21 Ear-Wrecking Hardcore Punk EPs You May Have Missed in 2021

Formed at the beginning of 2020 in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil, just before the pandemic struck, Lasso play an intense form of hardcore punk with fantastic songwriting that floored me upon first listen.

The EP consists of eight short, high-octane bangers, with dark, melodic guitar leads looming gloriously over fast-paced beats. It’s a masterful cacophony of churning riffs soaked in deathrock sensibility. The long-awaited vinyl version of this record was finally released by Sorry State Records, and I hope these dark yet uplifting tunes reach more people around the world.

Kohti Tuhoa drew a lot of well-deserved praise for their audacious 2019 LP, Ihmisen Kasvot, and last year’s awe-inspiring Elä Totuudesta EP. On their brand-new EP, however, the Helsinki four-piece continue to push the envelope even further by experimenting with more diverse sounds and influences.

In contrast to their previous work, Väkivaltaa (Violence) abandons some, though not all, of the noise-drenched and chaotic pogo-punk elements in favor of a colder approach with hints of bands like Killing Joke and Amebix. Kohti’s singer Helena is still at the top of her game, with impassioned vocals complementing the fast and raging hardcore beats. As the name suggests, Väkivaltaa is above all a fast and violent affair, walking a fine line between the raw aggression of early ’80s Finnish and UK82 hardcore tropes and a somewhat gloomier sound. These Finnish punks are once again reinventing their sound, while the excellent La Vida Es Un Mus delivers one of the best punk EPs of the year.

What’s Living Worth? by New York’s High Cost was probably the first new record I heard at the beginning of the year. The six tracks on this EP were everything you’d expect from a fast and aggressive hardcore band.

To put it simply, High Cost make music that doesn’t waste any time fucking around but explodes in your ears with high-velocity hardcore and hints of untamed powerviolence. Probably because they are a US band, it didn’t take long for the record to receive a vinyl pressing. The expanded LP version was released with an alternative cover by Bitter Melody Records in April, featuring the original six songs from the EP, two brand-new tracks from the same session, and a cover of the Ramones’ “Pet Sematary.”

Aotearoa’s finest anarcha-feminist punk band Unsanitary Napkin are back with two absolutely ferocious tracks from their upcoming album, All Billionaires Are Bastards. As you can guess from the title, this short EP is an uncompromising political statement in solidarity with trans and gender-nonconforming people, including Indigenous gender-diverse takatāpui whānau.

Both “TERF War” and “Speak Up For Women, You Don’t Speak For Me” are vitriolic calls to arms against the transphobia and transmisogyny of TERFs and SWERFs. According to the band, all proceeds from the release will be donated to Gender Minorities Aotearoa, a nationwide transgender organization in New Zealand run by and for transgender people. If you’re into bands like G.L.O.S.S. or the HIRS, you’ll absolutely love this!

Esok Hari Kepunyaan Kita is the debut 7-inch by Melbourne, Australia-based Reaksi, and it is every bit as full of political anger and rage as you’d expect from a band featuring members of Pisschrïst, Krömosom, Enzyme, and Intrusion.

This new supergroup of sorts is made up of three immigrant punks from Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore, with their Asian punk identity at the forefront of their creative output. Despite the members’ long history of playing in d-beat raw punk bands, the five tracks on Esok Hari Kepunyaan Kita (Tomorrow Belongs to Us) take a different direction, with nods to the UK82 sound of bands like The Partisans, Blitz, Violators, and the like. The lyrics are all sung in bahasa Melayu and deal with political issues in Southeast Asia, such as standing up for immigrant rights and supporting the people of Myanmar in their uprising against the military coup. It’s raw, anthemic, and pissed-off punk at its finest. Up the Asian punx!

Hyökkäys means “to attack” in Finnish, and a relentless old-school hardcore punk attack is exactly what these Basque punx deliver!

This 7-inch was released in March 2021 by Discos Enfermos and contains eleven tracks of pure chaos, distortion, and torn vocal cords. If you’re still not convinced where their influences come from, they’ll make sure to remind you with two killer covers of Finnish ’80s legends Kaaos and Catalonia’s most prominent hardcore band, HHH. This explosive combination pretty much sums up their sound. It’s raw, primitive, and full of radical noise for radical punx. Always against the government!

