Youth in Asia - Nuclear Waste Abomination (2024)

I have been sitting on this review for a while but have been, for whatever reason, repeatedly putting off finishing it (I'd like to say it's because I've been too busy, but that is a shit excuse retrospectively). Alas, today I called in sick to work, which felt like the perfect time to focus on this review instead of more pressing important things I should actually be doing. I have now finally gotten my lazy ass to click the upload and save button to this website, finally leading me four months later to plug in the relatively vernal outfit: YOUTH IN ASIA.

YOUTH IN ASIA’s 2024 release, Nuclear Waste Abomination, on Milwaukee’s Unlawful Assembly, is recommended for all who love blown-out hardcore punk—which I’m assuming many people who read The Counterforce do! The lyrics are sung in Korean and are deep and growly ala DOOM (or a more contemporary comparison being VIDEO FILTH) but depart from being anything I would describe as crust. Instead, it seems to be influenced by classic American hardcore and Japanese punk.

I am not a drummer, so my knowledge is only limited to the half-ass attempts I’ve made over the past ten years to learn drums, but for lack of a better word, they just fucking rip. The speed and precision hold the demo together in a way that aids in how much the vocals work to demolish precision. I always appreciate punk when it works to create perfection and chaos at the same time: An arduous process that YOUTH IN ASIA succeeds at.

YOUTH IN ASIA is from the desolate ass lands of Indiana, particularly central and southern Indiana. Indiana is one of the worst states in objectively the worst country in the world. Indiana is not pretty, and if you have any concerns about good educational policies, reproductive rights, or LGBT care, then I would most certainly not recommend you move here. I can’t say there is much to visit and see here. Nonetheless, some enthusiastic youth are making some solid punk that brings just a bit of pride to that state.

FFO: YDI, ICD10, The Sentenced

Released on Unlawful Assembly, listen here: https://unlawfulassembly.bandcamp.com/album/youth-in-asia-nuclear-waste-abomination