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La Milagrosa: Panico 12” (Iron Lung Records) Panico is the debut full-length from this band of Puerto Rican punks from New York. We wrote about their demo tape back in 2019, so it seems as if these songs have been in the oven for a minute, and they sound like it… Panico is a remarkable record with top-notch songwriting. It’s easy to miss that on the first listen, though, because La Milagrosa sounds so gnarly here… the production is gritty and ugly (yet still powerful), more like contemporary d-beat hardcore with the throat-shredding, echo-drenched vocals, pounding drums right up front, and a mix that’s intense and in your face. Combining hardcore-ish performance and production with catchier songwriting gives La Milagrosa a UK82-ish feel on tracks like “Bastardos,” but their songs are much subtler than what you might hear from your typical mohawks-and-leather band. While this might not occur to anyone else, there’s something way in the background of La Milagrosa’s songwriting that reminds me of Bad Religion (when they were good)… many of the riffs have a slightly mournful quality (check out the cool minor chord on “Asesinos”), and the songs have a kernel of pop in them that makes them both more propulsive and more satisfying than your typical punk tracks. I’m probably splitting hairs and most people will just throw this on and say “it rips,” but I think there’s something more to Panico than just ripping.

Imploders: EXD cassette (Neon Taste Records) Toronto’s Imploders caught our attention with their debut 7” on Neon Taste Records, and now they’re back with this 10-song tape recorded live on the long-running Equalizing Distort radio show. By my count only three of the songs here appear on that 7”, so there’s a wealth of new material, some or all of which we can expect to be re-recorded for the band’s upcoming LP. There’s nothing wrong with these versions, though, as the sound is crisp and full. There’s a bit of room noise so it feels “live,” but I can’t imagine anyone complaining about the fidelity here… these tracks sound great. Stylistically, Imploders haven’t evolved much since the 7”, and that’s a good thing! They still rest on that line between hardcore and catchier punk, playing with the speed and precision of a hardcore band, but with the catchy tunes of a punk band. The drums here are particularly killer. It’s not uncommon to see Imploders compared to the Circle Jerks, but there’s some catchy-ass Lucky Lehrer shit going on here that you don’t want to miss. Don’t let the “live” thing scare you off… if you’re a fan of bands like the Circle Jerks, the Carbonas, and Career Suicide, you’re gonna want to hear EXD.

IV Reich: S/T 2x7” (Esos Malditos Punks) This double 7” collects the two cassettes from this 80s Spanish hardcore band, originally released in 1984 and 1985. The vinyl for this release came out back in 2007, but Esos Malditos Punks was sitting on a bunch of sleeveless copies, so they printed up some new jackets for this edition and were generous enough to offer us some. Perhaps I had heard of IV Reich in passing, but I didn’t know them before this arrived, which is a shame because it shreds. While IV Reich has a little of the anthemic quality I associate with 80s Spanish punk (see the track “Sucio Policía,” for instance), they are a hardcore band through and through. Maybe it’s just because I’ve been listening to so much of it, but IV Reich reminds me of Finnish bands like Kaaos, Bastards, and Riistetyt. As with those bands, the music is mean, heavy, and (primarily) fast as fuck, but the riffs have a catchy bounciness a la UK82. And the vocals are great, shredded but still so catchy and memorable. If you’re a deep 80s hardcore head, don’t miss this… we only have a few, and it’s top shelf stuff.

Axe Rash: Contemporary Ass 7” (Not for the Weak Records) We last heard from Sweden’s Axe Rash when they released their self-titled 12” on Adult Crash Records back in 2019, and now they’re back with a new one, this time with a very fitting US home on Not for the Weak Records. Axe Rash is tailor-made to be labelmates with groups like Lethal Means, Reckoning Force, and Crucial Response, their sound splitting the difference between propulsive Swedish mangel and bruising US-style hardcore. It’s also wrapped up in some explosive, clear, and heavy production that’s on par with the other NFTW releases. While Axe Rash’s sound is straightforward, there are all kinds of wrinkles, like the blanket of subtle guitar leads draped over “Gig Life” and rocked-out mosh of “False Pictures.” Axe Rash’s vocalist is also a standout, their demon growl simultaneously catchy and scary, reminding me a little of Marissa from Mutant Strain. If you like your hardcore big, angry, and bursting with energy, don’t miss this one.

Comunione: s/t cassette (Iron Lung Records) Iron Lung Records brings us the debut release from this one-person anarcho punk project from Italy. Anarcho punk as a genre doesn’t tell the entire story, though, because Comunione’s propulsive hardcore punk sounds to me like it’s draped in the aesthetic trappings of black metal. The recording is tinny and distant like the Norwegian black metal classics, like the music is playing out of a small speaker in the middle of a big, empty cathedral. The atmosphere is dense and interesting, but as with 90s black metal, the standout moments are when a little melody creeps in, such the subtle octave chords on “Enclave” or (most memorably) the creepy organ line that closes out the tape at the end of “Salvati.” While the recording style might remind you of black metal, there’s little of that genre’s theatricality, as Comunione’s performance here sounds as powerful and earnest as you would expect from a strong hardcore band. It all adds up to a unique release, and one that finds an appropriate home on the always cutting-edge Iron Lung Records.

Spike in Vain: Jesus Was Born in a Mobile Home cassette (Scat Records) I listened to Spike in Vain’s Disease Is Relative—for me, one of the great unsung underground rock records of the 80s—for years before I realized that record was only about 1/3 of their discography. Fortunately, when Scat Records gave Disease Is Relative a much-needed reissue last year, they also gave us the unreleased follow-up album Death Drives a Cadillac, and now they’ve reissued Spike in Vain’s debut cassette, Jesus Was Born in a Mobile Home, on its original format. While Disease Is Relative is still Spike in Vain’s shining moment, like Death Drives a Cadillac, Jesus Was Born in a Mobile Home captures plenty of brilliance. The sound here isn’t as razor-sharp as Disease Is Relative, the looser playing and punkier delivery emphasized by the production, which compiles what sounds like multiple recording sessions and live tapes into a sonic hodge-podge. This punkier version of Spike in Vain reminds me of proto-hardcore like the Germs, the early Dangerhouse bands, or the Feederz (the latter feels like an apt reference for “Rejected by No. 12”). Along with bands like the Feederz and the Crucifucks, Spike in Vain were interested in the stranger and more subversive aspects of punk, their music toeing the line between evoking that strangeness and holding onto the anger and energy that make hardcore what it is. Pick up Disease Is Relative if you haven’t already, but once you digest the brilliance of that album, know the other two releases in Spike in Vain’s discography are worth exploring too.

Faze: Content 7” (11PM Records) We carried Faze’s demo cassette several years ago, and now they’re back with their debut vinyl on 11PM Records. I called the Montreal band’s sound “strikingly original” back then, and it’s still the case now. 11PM’s description says it all when they mention S.H.I.T. combined with Destruction Unit’s space-rock-meets-noise-rock… that hits the nail on the head. Faze has S.H.I.T.’s ability to create tense rhythms that sound like a coiled spring, but what makes them unique is their ability to pull out of that groove and slide into something different, like the repetitive, krautrock-y rhythms that open the record. Content is a hardcore record through and through, all about energy and power, but I would love to see Faze do something (maybe a full-length) where they give the psychedelic elements of their sound a bigger piece of the stage. Until then, Content earns its keep as a unique and exciting hardcore record.

Desorden Publico: Discografia 12” (Fuego a las Fronteras) Fuego a las Fronteras brings us another high-quality reissue of vintage Mexican punk, this time a studio recordings discography from Desorden Publico. I’d never heard of Desorden Publico before this release. They never released their own vinyl before now, but they put out the Fúnebre cassette full-length (recorded in 1991, but released in 1994) and appeared on the Rock Nacional Volumen II: Sólo Para Punks compilation LP in 1987, both of which are included on this LP collection. If you have a taste for the raw and wild 80s Mexican punk sound, you’ll love Desorden Publico, as they have a similarly frantic sound to better-known bands like Xenofobia and Massacre 68. The sound on their Fúnebre tape is a little more metallic than those bands; the booklet mentions that there were death and speed metal influences creeping into the band’s music by this time, and while you can hear this on a few tracks (like “Campos de Exterminio”), Desorden Publico’s focus was ripping fast hardcore that reminds me of faster Discharge-influenced bands like Shitlickers and Varukers. As with Fuego a las Fronteras’s Xenofobia reissue, you also get a big full-color booklet telling the band’s story in English and Spanish and presenting a wealth of archival material that gives us a much-needed window into Mexico’s unique punk scene. One of my favorite parts of the booklet is where they reproduce j-cards from the bootleg Desorden Publico tapes that circulated and kept the band’s name alive through the years. 

Various: Oi! Across the World 1977-1985 cassette (No Solution) This DIY mix tape does what it says on the tin: gives you a selection of oi! music from across the world. You get one track per band, ranging from all-time classics that you probably already know if you’re interested in this tape (Cock Sparrer, Sham 69) to underrated scorchers (Menace, the Oppressed) to deep cuts whose artist names stumped me (Tolbiat’s Toads, the Baws). While the presentation and dub quality are no-frills, the track selection is excellent. This can live in your car stereo for months before you get bored with it, which is about the highest compliment one can pay a mix tape. 

Sect Mark: Promo MMXXI cassette (Iron Lung Records) We last heard from Rome, Italy’s Sect Mark back in 2018, when Iron Lung released their Worship album. While several years have elapsed, Sect Mark’s take on dark, mysterious, and creepy hardcore hasn’t changed much. They still have those bulldozer rhythms that will remind you of S.H.I.T. or Warthog, with sprightly riffs and a guitar sound that alternates between a full bellow and a biting, mid-range-y tone a la G.I.S.M. As with everything Iron Lung releases, there’s nothing cheesy, obvious, or overwrought here; just go-for-the-throat hardcore performed with a great balance of precision and fury. It sounds like we’ll be hearing a new Sect Mark album soon, but in the meantime enjoy this limited tape with three brand new originals and a Nerorgasmo cover.

