EP 255: 1st Wave Japanese Hardcore / Hardest '90s Demo
Killer episode this week on the pod. Check it out here, here, or here and check the playlist here or here. Almost all of the Japanese stuff wasn’t on Spotify, so you can check out all the Japanese demos on Youtube HERE and the hardest ‘90s demos HERE.
If you just want a taste:
Japanese hardcore playlist 1981-1985
This week we kicked off two hyper-specific tournaments:
We’ve talk a lot on this pod about how we love the big tent of punk and hardcore and I think this project represents that well - a yin and yang of the core so to speak. I wanted to dive into the first wave of Japanese hardcore records partially as a lesson for me. I hadn’t heard half of this stuff and I ended up really liking almost all of it. These days when people talk about Japanese hardcore, generally they’re going straight to the classic Burning Spirits stuff from the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, specifically Death Side and Bastard. It make sense since those are two of the best hardcore bands ever, they put out classic LPs, and they’re accessible on the streaming platforms. We can argue about the exact time when Burning Spirits started because it seems like no one has a definitive concrete answer. Was it the birth of Death Side? Maybe it was in 1987 when they released their first material, the final track on the Smashing Odds Ness!! comp? Or the following year in ‘88 when Death Side, Nightmare, and Tetsu Arrey all appeared together on the Eye Of The Thrash Guerrilla comp? I’d go back further than all of those and argue it started with Death Side guitarist Chelsea’s previous band, Poison, on their 2d 7” Mystery Temptation in 1986.
Assuming you’re in half-agreement with me, let’s call an end to the first wave of Japanese hardcore in ‘85, a year later than it ended in the US. That leads us to this project: choosing the best Japanese hardcore EP in the 1981-1985 era.
A couple quick notes…
The flexi is so important to this region and era. I’m assuming it was a cost thing, lowering the barrier to entry for a bunch of kids who didn’t have a lot of money to put out records. If someone knows the full story, get at me. The other is that there are a couple classic bands omitted from the tournament because they didn’t do EPs. The Comes & G.I.S.M. come to mind. If they did EPs would they have gone all the way or lost to Disarray and Geizz in the first round? Was Tower 7 a controlled demolition? We’ll never know.
Let’s get on with the first half of the opening round….
あぶらだこ aka Aburadako S/T Flexi (1983) vs. Gastunk S/T 7” (1985)
Tokyo’s Aburadako is a wild band that exemplifies the YOLO attitude of Japanese hardcore. Truly unique singing and you can hear the percolation of a triumphant sound in some of the tunes that would be a key element for many Japanese hardcore bands in the years to come. There’s a five-minute dragger and a 50 second blazer. The only thing constant here is that you don’t really know what to expect. This band’s sound changed throughout the years and they stuck around into the 2000s, releasing their last studio LP in 2008.
Also from Tokyo, Gastunk needs no introduction. Formed by ex-members of The Execute and The Comes, they were an all-star band out the gate and must have had big expectations. They first appeared alongside Ghoul, The Clay, and Systematic Death on the roughly recorded Hold Up Omnibus live comp in ‘84, but the self titled 1985 7” was their true coming out party. Three classic songs, all killer no filler, and a great recording to boot. When the verse on “Devil” kicks, it feels like entrance music that a wrestler would walk out to at Starcade ‘86 or some shit. Years later, legendary death match wrestler Jun Kasai would use a variation of this track as his entrance music. The highlight of this record is the b-side with its single song, “Shout.” The whole track is based around a little melodic guitar lick that they use as a hook and keep circling back to. My favorite part is when they build off the end of it into a full solo, then when they come out of the solo they do a brief cymbal choke transition section and then back into the hook. It’s one of my favorite hardcore punk songs and it’s a shining example of how awesome Gastunk were.
Gai Extermination 7” (1984) vs. Typhus S/T flexi (1981)
Gai started in 1981 as The Swankys but changed their name to Gai in 1983. They’re a noisy band with fuzzy, blown out guitars and manic vocals. The tracks are mostly fast, but the last is a mid-tempo banger and probably the best song on the EP. That track would get re-recorded and released on an LP in 1985 when they changed their name back to The Swankys.
Typhus is truly an original. They started in 1980 and put out a live demo the same year. In ‘81 they put out this flexi which is noticeably more hardcore. Depending on where you think The Stalin land, Typhus or The Stalin would probably be considered the first hardcore band from Japan. My personal take is that the Typhus demo and the first two flexis by The Stalin probably lean more straight punk, but the Typhus flexi and The Stalin’s first LP in 1981 are both hardcore punk. I don’t know which came first. This flexi reminds me a lot of the Dwarves LP Blood, Guts, and Pussy that would come out nine years later. Peep “Back Seat of My Car” and tell me I’m wrong. Shin from Typhus would go on to play in Gauze and Akio would go on to play in Aburadako.
