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Hello and thanks for reading. It’s been about a month since the last Sorry State newsletter. I’m sure Daniel explained a bit of the hell we have been dealing with here for the last month. Although there is still a lot to resolve and work through, it seems like we can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. While we have been dealing with hell here, there have been tons of great new releases in the last month, and I have been buying ‘em like crazy.
Before I get into the photo above, I wanted to mention some records we got in stock from Blown Out Media this week. I’ve been a fan of Sweden’s SVAVELDIOXID since their debut, which was nearly eight years ago now. If you’re not familiar with them, they play DISCHARGE type hardcore but with a super heavy, and somewhat polished, sound. While most bands who play “Swedish style” hardcore are usually influenced by TOTALITÄR with their catchy riffs and groovy breakdowns, there is absolutely nothing catchy about what SVAVELDIOXID has been doing the last eight years. The style they play developed in the early ‘90s I would say, and is not popular at all anymore. The most obvious and known comparison I would make would be to the pre-1997 DISFEAR. The drummer of SVAVELDIOXID, Robin, actually played drums on what I consider DISFEAR’s last good album, Everyday Slaughter. This album was finally reissued recently, and we have copies in stock now. That album is a 10/10 and has been dying for a reissue for years now. Anyway, I think the brand-new LP from SVAVELDIOXID, Världselände, is one of their best yet. I specifically thought the production really stood out on this release. When I got the record, I discovered they recorded with Tomas Skogsberg at legendary Sunlight Studios. So sick!!! Check the LP out in the link I dropped above, and if you dig it, you can grab a copy here still.
Also, in stock from Blown Out Media is the debut LP from California’s ANGUISHED LIFE. Shroud of Death consists of ten perfectly formulated DISCHARGE-influenced tracks. The world is overly saturated in DISCHARGE clones, but every now and again I hear a band that hits the spot. While a novice can understand the DISCHARGE formula, it’s not so easy to truly master it. There are the obvious factors that lead to DISCHARGE type bands being boring; like the guitarist banana’s the entire time, the drummer doesn’t quite have D-beat mastered, or the vocalist doesn’t emulate the syncopated vocal patterns of Cal (which are key characteristics of DISCHARGE songs if you ask me.) But there are subtle things about the DISCHARGE formula that I think many overlook; like the way the bassist strums the riffs, and especially how they play fills. Do bassists call them fills on bass? I have no idea...Anyway, the bassist of ANGUISHED LIFE really masters the style, and I love the bass tone as well. You can check some songs from the LP out here.
Alongside those two new releases from Blown Out Media, we also grabbed this 2020 LP from New Jersey’s BURNING//WORLD. While this is predictably another DISCHARGE type band, they lean hard into DISCLOSE territory. The guitar tone is awesome, absolutely punishing. I really like the guitar leads as well. I think an unfortunate symptom of noisey bands is having a painfully digital guitar sound. Does that happen from using too many pedals? Or just a poor combination of pedals? I don’t know shit about pedals, but sometimes I can really get a laugh at the size of some people’s pedal boards. The idea of having enough pedals you need an entire board is also kind of funny to me. It’s like drummers who use a drum rack, or bands with three guitarists. It’s too excessive. (Ironically, there is this DISLCOSE video and the drummer totally has a drum rack, haha. Also, Kawakami has dreads in this video. If you didn’t know about that era of DISCLOSE then you need to check this video). Anyway, I had never heard of BURNING//WORLD, but the cover Peace Is No Reality instantly caught my eye and I’m glad I checked it out. You can check it out here.
Alright, let me get right into BASTARDS. I will try to keep this as brief and as organized as possible, but forgive me if my thoughts are a bit scattered. While my introduction to BASTARDS was when I picked up their EP reissue on Höhnie Records from a friend’s distro back in Indy upon their recommendation, I admittedly didn’t listen to them until years later. Even upon obsessing over the Killed By Finnish Hardcore boot, something about BASTARDS didn’t resonate with me. Maybe I was just being bombarded by too many bands on that compilation. Their first release I intentionally checked out was Siberian Hardcore (1984). This was their final release before reuniting in 2021 and releasing an EP in 2022. I didn’t really do much checking out when it came to Siberian Hardcore though, cos I thought the first track was sloppy as fuck and I moved onto something else. Haha. I’ve made this mistake often in the past, where I’m thinking the first song or two on a release kinda sucks and then I brush off the entire thing. These days I do my best to listen to the majority of a release (old or new) before I decide to quit. I can listen to music while I’m doing almost anything, so it seems silly to not take to the time to really check shit out. Anyway, I can’t remember who was going on about BASTARDS, but this time it was their first EP, Maailma Palaa Ja Kuolee (1982), the same EP I had picked up back in Indy. The tracks instantly grabbed my attention. As you can see from my photo, I lost it from there and I have their complete discography now. Having all those records already, I wasn’t even considering taking a box set home. Yeah, there is unreleased stuff of rehearsal recordings, but do I really need that? But of course, I am a Finnish hardcore fanatic...so the urge to bust open a copy grew quickly. I suspected Daniel would want to take one home, so I did what I do sometimes where I ask him if I can take his copy home before I decide if I want one for myself, haha. Daniel rules.
