New releases last two weeks: Punk/Hardcore

Review: Hailing from London's East End, there's few Oi-punk outfits who were as quintessential or authentic as The 4-Skins. While only releasing a small handful of albums with their definitive 80s line up, this live/demo/unreleased cuts compilation offers an aural fly-on-the-wall experience of being confronted with their signature brand of seething anti-authoritarian, anti-police brutality, anti-fascist, football loving, skinhead sporting, Doc Marten stomping punk in real time. Packed with cuts pulled from radio sessions, Bumper sessions, demos and even two tracks from a previously unreleased 7" 45, including the ska-punk-inflected 'Seems To Me'; offering a more subdued side to the OG Skins than most long-time fans would be accustomed to.

Review: The latest reissued compilation of 4 Skins' greatest works contains the hits and misses of the band at the height of the oi! era, which evolved in tandem with their breakout success and helped them along more than a fair little. From the opening jump of 'One Law For Them' and 'Evil', twin charges of unrelenting chant-punk and brawly sonic brashness, to the latter-siders 'A.C.A.B.' and 'I Don't Wanna Die', as well as a second Bumper Session of 'Evil', this retrospective harks back to a distinct early 80s subculture - as well as a band who, in their concern for police brutality and social injustice, defy common misconceptions of skinheads as all bad.

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Review: A live double album 2xCD + DVD combo from our sugar-coated punk heroes Buzzcocks, recorded at London's iconic Shepherds Bush Empire in 2003 whilst promoting their self-titled comeback album. Boasting new cuts from said LP such as 'Jerk', 'Wake Up Call', and, 'Driving You Insane', peppered amongst essential classics like 'I Don't Mind', 'Fast Cars', 'Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't Have)?' and 'I Don't Know What to Do with My Life', this iteration of the group featured Tony Barber on bass and Philip Barker on drums, accompanying the late great Pete Shelley and the now-bandleader Steve Diggle. 32 doses of saccharine hooks, fuzzy guitars and powerpop punk beauty transmitted from over two decades ago directly to your ear canals.

Review: Recorded live at Shepherds Bush Empire in 2003, this exhilarating double album showcases Buzzcocks in top form, blasting through 32 of their iconic punk anthems. With key early and founding members Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle on guitar and vocals, along with Tony Barber on bass and Philip Barker on drums, the energy is palpable across the entire setlist. Now available on double vinyl and with a bonus DVD featuring the full concert, interviews with Pete and Steve, sound check footage, and more, this is a must-have for fans and it offers a thrilling glimpse into the raw power and enduring influence of one of punk rock's most pioneering bands.

Review: Self-described "putrid, drug-fueled gutter rock from the filthy streets of NYC", Couch Slut deal in ugliness, and boy is business a-boomin'! Meshing the most challenging facets of grindcore, hardcore punk, noise rock and black metal, the resulting cacophony is as unpleasant as it is impenetrable, yet the commanding presence of vocalist and primary songwriter Megan Osztrosits demands you suffer the audible torment while she details harrowing depictions of sexual violence, drug abuse and more singular inner-city horrors through subversive, vitriolic and grimly humoured phrases. Working with industrial hardcore manglers Uniform's Ben Greenberg (with previous production credits for Drab Majesty, Portrayal of Guilt, Metz), You Could Do It Tonight marks the fourth overall full-length from the group, and utterly refuses to dilute or smoothen their ethos of audibly healing through pain, or just pain for the fuck of it.

Review: Daisy Chainsaw commanded a unique spell over the English punk and garage rock scenes of the early 90s. Never quite totally placeable, their earliest gigs involved frolicking around onstage in soiled gowns and strewing rag dolls and grapevines across stages. Forming part of their debut EP at the turn of the '90s, 'Love Your Money' became the bands breakout sensation hit, the song being a satirical rip-roarer of snarling punk and rockabilly, with a highly-strung backbeat and lyrics decrying the record industry's avaricious ways; PSA to artists, they just love your money, or the money they think they can make off you!

