[engl] Official repress! Comes in the original artwork! West-German Punk-band from the city of Freiburg, active from 1980 until 1983. Unfortunately the bands only release! Here's the official repress!

[engl] Rising like the phoenix from the ashes of the first version of the band; The Haskels served up heavy doses of three minute, adrenaline-fueled hard punk pop, as evidenced on the highly sought after, Killed by Death bootlegged, “Taking the City by Storm” EP released in 1981 on their own Milwaukee Hits label. Now the full story of the band can be heard, seen, and told. As the decade turned from the rust belt 70’s to the Reagan-era 80’s, the original Haskels (see their self-titled LP released last year on Splunge) split into two factions, with the local punk/new wave/post-punk scene moving to the gritty Starship club in downtown Milwaukee. The Haskels were instrumental in getting bands to play the venue, including the Oil Tasters, Plasticland, Ama-Dots, Shivvers, Die Kreuzen and a burgeoning Violent Femmes. The version of the Haskels represented here initially included Presley Haskel and Gerard LaValliere, fresh from the first line up of the band; joined by the crack rhythm section of Bobby Mitchell and Vodie Rhinehardt. Later tracks, including the EP were recorded by the Presley/Bobby/Vodie trio. In either case, the material is a match made in punk pop heaven; coupling Presley’s knife-sharp songwriting sensibilities with a tight unit of A-Team musicians driving the music forward. “Taking the City by Storm” includes 14 tracks of rare and never before released material from the Splunge Archives. The release is comprised of demos, live tracks and the entire, highly coveted “Taking the City by Storm” EP, remastered for the first time. Co-released with our pals at Bachelor Records, we’re sure you’ll dig hearing these long-lost gems.

[engl] Rounding out the trilogy of 7"s that Hated released is the virtually unknown "4 Song EP" 7". The band had a slight lineup change, now featuring Chalmer from The Vandals, and with it comes quite possibly Hated's best release. Quite possibly the best songs that Hated ever wrote, these songs feel much fuller and much more fleshed out. Hated created a sound that was all their own, merging the beach punk aesthetic with the emerging USHC scene, but instead of sacrificing melody for speed, the band seamlessly blends the two into 4 perfect beach punk anthems. This is quite possibly the most underrated record in the Hated catalog, and it's probably their best!

[engl] Available again for the first time since 1982, the 2nd 7" from California's Hated. An unknown gem within the punk world, both of these songs managed to elude collectors and even the famed KBD comps. Not only is this some of the best punk to come from California, this is some of the best punk to come from the USA. Two songs that are firmly planted in 70's punk, but Hated managed to crank up the speed as the burgeoning hardcore movement was exploding around them. Not quite 70's punk, but not quite 80's hardcore, Hated managed to straddle both sounds and come up with a completely original and unique take on what was shaping up to become the classic California punk sound.

[engl] Maxi LP from that hate-based Band. 5 shots of amazing Punk Rock on The A-Side, experimental Opera Rock on the B-side. So the A-side is for everyday life and the B-side exclusively for paricular occasions…..

[engl] The Hazmats (featuring members of Powerplant, Big Cheese and Chain Of Flowers) return a year down the line with another two track 7” that is another masterclass in Indie pop in 2023. Skewed View is built on an insistent treble heavy jangle guitar and mournful vocals and could easily have been a Sarah Records release. Think a mix of the Field Mice, Sea Urchins and the Mighty Lemon Drops. On the flip is Wondered which is a more uptempo and forceful song that will have you hooked from the first guitar riff. It has the same edge, production and hooks of early The Wedding Present and This Poison!. Two quality 45’s and you wonder what will be next. (Sean Forbes)

[engl] The eagerly, queasily awaited return of HEAVY METAL. Their fourth album in as many years is a double - 26 songs and 65 odd minutes exploring a bunch of different modes but with the full allocation of puerile, brutally repetitive space-punk - from the headcrushin PiL-meets-Phantom Paynish opener ('SAVAGELY BEATEN BY FUNK') on in. It’s basically their Exile on Main St, albeit an Exile on Main St about golf, Bergadler beer, suicide and Frank Spencer. Limited pre-release cassette from Static Age...check the clips and tell me they’re not the best fucking band on earth. More info to follow, probably, but these will all have gone by then. DO NOT MISS!!!

