‘Keeping falsehoods on a one-legged pedestal, Concocting lies and keeping it criminal, Spewing trash on the highest pulpit accessory, The blind eyes are lawless and divisional’ (Red State)

‘What is your line?’. This is the simple, ever more pressing question posed by Blind Eye.  As our civil liberties are eroded with increasingly brazen abandon.  As our privacy is thrown open to those least interested in safeguarding it.  As our public discourse is poisoned by opportunists and charlatans seeking to sow division and to blame those least able to defend themselves.  It is an insidious cocktail and one that threatens to slowly, but ever so surely, submerge us.  And yet, whether through fear or convenience, self-preservation or self-interest, we allow the red lines that define our decency to continue to shift beyond what we ever thought to be acceptable.

Hailing from Nottingham, Blind Eye share an impressive pedigree spanning as it does Bloody Head, Heresy, and Pitchshifter.  However, it is the intensity of their present-day convictions that vehemently define their second full-length, Mistrust Your Nation.  The band’s soul feels like one rooted in 1980s’ anarcho-punk and then refracted through a prism that calls with equal relish on a Japanese hardcore inspired snap and an uncompromising metallic heft.  Intriguingly, the latter influence evolves in unexpected shades.  There is a louche swagger to the guitar and the filthy bass lines, not to mention a jazz-tinge to the solos, that can’t help but evoke whispers of Handle With Care-era Nuclear Assault.

Similarly, the vocals call upon a fierce anarcho rat-a-tat-tat but are, perhaps, even more indebted to the NWOBHM influenced vocals of the pioneering mid-to-late 1980s’ thrash bands, before they were later subsumed by the pincer movement of hardcore snarls and death metal growls.  The verve of Anmarie Spaziano’s vocal performance is absolutely barnstorming.  Powerfully strident, defiantly melodic, but not afraid to get down and dirty with a venomously sneering tirade, she takes aim at misogynistic constraints, our drift into demagoguery, the pollution of public life by oligarchical money, and our own quiet complicity.

From the seething escalation of Blitz Can to the raucously crushing closer Who’s In Control, the ferocity is as invigorating as it is unrelenting.  It arguably reaches its zenith at the midway point as the confrontational stomp of Red State, and the bludgeoning grooves of What Is Your Line? leave nowhere to hide.  Are you ready for the fight?  Because Blind Eye most certainly are.

‘I watched my parents kill themselves at work just to feed me, And I’m killing myself in the same way, But I struggle to feed myself’ (Death To All Oppressors)

I first came across Lágrimas (Tears) through their searing 2023 split album, which brilliantly juxta posed their savage eruptions with the expansive atmospherics of Habak.  This is the Los Angeles band’s first vinyl release since then, and features the band’s latest five-track EP, I’m Not Strong Enough For This, and then on the flipside a reworking of their first four-track demo, 2019’s Like When I Was A Kid.

Their melodic crust continues to ferociously fuse detonations of viscerally cathartic hardcore with passages of beguilingly introspective melody.  The earlier material is, perhaps, more rooted in the classic dynamics of late 1990s’ screamo, with the band’s subsequent evolution placing greater emphasis on the soaring intensity of their neo-crust influences.

The harshly roared vocals build connections between the forces of capitalist extraction that are ravaging the planet (Our Decline), relentlessly grinding our communities into the dust (Death To The Oppressors), and fuelling the murderous violence in Gaza (They Get Paid For It).  Following the serpentine vehemence of the opening I’m Not Strong Enough For This, these latter two tracks land an utterly venomous, darkly anthemic one-two, before the fiercely writhing finale of Devil Wind.

‘I’m in love with my conflict and I’m in love with my pain, I’m in love with what makes me feel in love with what I hate’ (Love What You Hate And Love That You Hate It)

New Orleans is often cast as a city of folk-devils, personified by its notably distinctive cultural history and its uniquely perilous geographical location.  Fewer hardcore bands have, perhaps, emerged from the city than might be expected.  But, whenever they do, they bring with them a swagger that tells you exactly where they are from, a tradition that D. Sablu are more than happy to continue.

D. Sablu actually began life as a solo project for their vocalist. But, after a slew of demos, they evolved into a full band for their 2024 debut album, No True Silence. Righteous Light is the follow-up 7-inch and sees the band continue to revel in a blend of classic USHC, rapid-fire garage punk, and energetically wailed vocals, all delivered with an exhilarating relish.

