy crap does it rip! Total Punk has always dabbled in hardcore with releases by bands like Lysol and Beta Boys, but El Abuso might be the most ripping thing the label has ever put its name on. While you would expect some complexity and maturity from a band on its third 12” release, Foster Care has stripped everything to the bone here, paring their music to its skeleton: simple riffs, relentless beats, and crazed shouting. Hardcore these day carries decades of history with it and there is a host of unwritten rules about how bands should do things, but El Abuso sounds like the early Discharge singles, Finnish hardcore by bands like Kaaos and Destrucktions, and the primal rage-outs of Swedes like Mob 47 and Shitlickers, bands that threw out the rulebook and went straight for the throat. The sound is raw, blown out, and in the red. The only concession to anything other than raging is the (compelling) bits of abstract noise and tape manipulation that link some tracks. Forget breakdowns, metallic riffing, guitar solos, shoelace headbands, pedalboards, and all of that nonsense. This is 100% pure hardcore punk.

Syphilitic Vaginas: Complete Studio Collection 12” (Nuclear War Now!) This double LP collection brings together a bunch of the Syphilitic Vaginas’ EP recordings and is essentially a vinyl pressing of a 2008 compilation LP. If you haven’t heard Syphilitic Vaginas, their name is a good sign of where they’re coming from. G.I.S.M. is a big influence given the melodic lead guitars, raw hardcore production and presentation style, and the general sense of weirdness, but there are also big dollops of NOWBHM-influenced catchiness and Midnight-style sleaze rock and a bit of black metal gloom rounding out the sound. The mastering here sounds great, and the packaging is gorgeous, if light on information. G.I.S.M. worship is its own cottage industry these days, but these folks are at the very front of the pack.

Fried E/M: tour tape (self-released) St. Louis’s Fried E/M released this four track tape in a very limited quantity for their recent southeastern US tour. These tracks are preliminary recordings for an LP that may see the light of day sooner or later on some label or another. I hope it does, because I’m digging this tape. The lineup features Lumpy (on drums) and at least one former Dumper, but Fried E/M has a more straightforward sound, a rough and street-level take on classic punk. The riffs are pure rock-and-roll, but the recording and presentation are super gritty and the vocals are mean but charismatic and clearly enunciated. They remind me of early Kraut or DOA’s best songs in the way they take a Pistols and Damned approach and drag it through the mud. This is worth some listens while we wait for the LP to drop.

Arse: Safe Word 7” (Erste Theke Tonträger) Debut 7” from this band from Sydney, Australia. If I had to guess, though, I would have thought Arse was from the UK as they have a similar noise rock meets hardcore sound to bands like Bad Breeding, No Negative, and Denim and Leather. The label describes their sound as broadly in the tradition of Black Flag’s My War, and given that record set the template for noise rock, I’d say we’re more or less on the same page here. The sound is heavy, desperate, and grinding, the tempo never exceeding a jaunt. My favorite moments are when you get some skronky lead guitar (as on the closer, “Stooged”), but the whole thing is an exciting listen.

Wild Rose: Cosmic Miasma 7” (Infinite Repeats) Debut vinyl from this band out of Charlottesville, Virginia, whose demo tape we carried a while back. You hear little about bands from Charlottesville (though there are a few, and Wild Rose share a drummer with Richmond’s Fried Egg), but I love great bands from smaller scenes. You can always tell they’re doing it for the right reasons, and they often have a left of center sound that isn’t as common among bands from major metropolitan areas, who (in my experience at least), often hew closer to an established formula. Wild Rose is a case in point, as their amped-up punk songs aren’t quite hardcore, they’re shot through with walking bass lines and classic rock-inspired riffage, and their singer can’t really sing but belts it out with an intensity and conviction that you can’t help but love. As on their earlier tape, there’s something about Wild Rose’s music that reminds me of the Descendents’ Milo Goes to College album, but I can’t put my finger on what that is. Maybe it’s the melodic bass? Regardless, give this a spin if you’re into under the radar punk that ignores the big city rulebook.

