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

ANTISOCIAL ACTION

 

Not going to bore you with the lineage here (though ANTISOCIAL ACTION's sole proprietor first appeared here more than a dozen years ago and the output has never stopped). What's important is noisecore. 40 tracks in just over ten minutes - carefully thought out and constructed anarcho violence and unfiltered bursts of reality addled mania. Half-minute quasi-DBeat/blastcore micro masterpieces interspersed with a barrage of sub-5 second bursts of noise. "Mangled Musick" as an example - a fully formulated abrasive (and arguably perfect) raw hardcore track followed by eleven songs that collectively consume a mere 62 seconds. And this ain't speed trials, it's not about how many and/or how fast, but the assault as concept approach is both notable and beautiful. "Anti-Tech," "Rotting Body Of Android," "Caught Up In Gears Of Slaughter" - this isn't noise for show, this is sonic abuse made out necessity. There are two more tapes....sadly I only have one of them. 

ROT IN CHEMICAL WORLD

FULL MEAT JACKET

 

There's another (relatively well known) release titled My War but goddamn that shit if that shit doesn't escape me because it doesn't sound nearly as fucked up as this shit. FULL MEAT JACKET come off like a real and desperate internal struggle manifested as improvisational noise punk. If mental anguish had a sound, it would be FULL MEAT JACKET. If emotional frustration was a band, it might be FULL MEAT JACKET. If punk lost all pretense....it might sound like My War in 2004 (say it out loud to get the rhyme). 

MY WAR

The label boss says it better than I can, naturally. 

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.

HEKTIKS

I used to make a point of highlighting blown out guitars and bombastic distortion every Monday. Listening to HEKTIKS.....I kinda think I should get back into the habit. Can't really think of a better way to put this shit life into perspective than the complete destruction of your senses. 

OBLITERATION

TUNGA PENETRÁNS

 

What a gloriously filthy quarter hour these punks have offered us...and I will accept their offer with verve and enthusiasm. Chaotic, blown out, stripped down Hungarian DBeat delivered with the weirdest fukkn style imaginable. I(t's a sound you've heard before....you just haven't heard it quite like this. Listen to the guitar (and the vocals) on "Leépülés" if you don't believe me. 

A LEGJOBB FÉREG

FRAGMENT

 

Maybe it was just because it's been a minute since I blasted FRAGMENT, but this tape knocked me completely on my ass when I popped it in last week. This is the same In The Dust that Desolate released on wax six or seven years ago and I swear it hits harder in a 2025 world dominated by retro 'hardcore' and punks who've grown out of the genre/s and seemingly turned to dark wave for excitement (don't get me started). This is thirteen minute of pure hell - distorted and chaotic crasher crust rooted in DBeat, speed and confusion (or CONFUSE-ion, if you're picking up what I'm laying down). Every single EP is a killer and all are recommended - I'm not even going to say this one is the best (that status might be reserved for the Serial Mass Destruction EP on Sewercide) - this one hits just fukkn right in the moment though. Listen to "Final Stand" before you do anything you think is important today and I reckon you'll change your mind as the Maritime dominance continues....

IN THE DUST

NO COMPLY // LOS CRUSTÁCEOS

 

On one side you've got ten minutes of furious blastcore/PV/grind from Chile's LOS CRUSTÁCEOS with a. blatant and heavy West Bay Doomryderz influence. And it would be simple enough to tell you that the other side rips and recommend a DL+listen....but NO COMPLY is on the flip. You know NO COMPLY, right? Fuck me (and fuck you) if you don't, but if you don't....please do. NO COMPLY are (were) a special thing - Florida's SUPPRESSION perhaps. Like...if you know and you were there then there's no replacement, even though an outsider might raise an eyebrow. NO COMPLY's contribution to the second wave of DIY/PV is impossible to understate, and this 1999 live recording captures them in a rare, raw moment of ferocity. It would be very hard to find a band more dedicated to the craft than NO COMPLY, and when Justin passed in 2023 we lost a real one. Listen with volume and listen with intent, my friends. 

NO COMPLY // LOS CRUSTÁCEOS

FLEXITD

 

FLEXITD blew the fukkn windows out of my apartment and wrecked my earholes. It's like a crasher crust LP played at 45rpm....but faster. The bass that opens "Stabilized Destruction." The midtempo part near the end of "Only Death" (that's only midtempo because everything else is so fukkn fast). The piercing distortion that opens "Killing Nation" and gives way to the face melting cacophony. The complete lack of low end anywhere in the mix creates a void that the vocals fill with crushing efficacy. Everything. I'm telling you.....this is an eleven minute masterclass. Readers remotely interested in noise punk, bombastic DBeat, FRAMTID-worship and/or anything close to any of those things...you've found it. It is FLEXITD.

