Episode 258: May 2025
Killer episode this week on the pod. Check it out here, here, or here and check the playlist here or here.
Are obi strips cool or nah? What does it say about your band if you have more merch designs than songs?
I’m heading to Punk Rock Bowling next weekend to see Cock Sparrer who I never got around to seeing for whatever reason. They’re my single bucket list band and I’ve been saying for years that if they ever played again in driving distance that I’d go. Dillinger Four is playing Friday night so that’s a nice perk too. I will be hitting the Punk Rock Museum while I’m there as well and will be posting a little bit more than usual on the 185 Instagram most likely, so check that out.
Let’s get into the newerish stuff. Some quick hits:
The Steroid LP has been on constant rotation since Daniel big upped it in the Sorry State newsletter. I don’t know why I love this thing but I do.
It’s been a really good year for the troo punx. We did some quicker hits on a handful of exceptional records that land on the rawer side of the hardcore punk spectrum.
I enjoyed all four of these a lot and bought physical copies of a couple.
My quick takes:
Hierarkin: Really creative, well produced D-beat with some hot licks. I love the riff on the first song so much and there are big moments throughout this thing that pull me out from rockin to just go, “sick!”
Tàrrega 91: Ripping straight forward hardcore. Literally no frills. I’d have to re-listen to see if they even wrote a bridge. The recording is great and only one song breaks 90 seconds. Hell yea. To write good shit this stripped down is so hard and Tarrega 91 sound savage without using any sort of bullshit studio fluff to dirty them up. Shoutout Catalonia.
Exploator: Ex-Totalitar dudes return with another ripping record. Who knows how they keep doing it? RESPECT.
Ultimate Disaster: I’m admittedly a giant poser of the raw punk genre, so take what I say with a grain of salt or whatever but I walk away from multiple listens to this record having the same two initial thoughts from my first listen:
This is one of the most generic records in the history of hardcore punk.
This is one of the most well done straight Dis-core records I’ve heard.
I’ve said multiple times on the pod, my go to’s for this style are the Disaster LP, the Discard 7”, and the first Meanwhile LP. This fits right in. The production is great. There’s no fluff. There are big choruses. It’s super predictable, you know exactly what’s coming every time. They hit the buzzwords: slaughter, oblivion, etc. They even do the obligatory “Why (Reprise)”-esque song. I mean everyone does it eventually but Disclose waited til their last record, Physique did it on like their 5th release, etc. I will say that Ultimate Disaster did it best cuz they kept it under two minutes.
Kinda echoing my sentiment on the Tarrega 91, I think with straight forward hardcore punk people really don’t understand how hard it is to execute something so precise and I think Ultimate Disaster has to be commended for making the record they no doubt set out to do. This is all to say, I really do love this LP but then again, you know…I’m a poser of the genre.
The two LPs we dove into this week were:
Bulls Shitt S/T LP Rebirth Records
Bulls Shitt return with an LP following up their excellent 2022 7”. It’s part 1982 USHC, part 1983 No Future, and part Boston circa 2010 but with more YOLO than any of those produced. It’s pretty frenetic listen, bouncing between tempos and vibes - sometimes they’re hitting a gnarly scissor beat and sometimes it’s sleazy mid-tempo rock ‘n’ roll. They transition seamlessly between all the styles and tempos which creates a listening experience where I’m always on my toes but not necessarily able to settle into anything. It’s a wild listen and a killer 12”. If I was still drinking and this band was local to me, they’d probably be my favorite band. Every single song they’ve put out so far (including the exclusive song on the 185 Miles South of Somewhere comp) have been great. It makes me wonder if we’re witnessing the early stages of an Out Cold type catalog. Order here.
GUNN S/T LP Going Underground Records
So there are two bands called a variation of “gun” out now. Both are killer and both have great taste in LP cover art. This GUNN (or G*U*N*N*) from Orange, CA is not to be confused with G.U.N. out of Nashville, who put out an excellent LP on Sorry State in 2023. The scenario here doesn’t seem to be a part of the modern day too-lazy-to-check-discogs habit that’s infected the current zeitgeist of hc/punk band naming. Both bands put out demos in 2019 and wouldn’t be expected to know about each other. So now that that’s settled, lets go on about the G*U*N*N* LP…
Blend D.I., The Clitboys, and the Circle Jerks, record them with Pro Tools, get them addicted to the amount of samples on 40 Oz. To Freedom and you’d end up with something that sounds like this LP. The sequencing makes the record. It feels really well thought out and makes for an easy listen. I jammed it a handful of times without getting bored. The samples get kinda old by the 3rd listen, but the way they are integrated into the songs is commendable. It’s a long record for modern times - 14 songs in 27 minutes, although five of those can be attributed to a reggae tune, mercifully attached to the end of the final track. They’re really not beating the 40 Oz. accusations here. I’m sure brudda Bradley would love this record if he was still with us though and Johnny Wood probably blares this in his drop top. Order here.