Dumspell: S/T 12” (Erste Theke Tonträger) Debut vinyl from this band out of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. While Hattiesburg has developed a reputation as a town that produces an unlikely number of raging hardcore bands, Dumspell is more of a straightforward punk / post-punk band. Their sound is heavy and melodic with huge-sounding guitars that might remind you of anything from the Buzzcocks to the best and/or punkiest 90s grunge, alt-rock, and Brit-pop (think Supergrass, Ash, Elastica, and others that had a palpable punk influence). With a clear and powerful recording, songwriting chops, and dynamics for days, this feels like something that they would have plastered all over 120 Minutes back in the 90s, but in 2019 this is a band from a small town in Mississippi that has released a short-run LP on a tiny German punk label. What a time to be alive! Seriously, though, this LP is top-shelf stuff, so give it a whirl if it sounds like something you’d like to hear.

Sensual World: Feeling Wild 12” (Stupid Bag) After a handful of tapes, Feeling Wild is the debut vinyl from Richmond’s Sensual World. I spent a good chunk of my 20s obsessing about heavy, heart-on-sleeve punk rock by bands like Leatherface and Husker Du, and while that sound is no longer a big part of my listening diet, Feeling Wild reminds me why that sound sucked me in. Really, though, it doesn’t sound like those bands; while the sound is big, burly, and punk, the lyrics are vivid and literate, and the overall vibe is melancholy, Sensual World has a much wider palette, as befitting a band named after a Kate Bush album. In particular, Sensual World reminds me of the Chameleons in how they combine somber chord progressions with bright and melodic, Buzzcocks-esque guitar leads. They’ve also chosen to record Feeling Wild with a ton of gritty texture. While putting the vocals so low in the mix wasn’t an obvious choice given how powerful the lyrics and vocals are, I like the fact that they’re fighting for attention with this bubbling morass of feedback and distortion. The songs themselves are snappy and memorable, and the 8 songs on the 45rpm 12” fly by, begging for repeat listens. It’s tough to do a RIYL because Feeling Wild is a singular record, but if you like heavy, melodic punk and appreciate the gritty textures of noise music (and even raw black metal?), this one is for you.

Deletär: S/T 12” (Kick Rock) This French band has changed their sound a bit since their earlier 7”. While it’s still heavy on the Totalitär influence, this debut 12” ramps up the energy level with a clear and punchy recording and adds a dash of skinhead stomp to the mangel. The main riffs on tracks like “Panique” and “Oppression” could have appeared on any of Totalitär’s early records, but the d-beat behind it is sprightlier and the vocals channel the gruff but catchy sound of bands like the 4 Skins, 86 Mentality, and Bootlicker. Deletär also exhibits some versatility, like on the rocked-out intro to “A La Derive” and the ripping, Skitkids-esque lead guitar on tracks like “Plus Croire En Rien.” If you want to get both the skins and the crusties dancing, throw this on. A total ripper.

Patti: Good Big 12” (Erste Theke Tonträger) After an earlier 7” on Erste Theke Tonträger, Good Big is the debut 12” from this New-York-by-way-of-Oakland band. Their earlier EP reminded me of Uranium Club, and while Good Big has a similarly clear recording and locked-in rhythm section, it also finds Patti developing their own voice. Not that their voice is monochromatic; with 16 tracks averaging around two minutes each, Patti spreads out and explores a ton of different variations on their sound here. Most songs revolve around quirky rhythms, snaky bass lines, skronky and/or angular guitar, and deadpan vocals, but Patti adapts that framework to several ends. One one track they might remind me of Gang of Four, while on the next they can evoke an atmosphere that reminds me of C86 indie-pop, and then the next one wades into math rock levels of rhythmic complexity. If you’re a fan of the smart, punky post-punk bands of bands like Uranium Club, Parquet Courts, or Lithics, Patti treads a similar path.

