Issue 7

The Counterforce Issue #7 is here. This zine compiles everything on the site since the last issue. With a front and back cover by Stunk. Download the PDF for printing here and view more issues on The Counterforce Zines page. A standalone zine version of the Manifesto for The Counterforce has also been added! Download a PDF for printing here....

Years ago I meet a stranger in a dark bar in Montreal's Pointe-Saint-Charles. Six years later, after many lessons, sprays and a wild chase I am interviewing my friend and legend Listen. ...

Cruel Noise is a weekly punk radio-show-style podcast produced by John Villegas, who was kind enough to respond to my questions about the evolution and making of Cruel Noise, finding new music, DIY punk and wanting only the best for our human and animal friends....

Over the years the Murfreesboro scene has developed a bit of a reputation. Potentially wild gigs, lawless youth, the occasional bleakness that comes with punk houses, and at the end of the night you get paid 17 wet dollars......

For four years Everything Is Not Okay in Oklahoma City was a legendary punk outing for the freaks of Hattiesburg. We went, we played and we all came to the same conclusion: some things need to stay dead....

Contributed by P-Lou Free Palestine I have loved RECALL since the first time I saw them! I remember listening to the demo tape out of my Sony Sports Walkman at work all the time. I was very excited when I heard an EP was on the way earlier this year. Released on 7” with 11pm Records and on tapes through Broken Skull, this new release from the freaks is exactly what it should be – a significant evolution of their sound while always staying true to the essence of the previous material. To me RE...

CRUELSTER have spent seven years since their last record carefully assembling an insular world, a model train village with a sniper in the clocktower and a miniature fistfight in the Wal-Mart parking lot. ...

I came across this zine in a distro in Lille, which is quite close to Brussels where the zine is based. Crash-Test is zine of anarchy and punk, with many contributors. It was one of my best discoveries of tour....

A classic case of the label writing hype checks bound to bounce: Precipice does NOT sound like DIE KREUZEN or SPIKE IN VAIN, and so the first pass flopped. The subsequent go 'round revealed a band fully capable of standing on its own two-to-ten legs (possible solo outing? Inconceivable to me, as a singer or bassist by trade). 8 brisk (by European standards) tracks of what I like to call "psycho hardcore." 8 teeth missing and a bruise on the forehead. Released by Discos Enfermos, listen here: h...

Haven't heard a band so effortlessly channel the spirit of 80s hardcore punk without sounding hopelessly derivative in a long time. No vocal delay, chunky guitars, xeroxed to shit cover art, and I just know there's a "program repeats both sides" disclaimer somewhere. Unadulterated and unspoiled by algorithm slop bullshit, I hope I never see this band on the summer punk fest circuit. Released by Slow Death Records, listen here: https://slow-death-records.bandcamp.com/album/caustic-demo-2025 CA...

A-regular, asymmetric, a-okay! Slot 'em in a mixtape rock block twixt CHRONOPHAGE, DESPERATE BICYCLES, MD, or STRAW MAN ARMY. 5/5 Released by Stucco Label, listen here: https://stuccolabel.bandcamp.com/album/the-8th-of-may The 8th of May, by FLEAS OF MERCY10 track albumStuccomatty getloose...

Five high energy, TOTALITAR-tinged tracks. Not bad by any means, but it's missing something that would give it the push into constant rotation. Maybe a rawer recording, or if the vocals sat lower in the mix. The cover art is great and there's a strong enough foundation that I'll tune into future dispatches. (3.5/5) Released by Neon Taste Records, listen here: https://neontasterecords.bandcamp.com/album/esmagado-pela-engrenagem-capitalista Esmagado Pela Engrenagem Capitalista, by Sistema Obsole...

Big time five out of five. Unmitigated banger. FFO: that hardcore punk shit....

Investigating my daily listening habits, it ain't immediately apparent that I love certain sub sub sub genres of hardcore, but in the lizard portions of my brain, in the depths of my art punk heart or whatever, there is an unapologetic desire for the mosh. The demonstrated style doesn't have a better representation than CORRECTIVE MEASURE. Fast, angry, and subtle as a fucking hammer. Definition of meat and potatoes, with great breakdowns and no corny bullshit. (5/5) Released by Refused Records...

