NUCLEAR SPRING DISCOGRAPHY

The complete discography of overlooked US snots Nuclear Spring, released on cassette by Doomtown. Members of this band played in and went on to join CREEM, Ajax, La Misma, NOMOS and others, their pedigree sound capturing a perfect nexus of influence between very early Punk Rock and US Hardcore that makes for irresistibly simple songcraft and burly, hard edged fury. Single note Guitar lines scramble for consonance, crusher chords minimalist and brimming with slashing power, Bass and Drums interlock and rock in march stepping, melodious haste, each mostly mid-paced song covered in dude croons, wails and yowls from one male/one female voice, both possessed of sophomoric rage and youthful enthusiasm. Virulently catchy, loud and vituperative, burning with life and incensed at unequal social outcome, and informed by scenes like UK82 and even a little streak of Oi, Nuclear Spring is positively ion charged with Punk Rock power. Rips beginning to end.

Doomtown Records

THANATOPSIS – ‘DEFLESHED IN EXCREMENTS’

Thanatopsis’ 2010 demo/EP ‘Defleshed In Excrements’, an all-too-short gorging of ecstatically, hideously decayed Goregrind excellence. I first became aware of this international project reading through A. Ringdahl/Hyperemesis’s interview on the now deceased Braindead Zine, and seeking out their excellent split together. Properly putrefied and shambolic, caste of dread deadly Death and Grind riffing and brief blasting noisy song structure, clotted rictus drumming ridden with filth and stench, vocal of the decomposed roars and wretches with agonising pitch shifted putrefaction, each odious sound captured in obscure, gutterbloated 4 track-sounding tape. Exceptionally raw, filthy, punk as fuck Goregrind from corporeal degeneration and morbid biological disgust.  Aside from their massively overlooked full-length ‘Stages Of Decomposition’, this is my favourite Thanatopsis material. Exhume and consume, ghouls.

No Physical Productions

VICTIMS PANEL – ‘SHOW THEM’

Jay Tichy of SIDETRACKED infamy conjures a torrid steely stomp of Black Punk Metal, deeply indebted to Bone Awl and Ildjarn’s bastard lineage but with a myopic locus of influence within Hardcore – searing bleached white Black Metal scaffolded by very reductive stiff stomper beats, slashes of fuzzed, crumpled Guitars form ugly, brooding angles across the eyes, bellowed brooding vocal exhalations atop. Vicious and wicked. Like a foul bilious conjuration of influence between Negative FX, Tinner and Sump. I do feel that the devotional brevity for which Jay is known in his various projects is a little misplayed here, some of these ideas might work slightly better or land harder with a bit more room to breathe, but no matter. This is still a total starching.

Damien Records

FAUCHEUSE SELF TITLED

Faucheuse delivers a falcon uppercut to the jaw with their self titled demo, a bruising serenade of masterful Hardcore Punk. Bloody streaks of violent Rock & Roll guitars peal out outrageously uplifting, blazing consonant melody, slashing atop a steel horse of absolutely battering tumbling drums and torqued Bass rhythm section in extra-tight lockstep, and energised to everlovin’ fuck with furious vocal of desperation and power, with banging, bright, scruffy production. Faucheuse manages to explore lots of ideas here, playing with some more spare dynamics amid the torrent of fury, squeezing these tracks full of memorable hooks, mid-to-fast tempos and intriguing, uplifting melody, detouring into R&R mayhem drenched in dulcet lead work before plummeting back into ‘adult oriented d-beat’ aplomb. Makes me want to throw cops off a building. This is yet another band I’ve checked out from hearing them on Demolisten, recommended to hosts Grey and Nate by Tyler Hammer of the Kings Of Punk Podcast. Both pods are completely indispensable, bastions of correct opinion and perspective amidst a sea of Punk/Metal cultural ‘commentary’ youtube neophyte bullshit. I recommend subscribing to both immediately.