Review: Around the mid-nineties, pioneering gothic punks The Damned would see a resurgence in interest thanks to both Guns N Roses covering 'New Rose' for their The Spaghetti Incident? covers LP, as well as The Offspring's rendition of 'Smash It Up' being included on the Batman Forever soundtrack. These simultaneous introductions to a younger audience (whilst possibly also a reminder to forgetful fans), coincided with the band's second reformation, where they boasted the short-lived line up of Dave Vanian and Rat Scabies joined by Kris Dollimore (The Godfathers), Moose (New Model Army), and Alan Lee Shaw (Maniacs). Shadowed Tales From Mulhouse captures this iteration of the band during a 1994 live show in Mulhouse, France, where they would road-test cuts from the following year's Not Of This Earth, including 'Testify', 'Shut It', and the gloomy title-track, while also dusting off plenty of essentials from their back catalogue from 'Neat Neat Neat' to 'Noise Noise Noise' to a cover of their Sex Pistols peers' 'Pretty Vacant'.

Review: With the arrival of 1987's Death Before Dishonour, Edinburgh punk legends The Exploited began to distance themselves from their pre-established oi/street punk demeanour, and move towards a far heavier, speed metal-inflected crossover thrash style of hardcore punk; a direction they would continue to pursue throughout the 90s. Following a six-year gap after 1990's The Massacre, 1996 would see the group return with easily the best LP from their latter-day output, Beat The Bastards. Packed to the brim with seething, feral bangers such as 'Law Tor The Rich', 'System Fucked Up', and 'Massacre Of Innocents', this new splattered vinyl double LP pressing comes courtesy of the wonderful folks over at Nuclear Blast who've worked to beautifully restore and reissue the band's heaviest final three albums ever since signing them back in 2021.

Review: Since signing The Exploited in 2021, iconic metal/punk label Nuclear Blast have gone to lengths to reissue the three latest albums from the legendary Edinburgh oi-punks, who by the arrival of 1987's Death Before Dishonour, had moved towards an even more aggressive form of crossover thrash hardcore. This direction would continue to be pursued throughout their 90s output, with The Massacre in 1990, Beat The Bastards in 1996 and most recently (although 21 years and counting currently) 2003's vicious statement of latter-day intent Fuck The System. Coming seven years after its predecessor as well as marking the band's seventh overall full-length, it's the only album to date to feature guitarist Robbie Davidson and bassist Mikie Jacobs, while the project and its subsequent tour cycle would be marred in controversy due to the band being refused entry into Montreal, Canada in October 2003. This led to the cancellation of the show and a full scale riot of 500 fans smashing windows and destroying cars, ultimately leading to their Mexico City date also being cancelled for safety reasons. Is it really shocking to imagine that's how The Exploited's fans would react when they felt that burned? Juno don't condone, we're just not that surprised.

Review: Following on from their 1980 debut full-length No Questions Asked, the very next year would see Los Angeles based punk legends The Flesh Eaters unveil what many a fan considers to be, not only their magnum opus but one of the finest punk experiments ever contributed to the scene. A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die purposefully eschewed the breakneck pace of the expanding hardcore scene to channel outsider influences from the likes of swampy, Bayou-inflected roots rock to spasmodic jazz dirges to blues-laden malevolence. With depraved B-movie horror tales of violence and religious scandal; ultimately weaving a lyrical tapestry of the underbelly of LA, punk poet prophet Chris Desjardins immortalised himself as a commanding vocal presence with the type of penmanship to hypnotise, disgust and enthral.