Video Filth: Hypnosis 7” (Dark Raids) It’s been a minute since we heard from Boston’s Video Filth. You might remember their 2016 7”, but they’ve been a band at least since 2014, when they released their first demo. While veteran hardcore bands can often settle into a complacent groove, Hypnosis sounds hungry, like a band trying to prove they’re faster and meaner than any comparison you can throw at them. The opening track, “Follow Me,” lunges right for the throat with a dense sound, punishing vocals, and one of the most blisteringly fast guitar riffs that I’ve heard in some time. When Video Filth lets off the accelerator, you can hear catchy UK82 vibes peeking through, but the bulk of what you’ll find here is ferocious hardcore a la Shitlickers. The recording is also warm and gritty, and what it sacrifices in thickness and presence it more than makes up for with grainy atmosphere. This rips, but you’ll particularly love it if you revere the 80s classics.

Ligature: Plays: AA's "Suicide Fever" & Second Layer's “Court or Wars” cassette (Roach Leg) I have a lot of ignorance to own up to relating to this release. First, while I’m a big fan of the band Chris Hansell sings for, Warthog, I hadn’t heard of Ligature before I got tipped off about this cassette’s existence. Second, I’m not familiar with either of the two bands Ligature covers here, A.A. and Second Layer (though Discogs taught me that Second Layer is an offshoot of the Sound, whom I love). So, you may come  to this with more context than me, but I’ll share my n00b opinions anyway. I find both tracks interesting in how they combine rather sunny chord progressions with playing and production that are cold, mechanical, and distorted. I’m reminded of tracks like Public Image, Ltd.’s “Public Image” or the Chameleons’ “The Fan and the Bellows,” tracks that seem to ride that edge between darkness and light, like waking up in a great mood on a day that’s cool and gray. Ligature captures that vibe, but augments it with the crunchy drum machines and distorted textures of industrial and power electronics, adding an entirely new layer of affect. It’s like nothing I’ve heard before, and I love it. I don't know what Ligature, A.A., or Second Layer sound like outside this release, but for all its brevity, this two-track tape is brilliant.

Wipers: Land of the Lost 12” (Jackpot) Jackpot Records’ Wipers reissue campaign continues with Land of the Lost, the band’s 4th LP from 1986. My opinion on post-Over the Edge Wipers has always been that those records are enjoyable, but they’re missing the magic of those three essential albums. That’s probably a dilettante’s opinion as I know there are fans out there who ride hard for the later material, but revisiting Land of the Lost doesn’t drastically change my stance. There are a bunch of solid Wipers tracks here, some moments that seem a little questionable (like the punk blues of the title track), and one incredible song, the closer “Just Say.” While it’s an enjoyable album, it’s not the place I would start with the Wipers. However, if you’ve worn out the first three albums, Land of the Lost can provide you with a much-needed fix. 

Restless: S/T 12” (Perennial / K) Debut release from this Olympia band. The sound here is rootsy, rocked-out power pop a la the Real Kids, but with a lead guitar sound that’s heavily indebted to Thin Lizzy. Restless have the same retro rock flavor as early Sheer Mag, making me think of muscle cars, dirt ‘staches and seedy high school parties like the one in Dazed and Confused. You might prefer the more Thin Lizzy-inspired mid-paced songs (especially if you’re a fan of guitarmonies), but I think Restless is at their best when they up the tempo and get more into Exploding Hearts / Real Kids territory on tracks like “On the Boulevard” and “Telephone Lover.” 

Physique: The Rhythm of Brutality 10” (Distort Reality) New 10” record from these Olympia d-beaters, and given that it’s their third vinyl release (none of which are 7”s!), I think it’s fair to anoint them with veteran status. The Rhythm of Brutality is a focused, confident record, finding the band at the top of their game, i.e. total Disclose / Framtid worship (there’s even an unlisted Framtid cover at the end of the record). As I’ve said before, it's silly to spend too much time enumerating the subtleties of a record like this. You just need to answer one question: does it rip? The answer is, yes, this rips. The production is perfect, the songs are snappy and interesting, and Physique generate the earth-shaking atmosphere that made their influences so legendary. The Rhythm of Brutality is the best Physique record yet, so if you’ve enjoyed their previous releases I’d encourage you to upgrade to the latest model.

