Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter! This week we have a slew of new releases for you, including some hardcore monsters from Hologram and Sistema En Decadencia, among many others. By the way, if you missed out on last week’s Record of the Week, Quarantine’s debut LP, Agony, we should get a restock soon. So, let’s get on with it… I think this week’s newsletter is pretty good if I say so myself!

Hologram: No Longer Human 12” (Iron Lung Records) Hologram’s first EP from 2018 got a lot of play around here, so my expectations for No Longer Human were high. While the weight of expectation can color my first experience of a new record, No Longer Human is such a phenomenal release that this isn’t a problem. When I wrote about Hologram’s first EP, I noted they were one of the most progressive and forward-thinking projects in the hardcore scene, but this record goes beyond genre-bending and into mind-bending. It’s hardcore devoid of cliche, rebuilt from the ground up and taking the least obvious, more difficult route at every fork in the road. The rhythms, while blistering fast, reach well outside hardcore’s confines for inspiration. Critics would describe the morse-code guitar leads in “Bite the Smoke” or the insane mid-paced intro riff for “Deprivation Fantasy” as complex and inventive if a noise rock band executed them at a quarter the speed, but Hologram rips into them with the wild energy of Neos or Deep Wound. It’s not all herky-jerky rhythms, either. Album-closer “See a Pale Light” starts with a dense, creepy sounding melody that reminds me of Sonic Youth at their most sublime, but finds its way into a nasty mid-paced hardcore riff. For all their strengths, these mid-paced hardcore riffs might be where Hologram shines the brightest. The breakdown is possibly the most cliche-ridden aspect of hardcore, but on No Longer Human, Hologram approaches this convention with a freshness I wouldn’t have thought possible, warping classic hardcore through a fractured, acid-drenched prism. As on their EP, Hologram deploys synths and noise sounds too, sometimes on their own (as in “Untitled”) and sometimes combined with the full-on hardcore (such as on “Innate,” where synth whirring occupies the space where you might expect a guitar lead), and these parts are just as inventive and exciting as the music performed on the more conventional (for hardcore) instruments. If you like the forward-thinking hardcore that Iron Lung Records specializes in, No Longer Human should be at the top of your list of things to check out.

Bandcamp Daily just did a feature on Cochonne! Check it out here and learn about Cochonne’s inspiration and methods for creating their new record on our Sorry State. Just don’t google ‘cochonne’ 😬

I hope you grabbed your copy, because Cochonne’s Emergency is now sold out from Sorry State! If you’re still looking for a copy, check Bull City Records (Durham) or All Day Records (Carrboro) in North Carolina. These distros also have copies in stock or on the way: Feel It Records (VA), Total Punk Records (OR), Static Shock Records (UK), La Vida Es Un Mus (UK), Refuse Records (Germany / Poland), Society Bleeds Records (DC), Belltower Records (Mass), Celebrated Summer Records (MD), and Grave Mistake Records (VA). Thanks to everyone who picked up a copy and these great stores and distros for carrying it!

As I write this there is ONE blue vinyl copy of Scalple’s Skillful Butchers LP in our webstore, so unless you are quick on the draw, you missed out on this one too. Fortunately, there’s still plenty of black vinyl left, and it sounds just as good. We promise!

Hüstler’s new self-titled EP on Sorry State comes out tomorrow, October 22! We’ll stream the entire EP starting tomorrow, but in the meantime here’s your final warning on the physical copies… there are 5 copies remaining on our Bandcamp site and then that one is sold out too! Don’t worry if you missed out, though, because Sorry State will release a 12” compiling Hüstler’s two cassettes soon.

This week’s edition of Hardcore Knockouts finds us in Denmark. I voted for Electric Deads like most of you because Electric Deads fucking rules, but Enola Gay is no slouch either.

Cast your vote in the next edition of Hardcore Knockouts on our Instagram stories next Tuesday!

My pick from Sorry State’s Discogs listings this week is Sin Without Doubt, the only vinyl release from North Carolina’s Holder’s Scar. A year after they released this EP, Holder’s Scar released a cassette titled Public Acid and shortly after that changed the name of the band to Public Acid too. This copy is on white vinyl, limited to 100 copies, and only $5 bucks. For a piece of North Carolina hardcore punk history! Wot a bargain!

Remember, you can always combine your order from Sorry State’s Discogs site with your order from our webstore and save on shipping!

