Featured Releases: March 11, 2025

Disturd: From the Darkside 12” (Black Water Records) Portland’s Black Water Records released the first 7” from Japan’s Disturd back in 2011, and nearly a decade and a half later, they’re back with the band’s latest release, From the Darkside. Disturd’s well-populated Discogs page shows that, in the intervening years, they’ve been busy with a slew of releases in different formats on a ton of different international labels. While I haven’t heard all of them (or even most of them), I get the impression not much has changed over the years, with the band continuing to explore the vintage UK crust influences that have shaped their sound since the beginning. To my ears, , Disturd sounds like those bands who took Amebix’s brooding, foreboding sound and exchanged the misty atmosphere for gleaming metal precision, with tighter playing and crisper, more detailed production. The label’s blurb mentions Antisect as a point of comparison, but Axegrinder’s Rise of the Serpent Men is another good one, and they’d make an excellent pairing with their label-mates Hellshock, too. From the Darkside features one side recorded in the studio and another live side, and the similarity between the two shows how dialed-in Disturd’s sound is. While I don’t think Disturd has any novel innovations on the formula that might convince a sceptic, if you’re a fan of this sort of heavy, chugging metallic crust, they know just how to scratch that itch.

Retsu: S/T 12” (Black Water Records) Black Water Records brings us the debut release from this new UK hardcore punk band featuring guitarist Scoot, who played in Extinction of Mankind and Doom. To me, Retsu sounds like a UK hardcore band whose members have grown and evolved—particularly in their playing and recording skills—but who never lost their anger at the system or their taste for a nasty riff. The riffs are my favorite part of this record, totally steeped in Discharge circa Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing, but with a knack for finding clever innovations that keep me from feeling like I’ve heard it before. The rhythm section is heavy and mean, but does a lot with stops, starts, and change-ups to keep the songs spicy, and while the clear production and super locked-in playing helps keep all this legible, it may sound a bit too “pro” or slick for the real down-in-the-dirt crusties. Lyrics tackle contemporary topics like Brexit and Nazis’ continued infiltration of the underground music scene (“NSBS”). Cheers to Black Water Records for giving this release the perfect home in the US.

Coronary: M.A.D.ness  12” (self-released) Second full-length from this Chicago band who infuses their hardcore with various styles of underground metal. Coronary feels like part of hardcore’s post-Power Trip moment where it’s not uncommon to hear bands weave together influences from heavy, tough-sounding hardcore, extreme metal, and classic d-beat. This slurry comes out differently with every band, but Coronary certainly makes it work well for them. From d-beat they get the simple, driving riffs and slightly groovy, in-the-pocket rhythms that keep songs feeling light on their feet, while metal provides the flavor (a dash of thrash riffing here, a well-deployed blast beat there), and the tougher end of hardcore lends its mosh parts for occasional big climaxes. The playing and production both toe the line between clarity and grime, tight without being clinical and energetic without being sloppy. If I had to level a criticism, it’s that sometimes the infusion of metal into the sound can feel a little too deliberate, like “here’s a grind part” or “here’s a death metal part,” but, on the other hand, Coronary has full command of all these styles and it’s nice that they mix things up rather than giving us 12 versions of the same song. If you’re into the strain of modern crossover you hear on labels like Quality Control HQ and Triple-B, this is well worth a listen.

The Disgusting: S/T cassette (Sex Fiend Abomination) The hot new Richmond label Sex Fiend Abomination brings us the debut cassette from the Disgusting, a mysterious new band from North Carolina. Sadly, I haven’t gotten to see the Disgusting yet, but their raw, noisy, and wild hardcore is a perfect match for the label that brought us recent releases by Cicada and Fried Reality. Like Fried Reality in particular, the Disgusting draws from the wild, nihilistic end of Japanese hardcore. To me, though, they don’t have the mannered quality of so many bands who pull from this sound, who often lean on easy signifiers (pogo beats, gutteral vocals, noise-drenched guitar) yet totally miss the vibe. The Disgusting nails the vibe, and listening to these four songs feels like being dropped into one of those massive machines that rends and shreds giant pieces of industrial machinery for recycling. The recording adds to the sense of disorientation, cloaking everything in noise and fuzz and working alongside the band’s manic energy to ensure the listener never finds their footing. But while it feels very loose and spontaneous, it feels like the Disgusting has taken seriously the task of making the most abrasive and, well, disgusting sounds they can… just get an earful of that wild feedback that ends the tape. A downright beautiful slice of noise-not-music.

Hekrojagotki: Majčice Veštice 12” (ОПАЧИНА) The Macedonian label ОПАЧИНА brings us this relic from their home country, a vinyl version of a wild 1992 cassette by Hekrojagotki (Некројаготки). Hekrojagotki is totally new to me, though maybe if you’re deep in the trenches of international underground tape trading you’ve heard of them before. Despite its obscurity (the group only produced this self-released cassette), it’s easy to hear why ОПАЧИНА wanted to put this on vinyl for a wider audience, because it’s some unique music. Part of what’s interesting is that it doesn’t fit neatly into one bucket. Much of what appears on this tape could be described as cult underground metal, though there’s a lot of variation even within that. Some tracks sound like super raw, early Pentagram demos, but amped up with a post-Bathory / Hellhammer heaviness. That combination of sleazy riffing and ugly heaviness also reminds me of the parts of G.I.S.M. or the Geizz that recall Motley Crue. Other tracks are even more evil and nasty-sounding, and could stand alongside your most underground 80s South American metal. But then as you make your way through this tape’s 20 minute journey, you also hear moments that recall Goblin’s prog-y film scores, and the last track channels the creepy ambiance of my favorite Residents material, even featuring a defiantly out of tune flute solo. Despite the eclecticism, Hekrojagotki doesn’t sound wacky or try-hard, just legitimately fucking weird and unhinged. The recording is very rough and 4-track-y, and oddly enough it makes me think of the most experimental moments of early Sebadoh or Guided by Voices, which makes sense given the original tape’s release date of 1992. Yeah, this is way the fuck out there and definitely won’t be for everyone, but those of you who crave the weird-ass shit from the margins are gonna LOVE this.

Inocentes: Miséria E Fome 7" (Morrer Discos) The new label Morrer Discos has set the bar high by starting their run with reissues of two of Brazil’s best punk records: Olho Seco’s Botas Fuzis Capacetes and Inocentes’ first EP, Miséria E Fome. While both bands debuted on 1982’s Grito Suburbano compilation, Inocentes share the slightly tuneful edge of their comp-mates Cólera, though these tracks have plenty of the bruising first-gen hardcore sounds that make Olho Seco’s EP such a classic. According to the label’s description, Inocentes originally conceived Miséria E Fome as an 11-track LP, but were forced to scale it down to a 4-song EP when the other tracks were censored by the country’s military dictatorship (the dictatorship ended in 1986, making way for the un-truncated Miséria E Fome to come out in 1988). As for this compact edition, it’s all impact. The a-side track is the anthem, with a multi-part chorus that builds slowly to the climactic chant of the EP’s title (which translates to “poverty and hunger”). I have a feeling it hits even harder if you know Portuguese, but it’s pretty darn exciting even for a monolingual punk like myself. The three tracks on the b-side speed things up considerably, with two lean rippers followed by the more complex “Calado,” which features tempo changes into this cool mid-paced part that reminds me of the Dead Kennedys. The music is all killer, no filler, and as with Morrer’s Olho Seco reissue, the packaging and presentation is detail-oriented and very true to the original artifact’s aesthetic. An essential grip for anyone into 80s international punk.