Klonns: Discography cassette (Sickhead) Discography cassette collecting two EPs and a single from this Japanese band. Before I heard Klonns I saw them described as “blackened crust.” On one level that description is perfect, and when you first listen you’ll say to yourself, “yes, that’s precisely what I expect blackened crust to sound like.” However, that pithy description sells the band short because they do way more than smash together two subgenres. The crust and black metal scenes are both home to some of the most painfully bland, generic, and imagination-less music out there, but Klonns’ music is punky and exciting, with an out-of-control energy that reminds me of Warhead at their very best. However, they combine that punky energy with gritty textures and brooding atmosphere, more like a scratched-up old 35mm print than a precise digital projection. If you like both Japanese hardcore and forward thinking, progressive hardcore and black metal, it’s likely you’ll enjoy this as much as I do.

Ojo Por Ojo: Parodixmo cassette (Discos Huayno Amargo) Latest release from this Mexican band who released an LP last year on La Vida Es Un Mus. If you didn’t hear that record, you might remember vocalist / guitarist Yecatl Peña from his previous band Inservibles, and Ojo Por Ojo carries forward that band’s mission of making gritty, grimy, left of center punk. You won’t find breakdowns, cover songs, or singalong parts here. Ojo Por Ojo’s brand of hardcore is raw, primal, and expressionistic. While some moments here have the sinister vibe of early death metal and others bring to mind 90s underground hardcore like His Hero Is Gone, I get the impression that Ojo Por Ojo isn’t trying to court favor with a particular audience or meticulously construct a perfect vision of what their band should be. Instead, it sounds like they’re just funneling raw, undiluted desperation into their music. It’s like a Jackson Pollock painting done only in thin, muddy washes of grey and brown. Highly recommended if you've been following the crop of excellent bands coming from Mexico over the past several years. 

False Ritual: Violence 7” (Whispers in Darkness) Ripping two-song 7” from this Portland band. While you can hear the Discharge influence that you might expect given the locale, the artwork, and the record label, False Ritual’s high-energy style reminds me just as much of 80s US hardcore as the UK / Swedish / Japanese studs and leather set. The riffing is super fast and slightly metallic, and the mile-a-minute vocals are aggressive shouts rather than grunted or gurgled. False Ritual reminds me a bit of Direct Control, albeit noisier, looser, and with a more pronounced Discharge influence. This is a short record, but there’s zero bullshit. I hope we get a more substantial release from these folks at some point.

Blitzkrieg: Buried Alive / Blitzkrieg 7” (Splattered!) Reissue of this legendary New Wave of British Heavy Metal single, whose b-side Metallica famously covered on the b-side to their Creeping Death single. This is an undisputed classic of the style, so if you're interested in the NWOBHM, this single is an essential grip. It’s fast, heavy, catchy as all get-out, packed with classic riffs, and has that warm and murky sound that you love if you’re an avid listener to British independent music of the late 70s. Splattered! Records has executed this reissue with all the care and attention to detail that we expect from them and the sound on the vinyl is excellent, so if this piques your interest, I can’t imagine it'll disappoint you.

