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Foundation Vinyl Newsletter

18 February 2025

Welcome

Hello and welcome to the latest Foundation Vinyl newsletter! I enjoyed a busy week on the gig front last week. First up, I popped along to Corsica Studios in the railway arches down at the Elephant, or rather what’s left of the Elephant, to catch Detroit electronic punk duo, Adult. I first discovered Adult through their collaborative EP with Planet B, Glass In Trash b/w Release Me, and have been happily working back through their discography ever since. I must admit I didn’t contemplate the show kicking off with the band scratching taut, miked up masking tape to set the scene, but thereafter they were very much true to form. Fervently percussive beats, cranium shuddering bass lines, and eerily animated vocals soon completely possessed the room. A thoroughly banging night.

And then on Saturday, I headed up to New River Studios to see Sydney’s Negative Gears. Their recent album, Moraliser, was one of my absolute favourites from last year – anarcho-punk fuelled post-punk with an acerbically poetic lyrical take. It was also one of those albums you listen to and think, ‘Blimey, I bet they absolutely kill it live’. And, I’m pleased to say, so it proved. It was one of those all enveloping sets when the world outside might as well not exist. Every aspect of the band’s sound from the limber rhythm section, by way of the tautly melancholic guitars, to the polemical vocals locked into vibrant unison. A couple of enticing new tracks also whetted the appetite for the future, before the likes of Pills and Ants brought the night to a sweaty, euphoric finale.

Right, what do we have lined up this week? How does an Iron Lung Records special sound? We have five cracking featured new arrivals. We kick things off with three very distinct 12-inch releases. First up, perhaps, the most aptly titled album ever with the utterly pulverising Bestial Hardcore courtesy of Perth’s Gaoled. Next, we have Sphere of Service, the late 1970s’ punk fuelled, first full-length from Reno’s Rotary Club. Before, Portland’s Atomic Prey deliver a furious dose of psychedelia soaked d-beat on their self-titled debut.

Then, we have two fresh 7-inch releases. A self-titled barrage from New Orleans’ Paprika, all killer riffs and acid observations. And to round things off in style, the darkly desperate hardcore of Helsinki’s Ignorance on Nothing Changed.

As always, we also have an updated London gig listing, with imminent shows from Cosey Mueller/ Stingray (22/02) and Love Letter (24/02). Plus, just added shows from Franz Nicolay (14/04), Belgrado (20/04), Muro (14/05), Moral Bombing (09/06), and Destiny Bond / Big Laugh (03/07). We end with a quick rundown on some of the fine records heading our way in the near future, including next week’s haul featuring Gossip Collar, Punitive Damage, S.O.H., Trenchkoat, and Wet Specimens!

*Unrelenting Forced Psychosis by Suffocating Madness / To Stop The Conflict by Life and Destruct / Nuevo Dogma by Muro / Sick To Survive by Invertebrates (clockwise)*

Also, just a quick heads up that a rather tasty restock has just landed featuring Sick To Survive by Invertebrates, To Stop The Conflict by Life / Destruct, Nuevo Dogma by Muro, and Unrelenting Forced Psychosis by Suffocating Madness. All definitely worth checking out if you haven’t had the chance yet!

Featured New Arrivals

*Atomic Prey by Atomic Prey / Bestial Hardcore by Gaoled / Nothing Changed by Ignorance / Sphere Of Service by Rotary Club / Paprika by Paprika (clockwise)*

GaoledBestial Hardcore

12 Inch

‘Becoming something I never thought could exist, Evolving and transforming into beast, Becoming, Becoming pure hate, Demonic, A demonic invocation’ (Becoming)

The album’s title rather aptly sets the scene. This is undoubtedly a bestial debut full-length from Perth’s Gaoled. It is also undeniably hardcore, but hardcore that is savagely warped through a raft of darkly metallic influences. The fierce buzzsaw riffage and absolutely scorching solos call back to the early 1990s’ heyday of European death metal, while the sludge-fuelled breakdowns and brutal blast beat eruptions harness the visceral attributes of power violence.