Bandcamp

C.O.F.F.I.N. – ‘AUSTRALIA STOPS’

The latest full length album from Children Of Finland Fighting In Norway. C.O.F.F.I.N plays a firebrand shitstorm of Garage Rock, Punk, Hardcore and Rock & Roll, potent beyond decency and seriously combustible. They combine these elements with masterly drunken aplomb, songs careening through Oi stomp to Blues to dusty ol’ piano Glam and back, presenting a cohesive boogie bogan gumbo of redneck power! Catchy as fuck, bright and burning Guitars with wicked licks, impressive and dare I say subtle Bass work imbuing power and harmony to the already greasy gorgeous axe work, and hard as fukk workhorse drumming with loads of swagger, topped with throaty and gruffly melodious vocal delights, a brash bastardry of all manner of hard rock styles resulting in toothless grinning mayhem. Ultra Posi, ultra pissed up and ready to dance or fight, your choice cunt. My mind is far too disordered to usually commit to a best of the year type deal, but I can fucken tell yous now that ‘Cut You Off’ is the best single I’ve heard this year, and probably last year too. Oath.

Bad Vibrations Records

ISMATIC GURU – ‘II’

Lo-fi liminal Post Punk weirdness polarity swing from the mad creative forces behind Science Man/Swimming Faith Records and Clump/Steak and Cake records. Razorwire taut, amphetaminic funky, cute little less-than-2 minute post punk no wave numbers dripping with pungent outsider swagger, hopped up on nitrous oxide and god knows what else. Gurning loopy badass crooner vocal commands the routine, a throb of cocky Bass lines saunter and groove beneath tongue lash treble guitars, cumulatively tapping out complex, intricate typewriter riffs and chord girdered to thin metronomic drums riddled with details and danger. Dynamic, melodious, minimalist brilliance. There’s an air of the likes of Minutemen or James chance and the Contortions, though neither of these references truly signposts the weirdo sounds within. Get into it!

Swimming Faith Records

VARIOUS ARTISTS – ‘CADAVER MONUMENTS’

Banger 4 way split (sorry Andy, compilation) out on wax by Totem Cat Records in France, with each band loaded with un-reformable lifers. Malcontent sour Noise Rock, misanthropic Sludge and forlorn Doom sharing label/tape/board space, killing beers and stinking up the joint something heavy, Man’s Ruin/Shifty/Rage of Achilles style. -(16)- ploughs into their lumbering skate shunt Hardcore crush and downer Alt Sludge Rock scowl, leaning into waxed punk deadweight fury and austere, downer groove of scapegoathood, spots of clean vocal detailing personal tribulations. They never miss. Deadbird glowers and grieves in plodding, prideful Heavy Metal Doom reminiscent of Maryland titans The Obsessed with a dash of that Peaceville 3 sou(r)nd, here occupying the most wax (i think) and sticking out from their split peers with a mournful, heartbroken dirge into grandiose galloping original with falling Icarus lead work, and a pitch perfect Celtic Frost cover. Then Nightstick shift things down a gear or 4 into gibbering psychedelic sledge rock, nightmare fuel greyscale repeater psych that clowns would fear and Larry Lifeless(or Mark E Smith for that matter) would be ever so proud of. Slumped, inert and disturbed Noise Rock, barely cogent and sloughing out of time in their downtuned solo soaked abandon, freewheeling into occasionally tight-as-fuck blues drenched lucidity. Bad vibes. Fistula bring things to an anvil close with corpulent, stomping anti social Sludgecore that will rip your fucking arms off. Lumpy spiky chords, rumbling syrup Bass and leaden drumming, adorned with seriously spiteful, mental harsh vocal, drawing down the moon of Morrow and conjuring the fucking demon. Indispensable, particularly with that seriously silly/seriously fucking cool album cover.

