Back catalogue: Punk/Hardcore

Review: 2024 saw the return of easily the biggest powerviolence act to ever decimate speakers and human hearing - Nails, who picked up right where they left off with their ferocious fourth full-length Every Bridge Burning, marking their first new album in almost a decade. Despite rave reviews, many of the fanbase argue that its 2016 predecessor You Will Never Be One Of Us is still the band's finest achievement of musical malevolence to date. Their final effort with the original trio line-up of bassist John Gianelli and drummer Taylor Young before both would amicably depart in 2020, these 21 minutes of sonic abrasion (still their longest LP) deliver on everything the Nails ethos stands for - frenetic riffage, crushing breakdowns, hulking grooves and a breakneck pace libel to instil panic attacks, while primary songwriter Todd Jones' nihilistic viewpoint and seemingly anti-everything attitude is barely decipherable through his mouth-full-of-broken-glass vocals. Be warned, however, each and every micro-burst of fury such as the 45-second 'Friend To All' is paid back by the end with the heinously oppressive noise-sludge-doom monolithic closer that is the 8-minute 'They Come Crawling Back'.

Review: Originally released in 1990, Extinction would serve as the sole full-length from New York crust punk pioneers Nausea. While not the first band of misfits to amplify the angst and visceral aggression of hardcore, they are often cited with being integral to the genre's expansion and incorporation of equally heinous sonics from the realms of doom and sludge metal as well as d-beat, with their Discharge influence worn proudly on their tattered sleeves. Equally inspired by the anarcho-punk messaging of Crass, their lyrics urgently represented their views on feminism, anti-racism, anti-war and class conflict, while their apocalyptic world view rivalled that of their peers in Amebix. Delivered with an unmatched vitriol indicative of the time in which they were penned and further bolstered by the now iconically chaotic push-pull of dual vocalists Al Long and Amy Miret, it's bizarre to track the career of drummer Roy Mayorga who would go on to become a mainstay in mainstream metal fulfilling tenure with the likes of Soulfly, Stone Sour, and presently Ministry. Following Svart Records' recent 12" reissue/compilation of the Cybergod and Lie Cycle EPs, the label brings this nihilistic classic home to wax after two decades of absence.

Review: According to Venn, The Nightmares' Fire In Heaven is not only the band's followup to 2023's acclaimed debut album, Seance. It's also a record that "delves into the idea of love lost and the enormity of the universe at large... themes range from mythical siren songs to extraterrestrial life via the complexities of true love and an overarching question of your own existence." Hardly small themes, but certainly ones that resonate universally. A meditation, or perhaps more accurately main stage indie rock out, on the strange juxtaposition between the difficulties and problems that come with being a human forced to live on this giant rock, and the enormity of the unknown beyond its stratosphere. Far reaching and unarguably grand in sound, apart from moments such as the gentle piano sonata of 'Winterlude'.