Formed during the pandemic, Zero Again returned with a second 7-inch in much the same vein as their 2020 debut EP, Out of the Crooked Timbers of Humanity.

Featuring living legend of British punk and outstanding underground music journalist Ian Glasper on bass, Zero Again are the perfect choice for punks who enjoy dark melodic leads and filthy bass lines treading the line between horror imagery and uncompromising leftist politics. Die-hard Rudimentary Peni fans will immediately recognize where the band’s name comes from. This is seriously some of the best old-school British punk around these days.

Colombia has been on the radar throughout the huge and violent protest movement against increased taxes, corruption, and the healthcare reform proposed by the government. There have been several benefit hardcore punk compilations supporting those affected by police violence and state repression in the South American country, and I’m pretty sure you’re already familiar with great bands like Muro, Systema, and Alambrada.

Enter Mangual. Totally intense old-school powerviolence erupts throughout this short record. The font is, of course, reminiscent of our beloved Infest, and there are no surprises here. Mangual possess some serious skills when it comes to serenading you with a barrage of play-fast-or-die radness before switching gears into sludgy breakdowns. The lyrics are all in Spanish and, no surprise here, carry plenty of political weight, dealing with the realities of life in the country. Straightforward, no-frills political hardcore from South America!

Another raging powerviolence record, this time coming from up north in Sweden.

Bleachdrinker are a new band from Stockholm whose Icon EP was released earlier this summer and contains no fewer than eight face-ripping tracks that remind me of xBrainiax, No Comply, Final Draft, and the like. It’s ultra-fast, mega-pissed, and straight-up fire, without the shit production quality that often comes with the genre!

The East and West Coasts collide for eight pulverizing powerviolence tracks by two contemporary US bands keeping the scene alive and kicking.

Washington, DC’s Brainpan grind their way through the stereo with a ferocious guitar tone, chunky hardcore breakdowns, and gruffer-than-gruff vocals. Their punishing sound reminds me of NAILS stripped down to their most basic powerviolence elements. On the flip side, Seattle’s xSAVAGEx deliver four tracks channeling the classic sound of Capitalist Casualties, Crossed Out, and No Comment. A great record overall, with artwork by Japanese legend Sugi.

Another great piece of Sugi artwork, this time commissioned for a Danish band called Nervegas.

These K-Town bastards mix traditional d-beat raw punk, harsh Scandinavian crust, and blistering Japanese Burning Spirits hardcore for maximum sonic destruction. If you frequent this website in search of raw, heavy, and brutal hardcore punk, you’re in the right place. Five songs that don’t let up. As Swedish d-beat mangelers Sum 41 used to say: all killer, no filler!

Formed in 2016 in a small town about 120 kilometers northeast of Helsinki, Violent Spirit have never been shy about admitting their absolute devotion to the Japanese “Burning Spirits” school of hardcore. Five years after their inception, Violent Spirit return with the Fire EP.

Across these five songs, they stick to their tried-and-true “Burning Spirits” template, unleashing torrents of driving hardcore riffs, galloping raw punk beats, and captivating Paintbox-inspired guitar hooks. Crude Japanese-style vocals, heavy metal leads, acoustic guitars, and even pianos may seem a little all over the place for a European band, but the entire record is actually brilliant. The 7-inch sold out just five days after its release, and the blurb by a music genius like Jonah Falco on Violent Spirit’s Bandcamp page should give you an idea of how good this band really is.

Holy smokes! Are these guys Japanese? Hell no, they are Greek malakas.

Five tracks of Japanese-inspired raw noise, Swedish kängpunk song structures, and pissed-off vocals spitting angry verses in the mother tongue of Aristotle. This absolutely killer release shakes things up with the sound of wailing emergency sirens and finishes with a Discharge cover. Released on tape by Extreme Earslaughter Records in December 2021, it sold out in the blink of an eye.

New York City newcomers Nisemono 偽者 also draw their beastly sound from the Far East.

Made up of DIY punk scene veterans from noisemongers like L.O.T.I.O.N., Dollhouse, and Warthog, the band deliver six full-bore assaults on this Toxic State Records-released demo. It’s a ferocious exhibition of the raw power, speed, and blistering aggression that Nisemono 偽者 deserve to be praised for. The bedrock of the band’s pummeling sound lies in ripping Japanese hardcore blended with that thin, modern style of distortion. Think Bastard-inspired riffs galore, but rather than hyper-blown-out noise or crust, they take a more ripping hardcore approach that makes this all the more interesting. Just brilliant stuff.