Argh!: El Silencio De Los Cromagnones 7” (Planeta Destrozado Records) New York’s Planeta Destrozado brings us the debut vinyl from this band from Temuco, Chile. Argh!’s four songs—the first of which starts, appropriately, with the singer yelling the band’s name—exhibit a nimble hardcore punk style with dense arrangements. Even that first track, “Manipulación Socio / Digital” starts with a catchy SoCal punk groove, segues into manic pogo-hardcore, and then finishes with a crushing half-time part, all in well under two minutes. While all the changes in rhythm could make the songs sound disjointed (and the third track, “Más Allá De La Cúpula Del Trueno,” leans into the contrast), the singer’s raspy yet slightly tuneful voice (he reminds me a little of Jose from Peligro Social and Ruleta Rusa) holds everything together. Throw in some awesomely colorful fantasy-style cover artwork and you have a pretty sick record.

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.

Glaas: S/T cassette (Static Shock Records) Debut 3-song cassette from this Berlin group featuring members of, among many others, Clock of Time and Idiota Civilizzato. At first listen I thought Glaas sounded nothing like either of those bands, but after spending a little time with these three songs, I’ve concluded that they’re a smashing together of the two groups’ sensibilities, taking Clock of Time’s brooding post-punk and applying the dense, maximalist framework of Idiota Civilizzato to it. Density is the word I keep coming back to when I listen to Glaas, because these songs are crammed to overflowing with hooks and interesting parts. This must have been a nightmare to mix, because there are often three (or more!) interesting melodic or rhythmic things happening at once, all of them contending for your attention. Consequently, it can be hard to parse on your first listen, but once you immerse yourself in Glaas’s labyrinth there’s so much to explore. The menacing vibe will play well with people who love bands like Killing Joke and the Birthday Party, but Glaas doesn’t sound retro at all… this sounds like music that only 21st-century information overload could have birthed. There’s a full-length coming in spring 2022. I can’t wait to hear it, and I’ll plan to block out a big chunk of time to digest it.

Suspiria: demo cassette (No Solution) Demo cassette from this band out of LA on the No Solution label. Right off the bat, Suspiria reminded me of Public Acid. Like Public Acid, their guitar and vocal sounds have a death metal edge, but the songs themselves seem like they’re built on more of a d-beat hardcore framework, with fast riffing leading into big, crunchy hardcore breakdowns. It’s a cool demo, but the quality of the dub could be stronger… I’d like to hear Suspiria with a big, imposing sound rather than the underground metal blur you hear here, but many of you may well feel the opposite. Limited to only 50 copies and I don’t see this streaming anywhere online, so if it sounds like your cup of tea, you’ll have to lay down a few bucks to take a sip.

Crucial Response: Puppets 7” (Not for the Weak Records) Virginia’s Not for the Weak Records lays another ripper on us with the debut 7” from this Indonesian band. I remember when a ripping hardcore record from southeast Asia felt like an uncommon event, but the scenes there seem to have a lot more visibility in the west now… at least increasing globalization has a few bright spots. I can see why Crucial Response caught NFTW’s ear, because they play the kind of hardcore the label has developed a reputation for producing… tough, no-nonsense hardcore with great riffs, well-constructed songs, and booming (but far from slick) production. NFTW’s description notes that Crucial Response’s dense but catchy riffing style reminds them of their favorite d-beat bands even though the drumming is straight up 1-2-1-2 most of the time. I can hear that, but even more Crucial Response reminds me of Out Cold, particularly their later-era stuff. While the vocals are a little tougher sounding, Crucial Response reminds me of Out Cold’s way of combining bulldozer hardcore with a slight rock undercurrent to keep the songs zipping along. Four fast ones, then one mid-paced number to clear out the pit. A killer, classic-sounding hardcore record.

Hacker: Pick a Path 12” (Hardcore Victim Records) Hardcore Victim Records brings us the debut vinyl by this Australian hardcore band. Hacker released a well-received demo a couple of years ago, but that didn’t show up on my radar, so Pick a Path is my introduction. Here at Sorry State we listen to a lot of demos and 7”s from hardcore bands who are just learning to play and/or figuring out who they are, and sometimes bands sound so loose they’re about to fall apart (sometimes this is on purpose; other times not so much). Hacker is like the exact opposite of that. It’s like someone genetically engineered (or a more pertinent analogy might be hacked together) a hardcore band that will prompt crowds to go the fuck off. The sound is massive without being slick or overblown, and the songs see-saw between manic pogo beats and bruising mid-paced parts in a way that’s not so much predictable as inevitable… as Hacker builds to those climaxes you feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up and you know the bodies are about to fly. The precision of the execution and the depth with which they realize these songs makes me think of Warthog, but Hacker has none of Warthog’s subtle rock-isms… this is full-bore meathead shit. If I go to a fest where Hacker is playing, I plan to stand in the back lest I lose any limbs in the melee.

What Goes On #2 zine Music zines have never been known for their punctual publication schedules, so we can excuse this Raleigh-based zine for taking a couple of years between their first and second issues. As with that first issue, this new installment of What Goes On is given over almost entirely to two long interviews, both of which are with folks who are part of Sorry State’s extended family. Skylar talks with Rich and Josh (who have played together in Whatever Brains, Das Drip, and Bodykit, among other projects) and Seth and Elizabeth (from No Love and Crete). The interviews are long and probing, avoiding the usual band interview cliches and getting at the deeper reasons these people have dedicated so much of their lives to music. This issue also features layout help from Alex Swing of New Body Tapes / Floor Model, and it looks as fantastic as it reads. If you’ve followed Sorry State’s discography, then you know these musicians’ work, and no doubt you’ll enjoy these conversations. However, even if you aren’t familiar with their musical output, these deep and very human conversations are interesting in and of themselves, and situate you to get even more enjoyment out of a lot of great music.

Hellish View: Demo 21 cassette (Desolate Records) Minneapolis’s Hellish View has undergone some lineup changes since the last time we heard from them. Maybe that’s why they’ve demoted themselves to demo status, or maybe they just don’t want to deal with the insane wait times for vinyl these days. Either way, Hellish View’s sound hasn’t changed much since their last few records. They still unapologetically worship Disclose, to the point of sounding almost exactly like them. I’d like to think I know my d-beat, but I’m not sure I could distinguish Hellish View from Disclose on a blind listen. Of course, Hellish View’s allegiance to Disclose’s template will be a plus for some and a minus for others. If you already have enough records in your collection that look and sound pretty much exactly like this, I don’t see anything here convincing you to change your mind. On the other hand, I can’t help but rage out when I’m blasting this. It’s not some off-brand poseur shit… it gets me going just as much as any of my Disclose records. Like Disclose, Hellish View isn’t trying to be anything they aren’t, even adopting Disclose’s habit of leaning into their intertextuality by weaving bits from Discharge (and Disclose) songs into their own compositions. Post-modern conceptual art? Dumb punk? You can decide; I’ll just keep listening.

Various: Metallic Assault 12” (Urbain Grandier Records) A while back I wrote about Eve of Darkness, a treasure trove of a book documenting the history of metal in southern Ontario, Canada, in the 1980s. I loved the book and can’t say enough good things about it. (If you haven’t checked it out yet, as of right now we still have copies in stock.) Now Urbain Grandier Records brings us the companion album, a compilation featuring 10 of the bands covered in the book. While Urbain Grandier’s single-band releases (Malhavoc, Slaughter, Necromancy, and S.F.H.) all come from the grittier, more underground end of the metal scene, those bands taking influence from more extreme bands like Bathory, Venom, and Celtic Frost, Metallic Assault focuses on the more traditional heavy metal bands who leaned more toward the Judas Priest / Iron Maiden end of the spectrum. This isn’t mainstream metal, though; like your favorite compilations of under the radar N.W.O.B.H.M., the tracks on Metallic Assault all have a slapdash, DIY charm. With these tracks culled from rare singles, demos, and unreleased sessions, each band puts their best foot forward with one energetic, anthemic track, and while I imagine there are some duds spread across the sessions which yielded these tracks, they don’t appear here. Brief liner notes fill in the story for each track, but if you want an immersive, full picture of the scene that yielded these would-be hits, you gotta pick up Eve of Darkness.

Necromancy: In the Eyes of Death 12” (Urbain Grandier Records) Urbain Grandier Records brings us another slice of raw and nasty underground metal from 80s Canada, this time the five-song 1986 demo from Hamilton’s Necromancy. Necromancy is raw, kind of sloppy, and evil as fuck… everything you want from an underground metal obscurity like this. Necromancy pulls from a lot of different corners of the underground metal scene. One part might remind you of early Celtic Frost’s primitive grandiosity, but a split-second later they’re into some falling-apart blasting like early Sodom or Kreator at their most feral and unhinged. While songwriting this varied might come off as awkward in different hands, Necromancy seems so committed to their aim of manifesting pure evil that it comes off, making for a unique and powerful (albeit beautifully primitive) demo. As with Urbain Grandier’s other reissues, the packaging offers some cool artwork, archival material, and liner notes, but for the full story you’ll need to refer to the excellent Eve of Darkness tome.

Tempter: S/T 12” (Quality Control HQ) Tempter is a new band from Richmond, Virginia featuring members of Nosebleed, Candy, Division of Mind, and many others. While all of those bands sound pretty different from one another, Tempter’s style is rooted in the metal / hardcore crossover of mid-80s Europe. When I think of crossover, I imagine fast, precise riffing and nimble rhythms, but that isn’t Tempter’s sound at all. They’re much more atmospheric, a quality accentuated by the mix, which puts the drums pretty far back and lays a lot of distortion on the guitars and vocals, making the whole thing sound like a fuzzy wash. There’s also not a lot of fast thrashing parts, with Tempter spending most of these five tracks laying into catchy, mid-paced riffs that would be just as at home on Best Wishes as Within the Prophecy. The unexpected production gives Tempter a sinister sound, more like a tense and creepy thriller than a full on splatter movie. This atmospheric quality comes across most uniquely in “La Lluvia,” which features samples, synths, and spoken-word vocals drawn from a poem by Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño. While that track pushes at the boundaries of Tempter’s sound, they follow it up with “Pestilence,” a riffy crowd-pleaser in the making. If you dug Game’s killer recent EP, Legerdemain, you should check this out, but Tempter’s unique take on this crossover sound stands on its own merits.

