One-Paragraph Reviews: A Listening Log Vol. 2

At the beginning of 2026 I ventured into the idea of starting a column built around one-paragraph reviews of records that had been on my radar. The first volume went up at the end of January, and I assumed it might take a few months before a second one followed. Meanwhile, my email has been constantly bombarded with more review requests, regular mail keeps delivering new records, and choosing what to prioritize has become increasingly difficult.

These one-paragraph pieces have become a more practical format of keeping up with the pace. So here we are with 30+ more records collected into a single article. I originally intended to include more releases that I didn’t particularly like and be a bit more critical and assholish about them, but after the usual round of culling I once again ended up with mostly records I like, including a few that feel like top-tier material.

I’ve never wanted to be a mouthpiece for any label, but if something here connects with you, the best thing is to seek out the physical release, especially on tape or vinyl.

Dust Collector – Self-Titled

Let’s start right off the bat with a really sick record. Bands like Lebenden Toten, Atrocious Madness, and more recently Physique have long felt like the proper US answer to the Japanese pantheon of Gloom and Disclose, and now Dust Collector from Los Angeles add their own rickety-racket to that legacy. This self-titled release packs 12 tracks of noise-filled punk that pushes the limits of bands like Chaotic Dischord, Disorder, and Confuse to another level. The drummer in particular plays with ridiculous precision, and despite all the distortion and racket, the whole thing sounds shockingly clean. You rarely hear bands in this lane that are this technically prowess while still sounding completely unhinged. This is intense, and it ticks all the boxes to become a future noise-not-music classic. The artwork is sick too, and thankfully not just another monochrome collage of war photos.

Sooks – Taste the Leather

Boorloo (Perth), Australia band Sooks delivered 14 bulldozing tracks on their 2024 debut LP Moral Decay. In October 2025, they followed it up with the more low-key tape release Taste the Leather. This is hardcore punk of the nastiest order, shifting between mid-paced stomps and full-speed attacks built on piercing riffs and buzzing rhythms. The band clearly pulls from ’80s influences, but what really makes this record unforgiving are the absolutely menacing vocals, seething with bile and aggression. Tracks like “Dancing on the Blade” and “Property” take aim at corporate dominance, inherited wealth, and the systems that allow elites to control resources and narratives, while other songs mock everyday arrogance and performative masculinity. It’s a brutal sonic assault that perfectly resonates with the hostile and absurd world around us.

P.S. It also features cover artwork by Cuero Negro, who’s been one of my favorite artists lately and whose style fits the record perfectly.

What Counts – The Brigade

I first got hyped on this band through their 2023 Indiana Straight Edge demo, and now they’re back with The Brigade, a seven-track release that taps straight into the current youth crew revival with real determination. These songs are built for the floor, the kind that make you want to punch the ground or point your finger while shouting along. There are fast parts, crucial breakdowns, and plenty of gang vocals, with lyrics that feel instantly familiar to anyone raised on this style. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but it leans heavily on its positive energy. Everything here is driven by passion and motivation. There are countless bands trying to revive the Floorpunch sound these days, but this one feels genuinely well done, and I’m sure The Brigade is already among many hardcore kids’ favorite straight edge records of 2025.

Bloque – Self-Titled

Hyper-masculine bloke stomping through a brick wall on the cover and seven tracks of short, explosive straight edge anthems that aren’t even sung in English. I’m immediately sold on this. Bloque are a straight edge band from Barcelona, bringing together Catalan, Colombian, and Venezuelan members with pedigree in some of the best Barcelona Straight Edge bands. The record opens with the mandatory instrumental intro before launching straight into the harder side of youth crew territory, packed with gang vocals, pickslides, dive-bombs, tough breakdowns, and super urgent vocal delivery with a forceful political message. It’s the kind of straight edge hardcore I still enjoy a lot, and this one is pure joy from start to finish.