The latest material by Colorado’s Victim of Fire was released on a beautiful lathe-cut, single-sided 12-inch earlier this year. This new EP features a single ten-minute song written during the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taking cues from bands like Remains of the Day, Disharmonist is an epic, d-beat-driven poem tackling the suffocating realities of anti-Black racism in the United States. The lyrics were written during the week following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and as you listen to the track, you can feel the dense tension in every note of their delivery. All cops are tools of the ruling class. Every politician is a liar.

Buenos Aires four-piece Farmaco crashed into the scene with a great demo at the beginning of 2020 that caught the attention of the worldwide DIY punk community.

The band unashamedly worships Japanese legends like LSD, Death Side, Gudon, and Human Gas while crafting its own South American sound with urgent political lyrics in Spanish. Farmaco’s sophomore Descolonizar EP dropped in spring 2021, released on 7-inch by Discos Enfermos in Spain and on tape by Educación Cínica in Argentina. It only proved that the band was getting better and better at honing its sound. The EP has been getting a ton of love at DIY Conspiracy ever since.

Maine is a predominantly rural state in the northeastern United States. It is not only the setting for many novels by horror king Stephen King but also home to wrecking punk bands like DMT.

Across six tracks, blistering, dentist-drill guitars wail over fuzzed-out bass and smashing d-beats. Screams from the unholiest pits rise from the singer’s bowels. Nothing but scratchy, heavy psychedelic punk noise, distorted all to hell. The tape release consists of a double A-side, so you can easily flip it and start all over again.

La Vida Es Un Mus has been releasing some of the absolute best punk records for a long time, and the label deserves even more recognition for putting out bands from faraway and “exotic” places that most casual punk listeners might otherwise never hear.

Taqbir play relentless, fast-paced hardcore punk with sharp and extremely critical lyrics in Darija (Moroccan Arabic), pointing out the religious hypocrisy, oppression, and patriarchal culture they grew up with in Morocco. In brief, Victory Belongs to Those Who Fight for a Right Cause consists of four raging tracks of North African hardcore that the entire underground world should know about. Other reviewers have compared their sound to Spanish legends Destino Final and Taqbir’s vocals to those of Chitose from the Japanese band The Comes.

Merked will stab you in the gut with seventeen tracks of pummeling powerviolence and then twist the knife for good measure.

Tight, heavy, slow parts and disgruntled growls are followed by brutal, fast, and relentless blast beats, violent screams, and a heap of sound clips to make sure you’re in the right place. Songs 12 to 14 deal with hardcore dancing, with lyrics such as “Hardcore dancing looks like a fucking seizure,” “Crowd killing is for dweebs,” and “Two-step yourself off a fucking cliff. I wanna see you mosh and circle pit. All ‘go’ NO ‘bro.’” Proper powerviolence from this Oakland trio.

This EP consists of six tracks of sick-ass, brutal thrash punk from Rochester, New York, with a 100% flying-fingers attitude.

Their tunes carry plenty of influences, from Bad Posture to Negative Approach, Code 13, The Pist, and a host of others, all blended into their self-proclaimed rot-core style. Just blast after blast of thrashing, rocking, and incredibly pissed-off punk music.

This is a split cassette by two Australian bands that like to play fast.

Blazing out of Melbourne, Endless Bore pounce forward with extremely pissed-off powerviolence and burly hardcore breakdowns. Four tracks of harsh vocals backed by brutal music. Their style isn’t cutting-edge or anything particularly new, but their songs have a really powerful and intense feel. I already had the chance to hear Endless Bore’s upcoming January 2022 EP in advance, and it’s totally up my alley.

Sydney’s Numbskull shake things up with eight blazing-fast tracks clocking in at four minutes in total. It’s straightforward, rapid-fire powerviolence in the vein of Charles Bronson, Hellnation, and Swallowing Shit, with a touch of melody that makes their songs catchy as hell. To quote Numbskull: “Mozart and Beethoven can suck a wet fart. This is hardcore punk, not the fine arts.” I’m totally in love with this fastcore crew.

Featured image collage by @violence.paranoia