Factory City Children: S/T cassette (Burning Paradise Records) Factory City Children is a new solo project from Mateo of Warthog (and countless other New York bands over the past decade-plus), credited here as “Tormented Imp.” As you might expect from such a seasoned musician, Factory City Children comes out of the gate with a distinctive and exciting sound. While the tougher-sounding “Hell Man 88” might remind you of Warthog, most of the songs here are poppier, with “Perfect Utopia” borrowing the riff from the Misfits’ “Some Kind of Hate” and “F.U.M.E.S.” having a Ramones-ish propulsion. The riffs are generally straightforward, but occasional bursts of lead guitar and earworm basslines make these songs anything but simple. The most identifiable aspects of FCC’s sound are the drum machine (a robotic and synthetic sound, rather than trying to imitate acoustic drums) and Mateo’s wild vocals, which sound totally demented, yet with intelligible lyrics and enough subtle tunefulness to make them memorable. The lyrics are also excellent, with the aforementioned “Hell Man 88” being a highlight, the title’s pun part of the song’s extended conceit of comparing “white Amerikkka” to a “malevolent mayonnaise.” In case you weren’t already convinced this is several notches above your typical home-recorded, drum machine-powered demo, Toxic State have signed up to put out a vinyl version of this tape later this year. In the meantime, catch this cassette version while you can.

Cherry Cheeks: S/T 12” (Total Punk) Total Punk Records brings us the debut vinyl from this solo quarantine project. I wish my quarantine had been this productive! The drum machine that powers Cherry Cheeks is liable to make many listeners throw them in the egg punk basket, but this record is way too good to be relegated to also-ran status. A lot of the egg punk-type stuff I hear has a fuzzy, noisy sound, which can hide weaker elements in a project’s sound (often the vocals). Cherry Cheeks, on the other hand, sound razor sharp, which makes sense because you want to show off songs this great. Cherry Cheeks remind me of some of my favorite ’77 punk bands in that they deliver high energy pop songs one after another, achieving those goals of electric energy and great songwriting without repeating the same formula over and over. Songs like “Living Room” might lean toward the tougher and faster (though still dripping with hooks), while poppier moments like “Two Bugs” and “D.A.C.” have a sunnier and less manic vibe but are just as effective, if not more so. Cherry Cheeks is great at doling out hooks to the vocals, guitars, and synths without leaning too heavily on any of the three, but after listening to this record a bunch, I think the secret sauce is in the bass playing. It’s propulsive and melodic, and contributes a lot to that razor sharpness I mentioned above. A killer record.

Blinding Glow: Unconditional Surrender cassette (Open Palm Tapes) You might be tempted to pass over this demo cassette from San Diego’s Blinding Glow because their brand of d-beat doesn’t reinvent the wheel stylistically, but it’s gotten its hooks into me over the past few weeks and stood up to repeat listens. One thing I like about Blinding Glow is that the players—the drummer and the guitarist in particular—are obviously strong, but not flashy. The drummer spends most of their time pounding out a perfect d-beat, though the crazy fill that ends “The Cold of Night” proves they could do a lot more than that if they wanted to. Likewise, the guitarist’s riffs are straightforward but meaty in all the right ways, and the leads that pop up in nearly every song are like 25% rock and roll, 75% Kawakami-style “nuclear rain,” a perfect proportion in my book. The vocals have a howling style, drenched in reverb and sitting toward the back of the mix, not drawing a ton of attention until the super catchy last track, “Doomed Life (The Cycle).” Maybe the straightforwardness of the execution here puts this in a “d-beat fanatics only” category, but even if that’s the case, the execution is so strong that those d-beat fanatics are sure to love it.

Rik & the Pigs: The Last Laugh 12” (Lumpy Records) The Last Laugh compiles tracks from two (very different) recording sessions Rik & the Pigs did just before they broke up in 2018, performing a mix of new songs and older ones that had appeared on the small pile of singles and tapes the band released over a couple of years. Rik & the Pigs had a distinctive sound that imbued snotty, early 80s-style punk (think Negative Trend or the Lewd) with a Stones-y swagger and a penchant for catchy choruses. The a-side tracks on The Last Laugh were recorded by Mike Kriebel (of Shout Recordings / the Beat Sessions), giving the Pigs a clear and beefy sound that’s very different from the fuzzy lo-fi recordings they put out when they were active. Rik & the Pigs sound great in hi-def, particularly on “Life’s a Bust,” a punk blues that adds two additional minutes of negativity to the version that appeared on a Feel It Records single in 2016. The b-side’s recording, courtesy Tony Santos, is rawer and fuzzier like the Pigs’ previous records. While the recording is nastier, the material is even more anthemic, particularly the Dead Boys-esque “It’s Alright.” More than just outtakes or leftovers, The Last Laugh is as good as anything Rik & the Pigs released when they were toast of the scene, and I’m glad Lumpy Records got this into the world for the faithful still carrying Rik’s torch.

Mr. Node: I Don’t Go Out 7” flexi (Roach Leg Records) Some of you might remember the Montreal band Thee Nodes, who put out a handful of EPs and did a bunch of touring around 10 years ago. After a decade-long absence, Thee Nodes’ costumed frontperson Mr. Node has reemerged as a solo artist on hardcore punk label Roach Leg Records. I can’t say I saw that coming! While the whole thing is very unexpected, the two songs on this flexi rip, meeting Roach Leg’s consistent level of quality even if it’s a little different from their usual style. Both songs here, “I Don’t Go Out” and “Vaccinate Me,” are COVID-themed, and the songs themselves are powered by a drum machine and guitars fuzzed to oblivion, but the riffs have a classic punk feel and despite the overwhelming rawness of the recording, a solid pop structure undergirds everything. The star of the show, though, is Mr. Node himself, his distinctive squeal instantly identifiable and sounding like no other vocalist I’ve heard before. It all comes together with a very KBD feel, sounding like something that could have come out on Total Punk as easily as Roach Leg, so check this out if you love stuff that sounds both catchy and fucked.

Jailer: Demo 2021 cassette (self-released) New York’s Jailer caught my attention because they share a member with Sirkka, whose 2020 cassette was one of my favorite releases of that year. While Jailer’s tape boasts a stylish design sensibility and perfect DIY recording that reminds me of Sirkka, the sound is very different. Gruff and midpaced, Jailer doesn’t seem to ground their sound and style in any existing aesthetic, and consequently these songs have a classic feel that makes them seem like they could have come from any time or place in punk’s history. The riffs and songs are straightforward, but they just work in a seamless and elegant way. The adjective that keeps popping into my head is “meaty.” If all-flash, no-substance “worship” bands are like empty calories, Jailer is like a big bowl of brown rice, tofu, and vegetables… unpretentious, but nutritious and satisfying. The closest comparison I can come up with would be UK82-era bands like Mayhem or Blitzkrieg… bands that weren’t as intense as Ultra Violent and not as anthemic as Blitz or Crux, but had good, solid songs and a strong sound that can hold your attention without begging for it. The closest Jailer gets to flash are the catchy, multi-tracked lead guitar melodies that pop up a couple of times (most memorably on the closing track, “Human Momentum”), but while these moments might be the ones that stick out on your first listen, it’s the solidly constructed tunes that will keep you flipping this tape.

Asylum: Is This the Price? 7” (Demo Tapes) Demo Tapes, a sister label to La Vida Es Un Mus and Sealed Records, brings us a vinyl version of this obscure 1981 tape from Stoke-on-Trent, birthplace of the almighty Discharge. Formed in Discharge’s wake, Asylum took the “noise not music” aesthetic to its logical limit. In fact, while Asylum may have influenced subsequent noise merchants like Napalm Death and presaged noise punk groups like Confuse and Gai, I think the music captured on this release is even more extreme and chaotic than those bands’ output. While Asylum made their racket with musicians’ tools—guitar, bass, drums, and voice—when i listen to Is This the Price?, I question whether this is music at all, something I rarely do with even the most extreme and noisy music. While there is a hazy sense of rhythm underpinning the drummer’s thrashing and the vocalist’s shouts, I’m hard-pressed to identify even the vaguest sense of order in what is emanating from the guitar and bass amps. Yet, despite my inability to hear any sort of structure, Asylum’s “songs” have arrangements, since there are moments when one or more instruments drop out and then rejoin the cacophony, apparently on cue. Maybe these are songs, but played and/or recorded with such little regard to convention that they have nearly evaporated? I’m not sure, but I know that Is This Price? is a new (low? high?) bar for wildness, chaos, and disorder in my record collection. If that’s your thing, you gotta hear this. If not, then move along… there’s nothing for you to see here.

Barrera: S/T 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus) Visiones Nocturnas is the debut release from Barrera, a punk band from the Mallorca region of Spain. My introduction to this record was someone describing it to me as sounding similar to the noisy stylings of Sial from Singapore. I hear some similarity in the blown-out distortion of the guitars, but Barrera primarily plays at slower, more menacing tempos. The opening song “Confusa La Historia” begins with a swell that leads into a thick, permeable wall of noise. The pounding drum groove is heavy on the toms and pulses with a mechanical, marching-like rhythm. And while the drums hold everything in order, the song feels like a tense beckoning for disorderly conduct. On the surface, Barrera is mostly easily described as a hardcore band. But much like La Vida says in their description, with their restrained, brooding sense of doom, the band evokes a feeling that is alluring, sexual, and dangerous. The singer fumes with this disdainful and hypnotic persuasion that forces the listener to be engaged, but also terrified. The songs collected on this 12” are like a ceremonial gathering around a funeral pyre. I imagine someone being burned at the stake. The sound creates such a powerful illusion of dread. Barrera’s music is nightmarish, yes, but this is a nightmare that I want to revisit.

