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Children With Dog Feet: Curb Your Anarchy cassette (Toxic State Records) It’s been way too long since we heard from New York’s Toxic State Records—their last release was the latest Hank Wood EP last March—but this tape from Children With Dog Feet comes back on a strong note. I could spend all day listing the other projects the four people who comprise Children With Dog Feet play and have played in, but suffice to say it’s an all-star lineup featuring a bunch of very familiar faces. Chi from Anasazi and Blu Anxxiety handles vocals, which are as dramatic, unhinged, and memorable as they are in those other two projects, and those groups’ death rock sensibilities are a big part of the equation for Children With Dog Feet too. However, whereas a lot of “death rock” bands have a streamlined sound, Children With Dog Feet feels chaotic and maniacal. The songs are dense and noisy, the sound rich with texture rather than spare and lonely. While I know these musicians from punk, the songs themselves are kind of odd, sidestepping normal punk modes of riff-writing and song arrangement. It all adds up to a unique sound, and as with my favorite contemporary punk from New York, the visual aesthetic is just as well executed as the sonic one.

Horrendous 3D: The Gov. and Corps. Are Using Psycho-Electronic Weaponry... 7” (Whispers in Darkness) When I dropped the needle on this debut EP from Portland’s Horrendous 3D, I was not prepared. I knew the band’s name but hadn’t listened to them closely, and I knew to trust the Whispers in Darkness label (whose owner is Frank from Lebenden Toten), but FUCK… this thing is just relentless. Frank mentioned younger folks raised on Confuse and Gai getting into UK crust like Doom and E.N.T., and that’s exactly what this sounds like. The top-end frequencies have the psychedelic noise textures of the best Kyushu-influenced bands (including Lebenden Toten), but the bottom end is a full-on battering ram like the UK crust stuff. It’s a real peanut butter and chocolate scenario. Besides having a fresh style, Horrendous 3D is a great band. They remind me of D-Clone in their ability to create dramatic arrangements that keep the excitement level very high. There’s this moment where everything drops out, the vocals shout something unintelligible but very angry, and then the whole band drops in on the last syllable… that moment is straight up magical. I also love that it sounds truly extreme. Jeff said it bummed out customers at the store, and it’s grimy and disgusting in all the best ways possible. And on top of all that, it has awesome packaging, including multiple inserts, cool illustrations, and a pocket sleeve that’s red on the inside instead of white. I can’t get enough of this. If this band and Rigorous Institution ever play the same gig, I’m flying to it.

Slant:  1집 12” (Iron Lung Records) I hate to name something Record of the Week when we’re out of stock, but I’d be lying if I said anything but this Slant LP was the record of the week around here. The reason we’re out of stock is that there’s been something of a feeding frenzy surrounding this record. Iron Lung dropped the pre-order during February’s Bandcamp Friday. The color vinyl sold out fast, and I think the black vinyl just kept selling after that, because Iron Lung had to cut shops’ wholesale orders by 2/3. But this isn’t some vinyl nerd hype band.  1집 just dropped like a bomb and I think the hardcore world collectively said FUCK YEAH! THIS RULES! Another element behind the feeding frenzy might be that Slant—besides having put out an absolute bomb blast of a record—have a sound that people from overlapping genre silos can get behind. Iron Lung’s description mentions Boston Strangler and Violent Reaction and those are good comparisons, but the guitar leads and some riffs are rocked out in an early 80s Southern California kind of way (moments even remind me of Government Warning). And to top it off, the singer sounds PISSED. The hater must be strong within you if you can’t get behind this record. Oh, and the repress is already in progress and there should be plenty to go around… we’ll notify you when our restock arrives. Until then, go find that cable that plugs your smartphone into your good stereo.

Fairytale: S/T 7” (Desolate Records) I thought the debut flexi from New York’s Fairytale was strong (in fact, we named it Record of the Week back in January 2020), but this 7” is on another level. A couple days after this came in, I was sitting in my office and Jeff was like “hey, have you listened to that new Fairytale record yet?” and we blurted out at the same time “IT’S SO KILLER!” I know that, in my case, I was expecting another strong d-beat record with killer drumming, but this EP is so much more. Fairytale recorded with Joe Nelson at D4MT Labs, and like pretty much everything that comes out of that place, it’s just dripping with vibe. My favorite old hardcore records—I’m thinking of things like Aburadako’s self-titled EP, Anti-Cimex’s Raped Ass, or even Minor Threat’s first EP—feel like they teleport me to another dimension… it’s like they don’t just sound “good,” they take over my whole body and all of my senses and demand total immersion. That’s what this record is like. It’s not just the recording, though… I’m enamored with the guitars here, with their fucked tone and the way the two guitar tracks wander away from one another during the leads, giving this that edge of chaos feeling like early Negazione or Wretched. Unless you just don’t fuck with raw, Scandinavian-style hardcore, you need to get this. It’s so good.