Side one opens with Electrified Beat, a frenetic blast blessed with a swashbuckling climatic solo, before feeding into the contagiously stomping grooves of Love What You Hate And Love That You Hate It.  Side two comprises of the bass fired Socialized, which sits somewhere between the two – all riffs, attitude, and sheer rock’n’roll fervour.

‘Under the grip of the not-so-pleasant man, he’s taken power from our sweat again. We stumble, we cry, we’ve moved an inch of the mile.’ (1%)

Policy Of 3 are a hardcore band from Philadelphia / South Jersey, who were first active between 1992 and 1995.  This remastered 17-track discography brings together all of the band’s released material, featuring their sole full-length, 1993’s Dog Dead Summer, together with two EPs – 1993’s self-titled 7-inch and 1995’s American Woodworking – and a variety of compilation contributions.

The band originally began three years earlier as Matter Of Fact, born of New Jersey’s straight edge scene.  Their rebirth as Policy Of 3 was a conscious response to the increasing militancy and growing political ambiguity of elements of the East Coast straight edge community.  In this form, playing with everyone from Antischism to Undertow via Groundwork on their first US tour, they emerged as a notably influential band.  Not just musically, but also in terms of their commitment to the DIY ethic and reasserting the political dimension.

The band are, perhaps, best understood as a bridge between the Washington DC scene of the late 1980s and that which later coalesced around Ebullition and Gravity Records in the mid-to-late 1990s.  Although, elements also speak to the more indie punk expressions that also evolved in that latter half of the decade.

The key to the band’s dynamics lies, perhaps, in their restraint and patience, the desire to explore the introspective and the cathartic in tandem. They are not afraid to allow the momentum ebb and flow, before locking in and building layer upon layer, ratcheting up the tension as they go.  The release of the culminative eruptions is almost cleansing.  The energetic, often dual vocals imbuing them with a vibrantly impassioned intensity.  The serpentine convulsions of Improve Kulture Kill and Of The Wolf contrasting with the coruscating detonations of 1% and Drone.

Reanimating the political component of hardcore is also central to the band’s identity.  The lyrics are often allusive in flavour, yet are used to explore themes of social justice, endemic violence, animal rights, and wider environmentalism that the band promoted through benefit gigs and literature at their shows.

The band broke-up late in 2015, having just completed a seven-week tour of Europe.  It was an unexpected split, one that saw the band remain friends, but left them collectively feeling a sense of the unrealised that took some time to resolve.  Members went on to play in Four Hundred Years and Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s, before reforming last year.  If you’re interested in digging a little deeper and not least reliving the joys of DIY touring in the early 1990s, I can highly recommend an extensive 2014 audio interview with the band courtesy of loudfastphilly.com.

‘Intérêts complaisants à peine voilés, finiront vite exposés, Derrière les drones les accords et les traits demeurent les ruines, les vies broyées’ (La Loi Du Marché ) / ‘Barely veiled, self-serving interests will soon be exposed, Behind the drones, the agreements, and the lines, the ruins and shattered lives remain’ (The Law Of The Market)

Toulouse’s Nightwatchers are back with a new four-track 7-inch and follow up to 2024’s split album with Accidente.  They once again treat us to a lesson in thoroughly well crafted, darkly melodic punk, harnessing in equal measure a brooding post-punk sombreness and a bristling hardcore abrasiveness.  The result is both anthemic and austere in equal measure, with the evocatively layered vocals and flaring melodies bringing to mind the similarly deft songwriting of Red Dons.

Qu’importe La Mort (What Does Death Matter) is largely a meditation on war – its existential horror, the economic compulsions that drive it, and the self-serving myths that underpin much of the security narrative.  The hauntingly brooding opener, Atomisés (Atomised) contemplates the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Japan, the surging La Loi Du Marché tackles France’s complicity in the global arms trade, and the anarcho-tinged fury of Dommages Collatéraux (Collateral Damage) maps out the threats of rapid escalation in an increasingly insecure world.  The focus shifts to a reflection of the nature of grief on the melodically reflective closer, Malemort (Cruel Death), to round off a sharply impactful EP.

‘A faceless man waits for his wife, Outside the nail salon, And when she comes out, he makes her cry, Hell in every bed you lie in,  Hell in everyone you meet’ (Model Actress)

Hailing from Cleveland, Saw You With The Weeds is Suitor’s debut vinyl release.  First impressions are of precisely fashioned, darkly lush post-punk, a more expansive and fully rounded evolution from the band’s cassette-only 2021 debut, Communion.  Hooky, crystalline leads and mournfully chiming melodies lock in with a resolutely resonant rhythm section to richly dramatic effect.