[engl] Sean : And you thought the world had run out of great band names!! No sir - welcome to the debut album by Heavy Metal. Over the space of 13 tracks the two piece from Berlin make dirty punk, childlike chaos and raw DIY gems with reckless abandon. In parts it sounds like pissed idiots with a 4 Track recorder armed with a load of ATV 7”s and in other parts like some obscure Australian DIY 7” from 1979. Standout cuts are ‘Snail of Rock’ which is all snotty 77 punk rock, ‘Would You Adam and Eve It?’ which could have been one a classic Step Forward Records release and ‘Total Bullshit’ which sounds like the Sleaford Mods but with the recording quality of ‘Bullshit Detector’ compilations on Crass. You used to love Heavy Metal when you were young and now you can fall in love with Heavy Metal all over again. Lydia : After only six rehearsals and no previous recordings to date, Static Age is proud to introduce Berlin’s emerging powerhouse, HEAVY METAL. With this astonishing first full-length, HEAVY METAL crash through 13 tracks of noisy, antisocial, high-tension punk, eagerly mixing electric punk aggression with woozy electronic euphoria. The songwriting, which hits that sweet spot between rudimentary racket and surreal elaboration, brings the band’s restlessness to the forefront—they could break out into dance or a fight at any minute, everything sounds possible. No sense is left on the cutting room floor; instead, the clamoring drums, buzzing bass and snappy riffs are cut with catchy synths, bountiful pedal action and an exploding cocktail of bleeps, loops, samples and solos. This ticked off diversity shines on multiple, rewarding occasions. Single-ready “Don’t Call Me Brother,” with its kaleidoscopic synths and old-school beat, is a bona fide dance floor pleaser despite its antagonizing lyrical content, and “Staring at the Rich Kids” is an instant classic, a stomping class critique that could have easily been found on a Bullshit Detector comp circa 1979. Yet it is bonus track, “Total Bullshit,” that flawlessly showcases the creative menace found in the wake of their nihilism. A joyride of shambolic punk, with a frustrated Welshman spitting wit and sarcasm into the microphone, “LP” could be the circumstantial soundtrack to a weeklong drug binge, going through all the motions to match, including ecstasy, hysteria, hostility and an uncontrollable, primitive urge to fight and fuck. And by recording everything themselves, HEAVY METAL’s already bizarre sound is pushed further into the delightfully deranged corners of their collective potential. An intoxicating stream of consciousness, “LP” was recorded in their Lichtenberg practice space and mastered by the wizard of sonic chiaroscuro Daniel Husayn at North London Bomb Factory, making it sound as unhinged and sardonic as it is distinctively captivating. They’re already working on what is promised to be a much anticipated follow up, so get into it or don’t. Just don’t call ’em brother. ( Lydia )

[engl] German punk provocateurs Heavy Metal are back with a brand new LP and first for Total Punk. Over the last four years Heavy Metal has put out four absolutely essential albums and we are proud as pudding to have them back on the TOTAL PUNK train. Heavy Metal isn't a heavy metal band, Live at the Gas Station isn't a live album (they refuse to even play live), and opener Motorhead has nothing to do with Lemmy or his mole. Such is the audacious and absurd world of Heavy Metal. Leading off with the reverb blanketed JAMC vibing 'Motorhead.' For a band that embraces putting their filthy lint covered stamp on any and all musical genres the soft dreamy touches of the album opener leaves us asking "Has Heavy Metal cut it's hair?" Before you have time to answer, the boys fill the tank, drop the clutch, and kick into the HUBBLIN BUBBLIN 'Motorbike' and rarely let up for the remainder of the LP. Occasionally wandering into the weird and warbled on tracks like 'No Air', 'I Am Something', and the hypnotic lurch of 'Centipede Venom.' However 'V:Live at the Gas Station Fighting the Devil' spends most of its time daring us to herk, jerk, spazz out, and let loose. Party music for party mutants. 100% TOTAL PUNK

