‘Terrible feeling pulls the rug beneath my feet, Retreat, recoil, I think I change my mind, Now you think of what you’ll leave behind’ (At Peace)

Mother Nature are back with a new 7-inch and follow-up to last year’s debut 12-inch, Living, Joyful And Free.  The Leeds band, who feature members of Perspex Flesh, The Flex and Mob Rules among others, are once again in rampaging form, bringing the stomp and the serpentine, the burly and the weird, to bear with equal relish.

Both tracks – At Peace and Language Of A Peaceful Mind – are brilliantly crafted.  Tensely claustrophobic and anxiously convulsing, they draw us remorselessly into their unsettling embrace.  The tautly angular guitar smoulders with a delicious off-kilter twang, while the rhythm section brings a rugged yet loping swagger to proceedings, not to mention some typically bruising bass lines.

Meanwhile, the guttural barked vocals are deftly intertwined throughout with ominously whispered spoken word.  This only adds to the air of insidious unease as Mother Nature explore themes of mortality, nurture, and finding a way to live amid the pain and uncertainty.  Donor Records, as always, do a bang-up job pulling it all together.

‘From victim to oppressor, Life cycle of abuse…Made to be productive, Productive’s what they tell you’ (The Farm)

Right, we’re talking raw d-beat hardcore.  Imagine every element dialled up to what you think is the max.  Now, just push it that little bit further, further than perhaps feels wise, until every bone in your body is shuddering.  There you go – welcome to the sonic violence of Birmingham, Alabama’s B.O.R.N.

The band’s acronym stands for Belligerent Onslaught Relentless Noise, which is undeniably pretty apt.  Having honed their sound across a slew of cassette-only releases since 2022, this represents the band’s debut vinyl release.  The trio are not seeking to dramatically reinvent their influences, but what they do with an unabashed zeal is deliver every element with an absolutely venomous intent.

The guitar tone is filthily blown out.  The waves of surging riffage are leavened only by squalling, blink-and-you-miss solos, while the primitive drums lock in with, bar the occasional indulgence of a fleeting tom roll, a thudding singularity.  The barked vocals are delivered with more of a classic hardcore cadence as they build connections between economic exploitation, gentrification, escalating militarisation, and a society programmed to punch down.  The eight tracks are unleashed in just twelve unforgiving minutes, the velocity vividly embodied by the seething Local Outsider, the choppy fury of Moved West, and the pneumatic groove of the closer, Reprise.

‘Punk ei oo mikään vaihe nuoruuden, Mä tiukin sanoin kiistän kyllä sen, Se mulle on yhtä kuin elämä’ (Uskon Punkkareihin) / ‘Punk is not a phase of youth, I strongly deny that, It is the same as life for me’ (I Believe In Punks)

This is a reissue of the long sold-out debut album from Tiikeri, Punk Rock Paumaus!!! It was first self-released in Europe by the band, who hail from Turku in Finland, back in 2023, and has since been followed up by a trio of equally well received EPs.  The band’s core inspiration is very much drawn from late 1970s’ punk, which is then laced through with more contemporary pop punk influences.

And while all of that is stylistically true, the essence of Tiikeri lies much more in the sheer energy and joy that permeates every aspect of what they do.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I suspect that some of the more whimsical elements of Tiikeri’s aesthetic might well grate in the wrong hands.  But those possible hang ups rather melt away in the face of the band’s enthusiasm and sincerity.  Punk Rock Paumaus!!! is a very personal celebration of punk and what it has brought to the individual lives of the band members, both in terms music and, just as importantly, values.

At first listen, the music itself can strike as straightforward.  Yet, this belies the band’s unerring ear for a hook and capturing a melody that you simply won’t be able to shake.  Not to mention their absolute mastery of a well-placed layered harmony and a well-judged ‘woah’.  The dexterity of their song writing whips each of these elements into a jauntily raucous ride as they sweep from the rollicking Atria Ja HK (Ei Oo OK) to the more plaintively melodic Uskon Punkkareihin.  This is a record made with the express intention of putting smiles on faces and it is an invitation that is hard to resist.

‘Algún dia escaperé de aqui, de mi familia y lo que, quieren de mi, Franco ha muerto, campo abierto’ (Campo Abierto) / ‘One day I will escape from here, from my family and what they want from me, Franco is dead, open field’ (Open Field)

This is the debut album from Barcelona synth punks Colegiata and it is quite the unassuming treat.  The synths pulse with a certain analogue warmth and the percussion is crisply motorik as the duo conjure an atmosphere that ambiguously lurks somewhere between mournful regret and quiet euphoria.  The tonal palette is an essentially austere one, yet subtle melodic shifts, partnered with rather more abrupt changes through the rhythmic gears ensure that it never veers into the monochrome.

The vocals closely mirror those oscillating rhythms, largely bathed in a drawled detachment, but not averse to launching into rather more strident proclamations.  Lyrically, they are born of a very particular juncture in Spanish history.  The moment when the optimism of finally emerging from the fascist shadow of Franco ran into the implacable grip of the all-pervasive Catholic church, a slowly suffocating influence at both home and school.

As it spans the menacing escalation Señor Director (Mr. Director) and the brooding restraint of Labor Omnia Vincit (Work Conquers All), before the languorously infectious El Graduado (The Graduate) and the combatively throbbing closer Soy Una Punk (I’m A Punk), it proves a thoroughly evocative journey.

‘No quiero salir al exterior, Hace años quey a no veo el sol, Mis músculor ya no servirán, Mis amigos nunca más me verán’ / ‘I don’t want to go outside, I haven’t seen the sun in years, My muscles will be useless now, My friends will never see me again’ (Mis Amigos Nunca Más Me Verán)

Unless we’re careful, we can find ourselves living amid a maelstrom of never-ending notifications and ceaseless updates that serve to fracture attention and prime an endless doomscroll, aided by an app for every neurosis that technological intrusion sowed in the first place.  300 Noches Sin Dormir (300 Sleepless Nights) is a relentlessly hyperactive manifestation of this malaise.