Yet, as you immerse itself, two further striking elements begin to emerge, introducing some intriguing new dynamics.  First, is a searing vocal performance from Emma Shepard.  It segues effortlessly from the laconically nonchalant to the stridently melodic, shrouded throughout in an exuberant 1980s’ new wave sense of theatre.

Secondly, is the band’s willingness to lean into their more abrasive instincts with an unbridled relish, which draw in equal measure on noise punk and post-hardcore influences.  Indeed, this inclination yields some of the album’s most dramatic highlights.  The squalling shards of guitar that fuel the soaring chorus to Model Actress.  The slow burn gothic simmer of Factory.  The cymbal awash, feverishly cathartic escalation of Generator.  The finale to Televangelist, when Shepard simply let’s rip with a spine-tingling velocity.

The densely allusive, bleakly poetical lyrics also add another dimension.  They unfurl as if a film noir narration, one concerned with finding a revitalised resolve among friends and community amid the travails of failed relationships and the daily grind of a fracturing society.  The final touches are added courtesy of production from Sweeping Promises’ Caulfield Schnug, Suitor having struck up a bond with the duo while playing with them a few years back (indeed, Lira Mondal lends backing vocals to a couple of tracks as well).  It adroitly matches the album’s dexterous balancing of sheen and grit with a similar fluidity.

‘Finance my hands, Finance my brain, Finance my heart, Finance my pain, My body has a really high interest’ (Finance)

Dead end jobs and lives bought on credit.  Living hand to mouth as a wannabe dictator and his tech bro lackeys gorge at the trough.  We try and scroll away the anxiety on the same tools that entrench and enrich those same forces.  Who better to guide us through the fevered psyche of a nation on the brink than Cincinnati’s Choncy?

They are back with their third full-length blast of hardcore fuelled, wryly abrasive post-punk, following up 2024’s 20X Multiplier.  Scratchily agitated guitars writhe amid the taut bass lines and spryly resonant drums.  Everything is charged with a fizzing off-kilter energy, songs jerking and jolting with an almost demented sense of autonomy.

Meanwhile, the semi-shouted, sardonically repetitive vocals acerbically weave together an absurdist deconstruction of the twin forces of technology and consumerism as they contort, confine, and monetise our lives.  From the bristling convulsions of Scroller to the manic ‘la la las’ that grace the bouncing fervour of Job You Want, and then to the boisterously coiling Version Of A Version and the sinuously caustic climax of Finance, the energy, despite the palpable air of frustrated despondency, is utterly irrepressible.

‘The emergency cannot be identified until it is taking place and reflected in your eyes, The peril is presented face-to-face, You know your own lies’ (No Crisis Goes To Waste)

We often speak of disasters as if they are exceptional moments. In reality, they – and the frequently exploitative responses to them – are often rooted in long entrenched socio-economic inequalities.  The notion of the unforeseeable tragedy becomes society’s defence mechanism to absolve itself from responsibility.  Our refusal to confront these realities, from climate catastrophe to the surveillance state, forms the bleakly dystopian backdrop to Iris Paralysis’ fourth album, Extinguish The Sun.

It sees the Bielefeld / London synth duo, featuring Tobo Schazmann on electronics and Marco Palumbo (Trenchkoat / Zuletzt) on vocals, continue to hone their fusion of post-punk and dark wave.  It also sees the band lean more assuredly into their 1980s’ new wave influences, introducing a more pronounced sense of drama to their aesthetic.

The synths coldly pulse with a quivering elasticity underpinned by the crisply resonant, motorik percussion.  Meanwhile, the gothically drawled, often layered vocals survey a world knowingly suffocating itself with the detached disdain and darkly evocative imagery of one who long ago lost hope in humanity’s potential for redemption.

The slyly enticing invitation of Well-Rehearsed Future and the pulsating Inferiority Complex set the tone for the album, a restless joust between emotions of disenchanted resignation and insidiously infectious songcraft.  It is one effortlessly fermented by the fevered oscillations of No Crisis Goes To Waste and Retroflex View, before the tensely throbbing Eels Of Deceit.

‘Divisive streets turn into division highways, No way through, Build a bridge, Build a wall, This is what it’s come to’ (Division Street)

26 songs in 25 minutes.  And each one of them hits home with the velocity of a runaway train.  Given the scaffolding of downtuned riffs and blast beat eruptions, it would be easy to reach for a powerviolence descriptor.  Yet, the fluid morphing of the song structures is closer to the more organic dexterity of early Napalm Death.  Then other, less expected, influences begin to seize your attention.

