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

SZEMÉT ALAKOK

Total stunner here, offered with the highest recommendation for folks who dig on outsider hip-hop and collections that defy compartmentalization. A first side (almost) overflowing with dark razor sharp rap tunes from the likes of LORD IVAN LIVAH, SHADOW WARRIORS, NUDUM and NEMAZAJ gives way to a raw and derivative DBeat churn from TERMINATOR! and you start to wonder what more this tape can possibly offer....so you flip that shit. After a 24 minute live ambient/noise piece from LEV TOYSTORE & ERNOMINIMAL recorded in 2023, the listener is treated to a short punk burner from KOPROLIT and closes with VARDI TERROR CAFE delivering a damaged piece given the industrial new beat treatment by LORD HUMMUNGUS. And the listener is left wondering how to wrap their minds around what just happened to them.

SZEMÉT ALAKOK COMP 1: Rocket To Russia (b/w) HUI

THIRD RAIL

 

Maybe you feel like some early '90s Bay Area heavy alt? I got you, friends. I have always got you. 
You're welcome.

OCTOBER 1992

REJECT

 

While you presumably celebrate the start of a new year by making promises to yourself that you will surely break and reminiscing about all of the things that are gonna be better (or worse) about the next twelve months....I'm sitting in Fresno surrounded by cats wondering how the fuck these Indonesian kids could have dropped such monstrous ferocity on the world twenty-five years ago and wondering why no one fukkn cares. In line with DROPDEAD, DISRUPT and contemporaries, with an assault so furious it'll make you weep a little bit...because this is the urgency that we need. Today is the first of 365 days in 2025, and if you give REJECT fifteen minutes of your day then REJECT will give you hope. This shit is real, and you can't fake real.

REJECT

KIEGETT FÖLD

 

After making a brief appearance here back in February and (presumably) taking the interweb by storm via Szégyen Kazetták, I was thirsting for more from Budapest's KIEGETT FÖLD. Luckily, during an evening filled with burritos and friendship and laughter a few weeks ago, I saw this pink sleeve peeking out of a small stack of Hungarian goodies my pal pulled out of his bag and I knew my thirst would surely be quenched. Thankfully, the tracks here are only slightly more realized than the product the band offered on their previous tape - and it's the awkward "not quite there" aspect that makes you feel like you're listening to something special. The foundation is angular UK post-anarcho, but what KIEGETT FÖLD build on that foundation is something that sounds like....well, it sounds like a one person punk project rooted in angular post-anarcho punk, allowed to grow and flourish without outside pressure. It's (still) rare and (still) wonderful to hear a band who sound so much like themselves even while not being afraid of exposing influences that may be a bit all over the place. I look forward to the next installment, just as I look forward to the friendship/s that continues to bring interesting sounds into my life. 

T​Á​BL​Á​ZATOK, INV​Á​ZI​Ó​K

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