Review: Japanese industrial noise duo The Grogerigegege are something of an urban legend within the underground music scene. Apparently meeting at a sex club where a shared appreciation for envelope pushing sex acts, punishing aural sonics and a bizarre avant-garde perspective on art would lock them together for ensuing decades of musical mayhem. Known for incorporating nudity, violence, broken glass and hoovers into their live set, the pair would even take a lengthy respite while one of the members simply disappeared for years on end before reconnecting with his counterpart. As If It Had Always Been Determined Since This Day Was Born transports listeners back to the pair's earliest forays into calculated extremity with blown out, overdriven remixes taken directly from the master tapes of their first 7" single released back in 1988. This includes the long sought after remaster of 'Mistress' originally used in the legendary Enoshima Beach Flexi Burning Live (which the pair opted to burn all original pressings of rather than make readily available). You do have to remember these are the same lads who sold dried out octopus tentacles in cassette cases during one tour as a limited release, and smashed up the master recording of another work and put the broken pieces in a metallic box that the listener shook to hear the album, hence the title You Are The Music Maker. If the utter lunacy of The Grogerigegege isn't detailed enough here, well this pressing comes complete with 5500 word essay-style liner notes penned by 55 year old Gero himself (Juntaro Yamanouchi).

Review: It would take the current state of the world to awaken seasoned Boston based hardcore punk veterans The Hope Conspiracy from their slumber. The aptly titled Confusion/Chaos/Misery serves as the first piece of new material from the group since their 2009 True Nihilist EP, and offers a feral barrage of unhinged, D-beat inspired scathing hardcore fury. Whilst the members have kept busy in a myriad of equally impressive projects such as All Pigs Must Die, Hesitation Wounds, and Paint It Black (to name but a small handful), time felt fitting for them to regroup with Converge's Kurt Ballou at the iconic God City Studios to lay down this sonic curbstomp of a return, complete with a vicious cover of 'Dogfight' by Swedish crust-punk legends Anti Cimex as closer. And according to the band's website/press release - "this is just the beginning..."

Review: Originally founded by former members of Youth Of Today and Gorilla Biscuits, Judge would become another legendary example of the 1980s New York hardcore scene, with their 1989 Bringin' It Down LP widely considered to be one of the most vital cornerstones. At the dawn of 1990, a year on from their album release and a year before their official disbanding, the group dropped the There Will Be Quiet 7", boasting two of their most monstrous cuts, 'Forget This Time' and 'The Storm II', and now for the first time in over three decades, their ever-faithful label-home Revelation Records have authentically reissued the OG 7" single for both lifers who've likely parted ways with their copy, and newcomers still unearthing the plethora of classic material that built the bedrock for the scene's current moment in the sun. Militant straight-edge hardcore, delivered with beastly metallic riffs and a message so earnest, sincere and palpable, it'll convert you if you're not careful.

Review: Born To Expire is the debut album by New York City band Leeway. Renowned as leaders of the crossover thrash charge in the mid 1980s, the local fountainhead, their early-days genius, was none other than that exalted club of legend, CBGB. Though the bands they ran with saw them as odd ones out for their originality - it was indeed their sweats that led to the coinage 'crossover thrash' at all - it was this very incongruence that saw to their popularity. In hindsight, lead guitarist and songwriter A.J. Novello described his delight at the album's success, boastful of its totally metallic sound and the one that "rewrote the book on New York hardcore".

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Review: The Minneapolis Uranium Club Band's Infants Under The Bulb album is an engaging journey through unbridled punk creativity and raw guitar energy. Released amidst their hometown's vibrant underground scene, the album defies categorisation in the way it blends elements of punk, post-punk and experimental rock. With relentless rhythms, angular guitar riffs and cryptic lyrics, each track unfolds in heavy and arresting fashion and the band's unconventional approach and uncompromising attitude challenge listeners to embrace the unconventional throughout this most visceral of albums.