Gudon S/T flexi (1985) vs. The Stalin Nothing 7” (1983)
Gudon play a super noisy, lo-fi brand of hardcore punk. This recording sounds like it could’ve been a practice room recording. The first song is called “Cock” so this may be the horniest band in the tournament so far. This was probably my least favorite 7” from this side of the bracket. The band is mostly notable for capturing legendary guitarist Zigyaku for the first time on wax before he would go on to do Bastard and Judgement.
I talked The Stalin a bit already so scroll up dude. This is The Stalin’s 5th or 6th EP. The a-side “Nothing” is undoubtably hardcore and that riff gets stuck in my head big time. It’s not d-beat at all but the way they keep clobbering you with the same riff over and over is kind of hypnotic like the best stuff of that genre. The 2nd song is more of a sleazy rocker. The Stalin remind me of Kraut in a way because they’re both kind of the ultimate bridge bands between punk and hardcore. They can sound almost like they’re different bands on the same record, and of course both are classics.
Confuse Nuclear Addicts 7” (1983) vs. Geizz We Wait For Song of Geizz (1985)
Nuclear Addicts is a blown out seven song 7” for fans of the rougher side of early ‘80s UKHC - Discharge, Disorder, Chaos UK, etc. The cover is a black and white photo of the band with charged hair and studded leather jackets and the record sounds just how the cover looks. The snare cuts through the noise enough to keep this record driving forward. The drummer does two different fast beats - a straight double-time beat and on some songs that are a tick faster, he goes to the scissor beat. “No Victor” is an example of a scissor beat song with some sick fills on the verse to boot. I think their sound works best with straight double-time though. “Hate (Is It War?)” might be the best song on the 7” cuz you can feel the bass punching through and sitting right under the guitar fuzz driving the track.
I had never heard of Geizz before, but this is a sick 7” with a killer cover as well. What does it even mean, maaan? A lot of the bands in this tournament do really epic intros which is a cool element of this era and locale. Geizz hold off until side-b to do theirs, the epic “Wild Boy’s” which straight up sounds like some Iron Maiden shit before kicking into a mid-tempo banger. The recording on this 7” is fabulous and the band has the chops to justify it - excellent drumming, soloing, and the singer has an awesome voice. Really, this is probably one of my favorite 7”s of the whole tournament. Toshi from The Execute played on this and the singer, Chatara, would go on to sing for The Execute…so I guess Geizz is a landing pad from and a launchpad to that band.
Crow Who Killed Dove 7” (1985) vs. Deadless Muss I Will 7” (1985)
Crow is a legendary Japanese hardcore band that even folks with cursory knowledge of the genre have heard of. This is their ferocious debut but they don’t flame out quick like some of their peers. Sometime in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s the singer, also named Crow, moved to Tokyo and did Grave New World as well as a recently unearthed project called Apocalypse that sounds totally diabolical. By the late ‘90s he got Crow up and running again and in ‘05 the band put out their masterpiece Bloody Tear. They put out an EP as recently as 2023 that totally rips. If Mob 47 are the OG champs for putting out a classic 7” in 1984 and then a raging LP in 2024, Crow has gotta be acknowledged as #2 with that ‘85-’23 spread between savage slabs of wax. Hibernate then dominate. Respect.
Deadless Muss is another band that I hadn’t heard before. They did a flexi in 1984 but I liked this 7” more. It’s a pretty good recording albeit with the vocals mixed too high. Here’s the thing about Japanese hardcore though - you just gotta let them cook and try to settle into it. I think being raised on straight forward USHC and especially with the last 20 years of high speed internet and having access to basically every piece of music ever, I got more and more dismissive, looking for excuses for why something isn’t worth my time. This tournament project was a great thought exercise to beat back those shitty habits of mine.
I loved the drumming on this record. It reminded me of Seven Churches where it just feels like it’s going to fall apart but it never does, giving it tons of charm. The singer is throaty and sounds gnar but sometimes he’s backed by semi-tuneful gang vocals. That’s a change from USHC where usually the gang vocals are harder sounding than the main vocal. The last track “To Do Nothing” is on some psychotic shit when the falsetto vocals hit at like 1:15. DA FUQ?! I love it.
