Issue 1

Welcome! This website is coming together and this weekend marks the release of the first print issue of The Counterforce print zine. It includes everything published on the site so far and is the first print issue of many more to come. You can print this zine out yourself and distribute it not-for-profit. Start a zine distro in your town or add this issue to an existing distro. Get in touch if you want to contribute something to the site and to be included in the next issue! We would like to se...

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 ...

RASKOL was recommended to me by some friends as their "favorite band in Philly right now". I describe this as "d-beatdown": a backbone of pummeling d-beat with extremely tight and danceable side-to-side/2-step/slam parts. I'm all about sonic contrast, and this is one of my favorite combos. Too much non-stop d-beat and drawn out breakdowns alike get boring. Just hit me with tight assaults of both in equal measure. Are bands like this the pipeline for Hardcore kids getting into d-beat? I'm not sur...

A track from this demo was in a recent episode of La Hora del Ruido (Noise Not Borders Radio). I missed the live broadcast, but thankfully Boris specifically told me to check out this band because of my known interest in new drum-machine-driven punk and hardcore. D é mo opens (after a sample I can't place) with a drum machine d-beat, so it's going straight to my heart. The drums are loud and up-front as they should be. The vocals are are delivered in shouted unintelligible French, possibly 50% ...

TERRITORY is a new band of old people from Philly. Members of CURMUDGEON and DEATHRATS. This demo-length cassette is crusty hardcore set to a mid-tempo d-beat, reminiscent of early 2000s political crust, but more hardcore and less melodic. Still, the influence of bands like HIS HERO IS GONE is evident in the under-60-second middle song "Suck The Marrow" or as I call it "The One With The Scissor Beats". In the absence of more melodic parts, there are injections of short, at times otherworldly, g...

Lettermail continues to be a somewhat overlooked option for shipping tapes, CDs, and other similar sized items. This information will prove useful to many who have been unnecessarily burned by double-digit parcel shipping rates....

Montreal based VERIFY once again combine the technical precision powerviolence is known for, pummeling hardcore breakdowns and relentless vocals boiling with contempt for those unwilling to take action in this 4 track demo. This is the first release from VERIFY to feature noise elements in song structure (credited to THE ARGUMENT), an excellent edition to this extremely tight outfit. Tracks "Sleepwalk" and "Drool" makes no illusions, if you spend your time with these songs you'll learn where the...

Dripping with fuzz, noise and static, Brooklyn's S Ø RD Ï D is back in full force. 5 tracks of self described d-beat raw punk that last's just over 8 blistering minutes, as it should be! Don't be fooled by the washed out sample on the first track, by the 20 second mark "PODRIDOS" takes no time to blast us with delayed and distorted vocals, crunchy bass, pounding drums and borderline indecipherable guitar riffs. "SUBSTANCE" crashes into an almost dark punk stomp that's sure to get the beer cans f...

From the cold, isolating depths of Montreal winter, TENAZ released a refreshing blast of dark anarcho-punk onto the scene. From the gloomy stomp of "Pelear Por Pelear" to the melodic riffs and vocal delivery of "No Entro", this six song demo packs a punch. No over the top distortion or effects on the guitar or bass gives every instrument a bit or room to breathe, and makes the combination of melodic singing, shouting and occasional haunting back up vocals even more opportunities for boot stompi...

La Chaîne is a monthly-ish newsletter/infolettre that is printed and distributed in Montreal since 2022. It's been running steady for a year and a half now and has become a staple in every kitchen/bathroom in town. ...

RECALL is a new band from Montreal, featuring member of SPACERS, PEEVE, DEADBOLT and TOTAL NADA. The demo opens with a slow plodding intro track with an almost spoke-word vocal delivery. It kinda lets you know you're in for some anarcho-vibes, at least politically speaking. After the intro the band kicks into the higher tempo d-beat that set the tone for the rest of the demo. There are still ample tempo changes and a few short breaks such that everything fits under their self-definition of "har...