Review: Contemporary D.C. punk gets another run for its money with this seven-year anniversary of No Man's 'Glitter And Spit' EP. Emerging from the city's punk scene with the collective voracity of a starved vat of piranhas, the four-piece band came together amid the fallout of prior project Majority Rule, albeit with a similar set of musical-political aims. The EP evidences No Man's sound as huge and clunking, thanks to the nearly slowcore-esque drums and guitars of Pat Broderick and Kevin Lamiell (in its slower moments, at least), yet coming fronted by a toothy, harpish snarl by vocalist Matt Michel, backed up by guest vocalist Maha Shami on one track. The faster moments are monumentally cathartic and powerful; this is by far one of the most intense punk records we've heard all year so far, carrying enough home-headbang potential to evince many a rageful family moshpit from the sound alone, let alone the commentary over the Israeli-Palestine conflict it also bears.

Review: Though soliciting some confusion as to whether it was written in 1977 or 2023, Pleasants' latest sonic gut-jab Rocanrol In Mono is a raw and toothy nostalgic throwback. Recorded in its entirety by frontman Al Uminium on four-track cassette, this whirlwind of an album revels in the unserious and fleeting, squashing every blues lick, top-reg solo and/or drum line under flattening walls of compression that nonetheless allow for much hilarity and dynamism and finding joy in the little things in life ('Loose Change', 'Interwebs', Rubix Cube').

Review: Originally released in 2017, In Riot We Trust is the second of two studio albums so far released by feminist protest group Pussy Riot, whose provocative punk regularly takes potshots at Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his regime. Since 2011, the Moscow band founded by then-22-year-old Nadya Tolokonnikova has had the membership of 11 women, who are arguably most well known for their guerrilla gigs and stunts, often in sites of national, cultural, or religious significance. Despite the real focus of the group being on speaking out against issues such as Russia's ingrained sexism, homophobia, and racism, totalitarian rule and oppression of rights, and the limelight falling on their IRL actions, this is more than enough evidence that their rage and talent can be distilled onto record to some degree. Potent to say the least.

Review: Serving as a self-analysed response to 1998's ska and reggae-oriented Life Won't Wait, as well as growing criticisms that the band were slowly morphing into some form of Diet The Clash, punk legends Rancid would come to cave skulls at the turn of the new millennium with their second self-titled LP (after their 1993 debut), with many fans referring to the project as Rancid (2000) or simply Rancid 5. Reuniting with Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion to handle production duties (a collaborative role he has maintained with the group ever since), the project easily serves as the most aggressive offering in their entire catalogue, drawing on elements of hardcore and Oi! and imbuing them into their established ska-punk formula, moving far away from any Clash comparisons, and sharing more of a sonic kinship with the type of aggy, scuzzy, brassless hardcore ska of Choking Victim. At 22 tracks spread out over a near-40 minute runtime, you do the chaotic math.

Review: Amidst the global pandemic, Dead Rebellion marked a milestone for Strung Out's 35-year journey. The album embodies a mid-tempo heaviness, prioritizing melody over speed, reflecting societal issues and personal struggles in our technology-driven world. 'Cages,' the lead single, balances melodic and heavy elements while delivering a poignant message. Dead Rebellion symbolizes the band's resilience and evolution amidst challenging times, showcasing their musical prowess and thematic depth.

Review: Among the earliest wave of English punk's first wave were UK Subs, notably formed in 1976. Fronted on vocals by Charlie Harper, the band enjoyed a whopping career beginning with their debut album in 1979, in stark contrast to the flash-in-the-pan nature of many of their peers. New compilation Fear To Go! compiles the bulk of the band's rarities and B-sides, capturing the Subs' distinctive melodies, pop-out shreddings and lugubrious but somehow still lively lyrics.

Review: A bumper crop of oddities and deep cuts from UK Subs' bountiful back catalogue. From opener- a bizarre cover of Khachaturian's 'Sabre Dance' to 'NRA Jingle' a charmingly cringe jingle for Bay Area's New Red Archives label, the subs show their diversity, with the almost Cramps-esque warble of tracks like 'Motivator' giving way to the borderline emo thrash of 'Postcard from LA' and the outright weirdness of jangly sketches like 'Nico'. Definitely a must for any UK Subs enthusiast looking to triangulate the band's more well-known works!