Ztuped: Are You Stupid? 7” (11PM Records) Esteemed hardcore label 11PM brings us another banger, the debut vinyl release from Washington DC’s Ztuped. The fittingly titled Are You Stupid? really begs this question of the listener. The label’s description compares Ztuped’s music to the lowbrow, drug-addled punk legacy of bands like School Jerks and Cülo. Drugface, whose art has graced several Cülo record sleeves, has even lent a killer illustration for the cover art on this EP. But contrary to the low-IQ hardcore the band name and artwork suggest, it becomes clear very quickly when listening to this EP that Ztuped are too intelligent for their own good. Don’t get me wrong; the hardcore contained within goes off the rails. Still, what I hear is a bunch of young ragers who know how to construct interesting songs. And despite all the chaos, the turbulent riffing and neck-break speed drumming are executed with such airtight precision that it’s difficult to describe what I’m hearing as “dumb.” Cülo were proper mutants whose antics felt deserving of their own Saturday morning cartoon. Ztuped come across more like queer punk cyborgs designed to lead all of us jaded, belly-scratching neanderthals into the future—which admittedly also sounds like an amazing cartoon. Again, you have to ask yourself, “Are You Stupid?” Yeah, especially if you don’t buy this record.

Game: Legerdemain 12” (Quality Control HQ Records) Game’s previous LP, No One Wins, came out on Beach Impediment Records in 2019, and while I liked that record, after I saw Game live, it was clear they had an even better record in them. Legerdemain gets a lot closer to capturing Game’s live power. I was going to write that Game had changed up their sound since No One Wins, but I went back to that record and the elements are there, but they’re communicated so much more clearly on Legerdemain. No One Wins’ bulldozer sound created a wall of brute force, but Legerdemain’s subtler mix highlights the riffing, which is very metal in style, but also fluid and melodic, with memorable lines and melodies that remind me of Tank’s Filth Hounds of Hades. The riffing anchors the songs, but the other instruments have more room to breathe too, with the drums showing off a propulsive yet heavy, Cro-Mags-esque gallop. The vocals might be a sticking point for some as they have a cartoonish quality, but I like them. Most hardcore vocals are one-dimensional and either fade into the background or, at best, provide a rhythmic counterpoint, but Ola’s vocal lines are memorable, and I was singing along with bits like “revelations of DOOOOOM” by the second listen. With six songs in less than 15 minutes, Legerdemain is all excitement, without a moment that drags or overstays its welcome. The physical packaging is also stunning. The jacket is not only beautifully designed, it’s printed with an old school letterpress, which has a totally different (and far superior) feel to the digital offset printing you see most often these days. There’s also a large, poster-sized lyric insert that follows the package’s red, black, and white design scheme. Exciting, fresh-sounding hardcore punk wrapped in flawless packaging makes Legerdemain a no-brainer. Pick up the US-exclusive white vinyl from us while you can.

Anti-Cimex: The 7” EPs Collection box set (Sonarize Records) Anti-Cimex has reissued their music a couple of times in the new millennium, which is something we should all be thankful for. Their records are cornerstones of international hardcore, and they should always be in print and available so they can inspire new legions of bands. Those of us who have lived through a few of these reissue campaigns might notice subtle differences in the philosophy behind and execution of these new reissues, but the important thing is the music… if you love raw hardcore punk, these are records you should know like the back of your hand. New label Sonarize Records released a collection of Anti-Cimex demo recordings on 12” a while back, now they’re back with this box set containing reproductions of Cimex’s four 7” EPs. This is a little different than the similar box that Brazil’s Nada Nada Discos released in 2013. That box contained the three proper 7” EPs, Anarkist Attack, Raped Ass, and Victims of a Bomb Raid as well as a flexi compiling Cimex’s contributions to compilations, while Sonarize removes the flexi and adds in the Fucked in Finland 7”, a three-song live record recorded in Finland in 1992. Sonarize has put a lot of work into doing proper reproductions that get you as close to the original EPs as possible, reproducing small details like how Anarkist Attack’s front and back sleeves came as two separate pieces of paper, while Raped Ass came as a glued pocket sleeve and Victims was a foldover sleeve. The sound is also clear and loud, which is a relief because I was a little disappointed with the sound on the Wretched 7” box set that Agipunk (which is affiliated with Sonarize) released a few years back. The box itself is beautifully designed, and it comes with a thick booklet full of photos, flyers, and a ton of fanzine interviews, many conducted while the band still existed and some retrospective interviews done as recently as a few years ago. And best of all, the price on the box is very reasonable. If you don’t own these releases on any physical format, this is a great opportunity to get them in your collection, and Sonarize’s detailed repro editions will deepen your engagement with and appreciation for these records if you only know them from digital streaming. And even for people like me who already have a couple of different physical versions of Raped Ass and Victims (which, I think everyone would acknowledge, are the band’s two most important records), getting Fucked in Finland and (especially) Anarkist Attack in nice repro editions like this is worth the cost on its own. I’ve particularly enjoyed revisiting Anarkist Attack. While the band’s lineup and sound hadn’t yet solidified, it’s still a raging EP and I think it would be a well regarded and important record if it was the only thing Anti-Cimex had ever released. Long story short, they did this collection right, and if you’re in the market for something like this, you will not be disappointed. Here’s hoping Sonarize continues their well-done reissue campaign with Cimex’s 12” discography.

Home Front: Think of the Lie 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus) Now with close to 250 releases under their belt, our friends at La Vida Es Un Mus continue to deliver consistently fantastic releases in the world of punk. But for every Disclose reissue or new, crushing hardcore band out of Spain, we receive an occasional dose of melody. Think Of The Lie, the debut release from Canadian group Home Front, craftily synthesizes some of the most notable and familiar sounds of 80s UK indie pop and post-punk. The first track, “Flaw In The Design,” brings New Order to mind with its era-accurate sounds and production, coupled with the group’s intelligent songwriting and arrangements. Lush, sweeping synthesizers and chorus-laden guitars top warm and pounding 808 drum machines. The singer has a voice not unlike Robert Smith, simultaneously wavering and passionate. La Vida likens the group to Second Empire Justice-era Blitz, which is a dead ringer comparison to describe punkers who have taken the plunge into this sonic territory. In more recent years, many punk groups have reached into the deep reservoir of new wave history to find a blueprint for their band, but the end product can seem dull or contrived. And while Home Front wears their influences on their dayglo ascots, the songs are so tastefully executed and rich with conviction that you can’t fault them. Home Front unashamedly shies away from edge, and instead commits to crafting a full-on pop record that feels both nostalgic and fresh.

S.H.I.T.: Hidden in Eternity 7” (Iron Lung Records) Over 3 years have gone by since these Canadian sexual humans in turmoil released their debut LP What Do You Stand For? Finally, S.H.I.T. has returned with 2 brand new tracks of intense noise on the mighty Iron Lung label. Vocalist Ryan Tong’s beautiful artwork on this new single presents an amorphous structure that radiates pink and blue, which could be read as either organic or cosmic. This is also a great way to describe S.H.I.T.’s music. The band always delivers a pulverizing brand of hardcore with a barbaric, pummeling rage, but creates an atmosphere that feels strange and otherworldly. Jonah Falco’s mix on these two blazing tracks is thick and weighty, making the band sound more powerful than ever. The A-side track “Hidden In Eternity” hits the listener immediately with repeated, pounding blows, but an eerie, inescapable notion of claustrophobia lurks just beneath the surface. The third installment of “Eraser” is a refined blast of raw energy that closes with the goosebump-inducing battle cry: “Fear is the killer, the killer! Fear is the killer in my mind!” It’s a shame that after such a long wait, we’re only provided 2 songs to consume, but this single is one of the band’s finest moments and will leave you feeling satiated for a while.

Body Cam: S/T 7” flexi (Violent Pest Records) Violent Pest Records brings us the debut from this new hardcore band from Nashville, Tennessee. Body Cam is definitely a hardcore band, but their thin and scratchy sound and distinct lack of toughness push them more toward the (for lack of a better term) egg punk camp, which makes sense as Spodee Boy and Erik Nervous both appear in the credits on this one (as recording engineer and mixer, respectively). The five songs jammed onto this flexi are short and ripping fast, and what sticks in my memory most are the Circle Jerks-esque tight rhythmic changes, which I hear most clearly on the track “Active Shooter.” While there isn’t much room for frills, you can’t deny the energy on this five-song, five-minute dead sprint.

Gotou: S/T 12” (Inu Wan Wan Records) The new label Inu Wan Wan Records hit me up about carrying this, their debut release, and I was instantly sold. Gotou is a three-piece band from Sapporo, Japan, and their sound is different from what Sorry State typically carries. I’d place them on the artiest edge of post-punk. Malaria! is the closest comparison I can think of in terms of the overall feel (the label’s description makes the same connection), but Gotou’s sound isn’t too different from the least pop moments on LPs by Wire, Joy Division, or the Cure, but you don’t get the contrasting moments of pop those bands offer. Gotou base their songs around repetitive grooves, the drummer banging out angular, non-rock patterns, the bassist looping simple and hypnotic lines, and the guitarist tending to make rhythmic and percussive sounds rather than melodies. The vocalist has a deep moan that’s a bit like Nico’s baritone, but (if you can imagine it) even colder and with less affect. The music is tense and nervy, with only the last track, “Go To U,” offering something slightly more melodic. Gotou’s music isn’t rock or pop, but if you have a lot of records from this more experimental edge of the post-punk scene—I’m thinking of bands like Throbbing Gristle, Einsturzende Neubauten, early Swans, etc.—you’ll hear that same spirit in this slice of confrontational art music.