Zikin – Zatitxu EP

The Basque Country is one of those places where I’m always keeping an eye out for underground music, and there’s no shortage of great punk bands singing in the Basque language, which always gives the songs a character. Zikin come from the small coastal town of Lekeitio in Biscay, and after two strong records in 2022 and 2024, they return with this EP. It contains four tracks of dark, anthemic hardcore punk that also hits hard and stomps with real originality. The songs are short without being ultra-fast, with vocals pushed right to the front and guitars that sound haunted and slightly off in a really good way. Everything is played super tight, and the Basque lyrics give the whole thing a charm that easily stands apart from the many generic bands that like to call themselves hardcore.

Yunk – Self-Titled EP

Yunk is another Basque band coming from Bilbao, but if you just stumbled upon their music you might easily mistake them for a ’90s band from Olympia, Washington. The lyrics are all in English and revolve around rebellion, solidarity, and resistance against injustice, touching on fascism, housing inequality, and toxic macho behavior within the punk scene while emphasizing unity among workers, refugees, and marginalized people. Musically, the band is a catchy mix of fuzzed-out shoegaze and ethereal dream pop, with vocals that recall the spirit of the ’90s riot grrrl scene. Anthems like “Unity” feel especially fitting in crucial times like these. This is just really awesome!

SlutBomb – Self-Titled

Ohio’s SlutBomb is one of those bands I saw live before hearing any recordings, and they are exactly the kind of high energy outfit that actually has something to say, both between songs and within them. Their self-titled album captures that same attitude and includes a few songs from the 2024 tour tape. Like many queer and anarchist bands who put their politics front and center, it is singer Debra’s vocals that hit first. She is angry and sarcastic, carrying the message while the band plays tight and fast behind her. There is a throwback to ‘90s West Coast where I hear traces of Uzi Suicide and Spazz in the way these songs rip by at breakneck speed. Aside from the dub interlude in “Overwhelming Hell,” the band wastes no time, blasting through tracks that mostly hover around the one minute mark. It is a shame this full-length also serves as their farewell. SlutBomb is angry punk rock for queers and the marginalized, but it is also a lot of fun, closing with covers of Madonna and The Nerves.

Pöls – A nuestrxs amigxs

In a dystopian world shaped by war, capitalism, and repression, friendship and collective care are what allow us to keep living and keep fighting, and that shines through in the new album by Barcelona melodic punk band Pöls. The record opens in an uplifting mood with “Bailando” (Dancing), which reminds me of the famous Emma Goldman quote about dancing and revolution. Musically, the band plays a really catchy and empowering mix of hardcore and pop-punk, with a rhythm section that often reminds me of Shelter, but keeping the attitude and sound of local bands like Accidente (whose own Pablo has mixed and mastered the record) and newer bands like Rotura (whose singer Silvia appears as guest on the second track). Lyrically, the album deals with broader themes of social inequality, struggles, and injustice, but ultimately closes with “Vivir,” which offers a more hopeful perspective about self-acceptance, collective liberation, and the search for a meaningful life beyond oppressive social expectations. I rarely listen to or write about records that could be classified as pop-punk, but it’s easy to spot when something’s as genuine and real as this. If I’m going to write about a single pop-punk album, it might as well be a band like Pöls, speaking to a generation navigating political injustice, gentrification, mental struggle, and fragile hope, while finding resilience through friendship and shared resistance.

Distance – Le décor

When I hear about punk from Bordeaux, I usually think about the great d-beat scene there, especially if the band name starts with Dis. Distance are definitely not that kind of dis band. Their debut Le décor delivers six tracks of melodic punk in the vein of Syndrome 81, Litovsk, Kronstadt, and the lineage behind them that stretches back to bands like Blitz and Masshysteri. Big choruses, power pop meeting new wave atmosphere, and lyrics that circle the feeling of moving through modern life without clear direction, where planned paths, cities, and futures slowly dissolve into repetition and uncertainty. French bands have proven again and again they’re masters of this style, and even though this record came out almost a year ago, Distance’s debut still feels like another underrated gem from the current French scene.

