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Bato: Human Cancer 12” (Not for the Weak Records) The wider world last heard from Bato on their 2019 7” Ravages of Time, but those of us who have seen the band live in the intervening five years knew they were brewing up something special for their long-planned debut LP. Now Human Cancer is out, and it’s ready to melt faces. Arriving via Norfolk’s prolific Not for the Weak Records, Bato shares a member with their label-mates Reckoning Force, and fans of that band will recognize guitarist Jordan Greenough’s lightning-fast, ultra-precise riffing right away. Also like Reckoning Force, Bato boasts a member of Socialcide (Bato has Socialcide’s drummer, while Reckoning Force features their bassist). If you’re one of the smart folks who has been snapping up every Not for the Weak Records release as it comes out, you’re going to love Bato, as the ultra-fast, musically dense hardcore punk that is that label’s trademark forms the foundation of their sound. Human Cancer can feel relentless on the first listen, riffs coming at you with overwhelming speed and ferocity, one right after the other, but the energy never drags. While Bato rides riffs just long enough to set the hook, they always have a tempo change or a cool little trade-off between instruments to keep the song moving. The songs are well-written, even subtle, feeling cooked down to where they’re as lean as they can be, all flavor and no filler. That sense of density combined with Bato’s consistently manic tempos makes Human Cancer a demanding yet exhilarating listen.

Twelve Cubic Feet: Straight Out the Fridge 12” (Sealed Records) Sealed Records reissues this obscure and brilliant 10” from 1982, sizing it up to a 12” and including the same 16-page booklet that came with the original. Twelve Cubic Feet’s sound sits at the intersection of virtually all the interesting underground music movements happening in the early 80s UK. I hear elements of poppy anarcho punk like Zounds and Hagar the Womb, a lot of UKDIY (dig that total Television Personalities-style walking bass line on “Hello Howard”), touches of minimal synth (the to-die-for synth sound reminds me of Solid Space, with whom Twelve Cubic Feet shared a member), and the then-nascent indie-pop sound. On songs like the brilliant opener “Blob” and “Mary’s Got the Bug,” where the bass is up front and carrying the rhythm, Twelve Cubic Feet reminds me of Delta 5, but poppy tracks like “Evercare” and “Escaping Again” are more in the vein of Cleaners from Venus or the Times, rough-hewn takes on classic pop formulas. “The Almshouse,” on the other hand, employs the three R’s (repetition, repetition, repetition…), its circular, zoned-out sound evoking Can’s groovy meditations. There’s isn’t a dull moment on the record, and if (like so many of us), you have a taste for early 80s UK underground sounds from across the musical spectrum, you should get this right away.

Desintegración Violenta: La Bestia 7" (Roachleg Records) The appropriately named La Bestia EP is the first piece of vinyl from this metal-punk band from Berlin. If you’ve been digging the recent wave of raw metal-punk from bands like Salvaje Punk and Tower 7, you should check out Desintegración Violenta. While Desintegración Violenta has similar raw production to those bands (particularly Salvaje Punk), their songs lean more toward 80s speed metal. The guitar riffs are pretty much straight metal, swinging from hooky lead licks to big, Celtic Frost-esque mid-paced parts. While the guitar player has some chops, the vocals (in Spanish, though the band is based in Germany) are unhinged in the style of old South American hardcore, and the rhythm section keeps things primitive and pounding. Besides raw 80s South American hardcore and metal, something about the darkness and fuzziness of it also makes me think of 80s Japanese punk... check out the intro for “Eliminacion Historica Total,” which totally could have come from a mid-80s Japanese flexi. I also love that this is a lengthy EP with over 10 minutes of music, so there’s space for Desintegración Violenta to show a lot of range on this 7”. If you’re as stoked as I am on all the great music happening right now at the intersection of raw punk and underground metal, La Bestia is not one to miss.