Totem Cat Records

ELEPHANT MAN BEHIND THE SUN – ‘COLLECTED TRACKS’

EMBTS was James F. Tarr, a legendary lo fi Gore/Noisecore project which may be known to you if you, like me, spent much of the late 00’s and the 10’s seeking out Grind, Gore and Noise across a plethora of blogspot caches and soulseek profiles. Iconoclastic Noisecore from beyond taste or decency, living contaminant pre-genre Gorenoise formed in radioactive poverty, low tek aqueous shitnoise bubbling with misanthropic rage and psychotic confusions, industrial trash, lo fi smash and grumble, groaning screaming vocal nauseatingly mashed with effects, super raw lo fi savant blasting drums, a massaker of Bass noise crackles and fizzes amidst a deleterious din of unidentifiable source, seemingly recorded on a boombox or 4-track. Mechanically separated gorenoisecore, cultural and social refuse made sonic mass, absolutely crude and resolutely berserk in it’s outsiderness. Along with bands like Anal Birth and Decomposing Serenity, EMBTS forged a new low in acceptability and hostility, a rebuke to civility and consensus wrought in blast beats and home made opprobrium. A singular vision. Be sure to check out this retrospective w/ New Noise and also, take a look at Tarr’s blog Tapes and Poverty. RIP James F. Tarr.

Breathing Problem Productions

SEA OF SHIT SELF TITLED

Chicago’s Sea of Shit triumphantly returns from hiatus with a fearsome self titled full length, a pugilistic expression of brutal Hardcore power. Caustic hammer of grinding Bass, turgid stiff armed anvil blasts, scorched guitars form igneous slabs of lumpen, cudgel Hardcore downers aflame in white hot rage, sludgy feedback drenched and almighty pissed, topped off with a commanding bellowing vocal performance of terrifying volume and hissing spite. There’s extensions and complexities within the songs that represent new ground for Sea of Shit and they nail them fearlessly to their mast, some searing bluesy lead lines, post hardcore leanings in the chording and arrangements, and mindless drooling droner beatdowns only adding to their particularly terse, discourteous Power Violence influenced Hardcore sound, inflecting each dynamic swing of tempo or rhythm with uniquely devastating results. A total smile ruiner.

Nerve Altar

Bandcamp

RAT CAGE – ‘SAVAGE VISIONS’

Rat Cage follow up their incendiary 2020 full length ‘Screams From The Cage’ with rancor and vim, ascending their Hardcore Punk to a plateau of powerfully potent, anthemic riff soaked perfection. An utterly head kicking, tory lumping, chainsawing cut of catchy as fukk Kang mayhem, UK 82 knuckle-up bounce and brusque, teeth rattling Mangel, D-Beat & Anarcho Punk, and Punk Rock &Roll each represented within the face smashing mace strike of desperate, furious Hardcore, a barnstorming hosanna to the dispossessed and downtrodden inmates of brexit Britain, terrified drunken rats with callous smirks in the fukking pit of despair. Darkly anthemic throttling chords and soaring, brazen, blazing 4 note blues crusted leads slammed out with murderous intent, wallowing in thuggish harrying melody, a torrent of saturated drums leaping from fast to fucking fast to doomed plod to stomping mid-paced tumble enmangled with total bulldozer mid bloody Bass, and full throated super pissed violent vocal outcry, a voice of wounded despondence and outrage amidst the fire sale capitalist meltdown of england’s post tory social abattoir. ‘Savage Visions’ careens from fist banging Punk Rock chorus consonance to blank eyed Hardcore chord wall with the verve and swagger of champions, an indispensable masterwork of modern Hardcore Punk. This is England ’23.