Nods to 1980s’ USHC certainly, but the more prevalent influence is the metallic inclined hardcore of the mid to late 1990s – flares and flashes of Endeavor, 108, and All Out War all barge into view.  As I dug into the band’s background, the origins of this thoroughly distinctive blend began to emerge.  Burned Up, Bled Dry were first active themselves during the latter part of that decade, releasing a trio of EPs between 1996 and 2006.  With all of the members now living back in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the opportunity to resurrect the band after a nearly two-decade hiatus proved irresistible.

The onslaught is a touch cleaner than might be anticipated, but this in no way dilutes the sledgehammer intensity and helps lend a striking clarity to each track.  The band’s deft handling of pacing – see the bludgeoning mid-paced dissonance of Don’t Care – further amplifies the album’s flow.  The highlights slam home with a fierce regularity.  The utterly venomous climatic breakdown to Drawing Board (I love the moment where the double bass drum fleetingly kicks in).  The rhythmic, melodic fringed swagger of Not This Time.  The unhinged, discordant angularity of Translucent Mask.  The spiralling, Entombed leaning riffage of Unseen Warfare. The punishing grooves of Future Of Intangibles.

The vocals are rooted in a rasping, classic hardcore cadence and the tautness of the song structures is mirrored by the lyrical directness as they deconstruct a society that is not only eating itself but remorselessly punching down on those already most marginalised as it does so.   Next Stop…Dead Stop… is hardcore at its most instinctual, untamed and unfettered.

‘I’m the never ever learnt lesson, I’m the freedom that creates your inner prison, I’m the reason, the desire, the demon, It’s too late, too late, to stop me now’ (Embodiment Of Denial)

Berlin’s Cosey Mueller returns with her third full-length and follow up to 2024’s Softcore.  Embodiment Of Denial continues to hone her darkly intoxicating blend of synth fuelled post-punk melodies and pounding dance beats, one that is intertwined with pulsing melodic motifs and swells of languid guitar.

The coldly elastic synths and pneumatic percussion, not forgetting the strangely infectious, skittering cow bell, of the title track kick off proceedings with an ominous sense of foreboding, evoking that moment on the dance floor when frivolity ends and the hard yards begin.  The groove laden Nimm Mich (Take Me) and Der Politiker (The Politician) are utterly contagious floor fillers in the classic Cosey mould, while the jarring gyrations of Neue Ungemütlichkeit (New Discomfort) and the deadpan insouciance of Verlogen (Deceitful) work their own beguiling spells.

Cosey’s vocals continue to revel in their own austere restraint, equal parts whispered warning and uplifting invitation.  Insidious repetition and spectral urgings conjure an atmosphere of ambiguous, shapeshifting unease.  She slips seamlessly between German and English as she unpicks the lies (those we tell ourselves and those close to us) and hypocrisy (in the guise of political and media narratives), that shape our lives.

‘Bajo la luna, Haciendo tiempo para bailar, Y espacio para enamorar, La alegria no podemos rindar, Arriesgo contra sociedad mecánica’ (Fracasos Victorías) / Under the moon, Making time to dance, And space to fall in love, We cannot surrender joy, I risk it against a mechanical society’ (Failures Victories)

Screaming Fist hail from Oakland and feature among their rank’s members of Acts Of Sedition, Silent Era, The Separation, Tørsö, Urban Sprawl, and Vaaska to name but a few.  Santa Plaga (Holy Plague) is the band’s second 7-inch, following up 2019’s excellent Templanza.  It sees the band continue to hone their bracingly fast, combative hardcore.  It is laced with an uplifting melodicism that brings to mind a burlier take on Iberian punk in the vein of say Rotura and Suicidas.

The brightly sharp, hook laden guitars are particularly evocative of this style, while the rhythm section injects a rapid fire yet decidedly muscular heft.  Meanwhile, Jasmine Watson hands over her usual bass duties in favour of delivering an absolutely blistering vocal performance that, at times, echo the exuberant drama of Faucheuse.  She brings an impassioned aggression and melodic nuance to bear with equal relish as the poetically framed lyrics contemplate themes of entrenched poverty, the power of community, and religious misogyny.

There is a revitalising vigour to each of the five tracks, with the galloping twists and turns of Gotas (with its imperious NWOBHM tinged vocal crescendos), the vibrantly layered vocals of Fracasos Victorías, and the martial fury of Está Detrás de Ti (It’s Behind You) delivering a particular slap to the senses.