OCTOBER 21
HÜSTLER IN NYC

OCTOBER 30
ZORN IN PHILLY

NOVEMBER 12
SCARECROW IN PHILLY

NOVEMBER 19
MUTANT STRAIN IN CHARLOTTE

NOVEMBER 20
MUTANT STRAIN IN CHARLOTTE

1. Cochonne: S/T 12” (Sorry State)
2. Lasso: S/T 7” (Sorry State)
3. Scalple: Skillful Butchers 12” (Sorry State)
4. Quarantine: Agony 12” (Damage United)
5. Straw Man Army: Age of Exile 12” (D4MT Labs)
6. Hüstler: Hüstler EP cassette (Sorry State)
7. Personal Damage: demo 7” flexi (Test Subject)
8. Suffocating Madness: S/T 7” (Active-8 / Roach Leg)
9. Sistema En Decadencia: Neustro Legado 12” (Hardcore Victim)
10. Algara: Absortos En El Tedio Eterno 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus)

While Sorry State’s in-house releases still rule the roost, Quarantine’s Agony rocketed straight to the top of the charts. We had a very large stack that was sold out by Tuesday afternoon, but for anyone who missed out, we’re expecting a restock. We also have some other new entries in the chart, all of which have been approved by YOU, the people of Sorry State.

Click here to see what the SSR Crew is into this week!

The latest release on New York’s Toxic State Records, the debut EP from Anti-Machine, is in stock now! This band features a bunch of SSR friends so it’s close to our heart, and of course it rips and has awesome packaging! More on this one soon.

White Stains’ Make Me Sick 12” was one of our favorite releases of last year, and while the vinyl has been sold out since shortly after it came out, La Vida Es Un Mus just whipped up a new pressing. It’s out tomorrow, but we have it in stock now, so we threw it up on our website. Don’t be mad at us Paco!

We have two new treats for lovers of Canadian metal! Supreme Echo Records brings us a reissue from early 90s Canadian thrash band Malevolence, and we also have copies of Eve of Darkness, a new phone book (remember those LOL?) sized tome from the same people who brought you the Tomorrow Is Too Late book on Toronto hardcore punk a few years ago.

Dig! Records has a new release from power pop gods Brower. It’s called Live and Contagious and it’s in stock now!

We have THREE new releases from Iron Lung Records in stock now! Besides Hologram’s new LP (this week’s Record of the Week!), we also have a new LP from Nasti and a reissue from 80s Icelandic post-punks Vonbrigdi.

Speaking of post-punk, we have a couple of other cool reissues just in. Suburban Lawns’ full-length is back in print courtesy of Superior Viaduct, and 1972 Records has repressed Maximum Joy’s great Stretch EP.

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter! We have some very exciting label news for you this week. Last week we launched the preorder for Cochonne’s Emergency 12” on Sorry State, and today we’ve launched two more preorders: Scalple’s Skillful Butchers LP and Lasso’s self-titled 7”. Both releases have limited editions (which you can read more about below), and while they are technically preorders with an official release date of October 16, both releases are in stock now and will ship immediately. Hopefully, many of you will get your vinyl in time to enjoy it for a few days ahead of the digital release date. (Note that we still expect the Cochonne records and merch to ship around October 8.)

Besides the label news, we also have a ton of new releases in the distro this week. This week’s Record of the Week, ICD10’s demo tape, is a total banger, and we also have two new releases on La Vida Es Un Mus, a repress of the killer Straw Man Army LP from last year, and a bunch of other stuff too. As usual, read on for the details!

ICD10: Pleasure for Everyone cassette (self-released) Pleasure for Everyone is the first release from Philadelphia’s ICD10, and it’s a ripping slab of left-of-center hardcore. ICD10’s sound is clearly steeped in a deep appreciation for 80s international hardcore. I hear lots of 80s Japanese punk in their sound (particularly in the over-arching sense of creepiness), but the ferocity reminds me of European and Scandinavian greats like Agent Orange (the Dutch one, not the California one) and Crude SS, or even South American records by Ohlo Seco and Ataque Frontal. It’s nasty shit, and summoning the spirit of these older records would be enough to get me excited about a band, but ICD10 pushes things further out. The band has two nimble guitarists, and when they let up on the throttle, you get magical little moments like the lead guitar break in “Hollow Words.” While the vocals are harsh and guttural, effects like delay and distortion allow them to stretch in different directions. There isn’t a Destino Final-esque constant delay on the vocals; instead, the delay pops up at different times and at different speeds, often providing a compelling rhythmic counterpoint to what’s happening with the other instruments. I might be intellectualizing just a little, so I should also ensure you there are plenty of riffs that make you want to Kool Aid Man your way through a wall (see “Static and Stagnant” and “The Pigs”). Whether you’re looking for something original or you just want something to rage out to, Pleasure for Everyone has you covered.