Burning Image: The Final Conflict 7” (Going Underground) It never ceases to amaze me what killer vintage punk remains undiscovered and new to my ears. I long ago gave up being arrogant enough to think I’ve heard everything, because there’s a near-constant drip of buried treasures blowing my mind. The latest case in point is Burning Image, a death rock band from Bakersfield, California, who released a two-song single in 1984, of which this record from Going Underground Records is a reissue. I’m surprised the original (of which were 500 copies) only seems to sell for around $50 online because this is just a perfect single. The two tracks are in the vein of T.S.O.L.’s Dance with Me, Only Theatre of Pain-era Christian Death, and the best 45 Grave material. This is the sound I think of when I hear the term death rock, i.e. Southern California punk raised on a steady diet of the Damned, getting hip to the first wave of UK goth, and committing to that aesthetic with the same absorption with which Black Flag stalked their path. And not only are the style and aesthetic spot-on, the songs just rule. If you like that California Death Rock sound, you need to hear this record.

Quarantine: demo cassette (Damage United) Demo cassette from this hardcore band out of Philadelphia. This tape hit the internet almost a year ago (the band had their name well before the COVID lockdown), but our homie / man crush Chris Ulsh (who plays in the band) whipped up a batch of cassette copies for the people of Sorry State. Thanks Chris! You might know Chris from projects like Impalers, Vaaska, and Power Trip, but Quarantine differs from all of those, with a rough 80s US hardcore sound that sits somewhere between Eye for an Eye-era COC, Poison Idea’s Pick Your King EP, and early New York hardcore like the Abused and Antidote. Those are lofty comparisons, but Quarantine warrants them… this is the real ripping shit that you want from 80s US-style hardcore. Quarantine’s main mode of attack is the short burst of speed punctuated with tight, dramatic stops that remind me of the Abused and the Negative Approach EPs, but many of their slow parts have a nasty Sabbath groove to them that’s pure C.O.C. (see the crushing closer, “Media Psychosis”). Word on the street is that Quarantine will drop an LP soon, but in the meantime I’m going to be playing this tape on repeat.

Glueams: Mental / 365 / Arsen 7” (Static Age Musik) Berlin’s Static Age Musik reissues this 1979 Swiss punk single, adding a booklet sleeve with archival material and a bonus track that’s just as good as what’s on the original record. This Glueams single is top-shelf stuff, the kind of thing collector nerds lose their shit over… a top-notch single from an under-the-radar scene that equals songs from better documented scenes we already know and love. “Mental,” the a-side, is the standout here with its woozy, Keith Levine-esque lead guitar line and vicious yet tuneful vocals. That track has appeared on several compilations, including on Killed by Death #6, and once you hear it there’s no mystery why. “365” is a strong track too, but the surprise here is the bonus track, “Arsen,” which has a Thunders-by-way-of-Steve-Jones riff that might remind American punk heads of the Avengers. If you love 70s punk, you shouldn’t pass this one over.

Public Trust: Dirt in My Eye 7” (Active-8) The first release on the new label Active-8 is also the debut vinyl from this Boston-area project. According to the label’s description, Public Trust is the same personnel as the original Boston Strangler lineup. The style here, though, is very different. Before I’d given it a listen, one of the other folks at SSR said it sounded like the Boston Strangler doing early GG Allin rather than the SSD / X-Claim! worship of the early Strangler stuff. On the first few listens I was straining to hear that comparison, but when I looked at the back cover, whose typography and layout draw on the Misfits’ Horror Business EP, it clicked for me. The song “Dirty in My Eye” was playing when I made the Misfits connection, and suddenly that song reminded me so much of “Hybrid Moments” and “Some Kind of Hate.” The lyrics also dabble in the Misfits’ style of B-Movie silliness. I wouldn’t call Public Trust a Misfits rip-off, though… they get harder and faster on “Cannibal Love,” though lyrically that’s the record’s silliest track. Maybe this is just pulling my punk nerd strings, but Public Trust captures some of the magic of the records they take inspiration from. The packaging is also awesome, with a top-notch layout, multiple inserts (all of them similarly well designed), and classy little touches like the tabs being glued on the outside and the notched opening edge just like the early Clay singles. Oh, and it looks like only one track is streaming, but trust me… if you want this, you want the physical format.

Lethal Means: Zero Sum Game 12” (Not for the Weak) Not for the Weak Records put out a 7” from Virginia Beach’s Lethal Means back in 2017, and now here’s the debut full-length. I’m not sure I listened to the 7”, and maybe if I had this LP might not have blindsided me so hard. To me, it sounds like Zero Sum Game splits the difference between the Cro-Mags’ Age of Quarrel and bruising d-beat in the later Anti-Cimex / Japanese hardcore mold. On paper, that sounds like something I wouldn’t like, but that’s because most bands who get compared to the Cro-Mags borrow that band’s mid-paced and mosh parts; Lethal Means, however, sound like the Cro-Mags to me because they have a similar galloping rhythm rooted in the early Bad Brains material. When you combine that with Japanese hardcore-style blistering solos (see the title track, “Means to an End,” or the Death Side-esque closer “Life Cannot Be Owned”) and the gritty production of Cimex-influenced crust, you have a record that is powerful, exciting, and original. The tougher vibes here might scare off some dyed in the wool crusties, but man… I think this record is a top-to-bottom ripper. If you enjoyed last year’s full-length from Richmond’s Destruct, Zero Sum Game is a must-listen.