THEIST

 

Different presentations of these songs are on the THEIST tape I posted a few years ago, but I enjoyed revisiting this absolute bulldozer so much that I figured there must be some would-be interested parties who may have missed out the first time around. A glorious amalgamation of epic stadium crust and crushing doomsludge...and then they go fast, and when they go fast I suggest you strap in. The closer "At The End Of The Maze" probably captures all of the power most effectively (makes sense that it's the closer then, no?), building on everything from the stoner grooves that open "Antidogma" to the breakneck epic DBeat assault of "Endless Lust" and the atmospheric interludes "Aeon" and "Arche" that separate this release from their other self titled cassette.
Here I am in 2026 listening to a recording from 2014...wishing it was 2003. 

THEIST

VIOLENCE OF CRUSDAE

 

A message to virtually every North American and European punk: You will never know the true depth and reach of so-called Third World Hardcore. If you're looking, then you will find another new (to you) band every time you take a breath....and if you want more, then every one of those new (to you) bands will lead you down a new (to you) path where you will open more doors and find even more new (to you) bands and scenes. But the parentheticals are important here - because these bands and scene exist outside of the first world DIY structure even though the influences are often apparant (and sometimes blatant). Enter VIOLENCE OF CRUSADE from Kediri, some ten hours roughly east of Jakarta. They left us with a small handful of deadly metallic hardcore releases form the mid-2010s and 2014's Dead might be my favorite. Dark and intense hardcore that leans on technical melodies and uses stadium crust tendencies without ever falling into the subgenre's trappings. "Dead//Suicide" into the dreadfully intense "Balada Rimba Malapetaka" (roughly translated: "Ballad Of The Jungle Disaster" so draw your own conclusions and sit with that shit) will make your hair stand on end but the whole damn thing is incredible and it just makes me think: "Shit - there's more where this came from?!?" And yes, there's always more. 

DEAD

PAPER GANGSTER

 

I've probably told the tale before, but in 1996 FUCKFACE were quasi-stranded with HICKEY at the FAT DAY house in Somerville, Massachusetts for the better part of a week with no shows. We were well taken care of and the show at the end of that week was one for the ages (Matt was green, enough said), but I made a mix tape in their living room...and that's the connection here. We were light years removed from the tough hardcore scene (see also our show with UNDERTOW, UNBROKEN and JASTA 14 in New Haven on the 1994 tour, and the handful of shows we did with BURST OF SILENCE....lest I digress). These dudes were in New England, and 'that kind' of hardcore was everywhere. And the Firestorm EP was in their living room, and that record made it onto the mix tape and that was really the first time I had spent any time with this shit. 1996 - wild, right? 
Anyway, PAPER TIGER are from Depok, not far from Jakarta, and this 2004 recording takes me back to that living room except that Season Of Destruct is undeniably more interesting and innovative.
This isn't 'my kind' of hardcore (whatever that means), but try to tell me that "New Empire" doesn't resonate and I'll tell you you're wrong. Then we can talk about "Behind The System" and "Hope" and "Civil War" and then I'm going to start to wonder if straight edge groove metal is my new favorite genre because....well, because of PAPER TIGER.

SEASON OF DESTRUCT

UNIT X

 

You tell me you know a band called UNIT X and I'm gonna tell you that I think I know what they sound like. Well....that's what I thought when I picked up this tape. And I wasn't wrong. We're talking ten minutes of smart Y2K fastcore and classic SXE 'core and a little bit of that less-posi energy to keep listeners honest (think LACK OF INTEREST sharing a bill with LIFES HALT). The shit hits the spot.

WAR ON SELF, WAR ON EVERYTHING

ARMED HOGS

 

Drop everything and blast the fukk out of this demo. Jakarta's ARMED HOGS have just changed the game by following the damn rules - ripping USHC played with precision and passion. This hits like when Brandon handed me the DIRECT CONTROL demo 20+ years ago.... all of the sounds were familiar but somehow the shit just clicked differently. Though the sound is decidedly more unhinged, this feels like that felt; if I told you this was a new supergroup from North Carolina or Richmond you wouldn't flinch and you'd wonder which sonic archaeologists had carefully reconstructed a perfect hardcore recording - then there's "Bootlicker" and it's like street punk on Ritalin then the slide at the 0:24 mark of "Strangled" (it's the little things - it really is the little things) and then it's fucking over and you're scrambling to get back to the beginning so you can really listen this time instead of mind-moshing your way through your Thursday. 

ARMED HOGS

HUGE PRICK

 

Sorry about yesterday, my friends. I was having a moment and I was happy that Tom T. Hall cared about me when I was twelve. So nostalgia today, no context and no emotions....just six minutes of high voltage sonic damage from HUGE PRICK. I never saw this band, but I hope they were a gloriously hot mess. Damn this shit is good - this is not giving a fuck hardcore. 