Itchy and the Nits: The Worst of 12” (Total Punk Records) I remember the day last spring when the 7-song demo tape by Australia’s Itchy and the Nits hit Bandcamp. Everyone around the Sorry State offices was playing it, and I think we were all pretty smitten. I’d hoped it wouldn’t be too long before we saw vinyl from this group, and now a year later we have their debut on Total Punk Records (a perfect home for the band), combining those seven tracks with five new ones that are their equal in both style and quality. Itchy & the Nits sound to me like a throwback to 90s garage bands like the Donnas (their early punk stuff), the Rip Offs, and the Headcoats / Headcoatees. Like those bands, Itchy and the Nits take the fuzzy garage aesthetic of the early Kinks, add a big helping of Phil Spector by way of the Ramones songwriting, and play it all at It’s Alive tempos. It’s fast, catchy, bursting with energy, and you’re singing along by the second chorus. Plus, the Budget Rock production ensures that nothing sounds saccharine. It’s lean music, all speed and hooks, with nothing smacking of self-indulgence or pretension. The Worst of is a tough record not to like, right down to its colorful and charming artwork, so I suggest you surrender yourself and let these hyperactive tunes take you straight to your punk rock happy place.

Reek Minds: Malignant Existence 12” (Iron Lung Records) I was a big fan of this Portland band’s previous two 7”s, so I was eager to hear their debut full-length, and it does not disappoint. If you haven’t checked out Reek Minds, they’re a fast, ugly hardcore band in the vein of Siege, Septic Death, or even Napalm Death. With a few brief exceptions, the tempos on Malignant Existence range from very fast to insanely fast. The songs are jagged, and Reek Minds delights in sudden changes in tempo and groove that throw the listener off their footing. However, their dynamics are more sophisticated than your average grind / power violence band that employs dramatic tempo changes in a cheap, obvious way. Actually, the tempo changes are pretty subtle; it’s all pretty fucking blistering. And while the songs are jagged, they’re not incoherent; it’s incredible how the intensity always builds with no apparent end or limit. I also love Reek Minds’ vocals, and they’re fantastic on Malignant Existence. The singer is super raspy and their delivery is pretty metal in parts, but I also hear a lot of Jerry A in there. Malignant Existence is a short sprint of a record, but Reek Minds isn’t a band to linger on a musical idea, and its leanness means every time I put it on, I play it least twice in a row. I like it more with each listen, too, as appreciating the details—the clear and powerful recording helps here too—takes me from being pummeled to appreciating what skilled pummelers Reek Minds are.

Class: If You’ve Got Nothing 12” (Feel It Records) I know Class’s latest LP, If You’ve Got Nothing, dropped a few months ago, but I gave it another listen this week and the record sucked me in so fully that I have to give it a late Record of the Week shout-out. Whenever I put on a Class record, my first thought is, “god damn it this band is so fucking great.” They have a classic sound rooted in mid-70s power-pop… the Flamin’ Groovies, the Nerves, and the like. While many of the pretty boys who emulate those tones write tunes that leave me cold, Class has the songwriting prowess to evoke this storied era without sounding like a hollow echo. If You’ve Got Nothing starts with two of its strongest numbers. “Public Void” reminds me of Eddy Current Suppression Ring in its laid-back delivery, the drummer playing fast but behind the beat while the bass player lays down a rock solid groove. While the song builds to a climactic chorus, it also makes room for a couple of extended instrumental breaks where two lead guitars twist tangled, Television-esque knots. Next is “Behind the Ball,” whose huge vocal hook in the chorus is sing-along-able enough to warrant a comparison to the Exploding Hearts. There are plenty of highlights through the rest of the LP (like the bratty, near-hardcore of “Burning Cash”), but it takes an interesting turn on the final track, “Grid Stress,” where a different vocalist takes the mic and Class dives into full-on Blue Oyster Cult worship. It fucking RULES. When you look at how prolific Class has been—two albums and two substantial EPs in barely two years—you’d assume the quality would vary, but there isn’t much, if anything, I’d leave on the cutting room floor. If you love a great pop/rock tune played with skill and feeling by actual humans (not computers), get some Class in your collection right now.