We continued the HARDEST ‘90s DEMO tournament with the 2nd half of the opening round.
Merauder 1993 Demo vs. Darkside NYC Suffer in Silence demo (1992)
In the last few years, Merauder’s 1995 LP Master Killer has been elevated into the GOAT conversation for hardcore LPs. It is for sure a great LP - 10 brutal tracks with big hooks that don’t overstay their welcome, a nearly impossible task. The production is top notch which makes it accessible to everyone, even newer kids who might find ‘80s production to be a challenging listen. I’d easily put it in the top 50 of the ‘90s, but let’s be real…you’re not sniffing the top 10 without a fast part.
This is the 2nd Merauder demo and has their original singer Minus on vocals. There are folks who will argue this over Master Killer and I get it because the vocal approach is a bit different. Jorge, who sang on Master Killer, has a gnarlier metal-styled voice and Minus has a more hardcore voice akin to Anthony Comunale from Killing Time. Both are great vocalists in my opinion and Minus sounds awesome here.
This demo is three songs in 12 minutes. Two of the songs got re-recorded for Master Killer and “Final War” got re-recorded for their 1999 LP Five Deadly Venoms. I think this version of “Final War” is far superior. It’s more uptempo and the solo is more dynamic. I’ve listened to Master Killer so many times that those just feel like the definitive versions of “Besiege the Masses” and “Life is Pain.” The latter is significantly improved on the LP because they add palm muting to the chorus riff. All that said, this is great demo. 3 songs, all bangers and the production is really good.
Darkside NYC featured guitarist Alan Blake who played in Sheer Terror on their demos and the Just Can’t Hate Enough LP. You can hear it in the unmistakable Celtic Frost-esque guitar tone. This band sounds like the next logical step for Blake, writing songs that are getting heavier and gnarlier.
We chose their second demo for the tournament. It’s six songs in 17 minutes and four of them got released on a 7” the following year in 1993. The production is great and the demo goes hard the whole way through. It’s significantly better than the 1991 demo both production-wise and in the vocal department. The addition of Rich O’Brien on vocals was critical. On the 1991 demo, bass player Baron Thorn did the vocals would often slip into a stripper-metal delivery. I think they sent him off to Scores to serenade the talent because he was bounced completely off this demo and replaced by Jeff Morlos on bass.
Cold As Life 1995 Demo vs. NJ Bloodline Be Afraid demo (1997)
It was hard to choose which Cold as Life demo to enter into this tournament but we settled on their four-song 1995 one. Three of these songs got re-recorded for their classic 1999 LP Born To Land Hard. “Addicted” is the one song that wasn’t and it was originally off their 1989 demo. You can tell too, it fits the mold of their old style which was more anthemic street punk/oi. Killer jam. “All Alone” is one of my favorite Cold as Life songs. It gives the vibe of driving around in old hooptie while it’s freezing cold outside and the snow is beige from exhaust fumes. You have the windows up and you’re chain smoking Camel Wides while wearing gloves and taking pulls of Early Times out of a shitty old flask to stay warm. This song rules and so do the other three.
We originally had NJ Bloodline’s 1993 demo in the tourney before we were set straight by Joe Hardcore to switch to their 1997 Be Afraid demo. It was the right move. I guess I just always thought that one was an EP, but it turns out that it was originally a demo in 1997 before getting re-released as a CD in 1999. To hear the 2nd half of the track “Be Afraid” is to know it forever. Did this song alone keep more kids off crack than the entire youth crew movement combined? Maybe. The production on this demo is top notch and maybe the best in the whole tournament.
“Excuse me…SCUMBAG.”
Enrique Maseda aka Wreak Havoc was a great frontman. He spits a ton of lyrics that flow nicely and have tons of personality and flavor. If you love the style, it’s some of the best. If you hate the style, it’s probably a nice example for why you feel that way.
I never needed a set of instructions
Get on your knees and make with the suction
When words are useless, then the fist comes through
It's not a threat or a promise, sucker. It's just how we do!NJ Bloodline “Fist”
Denied Payback demo (1996) vs. Krutch Whereuat demo (1995)
We can all pretty much agree that modern beatdown sucks, right? We should also acknowledge that the roots of it (Bulldoze demo/7”) are pretty awesome. Denied probably sounds the closest to Bulldoze out of all of the bands in this tournament. It’s hard to get a great read on this demo because it sounds like someone upped a 3rd generation dub, so it has that underwater quality to it, but you can make out a plethora of mosh and bounce tempos and lyrics about being yourself/getting revenge. Four songs in 14 minutes. What makes this the most interesting is that they tuck in some oi/street punk parts like on “Betrayed Friend” and “Go Back To Where You Came From” which cut up the mosh nicely. Someone upload a good quality version of this if it exists.
