positive punk

10.15.2021

PHOBIA

"generation coward"

Year: 2021

Country: US

City: Mission Viejo, CA

Label: Willowtip

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 13

Time: 15 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Grindcore

Long revered as true masters of grind, Phobia return with their latest storming album Generation Coward and its a full-on attack on a generation obsessed with social media and its flaws, with the band sounding as pissed off as they always have, perhaps even more as all the songs on here are delivered with a seething vitriol that is all the more impressive seeing that the band have been around for almost thirty years.

Generation Coward follows on from 2017s Lifeless God and like that album, this is relentless grind with crust and hardcore punk elements thrown in for good measure from start to finish. Kicking off with the viciously paced groove of “Cynic Bastard”, a song that transforms from the intimidating beginning into foreboding grind in the blink of an eye and from then on in, the heaviness is unrelenting.

Tracks like “Excretion”, “Cut Throat”, “Falsification” and “To Be Convinced” are all berserk blasts of grind from start to finish and sound massive while “Haters Be Hating When Ya Living Good”, “Imbecile”, “Internet Tough Guy” and the South Park sampling “PC Fascist Fuck Off” hammer the targets of Generation Coward perfectly in true grindcore fashion.

Even when the pace is dropped a touch as on “Aspiration Lost” and the closing “Condemned To Tell”, Phobia lose none of their power and still sound as heavy and pissed off as when they are going full throttle. The 8 second “Bozo Of Grind” is also pure grind madness and the fact that Generation Coward is thirteen songs in fifteen minutes shows exactly how grindcore should be delivered and Phobia deliver it in spades. This is angry music for angry times and Generation Coward perfectly attacks its targets with the right mixture of black humour and furious audio venom ad shows that Phobia go from strength to strength with an undiminished resentment for the modern world (*Review by Gavin Brown ).

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"lifeless God"

Year: 2017

Label: Deep Six

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 20

Time: 30 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Grindcore

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"grind core"

Year: 2012

Label: Deep Six

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 17

Time: 20 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Grindcore

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"22 Random acts of violence"

Year: 2008

Label: Deep Six

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 22

Time: 20 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Grindcore

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"cruel"

Year: 2006

Label: Deep Six

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 20

Time: 22 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Grindcore

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"grind your fucking head in"

Year: 2004

Label: Deep six

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 17

Time: 20 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Grindcore

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"serenity through pain"

Year: 2001

Label: Deep six

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 23

Time: 40 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Grindcore

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"means of existence"

Year: 1998

Label: Deep six

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 17

Time: 36 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Grindcore

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10.14.2021

EYEHATEGOD

"a history of nomadic behavior"

Year: 2021

Country: US

City: New Orleans, LO

Label: Century Media

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 12

Time: 40 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Sludge Metal

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9.04.2021

TURNSTILE

"glow on"

Year: 2021

Country: US

City: Baltimore

Label: Warner

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 14

Time: 30 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Hardcore

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time and space"

Year: 2018

Country: US

City: Baltimore

Label: Warner

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 12

Time: 27 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Hardcore

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"non stop feeling"

Year: 2015

Label: Reaper

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 12

Time: 26 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Hardcore

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"step 2 rhythm"

Year: 2013

Label: Reaper

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 11

Time: 15 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Hardcore

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8.25.2021

PENDRAK

"idem"

Year: 2021

Country: France

City: Paris

Label: Inhuman Homicide

Format: CD

Tracks: 15

Time: 20 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Grindcore

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8.23.2021

MESHUGGAH

"contradictions collapse"

Year: 1991

Country: Sweden

City: Umeå

Label: Nuclear Blast

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 8

Time: 55 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Groove Metal

Meshuggah is a avant-garde metal band formed in Umeå in 1987. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Jens Kidman, lead guitarist Fredrik Thordendal, drummer Tomas Haake, rhythm guitarist Mårten Hagström and bassist Dick Lövgren. Since its formation, the band has released eight studio albums, six EPs and eight music videos. Their latest studio album, The Violent Sleep of Reason, was released on 7 October 2016.