Disarray S/T flexi (1984) vs. Mobs Projection Of An Astral Body (1984)
This Disarray record sounds pretty good which means someone must’ve preserved the reel and ripped it in the digital age. Back in ‘84 they somehow managed to fit seven songs on a flexi so it must’ve sounded like total ass. The guitars are big and fuzzy with the drums cutting through and the singer has a mean voice. This might be the record that sounds the most straight up like Discharge instead of a combo of platter of early ‘80s UKHC. They have a song called “Balder Dash” which is tight. “Bad Blood” is probably the best track. It’s a mean 3/4 fast tune with a good chorus, and some solid songwriting - drum break into guitar break into solo - hell yea!
Mobs are another band that has a sick, spacey intro to kick off the record. I wish it transitioned into the 2nd track more instead of standing by itself though. This record has a good recording and the snare sounds huge. They mostly rock the 3/4 fast, UK82 style beat. All four songs have killer guitar hooks. “Stormy Nights” is probably my favorite song. That bass break coming out of the solo before hitting the final verse is so ill. This was their 2nd and superior 7”. Shoutout to their member Kenji who also goes by the alias “Fuck.”
Freedom Last Revolution 7” (1984) vs. Zouo The Final Agony 7” (1984)
I love the cover art on the Freedom. They are another band with a sick, vibey intro - maybe my favorite of all of the ones on this side of the bracket. When it kicks into the main part of the song “Suicide” it sounds like it’s going to be a disappointing sloppo punk song that didn’t live up to the intro…then it hits the chorus. There are a fair amount of diabolical parts on these 7”s, but this might take the cake when the singer does that gremlin ass voice while the guitar is doing string bends. Fuckin’ awesome. The next song “Last Revolution” is annoying as hell though and legit the only song out of this whole lot that I can’t stand and was skipping whenever it came up on shuffle. Dude brings the gremlin voice back at the end of “Freedom System” again, but when this band isn’t being maniacal, they’re pretty boring.
Speaking of maniacal, if I had ambitions to be a serial killer I’d probably listen to this Zouo record on loop. Where Freedom dips their toes in the psycho river, Zouo dives in without regard smashing their head into a rock on the bottom. To be completely honest, this is a 7” that I’ve been trying to like for probably a decade. On the third listen through for this project, it finally clicked. Maybe it’s cuz it came after the Freedom 7” that was kind of boring, or maybe it’s because my mind has been altered from reading too many press releases in the Taco Bell/PBR era of hardcore. Who knows? Regardless of the reason, this thing rips. It does the Freedom-esque gremlin voice on “Making Love With the Devil” AND the Deadless Muss-esque falsetto on “Bloody Master.” If you’re a fan of Faces of Death and Bumfights, I recommend Zouo.
Jiga S/T Flexi (1984) vs. The Clay Middle East Combat Area 7” (1984)
I don’t know if it’s recency bias or what but I’m pretty convinced this 7” from The Clay is one of the greatest hardcore 7”s of all time. It’s the most straight forward of all of these records yet the hardest for me to describe. First, the recording is awesome - super thick and gnarly. Drums and guitars sound huge. The singer has a great voice and the choruses are memorable (“middle east combat area” / “cry for peace, cry for peace!”) Stylistically I guess it’s Discharge mixed with USHC and maybe a touch of furiousness of early Raw Power. If you love the 2nd and 3rd Anti-Cimex 7”s, you’d love this. It’s only three tracks but all of them totally smash. Someone sell me a Crowmaniax boot cuz I’ll never have the cash to justify buying an OG.
Jiga got boned in the matchups just like Aburadako did but I enjoyed this record a lot. The drumming is super fast and tight and there’s good riffing on top. I’d bet money that these dudes got their hands on a DRI record. This band shares members with Gas who we will get into next time on the other side of the bracket.
If we yin, we must yang…or something. By the ‘90s, punk and hardcore had splintered into a ton of different subgenres and lanes. One of these was sometimes disparagingly referred to as “tough guy” hardcore. The songs were hard and focused a lot on big mosh parts and the dance floor. Lyrics were not generally poetic - they were blunt, easy to understand and were generally delivered with a voice from the gut. I think it’s important to break out some things that differentiate this stuff from metalcore. Key components of metalcore in my mind are throatier vocals, discordant guitar parts, and more poetic lyrics - basically bands influenced by Earth Crisis, Acme, or the 2nd Rorschach LP. These bands are more influenced by late ‘80s NYHC and the moshier elements of crossover and thrash metal.
This group of demos includes some of my favorite bands of all time. It’s interesting to see who was fully formed out the gate and whose sound would evolve from the demo. Some of these bands went on to be pretty legendary and some didn’t go beyond being hometown heroes.