Desenterradas: Danzando En El Caos 12” (Symphony of Destruction Records) Danzando En El Caos is the first vinyl from this Mallorcan group who released a well-regarded demo back in 2015. If you’re a fan of Madrid’s Rata Negra, Desenterradas will make you think of them immediately, since their singer’s voice has a similar tone and the band plays a similar style of brooding, melodic post-punk. Desenterradas sounds more post-punk than pop, though, with the vocals relying more on rhythmic staccato patterns rather than soaring melodies and the haunting keyboard melodies adding subtle textures to the punkier guitar riffs. With ten tracks averaging around 3 minutes each, Danzando En El Caos offers a lot of bang for your buck, but it might take a few listens to digest since most of the songs are in similar keys and tempos… it’s crazy that a 30-minute LP feels long in this day and age! The more music the merrier, though, especially if you’re a fan of these dark and catchy sounds.

Laughing Gear: Freak Lemons 12" (Heavy Machinery Records) Freak Lemons is the first vinyl release from this Australian synth-punk band. I’ve seen the term “synth-punk” used to describe a wide array of sounds, but Laughing Gear’s take is minimal, danceable, and dripping with venom. It’s in the same universe as late 70s / early 80s bands like the Screamers, Nervous Gender, the Normal, or maybe even Suicide, but just as all of those bands sound different from one another (despite being mean-sounding bands that rely heavily on synthesizers), Laughing Gear doesn’t sound like any of them or anyone else I’ve heard. While “mean” and “hard” are the adjectives I’d reach for first, you can hear subtle hooks lurking in the background, giving the music more staying power than your average collection of knob twiddlers. Songs like “Possession” and “Flake” have a kernel of pop somewhere at their center, barely discernible in the final product except from the fact that you can hum the songs to yourself after a couple of listens. Other tracks like “Fillet Station” lean more toward dance music, sounding like a misanthropic and negative version of New Order, and “Tread Count” ends the record on a spacious abstract note a la Nurse With Wound. I thought Freak Lemons sounded original and exciting on the first listen, but every subsequent spin reveals more richness and subtlety.

Sperma: S/T 12” (Static Age Musik) Originally released in 1979, German label Static Age Musik has faithfully reissued the self-titled 12” EP by Swiss punk band Sperma. Over the course of their brief existence, Sperma released a handful of singles before disbanding in 1980. This eponymous 12” EP features 3 tracks of jangly guitar-laden, melodic punk tunes informed by the UK punk from that era. From a musical standpoint, Sperma doesn’t sound too far off from a primitive version of Stiff Little Fingers. A song like “Radio” is more akin to the syrupy pop stylings of bands like Protex. My familiarity with the Swiss language limits my understanding, but the band’s lyrics appear to be a confrontational commentary on a bleak, grey period. I’m no expert on the state of living in late-70s Switzerland, but my brief research in attempting to translate the lyrics led me to envision the conjuring of a generation’s bitter perspective. The one song sung in English, “No More Love,” dismisses any relevance of the notion of “peace and love” from the lingering hippie generation. Lyrics in the other songs show contempt for the cultural assortment provided by mainstream radio or propose to eradicate the police state. The blending of all these elements makes for a charming snapshot of a young band who were perhaps underdeveloped as players, but were swept up by the energy and power of the burgeoning punk movement. The packaging on this Static Age reissue includes a 20-page booklet, which provides plenty of insight into the band’s history as well as many unseen photos and flyers.

The Electronic Circus: Direct Lines 7” (Iron Lung Records) As I wrote in my staff pick a few weeks ago, I’ve been spending a lot of time listening to the Bandsplain podcast. Host Yasi Salek does this thing when she plays a song she likes where, just after it ends, you hear her voice come in and she says something like “what a motherfucking god damn gorgeous song.” That’s how I feel about the a-side of this single. “Direct Lines” is a great new wave song with a strong, danceable electronic beat and an anthemic (yet slightly melancholic) chorus you can’t help but sing along with. The Electronic Circus was a project helmed by Chris Payne, who played synths on Gary Numan’s The Pleasure Principle and co-wrote the Visage track “Fade to Grey” (talk about a pedigree!), and while the Electronic Circus was meant to be his solo vehicle, they only released this lone single. While the b-side doesn’t do much for me (a pretty but insubstantial-sounding instrumental), the a-side is a full-on New Romantic banger. Much like the excellent Dorothy single just reissued on Sealed Records, I’m psyched to have this one-off pop nugget reissued in its original format as the lord intended.

Alien Nosejob: Paint It Clear 12” (Feel It Records) For his last several records under the Alien Nosejob moniker, Jake Roberts has been exploring his hardcore influences, which resulted in the three excellent records on Iron Lung. For this latest record, his first for Feel It, Roberts is back to a more familiar sound, though not without some new wrinkles. This time Mikey Young serves as producer, and while I’m not sure how much of the credit is due to him, Paint it Clear feels like a subtler, more varied and accomplished Alien Nosejob record. There’s still plenty of the poppy punk with bright synth melodies that fans of the band love on tracks like the opener “Artistic Vision” and “Jetlagging,” but other tracks feel like new territory. “Leather Gunn” is my favorite track with its memorable power pop guitar hook (which reminds me of something the Boys or Exploding Hearts might have done), but there’s also the disco-infused “Duplicated Satan,” the Stranglers-esque piano ballad (!!!) “The Butcher,” and the swirling, almost psychedelic “Phone Alone.” Rather than just a collection of belters, Paint It Clear feels like it has space to breathe, each song having its own distinct identity. It even has a strong finish, with the epic-sounding “Bite My Tongue.” This subtler, more ambitious version of Alien Nosejob feels like a perfect fit for Feel It Records, and fans of both the band and label will be pleased with Paint It Clear.

Socio La Defekta: Kreski 7” (Beach Impediment Records) Beach Impediment Records presents the debut record from this new Japanese hardcore band. Socio La Defekta features members of Malimpliki and Unarm, and their sound, while classifiable as crusty hardcore, is difficult to pigeonhole. Part of this is because Socio La Defekta are adept players, able to modulate between Framtid-style bashing, noisier interludes that might remind you of Confuse, and bigger, more metallic riffs (like “Maigranda Kago”) within the space of a single short, action-packed song. The highlight of Socio La Defekta’s sound, though, are the dual lead vocals. Both vocalists are strong in their own right, but the way they alternate and double one another’s lines adds an extra layer of dynamism to these six tracks. With 6 tracks on a 33rpm 7”, Kreski feels weightier than your average hardcore EP, yet it packs a dizzying amount of twists and turns into its 10 minute runtime.

Antibodies: LP 2021 7” (Sewercide Records) Don’t let the title fool you. The latest release from Canadian hardcore rippers Antibodies may contain 10 songs, but they are all tightly squeezed onto a bite-sized platter. The recording is super blown out, with the gritty guitars mixed red hot. And except for the mid-paced final track, this 7” is packed to the gills with a series of one-minute-flat bursts of energy. Against the primitive relentlessness of the music, the vocals don’t sound like meat-headed grunting by any means. The singer actually sounds rather quirky. Maybe not as far left of center as, say Crucifucks or Saccharine Trust, but the singer definitely has an unusual sensibility. The vocals have this reckless, almost desperate quality about them, and the singer sounding like they’re flying off the handle only adds to the band’s rawness. Even though the record is 10 songs worth of material, the experience of listening to this record is like a vortex. So much happens in a short amount of time, and it whips past you so quickly. Antibodies’ new “full-length” definitely warrants repeated listens, and you will feel bludgeoned each time.

The Clean: Tally Ho! b/w Platypus 7” (Merge Records) Merge Records has just released 40th-anniversary editions of two of the earliest records by New Zealand’s the Clean. First up is the Clean’s debut single, 1981’s Tally Ho, presented in a lovely reproduction of the (extremely collectible) original packaging. The packaging that is the draw here, because these tracks have been issued many times on various anthology releases, and they are cornerstones of the band’s catalog. “Tally Ho” is one of the most joyous pieces of music I’ve ever heard, a song that brims with enough energy and positivity to uncross the arms of even the most dedicated curmudgeon. While the melody is a little twee, it’s impossible not to fall for that broken down organ, whose sound provides the perfect counterbalance to the melody’s sticky sweetness. The vocals are infectious too (who doesn’t want to yell “tally ho tally HO!” at the top of their lungs?), and if you are a fan of ramshackle pop music like the Television Personalities, Swell Maps, Pavement, or anything in that universe, you probably consider this an all-time classic. The b-side, “Platypus,” is a solid song, but while “Tally Ho” is buoyed by the rough production, “Platypus” suffers a little from the murk, especially if you imagine the track with Boodle Boodle Boodle’s crisp sound. I’ve bought “Tally Ho” several times in my life already, but I’m keeping this one around for the pretty packaging and the frequent occasions when I need a two-and-a-half-minute injection of pure pop adrenaline.

The Clean: Boodle Boodle Boodle 12” (Merge Records) Second in Merge’s 40th Anniversary reissue series is Boodle Boodle Boodle, a 5-song 12” EP from 1981. While “Tally Ho” was a triumph, the Clean didn’t rest on their laurels here, totally changing their sound yet arriving at something just as exciting. It’s apparent that you’re in for something different from the beginning of the first track, “Billy 2,” with its chiming, crisply recorded acoustic guitars. While the sheen here is different to “Tally Ho,” it’s also apparent that the Clean were no one-hit wonders, as the a-side of Boodle Boodle Boodle is a 3-punch combo of upbeat pop with driving, punky rhythms and infectious choruses. If “Tally Ho” sounds of a piece with the ramshackle UKDIY scene, Boodle Boodle Boodle presages American indie rock, and it’s hard to imagine Guided by Voices, Pavement, and Jay Reatard didn’t pick up a few tricks from it. After the triple feature on side A, side B starts with a slow jammer and the record ends with “Point That Thing Somewhere Else,” one of the Clean’s many longer tracks, this one sounding like the offspring of The Velvet Underground & Nico and Neu!. As with the “Tally Ho” single, I’ve heard these tracks before, but I’m pleased to have the awesome original cover art restored here, and Merge’s edition also comes with a booklet / zine packed with comics and collage art that only came with the record’s rare first pressing. Since this came out I’ve been listening to Boodle Boodle Boodle constantly, so much that I’d worry my partner was getting sick of it (if it were possible to get sick of a record so great). The Clean also released a 7” and a 12” EP in 1982… here’s hoping Merge brings us 40th anniversary editions of those next year.

