TOURIST

 

Powerviolence.

TAKE FIVE

DENIM CASKET

 

Punk is meant to be weird. Punk is, by definition, queer and/or outside whatever version of 'normal' exists in a given time, This tape is both of those and all of those - I dare say I have never heard a thing like Denim Casket before I heard DENIM CASKET...and that's what makes the shit so important. Drum and bass dystopian hardcore with gratuitous early PV influences.....but the shit is from Idaho and that just means.....it means the shit is just different. Listen to "Permanent Marker" and then try to tell me that you 'know what this is' or that you hear 'what they're doing.' Because you don't and also...you just don't.  Anyone ever told you they thought about NEGATIVLAND and GODFLESH and CROSSED OUT while listening to one tape? Well, that's what is happening now. A weird, plodding, awkward sonic excursion awaits you. 

DENIM CASKET

OBLIGASI

 

It's an absolute shame that these kids only cranked out this one tape, but good grief it's an absolute beast. Eight blasts of late-decade power violence from Malaysia - high/low vox, crushing neanderthal stomps, discordant fast riffs that hit like nails on a chalkboard punching you in the face. There's an INFEST cover too, but by the time you get through "Democrashit" and "Weak" that track is barely more than an afterthought. 

OBLIGASI 

NO COMPLY // LOS CRUSTÁCEOS

 

On one side you've got ten minutes of furious blastcore/PV/grind from Chile's LOS CRUSTÁCEOS with a. blatant and heavy West Bay Doomryderz influence. And it would be simple enough to tell you that the other side rips and recommend a DL+listen....but NO COMPLY is on the flip. You know NO COMPLY, right? Fuck me (and fuck you) if you don't, but if you don't....please do. NO COMPLY are (were) a special thing - Florida's SUPPRESSION perhaps. Like...if you know and you were there then there's no replacement, even though an outsider might raise an eyebrow. NO COMPLY's contribution to the second wave of DIY/PV is impossible to understate, and this 1999 live recording captures them in a rare, raw moment of ferocity. It would be very hard to find a band more dedicated to the craft than NO COMPLY, and when Justin passed in 2023 we lost a real one. Listen with volume and listen with intent, my friends. 

NO COMPLY // LOS CRUSTÁCEOS

GUN SLAUGHTER // GIMP

 

GIMP: Brutal and powerful PV/Grind from Phoenix. They make shit different in the Sonoran Desert. 

GUN SLAUGHTER: Brutal and powerful PV/Grind from Vancouver. Five songs, three minutes.

YOU: Curious, intrigued, eager....hungry.

ME: Piece of shit.

GIMP // GUN SLAUGHTER

CAVEMAN

 

Massively devastating sludge / PV that will stop you in your tracks. In just eleven minutes, CAVEMAN lay waste to all of your hopes and dreams....which were useless anyway. You always knew that deep down inside, all CAVEMAN did is reach in and pull that reality out. Useless. Enough about you though, let's talk about CAVEMAN. 

SENSELESS

BACKYARD

 

A savage dose of old school primitive grind/crust worshipping at dual altars. West Bay Doomryderz and CROSSED OUT. Dank violence and sonic misanthropy. This is beyond an homage, BACKYARD are lighting the way with a fire from the old/er guard....six minutes of pure disgust. 

LOWER INCOME DRESS CODE

AMASUNZU

 

Ten minutes of insanely ugly powerviolence from Hungary. Pure blast mania of the highest order, like a band trying to conjure GODSTOMPER's unhinged chaos and the precision of IRON LUNG at the same time.....and I'm telling you, punks: It works. 

AMASUNZU

BACKYARD

 

More Doomryderz worship from...Austria?
Yes it is.
Yes it is amazing.
There's something about BACKYARD that I can't put my finger on (much less describe) and I think it's about a level of brutality. Like...a marker on the brutal-o-meter or something, because the shit is just brutal. BACKYARD are the definition of primal inn the best possible way - take a deep breath and steel yourself before you grind......because you're gonna grind.You like grinding because grinding is so fukkn good and downtuned DIY hardcore is even better. 

RODENT'S BURROW

BACKYARD

 

I swear upon the moon and stars that an angel dropped this into my life. I don't deserve these sounds, not in 2025 I don't...and yet here these sounds are, lacerating my eardrums and filling my soul with hope. Viennese West Bay obsessed grinders BACKYARD deliver eight doses of brutally lo-fi rehearsal pain on Questionable Practices, a five minute master class in PV/Grind Mastery that kneels at the altars of gods. Logo ripped from IMMORTAL FATE, font meticulously adapted from Mr. Ripple's countless visual credits, and a sound that would not raise an eyebrow if BACKYARD were played alongside PLUTO, UTTER BASTARD, DBE....you get the fukkn drill. My jaw fell open and my heart swelled when I played Questionable Practices for the first time, and there have been so many more times since that moment. This is beautiful, life is beautiful. 