Gaol is, of course, the old-fashioned English term for jail, which operates on a couple of levels. On the one hand, it is a nod to one of the band’s formative influences, Boston’s Scapegoat, Gaoled having covered the track Jailed on their 2022 demo. And on the other, it speaks to the psychological themes of mental imprisonment, both socially and personally constructed, explored by the malevolently roared, effects saturated vocals.

Squalls of sinister, industrial-tinged noise bind the tracks and only further fuel the suffocating atmosphere of unrelenting hopelessness and hard-earned bitterness. The bleakly potent onslaught unfurls in myriad forms, from Thundercap’s bruising, cathartic climax to the utterly viscous fury of Waiting, and from the venomously crafted Tempt to the more bleakly expansive Voices. The album closes on a crushing cover of Khanate by late noughties’ Sydney hardcore band, Taipan. And it is all rounded off with stunning medieval styled cover art. The beast has truly been unleashed.

Rotary ClubSphere Of Service

12 Inch

‘Efficient at birth, but now a disease. Convenience was a luxury and it’s grown to enslave me. The thirst, the lust, the need for progress’ (Progress Calling)

Probably best to cut straight to the chase on this one. Rotary Club sing about telephones and only telephones. Yep, just telephones. Now, clearly in the wrong hands, this could be deemed to be somewhat limiting. But the Reno band use their thematic obsession to weave an almost sociological narrative of the evolution of the phone and our interaction with the technology, even increasingly possession by it.

This is the band’s debut full-length and follow-up to their 2023 7-inch, American Tower. They continue to fuse a boisterous late 1970s’ punk base with a certain post-punk angularity and a decidedly off-kilter pop sensibility. And it is all wrapped up and delivered with an irresistibly upbeat energy as arrestingly nasal lead vocals, energetic call-and-response, and melodically layered backing, revel in the ridiculousness of our plight.

Some of the tracks are firmly tongue-in cheek, such as the ode to the tactile pleasures of rotary dial phones on Touch Tone, and the simple pleasures of My Landline. The majority though, such as Convenience Attractor and Progress Calling, are a jovially thoughtful deconstruction of how a device designed with progress in mind has, in its mobile form, come to dominate our lives. It is often more a constraint than a freedom, one that frequently serves to isolate rather than connect. Yet, even though, we are eminently aware of this, we continue to embrace the technology ever more closely. A self-inflicted death knell delivered with a gleaming smile a mile wide.

Atomic PreyAtomic Prey

12 Inch

‘Fear is the reason, for mass delusion, fear is the reason, for self-destruction, fear is oppression, not a solution’ (Fear)

Hailing from Portland, and featuring members of Daydream, this is Atomic Prey’s debut release. And across its six-tracks, it is as unremittingly intense as it is intriguingly layered. The band’s rhythmic base is a fusion of martial anarcho-punk and galloping d-beat, which is then overlain with swirling psychedelic-tinged guitars.

This juxta posing of agitated fervour with spaced out atmospherics is further amplified by the semi-shouted, delay drenched vocals. The lyrics, delivered in both English and Spanish, reflect the uneasy tension that permeates the album. They focus on how the financialised imperatives of modern society relentlessly cultivate anxiety, which in turn breeds the fear that is harnessed to fuel division and oppression.

Thanks to the band’s ability to so deftly braid flourishes of invention throughout their furiously dense fusillade, each track emerges with its own clearly distinctive persona. Personal stand-out moments are the sinuous unfurling of Glue, the bellicose stomp of Blood, and the utterly rampaging climax to Human Expression, which is kicked off by cleaner vocals rasping ‘I have too many feelings’ over the swinging bass line.

PaprikaPaprika

7 Inch

‘Where the fuck is my package, It was supposed to arrive two hours ago, I need that fucking baggage, Deliver me faster, deliver me first’ (Supply Chain Wallet)

Following up on their debut 2024 full-length, Let’s Kill Punk, New Orleans’ Paprika swiftly return with a new six-track self-titled EP. You can’t help but continue to be struck by the band’s full-bore approach. Everything feels as if it is dialled up to 10 and, if it is there to be hit, it is being hit as hard as humanly possible. Quite literally a sonic bulldozer.