Skillful Butchers is the new album from New York City’s Scalple, their first for Sorry State. Since Scalple’s 2018 12” on Roach Leg Records, they’ve expanded to a five-piece and changed their sound, moving toward the thrash-and-mosh dynamics of late 80s UK hardcore bands like Heresy, Ripcord, and Concrete Sox. Those bands took their inspiration from early 80s US hardcore, and just as the sound changed when those bands carried it across the pond, Scalple infuses this style with the filth, grime, and frustration they soak up walking New York City’s streets. More than just a well-timed throwback, Skillful Butchers ups their inspirations’ ante in terms of intensity and precision, and adds new wrinkles like the blistering metallic lead guitars and the crunching industrial interludes courtesy Maggot Champagne, aka Pharmakon. However you categorize it, Skillful Butchers is a great hardcore record, packed with memorable songs and riffs destined to get the pit moving as the world remembers how to mosh.

Skillful Butchers comes with a lyrics insert, a mini-poster (12”x12”), and a large poster (24”x24”). The blue vinyl version is limited to 150 copies.

Sorry State is proud to present the debut 8-song EP from Brazil’s Lasso. These eight short, fast songs fit with the long tradition of raw and urgent hardcore punk bands from Lasso’s part of the world, but there’s more than just aggro here. Lasso’s secret weapon is the subtle death rock sensibility that cuts through their songs, manifesting in the dynamic and memorable songcraft and in the dark, melodic guitar leads that occasionally pierce the mix. Carlos Casotti’s cover art beautifully captures the tension in Lasso’s music, balancing intensity and elegance in a way that’s immediately striking, but rich in depth and detail. Like other classic bands who blended hardcore and death rock—Rudimentary Peni, Part 1, False Confession—Lasso’s music is like an eerie and intense nightmare that stays with you long after you wake up.

Lasso’s self-titled 7” comes with a lyric insert and a full color glue pocket sleeve. The clear yellow version is limited to 150 copies, with the other 350 copies on opaque yellow vinyl. Look for a second EP from Lasso in early 2022 from Sorry State / Static Shock Records (UK)!

Last week we dropped “Lying Through Your Teeth,” and this week we have another track premier from Scalple’s Skillful Butchers LP. Listen to “CPR” on Sorry State’s Bandcamp site now. This is one of my favorite tracks from the album, featuring a killer mosh part and intense vocals… the way the singer stretches out the words “reality” and “guilty” has a gruff intensity that reminds me of Eric Eycke’s vocals on C.O.C.’s Eye for an Eye. Check it out!

Last week we dropped two tracks from Cochonne’s upcoming Emergency 12” on Sorry State, and this week we’re premiering a video for a third track, “Vampire!” The video, created Naiara Trivino mostly using freeware, is a wild ride, and rather than trying to explain it, I’ll just strongly encourage you to watch it.

Last week we started preorders for Cochonne’s Emergency 12” on Sorry State and Cochonne t-shirts and tote bags. Y’all have gobbled up a ton of them, but there’s still time to place your order! We’ll cut off merch orders before the release date and we only made 200 copies of the vinyl, so don’t miss your opportunity!

Usman is in Sweden again for this week’s edition of Hardcore Knockouts: actually, he mentioned to me that this week’s bands aren’t just from the same country, but the same city. The Bristles have the name recognition factor, but D.T.A.L. is a cult jammer for sure.

Cast your vote in the next edition of Hardcore Knockouts on our Instagram stories next Tuesday!

My pick from Sorry State’s Discogs listings this week is the soundtrack to the film The Big Easy. We bought a collection featuring a bunch of Zydeco music, and while Jeff was listing stuff from this collection the other day, a discussion raged about what, exactly, Zydeco music is. At no point in this discussion did anyone attempt to play one of the many Zydeco records that were within arm’s reach. Fortunately, we have plenty of non-Zydeco in Sorry State’s Discogs store for those of you who are the SSR staff’s lack of interest.

