Everything Louder Than Everything Else
Blathering about records and tapes and other things...
I’m still trying to sort this out and I have a feeling a good rhythm for my writing will be to release an interview and random thoughts on Mondays and then some music reviews on Fridays. If you are familiar with the zine, I tend to keep the record reviews short and more descriptive than critical. I don’t tend to trash things because I only bother writing about things I’m interested in and enjoy on some level. Anyway, all of the below releases are worth a least a little bit of your time.
Melodic Spanish punk - I feel like a lot of the US scene has sort of abandoned this DIY approach to street punk, but maybe I’m just not looking into the right alleyways. It gives me a bit of an ESKORBUTO feel in how it struts with a bit of sass. You like that SAVAGEHEADS LP? I bet you’ll enjoy this.
AVSKUM - En Annan Värld är Möjlig LP
I’ve never quite understood why AVSKUM doesn’t seem to get the same hype and praise as their fellow Swedes because they more than deserve. Thanks to the kind folx at Prank for making this tasty platter of raging Scandi thrash available to the world - I feel its a bit less metallic in its production than the last few releases, leaning more into their classic style of bracing d-beat pummel while sounding totally modern. It’s a bulldozer attack with lyrics going after misogyny, fascism, political corruption and the like. Despite it being over 40 years since their demo dropped, they’ve not lost one bit fire or venom.
CEMENTO - Bitter Themes/Lords Day CS
Icy cold, gothic punk - primitive production but still fairly atmospheric. Three tracks of brooding music perfect for your cemetery chilling friends and vampire dance party attending acquaintances.
CEMETERY GIRL - Who The Fuck is Cemetery Girl?
My favorite part of this whole release is the lyric “I'm more than just a corpse, I'm a psychopathic clown” and you know they are from Detroit so I assume they are down with the clown (Whoop Whoop). Joking aside, this pretty cool, stomping hardcore with a ‘queer as in, go fuck yourself’ lyrical bent. Lyrically venomous assault on misogyny, transphobia another bits of bullshit. Pretty sweet.
CHAIN WHIP - Call Of The Knife LP
Absolute rager of a record from these West Coast Canadians - slashing garage punk style production but the snarly vocal approach keeps it from being pigeonholed. For me, this is a big step up from the last record, Two Step to Hell. There are moment where it brings to mind, musically, ANGRY SAMOANS but again that vocal snarl just drips with too much rage and ferocity.
Super fun, synth driven punk Portland - it makes me think of bands like the EPOXIES or even a bit like JAY REATARD’s solo stuff. Its catchy stuff which I’m certain would make for quite the raucous house party band.
German street punk with a hardcore edge? German hardcore with a hint of skinhead rocknroll? You get the vibes - it alternates between anthemic, singalong Oi in that early 80s UK manner with occasional bursts of speed that aims to scratch that SLAPSHOT itch.
Angular, pogo-riffic, snotty punk that feels like it could have been a missing Dangerhouse Records (X, EYES, BAGS, etc) release. No real idea about this band or their pedigree but my god does it sound like folx from that stellar mid 00s band TYRADES. This is definitely worth tracking down.
CURBSITTER - Grip on Reality EP
Six tracks of raucous, thrashy punk with slight angular elements thrown in to keep it interesting. They mention ZERO BOYS and CRUCIFUCKS as being an influence and I can certainly see that. I feel like these folx would make for an outstanding and chaotic house show.
Jangly, dreamy pop from DC - sixteen tacks of melodic, melancholic sweetness where the songs finish almost as soon as they start. They cover the TELEVISION PERSONALITIES and borrow a riff from NEW ORDER to give you a hint of where they are coming from - gives me the feels of wearing a comfortable cardigan on an early spring evening listening to MILKY WIMPSHAKE. It’s a beautiful record.