However, as you recover your senses after the initial onslaught, the band’s inventive song writing dynamics begin to compete for attention with the sheer velocity of the delivery. The guitars have a satisfyingly mid-range buzz and the riffage is as nimble as it is muscular, while the rhythm section proves as dextrous as it is uncompromising. This blend of brawn and brain is particularly successful on the rhythmically rabid Catonic Pisser and the bludgeoning Claw.

The snarling, echo doused vocals complement perfectly as they unleash a searingly clear eyed, sardonically observed assessment of our bleak predicament. Unblinking Eyes takes aim at surveillance capitalism (‘no time to breathe, no time to feel’), before Catonic Pisser examines micro-plastics polluting our bodies (‘petrochemicals seep into my skin, dull my brain’). Wasting Time, with its killer climatic solo, then belligerently tucks into workplace drudgery (‘sure let me get that for you, the pleasure is all mine’), while Supply Chain Wallet laments the relentless stoking of our unquenchable consumerism.

IgnoranceNothing Changed

7 Inch

‘Horrifying acts masked in the pursuit of profit, Feeding this destructive man-made machine’ (Breed For Need)

Ignorance return with a six-track follow-up to their 2023 self-titled debut EP. This is darkly desperate hardcore. It binds raw, noise infused riffage, and intricately lacerating solos together with a precisely pounding rhythm section, and filthily feral vocals. Flares of Japanese influence can be detected, but the Helsinki band are not indebted to any specific tradition, emerging with their own urgently organic intensity.

The band’s primitive fury is matched by their lyrical focus. The title track explores the remorseless bloody cycle of military aggression, with the dehumanising march of late-stage capitalism, the distorting frenzy of social media, and the restless anxiety that propels much of contemporary society also in focus. The blistering Echo Chamber and the unhinged swagger of Breed For The Need hit home with particular venom.

Shows And Tours

*Ignorance play New River Studios on Sunday 16th March*

This section lays no claims to being a definitive listing! It is simply gigs coming up in London that catch my eye and that I think people who read this newsletter might be interested in. I will always try and highlight where a show forms part of a wider UK tour.

February

22^nd Cosey Mueller, Stingray, Läbrys, Moist Crevice, Spine Portal (The George Tavern)

22^nd Deathfiend, Vultur plus more (Helgi’s)

23^rdBulldoze, Bun Dem Out, Apothecary, Lowlife, Infinite Wisdom, Regress (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

24^th Love Letter, Heavy Hex, Hell Can Wait, Supernova (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

March

1^st Zeropolis, Lacquer, Static Palm (Mascara Bar)

5^th Touche Amore, Trauma Ray, Chalk Hands (Electric Ballroom / UK Tour)

7^th Damage Is Done 4.5 Weekender featuring Chain Cult, The Consequence, Direct Threat, Second Death, Total Con, and Traidora (New River Studios)

7^th Delivery, Fruit Tones plus more (Moth Club / UK Tour)

7^th Napalm Death, Crowbar, Full Of Hell, Brat (Brixton Electric)

8^thDamage Is Done 4.5 Weekender featuring Blade, Cannonball, Cold Decay, Collateral, Dominate, The Flex, Forced Humility, Grand Scheme, King Street, Life Of One, Real Domain, Straight To Hell, Temple Guard (Colour Factory)

8^th Misantropic, Nujorvik, Wreathe, System Of Slaves, Traidora (New Cross Inn)

16^thIgnorance, Victim Unit, Mincer, Sublux, Dead Name (New River Studios / UK Tour)

20^thHaywire, Mindless, Real Domain, Power Failure (New Cross Inn)

27^th Bad Breeding, Scab, Middleman, Catastrophe (The Lexington / UK Tour)

30^thCœur À L’Index, Middleman, Secrecy (The Waiting Room)

April

2^ndLife Force, Moral Law, Escalate plus more (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

14^thFranz Nicolay plus support (Signature Brew Haggerston / UK Tour)

15^th Thou, pageninetynine, Moloch (Scala / UK Tour)

17^thDeath By Stereo, Counterpunch plus more (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

18^th Cowboy Hunters, Eelmen, Zeropolis (New River Studios)

18^th Shelter, Dynamite, No Relief (The Underworld)