If you know ‘90s hardcore, especially in this lane, you know Krutch. They’re legit PAHC legends and Richie is a friend of the pod who went on to do Wisdom In Chains. Three songs in 10 minutes, including two of the most classic Krutch songs in my opinion (“Nature”/”Fist Thrown Up”). This demo sounds solid - heavy guitars, drums that cut through, and a good mix on the vocals. The gangs vocals sound hard as hell. The backbone of “Nature” is a great bounce tempo. It has a great, catchy chorus and a hard mosh at the end. “Fist Thrown Up” is top notch head bob bounce. Great stuff and killer demo.
DMIZE 1992 demo vs. Kickback Winter Ends demo (1993)
DMIZE put out two demos. The first includes includes two different recording sessions and some folks refer to those as demo 1 and demo 2. Then there’s this 2nd (or 3rd) one that came out in 1992. It was hard to decide which one to go with here. I’d say the first has the most personality and the intro into “Backlash” might be the best one-two of their catalog. We sided with the 1992 demo though. It sounds the best and you can hear more of where both Beto and Hoya would go in their next projects (25 Ta Life / Madball). “Soul Search” and “The Dawn” are both uptempo bounce with killer solos. “Misery” is more downtempo, kinda similar to the riff on Slayer’s “Mandatory Suicide” but eventually they hit back into their uptempo bounce that they’re known for. If I’m being 100% honest, I don’t love the singing on this. I think Leeway was such an influence on all the bands of this genre and era that sometimes little flourishes of Eddie Sutton leak into everyone but not everyone can do that stuff well, or self edit to know that it’s better to just yell, not sing.
It’s wild what time and the internet can do to some bands. Sometime in the last handful of years, Kickback has been elevated into legendary status in hardcore similar to how Dystopia has been elevated for internet crust heads. This French band is the only international band in the tourney, and actually the only one not from the East Coast of the US. They put out five full lengths between 1995 and 2011 and still play gigs once in a while. This demo is four songs in 14 minutes and I don’t believe any of them got re-recorded later. Like the Denied demo, we’re going off a pretty bad 3rd-gen sounding cassette dub ripped to MP3 so some of the intricacies of the music are probably lost. It’s super riffy. The vocals sound hard. They bounce between basically every tempo there is except a fast beat. “On My Feet” is the best song. It’s punishing and flips between mid-tempo and mosh with a little bit of bounce.
Dying Breed 1995 demo vs. Irate 1996 demo
Troy, NY’s Dying Breed hit us with six songs in 16 minutes. Half of these songs get re-recorded for their 1999 LP. I gotta be honest here, I hate the singing on that LP but it’s pretty killer here. If you compare the demo version of “Nothing to Prove” to the LP version, this version is hard as hell where the LP is full stripper metal. This still slips into that a bit on “Throwaway” but the majority of this things is just hard. “Face Down?” HARD. “Rise?” HARD. “LOCK DOWN?” Undeniably hard. That’s one of their best songs and I believe it’s exclusive to this demo.
Irate is synonymous with the late ‘90s/early 2000s Castle Heights scene in Jackson Heights, Queens and is probably most known for their song “Vendetta” that came out on their 2005 CD. That’s a good run cuz here we’re talking their demo from almost a decade earlier. It’s three songs in 11 minutes and has a pretty rough recording but this thing is IGNO. “Malintentions” starts raging fast before hitting a bounce riff then adds the vocals. It hits back and forth between the two tempos - this song rules. “Step To My World” is too metal for me - some clean channel, some death metal vox at the end. Then “Straight Up” is, well, more straight up in line with the bands in this tourney juggling between bounce and mosh.
E.Town Concrete Prepare For Kombat demo (1996) vs. Everybody Gets Hurt NYHC demo (1997)
E.Town Concrete put out two demos in 1996 but we chose the 2nd one aka the green demo aka Prepare For Kombat. It’s four songs in 14 minutes and three of these get re-recorded on their first full length, Time 2 Shine. E.Town play a style of mosh metal mixed with hip hop which I will admit sounds miserable on paper, but like most bands who are the best of their genre, there’s merit there. I love the first two E.Town full lengths and the Fuck The World EP.
They made it out to the West Coast several times in their prime. The first time I saw them was at The Living Room in Santa Barbara. There were probably 30 kids but they played like they were playing for 1,000. When they came back after putting out Second Coming, they had the full keyboard setup and everything. They were kinda the odd man out band at a Chain Reaction show with Kill Your Idols and Carry On, but they were awesome. The last time I saw them was in ‘02 or ‘03 when they were on tour with Ill Nino at the Key Club in Hollywood.