Cosey Mueller: Irrational Habits 12” (Static Age Musik) Originally presented as a self-released cassette, Static Age Music does the world a favor and commits this brilliant new full-length from Berlin’s Cosey Mueller to vinyl. Static Age has brought us a bunch of great contemporary German electronic music lately, and Irrational Habits fits that trend. The songs feel like dance music because they’re built around primitive boom-bap rhythms, crisp, powerful, and placed right at the front of the mix. On first listen, you might think the best thing about Irrational Habits is the seedy, Berlin night club vibe it lays down, but there’s more to it than that. It’s not pop music per se, but Cosey has a way with a hook. A lot of those hooks appear as guitar riffs, which stand out because they contrast so sharply with the rest of the music. The rhythms and synth textures are cold, dry, and mechanical, but the guitar lines are drenched in Jesus and Mary Chain-esque reverb and played junkie-cool, sagging way behind the beat like Thunders after a particularly potent dose. That move is executed most memorably on the highlight “Tu Mir Was,” but it’s all over the record. The vocals, while understated and often drenched in effects, also provide highlights, like in the aforementioned “Tu Mir Was,” but also in “Dog Salon,” which has a B-52’s-ish surreality I like. The propulsive EBM-ish foundation keeps me edging the volume knob ever higher when I listen to Irrational Habits, but the pop peaks really push it to the next level.

Public Acid: Deadly Struggle 12” (Beach Impediment Records) Public Acid returns with the much-anticipated follow-up to 2020’s Condemnation EP. Perhaps I don’t need to post a disclaimer, but I will anyway: two members of Public Acid have worked at Sorry State and I feel a close connection with the band and each of its members. So maybe I’m just gassing up my buddies, but ignore my praise for Public Acid at your peril, because I think they’re one of the best and most important bands in the current hardcore scene. The other night I was talking to a friend about how, when a band is on a hot streak, it’s important to recognize what’s happening so you can savor it. It’s a feeling I get once every few years, and often I’ll get into a band so heavily that they start to define that period of my life. Direct Control, Double Negative, and Government Warning were bands I felt that way about, and I feel that way about Public Acid right now. If you’ve seen them live in the past few years, you know they’ve matured into a total fucking wrecking ball. I’m not the only one who recognizes this. After the Sorry State 10th Anniversary Weekend last fall, several people independently commented to me that there was a palpable change in energy when they took the stage. Many people, myself among them, were expecting Public Acid to make a really great record sometime soon, which brings us to Deadly Struggle. You can listen to the record and decide for yourself, but for my money this thing is a fucking masterpiece. The fast songs are blinding, the slow parts are unholy, and it feels both timeless and appropriate to its moment in the way great art should. While Deadly Struggle is unmistakably hardcore punk, it doesn’t sound like anything else. Sure, there are reference points for certain things they do, and Public Acid is also part of a wave of bands like Tower 7 and Salvaje Punk making ugly fusions of raw international underground hardcore and metal, yet Public Acid stands alone. Like I said, I’ve been around the block a few times, and I think I know when a band is at the top of their game. Deadly Struggle is not a record you want to sleep on.

Pura Manía: Extraños Casos De La Vida Real 7” (Roachleg Records) Here at Sorry State, we were huge fans of Pura Manía’s first three records: the two 7”s they released in 2014 and their 2017 album, Cerebros Punk. When I heard Pura Manía was returning with a new record, I was excited, but also a little nervous. The world has changed in the ten years since Pura Manía’s first records came out, and more bands are mashing up post-punk and anthemic street punk / oi!… Home Front, for instance, has become one of the biggest bands in the underground with a sound based on a similar set of influences. After listening to Extraños Casos De La Vida Real, though, I realize I shouldn’t have worried. While a few people may have caught up to where Pura Manía was in 2014, they’re still several steps ahead of everyone else. And besides, it was never about the sound, it was about the songs, and god damn fucking hell does Pura Manía have songs. At the center of all four songs on Extraños Casos De La Vida Real is a powerful central vocal melody, always anthemic and sing-along-able… these melodies are the reasons Pura Manía’s music is so often compared to classic oi! and Spanish punk, but unlike the bare-bones arrangements favored by oi! bands, Pura Manía builds these songs out into tracks that are like punk symphonies. Besides the central vocal hooks, each song also has several memorable lead guitar and bass lines, and you can tell they put a ton of thought into how all these parts work in concert… take, for instance, the way the lead guitar gracefully steps to the side as the tension-building pre-chorus leads into the chorus payoff in “El Viaje Al Interior Del Cuerpo,” setting up the pins perfectly so the vocalist can knock them down. These are masterpieces of punk songwriting, and I love that this time around Pura Manía is less shy about it, employing clearer, sharper production than their earlier releases and doing clever-ass shit like the musical callback to one of their older songs on the grandiose, later-Damned-esque instrumental intro. Extraños Casos De La Vida Real is just a great fucking record, a phenomenal piece of craftsmanship that seems determined not just to imitate, but to equal (and perhaps even best) the life-changing records that influenced it. This is the reason we are punks, folks, because our scene can produce bands and records like this.