Fugitive Bubble – What Will Happen If We Stop?

I’ve been planning to write about Fugitive Bubble for a long time, but in the meantime they’ve moved on from their debut Delusion and released a second album. Coming out of Olympia, WA, they bottle that frantic punk’n’roll charge where everything feels relentless and just slightly out of control in the best way, with riffs that pivot on a dime and rhythms that keep moving you forward. The political bite is right up front, taking aim at the ongoing US nightmare with the kind of directness punk should have, and even when the band briefly detour into a piano interlude or flirt with post-punk atmosphere, the whole thing stays hungry and restless. It’s the kind of record that feels both fun and serious at once, something that could easily pull in listeners of many different genres. Excellent stuff.

Snõõper – Worldwide

Last weekend I spent some time watching the Netflix documentary on Devo and realized they probably had way more to do with DIY punk than I’d ever given them credit for. That finally pushed me to properly sit down with Worldwide, the October 2025 album from Nashville’s Snõõper, whose earlier releases have been a defining fixture in the whole Devo-worshipping egg punk wave of the past few years. This record is fantastic and cements them as a band everyone should have on their bucket list. It’s a total sonic whirlwind of jangly post-punk guitars, alien synth blips, warp-speed, caffeine-fueled hardcore, and sharp, snappy vocals, all rushing forward until the closing track “Subdivision,” which stretches out into a new wave piece that takes up almost half the runtime of everything before it. In true Devo fashion, there’s even an unexpected cover tucked in, this time The Beatles’ “Come Together,” twisted into their own oddball shape. And like Devo, Snõõper lean heavily into costumes, theatrics, and strong visual identity, with plenty of videos on their SNõõPER TV channel.

P.S. These egg punks still haven’t cracked the mainstream, but even Anthony Fantano gave Worldwide a well-deserved review.

SMASH YOUR FACE – Sayonara Smash Your Face

Okay, this one’s really sick stuff and not that easy to review. SMASH YOUR FACE have been around since the late ’80s in Japan, constantly mutating their sound, and Sayonara Smash Your Face proves they’re still not interested in following conventions. I was genuinely honored they reached out and asked me to write about it. The album packs 12 tracks, produced by Atsuo from the band Boris, and features guests like Cypress Ueno, Roberto Yoshino, Kaori Masukodera, and Tsuyoshi from Fuck On The Beach. Musically, it’s hard to box in. They call it scratchcore, basically hardcore with a DJ, but that barely scratch the surface (more stupid puns). There’s stop-and-go powerviolence, crossover and thrashcore in the DRI tradition, and flashes of psychedelic weirdness that wouldn’t feel out of place next to Acid Mother Temple. It sounds chaotic, but it’s also insanely fun and alive. If that’s still not enough to convince you, just watch their live footage or some of their official videos. This band is all over the place, but I won’t complain.

Incendiaria – Ocaso y barbarie

Incendiaria are a crust trio from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Ocaso y barbarie is a total ripper. Twelve tracks, most of them hovering around the one-minute mark, blunt and direct with no wasted space. The guitar tone leans into crust territory, but the vocals and overall drive feel closer to hardcore, giving the record a punchier feel. The title translates to “Sunset and Barbarism,” and the lyrics don’t hold back, delivering direct indictments of genocide in Palestine, structural inequality, prisons, historical denialism, and a world struggling to breathe. The band previously released two demos and a split with Desborde, but this is easily their strongest material so far. And if I’m not mistaken, bassist Juan is the same Juan from the influential band Migra Violenta, which makes sense given the music on display here.

