Issue 13

Broken Skull's latest and most metal release so far. I always prefer metal when it's played by punks. To my non-metalhead ear, MORTALITY MIRROR delivers traditional death metal. As a demo it's solid, and anyone invested in the underground metal scene should get a copy or keep an eye on them. Something about the production didn't quite grab me though, I think death metal recordings need to be really crisp and hifi, or a completely fucked dissonant mess. But it is, after all, a "DEMOnstration"! T...

More Looney Tunes-flavored hardcore punk. ANIMATED VIOLENCE from Orange County with TOTAL VACATION from Los Angeles. Are those places different enough to need a distinction? I don't know I live like 1,900 miles away, I'm sure it's important to them. One side you got ANIMATED VIOLENCE, tried and true furious styles. This is west coast HARDCORE PUNK. A distinct style difference from the current trending styles creeping in every scene from the Upper Midwest to the Southeast. Exactly what you need ...

Short review: Two thumbs up, this rocks. Long review: Eight tracks from the Austin, Texas four piece and each one of these eight tracks is a total earworm. Jangly punk. D.Boon would have loved this. Guitar going crazy out here. Each instrument exist so distinctly on their own without stepping on each other's toes. Never having to strain your ear to pick the bass out of riff or anything. It's all laid bare out here. Clean style but not a clean energy, ya know? This shit is still in your face eve...

Contributed by Hobbes A.I. punk artists have become increasingly prevalent in our spaces. If you are online or on social media, you are likely following them without realizing. The amount of A.I. art that has already been printed on tape and record releases is truly heartbreaking.  Now that government spending on Artificial Intelligence has increased by approximately 900% in the last three years, even good old artistic suffering has become automated. 
 In a perfect world we’d take punk off of...

Nasty, feral hardcore continuing along in the modern Australian tradition of acts like Melbourne's SIN TAX, or even Sydney's RAPID DYE. In a world of big-room/capital-h Hardcore, shit like this is a deeply necessary salve for what currently feels like a pretty infected wound. The chorus to "The Bad Lieutenant" is sure to give you the kinda grin that's usually reserved for schadenfreude. Released by Iron Lung / Helta Skelta, listen here: https://heltaskeltarecords.bandcamp.com/album/reality-sold...

This is a bleak, dark ride. It's really tempting to mention the laundry list (ha!) of obvious 90s crust influences here, but it's probably the slight tinge of metal that does a lot of the heavy lifting. And I do mean slight, make no mistakes there's no black metal to found here and that's a good thing; this harkens back to a simpler time when a record with it's feet planted firmly in the crustcore-corner could make you feel fuckin' rotten. Probably coulda been an LP but with things looking appro...

Insane follow up their s/t, I knew this was going to easily clear the bar they set before as soon as the keyboards hit. ILDJARN by way of Sydney hc, warts and all city life, misery and crime, gold paint, I worship mammon and I am in love with greed. Five stars, a must have for anyone trudging to work hungover and considering the thing we all think but probably shouldn't. Released by Profitcorp Records, listen here: https://robbersydney.bandcamp.com/album/bad-eggs Bad Eggs, by ROBBER9 track alb...

Relentless and punishing, this should probably get repressed immediately. Shit makes me feel like I'm marking a paper: I am incredibly impressed by the form and execution. Thought the lyrics were great too. If you fucked with the INTERNAL ROT - Hack Sessions LP this will be far enough up your alley as to cause obstruction. Released by Regurgitated Semen Records, listen here: https://forcedstarvation.bandcamp.com/album/forced-starvation Forced Starvation, by Forced Starvation14 track albumForce...

Crucial fast shit, blink and you miss it fury, do not pass on this one cos they do not miss. 625 has a habit of burying sleeper-hit punk seven inches amongst the thrash and grind LPs and this is no exception. Do it. Do it now. Released by 625 Thrashcore, listen here: https://kissland.bandcamp.com/album/girls-mignon GIRLS MIGNON, by KISSLAND11 track albumKISSLANDonnie69...

It sounds they're taking as many cues from freaks like THE CRUCIFUCKS as they are from something like GBH; a healthy change in a world of punx dishing out endless crashercrust or relentlessly dreary anarcho-by-way-of-goth projects. NO SECTOR deliver something more genuinely off kilter, with a cadence I can't quite predict. The kinda freak shit I can absolutely get behind. Released by Razored Raw / R.I.P Peace, listen here: https://razoredraw.bandcamp.com/album/mercury-poisoning Mercury Poisoni...

