Contributors To The Counterforce

Brought to you by CrimethInc. Ex-Workers Collective THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 19 – CY FEST KICK OFF SHOW We rolled into LA like the Beverly Hillbillies: our whole life upon the wagon: sustenance, wardrobe, equipment, furniture, and even another vehicle for local transport—not to mention not one, but TWO recently stitched buttflaps. On the way up we discovered THE TOASTERS’ “Weekend In LA” track, which became our anthem for the trip. “How will you check me later if you don’t dig me now?” We slept at...

FATAL REALM straight up restored my faith in hardcore guys doing death metal. In a world that is now overrun by everyone trying to be the next TORTURE and bands stealing DYING FETUS breakdowns, FATAL REALM delivers a great take on death metal. The demo is 5 songs in 9 minutes. The whole demo is basically all mosh parts while still being very much a death metal demo. Nonstop riffs. Makes your brain feel like the drawing on the artwork. Also, I keep seeing people online use the term “spinkick deat...

HELLSCAPE ended up on my radar due to this 7” being released by Advanced Perspective, a label that I feel consistently puts out really good shit and to no surprise, this is extremely good shit. The band cites some of their influences as CHRISTIAN DEATH and VOODOO CHURCH which is pretty obvious as soon as you listen to the first song. HELLSCAPE takes their goth and deathrock influences and uses them to make totally ripping hardcore punk. It’s fast, loud, and fucking pissed. Deathrock with mosh pa...

You don’t need to be super plugged in to realize that Denver, Colorado has been having a moment in the last few years. A lot of it revolves around the label Convulse Records (GEL, MSPAINT, MILITARIE GUN…) and that scene birthed some awesome bands such as PUBLIC OPINION, DIRECT THREAT, CANDY APPLE and now AMERICAN CULTURE. The album opens with local ambient-pop artist MIDWIFE, whose ethereal vocals are unmistakable, featured prominently on the song. A surprising choice and not her only appearanc...

This new EP came out of nowhere and was a good surprise. Unrelenting Hardcore of the punk variety out of Norway, by longtime students of the game who cut their teeth in amazing bands such as DEATH IS NOT GLAMOROUS, OKKULTOKRATI, BLOOD SUCKERS, URBANOIA… This is no frills, in your face Hardcore. Equal parts POISON IDEA and NEGATIVE FX, that would play nicely with most current releases on Quality Control Records. I would describe the vocals as ugly and nasty if the band wasn’t fronted by the ultim...

I love getting caught off guard by that fast intro that breaks into a super cool rocking/lead part, setting the tone here for unconventional song structures in the often boring genre that is youth-crew adjacent Hardcore. For the uninitiated, the term "democore" came from the 2010s boom of willfully amateurish bands who swore by third-rate/obscure late 80’s NYHC (see the defunct Moshers Delight Records). Admittedly late to the party, ONE TRACK MIND from Montreal carves their name alongside that w...

Weirdo Hardcore-punk on the eggier side of things that combines chorus-drenched noisy guitar and fast frantic drumming; but what made me fall in love with them are the super snarky vocals. Some songs are in English and others are in French (I believe the singer is from Luxembourg and the band is based in Germany). The lyrics are quite vile but the vocal delivery has a candid touch that makes the songs all the more catchier. It’s as no-bullshit as it gets and the drums are barrelling through the ...

Anonymous submission This won't mean anything to most of y'all, but Bill Korecky passed away at the beginning of August.  Bill ran Mars Studios in Cleveland, Ohio. Through the late 1980s and 1990s, he recorded all the records by Cleveland hardcore bands (INTEGRITY, RINGWORM, FACE VALUE, and... more than one band that doesn't deserve to be named), not to mention bands from outside Cleveland like CATHARSIS and UNDYING. He recorded the "Firestorm" EP by EARTH CRSIS. He even fixed the guitar sound...

A new, possibly recurring, photo feature from Slim Bolt. This installment features THE NOT, BIG LAUGH, ZEAL, and EXTENSIVE SLAUGHTER....