QUESTIONABLE PRACTICES

FISSURE

 

Quite literally every time I listen to FISSURE I get floored all over again. This was the tape that started the train, a self titled juggernaut released in 2013 that features nine mines of bulldozer PV-tinged '90s hardcore tonnage. Even on a poorly duplicated DIY cassette the weight is unavoidable and the impact is instant - tracks like "Gary Busey For President Of The Moon" and "I Used To Cut Myself To Dashboard Confessional" will stop you dead in your tracks. So indescribably heavy, sarcasm and irreverence pegged in the red....and so fukkn brutal

FISSURE

FEMALE SNAKE

 

FEMALE SNAKE was a short and fierce smash in the face when they came (and went) in 2008. Two tapes and a split EP (with songs from the other tape), maybe ten minutes of music all in....and they didn't fuck around. Savagely misanthropic power violence with all of the requisite stop/start/blast, a bass rumble to be feared and vocals that land like repeated stabs. Song titles read like chapters in a damaged love story...or perhaps an Incel Manifesto. No lyrics, so draw your own conclusion....this music isn't supposed to be pretty. 

FEMALE SNAKE

'90s HARD CORE MIX

 

How the fukk you gonna tell me that you see a tape with this sticker on the spine and no j-card or painstakingly hand made insert and you don't want to listen to it? That you don't want to know what magic is trapped inside that magnetic tape just waiting to break free into your earholes? You're not going to tell me that...are you? If you are, then ask yourself: "How can I even look at myself?" Answer  in the comments...I mean, if you truly have no shame. Also, the person who anchors a tape with CAPITALIST CASUALTIES and MINISTRY? That person wins...even if the misplaced apostrophe drives me fukkn crazy. 

'90s HARD CORE MIX

•••••••

WARNING:
A lot of the second half sounds kinds muddy and shitty. 

Not my fault.

 Also probably an accurate representation of '90s hardcore. 

Also RIP Mike and Shawn...

TUSKS OF BLOOD

 

This one comes from deep in the Satan's Pimp archive - a dreary stoner violence slog from turn of the century Portland that sounds like it was ripped from the clutches of hell herself. It's easy to imagine these sounds coming from those lost decades....but think about them now. That's the point. The now. 

TUSKS OF BLOOD

HANGAL

Six minutes of furious power viol;nce from Philippines - I only knew HANGAL from a CAPITALIST CASUALTIES tribute comp before this eight song bulldozer....but oh fukk were they worth the wait. If you're still reading, then I really don't know what you're waiting for, because sample laden first wave PV worship rarely sounds this spot on. |

HANGAL

 

ALL IN DEEP SHIT

 

Western Australia breeds weird ones, y'all. Always has. Something about the isolation, perhaps? You can feel that isolation on 2001's HIV Positive Youth, manifested as riffs and raw, loose blurrcore riffs.  Fuck the scene? Nah...fuck everything. 

HIV POSITIVE YOUTH

SOCCOCORE

 

If there was ever a tape that captured that that magic of the '90s Southern California freak scene....it might be this one. Power violence, sludge, screamo, noise, fastcore all coexisting (as they fukkn did) on (in) one plastic shell and fuck it's so damn good. FESTIVAL OF DEAD DEER to BASTARD NOISE to LACK OF INTEREST to 16 to GASP to HATED PRINCIPLES to CROM.....this tape is absolute magic, and embodies everything I want from a regional compilation. You can not enjoy it if you choose....but maybe it wasn't meant for you to enjoy. 

SOCCOCORE

 

PUNCH

 

We don't need to talk about this one, do we? PUNCH existed in a post Y2K-Thrash Bay Area that needed something. That needed PUNCH, apparently. What do you need?

PUNCH

SHATTERED BADGE

 

Eight minutes of blasting madness with a few deadly mosh breaks thrown in because...because that's what you're supposed to do. No song titles, just power. 

SHATTERED BADGE

If this band produced more than this one tape on Ratdick, then someone needs to let me know...

UNCLE

 

I feel like I'm going to be re/discovering essential things that I missed for basically the rest of my life. Ten minutes of pure and brutal bass and drum destruction from Canada's Atlantic Provinces (don't..fucking..get..me. started). Desperate, furtive, brutal, frantic....totally fucking wild. 

PRIMATA