Like the flexi to the first wave of Japanese hardcore or the 7” to the first wave of USHC, the demo tape and the compilation CD were the backbone of the ‘90s hard bands. The cassette created an opportunity to put out music with a very low barrier to entry. Sure, you could go to a nice studio and print professional demos, but you could also just record on your friends 4 track and dub demos on your homie’s dual tape deck at home. And while most households had a record player in 1982, everyone had a tape player in the ‘90s. Even if cassettes weren’t your favorite format, you dubbed vinyl or CDs down onto them so you could jam them in your car or to play in your walkman or your boom box.
Compilation CDs like East Coast Assault, New York’s Hardest, The Harder They Come, and A Call For Unity highlighted these bands and feature some of their most legendary tracks. I don’t think you can tell and accurate story of ‘90s hardcore without acknowledging at least one of those.
25 Ta Life Demo 1993 (1993) vs. With One Intent Complete Failure Demo (1997)
If we are talking ‘90s HARD demos, it makes sense to start with 25 Ta Life - one of the most legendary NYHC bands from the era, for better or worse. We’ve covered them enough and 185 trivia champ Dan Sant knows every lyric so I won’t get into it too much other to say that “Smakin You Up” and “Inside Knowledge” are two stone cold classics. This recording is rough and they’d re-record everything later, but it’s cool to hear them in their original form here. If we were playing a hardcore version of Family Feud and the question was “what was the most readily available punk or hardcore 7” in record stores in the ‘90s?,” I’d probably answer either Aus-Rotten Fuck Nazi Sympathy or the 25 Ta Life Demo 1993 7”. The Havoc records website says they pressed over 20,000 of those Aus-Rotten 7”s so I’m guessing Rick must’ve pressed and sold at least 10k of these things. The knowledge doesn’t seem so inside after all now does it?
The With One Intent demo is killer too. Carlito’s Way sample into a hard-as-nails riff into a fast part - tight. The drumming is good, the recording is big, and they bounce between tempos well. I’d never jammed this before but was pleasantly surprised.
100 Demons We Are Forsaken demo (1998) vs. Stout demo (1998)
The 100 Demons demo is four songs that would be re-recorded and released on their classic LP In The Eyes of the Lord two years later. I lean towards the LP versions of these tracks cuz they’re what I’m used to, but these versions are solid and it’s amazing that 100 Demons came out the gate so fully formed. This is going to be a tough demo to beat. “Forsaken” is an all time track.
I love the Stout CD Sleep Bitch and was stoked when it got pressed on vinyl a year ago. They have one of the best singers for the style and “Dead Man Walking” is so undeniable - the fast bounce into that 3/4 fast part. So ill.
All Out War demo (1992) vs. Stigmata demo (1990)
On the topic of bands coming out the gate fully formed, this All Out War demo is a perfect example. They’re one of the bands who has long songs that can keep my attention cuz their riffing is top notch, the singing is monstrous, and they bounce between tempos seamlessly. It’s a beefy demo - 5 songs in 20 minutes but the thing pummels the whole way though. I mostly jam their 1998 LP For Those Who Were Crucified and honestly had no idea that they were around so early. It makes the demo even more impressive knowing that it predates Firestorm.
While the All Out War demo is forging a new sound in hardcore, Stigmata is kind of hanging onto an old one - crossover. The style that kicked off in ‘85 and blew up in ‘86 was still going in 1990 but getting stale. They do it well though, as showcased on “Thawing” and “Execution,” but the best track is “Trench Mouth” with solid head-bob riffing and a good chorus. Stigmata would come into their own on later releases, especially on their mid-’90s CD Hymns For An Unknown God.
Billy Club Sandwich Demo 96 (1996) vs. Death Threat Last Dayz Demo ‘98 (1998)
Billy Club Sandwich has been elevated to legend status by some modern beatdown bands and fans and I’m not mad at it. There is a wildness in their early recordings that’s hard to explain and is definitely unique within this style. The mosh call on “Abuso” is so hard and I love the drumming on the section after the mosh on “Narco Cabron” when dude makes the hi-hat sizzle. The singer is super unique too in the way that he bounces in and out of English and Spanish. There are other bilingual bands, but usually the songs are split or there’s a part of the song that’s one or the other. This is unique in the way that he switches it up in an pretty unpredictable way. Most of these songs were used for their 7” and split 7” the following year, both of which I enjoy.
Death Threat is a legit legendary hardcore band at this point. Peace & Security was one of the best LPs of the 2000s, and Last Dayz is one of my favs from the late ‘90s. I got this when it came out cuz I used to talk to the bass player Larry on AOL back then and he sent me one. “Brotherhood” is legitimately a perfect modern hardcore song - blending old and new styles into a total masterpiece. The other two songs rule too. This is pretty cannon because these three tracks were stuck on the end of the Last Dayz CD so they’ve always been available. This demo might go all the way.