This is the second album from synth punks Sistema De Entretenmiento (System Of Entertainment), who hail from Mollet del Vallès in Catalonia, and follows up their 2022 self-titled debut.  The band refer to their music as ‘Arcade Punk’, which certainly captures the essential spirit of their sound.  It is effervescently restless synth punk that is refracted through an abrasively lo-fi lens to conjure an utterly frenetic exuberance that stalks the line between nervously glitching agitation and unhinged hedonism.

The crisply precise bass and drum machine, together with the brittle shards of guitar, form the scaffolding of the sixteen tracks.  But it is the manically skittering synths and energetically layered vocals that put the flesh on those bones.  Intriguingly for an album drenched in such primary colours, including its anime artwork, it is fuelled by an exploration of the rather less wholesome, and often intentional, blurring of what is real and what is fake that increasingly defines our lives.

Indeed, the tracks when these darker impulses gain the upper hand – the ominous pulse Zona Desconocida (Unknown Zone), the languorous swing of Soy Un Rocker Y Perdedor (I’m Rocker And A Loser), and the futuristic melodies of Fantasma En la Maquina (Ghost In The Machine) – are perhaps the standout moments.

‘Pitting me against you, And us against them, But we won’t take the bait, Can’t give them the satisfaction, Because all we get is smaller cages and shorter chains’ (Smaller Cages, Shorter Chains)

Tear It On Down is an album born of bristling defiance and tentative hope.  At times, it can feel like we have front row seats for the end of days, entrenched interests flailing ever more desperately to protect their power.  This can lure us into being trapped in a perpetual present, susceptible to a despair born of forgetting.  Forgetting how far we have come and how powerful we can be when we act together.  And it is only by remembering this power that we can resist and create a different future.

This is the Los Angeles’ band’s third album and follow up to 2024’s Love Child and their sound continues to be defined by an undying adoration of the riff.  Metallic in their heft, hardcore in their snap yet indelibly imbued with a 1970s’ rock strut and fizzing with garage punk urgency, the onslaught of tautly surging riffage is at the very heart of Tear It On Down.  The fleetingly flaring solos and the limber bounce of the rhythm section further fuel the rock’n’roll swagger, while the rampaging vocals frenetically dissect the need to break free from the self-serving narratives of division and to build our own resilience, both individually and as communities.

The fiercely choppy A New Love Language kicks thing off with an unapologetic bang.  It sets a high-octane tone that doesn’t relent for even a moment as the infectious agitations of Surveillance State and the muscular stomp of Bloostains are deftly intertwined with the impassioned melodicism of Smaller Cages, Shorter Chains and Tension.  What unfurls is a rousing call to wake up and regain our humanity, and our independence of thought, ‘The end of raids, The end of incarceration, The end of indoctrination, Tear it on down’ (Citta Violenta)

‘Bienvenida inversión extranjera…Primer mundo, Nos tienen en guerra…¡Robando! Burlándose de las costumbres, Para después venderlas’ (Nuevo Mexico) / ‘Welcome foreign investment…First world, They have us at war…Stealing! Mocking our customs, Only to sell them off later’ (New Mexico)

What is the characteristic that elevates the most compelling hardcore?  For me, it is the intentionality that shapes both why and how it is being played.  Mexico City’s Annapura are a band who literally seethe with it and the band’s fifth release, V (they are, however, not big on titles), is a visceral statement of that intent.

The origins of the band are very much rooted in d-beat fuelled crust, but as they have progressed, another element has come increasingly into play.  It is one that brings to mind mid-2000s’ bands in the vein of say Black Kites and The Separation, who married together influences drawn from the metallic hardcore of the early 1990s with the more chaotic, faster expressions that emerged later in that same decade.  It proves a thoroughly rewarding evolution.

From the desperation drenched opener No Llegó (He Didn’t Arrive) to the bleak melody laced Todo A Todo (Everything To Everything), and then through the bouncing grooves of Espíritu de Fuego (Spirit Of Fire) to the double bass drum propelled tumult of El Desastre (The Disaster), the intensity is remorseless.  Each track is a savage two-minute eruption, before the album closes on the more expansive, darkly atmospheric instrumental Ocaso (Sunset).  Meanwhile, the dual vocals, one gruffly barked, the other more harshly desperate, explore how the colonial economics of globalisation exploit and exacerbate the violence and inequality embedded in daily Mexican life.

‘Es la hor de las bestias, Quién se conoce aqui? En la ciudad de la furia, Te tocas pelear o morir’ (Inténtalo o Muere ) / ‘It’s the hour of the beasts, Who knows anyone here? In the city of fury, it’s fight or die’ (Try It Or Die)

Abyecta return with their third 7-inch, following on from 2022’s Enemigos De La Razon (Enemies Of Reason).  Comprising two tracks – Inténtalo O MuereInténtalo O Muere and Amo Y Esclavo (Master and Slave) – that both come in at around the five-minute mark, it is undoubtedly the duo’s most ambitious release to date.

Originally hailing from Chile and now based largely in the US, the fundamentals of their sound remains a fierce blend of Japanese Burning Spirits hardcore and mid-to-late 1980s’ thrash metal (think more Mustaine than Hanneman).  Which, when you think of the classic heavy metal influences that shaped both, makes for a powerfully organic partnership.

The departure comes in the song writing itself, which sets aside short, sharp hardcore blasts in favour of more expansive structures that evolve through distinct, yet closely interlinked, movements.  The key is that none of this feels self-consciously progressive, or in any way self-indulgent.  Rather, it is playing to the very strengths of the inspirations that Abyecta are so vibrantly reanimating.