MASSIVE SUFFERING OF THE EMPTY WORLD VERSES

DISTRUST

 

Greater than the sum of its parts, Greatest Very Fuvkin' Shit$ gives you everything that you might be (should be) expecting from the promises made by the cover, but DISTRUST gives you something else. DISTRUST gives you more. Wild studded jacket dis-crust mixed with stench and a healthy dose of Detestation, this collection of tracks smothers you like an avalanche from the unhinged Scan-DBeat of "Nuclear Tomorrow" to the hollow metalcrust of "Doomed To Oblivion," these Singaporean veterans do absolutely nothing half-assed even when it's painfully simple two riff offerings like "Protect And Save" (okay, four riffs if you count the breakdown and the second solo). Plenty of bands hump the corpse of G.I.S.M. and there's a touch of that here to be sure, but DISTRUST just harness that sonic energy and fuckkn own it in the most diabolical way imaginable. Just filthy, desperate and essential metallic hardcore. Listen to "Nightmares Of War." You're welcome. 

GREATEST VERY FUVKIN' SHIT$

SOCKEYE

 

How do you describe SOCKEYE to the uninitiated? Folks who've spent any time here should already know (as should anyone who paid attention to US DIY freak shit in the 1990s), but...how do describe SOCKEYE to someone who simply has no idea? And I'll take it a step further and ask: How do you explain SOCKEYE to someone who has only existed in the internet era? I don't think a SOCKEYE could organically evolve today, in a world that is curated and intentional. SOCKEYE were....different. They took not giving a fuck to new levels before not giving a fuck was even a thing. Confrontational and/or intentionally offensive bands had come before them and outsider art punk was already passé long before they started in late '80s Ohio, but the level of "fuck it" that SOCKEYE projected can't be understated. For the newcomers: think THE DEAD MILKMEN and SCHLONG with an (early) ANAL CUNT sense of "humor" if such a thing actually exists (existed). Alternately, what if a bunch of boob and poop jokes formed a band? Like, maybe this is just the sonic embodiment of an eyeroll. I've Got An Indian Reservation In My Cum is a collection of (then) unreleased cuts recorded between 1989-1991 on one side with live sets from 1990 (opening for SUCKDOG) and 1991 (opening for POST MORTEM) on the flip. It's a lot....90+ minutes of innocent immaturity that feels more welcome in today's very adult and very real reality than I can properly explain.

I'VE GOT AN INDIAN RESERVATION IN MY CUM

RAMPAGEOUS // DICKHEAD

 

What happens when the noise is not manufactured? When the chaos is simply the inevitable result of going too hard and too fast and not giving a fukk? DICKHEAD happens. What happens when you want to grind so desperately that you don't care whether or not you are capable of grinding effectively? When you grind anyway? RAMPAGEOUS happens. Suffice to say that this split is not for the faint hearted or for fidelity hunters.

-------------------------

CRUST PUNK VIOLENCE // DISTORTION AGAINST SYSTEM

DEKREPIT

 

Fist banging white noize kång from Tacoma is pretty much all you need to remind you that the week is going to be a shitsystem. Te good news is that you will not just get through it, you will conquer it - don't believe me, then just blast "Cologne" and reassess. High points on this banger include the pop punk stutter riff in "Peace Or War" and "Taught To Bleed," the guitar tone/s throughout, the anguish in the vocals, the guitars in "Cosmetic Living" (and the backing vocals in same). A ferocious offering across the board....just let the title track lead you to victory. 

IF IGNORANCE IS BLISS...

•••

I would be remiss if I didn't comment on the name. I don't remember if I first heard the split with SCATHED or the split with CEPHLATRIPE, but they both rule and Seattle's DECREPIT remain one of the fiercest under the radar DIY crust/grind bands from the '90s. The Tired Of Licking Blood From A Spoon LP is an unfuckwithable masterpiece, and it's wild that a band 30 miles and 30 years down the road can just step into the same name by just switching out a consonant. 

CELESTIAL SEWER

 

Whether it's improvisation or calculated damage, the Max Nordile Family Of Music take my breath away with each unsolicited and appreciated package. I was about to describe CELESTIAL SEWER as the "latest" offering but then caught myself because there are probably another half dozen pieces of sonic irreverence waiting in the wings and Down In The Sink is merely the latest offering to reach my grubby (and greedy) little mitts. Teaming up this time with M. Magic (GIRLsERM, LOS PUNK ROCKERS, MOZART, STILLSUIT) and M. Furlong (NASTI), M. Nordile lurches through six pieces of improvisation and/or calculated damage with bass bleating like a lost trombone and Magic's guitar making excruciating sounds that simply defy identification....much less compartmentalization. The constant compulsion to create is a quality that I both share and envy, and barging forward even (especially) when you don't know where you're going helps to blend journey and destination into a froth that seems to go perfectly atop any morning beverage. So drink up (again), my friends.