When I opened up the box set, I saw more shit I didn’t like. I say more shit cos I think the box set artwork is hilariously bad. The record covers themselves are actually just inner sleeves with the artwork printed on the front. Some of them were printed in color, but for some odd reason Siberian Hardcore is not. I hoped it would come with a booklet, in Svart tradition, and it certainly does! Alongside compiling the entire BASTARDS studio output, they also include a few discs of totally unreleased recordings. Naturally, this was the first stuff I checked out. It seemed cool, the sound isn’t the greatest as I suspected. I was at work when listening, so I didn’t have time to really check the booklet out at all, but that came later when I was home. After spending a few minutes reading, I slowly but surely went from thinking this release was whack, to having my mind blown left and right. It’s hard not to become disorganized when I talk about the release more, I think mainly because I find the booklet very exciting. There are also some very significant things when it comes to the records themselves, and it’s all explained in the booklet.
Inside the booklet you will find detailed information about each studio recording and where the tracks appeared. They also do a proper timeline of the BASTARDS, including their gigs, releases, line-up changes, and even formative gigs they went to that lead to the creation of the band. You’ll find tons of photos, complete lyrics, gig flyers, but most importantly there is a “history of the band.” I think this text was released before and is just now being translated for the first time to English, but it’s unclear to me exactly what has been translated. Regardless, this shit blew my fucking mind. Aside from reading some funny stories, I learned some information on their releases I had absolutely no idea about. It’s honestly too much to tell you about here, so I will just say two things that are the most significant to me.
I have the reissue of Harhaa on Assel records. It was originally released on cassette in 1983. Yeah, my record sounds like shit pretty much. It’s an old tape. Who knows what the source even was? It still sounded cool regardless, but at times the vocals do sound a bit “unnatural.” Haha… well inside the booklet they explain exactly why this is. At the studio session for this release, Masa, the drummer, had to use electronic drums. They explain he couldn’t play the drums quite fast enough on the electro-kit, so they sped up the tape after. Hilarious, haha. On the Harhaa tracks included in this box set, they actually restored them to their original speed. Man, they sound killer, way better quality than my previous reissue as well.
The second thing is in regard to the intro track to Siberian Hardcore. I took the time to explain myself brushing off the band cos of this track earlier, cos it was really funny to me when a Finnish friend told me the story of what happened during this recording session. I wasn’t sure if this was popular information or what, but it is now printed in this booklet. During the session, somehow the drum track was erased. Instead of allowing the band to re-record the track, the studio engineer re-recorded it instead. This is hilarious, and a great explanation as to why this intro song is significantly more sloppy than a typical BASTARDS song. I would be so pissed if someone tried to act like re-recording a drum track for me would be cool... I mean unless they crushed it, haha. Anyway, on the Siberian Hardcore LP included in this box set, they re-recorded the drum track to the intro song! What the fuck!!! It sounds so sick!! How the fuck did they do that?! Fuck.
Alright, I should wrap this up. Yes, I think by now all this stuff has been reissued (aside from the rehearsal stuff). I went into this thinking the box set would be pretty whack and had absolutely no intention of making it my staff pick, but my opinion was 100% changed after exploring it. I think the sound quality is great, and of course I love the booklet. The layout of the booklet is easy to follow, and the band’s discography is separated nicely across the six discs. It sucks that others can’t just check shit out like I can, so I wanted to give you my experience with it cos $99 is a lot of money. From another perspective, six LPs and a sick booklet is not bad at all for $99. If the LP packaging itself was more deluxe, then the price would have been certainly more. While the box set wasn’t exactly eye-catching, the amazing content definitely curbed my initial disappointment with the packaging. Don’t be fooled by the cover like I was, haha. Alright, thanks for reading, and thanks to everyone for your support.