Dense yet catchy metallic riffage is underpinned by a rolling, surging rhythm section. The riffs themselves continually morph and reform, evolving without ever losing sight of the original starting point.  I particularly love the melodic bridge that binds together Inténtalo O Muere and the killer melody that forms the cornerstone of Amo Y Esclavo.  Now, I know for many, the riffs will be the main attraction here, but it has to be said that the infectiously rasping, utterly rampant vocals are more than a match as they contemplate the harsh realities of life in Santiago.  It’s an exhilarating ride.

‘Build a monument in marble, In your likeness, In your honour, Will the victories feel hollow, When the sun burns out, Tomorrow’ (Pyrrhic Pyrrhic)

This is the 10^th anniversary reissue of Red Dons’ classic third full-length, The Dead Hand Of Tradition.  When it landed a decade ago, its sharply crafted, darkly melodic punk was the sound of a band definitively hitting its stride.  The nimbleness of the song writing inventively braids the album with a myriad of enticing influences.  There is an ever-present shroud of post-punk melancholy, with at differing times a hardcore abrasiveness and a careering garage rock energy, not to mention a certain sing-along pop sensibility, all of which are embraced with equal relish.

The textures this introduces, from the cleverly layered vocal harmonies to the shifting rhythmic patterns and flaring melodic flourishes, imbues their music with a thoroughly satisfying depth.  The highlights land in quick succession from the languid embrace of Remember to the surging melodicism of Pyrrhic Pyrrhic, and then from the catchily scratchy Together Apart to the fiercely seething title track.  Yet, it is an album that works its way into your musical consciousness more as a singular, sweeping expression, such is its satisfying cohesiveness.

Meanwhile, the stridently melodic, almost crooned, cleanly enunciated vocals add another vivid dimension.  They fluently construct a narrative that explores how tradition can, if not harnessed in a positive way, be a deadening hand on our lives, reaching through from the past to shackle the future.  The Dead Hand Of Tradition has proved, at least to date, to be the Portland band’s final full-length.  However, they continue to tour regularly and have released two subsequent EPs, 2017’s Genocide and 2023’s Generations.

Want to get to know the Red Dons? Then, this is a great place to start.

‘There’s nothing left to strive for, Illusions slain by stark reality, Gilded pavements fade to concrete, In the daylight of the city’ (Arcadia)

Bikini Mutants were a relatively short lived early 1980s’ post-punk band from Yeovil, with members going on to play in My Bloody Valentine and The Chesterfields.  Indeed, the five-year labour of love which was involved in pulling this intriguing reissue together was rather longer than the lifespan of the band itself.  However, it was undoubtedly time well spent.

Although Bikini Mutants emerged amid the West Country’s thriving anarcho-punk scene, their sound was distinctively different as they pioneered the blend of wiry post-punk and catchy indie pop that was to become increasingly synonymous with the era.  This twelve-track compilation pulls together the band’s two demos, both of which were recorded in 1982.

The song writing is intricately layered and subtly propulsive. The vocals are delicate yet assertive, frequently operating in a near operatic tenor as they contemplate a bleak future in Thatcherite Britain.  A lo-fi scratchiness characterised the guitar on their debut, but a change in guitarist saw a more fuzzed out style emerge on the second.  My personal highlight, however, is the supple, sprightly swinging interplay between the bass and drums.  The locked-in rhythm of Arcadia from the first demo, and the mournfully shimmering Empty on the second, capture the band’s understated allure perfectly.

The album is accompanied by a fascinating twenty-page booklet that assembles the lyrics, various gig reviews, and a fanzine interview, together with plenty of photos and flyers.  It also includes three typically soulless A&R rejection letters, which – if nothing else – serve as a useful reminder of why we needed DIY in the first place.

‘Velato senso di colpa, Condanno le mie stesse azioni, Comiencio a sentir freddo, Invischiato in questa non vita’ (Imperfetto, Sii Imperfetto) / ‘Veiled sense of guilt, I condemn my own actions, I begin to feel cold, Entangled in this non-life’ (Imperfect, Be Imperfect)

I’ll cut straight to the chase here – this is an absolute belter.  Pisco Galera hail from Venice and Memorie Di Occhi Grigi (Memories Of Grey Eyes) follows up their 2021 debut album, Le Stanze Della Mente (The Rooms Of The Mind).  The vinyl release suffered quite a few delays, but I steadfastly resisted the digital option and I’m glad that I did.  Since it landed, the utterly visceral slap that it has delivered every time I have dropped the needle has been more than worth the wait.

The band’s base sound remains rooted in early 1980s’ Italian hardcore, a vivid reimagining of the raw, chaotic inventiveness that defined the era of Wretched and Negazione.  They then viciously mesh it with influences drawn from the similarly futuristic instincts that emerged later that decade in the form of technical leaning thrash metal.  A dissonant tapestry of fiercely unhinged riffage and filthily extravagant solos.  It’s as if Coroner woke up one morning and thought, stuff a lifetime of ceaselessly honed precision, let’s just let it rip!  There is also a third element, a touch less strident, but no less important.  A restless, agitated instinct for experimentation – one that is art punk in inclination, yet utterly atavistic in energy.

Pisco Galera succeed in bringing this all together with a manically gleeful abandon, somehow without everything careering out of control.  There are so many moments to relish.  The frenzied solo that erupts during Imperfetto, Sii Imperfetto.  The searing riff that defines Le Cattive Maniere (Bad Manners).  The rhythmic chant that closes out Chiodi, Punte & Fibbie (Nails, Spikes, And Buckles).  The serpentine grooves of the melody fuelled Lacrime & Pioggia (Tears And Rain).  Meanwhile, the effects distorted vocals are delivered with a bracing gusto as they dissect a society that seeks to hollow us out through the controls, both physical and illusory, of economic extraction, oppressive traditions, and social division.