Hëx – Demo 2026

That’s some proper ’90s-sounding stenchcore coming out of Cleveland, Ohio. Hëx deliver a six-track demo that opens with a 2:40-long instrumental before the gruff vocals finally kick in on the second track, “Häxan.” The sound is raw but loud enough to make an impact, with everything heavily metallized in true genre fashion and a solid balance between slower, stomping passages and faster galloping parts. Hëx genuinely sound like a lost demo from the early ’90s, yet they keep things current with titles like “Die Die AI,” which stands out as one of the most brutal tracks here. It’s a shame they don’t include lyrics on their Bandcamp page, but musically this is strong stuff and sits well alongside current US stench bands like Knotwork.

Dismara – Häxa EP

Dismara are a newer band from Norwich, England, and judging by the band name and cover artwork you might expect some harsh, noise or grind-driven d-beat or crust. That’s not really the case here. While the band may have started closer to a classic Discharge-inspired sound, the five songs on this EP lean more toward epic crust, most notably inspired by early Fall of Efrafa. The production is still fairly demo-like, but the tracks are okay and the band make use of entire arsenal of tempo changes, spoken passages, and shifts from quieter sections into galloping d-beats. Still, the vocals sound a bit too bland and boring for my taste. I like newer bands like Encierro and Dishumanitär, and Dismara don’t sound as fast and urgent even at its angriest. This record has the song structures, but kind of lacks the intensity of the genre. Also, the band is on TikTok, which is pretty cringe to me.

Spetälska – Dö Som Boskap

Spetälska from the legendary Umeå deliver an interesting debut with Dö Som Boskap, presenting eight tracks of dark, slightly off-kilter post-punk threaded with subtle synth touches and a faint gothic chill. It’s not the easiest sound to pin down, but the Joy Division and early New Order influences are clearly there, hovering in the basslines and atmosphere. All three members share vocal duties, with the guitarist most often taking the lead, which adds to the shifting, unsettled feel of the record. The whole album comes across as cold, tense, and restless, yet still undeniably punk at its core. Tracks like “Anständighet & Terror” and “Lobotomi” stand out the most, and the Swedish lyrics move between political dissatisfaction, existential pressure, and personal isolation.

Lothario – Hogtied

Lothario is the solo project of Naarm (Melbourne), Australia based Annaliese Redlich (also host of the radio show Neon Sunset), backed by a rotating cast of musicians, and Hogtied captures her attitude in full bite mode. Across 13 tracks, Lothario drives distorted bass and catchy vocals straight to the front of the mix, with stinging guitar lines that nod to scrappy garage punk while carrying flashes of early California hardcore. I hear hints of Adolescents and T.S.O.L. at times, but there’s also a clear riot grrrl influence running through the record, especially in the vocal delivery and stripped-down directness. The rhythms feel rigid and almost mechanized, pushing the songs at a steady mid-to-fast pace. Hogtied deserves a lot more love for how catchy and memorable it is.

D.Sablu – Righteous Light EP

D.Sablu is the artistic moniker of New Orleans–based David Sabludowsky, who’s been on an impressive streak of self-recorded demos over the last few years. 2024’s No True Silence LP was a high point, followed by even more demo output, and now he’s back with an EP through 11PM Records, this time backed by a full band. The production is great, easily the best his songs have sounded so far, and the music lands as a killer mix of Discharge, Death Side, and Poison Idea riffs with a rocking, garage-infused backbone. Lyrically, the EP moves between adrenaline-fueled collective release and personal reflections on shame, identity, and social conditioning. The vocals are especially electrifying, pushing the songs forward with energy and conviction. Exceptional vocals, exceptionally good EP.

Krut – Без Ясен Спомен

Krut is a newer rap hardcore punk band from Sofia, Bulgaria. The band’s vocalist Alex is better known as Sfonk from the underground hip-hop crew 5 o’clock, and his presence really drives the record. Across ten tracks, the band moves easily from crossover and NYHC influences to breaking into hip-hop passages, with Alex’s delivery controlling the pace throughout. Some songs hit with pure thrashing intensity, while others stand out for the guitar work and more unconventional ideas. The lyrics are entirely in Bulgarian and go straight at institutions of power, governments, police, economic elites, and organized crime, channeled through hip-hop’s street-level wisdom and loyalty to your people. I also really love the production, which the band handled themselves. It’s fully DIY but sounds quite nice, especially the snare and the overall clarity of the mix. Blending hip-hop and punk often fails to deliver something of quality, but this is one of the rare cases where it sounds genuine and convincing. Без Ясен Спомен closes with a cover of the Bulgarian rapcore classic “Hardcore Burgas Meden Rudnik” by NFG, originally released on their cult 1995 album.