Anonymous submission squatted shows and diy shows have been an essential part of the history of punk in "so called" nyc. for years there have been consistent diy spots that have been holding up the scene. unfortunately in these last few years most of those places have been stripped away from us. in a post-covid lockdown dystopia of hyper inflation, resulting in a housing crisis, diy spots are the front lines of demolition for gentrification/yuppie condos and businesses nobody asked for or even ...

Contributed By CrimethInc. Ex-Worker’s Collective A few legendary, long-running, DIY festivals dominate the summer tour circuit for hardcore punk in Europe: K-Town Hardcore Fest in Copenhagen, Fluff Festival outside of Prague, and Monteparadiso in Croatia. However, there is one towering midsummer festival that punks often overlook despite its grandeur—Fusion Festival in Lärz, Germany, near Berlin and Hamburg. With an attendance of 70,000 and a crew of 10,000 Fusion is Germany’s largest techno f...

Contribute by F.A.R. Company The term 'noise not music' gets thrown up these days like a cheap beer full of cigarette butts and usually by bands you can still hear the riff in a coherent way. Which is always kinda annoyed me, the amount of records I have taken home expecting the 'raw noise punk' label to actually produce a proper fukin racket just to chuck it on the player and find out it was actually a 'well cooked coherent punk' record done in a studio made by a music chef of some fancy sough...

Contributed by F.A.R. Company Spicy opinion, but sometimes it helps to judge the book by its cover... In a world where even your average jock hardcore band is using that blown out photoshop 'xerox' filter on there covers it can be hard to sought out the good and the bad. But thankfully las DUST COLLECTOR take the guessing work out of it for you. With the help of a good close friend to F.A.R. Company and obviously DUST COLLECTOR guns, Insane Moblish from Mexico doing the artwork, you can automa...

Contributed by P-lou I've been putting back on writing this review for a while now. Not that it's a very intricate or complicated release, I’ve just been having an awful time lately preventing me from doing anything really. That was until I decided to listen to this demo again after a period of time of feeling overwhelmed by the smallest tasks. I got back to it and it clicked, it did exactly what it was made to do. "DEMONSTRATION" 2024 is tough love on tape. From the beginning, the demo starts...

Contributed by F.A.R. COMPANY Doing a video promo for Roachy awhile back now I got given a glimpse into upcoming releases coming out on the ever so busy and consistent label from new york (Roachleg Records). In amongst this folder laid a folder called EVIL SPIRIT, ears pricked up like a scrap yard guard dog seeing an intruder on a Friday night when the tracks started to play. The sound quality was already sounding like it came from a boombox running on low batteries, so I was very keen to here ...

Contributed by Harry Yams I got reacquainted with iPods right around the pandemic. I was working construction and so many times I would have my headphones in, high-up in a scissor lift, hands in awkward places or covered in something nasty. I would be listening to whatever late 90s / early 2000’s punk and Spotify would be like “oh you like this? Have you heard SCREECHING WEASEL?” It felt like the most punishing co-worker trying to relate musically but missing the mark. “Oh not that? What about ...

Contributed by Greg The Builder I am a furniture builder by trade. I mention this because the use of epoxy (with a Y) has become something of a plague to my craft. I fucking hate epoxy tables. Unoriginal, tacky bullshit. EPOXI (with an I) on the other hand, fucking rules. EPOXI is from Bloomington, IN and the label that put out their tape says they are hardcore that sounds punk and I'm inclined to agree. This is the type of ripping and raging punk I tend to associate with bands from the often ...

Contributed by Hobbes First things first: ULTIMATE DISASTER’s demo is a refreshing blast of straightforward punishment, an antidote to my recent bout of math fatigue. Listening to their demo feels like breathing fresh air after being trapped in an elevator with a backlog of 2020s bands, all hell-bent on being the cleverest reinterpretation of d-beat. ULTIMATE DISASTER understands that sometimes, the real challenge lies in executing something simple. Thankfully, they deliver exactly what I’ve b...

Lettermail continues to be a somewhat overlooked option for shipping tapes, CDs, and other similar sized items. This information will prove useful to many who have been unnecessarily burned by double-digit parcel shipping rates....