‘Slave to all the rules, Agreed before you were born, And die with no remorse, Look, this isn’t now, You reap all of the fruit but forget to remember – where is the root?’ (Your Own Device)

Hailing from New York, and featuring members of Acid Casualties, Altar Of Eden and Mirage, Cross follow up their 2023 demo, No Beginning, No End, with their debut album, Human Spirit.  It is an utterly unforgiving statement.  This is hardcore at its most claustrophobic, tensely fraught, almost suffocating in its intensity.  The abrasively discomfiting battery sparks thoughts of a savage reimagining of Mecht Mensch and Permission, constantly threatening to overwhelm, but with the chaos always just about held at bay.

The twin guitars are frenzied, densely layered, and squirming with a restless unease as fleeting flares of melody are swallowed in the dissonance.  The rhythm section rabidly keeps pace, before swaggering passages of mid-paced groove allow it to flex and bring a powerful fluidity into play.  Intertwined throughout are the caustically barked vocals as they unleash a darkly poetical, bleakly fractured tirade that is saturated in a quiet despair at the constraints that we allow society, and ourselves, to impose on our lives.

From the crushing climatic breakdown of Envy to the squalling melodicism of Falsified Ties and then from the frenetically jarring Flowers to the whiplash agitations of Soul Divine, there is not a moment’s respite.  And you won’t be asking for one.

‘Monstruosas perversiones, son duras de masticar, Son funcionarios, estatal, seres inexplicables, duros de acabar’ (Contando Cucharachas En El Barrio) ‘Monstrous perversions, they’re hard to chew, Bureaucrats, state officials, inexplicable things, hard to finish off’ (Counting Cockroaches In The Neighbourhood)

Pura Manía are back with their second album, La Banda Es La Ley (The Gang Is The Law), and follow up to their 2024 7-inch, Extraños Casos De La Vida Real (Strange Real-Life Cases).  The band currently span Canada and Mexico, and since their 2014 debut EP, they have been pioneers in a sound that has taken deep root in contemporary hardcore punk.  It is a raucous fusion of dark post-punk melodicism and raw anthemic street punk, with, in their case, a further healthy dash of Iberian punk verve.

As you dive into proceedings, the first thing that strikes you is the sheer immediacy.  Each song brims with an infectious central guitar melody that the rabidly exuberant Spanish vocals lock on to with an irresistible sing-along relish, contemplating the mess we’re in through a lens of B-movie grotesquerie.  Opener Operación Horror (Operation Horror) sets an absolutely rollicking tone that the likes of the uproarious El Planeta Gótico (Gothic Planet) and the fiercely impassioned Contando Cucharachas En El Barrio are only too happy to follow.

As you immerse yourself more fully though, you begin to understand the depth of the groundwork that is so adroitly laid to create these thrilling pay offs.  This, perhaps, reflects the fact that the band draw their four instrumental members from Vancouver post-punks Spectres, as evidenced in the fuzzed-out rhythm guitar, chiming melodies, and darkly chunky bass lines.  This pedigree enables the band to create a densely layered web of melodies and rhythms, yet one dedicated to delivering unashamedly baser pleasures.

La Banda Es La Ley skilfully intertwines street punk directness and post-punk precision in a manner that feels utterly organic.  The world as a whole may not be in a place to inspire good cheer at the moment, but this is an album guaranteed to bring a smile to your lips and a spring to your step.

‘Stormande angstfylte januarnatt, Byar og vrakrester evig fortapt, Vinden var vill, for alt blet still’ (Atomvinter Pt.1) / ‘Stormy , anxious January night, Cities and ruins lost forever, The wind was wild, Before everything was still’ (Atomic Winter Pt.1)

Oslo’s Draümar, who share vocalist Sig with Assistert Sjølmord, dropped their cracking debut 7-inch, D’Krig (The War), back in 2022.  So, we’ve had to wait a little while for the follow up.  A couple of blistering recent London shows further whetted the appetite, and as soon as the eerily swelling, breakbeat fuelled intro of Ute å Stjele (Out To Steal) kicks in, you know that this anticipation has been well-earned.

Draümar remain firmly embedded in the traditions of Norwegian hardcore, melding together a savage onslaught of frenetic speed, bruising grooves, and a lacing of dark melancholy.  The guitars flip with a seamless ease between burly riffage and rather more nimble melodic flourishes alongside a lock-step tight rhythm section.  Meanwhile, the harshly rasping, snarled vocals, including a deliciously unhinged manic cackle on Norske Våpen (Norwegian Weapons), bring an invigorating venom to bear.

Lyrically, they confront Norway’s burgeoning arms trade, the horrors unfolding in Gaza, and the global threat of ever escalating militarisation, together with more personal battles.  The highlights come thick and fast.   The choppy melodicism of Likbil (Hearse).  The feral oscillations of Molotov Draümar (Molotov Dreamer). The high-octane one-two of Atomvinter Parts 1 and 2.  There is also a seething cover of Herrene (The Gentleman) by their fellow mid-1980s’ Norwegians, Bannlyst, featuring their vocalist Finn Erik Tangen who sounds in ferociously fine fettle.

‘Is your blood on boil? Is your flag unfurled? Do you hear the sound? Of savage lust, A primal scream, A fatal thrust’ (Apex Calling)

Good ideas should not be thrown away lightly.  This, in many ways, is the defining mantra of Station Model Violence.  They need to be refined, draped in nuanced detailing, layered with a deft subtlety, and allowed to breath to the point where they are all enveloping.  What emerges is an album of relentlessly propulsive post-punk.  It is a sonic massage that is warmly immersive yet also simmering with a nebulous sense of sinister foreboding.

