21 Demos & EPs We Listened To Recently

From the moment I heard that Dan Africa (Punch) is in a German emo band I was expecting something that will grab my attention. I Recover doesn’t disappoint at all. The music is very energetic and diverse with beautiful guitar melodies and driving vocals, it’s actually one of the best things I’ve heard in a while and you would fall in love with this record if you’re into the melodic DC/Dischord stuff, namely Dag Nasty. This is not a self-released digital demo but a beautiful seven-inch record released by a handful of awesome labels: Boslevan, Cosmic Note, Fear of Heights and Holy Goat Records. Buying this is highly recommended.

My new favorite folk-punk band is called Cistem Failure. Expect some really angry lyrics over banjo mayhem from this musical collective fighting against all forms of oppression – binary gender roles, transphobia and patriarchy, animal abuse, capitalist wage slavery, police and military— the cistem will fail and we will all dance and sing the songs of freedom & autonomy.

Nailed In is a new band from Zagreb, Croatia, and their self-titled EP came into my Facebook newsfeed a few weeks ago. Furious hardcore punk in the veins of Negative Approach and everything that’s fast and punishing. Excellent record, for now only available on their bandcamp page. Listen, share or do whatever you want with this one.

Another record coming from Croatia, this is an old one dating back to 2014, but it was handed over to me by Black Sails when the guys were asking us to review their last record. Lack of Soul’s EP is a truly exciting journey through chaotic soundscapes, from emotional hardcore to black metal. It’s definitely a kind of band that I’m excited to listen to. I’m so grateful I was introduced to this Croatian band, so I’m putting their EP on here even if the band is no longer active.

Nocturnal Scum hails from Berlin to deliver their intense blend of crust and metal. Four ripping tracks in the veins of Deviated Instinct and a bit of early Swedish death metal. The demo is available on a cassette tape through the band themselves. Play it loud and worship Seitan!

Imagine being bewitched by a tiger-headed black magician wearing old school Vans hitops and Suicidal Tendencies OG flip-up hat while smoking weed from a huge bong and listening to stoner metal. Tigerwizard is a skate-thrash stoner band from Vienna as weird as it seems. “Born To Die” is their debut EP and it’s all for fun and doing it yourself.

Hardcore punk veterans from Poland playing cold and atmospheric post-metal. The band was formed in 2011 in Gdansk and as far as I know they have members of the legendary Polish crust band Filth of Mankind. Grief-Stricken was released in 2015 but was sent to me just now and I’m totally into what they are doing on here. It’s bleak and depressive music played the way it has to be, the cold atmosphere is maintained by the use of keyboards, clean bass lines and complex drumming. The lyrical themes are, of course, just as depressive as the music.

Three songs of high-octane crust from Greece, two of the songs are in English and one in Greek. As far as influences go Wolfbrigade and Skitsystem are still the usual suspects. The record is too short to talk about diversity or anything, it’s just a nice 7-inch record for your collection of international noise. Keep an eye on Greece and their crust punk scene.

Never Again comes from Dijon, the Mustard city, and step into the post-hardcore territory with lots of tempo changes, diverse vocals and dynamic guitars. It’s enjoyable record but not the most original stuff out there. If you enjoy melodic hardcore then this could be something right up your alley.

Punk rock from the Netherlands debuting with a four-song EP paying homage to The Clash and Rancid. If you like the dirty mix of punk, ska and reggae you’ll enjoy these tunes. Nothing more, nothing less.

Förstörd Värld (Ruined World) is the second EP of this hardcore punk from Turku, Finland. They worship the classical Finnish hardcore punk style (Rattus, Kaaos, Riistetyt) and inject it with some crucial metallic riffs and d-beat drumming. You can hear crust, sludge, raw scandinavian thrash and it all sounds good. I’m usually very positive about hardcore punk and crust bands coming from Finland and this record is no exception.

Lo-fi d-beat crust from Philly with a cutting blade of Disclose affluence. This shit is so good. D-Beat Raw Punk. Aaaargh!

Probably the best Straight Edge demo I’ve heard in 2015 and the fact that I’ve heard this after watching “Salad Days: A Decade of Punk in Washington, DC (1980-90)” documentary makes it even more awesome. As stated in the movie, it’s important what has come after the glory days of that amazing scene and Line of Sight is one of those bands that makes you feel really great about the state of hardcore and straight edge today. It’s passionate, exciting and positive force coming from Washington, DC, that harkens back to the Golden Era of hardcore.

Interesting post-punk/noise rock from Marseille, France. The band seems largely influenced by the \80s anarcho/peace-punk and what makes it more interesting is the use of vintage synthesizers. For fans of “Planet of the Apes” and bands like The Cravats or Zounds.

That’s some really pissed off thrashing hardcore punk outfit with people from all over the world currently all based in Montreal, Québec. Seven killer songs with incredibly twisted vocals, heavy rolling drums and noisy guitars. 100% punk.

A brand new song from shoegazy/emo-revival band Contrail from Poznań, Poland. In the summer of 2015 they’ve released a promising 3-song demo, and now they are back with a new song called “Crowded Places”. They know how to do their thing quite well and I really like the atmosphere in their music. They also seem like really nice people, their guitar player Bastian is the person behind the awesome LOST iZine.

Now that’s something that grabbed my attention. Five dirty and nihilistic hardcore songs about Satan! All written in Swedish. What more can I say?

Lo-fi 4-song demo that sound like all these obscure emo/screamo stuff from late ’90s or early ’00s. Self-recorded and mixed in their rehearsal room but every tune has its place and every tune is hummable to enjoy the whole mood of the record.

That’s some really upsetting Hellhamer-influenced crust from the Amazonian jungles of Brazil. It starts with a heavy disturbing instrumental intro that would make you stop the record just right there, but if you want to give it a chance you will have to experience the chase between deep growling and voodoo-ritual screaming vocals over heavily distorted metallic crust assault in songs that bear awesome names like “Jesus is a Cunt”, “Lobotomized”, “Kali-Yuga Blues” and “Apocalyptic Hangover”, if you are interested in the lyrics you can find them all on their bandcamp page.

That’s some really minimalist vegan straight edge metalcore collaboration between two guys—xALEKSYx and xPAKISSx. The project sounds like they probably have a drum-machine. It reminds of the one-man project xThe Battlex from Switzerland that was circulating around the internet some years ago, although you can easily hear the Russian accent of Aleksy and the German accent of Pakiss really well on this release.

Anyway, this record is pretty boring overall but I was eagerly waiting for the last track on the record, which is a cover of AFI’s “The Leaving Song Pt.2” and yeah, it sounds weird to hear their version of the song.

Fun fact (or actually quite the opposite): A bunch of Bulgarian Neo-Nazis made a video about veganism with TIXON’s song “Eat The Meat (Don’t)” and have uploaded it on a Bulgarian video sharing website, I’m sure the band strongly disagrees with such assholes using their music for anything.

Thrashcore attack from Russia with lyrics in their native language. Nine songs that doesn’t go beyond the minute-and-a-half mark. I’m not that much impressed of hearing another thrashcore band that sounds like all the rest but you know what to expect from that one. Skateboarding and DIY attitude, shredding guitars and lots of fun, speak Russian or die.

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