Takers & Users – The Ten Year Hangover

I first came across Takers & Users through their bass player and vocalist Darzo, who’s also a brilliant old-school punk tattoo artist. The Belfast trio has been celebrating a decade in 2025, and The Ten Year Hangover feels like a proper milestone, bringing together 11 anthemic and undeniably catchy tracks with working-class skinhead attitude plus the speed and punch of streetpunk. The production is clean, and the whole thing would sit well alongside Booze & Glory, Old Firm Casuals, or Bishops Green, which isn’t usually my go-to lane (I prefer the tougher, rougher side of the spectrum). There’s no shortage of slogan-ready lyrics, terrace-style chants, familiar hooks, and, being from Belfast, a distinct Celtic vibe running through it all. When you take it for what it is and embrace the clichés rather than fight them, it’s a fun, well-executed record that does exactly what the genre asks of it.

Secuestro – Cada Día Más Fuertes

Cada día más fuertes translates roughly as “growing stronger,” and that’s exactly the energy Secuestro bring on this record. The band hails from Zaragoza, Spain, and delivers eight tracks of fired-up, no-holds-barred streetpunk. Big choruses and urgent vocals drive songs centered on social revolution, antifascism, and breaking free from oppression. Musically it sits somewhere between the Casualties, The Unseen, and Defiance, while also carrying the distinct street rock’n’roll spirit of Spanish bands like Kaos Urbano and Non Servium.

Brigata Vendetta – This Is How Democracy Dies

Brigata Vendetta’s This Is How Democracy Dies is the 2024 debut album from this Bay Area trio, whose members have been around the block in other bands. It delivers 13 no-frills hardcore punk tracks trimmed of any excess. Most of the songs clock in somewhere between a minute and a minute and a half, hitting fast and getting out without wasting a second. Lyrically, it’s all centered on a collapsing political system and the anger that comes with watching it fail in real time. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, just three guys playing short, pissed-off hardcore songs with conviction.

Svält – A Fate Worse Than Yesterday EP

I don’t know much about Svält, but I’ve really loved this debut EP. When I first saw the name (which means starvation in Swedish), I really thought this was a new Scandinavian band. Turns out they’re from Coventry in the UK, but aside from the Brit accent, they absolutely nail the käng sound across these six tracks. There’s no shortage of proper d-beat barrage here. Everything is stripped down, fast, and relentless, and I especially love the trebly sound of the recording. It’s easily one of my favorite d-beaters I’ve heard so far this year, even though it actually came out last August, which just proves they deserve a lot more recognition.

Kiratxa – Giza Ustelkeria EP

Kiratxa’s latest 7-inch delivers a short and vicious burst of d-beat raw punk, building an unstoppable wall of noise in the tradition of Japanese masters like Disclose, while still carrying its own flavor. Across these tracks the band switches between Basque, Catalan, and Spanish, with lyrics that confront heroin addiction, contempt for modern aesthetic posturing, class conflict, Palestinian genocide, and migrants drowning in the Mediterranean. Musically it’s relentless, driven by that Kawakami-style guitar tone, while the vocals stay surprisingly audible without getting buried in the mix.