19^th Disaffect, Haavat, Leashed, Catastrophe (New Cross Inn)

19^th – 20^th Sunday School Weekender featuring, Belgrado, Hellish Torment, Sanctuary Of Praise, Traidora, Urin plus many more (New River Studios)

20^th Comeback Kid, Shooting Daggers, Last Wishes (The Dome)

23^rd Blind Girls, Stress Positions , As Living Arrows, I’m Sorry Emil (Moor Beer Vaults / UK Tour)

25^th Final Dose, Läbrys, Ekstasis (Helgi’s)

May

3^rd Condor, Tramadol, Hitmen, The Dogs (The Shacklewell Arms)

7^thAgnostic Front, Crown Court, plus more (The Underworld)

14^thMuro plus support (New River Studios)

17^thBoom Boom Kid, Traidora, plus more (The Shacklewell Arms / UK Tour)

19^th Time Heist, Uncertainty, Equals What? (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

20^thWhores, Help, Ritual Error (New Cross Inn)

June

3^rdUltras, Xiao, Aku (New Cross Inn)

9^thMoral Bombing, Blossom Decay, Diall (Blondies)

14^thP.A.I.N, Hiatus, Zero Again plus more (New Cross Inn)

July

3^rdDestiny Bond, Big Laugh plus more (New Cross Inn / UK Tour)

5^thAll Out War plus support (New Cross Inn)

19^thGel, Anxious, Chastity (The Dome / UK Tour)

October

30^thGodflesh plus support (Scala)

Coming Soon

*Spinning Silk For Parasites by Gossip Collar*

25/02

Gossip Collar ‘Spinning Silk For Parasites’ 12-inch (No Norms)

Punitive Damage ‘Hate Training’ 12-inch (Convulse)

S.O.H ‘Cost To Live’ 12-inch (No Norms)

Trenchkoat ‘Apocalyptic Hits’ 12-inch (No Front Teeth)

Wet Specimens ‘Dying In A Dream’ 7-inch (No Norms)

04/03

Armor ‘More War’ 12-inch (Mendeku Diskak / Restock)

Benzin ‘Treibjagd’ 12-inch (Static Age)

Deletär ‘Self-Titled II’ 12-inch (Kick Rock)

Frenzy ‘Beyond The Edge Of Madness’ 12-inch (Distort Reality)

Killing Front ‘Years In Permafrost: Recordings 2021-2024’ 12-inch (Mendeku Diskak / Restock)

Syndrome 81 ‘Chant De Ruines’ 12-inch (Kick Rock)

The Legion Of Parasites ‘Undesirable Guests’ 12-inch (General Speech)

Vaxine / The Last Survivors ‘Split’ 7-inch (General Speech)

Later In March

Bad Breeding ‘Blood Manifest’ 7-inch (Standard Processes)

Bleached Cross / The True Faith ‘Columns Of Impenetrable Light’ 12-inch (Protagonist / Restock)

Corrective Measure ‘Not For You, Not For Anyone’ 12-inch (Refuse)

Groundwork ‘Today We Will Not Be Invisible Nor Silent’ 12-inch (Protagonist)

Haunted Horses ‘Dweller’ 12-inch (Three One G)

Judy And The Jerks ‘Total Jerks’ 12-inch (Refuse / 2nd Press)

Laura Agnusdei ‘Flowers Are Blooming In Antarctica’ 12-inch (Maple Death)

Languid ‘Shove Their System Up Their Ass’ 12-inch (D-Takt)

Mob 47 ‘Tills Du Dör’ 12-inch (D-Takt)

Point Of No Return ‘The Language Of Refusal’ 12-inch (Refuse)

Post Regiment ‘Post Regiment’ 12-inch (Refuse / 2nd Press)

Punter ‘Austalienation’ 12-inch (Drunken Sailor)

Siyahkal ‘Days Of Smoke And Ash’ 12-inch (Static Shock)

Spiritkiller ‘Spiritkiller’ 12-inch (Protagonist)

Tv Dust ‘Transition’ 12-inch (Maple Death)

April

Habak ‘Mil Orquideas En Medio Del Desierto’ 12-inch (Alerta Antifascista)

Foundation Vinyl Newsletter

11 February 2025

Welcome

Hello and welcome to the latest Foundation Vinyl newsletter! Sunday night, I popped down to New Cross to catch Bent Blue and Major Pain. Both bands hail from California and are exponents of a brand of melodic hardcore that consistently thrives on the West Coast, but is a little out of vogue over here at the moment. This, perhaps, accounted for a relatively light, if enthusiastic, crowd, which was a pity as both bands are touring with excellent debut albums – So Much Seething and Intent respectively – in tow. But those who did brave the lashing rain and bitter wind were treated to a fine show.