PSYCHO CHAIR

SCRAPYARD

 

No bullshit, just hardcore street punk from the North American continent. 
This tape is from 2024, and there's a full length that came out like two weeks ago that is even better even though and/or because there are some butt-rock leads. Shit is like NYHC and THIN LIZZY. They released it on CD, which is pretty retro.

SCRAPYARD

CULVERT CORPSE

 

CULVERT CORPSE is everything that I want. Raw, yearning, chaotic, oppressive skate punk masquerading as primitive black metal and/or vice versa, recorded to present like a forced march to hell by way of a tornado. The recording takes the Everything Louder Than Everything Else ethos to dizzying heights (or depths) and drenches everything in a tsunami of vocal distortion, making this the six most exhausting minutes of your day...time to throw in the towel, kids. Life is over.

DEMO 3

REALISTIC

 

This is a band I'm in called REALISTIC. Alex, B and I started doing this (very slowly) after the Conquest Fro Death LP came out and the band was finally done. Adult schedules and toilet life made progress and productivity virtually impossible, but we recorded a sub-seven minute demo at House Of Faith in 2023....then came nothing. That's until Lory (RAD, FALSE FLOWERS, SICK BURN) stepped in and gave us life. So we're a band now, and we have a demo. 

REALISTIC: DEMO 2025

===================================
Speaking of bands, I'm also in a band called VEXXYL who are releasing our first demo tonight.
You can get one in person.

In Pacifica, California.

BIG LAUGH

 

As USDIY hardcore in the 2020s seems to be increasingly anchored by bands from the smaller "scenes" (don't ask me to justify this stance, it's just a vibe) labels like Unlawful Assembly are fast becoming go-to sources hot current hotness, much like Not Normal buoyed the upper Midwest scenes in the 2010s. Anyway, before SLOGAN BOY and INNUENDO  and NECRON 9....there was BIG LAUGH. Sure, the Consume Me LP on Rev is a monster, but this 2019 demo....this is basement hardcore. 

BIG LAUGH

ARMOR

 

They do shit different in Florida. You surely know this, but rarely have you heard a better example than this ARMOR demo from 2019. It's the hardcore that you love, just delivered with a murky, dangerous, desperate edge that makes it clear that ARMOR are....different. Mayhaps no better example than "Age Of Machine," a full on juggernaut of galloping fury that slides into the down low crouch and squirm of "Daydreaming" that puts the whole thing to bed. You know these sounds, you just don't know them like this. Not yet. 

ARMOR

======================

MORALLY STRAIGHT

 

In a way, MORALLY STRAIGHT came two years too late......but isn't that want makes them perfect? 2012's Normalitas is a master class in posi-Y2K fastcore, giving off serious LIFES HALT vibes with shades of 97A and some of the more 'crew iterations of the era. I wax nostalgic about this period every so often, choosing to remember the positives and skip the frustrations, and it's bands like this that really drive home how many great people and relationships came out of that time....bands like MORALLY STRAIGHT that help me remember that while hardcore rules, your hardcore (whatever era and/or genre you're a part of) rules more. Pretty sure these kids from Bandung are never going to forget the bonds they made in the early 2010s, and that makes this old white guy smile. 

NORMALITAS

RHINO

 

Filthy, grimy, gruff, squirmy hardcore street punk. The tempo shift that closes "Spinning" is worth the price of admission on its own but you're in luck; this is ten minutes of angst ridden gold. One self-titled demo from 2018 is all you get from Rhino, which seems appropriate for a band littered with members who seem obsessed (or content?) with projects who drop a handful of songs and then dissolve (CRYIN' HAND, BOOGER, ZIG ZAG, SMELTER, EJECUTADÓR, CURBED, PUTRID BOYS....this list just scratches the surface). At the risk of repeating myself - if the songs are this good, then fukk it. 

RHINO

OUR SPIRIT

 

Had a couple of drinks tonight with an old friend (one of my oldest) and for the first time in a long time we didn't talk about nostalgia. We talked about our bodies failing us and our friends failing us and us failing ourselves and we talked about love and we talked about loss and grief and we talked about death and we talked about punk bands and EDM DJs....we talked about his bands and my bands, but we didn't talk about our bands. Sometimes it's good to connect with someone you love and actually connect instead of rehashing as a means of small talk. Anyway....this band from Depok City hits like LIFES HALT and OUTLAST. Eight minutes of determined, positive 'core that makes me feel....well, nostalgic. It's hard to say the before times were better because we (I) didn't know what we didn't know....but fukk that innocence felt good, especially in retrospect. Enjoy and crank "Can't Get Ahead" while you get ahead today. 

