It's four things at once on my mind at 5am, dispatching, as we are, LIVE from the 3rd stage. And the bargain, True Believers, is maybe if you make up for the lost time spent shlubbing it up overnight in dank and humid Chicago alleys for two months straight makin' sin-ema (a contraction, if you'll allow it: Sin + Enema), stay productive, you're on your ass laid out like never before, but avoid the electromanic pull of the void, and maybe maybe maybe it will have been worth the last two months of your best friend's life. (Ohhhhh oh oh, I doubt it!)

Let's talk what this isn't: it's not a column, though I've promised one and it's been asked of me, no no no, this is the delicate act of balancing four things at once, and since we've established one may wax Bangsian times two in a space built for one, what's twice THAT while the Boss is away from his desk? (How's Varning?)

So, again, it's 5am, the last hard line between the real and the un-; the glow is inchin' and creepin', an old friend with yet another secret to tell, and there you are stirrin' and the leg's a throbbin' and so's yer noggin' and if you scroll for even one more fucking second you know, without question, that you've dropped your end of the bargain so stop!, STOP!, the finger hovers over the latest Crucified Freedom entry, a Croatian Hardcore Punk blog you follow to intermittently pore over in hopes a new name in an unfamiliar tongue might hop out and beckon you in your dreamlike state upon some clandestine excursion.

EGZISTENCIJALNA KRIZA - Anti-politika

EGZISTENCIJALNA KRIZA. Existential crisis. The synchronicity of it is astounding. The first four tracks on "Anti-Politika" are total mixtape bait: fast, sincere, no pose Hardcore Punk straight from Pula, Croatia. Very Italian in execution, evoking greats like DECLINO, INDIGESTI, and NEGAZIONE, bundling them up and reporting for duty at the SOLUNSKI FRONT.

LAS PALMAS - Primera Linea

Beyond the Front, we find the "First Line," specifically "Primera Linea" by LAS PALMAS, a short lived outfit from Verona, Italy. The label's write up describes the city as the country's most conservative and you can tell. Unhinged, repetitive, surreptitious, 3 tracks of catharsis boiled over. What Minneapolis' WILD COMBO would have sounded like if they got locked in a closet with only the TOTAL CHAOZ demos. Devoid of ego, the mirror pointed outwards. An absolute must listen as we journey further into chaos and arrive at "Heaven's Gate..."

PHIZ - Heaven's Gate

The latest offering from Dusseldorf's PHIZ, it's by far the most focused and produced of these dreamscape monuments, but no less primal. They fire with a higher success rate than the previously reviewed MOTHER NATURE, successfully merging their (presumably nascent) psychedelic inclinations with the burly, thinking man's Capital H as perfected by California's DIZTORT.

SOGNO LIBERO - Sogno Libero

At last, the end of the dream: SOGNO LIBERO, label-mates and members of LAS PALMAS, no less unhinged, but darker, surely. The drums are precise and ultilitarian, the guitars wail, the staccato, rapid-fire vocal delivery recalls countrymen EU'S ARSE and WRETCHED.

So, what, beyond some potentially overlapping influences, binds these seemingly disparate releases? Quite possibly sleep deprivation and mania!

But look, listen, feel: authentic, uncompromising, unrelenting. No bargaining, no reservations. Hard music for hard times, not background noise. Real punk music, whispering secrets fit only for the True Believers.

Music for fighting, that our dreams become reality.

EGZISTENCIJALNA KRIZA - "Anti-Politika" EP, self-released, listen here: https://egzistencijalnakriza.bandcamp.com/album/anti-politika.

LAS PALMAS - "Primera Linea" CS and SOGNO LIBERO - "Sogno Libero" CS released by Sentiero Futuro Autoproduzioni, listen here: https://sentierofuturoautoproduzioni.bandcamp.com/music.

PHIZ - "Heaven's Gate" EP released by DBNO Records, listen here: https://phizband.bandcamp.com/album/heavens-gate.

Follow CRUCIFIED FREEDOM FANZINE here: https://crucifiedfreedom.blogspot.com/.