Bent Blue’s sound is woven through with a sensibility that draws on both Revolution Summer and mid-1990s alternative rock inspirations with relish. And full marks to their vocalist for managing to wear a quilted winter jacket for almost the entirety of their high energy set. Clearly a man in love with the English winter. This was followed, after an impressively swift soundcheck, by an absolute bulldozer of a set from Major Pain. Their style is leaner, more metallic in inclination, with a thoroughly satisfying rhythmic synchronicity between drums and vocals. Not a bad Sunday evening at all.

And so what do we have lined up this week? We have four cracking featured new arrivals. We kick things off in Bogota with the darkly melodic, Histeria, from 1186. We then head to Göteborg, while retaining a Colombian focus, courtesy of X2000 on the discordantly spectral Gótico Tropical. Next, we make the short trip down to Copenhagen and the thoroughly welcome return of The War Goes On with their third full-length, Death Wish. We round things off in style in Milan with the first vinyl pressing of Golpe’s debut EP, Subisci. Conformati. Rassegnati.

We also have a short feature taking a look at Haram’s influential 2017 album, – بس ربحت, خسرت = When You Have Won, You Have Lost. The album has just been repressed by La Vida Es Un Mus Discos and the piece draws on an excellent article by Max Easton of Barely Human exploring the background to the band.

As always, we also have an updated London gig listing, with shows this week from Adult (14/02) and Negative Gears (15/02). We end with a quick rundown on some of the fine records heading our way in the near future, including next week’s Iron Lung Records special, featuring new releases from Atomic Prey, Gaoled, Ignorance, Paprika, and Rotary Club!

Featured New Arrivals

*Histeria by 1186 / Gótico Tropical by X2000 / Subisci. Conformati. Rassegnati. by Golpe / Death Wish by The War Goes On (clockwise)*

1186Histeria

12 Inch

‘Estamos condenados a los gritos perdidos, el camino oculto al pasado oscuro, como los trenes atraviesan las ciudades, y huye la gente de todas sus verdades’ (Ataque Sistemático) ‘We are condemned to lost screams, the hidden path to the dark past, as trains cross the cities, and people flee from all their truths’ (Systematic Attack)

Hailing from Bogota, 1186 have emerged from the city’s Rat Trap punk collective, which incubated the likes of Muro, Alamabrada, and Ataque Zero. Indeed, the band share their vocalist with the latter, as well as building their sound around a similar kernel of darkly melodic hardcore punk on this their debut release, Histeria (Hysteria).

1186 then skilfully amplify these melancholic inclinations, conjuring a darkly gothic atmosphere that draws in equal measure on both death rock and anarcho-punk sensibilities. The cymbal awash rhythm section locks in with vigorous precision, while the powerful clean sung Spanish vocals are utterly forlorn as they explore an inescapable sense of society’s systemic failure through tales of grinding day-to-day slow violence, prison riots, and environmental degradation.

The key to Histeria’s enticing aura though lies in the inherently mournful yet undeniably vibrant guitar. The unfurling melodies are darkly captivating, the wildly inventive solos even more so. Personal highlights are, perhaps, the surging Ataque Sistemático, the frenetically escalating Hoy (Today), and the dramatically see-sawing Encerrados (Locked).