‘Face aux épreuves, nous serons, toujours la, Mains dans la main, jusqu’au judgement dernier, Nous resterons fideles a nos valeurs, meme dans la douleur et pour l’eternite.’ (Et Jusqu’à La Mort) / ‘In the face of adversity, we will always be there, hand in hand, until the final judgment. We will remain faithful to our values, even in pain and for eternity’ (And Until Death)

Prisonnier Du Temps (Prisoner Of Time) is the one-person project of Jacky Cadiou, who also plays in Syndrome 81, Grisaille, and Fine Équipe among others.  This is PDT’s second solo album and whereas his 2022 debut, Comme Un Lion En Cage (Like A Caged Lion), was situated very firmly in the traditions of French Oi, Prendre Le Pouvoir Par La Force (Take Power By Force) is notably more expansive in its framing.

While emerging sonically quite distinctively, PDT closely mirrors Home Front’s ability to deftly meld the raucous melodicism of Oi with a burly hardcore energy and a rich lacing of post-punk melancholy.  And that is not to ignore a certain pop leaning élan and a plentiful braiding of fine SoCal inspired ‘woahing’.  Think, perhaps, of the anthemic fervour of Enemic Interior and Enyor in partnership with the barrelling velocity of Criminal Damage and you’ll be heading in the right direction.

The boisterous exuberance of La Liberté S’Obtient Par Le Sang (Freedom is Obtained Through Blood) and Et Jusqu’à La Mort joust with the brooding regret of L’Armée Des Ombres (The Army Of Shadows) and Dans La Douleur Et Les Larmes (In Pain And Tears).  Meanwhile, the gruffly impassioned vocals explore the importance of community and collective resolve amid the toxic fallout of our rigged economic system and self-serving political institutions.  What emerges is an album that seethes with the raw instinctual energy of its influences, yet harnesses them with a refreshingly thoughtful nuance.

‘Follow trends to lands promised, You know they know the way, Pressed for your own opinion, Ain’t got fuckall to say’ (Crowd Cloud)

Brutishy effective riffs.  Frantically desperate vocals.  Drumming that goes from 0-100mph at the drop of hat and doesn’t relent for even a moment.  This is what happens when a drummer forms a solo project and decides to savagely wrestle his own demons into bloody submission.  It works an absolute treat.

Vince Kopefenstein has played with a myriad of projects – including Loose Nukes, Sickoids, and White Stains – and Shaved Ape sees him take the reins across the board.  Side one features five new songs, side two the five that comprised his 2022 demo, with barely a track breaking the sixty second barrier.  Personal highlights include the fevered ferocity of the title track, the rabidly unhinged Potatofish, and the swinging groove of Worm Food.  No airs, no graces, just fast, raw, heartfelt hardcore.

‘Let’s build a home, where loneliness can’t grow, and success isn’t defined by simply not being depressed’ (The Hell I Know)

I still vividly recall the first time I had the pleasure of catching The Saddest Landscape live back in 2012.  I had arrived at The Black Heart to find a scrawled note on the doors saying that the gig had been moved at the last minute to The Star Of Kings in King’s Cross.  To this day, I have never heard of another hardcore gig being hosted there, but it worked a treat.

A dark, low-ceilinged cellar.  No stage, the crowd jammed into every nook and cranny.  Their anticipation only heightened by having had to run round trying to find the pub in the first place.  We Were Skeletons kicked off the evening in great style, before TSL reduced the room to a sweaty, heaving, hoarse mass with an absolutely visceral, emotionally charged set.

So, I was rather excited to see that the band were returning with their first new album in eleven years, Alone With Heaven.  I must admit that this was tempered with a little wariness when I saw that it was to be a double LP, as they always represent a very specific challenge for bands rooted in hardcore.  Yet, it is clear that TSL knew what they were trying to achieve and how to strike that all important balance between atmosphere and intensity.

In part, it’s because this very balance has always been intrinsic to their songcraft – tension ratcheting builds priming savagely cathartic eruptions, frenetic sonic violence disassembling into passages of swirling, haunting melancholy.  It is also, you suspect, a reflection of this specific writing process itself.  Having toured 2015’s Darkness Forgives, the band found themselves on an unintended hiatus.  Founding drummer Aaron Neigher decided to head off in new directions, children arrived, and life demanded that things slow down for a while.  Rather than resist this, TSL consciously leant into the opportunity that this afforded to them.  They continued to rehearse regularly and used the space to write new material without any time pressures.