Remember, you can always combine your order from Sorry State’s Discogs site with your order from our webstore and save on shipping!

October 1
Zorn in New Brunswick

October 9
Scarecrow in Asheville

October 9
Zorn in Philadelphia

October 15
Scalple in NYC

October 16
Scalple in Boston

October 30
Zorn in Philadelphia

1. Chain Whip: Two Step to Hell 12” (Neon Taste)
2. Suffocating Madness: S/T 7” (Roach Leg / Active-8)
3. Imploders: S/T 7” (Neon Taste)
4. Genetic Control: First Impressions 7” (Return to Analog)
5. Hated: 4 Song EP 7” (Meathouse Productions)
6. Hated: Pressure 7” (Meathouse Productions)
7. Cochonne: S/T 12” (Sorry State)
8. Taqbir: Victory Belongs to Those Who Fight for a Right Cause 7” (La Vida Es Un Mus)
9. Mujeres Podridas: Muerte En Paraiso 12” (Beach Impediment)
10. Straw Man Army: Age of Exile 12” (euro press) (D4MT Labs)

The top of Sorry State’s sales charts remain more or less the same this week, but there’s some new action toward the bottom with Mujeres Podridas making an appearance (we sold through our initial batch but I think we’ll have the repress in stock soon) and Straw Man Army proving that there weren’t enough copies of the first pressing of Age of Exile to satisfy demand.

Click here to see what the SSR Crew is into this week!

We have a lot for you this week, so strap in. First up are two new releases on La Vida Es Un Mus: debut LPs from Spain’s Algara and the UK’s Koma. We even have limited red vinyl available of both releases, but they’re running low so act fast!

We also just got in a repress of Straw Man Army’s brilliant Age of Exile album from last year. This was probably my favorite record of 2020, and I’m very stoked to have it back on the shelves. If you missed it the first time, don’t make the same mistake twice.

The latest issue of General Speech fanzine is out now featuring an interview with Mune from Paintbox along with all of the other sweet analog content the punks crave.

As Dom mentioned in his staff pick, we have the new Smirk 12” on Total Punk in stock. These are flying out the door, so grab one now if you want one.

We just got in a big shipment from Finland’s Svart Records featuring the new book about Finnish death metal band Sentenced, a reissue of Finnish death metal classic Musta Seremonia by Rippikoulu, along with a few other metal reissues done up in the usual highbrow Svart style.

This week we got in a restock of the Social Capital 7” by the almighty Electric Chair! If you’ve somehow missed out on Electric Chair, perhaps the best hardcore band in the world right now, please do not miss this (as I understand it, last) opportunity to grab this blistering EP.

Earth Girl Tapes, documentarians of the great Hattiesburg, Mississippi punk scene, has a couple of new things for us. We have a live set from Judy & the Jerks recorded in Northwest Indiana, a killer demo from Bad Anxiety, and a demo from doom metal band Burning Sword. Doom metal by the Hattiesburg punks? Count me in!

Chicago’s Foreign Legion has a couple of exciting new releases. First up we have the demo tape from Dog Flashback, which features a bunch of Chicago all-stars from bands like Punch in the Face and 14 or Fight doing some mean and burly midwest hardcore. Foreign Legion has also done an official cassette reissue of the Les Seigneurs De La Guerre album by the old French oi! band Komintern Sect.

I will forgive you for not paying a ton of attention to what Third Man Records is doing (but, being real, you’ve missed some killer shit), but if nothing else you need to be aware of their in-house magazine, Maggot Brain. It’s my favorite music magazine in the world right now, and we just got in the latest issue today. It’s got Bikini Kill on the cover, and a lot more cool shit on the inside.

I wrote about the Rearranged Face album in the Featured Releases section, but we also got another new release on the same label, House of Timothy. Check out the 7” by the Freakees!

We also got in the demo tape by San Francisco’s Nekropolis Iluzija.

Finally, Sorry State is excited to provide US distribution for Phobia Records! We have their brand new releases from Warcollapse and Collapsed in stock now along with all of the label’s in print releases. Crust out the wazoo!

Descriptions and streaming links for Strong Boys, Rearranged Face, and more!