Judge Schreber’s Avian Choir: Bleed 12” (Cort) This record is a little outside what I usually cover in these roundups, but I wanted to give it some attention because 1. releases like LBB’s Popped Music on Iron Lung have clarified that some hardcore punks can get down with experimental and avant-garde music and 2. I fucking love it and can’t stop listening to it. Judge Schreber's Avian Choir is a very large ensemble: according to the label’s description, “15 bowed string players, a heavy metal rhythm section … and … overdubs on reeds and guitar.” There are no vocals and the four tracks here aren’t pop songs, rock songs, or event avant-metal songs, but a hybrid of experimental orchestral / chamber music and heavier, metal-informed drone music. The only things I’ve heard that it resembles are the 70s Belgian group Univers Zero and the Japanese composer / playwright J.A. Seazer, but I’d be surprised if too many Sorry State readers are jamming those. Anyway, the music on Bleed is expansive, encompassing spacious drones, skittering, insect-like organic rhythms, mournful and moody microtonal harmonies, heavy rock riffing, and wide open, Ornette Coleman-meets-Darkthrone sonic catharsis. While it’s wildly creative, it never feels difficult or arcane. I think that’s because this record doesn’t trample over the boundaries between genres, but offers us a window into an alternate universe where those boundaries don’t exist. If you’re an adventurous listener with an ear for this kind of wide-angle, symphonic grandiosity, I encourage you to pick this up.

Slump: Flashbacks from Black Dust Country 12” (Feel It) Debut full-length from this Richmond band that combines heavy punk/grunge with Hawkwind’s acid-fried space rock. You won’t find catchy choruses or pop melodies on Flashbacks from Black Dust Country, but an M.C. Escher-esque maze of swampy riffs that woven through with layers of reverb and echo-drenched guitar and synth noise, punctuated by the occasional shouted vocal. Slump reminds me a lot of Destruction Unit; like that band, their sound has a density informed by 90s noise rock. Slump doesn’t make big, dramatic gestures, instead exploring the nuances of timbre and texture with a tinkerer’s patience and attention to detail. Flashbacks… is a slow burn, but with its big, clear sound and layered textures, it’s easy to get lost in it.

Skull Cult: New Mutilator 7” (Going Underground) Latest EP from these Indiana punks who have dropped a healthy grip of 7” vinyl over the past two years. Skull Cult is of a piece with bands like Coneheads, Liquids, and Erik Nervous but I wouldn’t write them off as also-rans. New Mutilator begins with my favorite track, “Braindead,” which feels like an epic even though it falls well short of two minutes long. Over its 105 seconds, you get a noisy intro, a big, melodic chorus, a post-chorus interlude of Dickies-esque organ, and a blistering James Williamson-style guitar lead, all filtered through hissy shit-fi production. It’s like Skull Cult tried to take every kind of big, climactic moment they could think of and cram it into one song, and the result is an orgy of awesomeness. The next three originals are more restrained, but Skull Cult still packs them with great melodies. The EP ends with a cover of “Psycho Killer” by the Talking Heads, which I find an odd choice given that Coneheads covered the same song and Skull Cult will probably garner comparisons to Coneheads until the end of time. Their version, however, differs  from Coneheads’; while the latter stressed the disaffected, robotic quality of Talking Heads’ original, Skull Cult restores the dirty groove that Talking Heads removed from their music.

Aviador Dro: Nuclear, Sí 7” (La Vida Es Un Mus) Reissue of this 1982 Spanish synth-punk EP. I wasn’t familiar with Aviador Dro before checking out this reissue, but I’m now learning that they were a very important band. Not only is their discography huge, but LVEUM’s description also credits this single with being the start of independent / DIY label culture in Spain. I’m excited to learn more about Aviador Dro and check out their many other records, but in the meantime Nuclear, Sí is great even without the weighty historical context. If you’re a fan of vintage minimal synth like the Normal, Grauzone, Cabaret Voltaire, the Human League, and Solid Space (or modern purveyors like the Detriti Records roster), it’s hard to imagine you wouldn’t love these four songs. While they’re minimal, there are enough layers to the sound to give the tracks a sense of harmonic complexity, and the great vocals remind me of Paralisis Permanente in how they’re both aggressive and catchy. Fans of classic Spanish punk and/or vintage minimal synth will both find a lot to love here.