The body of songs that emerged is, of course, Alone With Heaven.  The beauty is that they have successfully honed an album that unequivocally honours the band’s roots, while evolving those same inspirations in new directions that feel innately organic.  Anyone who fell in love with the urgent, desperation fuelled hardcore of TSL in the 2000s will know without hesitation who they are listening to – the quivering passion of the vocals, the serpentine riffage, the whiplash rhythmic dynamics.  Indeed, they will find themselves immediately at home with the blistering opening one-two of The Hell I Know and From Home They Run, not to mention the seething Hold It Until It Hurts.

However, it is also obvious that the band are not sitting still.  Instrumental interludes are deployed to great atmospheric effect – prompting reflection while calling on melodic motifs from elsewhere on the album to echo the lyrical themes of memory, loss, and grief (I particularly love the skeletal dissonance of A Badge Of Hope).  Further texture is added by thoroughly well-judged guest vocalist appearances from Jeremy Bolm, Evan Weiss, and, most dramatically, Julien Baker’s searing contribution to the cello laced rapture of The Invisible Hurt.

Remarkably though for an album of such depth, TSL save the absolute peak for the album’s concluding title track.  The roiling, darkly resonant bass line.  The desperation frayed vocals.  The chiming mournful leads amid the rhythmic metallic heft.  Alone With Heaven is an absolute monster of a finale.

And, as is always the case with a TSL album, it is all beautifully put together.  They have always struck me as a band who still revel in music (not just their own) and who love the actual physicality of records.  This manifests itself in the striking artwork and lyric booklet, which evokes the band’s ongoing ambiguous navigation between hope and despair through a blend of sepia tinged photos and shadowy, theatrically staged images.  A wait that was well worth the while.

‘Caught in the rain with a stranger, Wash away the scent, I must repent for things I’ve left untold, Face to face with the devil’s smile’ (Turn Away)

Shards of jangle cut through shimmering waves of melody.  The chunky bass lines and muscular drums lock in with a resolute mid-paced precision.  The darkly enunciated vocals are shrouded in a gothic introspection, the restrained drama of the swelling choruses taking you almost by surprise.

The debut album from New Jersey’s Demmers, and follow-up to last year’s split 7-inch with True Faith, is unabashed in drawing it’s influences from early 1980s’ English post-punk.  Think perhaps of taking The Cure’s Faith and Pornography, with a dash of New Order’s Movement, as a starting point.  And they are just a starting point as, while duly paying respects to their inspirations, Demmers also animate them with their own very distinctive energy.

There is a notable sense of space to the song writing, this deliberate sparseness affording room for each element to breathe and unfurl.  This combines powerfully with the understated heft to their playing, one that anchors the more vulnerable expressions and speaks eloquently to the band’s shared hardcore pedigree.  An atmosphere rich in regret, confusion, and a tentative hope emerges as they sweep from the forlorn flamboyance of Love Me Again to the infectiously brooding Turn Away and then the mournfully swirling Among The Thorns.

‘I am silver and exact. I am not cruel, only truthful.  I have looked at it so long I think it is a part of my heart.  Now I am a lake’ (Mirror, Sylvia Plath)

Ora Sono Un Lago (Now I Am A Lake) is the second album emerging from the collaboration between Francesca Bono (synths, vocals) and Vittoria Burattini (percussion), and follows up their 2023 debut, Suono In Un Tempo Trasfigurato (Sound In A Transfigured Time).  Its inspirations lie in the poetry of Sylvia Plath and Patrizia Cavalli, and their shared exploration of the constant battle to overcome disenchantment with life’s daily mundanities.

Bono’s synths form the album’s cornerstone.  The melodies are brightly crystalline and glimmer with an elegiac fluidity as they ebb and flow.  However, the mid-range registers pulse with a darker foreboding, one imbued with a nebulous sense of a threat that is not yet revealed, lurking just out of sight.  Her vocals are wordless yet powerfully evocative.  Ethereal melodies and spectral whispers are instinctually braided throughout.  Burattini’s drums lock into a limber motorik beat, not afraid to give space, nor on occasion to assert themselves with a more industrial-tinged bombast.