Meshuggah has become known for their innovative musical style and their complex, polymetered song structures and polyrhythms. They rose to fame as a significant act in extreme underground music, became an influence for modern metal bands, and gained a cult following. The band was labelled as one of the ten most important hard rock and heavy metal bands by Rolling Stone and as the most important band in metal by Alternative Press. In the late 2000s, the band was an inspiration for the djent subgenre.

In 2006 and 2009, Meshuggah was nominated for two Swedish Grammis Awards for their albums Catch Thirtythree and obZen, respectively. In 2018, the band was nominated for a Grammy Award for their song "Clockworks" under the "Best Metal Performance" category. The band has performed in various international festivals, including Ozzfest and Download, and embarked on the obZen world tour from 2008 to 2010, and also the "Ophidian Trek" .

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"destroy erase improve"

Year: 1995

Label: Nuclear Blast

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 12

Time: 45 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Groove Metal

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"chaosphere"

Year: 1998

Label: Nuclear Blast

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 8

Time: 40 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Groove Metal

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"immutable"

Year: 2022

Label: Atomic Fire

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 13

Time: 50 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Groove Metal

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8.22.2021

BETTER THAN A THOUSAND

"just one"

Year: 1997

Country: US

City: Washington, D.C.

Label: End Hits

Format: CD

Tracks: 12

Time: 20 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Hardcore

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"value driven"

Year: 1998

Label: End Hits

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 12

Time: 20 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Hardcore

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8.13.2021

ECOSTRIKE

"a truth we still believe"

Year: 2021

Country: US

City: Florida

Label: Triple-B

Format: CD, LP

Tracks: 9

Time: 21 min.

Genre: rock

Style: Hardcore

Let’s get something out of the way, I’m fucking straight edge. I feel it is important to lead with this pertinent information when it comes to reviewing this record. If you also identify with the lifestyle or perhaps you don’t and simply enjoy bands that have that classic Judge/Strife sound, I implore you, keep reading, we have a great record to talk about. Before A Truth We Still Believe came out, I was having a conversation with some friends about the state of straight edge music in 2020. One aspect we were ruminating on was the fact that bands of the subgenre just didn’t speak plainly anymore.

Many tracks that have come out in my recent memory seem to lean more on veiled messages, that for the uninitiated would be hard to discern. I’ve always thought the most effective lyrics in regards to straight edge were the ones that spoke directly. Think songs like “In My Eyes”, “Clear”, “Smash It," etc. With all this being said, South Florida's Ecostrike is veiling nothing in regards to their convictions on their sophomore performance and I am very about it.

I’ve always thought Ecostrike was pretty good. Previously, I was more into their vibe and message rather than their sound. I like Strife and I know since Ecostrike started they’ve been posited as a modern Strife incarnation, but on this new record I feel they have really come into their own. They find a cross point of sounding like Strife still, but incorporating some elements of Judge and making it sound distinctly from modern as opposed to something that could have been plucked from the New Age catalog back in the day. It sounds clean, tastefully metallic, and solid all around. My favorite song on the record is “Another Promise” because lyrically it hits so close to home.

Other standouts are “Count Me Out” and “A Truth We Still Believe," The latter of these two has an anthemic vibe that I’m sure will evoke the biggest of pile ons at the first show they are able to play off this record (Hell, I might go to said show myself just so I can join in). The tremolo harmonic work on “Letting Go” simply rocks and adds a cool guitar element to the track.

“A Better Way” reminds you that Ecostrike is also convicted in regards to animal’s lives, speaking plainly about veganism and empathy towards fellow sentient beings. When it comes to commitment, this record hits a lot of points.

A lot of the hardcore I first got introduced to was about unity, friendship, straight edge, and sticking to one’s word, this record brings me back to how I felt about those early records in my journey into the subculture. It’s like seeing an old friend’s child and seeing some much of their parent in their features, but the child being distinctly their own person as opposed to a copy. Having a sophomore LP best your debut LP is not an easy feat and Ecostrike has done it. I recommend everyone listen to this record at their earliest convenience and show anyone new to the genre looking for hardcore that has something real and sincere to say (*Review by Ace Stallings )

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