OUR SPIRIT

 

HEDGEFUND

 

A dozen years after HEDGEFUND initially appeared on these pages comes their post script. I posted their self-titled debut in 2012 and Apreiron was snail mailed to me with the companion OHR // P.A.Y. shortly thereafter. I sat on both of them for the average lifespan of a trash panda before I unleashed the former on you a few years ago but still I waited for this one.....just because. "OHR" is a brutal sonic exercise, painful noise and deliberately manipulated sound while "P.A.Y." is an even rawer version of the band who hurt us with their two previous releases - howling, desperate. You're going to recognize the sounds here....but you'll never hear them the same again after you listen to them like this. This band was relatively short lived and I fear the waves they made were rather small, but damn this shit was good. 

OHR // P.A.Y.

PEACEMAKER

 

A few hours ago REALISTIC played our informal cassette release show at a weird and cool spot in Richmond, California. Our tape is short (less than ten minutes) and there was a discussion about whether or not duration should factor in when calculating sale price (because the production expenses for a cassette are essentially the same regardless of length). Craig wisely noted that if a record is good, then it didn't matter how many songs were on it or how long they were....you aren't complaining that the flawless 11 minute mini-LP isn't 17 minutes long....you're flipping that shit over and blasting it again. I agree, and these are my thoughts as I listen to PEACEMAKER's two song, four minute cassette for the one-hundredth time. Two songs....that's all we got, but maybe that's all we needed. 

SEE YOU DEAD // GREED

P.S.Y.W.A.R.

 

The midwestern united states is a special place, sonically speaking. N.O.T.A. could not have come from California. DEAD SILENCE and ANIMAL FARM were influenced by the "cool" scenes on the coast/s but they were so obviously products of their respective environments. You get an Outhouse in Kansas but never in D.C. or Boston. Enter P.S.Y.W.A.R., who straddle/d Denver and/or Kansas City, two of the largest and most influential enclaves in the middle of this country's middle section. Proximity (or lack thereof) breeds isolation and that makes for special sounds....like these sounds. We're talking early '10s USDIY squirms and reverb-laden spiked boots guttural hardcore with dark '80s Japanese influence...kinda. Because really this shit is the product of all of the influences with none of the meddlings, and that's what makes the good shit hit even harder. 

P.S.Y.W.A.R.

80HD

 

When 80HD dropped a few years ago, the hype was all about their energetic live shows and aerial explosions. People rushed to get to the internet to show the rest of the world how high they jumped, overfiltered grainy black and white photos with mullets and humans flying across phone screens. You never heard people talking about the music except that they were fast....but the shows were lit. Two mini LPs and five years after the demo and that first West Coast tour though, might I suggest revisiting the almost unparalleled sonic detonation that is 80HD's Demo 2021? The hype was real, and this blur of j/o riffs (hi Max) propelled by a hailstorm of galloping thumps doesn't merely stand on its own without the stench of sweat and beer interrupting the surge of Gen Z punks scrambling to get the perfect photo - the context breathes new life into the special kind of hardcore this band was creating. Perhaps 80HD is best listened to alone at 5:30am before the coffee is finished brewing - without context and without filters and without peer promotion. That's when you can hear 80HD and feel their fury unencumbered by the noise. Seven crucial, life affirming minutes on this cassette, re-experienced (by me) the way punk was not meant to be experienced; in the dark and in the flesh accompanied by nothing but a soft snore in the background and the waft of impending caffeine from the next room. Not gonna lie though, thee jumps did look sick.

80HD

MOONSCAPE // SMUT

 

It was almost ten years ago when I last posted MOONSCAPE, and I focused on their dark energy. That energy is arguably even more present on this SMUT split. Any if you want to talk about energy.....SMUT is everything you want in a punk. You've had them before but (if you're like me) it's been a minute and this split is a good reminder. "Thirst Trap" is the best punk song you'll hear today.

MOONSCAPE • SMUT

Worth noting that this tape sounds murky as shit in the best and punkest way imaginable.

647(F)

 

We've talked before about the lost late 1980s. Those kids who were young adolescents when their older siblings dragged them to FLAG and THREAT gigs were young adults at the end of the decade and...guess what? By the time hardcore wasn't cool and the dude from DEEP WOUND was a solo-ripping college indie darling, those kids were making some ripping under-the-radar hardcore music. It's just that hardcore wasn't cool anymore....except that it was. Hardcore was always cool. Still is. This recording was released as the brilliantly titled Cop Corpse 12" in 1988, but thankfully they made a tape too. 

SIX SICK SONGS