The band hail from Melbourne, featuring former members of R.M.F.C., Straightjacket Nation, and Total Control, and this is their debut release.  The album’s scaffolding is built around Heat, a hypnotically monolithic, eight minute slab that kicks off the second side.  The brightly jangling guitars and the limber rhythm section lock-into a remorseless groove that is braided through with serpentine saxophone.  At the same time, the sombrely deep vocals lean into the power of repetition, inviting the listener to lose themselves in the song’s embrace.  The fact that it barely registers as a fraction of its run time speaks to that undeniable allure.

These are the fundamentals that the band rework and reshape with intriguing invention throughout.  Melody bathed groove and vocal reiteration provoking each other into an atmosphere of fevered introspection.  And each track pulses with its own fierce clarity.  The darkly urgent Leisure with its call of ‘And no one knew your name’.  The haunting vocals of Apex Calling that prime a euphoric, saxophone fuelled finale.  The plaintively escalating Falling Down.  Station Model Violence proves a richly mesmerising introduction.

‘Broken house, rotted souls, Stolen pictures hanging on the walls, Cold wind blows and the snow still falls, Sacrifice, I can hear it call’ (Running Cross)

What do the following have in common: the symphonic melodicism of Dödsrit, the blues-tinged doom of Cathedral, and the surging hardcore of Poison Ruïn?  At first glance, not all that much, except that each spring vividly to mind as possible influences during Bridge Of Sacrifice.  It is a heady, volatile mix.  Yet one that Powerplant handles with such instinctual assurance that it feels entirely natural.

And there, perhaps, lies both the potential strength and weakness of the one-person musical project.  Bands benefit from the virtues and disciplines of collective song writing.  For good or ill, no such restraints exist for the solo artist.  In the case of Theo Zhykharyev’s Powerplant, it is very much a good thing.

Powerplant has been a going concern since 2018 and Bridge Of Sacrifice is album number three.  Born as a solitary, lo-fi synth punk project, it has since evolved into a full band for live shows, but the recording process is still very much an individual concern.  Indeed, the off-kilter synth aesthetic remains at the heart of the sound, although it is now interplaying with a rather more flamboyant palette.

Driving black metal riffage segues into passages of darkly atmospheric neo-folk, before erupting into a dramatic post-punk fervour.  This relentless shapeshifting is more than matched by the vocals.  These flirt with deathly growls, sombre semi-spoken word, and stridently melodic explosions as they evoke a bleakly medieval imagery to explore the importance of home amid the isolation of a fracturing society.

The album’s success lies in the fact that there are no half-measures.  Each idea is delivered with equal sincerity, each influence conjured up with the same theatrical vigour.  The result is one that walks the line between invention and absurdity with impressive confidence.  As the crooned climax to Florida sweeps into the gothically drawled, cello laced The Fork, and then from the savagely blackened garage of Hall Of Wolves to the haunting Gregorian chants and skeletal keys of Arborglyph, you have little idea of what is coming next.  The surprise rarely disappoints.

‘So manche brücke bricht, Zu viel tinte ging verschütt, Ward mich nich ergeben, Mein herz hadert eben, Hast den tod an die wand gemalt’ / ‘So many bridges break, Too much ink spilled, I won’t give up, My heart is struggling, You’ve brought death to the wall’ (Liner Notes)

Berlin is the most evocative of cities.  And, as with many others, this history is being rapidly eradicated by the rapacious demands of real estate capital.  Yet musically, the imaginary remains as powerful as ever and is vibrantly conjured by Schimmel über Berlin (Mould Over Berlin).  Eisenmund (Iron Mouth) is its very embodiment – viscous banks of fog, perpetually damp streets, furtive figures lurking in the shadows, glowing windows of late-night reflection.

Schimmel über Berlin feature members of Aus, Benzin, and Noj.  This brings with it a certain anticipation, and their vividly atmospheric debut album blows even these high expectations clean out of the water.  That the release notes to this release were penned by Fiona Sangster of Xmal Deutschland gives us a healthy nod as to what we might expect.  Though, while this is undoubtedly an album that draws richly on its 1980s’ post-punk heritage, Eisenmund injects it with a thrillingly illicit new energy.  Nostalgia need not apply.

The guitar is icily compelling, brittle yet tensely serpentine, and it tautly interplays with a rhythm section that brings a supple, satisfyingly muscular edge to its martial instincts.  The semi-spoken vocals are coldly detached, yet braided through with an unexpected melodic warmth.  At times they are quietly desperate, at others bathed in a tensely sombre disdain.

The palette is austerely disciplined with subtle shifts in tone introducing a restlessly morphing energy.  From the surging agitations of Schattenriis (Silhouette) to the urgent gyrations of Der Gute Sohn (The Good Son), and then from the mournfully introspective title track to swirling invocations of Weise Fee (Wise Fairy), and the forlornly rhythmic closer Klagegesgang (Lamentation).  Every moment draws us ever deeper in to the ambiguously charged Berlin night.

‘They refuse to see what’s hidden behind each number, Knowing it hides a tragedy, It stops our hearts, It empties our souls, The machine is on’ (Numbering Machine)

Blurred Visions is a story of the world we have built.  One in which we have allowed the forces of capital to become society’s guiding light.  A society that knows the cost of everything, but the value of nothing, mired in technocratic self-delusion.  It has inevitably led to entrenched inequality and an ever-growing insecurity.  The alienation becomes ever more powerful.  An alienation that political opportunists are only too willing to exploit at the expense of those least to blame with glib solutions and barely disguised bigotry.

Bleakness, who share a member with Deletär, continue to hone a dark blend of melancholic post-punk and driving death rock, with a keen eye for theatre and a bristling hardcore energy.  This is the band’s fourth album, and their first since 2022’s Life At A Standstill.  While each of those fundamentals remains abundantly evident, there has also been a shift in gear.  Blurred Visions feels bolder, and even more dramatic, without losing the rich detailing that has always defined the French trio’s music.

