Hailing from Finland, Heathen Hearts play an absolutely crushing brand of hardcore. On this debut EP, their sound takes the guts of bands like H2O and Agnostic Front and applies a huge metallic crunch. The result is a sound that’s sometimes blisteringly fast but always oppressively heavy – a musical sledgehammer where the riff is king, and the guttural roars clear everything in their path. It’s the kind of introduction that’s both unsubtle and brilliant.
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AL PACINOS SISTER – DOGZ EP
In February 2020, Al Pacinos Sister (no punctuation) released ‘Trained In Karate’, a no-frills, no holds barred hardcore punk EP that valued speed and noise over almost everything else. The result was like experiencing a raw garage band tapping into the earliest wares from the Dischord label. Obviously, what the songs lacked in finesse they made up for with sheer balls, leaving behind the kind of lightning fast punky blast that seemed almost timeless.
TROCAR – Four Forfeit Digits EP
Advertised as “a love letter to Relapse Records” and inspired by bands like Mortician, this debut release from Arizona’s Trocar really doesn’t mess about. Its four tracks serve up lightning fast sheets of noise where industrial noise collides with the insanity of grindcore, aiming to hammer the listener into submission in record time. Valuing a relentless intensity over indulgence, it creates pure noise without sacrificing tightness or complexity.
THE RIGHT HERE – Reckless Kind / Molly
They aren’t especially well known in the UK, but The Right Here have been releasing enjoyable rootsy rock records since 2012. Capturing a sound that falls somewhere between Springsteen, The Gaslight Anthem and Nato Coles, the blue collar grubbiness within their work is laid on pretty thickly, but their gifts for knocking out riffs and hugely broad melodies makes their work widely appealing.
Their 2021 release ‘Northern Town’ was picked up for distribution by Rum Bar Records, placing the band in great company alongside Nato Coles, Watts and Nat Freedberg, A well rounded record, it placed the Soul Asylum-esque ‘Buy Me Another Round’ and ‘Every Once In A While’ alongside the punkier ‘Good Luck Trying’ and the countryfied ‘Drinks & A Dress’, giving the album a varied yet consistent heart.
The Fierce And The Dead unleash new single ‘Golden Thread’
As a band, The Fierce And The Dead have never been shy of evolving. From their noisiest post rock origins, they slowly grew into a melodic juggernaut, mixing heavy grooves and progressive textures on their third album ‘The Euphoric’.
There’s growth and re-invention, and then there’s genre-fluid, which is certainly where the band found themselves during the writing and recording of their fourth LP. Fans got a taste of the “new” Fierce/Dead in May 2022 when the ‘Wonderful’ single appeared on Bandcamp and other streaming services. For the first time, the band shared something song-based with a strong vocal, and for many, that was the biggest change. However, things had also taken an unexpected turn musically with a world of post-punk riffs colliding with the prog-ish experimentation.