Blood For Blood Hurt You demo (1995) vs. One Second Thought Queens Style demo (1997)
Like All Out War and Death Threat, Blood for Blood came out the gate fully formed with a dialed in sound of what they’d be known for (in their 1st era at least.) They sound like they’d been locked in a basement for two years with an endless supply of Colt 45 and only Sheer Terror and Neglect to listen to. What they emerged with was four savage, negative hardcore classics. Buddha had one of the greatest voices for hardcore, naturally low and mean. All four songs are great but “Paper Gangster” is one of the GOAT HC songs.
One Second Thought’s Queens Style demo has a killer recording, lots of head-bob riffing and enough starts, stops, and guitar breaks to keep things interesting. I usually hate generic chugga chugga mosh but the chug part at the end of “Headcheck” is so smooth brain and brief that I love it.
Bulldoze demo (1993) vs. No Retreat Familiarity Breeds Contempt demo (1995)
The lineage of beatdown is hard to follow. We all agree that it started with this Bulldoze demo and blew up out of the bars and VFWs in 2019 with the Sunami demo, but what about all those years in between? Was it dead except for a handful of German bands who were too ugly to get girlfriends and too broke to go to the RLD so they invented crowd killing? Does anyone even care? This genre mostly blows except for the bands that get retconned as beatdown like Bulldoze, Billyclub Sandwich, and half the bands in this tournament. Bulldoze was just a hardcore band and a great one at that. Bands since the birth of hardcore have fucked with different fast beats and tempos, Bulldoze simply just did the inverse. But there were still fast parts and big singalongs - two crucial old school hardcore elements. This demo rules and has been in constant rotation for me since I got it on CD in the late ‘90s.
Like Stigmata, No Retreat would come into their own a few years later. Their 1999 CD Rise Of The Underdog is held in high regard in some circles. I think it’s a pretty good, moshy record with a solid recording and pretty savage guitar tones. This demo is marred by a pretty rough recording and a bad mix but there are still some nice head-bob moments if you listen hard enough.
Buried Alive demo (1998) vs. Next Step Up Passive Aggression demo (1992)
Buried Alive is another band that came out the gate fully formed. Their two-song demo here features a pair of their best songs that would come out a year later on their LP The Death Of Your Perfect World. “Worthless” is such a killer track - fast, hard, concise. If you loved the first couple Terror records, you probably already love this stuff, but if you haven’t jammed it yet handle business. “Kill Their Past” starts a little Earth Crisis’y but still breaks fast at one point. They tuck so much into this sub-two minute track, it’s pretty amazing. And we gotta just mention that singer Scott Vogel has one of the best voices in the history of hardcore.
Baltimore’s Next Step Up has the beefiest demo of the bunch - eight songs at 28 minutes, longer than most full lengths these days. The recording quality is really good and it sounds like they went to a pro studio. I’d be lying if I told you that I made it to the end, but there are some big moments early here. “Bloodstained Eyes” is catchy and has a plethora of bounce parts. The “move it” into the mosh then switching back and forth between hi-hat and ride - hell yeah. “In Our World” is my favorite track with the scissor beat into the bounce mosh. If you like lots of riffing over bounce tempos, this is a band to check out. I enjoy their Fall From Grace CD from 1995, especially the first track and “Bloodstained Eyes” from this demo.
Clubber Lang Varsity Violence demo (1997) vs. Neglect ‘91-’92 Demo (1992)
I got the Clubber Lang demo back when it came out too cuz I used to talk to the guitarist Cooper on AOL as well and I interviewed them in one of the issues of my fanzine Always Try. The intro on “Execution Style” is one of the hardest intros of all time and then the body of the song rips as well. There are catchy vocal hooks and a sick bridge where they mix in a Rocky sample. The rest of the demo bounces between mid-tempo and mosh with a couple fast parts tossed in…cuz they’re a fuckin’ hardcore band.
Neglect is the ultimate cult band. If you meet someone who likes Neglect, they probably LOVE Neglect. I’ve never heard someone say “oh, Neglect? Yeah, they’re pretty good.” On Rateyourmusic.com, here are the hashtags listed for this demo: death, crime, urban, nihilistic, hateful, sarcastic, suicide, aggressive, pessimistic, angry. That sums the band up pretty well! If you like Sheer Terror and Blood For Blood, you’re going to find elements in Neglect that you like.
Check out the pod to hear our picks to see who moves on to the next round.
We’ll continue with the 2nd half of the Japanese HC opening round in two weeks and then chip away at these monthly after that. Hope you all dug this.
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- ZN