Insurrection – Gray Future EP

The Balkan scene may not produce a huge number of bands, but it has delivered some serious noise lately, with bands like Disease from Macedonia now considered modern classics of the d-beat raw punk genre. Insurrection from Bucharest, Romania are a newer band stepping into that territory, and notably a gender-diverse one in a local scene that’s still dominated by mosh-heavy metallic hardcore jocks. In 2025 they released two demos with extremely raw production, following closely in the footsteps of bands like Disclose or early Besthöven. Gray Future takes that approach as well and at times almost sounds more like a raw black metal demo than a traditional d-beat recording. The band explain that the whole thing was captured with just three microphones, two on the drums and one on the guitar, with bass and vocals layered later in a DAW, while the interlude was created by chopping up a few seconds from a documentary about the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. Musically, the demo feels fairly generic and even quite boring to me. The vocals in particular don’t quite work for me, leaning more toward lo-fi ’90s metal than the shouty d-beat style I’d expect. Still, the band are already playing shows, and I’m curious to read an interview with them in the upcoming issue of Strig:Oi! fanzine, which should be arriving in the mail soon.

Braincëll – But Still… But What For? (Demo 2025)

Malaysia’s Braincëll don’t exactly ease you in on their demo. The tape opens with a recording of Malcolm X’s 1965 speech in Detroit addressing the Palestinian struggle, and the excerpt runs for a solid three minutes. It’s a long intro, maybe longer than most demos would dare, but it sets the political tone with zero ambiguity. When the band finally crash through the speakers, it’s all screeching crustcore with clanky drums and gruff, throatripping vocals that owe a serious debt to Doom and ENT. The production is pure rehearsal room rawness, everything sounding blown out and abrasive, which only amplifies the filth and ugliness of these tracks.

Arms Dealer – Mutually Assured Destruction

How much d-beat can you take? Arms Dealer are a d-beat band from Athens, GA, and their debut Mutually Assured Destruction was released on tape in just 25 copies by the local label Hard Tack. Four songs in a little under four minutes, all recorded live to tape, with everything crashing into each other in the mix. The vocals are almost swallowed by the noise, barely intelligible, fighting their way through the distortion. This is real low-fi DIY stuff, and listening to it reminds me of the Svart Parad 1984–1986 demos.

Kultivator – Zvoki Podeželja

You won’t often catch me listening to mincecore, but Kultivator are too interesting to ignore. Hailing from the Slovenian countryside, they’ve titled their latest record Zvoki Podeželja, which translates to “the sound of the countryside”. The band operates with a stripped-back setup of just drums and bass, yet they churn up a surprisingly thick racket. They blast at grinding pace and clearly worship at the altar of Agathocles, but the tone is downtuned and sludgy, like a rusted plough dragging through heavy, rain-soaked earth. Everything feels deliberately rough and unvarnished, as if it were harvested straight from the rehearsal shed without any modern fertilizers added. Lyrically, they cultivate the countryside aesthetic within the genre’s typically sarcastic political tone, sowing grindcore fury and reaping a crop of grim, mud-caked noise.

Mental Pressure – Demo

There are so many hardcore demo tapes these days trying to recreate the sound and aesthetics of late ’80s and early ’90s hardcore. Mental Pressure from Cardiff, Wales, actually pull it off convincingly. This five-track demo doesn’t let a single song run past a minute and a half, and the recording has that familiar old Ripcord tape feel. It’s maybe a touch slower than Ripcord or Heresy, but it still bites hard, with blazing guitars, dirty and clanky breakdowns, and properly nailbiting vocals. No frills, no gimmicks. That’s how it should be.

Search For Autonomy – Self-Titled

Search For Autonomy are another band of old geezers from the UK playing simple but effective anarcho-punk, but this isn’t the Crass-inspired peace punk type. Instead, they stick to the more militant, working-class strain of anarcho-punk in the vein of The Apostles, Political Asylum, or Kronstadt Uprising. The self-titled release runs through seven tracks, each hovering around the three-minute mark, built on straightforward three-chord structures and direct political lyrics. There’s not much musical flourish here, just really simple, unpolished punk rock that puts message and conviction front and center.