La Vida Es En Mus

NAGASAKI SUNRISE – ‘DISTALGIA’

Portugal’s Nagasaki Sunrise loose a firestorm of furiously canorous, uproarious Burning Spirits Hardcore with their first full length ‘Distalgia’. Fusing thuggish, drunken NWOBHM onto mid-to-fast paced brute D Beat mania, summoning a sound of intense melodic war-obsessed Metalpunk triumph and wasted euphoric Hardcore power, auguring their supercharged kamikaze sound with tight musicianship and dialed audacious energy. Defined by high-payload artillery drumming, which matches dis-rocking D Beats and Heavy/Speed Metal roll and roil with ease, and thunderous warhorse bass interlocked and buckling under the barreling victorious riffermania and outrageously uplifting flamethrowing lead work, wrought with mastercrafted Metal might and drenched in soaring, often joyfully simplistic melody, and announced with wailer echo bandana Crust vocal. DiAnno Maiden’s sleaze and prowl, Bastard’s towering Burning Spirits melody and irresistible force, Motorcharging enVenomed D Beat battery. A glorious feast of explosive Metalpunk brilliance. Fukk yeah.

Bandcamp

G.O.D. / PANCREATECTOMIE SPLIT – ‘WRETCHED RONDOS REGARDING MILDLY IRRITATING TO DOWNRIGHT BOTHERSOME MEDICAL MALADIES / SUCCESSFULLY RE-EMBOWELED’

Purulent Goregrind split from two of yesterday’s gory darlings. Both bands were absolutely killing the game when this was released, albeit with different volumes of output. Pancreatectomie is a criminally overlooked Goregrind band from the States , dealing out pulverising punk-as-fukk toilet Goregrind from beyond taste and decency. Sawing crusty Grindriffs, turbocharged blasts and D-Beats, pitch-shifted gurgling vocal spewing Gore with a connoisseurs soupçon of drooling Death Metal influence amidst the punk drumming and sloppy Bass slime. Canadian punks G.O.D hew slightly closer to classic Grindcore ala FETO Napalm and Repulsion, their Goregrind hums along with terrible heft and pace, glowering with humanist outrage. Aggression amped to fuck, they steam through 10 withering tracks with deadly sharp Guitar whipping out obtuse deathly grind excellence, maniacally fast drumming and deranged aggro low end vocal both pitched down and un-effected. Both sides are recorded extra loud, with clarity of audio and little atmosphere or mastering. A glorious fucken blaster.

G.O.D. Bandcamp

Pancreatectomie Bandcamp

VARIOUS ARTISTS – ‘SPECTRUM’

A prime mover in the resurgence of cassette culture, Newcastle-based imprint Cruel Nature boasts a catalogue of near unrivalled sonic eclecticism and its commitment to championing outsider music is nowhere better exemplified than on ‘Spectrum’, a gem-studded 23-track anthology compiled to mark the label’s 10th anniversary. Featuring artists drawn from an enviably deep talent pool and sequenced like the tasting menu of a cutting-edge restaurant, the album bodyswerves through a plethora of contrasting styles without once losing focus, highlights arriving thick and fast throughout its marathon 110-minute runtime. In the banger camp, VHS¥DEATH’S ‘Sacrifice’ is a hard-charging, Berghain-ready headrush, whilst the vertiginous ‘Nu-shunting’ by GK favourites Whirling Hall Of Knives, splits industrial techno’s atom sending quarks and gluons of percussive fallout skittering across the dancefloor. Otherworldliness abounds here too. The Durutti Column-gone-slowcore filigree of Charlie Butler’s sepia-tinted ‘Eagle’s Splendour’ is a transport of introspective delight but Dublin-based experimentalist Katie Gerardine O’Neill steals the strangeness show and then some with ‘Along The Shoreline’, a mind-warping odyssey into deconstructed chamber jazz that dazes and confuses in equally large measure. Elsewhere though, far darker forces are at work. ‘I Have Cherished Our Season Of Friendship’ from Esmé Lousie Newman’s Petrine Cross project is doom-laden ambient black metal at its most balefully cinematic and if blunt force trauma lights your candle, Lovely Wife’s bass-heavy sludge blowout ‘Letting Go’ delivers its payload with all the subtlety of a backstreet kneecapping. Packed sardine-tight with brilliance, and with all profits going to youth autism charity The Toby Henderson Trust, ‘Spectrum’ offers an unmissable glimpse into Cruel Nature’s singular soundworld. Here’s to the next 10 years.