The duo’s assured craft ensures an admirable tautness to the song writing, one that allows their ideas to flex and evolve, but never to unravel, nor to lose focus.  Prove D’Esistenza/Il Gesto (Proof of Existence/The Gesture) deftly juxtaposes mechanical rhythms and mournful incantations, before segueing into the haunting choral chants of the beguiling Nuda Vela (Naked Sailing).  From there we are embroiled in the ominously simmering Acrobata (Acrobata) and then lured into the embrace of the woozily enticing Il Volo Dell’Angelo (The Flight Of The Angel). The atmosphere conjured is utterly immersive.  It invites a reflective, engaged stillness and a willingness to yield without resistance to its densely layered entreaties.

Tokyo’s D.S.B. were active between 1993 and 2010 and this is the first ever vinyl pressing of their second full-length, 2004’s Substitute.

The year prior, the band had undertaken a raucously received first US tour, which had been organised off the back of their 2001 Japanese tour with Deathreat (with whom they also released a split EP with).  On their return to Japan, the band hit the studio determined to take advantage of the resultant high.

Combining both brand new material, and reworkings of some earlier tracks that the band felt had never been done justice in the recording studio, Substitute was born.  It is the sound of a band that was tour honed and determined to capture their unhinged live velocity in the studio.  The onslaught is one rooted in raw punk, liberally fused with the thrashier instincts of late 1980s’ crossover, and then delivered with an utter ferocity that brings to mind the frenetic intensity of their Japanese contemporaries Frigöra.

The barked vocals, and their boisterously deranged backing, alternate between Japanese and English as they confront the constraints of social conformity and economic inequality. It’s a volatile blend perfectly embodied by the rabid riffage of Rebel And Protest and No Imitation Fact as well as the more melodic drama of Liberator.

As it happens, that 2003 US tour was also captured on a tour DVD with excerpts from half a dozen shows spanning Portland to Providence.  It’s now available on YouTube and worth tracking down to get a sense of the energy that shaped this recording.  Packed crowds in sweaty backrooms, teetering in precarious circles around the drum kit, and a band primed to absolutely have it.

‘He tahtoisivat nöyryyttää, Ansiotonta köyhää, Ne eivät osaa edes hävetä, Kumaraan kääntya’ (Ansioton Köyhä) / ‘They long to humiliate, The undeserving poor, Who don’t know when to feel shame, Or when to bend down’ (The Undeserving Poor)

Hailing from Helsinki, and featuring members of Foreseen and Kohti Tuhoa, Yleiset Syyt (Common Reasons) are back with their second full-length, Saitte Mitä Halusitte (You Got What You Wanted), and their first new material since 2021’s 7-inch, Umpikujamekanismi (Dead End Mechanism).  They continue to forge a sound that draws on the traditions of early 1980s’ hardcore, both Finnish and US, to striking effect.  It speaks to that specific moment in time when a grittier ferocity was first introduced to punk, but before more avowedly metallic influences began to emerge later in the decade.

A frantically propulsive rhythm section underpins the clean yet raw riffage as it unfurls in a hook-laden fury and the solos flare fleetingly brimming with an almost classic rock bombast.  Meanwhile, the rasping barked vocals build connections between our complicity in the rise of authoritarianism, our failure to challenge their narratives that punch down on the already marginalised, and our silence in the face of escalating militarised violence.

The catchily frenetic onslaught is vividly embodied by the likes of the jaggedly pneumatic Aavekaupunki (Ghost Town) and the tensely seething title track.  Yet, arguably, the standout moments are when the band take their foot off the pedal just a touch and let their groove take over during the menacing stomp of Inhimillisen Tuho Piiri (The Circle Of Human Ruin) and the broodingly dramatic, post-punk tinged finale of Tuhat Kättä (A Thousand Hands).

‘No busques sombras detrás de mi, las llevo dentro. Vivo ciclos de luz y oscuridad, dolore n llamas, paz y tormento’ (Paz Y Tormento) / ‘Don’t look for shadows behind me, I carry them inside. I live in cycles of light and darkness, pain and flames, peace and torment’ (Peace And Torment)

Barcelona’s Suicidas initially released five EPs between 2012 and 2016, which were all brought together in last year’s discography, Éxitos Y Fracasos (Successes And Failures).  While they remained intermittently active on the live front, they also became involved in an array of other projects, including Irreal, Ruidosa Inmundicia, and Tàrrega 91′ among others. However, after a decade long recording hiatus, they are now back with their debut full-length, Canciones Malditas (Cursed Songs).

The trio continue to hone darkly melodic punk, nurturing a simmering tension that plays off a deep-seated sense of melancholy with their innately infectious melodicism.  Crisp percussion and a chunkily resonant bottom end anchor the taut, regret flecked riffage and brightly supple solos.  Meanwhile, the stridently energetic, deftly layered dual vocals summon the resilience and courage to overcome life’s betrayals and isolation.

