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DEMO FEST is back for 2025 This time brought to you by The Counterforce! The short version: * Spend October + November recording a new punk demo and submit it to DEMO FEST * Submission deadline is December 1st * Release day is December 21st Never heard of DEMO FEST? In 2020 during the height of Covid-19 lockdowns in Montreal, DEMO FEST 2020, brought together hundreds of punks and friends recorded a new demos during the Fall and everything was released by DEMO FEST on the Winter Solstice...

When I woke up on August 1st, 2025, I did not expect to be surprised with the first CATHARSIS record in 24 years. I may have actually asked myself "is this the same CATHARSIS"? It is, and I gotta say, it's really good. I’ve had to force myself to listen to other records every couple listens just so I don’t burn myself out on Hope Against Hope. This record feels like it was written with intent and care. Based on what I’ve heard and read about how it was recorded, I think the band took their tim...

Probably one of the albums I listened the most in the last two years. My friend Juan mentioned them in a tour we were doing around Europe with IRREAL, because I was really obsessed with WIPERS, but I listened too much ALL their albums and I needed something new. His recommendation was surprisingly spot on, THE ESTRANGED covered all my musical needs with a refreshed take on the Portland trio. With an amazing and consistent rhythmic work (same drummer of HELLSHOCK, LEBENDEN TOTEN… and bassist also...

A short EP of just 5 songs that sound like a demo (non derogatory). The name (“everything is dark”) is a good description of what can be found in these tracks: cave-sound music featuring members that later would be part of DESTINO FINAL, GLAM, etc. The vocals are harsh and together with the also very dark lyrical themes they create a sensation of oppression, intensified by the mid tempo riffs and their kind of noisy production. Its important to also recognize the powerful art that comes with th...

Among the dozens of bands that tried to imitate ESKORBUTO, there’s one that stands out over the rest: LOS MONJO. These three brothers and their cousin decided to use their common surname as the name of the band, and formed their already legendary “rock basura” sound from Guadalajara, Mexico. Their music is passionate, they are not competing to be the fastest ones. They just expose how fucked up everything is, how every city is a pile of trash that should explode but at the same time is our home...

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....