Sedición: En Las Calles 12” (Esos Malditos Punks) Last year Esos Malditos Punks reissued Sedición’s 1991 album Verdaderas Historias De Horror. Now they’re back with a reissue of the Mexican punk band’s previous album, 1990’s En Las Calles. While Verdaderas Historias De Horror was only a year later, En Las Calles sounds like a different band, possessing none of the death rock flourishes of that record. Instead, what I hear is a thuggish, brutal hardcore punk sound with oi! elements, in the same universe as S.O.A. or Negative Approach, but sloppier and nastier… perhaps there’s more of the simple and brutal oi! music of bands like L’Infanterie Sauvage or RAS in Sedición’s DNA? Despite the sloppiness, the music has a lot of variety and character. Songs have different lengths, structures, and rhythms, which keeps En Las Calles exciting all the way through. I’m a sucker for this early 80s fuzzy guitar sound (it’s a lot like the first Minor Threat EP), and the nasty tones complement the gruff and confrontational nature of the music. While this came out in 1990, En Las Calles is a must for early 80s international hardcore heads, as it possesses a similar fury to records like Anti-Cimex’s Anarkist Attack, Olho Seco’s self-titled EP, or Ratos De Porão’s Crucificados Pelo Sistema.

Autarkia: Punks Al Slam 12” (Maldito Ruido) The first release from the new label Maldito Ruido is a reissue of Punks Al Slam by Autarkia. Originally released only on cassette in 1994, Autarkia is another great example of hardcore from Mexico during the flood of activity in the late 80s and early 90s. Musically, Autarkia isn’t too far off from their peers Massacre 68. The band’s songs are mostly based around a pounding umpa-umpa pogo beat on the drums, falling somewhere between the disorderly framework of Confuse and the anthemic songwriting of classic oi! and UK82. Apparently, this reissue has been remixed, but it is clear the original recording is RAW. The fuzzy texture of the guitar tone is so thin and noisy that it almost doesn’t resemble a guitar anymore. But underneath the sonic quality of the recording, the production adds to the charm because the band’s nastiness and gruff attitude really shine through. The singer sounds vicious, delivering hooky sloganeering choruses that the punks can readily chant along with. The photos of the band on the front cover say it all. With liberty spike mohawks standing at attention, Autarkia ‘s crude but tuneful take on hardcore hints at an early version of street punk. Punks Al Slam reads like a style-defining classic in the history of Mexican punk. Check it out.

Low Life: From Squats to Lots: The Agony and XTC of Low Life 12” (Goner Records) From Squats to Lots is the 3rd album from this group from Sydney, Australia. Their previous record, Downer Edn, really clicked with me back in 2019. I approached that record with no expectations, and while it would have been easy to dismiss it as yet another good contemporary post-punk record from Australia, I returned to Downer Edn repeatedly, entranced by something I couldn’t put my finger on. Oddly enough, even though I was looking forward to From Squats to Lots, my experience with it has been similar. The first listen or two had me thinking it sounded more or less like Downer Edn, but again I find myself reaching for this record all the time. I guess Low Life is a grower, not a shower? Part of that might be that most of the songs on From Squats to Lots rumble along at a similar tempo, rarely deploying dynamic shifts in volume, tone, or texture. (An exception is the hardcore-ish “Cza,” which will help you believe Low Life shares a member with Oily Boys.) While it might strike you as a little same-y sounding on the first listen, From Squats to Lots is full of nooks and crannies hiding countless hooks. The sound reminds me of the Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead or Echo & the Bunnymen’s Porcupine. Like those records, From Squats to Lots has a subtle but strong rhythm section that contrasts with a feather-light touch on the higher frequencies. Again, my brain reaches for comparisons to the most 60s-influenced UK post-punk bands who took the layered, melodic psych of Sgt Pepper’s, Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake, and S.F. Sorrow and grafted it onto Joy Division’s brooding aesthetic. And as with their countrymen in Total Control, while it’s easy to reach into the past for points of reference, Low Life sounds fresh, like music made for today. And while I’m here, note that we also just got in a repress of Low Life’s hard to find first album, 2014’s Dogging, so look forward to my thoughts on that in a future newsletter.

Bad Brains: Rock for Light 12” (Org Music) The ongoing Bad Brains official reissue campaign has arrived at their second album, 1983’s Rock for Light, and I have a lot to say about it. I’ve always felt like Rock for Light was obscured by the lengthy shadows of the two monumental albums that stand on either side of it in the Bad Brains’ discography: their self-titled cassette on ROIR and 1986’s I Against I. You’ll find plenty of people who name one of those two records as their favorite Bad Brains release, but it’s rare to find someone who rides hard for Rock for Light. This is understandable, because the album has some flaws. The most egregious is the recording, which doesn’t suit the band at all. The Bad Brains were one of the most powerful bands ever to pick up instruments, and a great producer would have just thrown up some microphones and gotten the fuck out of the way. Rock for Light, however, throws a ton of very dated-sounding reverb on the drums and mixes the bass so low as to be nearly inaudible. It sounds so much worse than the more primitive and lower-budget recordings on the ROIR tape and the great, underrated Omega Sessions, and listening to it makes me wonder how anyone, at any point, listened back to it and thought to themselves, “this sounds really good.” But you know how you can make a thin, uneven recording sound even worse? By speeding up the tapes and pitching everything up half a step, which is what happened when Rick Ocasek and Daryl Jennifer remixed the recording for Caroline Records in 1990. That recording sounds odd, inhuman, and significantly worse than the original mix, and of course that was the version that was pressed throughout the 90s and 00s, and that’s still the version of the album on streaming services. (For good measure, they also shuffled around the track listing, butchering the original sequence’s flow.) Now that I’ve gotten all of my shit-talking and complaining out of the way, I want to insist that Rock for Light is still a great album that every Bad Brains fan should love. Despite the flaws in the production and recording, Rock for Light is a recording of the Bad Brains, who were still one of the greatest bands ever to walk the earth, and that shines through these flaws. The band is fucking blistering, at the top of their game, and Rock for Light captures them at an incredible moment. They were clearly headed toward the intricate, metallic I Against I material, but they were still playing that complex material at warp speeds. When I think of Rock for Light, I think of tracks like “Coptic Times” and “Joshua’s Song,” intricate mazes of music dense with tempo and rhythmic changes, most of it delivered with inhuman speed and precision. Interestingly, Bad Brains choose to contrast these more intricate songs (which I assume they must have written later), with a handful of bangers re-recorded from the ROIR tape (which, to be fair, hadn’t come out on vinyl when they recorded Rock for Light) and new recordings of some of their earliest songs like “Attitude.” The reggae tracks on Rock for Light are also some of the band’s best, with “Rally Around Jah Throne” and “The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth” sounding much more distinctive and memorable than earlier reggae songs like “I Luv I Jah.” While the track listing might look like a hodgepodge from our 2021 perspective, the result is an album that is intense but brimming with variety and expression. If it weren’t for the production missteps, I think most people would regard Rock for Light as the Bad Brains’ crowning achievement. While the remixed / sped up version is a crime against hardcore, when you listen to the original version (which is what you get with this new pressing), it’s easy to listen past those flaws and appreciate the greatness captured here. And since many of these tracks don’t appear anywhere else, it remains an essential piece of the Bad Brains puzzle.

Why Bother?: A Year of Mutations 12” (Feel It Records) Sam at Feel It Records has a knack for finding innovative and exciting new bands that are (at least before he puts them out) flying under the radar, and Why Bother? fits the pattern the label established with bands like the Cowboys, Sweeping Promises, and Smirk. Like those groups, Iowa’s Why Bother? sounds fresh and exciting, making music that’s grounded in the past without being bound by it. A Year of Mutations (which compiles tracks from previously released DIY cassettes and lathe cuts along with several new tracks) encompasses everything from driving, Spits-esque punk (“Buried in the Landfill (of My Mind)”), Electric Eels-style art-punk (“There’s Something Out There”), 80s-sounding indie rock (“Hum Drum”), and surf-inflected, California-style punk (“More Brains”), the disparate styles linked by the band’s restless creative energy and the charmingly lo-fi recording style. While I’m all for a band finding a formula that works and sticking to it, Why Bother?’s eclectic sound makes A Year of Mutations feel rich and fleshed-out in a way that much of the underground and DIY music I listen to doesn’t, yet everything still coalesces around the energetic and driving rhythms you want from punk. A standout release even within Feel It’s impressive catalog.

Death Gasp: Executioner cassette (Audacious Madness Records) This new tape from Pittsburgh’s Death Gasp caught me by surprise. While the artwork might lead you to expect straightforward crust, Death Gasp’s sound is heavier, gnarlier, and more interesting, incorporating metallic elements that remind me of bands like Amebix, Rigorous Institution, and (later-era) Crow. I love raging crust, but a track like “Ghost of the Bombs” illustrates how it can be even more effective when it’s contrasted with something else, starting with a writhing, Amebix-esque chug and building toward the main part of the song, which charges along at a Doom-style clip. Death Gasp’s sound is powerful on the metallic parts, with the guitars hitting gnarly low frequencies that even the heaviest doom bands would envy. Executioner is a real standout, and I hope we get some vinyl from Death Gasp in the future.