Each track is a tightly coiled eruption.  Subtle shifts in texture see emotions swing for the tentative optimism of La Rosa Y El Puñal (The Rose And The Dagger) to the plaintive resignation of Llueve En Mi Corazón (It’s Raining In My Heart), and then from the rueful Senderos (Paths) to the raucous climax of Peligro Social (Social Danger).  It is a finely weighted seesaw between the desolation of loneliness and the quiet resolve of hope and friendship.

‘Amidst the lingering traces of the bustling crowd, The scent of embers lingers as I make my way home, Looking down, searching for the answer’ (雑踏 / Choking)

Tokyo’s Raw Distractions have been honing their UK82 inspired hardcore for over a decade, releasing four 7-inch EPs and a couple of demos.  Now, they step up to the challenge of their debut full-length, and it is one that they meet with a swaggering assurance.  奇しく燃える (Strangely Burning) is the statement of a band who have immersed themselves in their influences to the point where they now have the confidence to imbue them with their own thoroughly distinctive energy.

Front and centre are the band’s vibrantly skittering leads and ripping solos, which are unleashed with an unabashed zeal.  They are boldly melodic and lean into Burning Spirits territory but with a dash more rock’n’roll strut.  The scaffolding is provided by the surging UK82 riffage, with just a dash of NWOBHM gallop, and a fiercely unassuming rhythm section.  Meanwhile, the desperation shredded vocals, and the combatively catchy backing, tackle themes of social conformity and the dangers of rising political and religious extremism.

As they sweep from the rampaging title track to the soaring melodicism of No! Racist, and then from the jagged melancholy of 雑踏 to the thoroughly unexpected Gregorian chanting that is braided through Midnight, it is a raw, compellingly instinctual battery.

‘What is your five-year plan? Who is your mortgage advisory man? Please tell me more about the school catchment area in your new neighbourhood?’ (Settle Down)

To be irked feels like a most quintessentially English emotion.  To be repeatedly agitated by something, but to be too polite to say anything, until you finally erupt in what, to the unaware, may seem like a disproportionate display of anger.

Now, Tyne & Wear’s Irked are most definitely angry but, thankfully, far too impolite to keep it to themselves. So, we are treated to another whiplash tour of darkly acerbic observation and blackly wry humour on their aptly titled debut full-length, The Grievance.

All the hallmarks of the band’s self-titled debut EP are firmly in pace, though they pulse with a more febrile abrasiveness amid the catchy hooks and contemptuous fury.  The tautly clean guitars unfurl waves of riffage that jerk and jolt with a sinewy vigour that matches the propulsive garage punk energy of the rhythm section.

This provides the perfect primer for the utterly virtuoso vocals.  Sardonic drawls morph into urgent yelps and then into venomous tirades with a bristling yet seamless intensity as they cast their eye over themes of cultural gentrification, midlife malaise, and the workplace treadmill.

There are highlights aplenty to get stuck into.  The fiercely rhythmic exhortations of Who Asked?  The ominously roiling The ACP.  The spiralling indignation of Settle Down.  The gyrating venom of The Hardest Man In Billingham. The sax fuelled contortions of Freak Pub.  Each slams home with a bracing, invigorating slap.

‘9 to 5 is all there is, they pocket all the paper clips, take a handful of the staples, spat out by the bad appraisal’ (Stationery)

Seven tracks, nine minutes, and an absolute shedful of ideas thrown together with a rare abandon can only mean one thing – the return of Nottingham’s No Peeling.  This is the follow-up to last year’s self-titled debut 7-inch, and the playfully hyperactive, impulsively off-kilter aesthetic remains utterly untamed.

The joust for supremacy between the scrappy guitar and jarring synths resembles two octopi trapped in an eternal arm wrestle from which neither can escape.  As a result, despite their relative brevity and the committed endeavours of the tightly spry rhythm section, each track relentlessly morphs and reassembles in chaotically unexpected directions.

In the wrong hands, matters could easily unravel and the fact that they never do speaks to the band’s shared intuition for the road less travelled.  The binding glue is, perhaps, the gently drawled, dryly sardonic vocals as they roam from the unwieldy brawling of furry sporting mascots to grabbing your fair share of office stationery to compensate, just a little, for the soul sapping clock watching.  My personal highlights are the darkly swelling Night Idea and the fractured convulsions of Stationery.