Gu – Destinati Alla Mattanza

Gu is a hardcore punk band from Amsterdam who sing not in Dutch or English, but in Italian. The eight songs here are fast-paced, frantic, and very political, yet the vocals avoid the usual unintelligible shouting and instead follow a more declamatory lyrical flow. Musically there’s an interesting balance between old-school ’80s Italian hardcore influences and more modern metallic breakdowns. At times it reminds me a bit of ’90s Italian bands like Skruigners, though Gi lean more toward hardcore than streetpunk.

Totälickers – Directo Luis Aragofest 2023

I don’t often review live albums, even though I’ve got a whole stack of live recording cassettes, which was very much the DIY punk thing back in the ’90s. This one came in a package with other releases from Barcelona’s finest DIY Kontraatak label (e.g., see Kiratxa and Secuestro above), and it genuinely sounds angry and solid as hell. Totälickers have been one of Spain’s premier d-beat powerhouses since the early 2000s, and this recording captures their live energy in full force. It’s punk-driven d-beat in the lineage of Discharge and MG-15, packed with strong riffs and vocals that come across surprisingly melodic and uplifting instead of leaning solely on fuzz and aggression.

Dispyt – Från Melankoli till Meningslöshet

If I were more into black metal, I’d probably be tempted to write a full track-by-track breakdown of this one, because Från Melankoli till Meningslöshet is a seriously strong record. Dispyt are a Finnish blackened crust trio fronted by Mathias Lillmåns, better known from the folk metal band Finntroll, and this record shows another side of him. Across nine tracks, the band moves between short, furious bursts and longer, more atmospheric passages, built on a foundation that clearly nods to Martyrdöd but pushes the intensity further. There’s a constant barrage of riffs and tremolo picking, yet it never feels one-dimensional thanks to the atmosphere and even subtle stoner and doom elements woven in. From start to finish it holds up, and easily stands alongside other blackened crust highlights of 2025 like Annapura, Lykofos, and Tetem.

VLKN – First Sparks of Eternal Decay

First Sparks of Eternal Decay is the second album and first vinyl release from the Budapest-based blackened crust band VLKN. I didn’t quite enjoy it at first, when the band reached out for a review back in 2024, but after seeing them opening for Catharsis in Budapest last year, I gave it another listen. There’s no shortage of blastbeats, throat-ripping vocals, and searing leads, with moments that drift into blackened screamo territory but also influences from Euro bands like Hexis, Celeste, and Oathbreaker. I especially like the faster parts in each song, though there are also sections that don’t really click with me. There’s some experimentation too, like the ambient atmosphere and synths on “Rebirth,” which works well with the black metal tremolos, but the final track felt like a waste of time for me. The guest vocals from The Devil’s Trade didn’t quite fit the overall feel of the album and seem to have been added mainly to close it with something different.

Sirens of Crisis – Abyssos

Sirens of Crisis are (were?) an emocrust band from Leverkusen, Germany, formed around 2013, and I guess they kind of disbanded during the pandemic since they haven’t released anything after this 2020 album. Abyssos contains eight excellent tracks with German lyrics and has all the tempos and that specific sound I love in bands like Alpinist, Trainwreck, and Jungbluth. The playing is super tight, with emotional leads and a really strong cohesion between the slower and faster parts. There are even some touches of sludge and doom in there, but they never take away from the overall fast and uplifting feel of the record. Definitely one that deserved more attention.

Son of Nun & DJ Krimson – Blood and Fire

As a bonus, let’s wrap this up not only with an older record but also a rap one. Blood and Fire by Son of Nun and DJ Krimson still hits just as hard today as it did when it came out in 2004, right in the turmoil of the Iraq War and George W. Bush’s administration. Son of Nun is an underground hip-hop artist from Baltimore, Maryland, known for his wild political freestyles, and that energy carries through the whole record. Tracks like “Free Palestine” and the closing “Fight Back” still feel painfully relevant today, delivering uncompromising political commentary over stripped-down beats. It’s the kind of record that deserves to be rediscovered, especially if you’re putting together some real rap mixtape.