Featured Releases: October 27, 2022

L.O.T.I.O.N.: W.A.R. in the Digital Realm 12” (Toxic State Records) Without ever fundamentally changing their sound, every L.O.T.I.O.N. record has been better than the previous one, and the trend continues on their latest album, W.A.R. in the Digital Realm. L.O.T.I.O.N. has always sounded to me like an aesthetic marriage between the 90s Wax Trax scene in the gnarliest, darkest end of Japanese hardcore (bands like G.I.S.M. and Kuro), which might sound like a simple formula on the surface, but those sounds are so different and the territory is so uncharted there’s a lot of room for L.O.T.I.O.N. to do their thing. One thing that amazes me when I listen to W.A.R. in the Digital Realm is how catchy it is without compromising the fundamental ugliness and harshness of the music. One way they achieve this is by paring down the choruses to just a few repeated words. This gets you singing along to tracks like “Desert E” and “Cybernetic Super Soldier” the second time the chorus rolls around. My favorite track on W.A.R. in the Digital Realm, “Every Last One,” also takes takes this approach to the chorus: “decapitation—every last one” (it’s a song about cops). The song also features my favorite moment on the LP, the part in the bridge where they repeat the line “the only good cop is…” again and again, building anticipation until they let loose the big payoff line we’re all waiting for… “a dead cop.” W.A.R. in the Digital Realm feels short at only eight tracks, but all eight tracks are distinct (particularly the J-pop leaning final track, “Cybernetic Super Lover”) and none of it feels redundant or like filler. And it goes without saying that vocalist and renowned visual artist Alex Heir makes sure the packaging is as compelling as the music.

Mutated Void: Roses Forever 12” (Iron Lung Records) What a disgusting mess! Canada’s Mutated Void has one of the most original hardcore sounds I’ve heard in ages, but it is fucking nasty. The closest comparison I can think of is Septic Death in its warped darkness, but filtered through the aesthetics of the rawest underground black metal and… 80s skate rock? It’s a singular concoction that needs to be heard to be understood, but to say the least, this isn’t for everyone. That’s what I love about Mutated Void, though… you can hate on the incomprehensible, snarling vocals, the “so loose they’re barely there” song structures, the no-fi production values, or the bewildering visual aesthetic… or you could just say fuck it and choose to love this patently unlovable record. I choose love. Bold hold on, I think I gotta puke…

Ojo Por Ojo: Leprosario 12” (Cintas Pepe) Mexico City’s Ojo Por Ojo is back with a new album, and if you liked the direction they were headed on their recent 2-song flexi, Paroxismo, you’re gonna love it. Since the beginning, Ojo Por Ojo has been a relentlessly bleak band, exploring the depths of human cruelty, pain, and suffering in their music, lyrics, and artwork. Steve Albini recorded Paroxismo, which was clearer and denser than their previous album, and even though he didn’t have a part in Leprosario, the sound remains changed. Leprosario is huge, rich, and bright, but rather than feeling glossy, it’s like looking at vomit on the sidewalk in the clarity of a sunny summer day. While the subject is as dark and uncomfortable as ever, these songs are so rich with texture that you get lost in the detail. It’s like Ojo Por Ojo has married Amebix’s brutal chug with Slint’s delicate iridescence. The closing track, “Carne,” is the prime example, a gloomy march that will have you alternately reaching and recoiling. And, as we expect from this band and the Cintas Pepe label, the artwork is excellent, its detailed illustrations and collages embodying everything I love about the music. What a record.

