Review Roundup - February 2024

No scene report this month. Oops, I forgot! I could probably write at length about the burgeoning boom of oi! taking subculture by storm, but at the end of the day, that’s not my story to tell. Ask a skinhead if you want to know.

The Chisel - What a Fucking Nightmare (Pure Noise)

I had a hard time originally deciding what to make of this English band’s second full length — their first on Pure Noise. Dropping a slower, more anthemic record after signing to a high-profile label raises red flags for my inner DIY shithead. When this didn’t immediately hit like the last Chisel record, I wanted to dismiss it. 2021’s Retaliation leaned hard into the fast shit, with a healthy dose of mid-tempo singalong to spice things up. The formula is reversed here, with the oi! elements upfront and hardcore thrown in for a little bite. It still gets nasty in spots. The intro is weird and inaccessible in a way that could be nodding at Crass. Nobody’s denying the ferocity or hardcore influence on tracks like “Fuck ‘Em” or “Evil by Evil”, either. Still, when you hear a stray bagpipe, or the lazily interpolated football chant on “Those Days”, it’s hard not to think of retirement plan punk in the vein of Dropkick Murphys. Here’s what it comes down to for me — this record isn’t bad, but it is bloated. 16 songs is about four too many.

Zeal - Zeal (Broken Skull)

I usually need my d-beat to display a bit of US hardcore influence. The crustier, more foreign sounding stuff is cool in theory. I rarely find myself digging deep on those bands though, unless they take the Inferna route and throw in mosh parts. Something about the self-titled EP from Ottawa’s Zeal bucks that trend. It could be unconscious hometown bias, as the EP was released on upstart Toronto label Broken Skull Records. Still, this should scratch the itch for anyone who’s ever circle-pitted in their bedroom or sewn a Discharge patch on their jacket. The record’s production is perfect. It’s way grimier than stadium crust, but has enough clarity to where you can hear everything. The guitars don’t bleed into the cymbals, which helps a lot. The EP also displays many Age of Quarrel-esque tendencies, even opening with a riff that sounds like “Street Justice”. From heavy use of gang vocals to a few mid-tempo breaks, Zeal feels like my favourite hardcore record minus the dance riffs.

Dimension Six - Not the Same (From Within)

Some cities produce a seemingly endless stream of good hardcore. Richmond, VA is one of those places where the well never runs dry, and Dimension Six are the newest band from that town to quench my thirst for stompy riffs. Their demo — which dropped in May of last year — was good enough to earn an FYA invite, and in early January they dropped a two song teaser to bolster their fest set. More like a 1.5 song teaser, actually. This promo goes right from a moshy instrumental intro into a thrashy title track that sounds like an out-take from Breakdown’s Blacklisted. Are D6 intentionally crossover-inspired or has metal just permeated hardcore so fully that this is the new “straightforward” sound? Either way, Not the Same is fast and ferocious enough to avoid uninteresting modern tropes, making it a win in my books.

Bullshit Detector - Violet Crown (Find a Way)

I’m not the world’s biggest oi! head, but we’re in a full-blown revival and it seems impossible to escape. I decided to dig deeper on this three song sampler from Texas’ Bullshit Detector after hearing it on a playlist. It reminded me of Hidden World-era Fucked Up — gruff vocals screamed over some mid-tempo, melodic punk rock. Bullshit Detector doesn’t seem to have much connection with hardcore, though. The tags on their bandcamp include “goth”, “darkwave”, and “post-punk”. Those elements, including some subdued vocal harmonies and the use of synths, place this pretty far from the type of oi! currently taking our scene by storm. There’s not any overt skinhead cosplay in the band’s aesthetic either. Fucked Up is still a good comp, as both bands are only tethered to the idea of hardcore because their vocalists sound like muppets. I might check out more from Bullshit Detector at some point. The two original songs on this promo are pretty decent. The cover… not so much.

Crush Your Soul - Crush Your Soul (Streets of Hate)

This project features members of Mindforce, Scarab and Gridiron doing a tight genre exercise. Calling them a “super group” seems superfluous — it’s basically another line combination from the same roster of dudes who are in every heavy northeast band at the moment. Most notably, Jay Petagine from Mindforce does vocals, lending his high-pitched voice to a cadre of Merauder-inspired riffs in a way that’s intended to conjure the legendary NYHC band’s one-off demo with Leeway’s Eddie Sutton. This is certainly not re-inventing any wheels — a fact CYS cheekily acknowledge throughout the tape. One of their spoken word interludes ends with the phrase “if you’re biting [ideas], you need to stop!” right before the band launches into an almost note-for-note rip of the classic “Time Ends” intro. Still, re-imagining Merauder songs as sub-two minute mosh anthems is a worthy pastime, and CYS have the chops to pull it off. The track “GETMONEY” stands out as a hit.

Identity Shock - Demo (Designated Moshers Unit)

This (presumably) Atlanta-based band’s debut on Designated Moshers Unit is my platonic hardcore ideal. It’s ripping fast and grimy sounding, but still has a lot of bounce and playfulness. This hits a cross-section between early Lockin’ Out material and the “mysterious guy” era of Youth Attack. Presentation-wise, it’s dark and obscure. There’s no information about the band. The release isn’t on streaming. The vocals are dripping with spite and buried beneath layers of noise. Energy-wise, it’s tight, uptempo and kinetic. The drummer sometimes reaches a clip where you can’t tell if he’s blasting or just playing a really fast punk beat. Six of one, half dozen of the other. It’s Coke Bust style fast hardcore, where speed gives way to big, bouncy two-step riffs which would have moved the entire room at Posi-Numbers Fest. Those parts are quite intricately written. The guitarists really work the fretboard, but in a tasteful way — not like a corny local band doing too much. This rules.

Collateral - We Still Know (Scheme/Fortress)

These Florida kids displayed immense promise on their 2023 demo, and the good times keep rolling with EP1. We Still Know is the type of “maturation” and “evolution” most people want from a band of this stripe. There’s no hard stylistic pivot, just less blasting and some slightly longer songs. We’re still getting 2000’s indebted meat and potatoes hardcore built primarily for skanking and stage dives. This release signifies a big step, though. It proves Collateral’s demo wasn’t a fluke. They take their craft seriously enough to keep developing. Writing ten minutes of high-quality new music is not easy for a demo-core band. These songs have lots of different parts and ideas, woven together with intricate transitions that telegraph how tight the band are. With less practice and commitment, we might be looking at a dog’s breakfast. This EP elevates Collateral’s catalog from the musical equivalent of a Funko Pop to something worthy of genuine excitement. I’m down to hear a full length.

Colossal Man - Promo ‘24 (Self Released)

This Fort Wayne, IN, band’s straightforward, Breakdown-inspired demo stood out among the hefty crop of similar material from last year. Their new promo gets deeper into the metallic elements of late 80’s NYHC. From what I gather, the idea for this batch of tracks (which might be teasing a longer release) was an exercise in editing the later Cro-Mags material for brevity. You can tell right away. The first riff is faster and thrashier than anything on the demo, but doesn’t sound a world away, either. The breakdown on “Violent Reprisal” feels so much like a later-era Parris Mayhew idea that I’m waiting for Harley Flanagan to claim he wrote it. Lyrics were a high point on the first CM release, perfectly presenting the warped mind of a demented, anti-social character. I’m worried the bit might have gone too far here. All the talk of smearing posers and cretins under boots is beginning to feel a bit like caricature. That said, “start smearing” is a hard fuckin’ mosh call. The DYS cover is a bold choice, but it works.