Great sounding recording on this demo and all four songs are killer. Ant Money’s gut voice is one of the best.
Everybody Gets Hurt is another band associated with the Castle Heights scene in Queens. This is a beefy demo - five songs in 19 minutes. It’s a super professional recording and sounds great. They flip between mid-tempo, bounce, and mosh and are super riffy like many of the bands in this tourney. The last song “Homefront NYC” is more anthemic with a big chorus.
Freight Train Off The Tracks demo (1998) vs. Fury of V Reflections Of Reality demo (1995)
Philly’s Freight Train hit us with five songs in 14 minutes. It’s a good demo recording and the guitar sounds savage. “Throwdown” starts gnarly - cymbal chokes into a palm muted mosh before breaking uptempo mid-tempo for the majority of the track. Then they hit us with a big chug mosh on the end. “Legions” has a big chorus that is very Biohazard’y. Cool demo and one that I wasn’t super familiar with before their recent resurgence.
Fury of V is a legendary NJHC band. Four songs in 14 minutes. Three of these songs get re-recorded for their 1996 LP and “Taste The Steel” goes onto their Telling It Like It Is 7”. One of my biggest record selling regrets is parting with a signed copy of No Reason To Smile that I purchased while on tour in Canada. This is another 3rd-gen dub sounding demo so I can’t comment on the recording quality but these are some of the most classic Fury of V songs. “Deadhead” is an all-timer, fast with a huge mosh. 185 Miles South patreons know “Want It All” with that iconic toggle switch intro. “Taste The Steel” bangs too, especially when they add double kick to the early mosh. Killer.
Hatebreed 1995 Demo vs. Full Contact Demo 1994
Before Hatebreed turned into a motivational-metal act, they were one of the greatest hardcore bands on the planet. Satisfaction is the Death of Desire is one of the greatest hardcore LPs of all time and the stuff that precedes that is pretty legendary in its own right. I first discovered Hatebreed on a VHS comp sometime in 1997. As a fan of portly singers playing hard, fast music I was like…oh shit, what’s this? So the next time I was down at Vinyl Solution in Huntington Beach, I picked up the Under the Knife 7” and the split with Integrity. I wore those things out by the time I bought Satisfaction on CD at Salzers in Ventura the day it came out that November.
The Hatebreed demo is classic. Three songs in eight minutes. “Not One Truth” and “Puritan” get re-recorded for Satisfaction. “Severed” is on the Neglect split. The beginning part of that song may have been kinda reworked to be “Prepare For War” on the LP. There’s nothing like this early Hatebreed stuff. Super heavy with that piccolo snare. This demo sounds way better than Under The Knife.
Full Contact is Jorge Rosado’s band before he joined Merauder to record Master Killer. Four songs in 16 minutes. We’re working off another rough, 3rd-gen sounding tape copy here. Jorge sounds great. That triplet mosh on the end of “Walls of Oppression” is epic. “Why” gets kinda groovy and jammy in the middle but most of this demo is just hard, riffy, and moshy.
The Clitboys We Don’t Play The Game 7” Feedback Records, 1983
Quick hit on this old school Milwaukee 7”. It got re-released on Beer City in 2015, so it’s pretty easy to cop if you’re into it. Two things that got me thinking about this 7” again. First, some of the simple, fast GUNN songs remind me of this record. Second, a friend of the pod sent a bracket that Matt from Burning lord made and said he thought The Clitboys would win the whole thing.
For me, Offenders probably beat The Clitboys in the left side semis and make it to the finals where they lose to Rebel Truth on the strength of their 7” which feels dirty because Offenders put out two really good LPs. I just think that Rebel Truth record is super unique and good.
But back to our 3rd place winner, The Clitboys. This is a killer 7”. It follows a simple fast/slow formula but is really catchy with memorable hooks. The recording is thin but you can hear everything. It’s simply just a killer early ‘80s 7” and that’s good enough for me.
Steve Bruce from Cock Sparrer joined me for the interview. Shock Troops is one of the greatest albums of all time so it was an honor to have him on the pod.
He will be giving a tour of the Punk Rock Museum on May 25th, so if you want to meet him in person grab a ticket.
Jeff Bale sucks. Where’s Pushead when we need him?
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- ZN
That Steroid record is a total trip. I totally get the sentiment you said on the pod, that it’s kind of comfortable. I don’t know if it’s “good” but I keep playing it.
I love that Steve Bruce’s speaking voice sounds exactly like Colin’s singing voice. Good job getting him to tell those stories.