 DOWN IN THE SINK

SPIRAL DEMISE

 

Was chilling with the foos from HUMAN and PowerGlove Dubs a while back and Mikey slid me a few boots and authorized dubs he's been cranking out....imagine my surprise when I stumbled across the new project from my old bandmate Chad in the pile. Howling and hollow NorthWest crasher crust with an ultra bass heavy mix and distant distortion masked as guitar - exactly what I would hope to hear from the dude who I haven't seen in a decade. There's another, newer, harsher recording available on the internet, which makes me (even more) excited to hopefully cross paths with this trio in the future. 

UNBALANCED EXISTENCE

WIGOROTH // UNHOLY ASCENSION

 

Two mysterious California raw black metal sewer dwellars combine for one absolutely excruciating Split Assault. WIGOROTH are the most primal and damaged example of lo-fi USBM I have heard in ages, harsh snarls and tinny indiscernible guitars driven my a monotonous and drum machine lacking any nuance or emotion. The sound itself is soulless, and that's exactly what WIGOROTH are going for. Not to be outdone, UNHOLY ASCENSION fill their side of the cassette with more sinister raw blasts that appear to use the very same drum machine. Slightly more nuance (though you wouldn't say that if you weren't still recovering from WIGOROTH) and no low end in sight, UNHOLY ASCENSION blast through seven pieces of damaged raw punk riffs presented as black metal and to simply say that it "works" would be a very (very) severe understatement. I don't know where these sounds come from (I'm talking emotion here, not geography), but it appears to be a place with very little life and/or hope. Let's go there. 

•••••••••••••

SPLIT ASSAULT

PUNGENCE

 

Woooooof, this tape is fukkn disgusting. Damaged and derivative downtuned PDX crust with guitars that sound like they were recorded onto magnetic tape scored out of the 7-11 dumpster while the drummer was shoplifting some .40s so the band could all get shithoused before they hit the 4-track. Dive bombs drop in from nowhere, guttural low end vocals are punctuated by high aaaaaaaahhhhh screams that hit like DISCLONE on Dilaudid. PUNGENCE are a raw crust pisstake, a band intentionally punching way below their weight in the most gloriously neaderthal-ic manner - you either have to try really hard to sound like this, or you sound like this because you don't know anything else. And the fact that the lkistener can't tell the difference....? Is beautiful.

PUNGENCE

DISOBEDIENCE

 

Eleven minutes of completely maniacal crust/grind from DISOBEDIENCE. They spend thirteen songs making music sound like punishment - fidelity be damned, competency optional, tuning a mere afterthought. This one is to totally off the damn rails - good luck.

FIGHT WAR FIGHT CLASS

DISKÖURSE

 

Another book that you are encouraged to judge by its cover. If you're thinking booze-fueled bombastic DBeat dis-tortion then your thoughts are on the correct path. And this path will lead you to 2017's Love Noise, Equal And Peace! from DISKÖURSE. The piercing white wash of the crash cymbals are a bizarre highlight - a noisy recording glitch instead of manufactured distortion perhaps, and it adds an element of tension that falls right in line with tracks like "N.Q.N." and "Alcohol Attack" that sound just barely out of tune enough to make you grit your teeth and regret that last beer you had before bed. Pure and beautiful kång as interpreted by some '10s crushers from Indonesia....I was into this tape when I listened for the first time and ripped it last week, but I'm fucking with it hard this morning. And if you're wondering whether or not there's a cover of "Warmachine" on this tape? Of course there is. 

LOVE NOISE, EQUAL AND PEACE!

SILENT ORDER

 

Here it is, the shit Mondays were made for. The shit that used to fill the void left by the evaporation of freedom and the return to reality for weekend warriors turned office zombies. When I started posting so-called 'noise punk' tapes on Mondays, it was a different time. When I started posting so-called 'noise punk' tapes on Mondays, I was still in VACCUUM and the world of extra-damaged and over-manipulated hardcore was a world where rocks were still being uncovered. VACCUUM hasn't existed in well over a decade now, and so many rocks have been  uncovered by over-manipulated and extra-damaged hardcore freaks that they started playing generic street punk as some weird kind of revolt.....but the gems are still there. There are still sonic reminders from the past reminding you that on this day - the start of your week of futile toil - you are making the wrong decision. Because what you should be doing is searching desperately for more noise. There are bands who tortured their instruments for you....and you haven't heard them yet. Ottawa's SILENT ORDER did it in 2014 and they did it for you. To remind you: It's Monday. You fucked up. It's all noise. 

SILENT ORDER