[engl] The first two singles from North Carolina's Brain FäŠæ left a lot of people scratching their heads: Is it garage? Is it hardcore? (It's definitely punk.) How did they write such catchy riffs? How do you pronounce "FäŠæ?" Brain FäŠæ's debut long player, Sleep Rough, will force you to ponder those same questions and may breed even more (and we mean that in the best way possible). Everything has been amped up for this release... the hard stuff is harder, the catchy stuff is catchier (oh, is it catchy!), and the weird stuff is weirder. There's no need for band comparisons, but if you're into that sort of thing then imagine the SAINTS' minds in TEENGENERATE and the AVENGERS' bodies sent to a dystopian future. Really, though, this sounds like the year 2011; if you like huge guitars, endless vocal hooks, and a turbo-charged rhythm section (you do), then you need to hear this record.

[engl] Chicago’s Broken Prayer burst onto the scene in 2013 with one of the freshest and most original sounds in the punk scene, combining full-bore hardcore, jittery synth-punk, and a dark pop sensibility into a blend that, while not exactly seamless, is nothing if not distinctive. Two years later and they’ve delivered a follow-up record that proves they’re still one of the most exciting bands around, embracing originality, modernity, and earnestness where so many bands are content with a detached and ironic retro sensibility. Stylistically, Misanthropocentric continues along the lines of the first LP but pushes at the boundaries of the band’s sound, making the hard parts harder, the noisy parts noisier, and the catchy parts even catchier. Through the din Scott Plant’s brilliant lyrics remain the centerpiece; I can’t think of a single other current punk lyricist who can be so direct and blunt without ever descending into cliche. As you can probably tell, I think quite a lot of Misanthropocentric, and if you’re the kind of listener who is both musically adventurous and a committed punk lifer I think you will too.

[engl] Sorry State presents the first release from Chaos OK, a new band featuring Nick Goode (from Logic Problem, Brain Flannel, and Joint D?) on guitar and vocals, another Sorry State alumnus in Corey Long (drummer of the almighty Bukkake Boys,) and Eric from Atlanta's mysterious and elusive Loverman project. Nick’s expressionistic guitar style, informed equally by Hendrix, Kawakami, and the guy from Tampax, warmly returns to the label throughout these five tracks. The torrent of feedback and treble on the opener, “a rithm,” instantly recalls Joint D? at their most explosive; now fused with Corey & Eric's crushing rhythms, we're gifted an acutely weaponized bombast. While the tape starts with a hailstorm of chaotic energy, the latter three tracks brood, swerve, surge, and seethe, the cycles of tension and release as powerful and inevitable as the weather (the leather). Songs about seeing the trees for the forest—the brutally xeroxed repetition of the dissolving future, templated expression, grotesque oversaturation, when what used to excite you does not. Lamentations of the modern dance, the sounds of smuggling punk with you into your late 30s. As in their past projects, these guys continue to machete their way through the thickets, hungrily stumbling onto weird and new directions in raging, articulate hardcore.

[engl] When a hardcore band ventures beyond the 2-5 year lifespan typical of the genre they’re treading into largely uncharted territory, and as a result Dark Ages’ latest LP sounds like little in the canon of fast, 80s-inspired hardcore. Which isn’t to say that they’ve changed their approach; this is still fast, tight US hardcore inspired by the midwest classics, but after five years of woodshedding they’ve managed to excise anything that feels cliche, familiar, or obvious from these songs. Captured with an absolutely stunning, fully analogue recording, Vapor is that rare record that is at the same time visceral and cerebral, constantly surprising you while still making you want to mosh, circle pit, or whatever it is that you do. If you’re a huge fan of Articles of Faith’s Give Thanks LP or you wish that Die Kreuzen had recorded an LP that fused the energy of their first LP with the progressivism of October File, then let me introduce you to your new favorite record.

[engl] After a scorching demo and three standout contributions to the American Idylls compilation, Sorry State is proud to present the debut release from Raleigh, North Carolina’s Das Drip. When Das Drip went to record with Kris Hilbert at Legitimate Business studio in Greensboro, North Carolina, they told him they wanted their record to sound like Government Issue’s Legless Bull EP. While it does sound a lot like the explosive snot-punk of early GI’s (as well as hormone overdoses like Gang Green’s This is Boston Not LA tracks or Negazione’s Tutti Pazzi EP), no one will mistake this for retro rehash. Most of Das Drip is double the age of your typical Teen Idle, and they’ve spent those years listening to and playing a lot more than just hardcore. Which isn’t to say this is “mature” either; after all, how can you call a record “mature” when its catchiest lyrics are “tapeworm hanging out your butt?” Most hardcore bands’ attempts to articulate rage and angst look like a three year old’s temper tantrum next to Das Drip’s debut, which is wilder, faster, crazier, and more intense than pretty much anything you can toss at it. Maybe Das Drip is for people who don’t like hardcore anymore because of the macho attitudes, unimaginative tunes, uninspired playing, or any number of other valid reasons. Really, though this record is perfect for anyone who wants the opposite of a Spotify playlist with the word “chill” in the title.