Physique: Overcome by Pain 7” (Iron Lung Records) Physique quickly follow-up their killer recent LP, Again (which we named Record of the Week less than half a year ago), with six more scorchers. Physique is a veteran band and the years they’ve spent honing their sound shine through on Overcome by Pain. It’s such a brutal, powerful record. Physique has always paid a lot of attention to sculpting their sound; while their music sounds noisy and chaotic on the surface, it’s more of an intricately woven quilt than a haphazard jumble of tones. The sound they get here is beastly, with a crushing low end you feel in your gut when you blast it at the appropriate volume. Physique has only grown more adept at wielding their sound, too. As Usman pointed out in his staff pick, the playing is precise, with subtle rhythmic shifts and accents that are the mark of a great band. Just listen to the way the rhythm changes subtly halfway through “We Do What We Must…” so sick. As for the songs, while riffs tend toward the simple and brutal, they cohere as dynamic, thrilling songs. There are even a few curveballs, like the wild, over-the-top punches in the middle of “As Tradition Dictates,” my favorite moment on the record. If you’re one of the ignorant souls who dismiss Physique as unoriginal because they aren’t shy about nodding toward their influences, you must not be listening, because the power and vitality here are impossible to deny.

Disfear: Everyday Slaughter 12” (Havoc Records) Holy hot damn, Havoc Records brings a landmark Swedish d-beat record back into print. When I wrote about Havoc’s reissue of Disfear’s 1995 LP Soul Scars, I mentioned I became aware of Disfear through their more polished 2000s releases, not learning until years later about their furious early material. It’s tempting to see 1997’s Everyday Slaughter as the culmination of that early era, as the record after this one marked a change in drummer, vocalist, and style. Everyday Slaughter, though, is a total shredder. Disfear recorded the album with Thomas Skogsberg at Sunlight Studios, who also produced sonically renowned Swedish death metal classics like Entombed’s Left Hand Path and Clandestine, Dismember’s Like an Ever Flowing Stream, Carnage’s Dark Recollections, and many others. However, the bigger production on Everyday Slaughter is balanced out by a feral performance from the band, who lays into these songs like a hungry pack of wolves on a fresh kill. Disfear builds most of these songs around short, relatively simple riffs, and even though the clarity and beefiness of the tones might sound metal, the music here is pure hardcore punk. Check out the last track on the a-side, “Subsistence,” whose verse riff is literally just one chord played as hard and as fast as possible for four bars… it’s so fucking PUNK. I’d call it a highlight, but every moment of Everyday Slaughter crackles with energy and power. It’s just a great fucking record, a high-definition portrait of a band at the top of their game.

Golpe: Aussuefazione Quotidiana 7” (Beach Impediment Records) Aussuefazione Quotidiana is the second record from Italy’s Golpe. Sorry State released their first record, La Colpa È Solo Tua, and we remain huge fans even though we didn’t put out this new EP. In fact, I think Aussuefazione Quotidiana is an incredible record, distilling everything that was great about La Colpa È Solo Tua into an even more potent concentration and adding a few new wrinkles to the sound. For my money, Golpe writes some of the most memorable songs in hardcore. Even putting aside the quality of the riffs, beats, vocal lines and other building blocks, Golpe’s songs are arranged so they seem like they’re always building in intensity. I don’t know how they do it, but every time you think the band has achieved an impossibly high climax, there’s an even bigger one around the corner. The riffs are just phenomenal, with a larger-than-life quality… I mean, listen to the (mostly) instrumental “Un Nuovo Inizio” and try not to imagine a giant room full of people going the fuck off. Another thing I love about Golpe is the playing. It still seems impossible to me that Golpe’s mastermind Tadzio records all the instruments himself because the ensemble playing sounds so natural and organic (I find a lot of other one-person projects robotic and one-dimensional). Some of the groovy parts are so slinky they almost sound funky, though rigidity and looseness is one of the many dynamics Golpe manipulates… they can certainly bash when they want to. I should also mention the lyrics, which sidestep punk cliches and self-referentiality to engage directly with the world’s most pressing problems with real thought and feeling, something the band actively encourages their listeners to do too. There’s so much to take in with this EP and I love it all. Bravo, Golpe!