X2000Gótico Tropical

12 Inch

‘La mercancía devora la carne, la esencia devasta, Capitalismo es gore’ (Morbo y Fascinación) ‘The commodity devours the flesh, the essence devastates, Capitalism is gore’ (Morbidity And Fascination)

Gótico Tropical (Tropical Gothic) is X2000’s debut full-length following on from their 2020 self-titled debut 7-inch. It plunges the listener into the bloodied history of the Colombian vocalist’s home country, ‘the land of tropical gothic’ as evoked by the band’s liner notes. Exploring the notion of ‘gore capitalism’, the Göteborg-based band plunge the listener into a web of violence that spans state sanctioned murder to criminal cartels, and from colonial legacies to neoliberal economic exploitation.

Rabidly blackened anarcho-punk inspired Spanish vocals are unremittingly urgent, while the primitive drums call back to the classic pounding rhythms of 1980s’ Latin American punk. Discordant melody flares amid the relentless abrasiveness of the chorus-saturated guitar. A deeply unsettling atmosphere spectrally unfurls and is, perhaps, best exemplified by the desperation drenched El Linaje (The Lineage) and the primeval anxiety of Azul Culpa (Blue Guilt). And the meaning of X2000? A high-speed Swedish railway apparently, but one that is taking you straight to the heart of darkness.

The War Goes OnDeath Wish

12 Inch

‘When all is swept under the rug, When everything of value seems to be abandoned, Left to rust, Kids are managed with drugs, A nightmare vision of a future and of a people, Without trust’ (Without Trust)

Copenhagen’s The War Goes On return with their third full-length, Death Wish, and continue to hone the bleakly melodic, fiercely catchy hardcore punk that defined their 2016 self-titled debut and 2020’s Assisted Armageddon. The band tautly braid their innate, contagious sense of melody with an unshakeable shroud of melancholy. An air of powerless anger and bitter resignation pervades, as if in recognition that as bad as things are now, they are very unlikely to be getting better any time soon. Still fighting but knowing that the war is all but lost.

Each of the tracks is adroitly assembled, equal parts polished craft and agitated grit, as the propulsive rhythm section underpins the insidiously enveloping guitars and gruff, gravelly vocals. The rhythmically compelling Knife’s Edge, the ominously forlorn cornerstone riff of The Fear, and the euphoric fervour of The Good Ship Murder are particularly powerful cuts. The album also includes the desolate title track from the band’s 2022 EP, Discount Hope, which is no bad thing at all, as it’s an absolute banger.

As you find yourself singing along with the undeniably infectious choruses, it is easy to forget the rather more sobering lyrical themes that explore the relentless atomisation of late-stage capitalism. Death Wish is an album that deftly draws on the pop sensibility of say Social Distortion and infuses it with the rather more bittersweet impulses of late 1980s’ / early 1990s’ UK punk. Dark melodies for desperate times.

GolpeSubisci. Conformati. Rassegnati.

7 Inch

‘Le masse in rivolta, l’orrore è sovrano, il terrore al potere. Ma nessuna vittima. Censura e consenso, progresso e reazione, il terrore al potere’ (Golpe) / ‘The masses in revolt, horror is sovereign, terror in power. But no victims. Censorship and consensus, progress and reaction, terror in power’ (Coup)

Golpe are the one-person recording project of Tadzio Pederzolli (formerly Holy and Komplott). The Milan-based project expands to a fully formed band for touring purposes, which Golpe do pretty relentlessly. Subisci. Conformati. Rassegnati. (Suffer. Conform. Resign.) was, in fact, the band’s debut cassette-only release in 2019, preceding the band’s 2021 full-length, La Colpa È Solo Tua (It’s All Your Fault), and it has now been given a first vinyl pressing.

The fundamentals of Golpe’s fiercely bristling, d-beat fuelled hardcore are already firmly in place, as groove orientated, metallic leaning riffage is underpinned by a relentlessly pounding rhythm section and leavened by flashing, squalling solos. Meanwhile, the burly, guttural Italian vocals begin to explore the anarchist framing that runs through the band’s recordings, central to which is the cumulative power of our own individual actions to drive social change.

The first five tracks are taken from the original recordings, with the stomping fury of Non Piegarti (Don’t Bend Over) a particular stand out. The sixth track is freshly recorded and is a scorching medley of four songs from seminal Italian hardcore acts, Wretched, Indigesti, The EU’s Arse, and Nabat.

