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Grow your hair! Prepare your necks for the SAYÓN attack! Following an acclaimed debut show a month ago in downtown Barcelona, SAYÓN's demo probably is, for me, one of the most anticipated music releases for this year. I have listened to these SAYÓN tracks a few times and, after an extraordinary rainy season, suddenly this Mediterranean region feels a bit more like Devon, UK, than the nearly desertified landscape (with no bands-no rain) that we had a few years ago. With some AMEBIX-styled vocals ...

The Counterforce Issue #6 is here, featuring all the content published since the last issue... See it all collected online here, and download an imposed PDF to print and distro yourself: US Letter A4 PDFs for past issues, and many more zines are available on our Zines page....

Graffiti has been alive in well in St. John's, Newfoundland for over 30 years. During trips to the island I started to notice what looked like Bart Simpson's head dissociating, then the crazy punk throw ups joined it, and I met my new friend Stunk....

NINES? TENS? DON’T TALK CRAZY! HOW MANY REALLY EXIST OUT THERE? HOW ABOUT WE CELEBRATE THE BEST OF OUR USELESS TOIL AND LEAVE THE HYPERBOLE FOR PITCHFORK DOT COM. 8/10 IS NOT BAD! IT’S PRETTY MUCH THE BEST! ...

What changed recently in Barcelona? A new breed of bands have appeared suddenly in the last three years creating an insane experiment of raw sounds. I will talk about the whole scene in the future, but one of the most extreme and interesting cases are DOMINACIÓN, a band created to satisfy the most intense feelings for the noisy music we all like. Blending members of another thousand bands (LUMPEN, IRREAL, ASPRE, SAYÓN... the list could be too long) their love for the Japanese bands like FRAMTID ...

I take punk album lyrics very seriously, and I enjoy reading an insert full of phrases that somehow make me think. In fact, with this obsession with lyrics, I tend to err on the side of writing overly convoluted lyrics. I'm always surprised when an album has lyrics that are just one line, and even more so when those lines aren't just boastful talk but also can be a direct and effective political shot. In Ckaos Total, the punks from TÀRREGA 91 have managed to synthesize concepts in their minimal ...

I lived in Victoria for 10 years in the late 90's/early 2000's and since then, understandably, a lot of things have changed, but a lot has stayed the same. Here's a few things I tapped into while I was there recently....

Malas Artes is already a classic in Barcelona. After so many years of the festival (previously called MDA), each edition seems more impressive than the previous one, and the imagination and energy behind this huge event has opened new spaces to punk in this city. The fest is organized by a nonprofit association with three punks behind it and lots of people who collaborate in many different ways. This year, all the proceeds were donated to the Palestinian Community of Catalonia, who also were the...

Intro Few things in punk bother me more than when Facebook or Instagram are the only ways to find out about shows. For the past decade I've tried many different online and offline projects to provide alternative ways for Montreal punks to promote and find out about shows. I started with a flyer blog (I think), and for many years I did an e-mail list with monthly show listings. For a while there was a monthly print version too. I helped with a telephone hotline. And I've printed and handed out t...

This is not a review of a split – it's a split review! Two records, one review! Contributed by D. Alexander Holmes DESTRUXION AMERIKA is originally the brainchild of “Eskorbeto” the nom de plume for the vocalist of everyone’s favorite warp-speed Texas hardcore punk contemporary legends NOSFERATU. This release pairs them with the three core members of local NYC heroes TOWER 7 (everyone’s fav [sic] thrashy crust outfit from NYC’s post-pandemic years) and KALEIDOSCOPE (review imminently pending) (...

The fuck you attitude of Boston seeps out of every seam of these 7 new hardcore punk tracks from PHAGOCYTE. Lot's of tasteful big riffs, a venomous vocal delivery and enough tempo changes to keep you on the tips of your boots. Standout tracks include "Manufactured Entropy," a frantic dive into the paranoia brought on by over stimulation caused by the relentless machine of the military industrial complex and a freshened up version of "Weaponized Incompetence" (originally released on the B.U.D.L....

"The world is being blinded. We are all forced to tune out the world's dramas. Some, on the other hand, are fighting back with every ounce of energy they have, defending every inch of land with hunger and prolonged suffering. Of course, they persevere out of love." The second release from the anonymous Indonesian raw punk band carries the torch of their first release, albeit with a much darker and sinister sound. Expect all the raw punk frantic energy, but with some black and death metal inspir...