Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter! Man, we are SWAMPED here at Sorry State at the moment. Since last week’s newsletter the new Lasso 7” and new LPs from Straw Man Army and Peace de Resistance all arrived at our HQ. We had a bazillion preorders across those three titles, and since the Rutto 7” reissues on Final Doomsday also arrived this week we’ve had a high volume of new orders as well. I know most of you are used to seeing your orders from us ship within a day or so, but that’s looking more like 2 or 3 days while we take care of these preorders. Don’t let that discourage you from ordering, though! We’re going to work our butts off today and tomorrow, and things will be back to normal before you know it. And baby Jesus knows we have some killer new shit to sell you on, so read on for all the info!

Erupt: Left to Rot 7” (Static Shock Records) Static Shock Records brings us the debut from this Australian hardcore-tinged thrash metal band / thrash metal-tinged hardcore band featuring members of heaps of other bands you already know and love. As Static Shock’s description notes, Erupt makes the lines between extreme punk and extreme metal very blurry. When I listen to Left to Rot, I keep thinking this record is like the perfect amalgamation of Voivod and Septic Death. Erupt reminds me of Voivod in the speed and technicality of their playing. Not just that the riffs are more complex, but that the playing and the arrangements are full of odd timings and twists and turns that only an extremely capable band could execute. Maybe one day Erupt will evolve into a prog band like Voivod has? They have the chops for it. The other standout element of Erupt’s sound is the menacing nightmare vibe, which is what reminds me of Septic Death. While the music is dense and the playing is accomplished, they compress the maximalisminto a fuzzy, 4-track style recording that seems like it’s bursting at the seams, straining to contain Erupt’s pummeling power. More than just raw, though, Erupt sounds scary… legitimately evil a la the first Bathory album. I’d recommend Left to Rot to any punk or metalhead who pursues the extreme in all its manifestations.

After a couple of minor delays, Lasso’s new 7”, Amuo is shipping! I believe we’ve shipped all the preorders that were just for the Lasso 7”, but there are a handful of orders that were waiting on the Straw Man Army and/or Peace de Resistance LPs. Both are here now, so those orders should be out the door soon too.

We still have a few copies left of the limited white vinyl version of Amuo, but they’re running low!

And if you’re in Europe, don’t forget that Lasso will tour your continent in May. Go see them if you can!

Sorry State is proud to distribute Final Doomsday Records’ reissues of both 7”s by 80s Finnish hardcore punk band (T.H.E.) Rutto. Both reissues are in stock now, and they included expanded liner notes and bonus tracks. If you run a store or a distro, note that Sorry State is the main US distributor for this release, so hit us up for copies!

The incredible new LP from Straw Man Army also landed at Sorry State this week! The official release date is April 15, but we have copies in stock now and your order will ship right away. As with the Rutto records, Sorry State is the main distributor for this release, so hit us up for copies if you run a store or distro!

Another LP that comes out next week, Peace de Resistance’s debut, Bits and Pieces, is also in stock! Bits and Pieces drops on April 13, but we’re shipping copies already. This was the last of our three preorder titles to arrive, so we’re still shipping out orders that included this title, but we’ll get them all done today and tomorrow.

In the meantime, you can hear two tracks from Bits and Pieces on Peace de Resistance’s Bandcamp site (they’re also available on streaming services) and you can hear a new interview with Moses on Australia’s Teenage Hate Radio here.

If you’ve been dragging your feet on picking up Invertebrates’ demo tape on Sorry State, you’d best get into gear! We’re down to fewer than 10 copies of our 150-copy run. They won’t last too much longer, so don’t say I didn’t warn you when they’re all gone!

Usman gives us a bonus round for this edition of Hardcore Knockouts. I wonder why he didn’t ask me to wheel out my OGs instead of using the compilation for Knockouts? You’ll have to ask him. PS: I voted for Youth Brigade. I’m not sure I could give a coherent argument for why. Just shooting from the hip, as usual.

Cast your vote in the next edition of Hardcore Knockouts on our Instagram stories next Tuesday!

My pick from Sorry State’s Discogs listings this week is this collection LP from Japan’s Etae on La Familia Releases. I was always partial to Etae. I remember picking up their two 7”s from Hardcore Holocaust distro in the early 2000s and I’ve continued to play them since then. I remember I also had an Etae shirt (I think maybe that was from Hardcore Holocaust too?) but the ink was so thick I couldn’t wear it in the North Carolina summer. Southern punks know what I’m talking about!

Remember, you can always combine your order from Sorry State’s Discogs site with your order from our webstore and save on shipping!

1. Straw Man Army: SOS 12” (D4MT Labs)
2. White Stains: Blood on the Beach 7” (Neon Taste Records)
3. Invertebrates: demo cassette (Sorry State Records)
4. Varaus: Tuomittu Elämään 7” (Larmattacke Records)
5. Rutto: Ei Paluuta 7” (Final Doomsday Records)
6. Rutto: Ilmastoitu Painajainen 7” (Final Doomsday Records)
7. Lasso: Amuo 7” (Sorry State Records)
8. Peace de Résistance: Bits and Pieces 12” (Peace de Records)
9. Mercenary: Demos Collection 12” (Beach Impediment Records)
10. Golpe: La Colpa É Solo Tua 12” (Sorry State Records)

Lots of shake-ups in our list of best sellers this week! New bands, old bands… all of it rules, so it’s unsurprising this is what y’all are buying over the past few weeks.

Besides the Erupt 7”, which is this week’s Record of the Week, we also have the new cassette-only Powerplant album from Static Shock Records in stock now. And for all of you asking about the Neutrals’ Bus Stop Nights 7”, we should have that in stock soon too!

We have the new full-length from New Zealand’s Unsanitary Napkin, titled All Billionaires Are Bastards, in stock now. I’ve been seeing a lot of talk about this record online and I’m pretty sure Sorry State is the only US distro with copies. We also have some for wholesale, so if you need copies for your shop or distro get in touch!

Mexico’s ESTARIA CHIDO PODER VOLAR brings us two flexis featuring content from two very obscure early Mexican punk bands: Size and Satelite City Punk Rockers.

This week we got in a few more copies of the ever-popular Retaliation album by the Chisel on La Vida Es Un Mus (like our previous batches, these are flying out the door) and we also restocked another LVEUM hot seller: Taqbir’s debut 7”.

My War zine is back with a new issue, their eleventh. As usual, this has a killer full-color layout and features interviews with hot punk/hardcore bands from all over the globe.

Dead Tank Records brings us the new album from Ohio powerviolence band Body Farm.

Convulse Records has a new release, a 7” from Wyoming’s Dirt Sucker. We also restocked a bunch of older Convulse Records titles, so dig in the catalog to find those.

We got a nice package from Japan this week featuring volume 2 of the books compiling content from the Japanese punk / skinhead zine Zero Magazine, and we also grabbed some dead stock copies of Discharge’s Propaganda Feeds 7”, which was originally sold on their 2011 Japanese tour.

Finally, we have the Death Instructions tape from Seattle hardcore / d-beat band Instruct.