Cruel Nature Records

TUNKIO – ‘HYPERTROPHIC EXCRESCENCE’ EP

Super short EP from Finnish grindfuckers Tunkio, two man crusty Grindcore crammed to the brim with crust chord gore and zealous blast beats! Combines ideas from Finnish Hardcore, Gore and Crust to create a disgusting homunculi of foetid underground Grindcore, in the tradition of Parazitozis or Hyperemesis. Short songs stuffed with superfast warped blur crust chord rippers, bass-less and barbed to brutal perfection, pinned down with hyperfast crude drumming adorned with trashcan snare, mincing and blasting with some Hardcore parts too, topped with pitched down pukefeast vocal slime and burned into loud tape demo recording quality. Ablaze with deliriant energy and roaring with disillusioned outrage. Killer anime samples too. Dankness. Snag a 7″ from Iron Corpse!

Iron Corpse

Bandcamp

HEXX / SHITGRINDER SPLIT

Nasty little split 7″ between Australian punks Hexx and Shitgrinder. Hexx features members of Territory and the excellent Warcycle (I think), playing some exceptionally aggro Crustcore that leans into Stenchcore Metallic riffermania sound but sacrifices no brevity of song length, making for some seriously rowdy Crust bangers. Dense metallic riffing and chugging, rumbling tank bass squashed into a suitcase of fast blasting/mid paced lumbering Crustcore, with warlike bellowing and foggy atmosphere, some killer sampling too. Furious and doomed, wicked shit. Shitgrinder is one of the best Grindcore bands in the current international crop. They belt out a lean and mean as FUKK Grind sound, streamlined to cruise at blasting or stampin’ speed, super minimal, concise blasters with leaden buzzing mids Guitar sound scaffolded to super snappy, detailed precision thrash’n’blast Drumming, kicked up the arse and sent flying propulsively skyward with old school grind vocal high/low tradeoffs. Crusty and bloody neckbreaking Grindcore with stomping breakdowns and tempo deviations to surprise and provoke immediate violence to peers. Grab a 7″ from Televised Suicide in Australia, or from Grindfather in the UK.

Televised Suicide

Bandcamp

NEKRO DRUNKZ – ‘TERMINAL PERVERSION’

Nekro Drunkz, Oregon’s filthiest sons, here summon a horrific amalgam of Thrashing dummy Death Metal and punk as fukk toilet burbling Goregrind. Deathly, insanely maniacal head banging pervert trash Thrash and absolutely decimating wall-of-shit Gore/Grindcore – Chaotic and intense, erect, violent and steaming fucken drunk. Necrotized and insane sounding, callous and perverse. In taking sound cues from all the squelchiest, stinkiest elements of Deathgrind, Death Metal, Grindcore, Goregrind, Thrash and maybe even a bit of Crusty Punk, Nekro Drunkz have conjured an avalanche of septik deth straight from the bowels of fukken hades. Mad catchy headbang (handbang?) summoning riffing, stomping thrashed out drumming with lots of blast beats, and furious gurgling perv vocal upchuck and roaring poser decimation. This album is a seriously good time. And that cover art is obviously sikk as fukk. Completely essential.

Bandcamp

NO BREAD! Records

FAKE MEAT – ‘食中毒’

Deathly Goregrind and sleazy Death Metal from Derek & Haga Chan, conjured in “the smelly basement” in 2018. Broad foreheaded drooling necro Death Metal and E-Coli riddled Goregrind sewn up into a filthy stinking Autopsy simulacra laden with leaden one foot blast beats. Virulent disgusting Guitars cranked up into complex Haga-riff overdrive, all deadly and vile with degenerate lethal metallic noodle riffs matched with punk putrid drumming, very heavy and heaving with groove and concrete footed blasts, and bilious vocal retch and spew besides. Hefty, hoary production with plenty of clarity and volume. A putrid pungent breath of Goregrind, deathly serious riff feast and metalpunking puke violent fun for all!