In Barcelona, punks ain't hippies, they are anarchists. A few neighborhoods have been providing the local scene of the city with fast bands, and Sant Andreu is one of these sources of raw, fast punk constantly appearing when you are not expecting it. MAQUINARIA INCENDIARIA is a project that was developed by a couple of people but has evolved over the last few months to constitute a proper band with members known for their long trajectory in the scene. Aggressive hardcore music normally needs a l...

SUICIDAS has been a source of hymns for the Spanish-speaking punk scene since their first release. Dark lyrics with beautiful melodies and outstanding vocals that will be your greatest companion through problems of love, lost friends, and bad decisions. But they will not only help you avoid your psychologist, but also push you to keep resisting against everything in a fucked-up world. Just turn the volume up and enjoy the experience. My favorite songs are “Senderos” and “Venenos”, tracks that I...

Fantastic first demo from INTRUSA, from Madrid, that displays all the components of Iberian melodic punk (yes, I think I just invented this) that started at the end of the 90s and has been perfected over the last couple of decades by some of the people in this band through many projects. One of the keys to the catchiness of this demo is the vocals and choruses, which are perfectly combined with the already well-thought melodic instrumental parts. The lyrics are a mix of political and personal th...

Contributed by Lisa Czech Since 1996, Jeff Miller’s patient eye has documented the DIY spaces he moves through. In his fanzine, Ghost Pine, he continued the punk literary-documentarian tradition established by predecessors such as Aaron Cometbus and Fly (Elen Orr). Temporary Palaces (House of Anansi Press, 2026), is the Ottawa-born author's first formal stab at long-form fiction. If Ghost Pine catalogued a milieu, Temporary Palaces inhabits it. The core of this story unfolds in the aftermath ...

I saw someone in France post a flyer on counterforce.social for a show KHLORE was playing and replied with my praise for KHLORE, having seen those crasher crusties in Lille last summer. From that I learned that some of the members have a new band with a new release: CLEANCORE KILLER. A nice long 8 song debut record of delicious stenchcore. Perfect guitar tone and crusty vocals that never seem to land on the beat but it still works. Guest vocals from Charley of UK's CATASTROPHE is a huge highligh...

Montreal's d-beat supergroup with members of more bands than I can mention. Two-guitar d-beat hardcore, for TOTALIÄR fans but with a but of a crunchier edge. They spend a long time writing their songs and it shows. I've been watching Dave's driving beats and precise fills for 20 years now and I hope I get to watch for 20 more. If you have made this far in life without falling in love with the d-beat this record might do it. Tape released by Sore Mind, 7 inch released by Broken Skull. Listen her...

Another new crusty demo tape from an acronymable band name dropping on the D4MT Labs YouTube channel. GLUM APATHETIC SOCIETY (G.A.S., if I may) features members of former/associated bands like MMI, WORLD DISORDER, XERO, SPIROKETE and CULTURE SHAPING VIOLENCE (C.S.V.). Endless Tiring Existing Demo leans more noise/crasher crust with the extreme squeal guitar feedback, a bit of actual noise content, and booming drums that hit the monkey beat frequently. It's not just a high-speed noise assault, th...

I have never been to Perth but understand it as the nexus in which all the best and heaviest Australian music spawns. It is a place lionised for its isolation, and working backwards from the sounds Perth bands tend to generate, it does in fact seem to be a place of dinosaurs and demons, the mesozoic and medieval. The debut demo of AFFIRMATIONS solidifies images of West Australian dino-demon scapes, incanting something from the void, understanding the way out is not through but from within, heedi...

Contributed by splendid ass The counter-point(force?) to my post-punk woes. DOUBLE DATE’s debut is more aux cord jammed into cracked Sydney pavement than stern genuflection at what came before. Sure, I hear you yelling at the screen. Of course there are precursors and the echoes of a million post-punk outfits pinging off the edges of this tape. These are well-trodden paths, no doubt. But DOUBLE DATE sounds like they’re actually having fun walking down them. Oozing with a similar steeze that gav...

Contributed by splendid ass Wiry post-punk propelled by lashings of well-adjusted psychedelia… hmmm, characteristics of a record which usually have me searching for load bearing beams. STATION MODEL VIOLENCE's debut is ‘the underground’ for men over the age of 35 and with full-time jobs. It is the HOODOO GURUS for the Gen Z/Millenial threshold, a record that will offend no one and delight those who comment on YouTube videos. This S/T fiddles with a 12-string, picks one or two good ideas and cha...

Ninety years ago the Spanish Civil War began. It destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives but also gave birth, for a few months, to one of the most beautiful social revolutions of the twentieth century. It also exposed something that still defines Spain today: a territory with an extraordinary diversity of languages, cultures, landscapes and political traditions forced into a single national project. Modern Spain was largely consolidated after the Civil War, especially under Francisco Franco and...