Barren?: Distracted from Death… Diverted from Reality 12” (Symphony of Destruction Records) You may remember Paris’s Barren? (the second band of this week’s update with a question mark in their name) from their contribution to Symphony of Destruction’s 4-way split 12” with Douche Froide, Litovsk, and Alarm, and now they’re back with their own full-length record. While the label describes Barren? as peace punk, they’re a long way from the skittering, Penny Rimbaud-inspired rhythms or the blaring hardcore of many bands who adopt that moniker. Instead, Barren?’s sound is straightforward and streamlined, bringing to mind another great 3-piece political punk band, the Mob (the English one, not the New York hardcore band). Like the Mob, Barren? build their songs around soaring, anthemic vocals that bring an emotional dimension to the political and social topics they address in their lyrics. There’s very little in the way of flash; no guitar leads or dramatic breakdowns, just driving, anthemic punk with big, shout-along choruses. Distracted from Death also features beautiful packaging, including an eye-catching Crass Records-style poster sleeve and obi strip.

My War #9 zine Belgium’s My War zine is back with their 9th issue, and this zine only gets better and better. It takes a big commitment to make a print zine nowadays, and Kristof’s passion for punk and hardcore is evident on every page, through both the visuals and the dense and lengthy text. My War is printed in full color, and takes advantage of that format with large, full-color photographs that set the scene for the informative writing. As usual, interviews are the near-total focus of My War, and Kristof’s interviews are thoughtful and deep. In a world of content meant to be digested in half a second as you scroll past on your phone, I come to print zines looking for depth, and My War delivers. This issue features interviews with Leper, Ian Mackaye, Bad Breeding, Bootlicker, and more, plus a short diary of Kristof’s experience at this year’s K-Town Fest. Nothing here feels shallow or perfunctory, and anyone with a deep passion for punk and hardcore will love it. Please never stop, Kristof. The world needs you!

Distort #58 zine The fifty-eighth issue of the long-running Australian zine Distort is out. I’ve been reading Distort for a long time (since close to the beginning I’m sure), and I’ve always admired this zine’s unique voice. Where a zine like My War takes a documentary approach to hardcore punk, DX at Distort (true to its name, I suppose) seems to delight in making things cryptic and slightly illegible, in keeping with his emphasis on what he calls “cult hardcore.” The band interviews are impressionistic and brief, but always leave me with a curiosity that sends me back to the music. This time around there’s a retrospective on the UK magazine Class War, interviews with Australian groups Prostate, Perspex, and Oily Boys, and (my favorite part of this issue) a feature on artist Sam Ryser about the one-of-a-kind band shirts he makes with magic markers. This piece includes color photos of the shirts along with Sam’s brief but interesting reflections on the pieces. Distort consistently pushes back against the rote and the conventional, and I’m always happy to see the current punk scene refracted through DX’s unique lens.

Blammo: Onomatopoeia 12” (State Laughter) State Laughter brings us the first release from this young group from Atlanta. Onomatopoeia’s beautiful DIY packaging will draw you in, but the music will keep your turntable busy, as this is unique and exciting stuff. Blammo’s minimalistic, bass-led sound might remind you of arty post-punk bands like Kleenex or As Mercenárias, but Blammo wanders out way further on the artistic ledge. The main vocalist alternates between a mocking baritone and a slurred speak-sing, often repeating incantatory phrases like “fortune favors the bold” until their meaning twists, inverts, and eventually dissolves. The rhythm section is the star of the instrumental show, grooving and hiccuping while the guitar, way back in the mix, pushes the limits of “thin and scratchy.” Blammo can be subtly poppy on a track like “Bad Advice,” but they’re as likely to be inscrutable, as they are on “The Wall.” It’s an intriguing mix, and if you like underground, contemporary art-punk like the Cochonne 12” on Sorry State or the recent album by XV we raved about, give this a shot.

Anti-Metafor: Kommuniké 12” (D-Takt & Råpunk Records) Anyone who has spent a little time with the Sorry State newsletter knows we love a straightforward hardcore ripper, but even more, I love when a band makes something unique within a genre that many assume long since ran out of ideas. On one hand, Kommuniké is definitely a d-beat record, not out of step with the typical stuff that Sweden’s mighty D-Takt & Råpunk Records puts out. On the other hand, though, it doesn’t sound quite like anything I’ve heard before. The closest point of comparison I can come up with is Montreal’s Absolut (incidentally, another D-Takt & Råpunk band). Like Absolut, Anti-Metafor doesn’t so much combine punk and metal as they exist in a liminal space where distinctions between the two genres dissolve. On the hardcore end, we have the pounding drums (right at the front of the mix, as they should be) and the harsh vocals (which remind me of Bastard), but the bass and guitar have a thin, trebly sound that is more like the production on Norwegian black metal records. The songs themselves also dance across these lines, with raging verses and choruses giving way to long instrumental passages centering on lengthy guitar leads that are at once melancholy and triumphant. It might sound like stadium crust if it had stadium sound, but that thin and trebly guitar sound again brings to mind the trance-inducing atmospherics of the Norwegian black metal scene. These subtleties might fly over the head of the d-beat novice, but those of us with a collection full of black and white covers and an inordinately large “D” section in our alphabetized stacks will appreciate what Anti-Metafor has accomplished here.

Stingray: Feeding Time 7” (La Vida Es Un Mus) LVEUM brings us the debut EP from this new London hardcore band featuring Tin Savage, whose artwork you know from countless underground hardcore releases over the past several years, on vocals. With a membership that pulls from the New Wave of British Hardcore’s A-list, Stingray has a heavy, powerful hardcore sound that shows more than a little crossover peeking in around the edges. While that’s not too different in principle from what Power Trip (and the loads of bands they have influenced) do, Stingray’s take on crossover has none of that Bay Area Thrash polish, sounding more like the bands from mid and late 80s New York who had a grittier, nastier take on the sound. Feeding Time makes me think of records like Agnostic Front’s Cause for Alarm and Crumbsuckers’ Life of Dreams, but with the jackhammer production that you hear in the best underground hardcore of today rather than the (often awkward) bigger-budget studio recordings on those records. Totally punishing.

Dorothy: I Confess / Softness 7” (Sealed Records) Sealed Records digs up another obscurity, and this time it’s the one-off single by Dorothy, whose sole single came out on Throbbing Gristle’s label, Industrial Records. Along with Dorothy (who played drums in the band Rema Rema under her middle name, Max), the lineup on this single includes Genesis P’Orridge and Alex Fergusson, who would shortly form the group Psychic TV. (According to Discogs, Dorothy / Max was also invited to join Alternative TV but declined, though she briefly joined the group many years later.) “I Confess” sounds to me like a novelty pop song, its primitive synthesizer and faux-naïve vocals sounding like something they’d play a clip of in a documentary about punk to stand in contrast to the “authenticity” and “realness” of the new punk scene. This being Genesis P’Orridge, there is an element of subversion, though. The song’s lyrics are a Catholic-style confession in which the singer owns up to liking the things teenage girls like—boys and pop music—though there are hints of seediness, like the “magazines in shrink-wrapped covers.” Like Crass’s “Our Wedding,” it sounds like a troll, but also a total earworm. The b-side is probably a little more palatable to your average Industrial Records fan. While the synth sounds are still a little cheesy, the tough-sounding disco beat make it a secret weapon in any goth night DJ set.

Jack Pitt: Forever Punk photo book Forever Punk collects the work of UK-based photographer Jack Pitt, spanning the years 2011 to 2020. While Pitt was based in the UK during much of this time, he also spent some time in Vancouver and attended a bunch of important punk fests during this period, so rather than a document of a local or regional scene, Forever Punk feels more like a comprehensive overview of the underground punk and DIY scenes over the past decade. The bands Pitt was seeing are right in line with the stuff Sorry State covers, and you’ll see lots of our favorites represented here, from Torso to Extended Hell to Framtid to Public Acid, along with legions of other bands… the book is 230 pages, with several page spreads featuring multiple photos. Pitt also includes a few pieces of reflective writing about his photographic process and how it has developed alongside various changes in the punk scene. While these pieces are brief, they color the way I look at the photographs, giving them more of a documentary feel than your typical punk rock live shots. Anyone who closely follows underground punk and hardcore will enjoy Forever Punk’s documentation of the scene, but photography nerds (and/or people who really enjoy Razorblades and Aspirin zine) will get the most out of Forever Punk.

Vatican Commandos: Just a Frisbee 7” (Radiation) Vatican Commandos released their humorously titled Just A Frisbee 7” the same year as their debut Hit Squad For God in 1983. Even in the small time between these releases, the band went through some serious changes. Firstly, Moby is no longer in the band and is replaced by guitarist Mike Pollock. With their Connecticut hardcore elders CIA at the helm as producers, you can hear a lot of the CIA influence creeping its way into Vatican Commandos’ sound. Decidedly less raw and turbulent, the band heads in an even more anthemic, sing-along direction that there was an inkling of on their first EP. The band doesn’t seem to fear musical experimentation, incorporating some funky bass lines and auxiliary percussion from time to time. Predominantly mid-tempo songs feature light-hearted lyrical themes about cow-tipping and the like. The final track on the EP, “Let Down Again,” is a fast-paced ripper more akin to the first 7”. Just A Frisbee is a different beast than the ferocious first EP, but still a stone cold US hardcore classic with a plenty of ear candy and catchy riffs. Not to mention, the cover art was drawn by a young Rob Zombie. Pretty wild. Vatican Commandos were just a blip on the radar, only releasing one more 12” EP before disbanding in 1985. Definitely worth grabbing this EP if you’re a fan of the more melodic side of 80s US hardcore.

