Stimming in the pit

Hey, i started writing about music again.

Active Minds also released a split in 2017 with one of the pioneers of contemporary Spanish hardcore punk, Ultimo Gobierno. I won’t go oo much in the details for the AM side, it’s kinda similar to the material on the LP with more emphasis on faster punk songs. Ultimo Gobierno’s stuff isn’t that different either, however even from the first few tacts of their side you an hear that they’re the younger ones here. It’s got great speed, good and catchy songs with occasional solos, and almost d-beat like simplicity. Great release all in all, if you check only one side of it it should be UG’s

“These kids and their stupid smartphones nowadays, amirite?” This is the vibe that the cover of this album by one of the UK’s premier hardcore punk exports gives off, which is a bit cringey but luckily this isn’t a concept album about old people yelling at kids to Pokémon Get the fuck off of their lawn. I mean these guys are old, but they seem to aged well. Starting off the album with the slower, anthem like The Seeker (a bit of an Amebix worship imo) you’d think this will be an easy ride, but things get faster right in the next track. Here i noticed that this album reeks of the 80′s - in atmosphere mostly, the guitars have some kind of swirling sound (what i thought when i said Amebix worship) and the melodies are sometimes almost in post-punk territory. Then they throw in a crust track. So yeah, it’s a quite amusing album, Be sure to check out the new one that dropped just a few days ago. Highlight: Complete And Utter Indifference FFO: 80′s punk/crust from every part of the genre

Warwound’s story started in 1983 and ended one year and three demos later. Two members went on two form Sacrilege and WW was forgotten about until 2015 when Damian Thompson guitarist decided to resurrect this band with some new members including Tony from The Varukers behind the mic. Two years later we have the debut LP of Warwound. What is it like? Well it’s definitely rooting in old school crust and hints of thrash metal. Is it good? Well to be honest i liked the new Varukers more (more about that later). But it’s not bad. Highlight: The World We Deserve FFO: Sacrilege, After The Bombs

This Spokane band, however does bring new to the table. When i first saw this the artwork was different, i think it was some kind of tank, which was pretty much fitting for the music itself. Right off the bat Hall of Mirrors starts out with an absolutely crushing midtempo death metal riff, and doesn’t accelerate or slow down for its whole 3 minutes. Demizens Decline however gets a lot slower, and somewhere about that time was where i realized that this is a lot like Bolt Thrower’s punk cousin i listen to. This track also picks the same pace up the first did after 2 minutes of introduction. Not gonna go all the way through, if you’re into Bolt Thrower, crust or both, this is a need for you. Highlight: Demizens Decline FFO: Bolt Thrower, crust, or both

Sometimes i feel like punk rock has had this golden era it was in the early 10′s winding down after more and more of these bands announce their breakups and not a lot of new ones rising up from the ashes. One of these new ones is Debt Neglector from Florida. The title track starts this off somewhat moderate, but from the second song it kinda picks up. Doesn’t feel like this one brings anything new to the table of course, but it’s kinda fine for me, so check it out. Highlight: Thoughts And Prayers FFO: The Riot Before, American Steel

One of metalcore’s original warriors, All Out War sure didn’t hurry with this LP, coming 7 years after its predecessor (if we don’t count two EP’s they put out in that 7 years), but i think it was worth the wait. Of course it doesn’t really show us anything new, they’re doing what they always did, but they’re still good at it. We have some guest vocalists here and there to spice things up a little and at the end they also throw in a fucking Nausea cover. So yeah, it’s pretty cool if you ask me. Highlight: From The Mouth Of Serpents FFO: Integrity, Ringworm

Rejiem side: https://rejiem.bandcamp.com/album/pale-hands-split Going back to some gnarlier stuff we have two US bands doing a split. Pale Hands from California carefully circle around crust, but their music mainly roots in death metal. What they play could be close to what Discrow did (RIP), with less blastbeats and more tupa-tupas. The three tracks here by them are pretty strong. jiem hails from Boston and they’re much simpler to describe, we have some good old female fronted crust here. I’ve heard them first on their split with Leash, i liked that one a bit more, as it’s rawer than this effort, but they’re not bad here as well. Good split. Highlights: Pale Hands: Cursed Reality Rejiem: Empty Promise FFO: PH: Discrow, Stormbringer Rejiem: Iskra

One track in almost 20 minutes - this is what the fourth album of this Bay Area pop-punk band offers, and however this isn’t the only experiment with similar bands doing awfully long tracks (Chixdiggit had a 24 minute song released as an EP about one of their tours, and than there’s that 70 minute monster Bracket put out in 2016 - though that one was a complete miss for me), i must say that this is probably the one where the most work was put into it. I mean, it is really constructed as a 20 minute song should be constructed, it has it’s natural progression. Also it never really gets boring, it’s full of catchy melodies, that they aren’t afraid to expand at all (see the section starting at about 06:40). This track might not be one of its kind, but definitely the best of these experiments, hopefully there’ll be a lot more of these in the future. FFO: The Wonder Years, In With The Out Crowd

Oh, i forgot this band when i was discussing FUCK! on Monday. These Australians are really close to that kind of really fast punk rock, they always played this style and they didn’t change anything for this album as well. It’s really akin to NOFX, so if you’re into that, you’ll like this one as well, fast and catchy songs with half-humorous, half-serious lyrics. Highlights: Cunt Act, Don’t Cast Aspergers on Me FFO: NOFX