Overdose: Hit the Road 7” (Splattered!) Second single from this Motorcharged band from New York. “Hit the Road” comes out of the gate with fire, opening with a blistering lead that walks the (thin) line between prime-era Motorhead and Scandinavian Jawbreaker-era Anti-Cimex. There are a lot of bands who have done this Motorhead-inspired sound over the years, but Overdose is a standout, capturing the punk energy that you want, packing their songs with exciting part after exciting part (there’s even a SECOND guitar solo in “Hit the Road”!), and delivering the whole thing with a thick layer of grime that makes you feel like you’re watching them bash it out in a damp basement at 1AM when everyone is bleary-eyed, drunk, and raging. The b-side is more mid-paced but just as raging, and slacker pace gives the guitarist room to deliver a more melodic lead. This record is a total ripper.

Chubby & the Gang: All Along the Uxbridge Road 7” (Goner) US pressing of this single that came out on the UK’s impeccable Static Shock a few months ago, albeit upgraded to come with a proper picture sleeve rather than a company-style sleeve. If you don’t know Chubby Charles’ name, you know his work from bands like Crown Court, Arms Race, Violent Reaction, Boss, and others I’m sure. While Chubby & the Gang’s sped-up rock-and-roll riffs will please the ear of any Crown Court fan, this project wades even deeper into pub rock, as you might tell from the Chiswick rip-off labels. In particular, Wilko Johnson from Dr. Feelgood’s manic, agitated guitar style seems to be a big inspiration for the riffing style here. The vocals are double-tracked in a swirling, loopy manner that reminds me of Booji Boys, and as with that band there are some cool melodies once your ear adjusts.

Power: The Fool 7” (Feel It) Between this new single from Australia’s Power and the latest one from New York’s Overdose it’s a good week if you love gritty, Motorhead-inspired rock-and-roll. Like Overdose, Power drags these two tracks through a bog of filth and grime; while “The Fool” is indebted to Motorhead, the production is more befitting Venom or even the sub-Venom filth of classics like Bathory or NME. “The Fool” stays at a slow boil the entire time, the vocals low in the mix like the singer is trying to escape from quicksand. It sounds like he makes it out for the b-side, “Give It All to Me,” which speeds things up a hair and brings the vocals out front for a more melodic, NWOBHM-style chorus. A real fist-pumper.

G.U.N.: demo cassette (Sikfuk Reckidz) Demo cassette from this hardcore band out of Nashville that sees two members of No Way Records’ Life Trap returning to their hardcore roots. G.U.N. recorded these tracks live to analog tape, and the audible hiss and live-in-the-room feel bring to mind Don Zientara’s classic recordings at the original Inner Ear studios, particularly Bad Brains’ Black Dots. G.U.N. has a lot more stylistic range than your typical early Dischord band, though, as you might expect given the fact that at least a few of the members have been playing hardcore for nearly two decades. The opener, “High Horse,” reminds me of early Articles of Faith; it’s wicked fast and pure hardcore, but its gloomy, slightly melodic vibe is more complex and mature than your typical rage-out. “Streetbait” is punkier, reminding me of Sick Pleasure, while the tape finishes out with “Killing Spree,” which adapts the groove from Black Flag’s “Slip It In” and makes me think of Bl’ast! at their most furious. G.U.N.’s demo is raw and aggressive enough that USHC heads will love it, but there’s enough maturity and sophistication lurking in the background to make this of interest to more than just the HC die-hards. Highly recommended.

Ubik: Next Phase 12” (Iron Lung) I was a big fan of Ubik’s previous releases (all of which were on demos and 7”s), so I got excited when Iron Lung announced this debut full-length. Their earlier releases reminded me of Crisis’s catchy anarcho punk, and while there’s still a lot of that in their sound, Next Phase finds Ubik getting harder, faster, and punker. That’s the case for tracks like “New Disease” and “You Make Me Sick,” the latter of which is a pure hardcore rage-out with a ripping, noisy guitar solo. “Peter Dutton Is a Terrorist” starts out with the drummer on the toms and an eerie, goth-punk vibe, then segues into a Rubella Ballet-style catchy punk part, while the dark, catchy, and sophisticated “Shocking New Vision” sounds like something off one of those underrated later Subhumans albums. While there’s a good amount of stylistic breadth on Next Phase, the through-lines that connect every track are the catchy and aggressive shouted vocals and the always-interesting interplay between the guitarist and bassist, whose dynamic is riveting. I’ll be getting a lot of play out of this one over the next few months.