The War On The Other

– بس ربحت, خسرت = *When You Have Won, You Have Lost by Haram and Barely Human’s Dispatches From An Underground Music Anti-History: 2014-2024*

‘Every second, They told me Terrorist, Big, scared, Still alone, They hit me, with what they thought, who did they think I was?’ (Not A Terrorist, Haram)

I first encountered Haram (Forbidden) at Static Shock Weekend V in 2017 and it’s fair to say they made quite the impression. Their primitively pulsating, rapidly swirling hardcore sent the crowd into gyrating convulsions, while their vocalist, Nader, matched the velocity of this reaction with his own wild contortions. All while rhythmically snarling in Arabic and clad in a black bandana, white toga skirt, and boots. A bold visage designed to provoke and to confront.

We, of course, live in the age of the provocateur, but it was clear from the offset that there was real substance, both musically and ideologically, fuelling Haram’s challenge. The song themes from their 2017 debut full-length, – بس ربحت, خسرت = When You Have Won, You Have Lost, provided a clear insight to the issues that the band were seeking to tackle, not least on American Police and Not A Terrorist. This was to be further emphasised on their 2019 EP, Where Were You On 9/11?

But it wasn’t until I recently read a thoroughly engaging essay in an anthology of Max Easton’s Barely Human fanzine writing, Dispatches From An Underground Music Anti-History: 2014-2024, that the personal history that shaped Haram came into clearer perspective. The piece takes us through Nader’s early life story, his parents arriving in New York, as immigrants from Lebanon in New York, and his upbringing that bridged a conservative Muslim home and an equally rigid Catholic education. Inevitably, the horror of 9/11, and the subsequent responses to it were to dramatically reshape the family’s life. Indeed, young Nader was questioned at school as to the whereabouts and activities of his parents – his father was attending Ground Zero as a member of the first emergency response team as he was quizzed.

The dynamics of Nader’s family with their wider local community were irretrievably altered, a shift that led to a growing sense of isolation and saw Nader struggling to forge his own identity. New York’s hardcore community was to provide a lifeline, and in 2015, Haram were formed. The band released their debut EP, شو بتشوف؟ (What Do You See?), a year later. The band were touring the Midwest when Nader started to receive calls from furious family members who had found themselves being questioned by the FBI regarding Nader’s activities with Haram. Members of The Joint Terrorism Task Force visited him on his return and started to question him on the meaning of the band’s lyrics. It soon became clear that they had not even sought to translate them before investigating. The case was soon closed, the harm already done.

The recent reissue of Haram’s sole full-length release by La Vida Es Un Mus Discos is a timely one in the context of a world where systematic othering, social division, and radicalisation are being almost relentlessly cultivated by political opportunists, religious extremists, and economic grifters alike. And the music? Don’t worry you won’t be disappointed. Densely rhythmic drums and limber bass-lines lock-in with Nader’s barking invocation, giving room for the guitar to explore more abstract expressions amid the pounding onslaught, before unleashing spiralling solos. Revisiting the album afresh, it is notably more melodic and expansive than I would have recalled, with Eye For An Eye and Your President, Not A President landing with particular velocity.

Haram’s music represents an important phase in hardcore’s social evolution and, as Max succinctly puts it, ‘a struggle for peace and identity, spoken through the sonic language of contemporary hardcore punk’.

– بس ربحت, خسرت = When You Have Won by Haram is in stock now here.

Many thanks to Max Easton (www.barelyhuman.info) for allowing me to draw on his essay. Definitely check out his latest Barely Human anthology, Dispatches From An Underground Music Anti-History: 2014-2024, which includes the full Haram essay and a wealth of punk related music writing. It can be found in the UK at the Good Press (www.goodpress.co.uk) workers co-operative bookshop in Glasgow.

Shows And Tours

*Damage Is Done 4.5 at New River Studios on 7th March and Colour Factory on 8th March*

February

14^th Adult, Spike Hellis, Sacred Skin (Corsica Studios / UK Tour)

15^th Negative Gears, Grazia, Rubber, Life Forms (New River Studios / UK Tour)

22^nd Cosey Mueller, Stingray, Labrys, Moist Crevice, Spine Portal (The George Tavern)

22^nd Vultur, Deathfiend plus more (Helgi’s)