Discos Al Pacino

GIANT SWAN – ‘FANTASY FOOD’

The notoriety of Bristolian technopunks Giant Swan stems largely from their apocalyptic live shows, but their studio work scarcely marks them out as shrinking violets. Atypically, the duo’s latest EP targets the dancefloor rather than the padded cell, though it would be a mistake to assume the dearth of redlining discord equates to a Swan with clipped wings. ‘Fantasy Food’ may be leaner, cleaner fare than the dungeon-dragging likes of ‘Do Not Be Afraid Of Tenderness’, but it still packs a ferocious punch. Audio-terror notwithstanding, attention to detail has long been a Giant Swan hallmark and their finely whorled fingerprints cover every burnished surface of this blistering record. Take ‘Sugar And Air’ in which an onslaught of woody kicks and serrated hi-hats vie for attention with a hyperventilating female vocal sample that backflips through the clangour like a gymnast in a breaker’s yard. In unsteadier hands, such anarchic sound design could easily descend into slapstick, but every haymaker thrown here lands with pinpoint precision. Likewise, ‘RRR+1’ is a laser-guided buzzbomb that cycles through multiple overlapping phases, its concrete-cracking 4/4 beat the only constant amid a sandstorm of whipping digital detritus. Even the beatless title track, which on first pass sounds like a skipload of euphoniums being fed through a woodchipper, is a mini-masterpiece of tightly controlled chaos. Closer to the rambunctious mischief-making of Pariah and Gesloten Cirkel than the grit ‘n’ girders pile-driving of JK Flesh and Regis, ‘Fantasy Food’ is full-tilt techno with a lascivious twinkle in its eye. Dance, motherfuckers.

KECK

STORMCROW – ‘ENSLAVED IN DARKNESS’

Stormcrow’s only full length album, released back in 2005 on No Options Records. A classic of US Stenchcore and a total monolith to miserable DETH! Salvos of muscular, primordial, massive Guitars and foreboding Bass form stoic, forlorn melodies of warring death, strafing chugging Crust Thrash riffs mount a rhythm section of devastating simplicity, Metal and Punk boiled down to their most furtive and mercurial and combined in the cast, powerful dynamic rhythms with an organic looseness and a barreling heft akin to the heights of Bolt Thrower, simultaneously soaring and crestfallen leads charge headlong into withering fire, bellowed low crust vocal command – moments of metallic acoustic to draw breath from the fog of war, tempos grinding to a chugging mid paced cruise after fire is exchanged across the martial, punk as fukk Drum work. Stormcrow also manages to pull off that absolutely hopeless, rain swept atmosphere of misery that makes Axegrinder’s ‘Rise of the Serpent Men’ so potent and terrible. This particular sword will keep sharp a fucking long time yet.

Brainsand

Bandcamp

THE CHATS – ‘GET FUCKED’

Inexplicably more energetic than their debut full-length, The Chats’ second album is a total ripper. They seem more pissed off this time around and I’m all for it. Sure, the Aussie punk humour is still there in tracks like “6L GTR” and “I’ve Been Drunk in Every Pub in Brisbane”, but then there’s “The Price of Smokes” which starts off seething in its indignant displeasure before boiling over into a maelstrom of bloody-eyed lividity, railing against the cost of living. They’re a truly formidable power trio here – like I said earlier, they’re drawing more energy than before but have also become frighteningly tight; every song blasts through with the power and precision of a laser cannon. New guitarist Josh Hardy seems to have a few more tricks up his sleeve than the last fella, peeling out occasional Hendrixisms and surf tones with blitzkrieg efficiency. On the subject of efficiency, this little dose of aural amphetamine clocks in at only 28 minutes, so when The Chats tell you to “GET FUCKED”, you’ll have time to do it over and over again.

Bandcamp