Soup Activists: Riling Up the Neighbors cassette (self-released) I saw this tape being passed around the digital punkosphere, and when I checked it out, I was really surprised. The first track Soup Activists hit us with is “Subdivision,” a pretty conventional, poppy punk song that deals with familiar punk subject matter. Its zippy tempo and off-key vocals remind me of the many bands who emulated their Screeching Weasel records in the 90s, but after that first track, Soup Activists go in very different directions. Tracks like “TVs in the Orchard” and “Q+A at Disneyland” remind me of the Dead Milkmen with their thin, jittery sound and lyrics and vocals that toe the line between sarcastic and more introverted and heartfelt. However, “I Surrender,” “Plenty of Garbage,” and “Send Me a Butterfly” stray even further from the conventional punk template. “I Surrender” is a pain-drenched ballad built around emotive vocals and a melodic, descending riff, and while it reminds me of UKDIY groups like Cleaners from Venus or the Television Personalities, the presentation differs totally from the anglophilic groups who take inspiration from those bands. For instance, Soup Activists rely on a similar aesthetic framework as Itchy Bugger, but the presentation here is even more raw and ragged. While I can dig deep into my record collection for a few reference points, Soup Activists sound nothing like anything I’ve been listening to for the past several years. I’m sure some people will hate something that sounds so different, many people will ignore it, but I could also see this clicking with a large contingent of people and starting a whole new trend.

New Vogue: Volume 2 12” (Casbah Records) Canada’s New Vogue caught my ear with their two cassette releases, and now the latest of those, Volume 2, has been pressed on vinyl. Here’s what we had to say about the cassette when it came out: “I flipped over New Vogue’s previous cassette when it came out back in 2018, and this follow-up reminds me why I love this band so much. New Vogue reminds me of bands like GG King, ISS, Predator, and Blood Visions-era Jay Reatard, all of whom bring to noisy punk a talent for writing dark pop songs. This self-titled tape (like their previous one), is just hit after hit. Take a track like “Safe on the Autobahn,” which starts with a brooding bass line and robotic-sounding verses, leads into a pre-chorus section that builds the tension and introduces a little melody, then—BAM!—explodes into an anthemic chorus. I can’t help but yell along, “I feel safe on the autobahn / I feel safe!” As I do this, my mind wanders to seeing Jay Reatard several times throughout 2007 and 2008 and doing the same thing along with “My Shadow” and “Nightmares.” And as I let the track play through, I’m reminded “Safe on the Autobahn” also has whole different middle eight and outro sections that are just as good as the other parts… and tracks like “Birdman” and “Reptile” are just as great. I can’t get over how awesome this tape is. Get this now, but someone needs to step up and give the world some New Vogue vinyl.”

DYE: Rules cassette (Dirtbag Distro) Rules is the second cassette from this band from Kansas City, Missouri, and with fourteen tracks of blistering US-style hardcore, it feels more like a cassette full-length than a demo. DYE’s sound is raw and drenched in snot… too fast, dangerous, and nihilistic to be called anything but hardcore, yet avoiding the tough-guy attitudes and reliance on musical cliche that marks so much hardcore. While the sound is raw, the playing is super locked in, with sudden and precise rhythmic shifts that remind me of powerful players like Damaged-era Black Flag or early Poison Idea. Pick Your King and Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes are the closest reference points for Rules, particularly the way it offers you a choice between appreciating the sophistication and precision of the music or diving into the dark and unhinged world articulated by the lyrics and vocals. Classic USHC heads should make sure not to skip this one.

R.O.B.O.: Contaminas 7” (Discos Mecago En Dios) We’ve been following Madrid, Spain’s R.O.B.O. for years here at Sorry State. They’re about to release their third album, but in the meantime, they dropped this four-track EP to whet our appetite. According to the label, 2 of these songs will be re-recorded for the full-length, while the other two will remain exclusive to this release. If you haven’t heard R.O.B.O., they play snappy, upbeat punk rock that borders on hardcore. While the songs are catchy, they’re constructed on a hardcore template, with two of these tracks clocking in under a minute and the other two barely any longer, all of them buzzing along at an energetic clip that never gets so fast the melody gets lost. And the melodies are great, reminding me of the Marked Men or Radioactivity, but shorter, faster, and leaner. With only four minutes of music, this EP packs a lot in a small space and has me suitably curious about the coming album.

Various: Flip: Sorry OST 12” (Euro Import) Part of me wonders how niche the demographic is for a skate video soundtrack. That said, having been heavily into skateboarding myself, Flip: Sorry stands out as one of the most memorable and iconic videos from the 00s era. It’s hard to forget Johnny Rotten’s role as master of ceremonies, takin’ the piss as he introduces each skater’s segment. In my mind, the idea to detach the music from the iconic visual of the Flip team destroying handrails is an interesting concept. The back cover of this LP doesn’t mention any musical artists. Instead, the track listing shows only the name of each skater and the title of the song featured during their clip. While there are some famous artists whose notoriety is not linked to Flip Skateboards, there are a few songs that seem deservedly contextualized as part of this skate video. I’m sure there are die-hard Placebo fans out there, but I have a hard time associating “Every You, Every Me” with anything but Mark Appleyard skating. A couple of my favorite skaters like Geoff Rowley and Ali Boulala both tear it up to Gray Matter songs. For a change of pace, Rune Glifberg skates vert to a cold, electronic and more era-appropriate number from Prodigy. Looking back, if the Flip company could get permission for their usage of all these songs, then they locked down an impressive roster of heavy hitters, which I would prefer to most Hollywood movie soundtracks. I’d almost forgotten the video features legendary classics from The Stooges and The Velvet Underground. One of the most memorable scenes from the video is the animated recreation of Arto Saari’s epic bail on a handrail, which apparently almost killed him. That chilling moment is followed by back-to-back bangers from Bowie. Sure, you’ll have to imagine the sound of spinning skateboard wheels while spinning this yellow splatter vinyl, but at least you get a diverse collection of hits on this LP. Plus, you get a bonus sheet of stickers to plaster all over your skate deck! …or more realistically, your turntable.

Various: Between the Coasts cassette (No Label) Between the Coasts is the first release on the new Milwaukee label No Label, and it’s a compilation of contemporary midwest hardcore and punk (well, mostly midwest… LA’s Rolex appear for no apparent reason, other than that they rip). The vibe reminds me of 80s cassette-only compilations like Charred Remains or Barefoot and Pregnant, which were heavy on content and packaged with the aesthetic sensibility of a DIY hardcore demo tape. There are a handful of names I know—Slogan Boy, Big Laugh, and Deodorant among them—and a bunch that are new to me. None of the tracks are duds in my book, but the standouts include Eggnort’s knotty hardcore, Slogan Boy’s vicious, Poison Idea-influenced USHC, and Deodorant’s Minutemen vibes. With twelve tracks for only four bucks, you can’t go wrong with this one, so get hip to what’s happening in flyover country.

Kohti Tuhoa: Väkivalta 7” (La Vida Es Un Mus) Helsinki band Kohti Tuhoa has cemented themselves as mainstays of Finnish hardcore. Since their emergence onto the scene 7 or 8 years ago, the band’s discography boasts 3 full-length LPs and a couple of 7”s. Their self-titled first release on Svart Records presented listeners with 6 blazing tracks of noisy, chaotic raw punk. Even from the beginning, it was clear the band was hellbent on dismantling any notion of formula. Over the course of their 3 LPs, you can hear Kohti Tuhoa expand their sound and bring a fresh sonic identity with each release. I remember hearing the Elä Totuudesta EP from last year and thinking it was their strongest release. Their songwriting seemed to move in a more tuneful direction, but Elä Totuudesta only hinted at the experimentation on their brand new EP Väkivaltaa. The opening track “Suden Hetki” is a minute-long instrumental that functions like a brooding, ambient mood piece to set the tone. Then we launch into “Häpeä,” which is unique to any song Kohti Tuhoa has ever released. Drawing more inspiration from anarcho and post-punk, the propulsive, driving drum beat and cold, melodic sensibility recalls early Killing Joke. In direct contrast, the B-side serves up 3 tracks of explosive and chaotic hardcore—but not chaotic like the noisy, crusty sound of their previous releases. The band seems to have broken down creative barriers, throwing ideas against the wall and, as a result, they’ve put together a batch of inventive and well-orchestrated crushers that feel unusual and exciting. Kohti Tuhoa has found a killer stride with Väkivaltaa, and I’m itching to hear an LP’s worth of material heading in this new direction.

Malevolence: Apparitions 12” (Supreme Echo Records) Between this and the Eve of Darkness book I wrote about last week, I’ve been immersed in Canadian metal for the past couple of weeks and, I must say, I’m not mad about it. While Eve of Darkness focused on Toronto-area metal from the 80s, Malevolence was from the west coast (Victoria, BC) and was mostly active during the 90s. The material collected on Apparitions originally came out as two cassette-only releases in 1992. While these releases are referred to as “demos,” they’re very well recorded and polished, standing toe to toe with the highest-profile thrash releases of the late 80s. The material on Malevolence was recorded during one session, with the two cassettes devoted to the band’s newest material (Apparitions) and re-recordings of songs from the previous lineup (Race to Infinity).I’d describe all the tracks here as heavy thrash with a technical bent. They remind me of Forbidden in that Malevolence’s technical proficiency set them apart from the thrashing masses, yet they keep the focus on speed and heaviness and never descend into prog (an accusation you could level at some technical thrash bands). Malevolence could have lit up the world if these recordings came out in 1986 or maybe even 1988, but when I listen to Apparitions with my 1992 ears, it’s easy to see why Malevolence didn’t gain more traction. By 1992 (a year after Nevermind came out), thrash was in its death throes as a genre, and beyond that, the public’s taste in rock music was trending toward the more visceral, even primitive… the more commercial end of metal got consumed by grunge, while the extreme end of metal moved toward death and black metal. Removing my 1992 ears, though, in 2021, Apparitions is just a ripping, accomplished album that anyone into that late 80s thrash sound will enjoy. Further, like their recent Neos reissue, Supreme Echo rounds out the cool artwork with an LP-sized, full-color booklet where drummer Loran Werrun tells the story behind these sessions, the picture rounded out with heaps of photos and flyers.