[engl] After two 7”s (one on Deranged and one on Sorry State), Raleigh, North Carolina's Davidians deliver their first 12” record. Realizing the sound hinted at on their previous two-song single, City Trends combines elements of art-punk and hardcore into one of the freshest and most distinctive sounds in contemporary punk. While Davidians pick up on various threads in punk’s 40-year history—the pulse and heaviness of 90s noise rock, the quirky rhythms of the Wire branch of post-punk’s family tree, the brooding atmosphere of goth, and the velocity and concision of early 80s US hardcore—these elements are fully digested, growing organically out of the sound of four people of varying ages and backgrounds playing in a room together. Rather than just referencing other parts of my record collection, for me listening to City Trends reminds me of a time of discovery, when every new band I found was a universe unto themselves ripe for exploring. With this record, the RIYL is rendered obsolete… you either like Davidians, or you don’t. But if you like smart, dense, and original punk rock then I’m pretty sure you’re going to like it a lot.

[engl] Raleigh, North Carolina's Devour were born from the ashes of Cross Laws, but rather than simply picking up where that band left off, the remaining members expanded to a 5-piece and followed the long southern tradition of adding traces of metal into our hardcore. What emerged was a record that is remarkably dense and complex, recalling the very best of the mid-80s trend of hardcore bands "going metal;" think Corrosion of Conformity's Animosity LP, Final Conflict's Ashes to Ashes and Septic Death's Need So Much Attention. There's also a heavy Japanese influence; people who have seen Devour live have compared them to Judgment, Lip Cream and Bastard, a connection only made clearer by this record's astonishingly heavy and powerful recording. In a scene where so many bands simply want to replicate something that has already happened, Devour sound remarkably fresh and progressive, and without losing a single thing you loved about hardcore in the first place.

[engl] Excessive Cruelty is a new band featuring key players from the Bay Area’s Strung Up, who were simultaneously one of the best-regarded and most underrated bands of the explosion of early 80s-style US hardcore in the early 2000s. If you’re smart enough to be familiar with Strung Up’s catalog (and if you’re not… do your homework!), you’ll be pleased to know that the blisteringly fast rhythms, complex riffing, gruff vocals and literate, socially aware lyrics are still very much present in Excessive Cruelty’s sound. You can also hear a touch of thrash and crossover influence here—which makes sense given that guitarist Dan Randall spent many of the intervening years since Strung Up disbanded playing in Ghoul—but like Dealing with It-era DRI or American Paranoia-era Attitude Adjustment, this is hardcore with metallic elements and not the other way around. Any way you slice it, though, this 12” delivers 6 blistering dispatches of pure rage and energy.

[engl] New Age Record, the debut vinyl from North Carolina’s Fitness Womxn. Adding a synth player since their earlier cassette-only release, Macho City (Acid Etch Records), New Age Record finds one of North Carolina’s most enigmatic and exciting bands delivering on the promise of their three contributions to the American Idylls compilation earlier this year. While Fitness Womxn’s grooving post-punk / no wave-informed music might remind you of any number of historical antecedents, they don’t have the studied air of historical reenactors. Instead, their music is of the moment, not only addressing the complications, tragedies, and absurdities of post-modern life in their lyrics, but also sounding like a fleeting lightning-strike of energy, imagination, and possibility. Like the Raincoats or early Public Image, Ltd, Fitness Womxn’s songs sound like dangerous alchemical reactions, influences and emotions and ideas sometimes swirling around one another hypnotically, sometimes exploding like droplets of water hitting hot oil. For all of its ambition, though, New Age Record is as exhilarating as it is challenging, with more than enough moments of catchiness and danceability to keep you flipping it over and over.

[engl] After a few outstanding cassettes on the Stucco and Impotent Fetus imprints, Sorry State presents the first vinyl from Olympia, Washington’s Fugitive Bubble. While Fugitive Bubble’s raw production, hyperactive drumming, and ragged delivery root them in the world of DIY punk and hardcore, their music hearkens back to a time when hardcore’s boundaries weren’t so clear. The faster bands on Dangerhouse—Rhino 39, the Eyes, the Bags—are an obvious reference point since Fugitive Bubble shares those groups’ scratchy guitar sounds and big chorus hooks. But Fugitive Bubble also evokes classic punk in their willingness to push at the edges of their sound with moments like the wistful closing section of the otherwise furious “Chicken Head,” the brooding “Magic Switch” (which has shades of Paganicons-era Saccharine Trust), and “Motorcycle Slop,” the evocative instrumental that closes Delusion. Fugitive Bubble’s music is suffused with the thrill of discovery, their loose yet assured delivery gluing everything together as they explore a wide range of musical moods and colors, particularly for a 45rpm 12” operating primarily at blistering tempos. With Delusion, Fugitive Bubble will win over anyone who loves great songs played fast and wild.