SWANS meets early CHRISTIAN DEATH gothic moodiness - its ambient and airy at times, caustic and destruction at others. I’ve really enjoyed the movement towards punk rockers exploring and playing with these sort of sounds. Probably one of my favorite spooky punk recordings I’ve heard in sometime.
ENZYME - Golden Dystopian Age 12”
I love ENZYME - I don’t even know if I should be allowed to write about them because I love them so much - for the unfamiliar these Australian mutants crank out track of distorted to hell, rhythmic, and absolutely danceable thrashing hardcore. GAI meets SWANKYS meets some of the polyrhythmic elements to be found in CRASS that swirls in this treble soaked, eardrum rupturing cacophony of glory. Perfect.
Ripping pooka-pooka hardcore punk from the heartland of America, Indiana. It’s a rampaging good time with piss and vinegar vocal approach, trashing guitars spinning off into meander riffing and a lockstep rhythm section holding it all together.
FAILURE FACE - Junction Pizza EP
It’s hard to convey just how awful hardcore was in the 90s at times - I mean it is an era where would had to painfully sit through tedious hours of navel-gazing emo, crying, college rock, mosh metal, and a serious deficit of bands actually playing hardcore. FAILURE FACE, like COPOUT or CRUDOS, were an exception to that of course - playing ripping fast, primal hardcore punk with all the bullshit stripped off. What we have here is ten songs from a gig in 1995 where their raw energy is on full display. Its a live recording taken from a VHS tape from the 90s so yeah, the sound quality isn’t the best but I still enjoy it because you can practically feel the angst soaked self loathing and the feeling standing on a ledge about to dive headfirst into self destruction.
Hailing from Réunion, an island in the Indian Ocean which is part of France, FÉNWÄR play a crusty, DISCHARGE inspired style of hardcore. It is a little bit metallic and decently executed with an anarcho-punk lyrical approach.
GOLPE - Assuefazione Quotidiana EP
These Italians unleash an energetic onslaught of thumping hardcore which drinks from the same inspirational well as PUBLIC ACID but then injects a bit of the classic Italian muscular angularity to the mix. Am beyond excited to see these songs live when they hit the States in the coming weeks.
This is fucking great - hailing from Panama, they take that 1-2-1-2 staccato punk form, soak it in reverb, noise, feedback and create something uniquely theirs. It takes a few listens to fully absorb everything going on here - meandering bass, guitars that slash one minute then dissolve into electronic noise the next, and song structures that twist and turn in this magical fashion. Super great stuff.
Utterly epic, ferocious, and crushing metallic hardcore from the brain trust that brought you 90s hardcore legends REVERSAL OF MAN, SUTEK CONSPIRACY, and COMBATWOUNDEDVETEREN. In someways, this feels like a refinement of the thought process that created their former bands - the fat has been trimmed, the tempos honed to a more effective pace, and it feels more focused and just heavy as shit.
Snarly, boot to the head punk from Poland - there are moments where it has the same kind of melancholy you find dour Danish punk like NO HOPE FOR THE KIDS but without the same pop sensibility. If those K-Town punks are the smirking musical manifestation of depression, these Polish folx are the lashing snarly anger that follows.
First off, I can’t get over how much the vocals on this remind me of KURT VILE, it’s wild. Also, I had no idea these Texans up and moved to New York were still active - thankfully this is a pleasant revelation. On this new record we find them continuing their moody, rambling, meandering riffing backing up a sorta dour vocal affect which strangely approaches a pop sensibility. Sucking up inspiration from the likes of MAGAZINE, SIOUXSIE SIOUX, THE FALL and infinite long forgotten 80s UK cassette comp bands they create this fascinating and compelling auditory approach.
INTENTION - Brand New Story 12”
Seven, incredibly well executed blasts of rampaging Japanese hardcore in the MUSTANG meets TETSU ARREY form. Powerful riffing, snarling vocals and mountains of hammering ferocity.
