Reviews

Creative Class War

Karkaisu Tulenarkaa EP

Hardcore crust out of Finland. Very thrashy at points. In fact, this feels more like a metal album than a punk one. Not that I’m complaining, I’m a big fan of this release. It was almost a little shocking to see this was recorded within the last year—it honestly feels like this was unearthed from the early ’80s. Very tight recording, and the guitars are absolute fire. Blistering fast galloping that never wavers. Fantastic stuff, and the album art is the icing on the cake. For fans of early METALLICA and ZNOWHITE.

Hook / Korupuhe split EP

Here we have two bands from Finland churning out two different styles of punk, and each of them nails their target dead fucking center. HOOK’s songs are chock-full of simple, catchy guitar solos and fast-to-slow parts, and they fit the usual pop punk themes, from breakups and downtrodden boys being bummed out about unrequited love to a catchy song about the devastation of war in the streets. This is one hundred percent the stuff I was loving in my twenties. KORUPUHE blasts in with two hardcore numbers that are annihilating and relentless. They check all the boxes of great hardcore with multiple singers, group choruses, stop-on-a-dime musicianship, and a perfect breakdown in the middle of the song. I am gonna take a break from this and go find out what other stuff these bands have available. If you like either pop punk or hardcore (or both), then this is the split EP for you.