The hoarsely compelling vocals remain front and centre, cleanly sung, darkly baritone, and straining with an impassioned defiance.  A brightly chiming yet elegiac melodicism infuses the guitars, as the rhythm section injects a notably limber bounce.  The tautly crafted Artificial Answers, the gothic shrouded Dead Of Night, the darkly contagious Spinning Around, and the plaintive fury of Numbering Machine each vividly capture the bleakly realised atmosphere.

Yet amid the darkness, there is a powerful seam of hope riven through the album.  It burns with a recognition of the importance of maintaining personal connections in our daily lives and, as we endure ‘a competition between the bad and the worse’, of not surrendering our knowledge that an alternative way is possible.

‘You’re kidding me, you think we’re free? I hope you miss that raised up fist, from someone you so sweetly kissed’ (Complicit)

Tethered’s debut LP is in many ways a love letter to another time, although not necessarily entirely in the way you might think.  Yes, musically it draws on a very specific musical tradition, namely that captured by the likes of Ebullition and Gravity Records in the mid-to-late 1990s.  Tautly serpentine riffage, and tension ratcheting builds, blended with a healthy metallic heft and jazz inflected rhythms.  Think, perhaps, Bread And Circuits entwined with You And I, with just a frisson of Swing Kids, and you’ll be heading in the right direction.

This, the London band do with a searing passion and sheer verve that ensures that what unfolds burns with its own very distinctive identity.  However, you sense that, perhaps, the more defining connection goes rather deeper than this, to the very values that fuelled that musical moment.  Throughout hardcore’s history there are phases when its horizons seem to narrow through attempts at commercial or political appropriation.  And that era, along with the earlier DC Revolution Summer, spoke directly to rejecting these bids for control – restating the value of DIY, reanimating the political, and reintroducing an emotional vulnerability.

The harshly invigorating vocals prove an irresistible binding force, rooted more in a traditional hardcore, rather than screamo, delivery.  Their poetically framed lyrics explore themes of isolation and disconnection, interwoven with a recurring recognition of our own complicity in this atomisation of our lives.  The intensity is as unrelenting as it is tightly crafted.  The savage escalations of Consume.  The lacerating desperation of Time Travel.  The seething agitation of Complicit.  The dissonant melancholy of Home.  Prepare for some sweet convulsions.

‘Benefits for society, Might cut into their profit, Everywhere, anything for greed, Control over information, Maintaining power dynamic, Everywhere, their narrative’ (Fed Up With Their Lies)

There is a lot to be said for musical innovation.  The desire to expand boundaries, introduce differing musical traditions to each other, and take hardcore in intriguing new directions.  But the pleasures of the warmly familiar, well-executed and passionately delivered, are not to be underestimated.  This a lesson delivered like an adrenaline shot to the heart by Youth Avoiders, returning with their first album in eight years.

Defiance sees the Parisians continue to deftly hone their melodic punk with an impressively singular focus.  The lean, clean toned guitars brim with a melodic intensity, shimmering with a wisp of post-punk jangle, while the rhythm section locks into a remorselessly propulsive barrage.  The latter’s frenetic energy is matched by the vehemently impassioned vocals that strain with a desperate urgency.  The band’s political clarity remains just as fiercely undiluted as they tear into a society suffocating in the exploitative grasp of surveillance capitalism, that criminalises the homeless, turns a blind eye to genocide, and then tells you that none of these things are really happening.

It is a rollicking, absolutely hook packed ride that brims with a heartfelt conviction from the raucously sing along opener Endless Fight to the brightly compelling Falling, by way of the bristling defiance of This Is The Sound.   Almost without being aware, you will find yourself transported to a dark basement, sweat dripping from the ceiling, and fists punching skywards.  Sometimes the simple pleasures are the ones we need most.

‘Swept under the rug, Locked in the chest, Feed us your crumbs, Like we’re your fucking pet, Endorsed false promises, Years of blatant lies’ (Refuse To Comply)

Reek Minds, who share members with fellow Portlanders Alienator, are back with a new six-track EP and follow-up to their excellent 2024 full-length, Malignant Existence.  If you have not yet had the pleasure, Reek Minds revel in fast, nasty 1980s’ US hardcore delivered with the venomous convulsions of the very best power violence and, this time round at least, with a certain dash of rock’n’roll swagger.

Unvarnished speed remains at the band’s heart, yet they equally revel in whiplash tempo changes and unleashing groove laden breakdowns with a brutal abandon.  The key is the deftness with which these twists are marshalled.  They feel wholly instinctual, fiercely organic, which ensures that coherency is never sacrificed.  Amid this uncompromising onslaught, the hoarsely growled vocals – death metal tinged yet with a hardcore cadence – dissect a world rooted in economic exploitation and narcissistic self-interest.

The number of ideas that are used and tossed aside in such a short time span is enough to make those of us less inventive weep, but it ensures that not a moment is wasted.  The choppy groove that propels Refuse To Comply, the rabid fury of Desolate, and the admirably full-throated solo that fuels the absolutely crushing climax to Aesthetic are particular highlights.  The EP closes with a splendid hidden cover of Blinding Light by Bedford anarcho-punks Legion Of Parasites, taken from their 1985 album, Prison Of Life!

‘With a future so grievous, It’s easy to fatigue, We’re all mad and tired, Show them, Collective action can start many fires’ (Idle Animosity)

Hailing from Richmond Virginia, Siphon’s debut EP, Stark Raving Mad, erupts out the gates at a ferociously frenetic pace and it doesn’t take its foot off the pedal for the duration of the four blistering tracks.  Influences from earlier generations of UK and Japanese hardcore are evident and then refashioned through a more contemporary lens – metallic in form, raw in execution.