[engl] Bloomington, Indiana's HEAVY MOTHER are back with a new EP to kick off 2023. Three new originals follow up nicely on their debut album, 'This Time Around', that came out late last year - a stripped down, r'n'r garage punk extravaganza. Heavy Mother also treat us to dynamite renditions of "The Other Side of This Life" (Fred Neil), "Boogaloo!" (Don Gardner), and the Velvet Underground's "Foggy Notion" featuring a special guest appearance from Craig Bell (Rocket From The Tombs, Mirrors, Saucers). 'Comical Uncertainty' is one heck of a twenty-six minute ride from Indiana's finest rock'n'roll band around!

[engl] Hey kidz, this is yer Uncle Big Dad talkin’ at ya. The staff over at Feel It Records asked if I’d say something about this debut elpee from Heavy Mother. Damn! I remember rumors of a band by that name way back when I was still alive—roamin’ the Deep South and Lower Midwest. This current crop looks a little young to be the same group, if they even existed back then. But I do remember the singer Eddie Flowers when he was a shut-in Alabama weirdo writing for fanzines as a kid in the 70s. So maybe he knew the supposed original Heavy Mother? I dunno. I do know that he went on to make some records with the original proto-punk Gizmos in Bloomington, Indiana. That was like 1976/77, if I remember correctly. And then he had a psychodelik noise improv thing in L.A. called Crawlspace that went on for more decades than I survived. But these other whipper-snappers? They ain’t that old. The guitar player Mark McWhirter and bassist Zack Worcel (aka Chode) were in a long-running Bloomington R&R band called the Cowboys. They even did some stuff for Feel It Records. Mark was also in ABC Gum for a couple years there. And Chode had his own punky trio called the Chud (don’t think they were named after the classic C.H.U.D. flick). On the skins, or drums as you squares call ’em, is Mr. Clarke Joyner. He was in the original Bloomington lineup of Circuit Des Yeux (which I hope translates as Circus Of Y’all) and once blew some sax with Thee Open Sex. Are you bored yet? My coffin’s gettin’ cold—doctor told me to take it easy after I passed away in 1994. This here Heavy Mother debut album—you can only call it “a vinyl” if yer under 30 or mentally deficient—is called THIS TIME AROUND. Does that mean there’s a next time around? Too many questions I can’t answer in my decomposing state. They got some good’uns on here like “I Know There’s No Answer” (not a Beach Boys song) and “Eenie Meenie” (many of their songs seem to be based on nursery rhymes) and “Government Phone” (for all you po’ folks who still got yer Obamaphones). They got a song that pokes fun at billionaire space programs (“Dicks in Space!”) and another about the pandemic lifestyle (“Monkeys and Goats”). Not to mention some real classics like “Louie Louie” and Eddie Holland’s “Leaving Here.” I like ’em all. There are 15 songs—so you got a lot to choose from. These boys got a bunch of influences. The obvious ones are like the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, and the Sonics. But they also dig Gary Stewart’s honky tonk, Mrs. Miller’s classical 60s recordings, and everything Sun Ra ever recorded. Y’know, it’s GOOD! Better than anything I’ve heard since Schoolly D in the 80s. And they smoke some kill, just like he did. You should buy MULTIPLE copies of this Feel It Records release. Then maybe they’ll tour if they can get their guitarist Mark to come back from Mexico. Like the possibly original Heavy Mother from that mythical year of 1972, these Heavy Mothers were legends before they even wrote a song. And like me, they can’t be killed. Now I’m gonna take another toke and go back to sleep. Would you kindly throw some dirt clods on my grave and keep on rockin’? Peace, ya mofos!

[engl] The sixth long play by this uncompromising Finnish hardcore unit. 13 tracks from half a minute long thrash blasts to 7 minute long noise drones.

[engl] Fast hardcore punk with definitely a twist of their own

[engl] 20+ years old hardcore thrashers getting angrier and faster. 20 minutes of no bullshit.