Clang!: Whac-a-mole 12” (self-released) Debut release from this band out of Tampa, Florida whose sound lies somewhere at the intersection of post-punk, no wave, and noise rock. More than a stylistic hodgepodge though, Clang! reminds me of those styles because of their heavy emphasis on rhythm. While some bands write songs around melodic progressions, others write songs around riffs, and still others might write around tempo changes, textures, or any number of other characteristics, Clang!’s music centers on groove. Each of Whac-a-mole’s twelve tracks takes a particular rhythmic motif and explores it inside out, altering and augmenting it and scraping out its insides. About half of the tracks are only around a minute and a half long, but on others (most noticeably on the nine-minute closer, “Gomorrah”), they stretch out and go deeper. When you hear a band like this that is adept at inventing and embodying rhythms, it makes you realize how monotonous most bands’ grooves are. Recommended for fans of the Slits, the World, Preening, the Ruts, Public Image Limited, and other rhythmically inventive punk music.

The Middle Ages: S/T 12” (Ripe) Debut release from this punk band out of Seattle. The members have a heavy resume, but I wasn’t familiar with any of their previous projects, so I went in to the Middle Ages fresh. What I found was unpretentious punk rock that sounds like it walked straight out of the mid-70s. While it’s not self-consciously retro, it still captures the classic sound of first-generation, pre-hardcore punk. In particular I’m reminded of bands like the Saints, the Stranglers, X, Generation X, the Jam, and the Replacements. These are bands who only had a negligible attachment to punk as a subculture, but found a natural affinity with it thanks to their appreciation of the fast, the loud, and the raw. Further, these bands had top-notch pop songwriting chops, which made their best material feel like instant classics. The Middle Ages shares those characteristics. I can’t think of any other current bands that sound this direct and effortless. If you’re a fan of the aforementioned classic groups, this is well worth checking out.

Distort #54 zine Latest issue of this long-running Australian zine. Cleveland punk has always preoccupied Distort, and this issue goes whole-hog, with 116 dense pages devoted to the topic. There are lots of reproductions of Cleveland punk ephemera, a healthy number of reprints of Clevo-centric material from earlier issues of Distort, and a few new additions like a lengthy interview with Craig Bell of Mirrors and Rocket from the Tombs. Rather than being formatted like a conventional punk book or other straightforward archival project, the issue examines Cleveland through what feels like a cracked and distorted lens, placing a kind of translucent psychedelic curtain between the reader and the source material. Much of the original writingtakes the form of faux YouTube comments written from dozens of different perspectives, some of them insightful and many of them dumb (mostly in a funny way). It’s a heavy-handed choice, but I think it was a great one, and I enjoyed reading this far more than I would have another dry oral history or faux-academic analysis (like, say, the one you’re reading right now). Over the years Distort has transformed from a well-done, albeit conventional punk zine to something more like high art, and it seems like that vision has culminated here.

Populists AKA Yan Wagner: Belgian Trip 12” (Detriti) More top-notch European electro from the Detriti label. Like most of the other stuff on Detriti, this has a heavy dance floor groove with the boom bap right in the foreground to get you moving. The Populists’ angle, though, is simple and minimal with 80s-sounding drum machines and synths, reminding me of being a kid in the mid-80s, rolling around in a circle at the skating rink while early hip hop like Afrika Bambaataa and Grandmaster Flash pumped in the background. Like pretty much everything I’ve heard from Detriti, this is excellent.