Waves of surging riffage unfurl throughout, exuberant solos fleetingly flare and die, the battery propelled by a manically relentless rhythm section.  Meanwhile, the savagely rasping vocals breathlessly confront the authoritarian slide engulfing the US, still hopeful that redemption can be found amid collective action.  The frantic opener Mass Casualty Incident and the equally unrestrained title track land with a particular snap.

‘Verdets resurser utnyttjas till bristning, Den eviga tillväxten ska ske, Till va pris? Giftet sprider sig ever varlden’ (Giftet Sprider Sig) / ‘The world’s resources are being exploited to the breaking point, Eternal growth must happen, At what price? The poison is spreading across the world’ (The Poison Spreads)

Disskerarad (Dissected) are a band very much forged in the ever-fruitful crucible of Stockholm hardcore, drawing members from Avskum, Exploatör, and Totalitär among others.  They have been active now for just over a decade, and Väggarna Rasar (The Walls Are Falling Down) is their first release since their contribution to 2023’s crushing four-way split album alongside Destruct, Rat Cage, and Scarecrow.

The band continue to hone their merciless take on Swedish mangel – ferociously tight d-beat rhythms underpin ominously surging riffage, leavened with just a dash of metallic influence in the heft of the production and the occasional recklessly careering solo.  Meanwhile, the hoarse, rhythmically barked vocals unleash a tirade that builds the connections between relentless capitalist excess, atomising communities, rising right wing authoritarianism, and escalating militarism.

The execution is as savagely precise as you would anticipate.  Such is its fierce tautness that it just takes the slightest refinement to introduce an unexpected new texture to the onslaught.  From the melody subtly braided through Giftet Sprider Sig to the burly menace of Vinster (Profits), and then from the quivering tremolo picked riff that propels Nedmontering (Dismantling) to the percussive velocity of the title track, the highlights land with a vehement relish.

‘Pushing you down, A life at the bottom, Enemies around, Hide in the shadows, Losing hope, Going under’ (The Gutter Is No Home)

As society fractures under the weight of an insatiable economic system, it becomes ripe for exploitation.  Somebody must be to blame.  Of course, not those manipulating the system for their own gain. But rather those already forced to the margins – those having to juggle two jobs just to get by, those unable to afford a stable home, and those forced on to the streets.  Punch down and look the other way.  This is the bizarre dichotomy that Unarmed set about dismantling on Gloomy Skies, Screaming Vultures.

Hailing from Sweden, and featuring members of Exploatör, 3-Way Cum, and Verdict, Unarmed were initially active in the mid-1990s, releasing two split EPs.  They then returned with a new 7-inch in 2022, before now unleashing this, their debut full-length.  Their sound is rooted very firmly in the traditions of 1990s crust.  The waves of metallic riffage are liberally laced with flares of melancholic melody and propelled by galloping d-beat rhythms, while the roared vocals, alternating between Swedish and English, are utterly cavernous in their brutality.  Highlights include the bleakly melodic Blinded by Hate, Driven By Fear, the choppily insistent Overseas, and the loose limbed swagger of King Of Nothing.

‘Can’t you hear them, Screams from the silent ones, Prisoners in cages, Herded into slaughterhouses, Knowing that death awaits them’ (Don’t Choose To Abuse)

Kläpträp are a pan-European project and with three demos already under their belt, they now arrive with their debut album, The Infernal Machination.  Featuring members of both Doom and Visions Of War, it will come as no surprise that Kläpträp treat us to a fiercely unremitting crust punk battery and one that it is delivered with an irreverent, combative belligerence.  Those who come for the filthy riffage and bludgeoning rhythms won’t be disappointed in the slightest, from the venomous velocity of the opener Squeezing The World to the bruising slabs of Not True.

Yet it is, perhaps, the vocals that hold centre stage.  For the most part, they are delivered with a rasping power, alternating between German and English as they confront themes of prejudiced policing, animal rights, predatory behaviours, and climatic breakdown.  But importantly, they also seethe with an admirable variety, from the chanted close to No Heroes and the raucously layered chorus of Not True, to the energetically duelling vocals of Don’t Choose To Abuse. The striking cover art finishes things off rather nicely.

‘The feeling of being stuck and speechless, helpless, of not knowing what to do, as people and as artists. It was a constant questioning of the meaning of our work in a moment like this, a constant search for it, and wondering if it exists at all’ (Mai Mai Mai interview with Foxy Digitalis)

‘What does it mean to make music in the midst of a genocide?’  This is the question that Mai Mai Mai asked himself and his Palestinian collaborators throughout the creation of Karakoz.  The Italian musician spent six weeks in Bethlehem and Ramallah during early 2024, working with a cast of Palestinian musicians, such as Maya Al Khaldi, Julmud, Osama Abu Ali, and Karam Feres, some planned, others spontaneous.  This region, the Cremisan Valley, is one of the last remaining rural landscapes in the vicinity of Jerusalem.  Its patchwork of Palestinian owned olive groves and vineyards is under constant threat of annexation and illegal occupation.

Mai Mai Mai’s soundscapes have always sought to use the concept of hauntology – how ethical calls from the past and future demand change in the present – to explore where he grew up in the port city of Crotone in Southern Italy.  On being invited to work with his Palestinian friends, he was determined to explore those same themes in this very different context.  To conjure the ghosts of the Palestinian past, present, and future and to place them at the very heart of the album’s narrative.  Where they would not fade nor disappear but instead gain new life.  His music is rooted in percussion – intricate yet reassuring, mechanical yet limber – and, on Karakoz, it is intertwined with an understated assurance with Middle Eastern chants, traditional wind and string instruments, and a beguiling tapestry of field and archive recordings.  The result is utterly immersive.