Terveet Kädet: TK Pop 12” box set (Svart Records) This five-LP box set compiles everything the legendary Finnish hardcore band Terveet Kädet (translation: Healthy Hands) recorded between 1980 and 1989. Most people credit Terveet Kädet as the first hardcore band in Finland, and they continued to carry the hardcore torch when so many other early hardcore bands put it down in favor of being more melodic, commercial, and/or artistically adventurous. For me, their first three EPs are essential 80s hardcore punk records, and they’re still my favorite Terveet Kädet records. Those records have the same joy of discovery you hear in the early Dischord and Touch and Go records, and as with bands like Minor Threat and the Fix, they grew into their chops and became a great fucking band. For me, they peak with their 3rd EP, Ääretön Joulu. After that, their music takes a definitive turn away from snotty punk and more toward the Discharge-inspired hardcore of bands like Bastards and Rattus. That’s hardly a bad thing… if you like records like Bastards’  Järjetön Maailma and Rattus’s  Uskonto On Vaara, it’s hard to imagine you wouldn’t like Terveet Kädet’s first album or The Horse too, and I do. I hadn’t listened to the late 80s EPs collected on the box set’s 4th LP, but it turns out I like those too, maybe even better than the first two albums. They’re still hardcore records, but they don’t feel as monochromatic as the first two albums, and they get back some of that spirit of discovery I liked on the early EPs. The fifth LP in the box features unreleased and rare tracks from the era of the first three EPs, and they are crucial, ranging from primitive rehearsal recordings to blistering live-on-the-radio sets to an entire unreleased EP that would have come out between TKII and Ääretön Joulu. The music collected here is excellent, but as I listened to TK Pop in its entirety twice over the last couple of weeks, I thought a lot about how I impressed I am with how TK Pop is put together. It’s a comprehensive collection, presenting the band’s discography during this period as a coherent body of work, much the same way many CD anthology releases did in the 90s and 00s. However, where I found so many of those CD anthologies exhausting to listen to, it’s clear the folks at Svart thought a lot about how people would experienceTK Pop. They cut each record loud at 45rpm and they sound great. Rather than proceeding strictly chronologically, they give care to making sure each record (or, with the EPs, each LP side) is a coherent and complete thought. And while you’re listening, you can look at the comprehensive insert book with a wealth of archival photos and fanzine interviews and a detailed discography. I just really enjoyed this box. It takes a bunch of records that are excellent in their own right and makes them work as something bigger, more impressive, more demanding, but ultimately more rewarding. If only every reissue could be this good.

Ä.I.D.S.: The Road to Nuclear Holocaust 12” (La Vida Es Un mus) It’s kind of weird that we’re looking at two industrial-tinged hardcore records by bands whose names are acronyms this week, but I guess sometimes Ä.I.D.S. and L.O.T.I.O.N. arrive in the same week and you just have to roll with it. I don’t want to get into too detailed of a comparison between the two records because they’re very different and don’t seem in dialog with one another in any substantial way, but one subtle yet noticeable difference is that while L.O.T.I.O.N. feels like a pop record with its chanted choruses and danceable beats, Ä.I.D.S. feels more like a rock record that’s built around riffs. A lot of the riffs remind me of Discharge songs like “State Violence, State Control,” elongated musical phrases that rely on chugging palm muting. We used to have this joke in one of my old bands that some riffs make you feel like you’re riding a chopper over the horizon at sunset, and that’s the case with a lot of these, giving them that badass “Motorcharged” feel so many bands aim for. Even better, while those longer riffs were a sign of Discharge’s imminent decline, Ä.I.D.S. is at pains to keep things maximally heavy and brutal. Everything is big and heavy, with the pounding drum machine rhythms and synth squelches pushing the vibe to something between Mad Max and cyberpunk. For something so gnarly and punishing, it’s a breezy listen… which makes sense because this is, at its core, a 6-song 45rpm hardcore EP, albeit one that elaborates on the form significantly.

Delivery: Forever Giving Handshakes 12” (Feel It Records) Hot off a string of excellent EPs, Melbourne, Australia’s Delivery brings us their debut album, arriving a mere 18 months into this ambitious band’s lifespan. The secret might be a healthier division of labor than most bands, because if I’m interpreting what I read correctly, Delivery boasts five songwriters and three lead vocalists in its ranks. Forever Giving Handshakes no doubt benefits from sharing creative responsibility, but it sounds cohesive… it’s apparent that Delivery has a clear idea of where they’re headed as a band. While their earlier releases were quirkier and more introverted-sounding, Forever Giving Handshakes sounds as joyous and alive as the photo on its cover, which features the band cresting the hill of a roller coaster. Much has been made of Delivery’s transition from a home recording project to a live band, and Forever Giving Handshakes sounds like a record made to be played in front of an audience… the first time I heard it, my mind drifted to a recently departed venue in our town, Neptune’s, a small basement bar and venue that would have been the perfect place to see Delivery in Raleigh. Fortunately, high-energy pop songs like this work just as well in headphones or on a car or home stereo as they do in a live set. Fans of contemporary Australian punk-inspired music—everything from UV Race to Alien Nosejob to Vintage Crop and back—will find this an essential listen, but the way Forever Giving Handshakes crackles with life and energy will win over anyone who loves to mix their pop with their punk.