Coulda been a bad day, coulda been the 1,000th Caves cover art in a calendar year, but it seemed HOMEMADE SPEED lost something between that manic live footage that initially blipped my radar and the first spin of "Faster Is Better." It felt domesticated. Last week's revisitation revealed the idiot genius I knew they had in 'em: bandanas, dumb crew vocals, & 8 tracks that hit like lost cuts from the "Cleanse the Bacteria" and "No Core" comps. (7.5/10) Released by Not For The Weak Records, liste...

Five years after the release of their "Hot & Flustered" LP, these nazty rockers have returned from the depths of the Perth abyss. While I enjoyed that release, it didn't resonate quite so deeply as their "Pork Sword Fever" 7". Never fear, their latest 5 song slab is a return to form: trebly 2 minute rants that vibrate on the same frequency as "Penis Envy," the PETTICOATS Peel Session, or the ENDTABLES. What a great year for punk art, thanks for da Meaty contribution. (4.5/5) Released by Static...

Batshit Japanese art punk from a few years back. Contemporaneous reviews cite COMES as a starting point, but "Stop Jap"-era STALIN, smashed up against the "fast but not fast" method pioneered by GAUZE (and, a world away, BAD BRAINS) is more apt. Listen & choose, reader! Are these references: a) far too on the nose or B) the post-pratfall schnoz that is making an FFO list for an unadventurous public? (5 sicks out of 6 nasties) Released by KiliKiliVilla Records, listen here: https://kilikilivil...

Six song (sigh) 12" from Leeds' MOTHER NATURE. An interesting whole that doesn't quite sound like its purported parts (record labels near and far: gimme vibes, not unattainable subcultural marketing parallels in your write-ups). I'm personally not hearing YDI or COLD SWEAT here, but MN's mix of stompy, burly hardcore and flangey guitar is still a worthwhile listen. Great cover art is a common thread stretched 'cross all the records I've reviewed this ish and this one's no different. Imaginary po...

A blind listen would have you thinkin' this was a four or five band compilation. While we're mostly talking gruff, tupa tupa type shit, OOVA switches it up stylistically speaking too often to feel cohesive. Don't hate it, but I'm a stickler for vision. Released by Planeta Destrozado, listen here: https://planetadestrozado.bandcamp.com/album/creaturas-del-subconsciente Find the band here: https://oova.bandcamp.com/ Creaturas del Subconsciente, by Oova11 track albumPlaneta DestrozadoJean-Paul Du...

Incredible band name, the most unsearchable moniker since SEX VID. I thoroughly enjoyed the half of this album sonically situated between HEAVY METAL (the band) and the SECRET PROSTITUTES, while the other half is a bit too yolky for my tastes. Released by Feral Kid Records, listen here: https://feral-kid-records.bandcamp.com/album/album-01 Album #01, by (+39) 375-649-94-64 My Telephone Number10 track albumFeral Kid RecordsDaniel Bauer...

"What You Miss Does Not Exist Anymore," such a powerful statement is the title of an amazing album by the London - Mallorca - Berlin band that destroys your ears with the new twist of the "Sonido Balear" and the "Extremo Nihilismo". The vocals are an evident distinctive feature of this band, where Sally throws dozens of words per second in a game of symbolic meanings and double intentions that collapses your mind. Wise statements are put in the exact position to trigger different feelings, makin...

I still need to get this piece of plastic, but it makes me so happy to see how this group of people got together, in this city, and worked so hard on such a great album. After a demo only released as a tape and not available online on purpose, I thought the LP would also be an obscure punk gem that only "the chosen ones" would be able to listen to, but it seems it has been released everywhere, which makes me very happy. "Operación Masacre" is not the fastest album, but it also doesn't rely on t...

Full disclosure, I actually recorded this demo in 2023. TENSER was a band with a bit of a false start that shared the same practice space as me. They formed pre-COVID, as early as 2019, initially as a guitar-bass-drums unit searching for a vocalist. Actually, now that I think about it they asked me to sing as well, but I guess I didn't have time. The pandemic derailed the band's full formation, and although they started practicing again eventually the search for a vocalist took a long time. The...

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...

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 ...