[engl] Nashville, Tennessee’s G.U.N. roars onto vinyl with their debut full-length for Sorry State. Hearkening back to the glory days of the early No Way, Grave Mistake, and Sorry State catalogs—the band features two members of No Way Records’ Life Trap—G.U.N. lives where the hardcore underground meets the criminal underworld. While G.U.N.’s music evokes Koro’s lightning-speed intricacy and the Adolescents’ surfy hooks, the lyrics describe a sick, sad world that takes Black Flag’s “No Values” as philosophical truth, imbuing G.U.N.’s sound with a palpable sense of desperation. Charismatic vocalist Nico Arambatzis can summon Damaged-era Henry’s primal howl one second, then in the next hit a magical note that transforms a song into an anthem, pushing standout tracks like “A Prisoner’s Tale,” “Sadist Faction,” and the epic closer “Sick Sad World” well beyond your standard bash-and-crash. Guitarist Connor Cummins (whom you might know from his other projects Snooper and Spodee Boy) is similarly dynamic, crafting whirlwind riffs and leads that are as powerful and as unpredictable as afternoon thunderstorms in the sticky southern summer. It all adds up to a classic-sounding hardcore punk record bursting with energy and dripping with hooks.

[engl] Brand new 4-song 7” from this Arizona powerhouse. Every time I listen to Gay Kiss my mind is boggled that a band can sound so uniformly heavy and aggressive, yet simultaneously so original. While their previous LP on Sorry State, Preservation Measures, was a real achievement, these four new songs take things even further into the depths, fusing hardcore, riff-driven noise rock, and a hint of industrial music into one of the most distinctive and gripping sounds out there. While their intricate songwriting can take a handful of listens to decode, once your ear is acclimated you quickly realize that each one contains enough memorable parts to sustain an entire record by your typical hardcore band. However, Gay Kiss won’t just hand it to you, they’ll make you work for it, pushing yourself as a listener in the same way they’ve continued to press forward relentlessly as a band. If you like the heavy, intense, and forward-thinking hardcore of bands like Bad Breeding, the Lowest Form, or Nasa Space Universe you’ll want to check this EP immediately, then acquaint yourself with Gay Kiss’s equally impressive back catalog.

[engl] Tadzio Pederzolli from KOMPLOTT and SEMPRE PEGGIO managed to keep expectations high and deliver an amazingly fresh D-beat-infused hardcore record. It’s great to see punk bands that use their political views as weapons against ignorance and prejudice, as not many bands these days talk openly about their beliefs. Just head on over to his Bandcamp and grab a shirt, with proceeds going to Brigate Volontarie. Everything about this record screams activism and solidarity. This is what punk is supposed to be.

[engl] Both of Hüstler’s cassette releases for Sorry State Records sold out almost instantly, so compiling those two cassettes for Hüstler’s first vinyl record was a no-brainer. Hüstler burst through the gate on their first tape with one of the most distinctive voices in the contemporary underground, smashing together elements of punk, death rock, and metal into a sound that is both anthemic and intense. Their second tape only upped the ante, widening their stylistic scope while leaning into the crowd-pleasing choruses and mosh parts. We’re very proud to present Hüstler’s early years on the format that matters.

[engl] Featuring members of Philly heavyweights like Fuckin’ Lovers and Poison Ruin, ICD10 sounds like they’ve soaked up 40 years of hardcore history and are sweating it out into a battered denim jacket covered in rusted studs and faded band logos. Swirling around ICD10’s tornado of noise, I hear the anthemic anarcho-hardcore of Final Conflict and the Iconoclast, the total noise approach of 80s Kyushu punk, the off-kilter artiness of early 2010s New York, and Gudon’s marriage of heaviness and musicality. ICD10’s vocals are bathed in noise and effects, but rather than the uniform delay effect most hardcore bands employ, there are a range of effects that sometimes cascade across the manic riffing and sometimes lock in with it, creating jagged looping effects that evoke a crumbling technological dystopia. Lyrically, ICD10 combines Crass’s political astuteness with Poison Idea’s nihilism; the world is fucked, the system is rigged, and the only momentary respite is in tasting the void. Faith in Institutions is an unrelentingly bleak record, but it channels its hopelessness into an original and compelling take on hardcore punk.