HARSH RESPONSE

 

If you pay even casual attention to these pages, then you'll know that there's a crew in Vienna who are terrifyingly capable of recreating and/or inventing chosen subgenres of sound. There was BACKYARD (West Bay Coalition), DISCLONE (self explanatory), TONAL SHIFT (DC/HC), OPIOID CRISIS (misanthropic DYSTOPIA crust) and now there is HARSH RESPONSE. This time the sound is rooted in mid-'80s UK anarcho along the lines of CIVILISED SOCIETY? with a little touch of ANT-SECT but you'd be a fool if you didn't acknowledge the RUDIMENTARY PENI flourishes and then I'll be fucked if it doesn't sound like S.H.I.T. and SPITBOY covering INSTIGATORS. My only complaint is that it's impossible to talk about this band without talking about other bands - also this is one of the best things I have hgeard in 2026.

HARSH RESPONSE

GUDANG GARAM // ZABØGART

 

Blistering fastcore and DIY crust/grind from two Indonesian masters. GUDAN GARAM drop five tracks in three minutes while TE veterans ZABØGART offer six tracks in just two. Please tell me what the fuck else you could actually want.........I'm waiting.

HARDCORE KOPI SACHET

SEVEN LIES ABOUT GIRLS

 

Listening to The Process Of Weeding Out makes you feel like you missed out on something. Like there's another world of sound and reality - a dark, disturbing, murky, churning, terrifying world of sound and mystery. SEVEN LIES ABOUT GIRLS walk a very strange tightrope connecting dark improvisational ambient and harsh noise wall...they are not either but they clearly owe a debt to both and that makes for a really interesting listening experience. 

THE PROCESS OF WEEDING OUT

OBSESSIONS

 

Stellar four on the floor hardcore from Vienna - think SADO NATION, NEW BOMB TURKS and Dez/Keith-era FLAG punk played by a band that also has records by OBSERVERS, CRIM DAM and THE NOW DENIAL on their shelves. There's a full length that came after this tape...and it's even better.  
But that's all you get. 

THE OBSESSIONS

SILCHARDE

Painstakingly deliberate ambient black metal horde from France. Every track is like passive torture (the shortest still clocks in just under nine minutes) and the general sonic energy is that of someone trying to escape. I Love...My Death listens as the title suggests - it's a very slow death but one that you will welcome eagerly. 

I LOVE...MY DEATH 

PLETKYA

 

This Budapest trio is only going to get better with repeat listens. Bare bones synth/bass/drums with airy vocals like a minimalist RAKTA with indie/twee undertones....and PLETKYA really are as good as that descriptor suggests. If this witch shit could be the embodiment of modern dark wave then we would collectively think about that modern subgenre differently. Because this is what that should be. 

PLETKYA - DEMÓ

WRECK

 

Listening to WRECK reminded me instantly of seeing 1000 TRAVELS OF JAWAHARLAL in Fukuoka in 2000. We were playing with fastcore and thrash bands every night and then something just....something jerked us back to meaning and community and belonging. We had all of those things in our scene, but there's something about emotion being presented in this sonic context, and it hit different. I listened to a sick grindcore record before I ripped this demo and I understood it. I listened to this tape and I felt it. It's different. Perfect? Nope. That's not the point. 

WRECK - 4 SONGS