INTIMIDATION - Total Aggression EP
It’s a bit SLAPSHOT, a bit BRUISERS (I’m assuming thats where the name is from). Mid-paced, skinhead rocknroll with plenty of aggro from some of the folx behind RESTRAINING ORDER.
It’s got reggae vibes, its got searing pop sensibilities, and its got mountains of very serious antifascist politics. There’s a streak of hope and feeling that one day we’ll win which makes it compelling to me. Part of me thinks this is what a CHUMBAWAMBA record would sound like if they were from New Jersey and obsessed with early 80s rock, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. It got big pop hooks and has this massive wall of sound production that is almost unsettling for my distortion soaked ear drums.
Australian punk which sounds so Australian you’d expect it be played by a koala, kangaroo, quokka and a wombat - it bleeds RADIO BIRDMAN and THE SAINTS and it fucking rules.
Lotsa early 00s garage punk vibes a la Dirtnap records and the EPOXIES to be found here - danceable, synth heavy punk with plenty of fuzzed out guitars and vocals soaked in sass. Really wonderful stuff.
KRIGSHODER - Makt-Demonstrasjoner: 20-22 LP
Maniacal thrashing hardcore punk in the classic early Norwegian style - 1000 miles an hour, nearly out control, careening approach which brings to mind BANNALYST. I used to refer to this as a project band (NEGATIV meets BLAZING EYE members) but when you do a tour of the US are your project anymore? This LP combines their two previously released demos. I love this and not just because they cover SISTE DAGERS HELVETE.
Ferocious, Finnish hardcore in the classic sense (KAAOS, RIISTYTET, etc) with occasional forays into rocknroll guitar theatrics and modern midtempo breakdowns but not in a corny way. Not quite as disquietingly out of control as those early Finnish bands but just as interesting.
MISERIA Y KOMPAÑÍA / SPATEK LP
One slab of vinyl, two Spanish bands - MISERIA Y KOMPAÑÍA remind me a bit of Spanish hardcore legends HHH in how they just have this constant, blazing, and metronomic drum beat throughout their tracks. On the flip SPATEK present six tracks which take a more midpaced approach with ass shake’n funk bass (its not bad) thrown into their more straight forward punk mix.
Noisy, primitive, d-beat hardcore with a tinge of black metal that sounds like it was a recorded in a hallway into a microphone that was covered with a pillow and then someone took the tape, soaked it in water, then dried it out by lighting in on fire. Vocals sound like a bunch of miscellaneous grunting, straining, and snarling while trying to take a shit. For true noise not music maniacs only.
MOTIVE - Controlled Confusion EP
VARUKERS meets CRUDE SS - a pummeling, mid-paced UK hardcore attack.
MUTANT STRAIN - Murder of Crows LP
Thudding North Carolina hardcore leaning heavy into a mid 80s anarchopunk vibe - think ICONS OF FILTH but it manages to not sound derivative. Musically, it sizzles along in a constant punching tempo before downshifting into pogomania backing up this manic vocal snarl. The artwork on this is amazing, bringing heavy Nick Blinko vibes.
I love PHANE - on the one hand they play this sorta straight forward EXPLOITED meets GBH meets BROKEN BONES style hardcore punk that is fairly straightforward but on the other they have this blazing guitar player who adds these insanely elements of flash and flare which makes it stand out. Four ripping tracks of brilliance.
Brutal, down tuned hardcore from DC which just grinds away before shifting to sludgy breakdowns. Syrupy thickness mixed with velocity in a total 90s power violence sort of manner - super heave production really brings it together.
PRIVATE HELL - Days of Wrath CS
Crushing crusty hardcore from these former members of GHOULI and FRIED EGG. Metallic but not metal, if that makes sense - it is a powerful punk which embraces crossover vibes and would sit well alongside Technocracy-era COC as well late 90s bands like BURNED UP BLED DRY or the ilk.
