Reviews

Shock to the System

Ancient Filth No More Hiding LP

ANCIENT FILTH has been churning out top-shelf hardcore punk since 2010, and their latest entry, No More Hiding, finds them their finest form. The album’s eponymously titled opening track sets the stage well, ratcheting up the speed and intensity quickly and succinctly from the totally ripping guitar solo to the full-on hardcore assault that follows. The musicianship is freakishly tight, but doesn’t feel manufactured or inorganic. The drumming is stellar, keeping the listener on their toes with tempos changing on a dime with a commanding exactitude. Blistering guitar riffs tear through the mix and cut in with some truly unhinged leads. Everything about this record is utterly crushing. Topped off with insightful lyrics delivered with characteristically memorable vocal hooks, No More Hiding is essential listening. Hardcore rules.

Ferriday Strangers / All Roads 7″

Two solid new songs from this quartet out of Albany, New York. With the shambling earnestness of mid-career REPLACEMENTS and the restrained bravado of HÜSKER DÜ in their Candy Apple Grey period, these songs would be equally at home on a ’90s college radio station or a present-day dive bar in an Elk’s Lodge. The singer’s voice brings to mind the NATIONAL’s Matt Berninger possessed by the lyrical spirit of David Lowery circa CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN.

Grawlixes Demonstration 2022 cassette

Blistering, lo-fi raw punk the likes of which upstate NY has not seen since NO FUCKER or their subsequent (and my preferred) band HERPES. That isn’t to say they are cut from the exact same cloth or anything. GRAWLIXES isn’t a by-the-numbers recreation of classic D-beat bands. It’s nasty, it’s driving, it’s also quite familiar. Hmm. Oh, perhaps that is because the same six songs were released on a cassette last year, entitled Demonstration 2021. Re-recorded versions of the same songs make up this second demo. No complaints here, as it is truly ripping. Word has it that a 7” is coming out very soon. Will it be the same six songs recorded a third time around? Even if it is, you can bet your life I’m getting a copy as soon as it is available.

Execütors / Male Patterns split EP

Grinding, harsh, gangly garage hardcore from EXECÜTORS. Soloing, maniacal-laughing streetwalking punk like GANG GREEN meets a NAILBITER hardcore attack. Anthemic at the heart with an irreverent attitude. Two tracks of no-fucks-given arcade-era hardcore. MALE PATTERNS play at a lower register, such as BUTCHER, with a MOTÖR-charged tempo that quickly roughens up the songs like some serious uppers. Drums triplet with accomplishment where it’s not even necessary, adding some interesting licks. Vocals are spat in kick-time with even more resentment and destruction than Side A. Together, this split offers all-go bitterness that sounds different, but flows together like the foulest brothers on the block. EXECÜTORS, MALE PATTERNS, what awfulness happened to you guys? Intimidated to even ask about it.

Male Patterns / Under Attack split EP

This is a split 7″ containing two pretty different sounding bands, but both sides of this slab of wax are worth the price of admission. The first three tunes come courtesy of Albany, New York-based MALE PATTERNS. This rips! Killer early ’80s East Coast-style hardcore like the ABUSED or (excuse the more contemporary comparisons) AGGRESSION PACT and CHAIN RANK, with the gravely, pissed vocals to match. It absolutely kicks butt. The flip side is also killer, with three tunes from Richmond, Virginia’s UNDER ATTACK, who deliver some righteous, crusty and fast hardcore. Powerful stuff on both sides! Even though the MALE PATTERNS side does win over this reviewer’s heart more, the UNDER ATTACK side is also a bona-fide burner.

Grawlixes / Unknown Liberty Chaos NY split EP

If you love CONFUSE, you will adore GRAWLIXES precisely because, just like you, they also love CONFUSE, and therefore loving GRAWLIXES is like loving the love for CONFUSE, if you know what I mean. The band is from Albany and some of its members played in NEUTRON RATS, if that rings a bell. There are four songs on their side, very well executed given the template: it’s fuzzy, loud, distorted, fun, a bit silly and delightfully pogoable. Proper punk music. Ten or fifteen years ago, there were a lot of bands doing the Japanese noisepunk thing (like the WANKYS or SAD BOYS, for instance), and I reckon GRAWLIXES do it with gusto. On the other side, we have UNKNOWN LIBERTY, who are mostly unknown I guess, from nearby Kingston—a band that I had noticed with their rather good Chain of Madness demo tape last year. They also have a Japanese hardcore punk influence, but they don’t rely as much on the Kyushu tradition as GRAWLIXES, although there certainly is a noisy distortedness about them and they do love some feedback in their punk. On that level, I am reminded of CFDL and crasher hardcore bands like (Osaka’s) ICONOCLAST or DECEIVING SOCIETY, but UNKNOWN LIBERTY also has a more versatile side and they do add some nice dissonant guitar leads, not unlike some Italian greats maybe. The vocals are harsh and insane-sounding, and as the crude dove logo suggests, they obey the peacecrust doctrine. This is a split that I would love to own.