The album opens with the striking melancholy of Grief, which weaves together a hauntingly layered mourning chant with sparse, darkly pulsing synths and spartanly metronomic percussion.  It then segues into the almost pastoral reverie of the title track, before things take a more unsettling turn with the elegiac Echoes Of the Harvest, which fuses ominously skeletal chants with plaintive swirls of saxophone.  Side two continues to morph and reformulate itself with the same imperceptible deftness.  From the wailing rubab (lute), syncopated beats, and disembodied spoken word of Poem Made Of Sand to the woozily elastic, yarghul (flute) fuelled closer, Wandering Through The Crowded Paths Of Al-Hisba.

Karakoz is a form of shadow theatre originally popularised across the Ottoman Empire, and the album is undoubtedly an entrancing sonic embodiment of this tradition – one that elicits a powerful sense of place, memory, and identity.  And the answer to the original question posed?  As Mai Mai Mai comments in the accompanying booklet, ‘Perhaps, among the waves of Karakoz, you will find the answer, several, or none’.  But, at the very least, it lays down the challenge and gives voice to those that the world is determined not to hear.

‘I’ll become night for your sleep, I’ll stay wide, pale and far, a moonbeam, A starry cloak for you to keep, During the dark time of your dreams’ (Peace Of The Unsaid)

Julinko is a musical project based in Treviso in Northeast Italy that has boasted a duality of form over the past decade.  On the one hand, they are a dramatically gothic, doom infused psychedelic trio and on the other, they are a stripped back solo project for vocalist Giulia Parin Zecchin to explore those same musical instincts but through the lens of dark folk.  Naebula is very much the fruit of this latter incarnation.

Its musical palette is relatively restrained, yet saturated in a billowing, sombre mysticism.  Organs segue from the hazily viscous to the assertively jolting, while being intertwined with an understated austerity alongside melodically shimmering guitar and mournfully cascading keys.  Intriguingly, physical percussion is deployed sparingly, yet there is a spectrally pulsing cadence evident throughout.  It is easy to be lured into its otherworldly embrace, only to be jerked unceremoniously back to reality by unexpected, foghorn-like eruptions of discordance.

The soundscape that emerges fuses darkly ambient influences with more folk orientated instincts.  It is equal parts fervent drones and delicate laments, minimalist repetition and dense textures.  This provides the perfect inspiration for the virtuoso vocal performance, which spans Italian, English, French, and Hindi.  It sees Giulia sweep from the glacial murmurs of Peace Of The Unsaid to the haunting whispers of Skin Dress, and then from the swirling incantations of Jeanne De Ríen to the strident urgings of Thow Ashes with a fevered intensity.  Welcome to a hallucinatory shadow world of grief, loss, and new beginnings.

‘Generation of people always sitting in silence, Feeding off hate, division and violence, Complacent in their atrocities, Silence is a privileged man’s disease’ (No Remorse)

The social alienation of the 1980s continues to cast its spectral shadow across our lives.  A crumbling public realm.  Collapsing living standards.  Youth unemployment soaring and work ever more precarious.  Alongside a spiralling, reckless militarism.  While the privileged few stoke distrust of those already most marginalised to disguise their own self-serving complicity.

So, it seems only fitting then that we mine that same decade musically.  This Catastrophe do with undisguised relish as they draw on the first waves of UK anarcho-punk – flares of Cress, flashes of Amebix – before firing them through with a fierce lacing of more contemporary metallic crust. The darkly surging, dissonantly fuzzed riffage is punctuated with searing solos and propelled by a powerfully limber rhythm section.  Meanwhile, the gutturally barked vocals confront a society mired in institutionalised greed and fear of the other.

This is the debut album from the London band, who feature current members of Scab and Traidora, and the follow up to their 2024 demo, Dead On Arrival.  The highlights come thick and fast.  The savagely martial drumming that fuels the bruising title track.  The soaring solo that erupts with majestic abandon amid the venomously escalating Decline.  The bass versus guitar joust that kicks off Love Is Love.  All culminating in the crushing climax that is World In Decay.  Cries From The Gutter these may be.  Yet each burns with a defiant clarity of intent.

‘Tout sonne faux, À mes yeux, Tous les jours, Ça sonne creux, Dur à dire, à choisir, Autour de moi tout va trop vite, Les reflets sont tous faux’ (Tout Sonne Faux) / ‘Everything sounds false, To my eyes, Every day, It sounds hollow, Hard to say, to choose, Around me everything is going too fast, The reflections are all false’ (Everything Sounds False)

We live in a world where the real and the fake are increasingly blurred.  One where we are constantly under surveillance.  Our lives scraped, commoditised, monetised.  Every element feels like it has been specifically constructed to isolate and atomise, to ferment insecurity and to sow self-doubt.  Comme Un Poignard (Like A Dagger) conjures this very unease, a life that feels as if it is bound in chains yet spinning out of control at the same time.

Hailing from Bordeaux, and featuring both current and ex-members of Bombardement, Faucheuse (Reaper) are back with their second full-length and follow-up to 2024’s, Rêve Électrique (Electric Dream).  As the title track erupts through the squalling feedback, the band’s trademarks are firmly in evidence – fiercely galloping d-beat riven through with a boisterous rock’n’roll swagger and brimming with buccaneering solos that strut that hazy line where blues and NWOBHM intertwine.

It is though, perhaps, the vocals that remain at the very heart of their sound.  Cleanly sung and robustly melodic, they call with equal vigour on both a punk urgency and a rich sense of pop drama.  It is a frantically breathless yet tautly crafted ride as they sweep from the scuzzy melodicism of Pacte de Feu (Fire Pact) to the frantically careering Météore (Meteor).  Before, Faucheuse throw an unexpected sidestep and bow out with the mournfully cascading organs and hauntingly reflective vocals of Etincelle (Spark).