Boris' 2024 Top Ten
Hi Counterforce. After wanting and being offered to collaborate for several times I am finally pulling my weight to do this list. I’m Boris, I live in Montreal, I play in a band called TOTAL NADA and I’m part of the Noise Not Borders collective. Through NNB I co-host a monthly radio show called La Hora del Ruido in which I review and play new punk music from around the world. So I’ve been exposed to a lot of hardcore / punk music this year, because of the radio and traveling (mostly with the band), and I’m very happy to share this list with you.
I'm gonna explain how I made my decisions. I tried to choose music in the 3 different punk formats, LPs, EPs, and demos, also my top is heavily impacted by live performances. I also left out some obvious choices that might already have been reviewed by other contributors. Finally, I want to acknowledge there is so much HC punk out there and a short list is very biased, but please don’t stop making music, playing shows and sharing your music with other people. You are a very important part of punk. Peace!
ALAMBRADA - Ríos de Sangre LP
On Unlawful Assembly. ALAMBRADA is a thrashy HC punk band from Bogotá, Colombia. Probably my favourite band to come out of my hometown after I moved away. Their first 7 inch totally blew my mind away in 2020. Thrashy as I feel some tints of thrashcore a la S.O.B and some riffs that remind me of NEGATIVE APPROACH, or (Hungarian) metal band DEMENTOR. At the beginning of the year I finally managed to catch ALAMBRADA live @ Festival Asfixia. One or the most violent sets I’ve probably seen in my life, my nose ring flew away from my face. Then managed to follow them around in some dates of their European tour around the with other Bogotá people rippers UNIDAD IDEOLÓGICA.
ARSON - Más Noize Demo
Arson are a band from New York. I caught them at Latino Punk fest this year. They play maniac d-beat with an innate energy, they are pretty much what you want to see in a band of the style, they’re constant, raw and in the face. Their demo opens with a perfect track of just screams, then builds up into several amalgamations of the genre, cool drum fills and some mid tempo parts on the longer songs, and pure buzzsaw d-beat on the shorter ones. They are amazing live!
ASSISTERT SJØLMORD - Self Titled EP
This is an earworm of hardcore 7 inch. Thundering and galloping riffs, marching drums, great vocal delivery. Sounds at times like Modern Scandinavian hardcore- the AMDI PETERSEN ARME legacy, and at times like a uk82 bass driven pogo punk band . There’s a very obvious similarity to THE COMES, and of fellow Norwegian classics KAFKA PROCESS, BANLYST or SVART FRAMTID. A perfect mutt for international hardcore lovers.
THE DARK - Sinking into Madness LP
This band was completely off my radar for a while and completely blew me away when I first listened to it. THE DARK is from Los Angeles, California and the record is released in Toxic State Records. I think it does because of its consistency, this is a 12 track LP, with songs on the verge of the two to four minutes, and has completely captivated my hardcore-centric attention deficit head. THE DARK play dark and metallic tinged punk, a mix of the (dark) Japanese sound, THE EXECUTE, MOLUGU, ZIGA, THE SEXUAL, but mixed with this very OC guitar style, think of every band that Rikk Agnew played guitar in.
INDUSTRY - A SELF PORTRAIT AT THE STAGE OF TOTALITARIAN DOMINATION OF ALL ASPECTS OF HUMAN LIFE LP
That title feels like a little bit of a review itself huh. Out on Static Age, Berlin’s INDUSTRY came out of nowhere with this LP. INDUSTRY is composed of some veterans of their own scenes, from 4 corners of the world, San Francisco, England, Venezuela/Barcelona, and Bogotá. Their sound is dark and materialistic, but with a very strong classic anarcho punk identity. Frenetic tribal drumming, hypnotic riffs, and a British accent that’s not fake, lol. Their live energy is impressive, makes you wanna bounce up and down and shake your skeleton to the ground.
INNUENDO - Peace & Love LP
Unlawful Assembly/ Roachleg records coalition. INNUENDO play that intersection of hardcore and rock and roll that I’m a sucker for. Got spoiled by seeing them every night for a week in Colombia, and it generated to me this incredible feeling, when a band plugs itself and unleashes some crazy energy. On that tour, they got their LP and it had ants in it! I guess a fun reminiscence of our adventures in the tropics. Innuendo are great live, saw them for the last time at Skull Fest, now with a second guitar player, and they made the crowd erupt, heard from fellow show goers they were amongst the best bands of the skeleton island.
GUERRA FINAL - Purgatorio EP
Desolate Records. GUERRA FINAL is based in Texas. They play metallic hardcore with some rock n roll riffs, reminds me of the metallic hardcore kings, and kings of punk overall: POISON IDEA, but dissected to their Japanese hardcore influences, The BURNING SPIRIT kind, but with this twist of the Barcelona scene from the turn of the century, bands like GLAM, DESTINO FINAL, INVASION, OTAN, (believe they are named after a DESTRUCCIÓN song).
MANTIS - Demo
Metal infused hardcore punk featuring punks from Malmo and Copenhagen. Memorable riffs and militaristic drum rolls give the songs a VENOM-style drive, the vocals feel perfectly urgent. Definitely my favourite tape of the year. Caught them live @ Ungdomshuset in the summertime and they ended up their set blasting Leve Palestine, causing the whole crowd to cheer and dance creating an epic memory in my head.
PRISAO - EP # 2
Out on 11pm Records/Adult Crash. Straight forward Portuguese spoken hardcore from Stockholm, Sweden. It’s a no fuck around hardcore punk EP that captures everything the genre should be. Short, direct in message and execution, catchy and have qualities to stomp you out.
VIDRO - Upp Till Dans
Last but not least reviewing this EP by Gothenburg HC punks VIDRO. Been a fan now for years, and they did it again. Raw, stripped, and energetic Hardcore music. VIDRO totally impresses me, it’s a very classical band, but their execution is so perfect. This may sound like a contradiction, but despite saying they are very classic HC punk inspired they sound very contemporary. It’s like THE HEADCLEANERS 👀, meets EXIT ORDER. It's a perfect jumping and dancing core. VIDRO has Swedish and Brazilian members. VIDRO is a word with a meaning in both languages, "glass" in one, and "an undesirable person" in the other one. Bands like this have their lore, VIDRO is the past and the future.
Wanted to finish up name dropping some other releases I enjoyed this year. PURA MANÍA 7", EJACULATORS Demo, STRAW MAN ARMY LP, S.H.I.T. LP, LOVE AND COMPASSION Demo, NECRON 9 Tape, MIRAGE LP and 7", RIXE 7", IGNORANCE 7", NO TIME LP, EXO Tape, DÁVILA 666 EP, INVERTEBRATES EP.
Thank you all for reading