Hello and welcome to another edition of the Sorry State Records newsletter! This week we have a slew of new releases for you, including some hardcore monsters from Hologram and Sistema En Decadencia, among many others. By the way, if you missed out on last week’s Record of the Week, Quarantine’s debut LP, Agony, we should get a restock soon. So, let’s get on with it… I think this week’s newsletter is pretty good if I say so myself!

Hologram: No Longer Human 12” (Iron Lung Records) Hologram’s first EP from 2018 got a lot of play around here, so my expectations for No Longer Human were high. While the weight of expectation can color my first experience of a new record, No Longer Human is such a phenomenal release that this isn’t a problem. When I wrote about Hologram’s first EP, I noted they were one of the most progressive and forward-thinking projects in the hardcore scene, but this record goes beyond genre-bending and into mind-bending. It’s hardcore devoid of cliche, rebuilt from the ground up and taking the least obvious, more difficult route at every fork in the road. The rhythms, while blistering fast, reach well outside hardcore’s confines for inspiration. Critics would describe the morse-code guitar leads in “Bite the Smoke” or the insane mid-paced intro riff for “Deprivation Fantasy” as complex and inventive if a noise rock band executed them at a quarter the speed, but Hologram rips into them with the wild energy of Neos or Deep Wound. It’s not all herky-jerky rhythms, either. Album-closer “See a Pale Light” starts with a dense, creepy sounding melody that reminds me of Sonic Youth at their most sublime, but finds its way into a nasty mid-paced hardcore riff. For all their strengths, these mid-paced hardcore riffs might be where Hologram shines the brightest. The breakdown is possibly the most cliche-ridden aspect of hardcore, but on No Longer Human, Hologram approaches this convention with a freshness I wouldn’t have thought possible, warping classic hardcore through a fractured, acid-drenched prism. As on their EP, Hologram deploys synths and noise sounds too, sometimes on their own (as in “Untitled”) and sometimes combined with the full-on hardcore (such as on “Innate,” where synth whirring occupies the space where you might expect a guitar lead), and these parts are just as inventive and exciting as the music performed on the more conventional (for hardcore) instruments. If you like the forward-thinking hardcore that Iron Lung Records specializes in, No Longer Human should be at the top of your list of things to check out.

Cochonne Feature on Bandcamp Daily

Bandcamp Daily just did a feature on Cochonne! Check it out here and learn about Cochonne’s inspiration and methods for creating their new record on our Sorry State. Just don’t google ‘cochonne’ 😬

Cochonne’s Emergency Now Sold Out!

I hope you grabbed your copy, because Cochonne’s Emergency is now sold out from Sorry State! If you’re still looking for a copy, check Bull City Records (Durham) or All Day Records (Carrboro) in North Carolina. These distros also have copies in stock or on the way: Feel It Records (VA), Total Punk Records (OR), Static Shock Records (UK), La Vida Es Un Mus (UK), Refuse Records (Germany / Poland), Society Bleeds Records (DC), Belltower Records (Mass), Celebrated Summer Records (MD), and Grave Mistake Records (VA). Thanks to everyone who picked up a copy and these great stores and distros for carrying it!

Scalple on Blue Sold Out

As I write this there is ONE blue vinyl copy of Scalple’s Skillful Butchers LP in our webstore, so unless you are quick on the draw, you missed out on this one too. Fortunately, there’s still plenty of black vinyl left, and it sounds just as good. We promise!

Lasso Limited Clear Yellow Almost Gone!

We’re down to fewer than 20 copies of the limited version of Lasso’s debut 7” for Sorry State. Those will disappear soon too, so don’t sleep!

Hüstler’s new EP Out Tomorrow!

Hüstler’s new self-titled EP on Sorry State comes out tomorrow, October 22! We’ll stream the entire EP starting tomorrow, but in the meantime here’s your final warning on the physical copies… there are 5 copies remaining on our Bandcamp site and then that one is sold out too! Don’t worry if you missed out, though, because Sorry State will release a 12” compiling Hüstler’s two cassettes soon.

This week’s edition of Hardcore Knockouts finds us in Denmark. I voted for Electric Deads like most of you because Electric Deads fucking rules, but Enola Gay is no slouch either.

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 Sin Without Doubt, the only vinyl release from North Carolina’s Holder’s Scar. A year after they released this EP, Holder’s Scar released a cassette titled Public Acid and shortly after that changed the name of the band to Public Acid too. This copy is on white vinyl, limited to 100 copies, and only $5 bucks. For a piece of North Carolina hardcore punk history! Wot a bargain!

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

GIGS!

OCTOBER 21
HÜSTLER IN NYC

OCTOBER 30
ZORN IN PHILLY

NOVEMBER 12
SCARECROW IN PHILLY

NOVEMBER 19
MUTANT STRAIN IN CHARLOTTE

NOVEMBER 20
MUTANT STRAIN IN CHARLOTTE

CHARTS

Cochonne: S/T 12” (Sorry State)
Lasso: S/T 7” (Sorry State)
Scalple: Skillful Butchers 12” (Sorry State)
Quarantine: Agony 12” (Damage United)
Straw Man Army: Age of Exile 12” (D4MT Labs)
Hüstler: Hüstler EP cassette (Sorry State)
Personal Damage: demo 7” flexi (Test Subject)
Suffocating Madness: S/T 7” (Active-8 / Roach Leg)
Sistema En Decadencia: Neustro Legado 12” (Hardcore Victim)
Algara: Absortos En El Tedio Eterno 12” (La Vida Es Un Mus)

While Sorry State’s in-house releases still rule the roost, Quarantine’s Agony rocketed straight to the top of the charts. We had a very large stack that was sold out by Tuesday afternoon, but for anyone who missed out, we’re expecting a restock. We also have some other new entries in the chart, all of which have been approved by YOU, the people of Sorry State.

Click here to see what the SSR Crew is into this week!

The latest release on New York’s Toxic State Records, the debut EP from Anti-Machine, is in stock now! This band features a bunch of SSR friends so it’s close to our heart, and of course it rips and has awesome packaging! More on this one soon.

White Stains’ Make Me Sick 12” was one of our favorite releases of last year, and while the vinyl has been sold out since shortly after it came out, La Vida Es Un Mus just whipped up a new pressing. It’s out tomorrow, but we have it in stock now, so we threw it up on our website. Don’t be mad at us Paco!

We have two new treats for lovers of Canadian metal! Supreme Echo Records brings us a reissue from early 90s Canadian thrash band Malevolence, and we also have copies of Eve of Darkness, a new phone book (remember those LOL?) sized tome from the same people who brought you the Tomorrow Is Too Late book on Toronto hardcore punk a few years ago.

While the new Death Side 7” / DVD sold out immediately (see Daniel’s staff pick for more info on that), we have a few other CD releases in stock from Japan’s Break The Records, including official CD versions of Death Side’s two full-lengths, a compilation from 00s crasher crusties Gouka, and Skitklass’s ripper Primitiv Kansala.