PSING PSONG PSUNG - Only Fan LP
Quirky power pop that feels more like the glory days of neatly dressed dudes playing tightly woven paeans to love and groovier times. Think LOVE, think ARTHUR LEE, think BOBBY DARIN. Bonus points for the cool Raymond Pettibon artwork on the cover.
The guitars on this are so shrill and soaked in distortion it just feels like they’re slowly oozing a bleeding into everything around me. These Philly shredders follow up their debut with a bit more of the same - dentist drill guitars, high velocity drum onslaught, demonic vocals and then occasional foray into electronica. The last bit I’ll never get but you know, whatever makes you feel like you are dancing the night away at some post show party at a squat in Slovenia, then go for it.
RAGING NATHANS - Still Spitting Blood LP
Quick paced, anthemic pop punk from Ohio - production is quite clean but not in a way that takes away from its effectiveness. Its soaked in hooks, ooohs and aaahs while dripping with a bit of snark and syrup coated angst. More music than noise but sometimes your poor ears need a break.
RIVALRY - Sometimes You Have To Look Back LP
Yo check it out - this is Mackie from BLITZ’s latest outfit but its less razors in the night and more in that tradition of UK melodic punk (LEATHERFACE, BROCCOLI, DIAZ BROTHERS, etc). Like a lot of this stuff these days, the production is a bit cleaner than I would like but thats just me being annoying because the songs and the hooks here are absolutely stellar - its always amazing how bands can manage to take lyrics that are soaked in the misery of modern life and make it sound like a lovely sunny day. Sleeper hit jam of the year.
SHOPLIFTERS - Second Nature LP
Serbian pop punk that reminds me a bit of the sugary output of BIG DRILL CAR or ALL, though without the velocity me thinks. It’s a bit sappy but not in a bad way though I fear too much exposure might having you end up with nasty cavities.
SICK THOUGHTS - Born To Blitzkrieg 12”
Drew Owen is a punk rock riff master extraordinaire - catchy as fuck garage punk played at hardcore velocity. It takes me back to the early days of NEW BOMB TURKS and GAUNT but sooooo much better. Just absolutely brilliant.
SPLIT TONGUE - Living In Sin City EP
Rampaging, distortion free hardcore punk from Malaysia. This plays in the same playground as the Japan’s MILK or Sweden’s REGULATIONS - slightly jangly and quick paced, cleaner approach to early 80s USHC.
SPOILERS - There or Thereabouts LP
It’s a little bit like SNUFF or GUNS AND WANKERS or even some earlier version of NO USE FOR A NAME - ripping fast punk with a massive focus on melody.
STIFF MEDS - Tales From The Slab LP
Hardcore from London that mostly moves along at a 10000 mph clip occasionally dropping dow into a moshy snail’s pace. The vocals are like Roger Miret if he was from England, if that makes sense? There is something off putting and off kilter with the recording - it almost feels like there is a minor pitch shift or something - though maybe its the edible kicking in…
The opening track made me expect that I was about wander into the moor with a wizard or something but then it kicks into this 1-2-1-2, pooka-pooka punk attack, with this sorta flange soaked guitar wildly riffing and I’m like “not today wizard.” It’s a bit RIPCORD with the occasional metallic theatrics of SACRILEGE.
STRESS POSITIONS - Harsh Reality LP
Outfuckingstanding - Chicago punk, ex-C.H.E.W. and just this compelling, intense, barrage of thrashing mayhem that feels like it will collapse or fly completely off the rails at any moment. Lyrics addressing the violence of capitalism, the police state and focus at liberation, be it sexual, interpersonal, or all points in between. Great, great, great!
SUFFOCATING MADNESS - Promo CS
Six tracks, only two of which are originals but what quality they are! The covers should give you a feel of what to expect - FINAL WARNING, FLUX OF PINK INDIANS, CRUCIFIX, and ANGELIC UPSTARTS. If this is a taste of what is to come with their LP, I’m more than excited.
