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Hardcore punk as a mutual aid-based autonomous zone The hardcore punk subculture consists of people, bands, spaces and projects that perpetuate an internationally distributed autonomous zone. It is underground, existing outside the media mainstream of capitalism. Entities within this zone – bands, zines, distributors, promoters, labels, etc. – follow a largely not-for-profit, DIY (Do It Yourself) ethic to achieve common goals, either on the micro level (pulling off a show) or a macro level (the...

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...

SIYAHKAL is a raging Toronto hardcore punk band who sing in a dialect of Farsi. This tape is absolutely ripping, and is a pretty unreal recording for a live set. It opens with a maniacal laugh that sets the stage well for the next few minutes of making you stomp around wherever you are listening to it. The tape layout is photocopied on cardstock, and equally foreshadows how hard this tape is. For fans of brutal plodding hardcore like DESTINO FINALE. Listen here: https://serpentsgallery.bandcamp...

Berlin/Athens two piece VISIONS OF CHAOS are back with more blown out, fuzzed up blistering crasher crust noise. It's all nonstop, blasting d-beats, static guitar, barely audible rumbling bass and haunting distorted vocals echoing from your deepest nightmares. The always impressive drummer/vocalist combination is not wasted on these three tracks of no bullshit raw punk. "Psychedelic Apocalypse" and "The Last Goodbye" combined barely make the 2 minute mark, never overstaying their barely compreh...

WAFAQ makes no illusions, this is brutal, blackened hard core punk inspired by past and ongoing acts of resistance around the world. This five track EP burns with a passion of those who rise from the ashes of devastation. four anonymous members of this Indonesian outfit hit all the marks with some timely breakdowns, delayed guttural vocals, chainsaw distortion and an unwavering political statement. Boiling to the top from the first track, aptly named "Maniesto!", WAFAQ declares their all out att...

It was a cold November Saturday at the Van Horne underpass, people wandering back and forth across the train tracks as the sun was going down. Not a super attended show, the last one of the year and it felt like it. I know I'd seen them before in some loft, but in this context, scrappy and bittersweet, I felt like they were my favourite band in the city. FEELING FIGURES' newest record is a perfect meal for those of us who grew up with SHOP ASSISTANTS and TIGER TRAP on rotation with the more har...

Montreal has a legendarily wet, cold and irritating winter, which people sometimes cite as the reason this city has such a wild scene come summer. People spend 5 months in shotgun apartments and cramped jamspaces, then emerge with some extremely fresh shit. When PUFFER came out of the even longer sequester of the COVID lockdowns, it felt like a tri-plex exploding. Comprised of core members from the already canonical ULTRARAT and the massively underrated F.I.T.S., PUFFER comes through with a sou...

DESPERTÁ is a punk band from Saint John's, Newfoundland. This release blends hardcore punk with post punk in a way that is way better than it sounds like it should be. Don't spot check this record, listen the the whole thing cause it goes a lot of places, but it all works. Lots of songs have post punk intros that quickly transition into fist pounding hardcore that your downstairs neighbours will hate you for listening to. The lyrics are in Spanish which adds a great dynamic to this release from ...

This ep has been on heavy rotation since a friend posted it on our local punk mastodon instance a few months ago and i still just want to keep it looping into oblivion. Is this a perfect stenchcore release? Maybe there is too much hardcore mixed in for that label but that makes it even better IMO. At the end of the second track "Chain Breaker" there is a moment when you question if you are listening to a new IRON AGE record. "To Catch A Falling Knife" has maybe the hardest intro change into the ...