Liquid Assets: demo cassette (self-released) Demo cassette from this new band out of Ottawa, Canada. With a sound that brings together aspects of slime punk, hardcore, and catchier garage punk, Liquid Assets reminds me a lot of Menthol, one of my favorite bands of the past several years. These eight tracks are dripping with grit and grime, yet there’s a fun, sunny counterpoint there to give it balance. The riffs are straightforward, mid-paced, and in major keys, but they’re banged out with an "I don’t give a fuck" attitude that reminds me of the New Bomb Turks at their loosest and most punk. Sometimes when I hear a record like this, it feels like it’ll fall in the cracks between genres, but this seems like one that could bring sub-scenes together. It just rocks that hard. Bonus points for gorgeous artwork courtesy of Josh Feigert (Uniform ATL). 

Chain Whip: 14 Lashes 12” (self-released) Latest release from these Canadian punks, and while I liked their 7”, this one blows it out of the water. While the word “hardcore” refers to a narrow band of heavy, metallic music these days, Chain Whip is a throwback to a time when hardcore meant playing snotty punk as fast as possible. Their approach reminds me of the FU’s in that Chain Whip isn’t afraid of melody, but a big melody or hook isn’t a requirement for every song. Thus, you get anthemic songs like “Amber Alert” and moody and melodic punkers like the Dead Kennedys-esque “Turner Street Ghost Motel,” but when Chain Whip wants to lay into a fast hardcore song, they don’t pull any punches, approaching these tracks with the ferocity of bands like Loose Nukes and Blood Pressure. Every once in a while there’s a record like the Zero Boys’ Vicious Circle, Career Suicide’s Attempted Suicide, or the Carbonas’ second album that seems to have everything that you want from both punk and hardcore. 14 Lashes is accomplished enough to stand alongside those monumental records.

Prolix Destruct: Shoreline 12” (self-released) Debut vinyl from this band out of Portland with a catchy, anthemic crust sound. Prolix Destruct has a member that played in the Minneapolis band Destroy, which is funny because when I checked out Shoreline I thought it had a very 90s vibe. I lived in Richmond, Virginia from the late 90s through the early 2000s, and Prolix Destruct sound like a band that could have played Richmond during that time. There were a handful of kids you’d see at, say, both an Avail show and a Tragedy show, and I could imagine those types of kids creating something like Shoreline. While it has all the forward momentum and heaviness of crust, the melodic lead guitar lines (which have a Chelsea vibe, but aren’t a million miles away from the classic Fat Wreck bands), dark chord progressions, and desperately shouted vocals also remind me of Strike Anywhere and bands of that ilk. Fans of Signal Lost and Burning Kitchen are also likely to enjoy Shoreline. 

Adderall: Versus Big Pharma 7” (11PM) Debut 7” from this Asheville, North Carolina band with a big and catchy sound. While Adderall has the 1-2 beats and catchy, snaky bass lines that I associate with pogo-punk, they’re so much bigger, tougher, and meaner than most bands of that ilk that you aren’t likely to see anyone comparing them to Asta Kask or the Swankys. Instead, they have the heavy-handed crunch of modern bands like Blazing Eye or Warthog that trade in big, pit-clearing riffs. The vocals are also a standout, a Sakevi-inspired inhuman snarl. I know Asheville, North Carolina is not the most hyped scene, but don’t let that stop you from checking this out. This band and this record are explosive.

Ill Globo: Check the Odds 7” (Aarght) Another week, another killer record from Australia. When will the deluge stop? Melbourne’s Ill Globo play amped-up, hardcore-leaning punk rock that reminds me of the Angry Samoans or Sub Pop-era Dwarves. While they have all the big, dramatic punches and snappy snare fills you want from a hardcore band, between those climaxes they squeeze in a ton of furious, Ramones-inspired downstrokes. While a lot of bands of this ilk go for a tight and precise sound, Ill Globo is looser and meaner, with squeals of feedback frequently interrupting the charge. Fans of the more hardcore-leaning Total Punk bands like Foster Care, Beta Boys, and Patsy should take note. In fact, if Total Punk hasn’t already contacted this band and asked them to do a record, they’re fucking up.