Downtuned, heavy ass Swedish crust in the SKIT SYSTEM or pre-rock vibes DISFEAR sort of way. It’s just two tracks but they are face melters.
Punchy, gruff and angsty melodic punk from the same town that birthed LEATHERFACE - this isn’t too far removed from that though I think it leans a little more in the ALKALINE TRIO strain of this sort of thing. This feels a bit like a missing item from the No Idea catalog from say 1999 and thats not a terrible way of thinking about it.
THATCHER’S SNATCH - White Collar Man EP
The first track sounds a bit like FLUX OF PINK INDIANS’ “Tube Disasters” which should give you a good feeling for what to expect here - bouncing, pogoriffic punk from the land down under. Quality stuff here.
WET THE ROPE/ICEPIELD - Split LP
California’s WET THE ROPE feel like the melding of some long forgotten Crass Records release with a MOSS ICON demo track or a smidge of SOULSIDE - guitars which twist and turn and wander, with a steady rhythm section holding it together - though it feels like acres of expansive space between the two. The vocals are less sung and more spoken/shouted. It makes me think of something Lance Hahn (J CHURCH) would have excitedly yammered about while eating dim sum which is high praise. ICEPIELD feels more like a slower more direct version of DRIVE LIKE JEHU - its considered and complex rock.
Ferocious, thrashing hardcore punk from Cleveland - don’t get me wrong, its not just simple caveman rock, though your average caveman would appreciate it! Lots of GERMS-esque groove and its just soaked with plenty piss and vinegar. The snotty approach to the vocals sorta remind me of Kathleen Hanna’s manner on those early BIKINI KILL records - like this go fuck yourself annoyance and disdain. Rules.
WRONG WAR - Upon Further Reflection EP
I love WRONG WAR - their first two LPs are just outstanding in how they modernize and meld the sounds of Revolution Summer-era DC hardcore (RITES OF SPRING, IGNITION, etc) with the likes of later era ARTICLES OF FAITH and create this compelling, melodic punk brew. It’s wild to think I met vocalist Matt Weeks nearly thirty years ago while buying a CURRENT LP off him at an ASSFACTOR FOUR show in Detroit and yet here we are. This EP, like their prior releases is more than worth your time.
Four bands with what feels like decades of history between them all - Philly’s GRAY C.E.L.L. features former and current members of NEMA & CITIZENS ARREST and this apple doesn’t fall far from those trees - snarling, abrasive, hardcore punk. Chicago’s WRONG WAR is next and leans heavy into a In This Life-era ARTICLES OF FAITH feeling. On the flip, New Jersey’s KIRBY KISS contribute a more tempo stomper - its more emotive in that 90s roll on the floor sorta way than I remember them sounding (in my head I had them sounding more like DEAD GUY but it could be this recording). Also from NJ, HUNDREDS OF AU tear through a mathy, thrashing metallic hardcore number that feels a bit like if SAETIA covered early CONVERGE but the more I listen to it reminds me of German 90s metallic hardcore like MORSER. A great sampler from a great label.
Ok this is easy - I should just be able to list the bands (DESTRUCT, SCARECROW, DISSEKERAD, RAT CAGE) and that should have you soaping your stamps, and putting a money order in the post… or hitting that PayPal button for you modern punx. Unless you have been hiding under a rock you already know that these are probably some of the top d-beat fueled, hardcore punk ragers going these days. This is filled with 100% purely ferocious fury and not an ounce of filler. Just go get it or cry later.
V/A Stronger Than Before - Volume One 12”
I’m a sucker for well done skinhead rocknroll and this hunk of vinyl has some of the finest to slap on some too tight pants, shave their head and do the funky chicken to. A truly international comp, what sets these bands apart is they bother to write songs not just ape a sound - the winners here are Mexico’s MESS, BRUX from Barcelona and Carl Templar’s newish thing STAMFORD BRIDGE
Loving all these reviews and recommendations. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing. Enjoyed exploring with the links. Take care.