REGIMEN

High energy Scandinavian punk crashing headlong into Y2K fastcore in a most glorious manner, Sweden's REGIMEN are a full speed time warp. Not Normal slapped their first three demos on to one handy dandy cassette for North American listeners, so what you get here is a 14 banger crash course (including the brilliant 6+ minute "Gick Du På Den Lätte?"). If you liked AMDI PETERSEN, if you liked SKATE KORPSE...if you like fukkn punk and you like to dance, then climb aboard. 

UPPREPNING ÄR OFRÅNKOMLIG

FERAL BRAIN

Here's your demo of the month, punks. Sweden's FERAL BRAIN drop eleven minutes of searing hardcore punk in your lap with the most mandatory vocal listening in recent memory. Don't get me wrong, the tracks are great (and there are TRACKS, you dig - not just a collection of riffs) and the high moments ("No Way" specifically - it's the rippingest fast hardcore song I have heard in fukkn years, and that might not even be hyperbole) are more than enough to make this demo mandatory listening. If you like hardcore and you like to get your face melted, and you don't care about what new thing is cool because you just want to go harder....then FERAL BRAIN is basically your new favorite band. 

FERAL BRAIN

...also - the breakdown on "Judgement Day" is really REALLY sick...

SHAKING HEADS

It's cool if I don't always have the right words, isn't it? Because the things that SHAKING HEADS remind me of sound so dreadfully typical so I'm going to keep me references to myself and wait for yours. I'll just say that it's good. And that's it's perfect for those punk occasions when hardcore isn't actually king. I mean, hardcore is obviously king, but we don't always want to be in the king's court all the time, right? 

SHAKING HEADS

DEAD END

Absolute ripper. Pure and positive Y2K fastcore from 1999, these kids dropped one EP and one split before disappearing. But this demo.....ooof. All go, no slow, riffs for days and a clenched fist with pointed finger at my keyboard. Someone want to tell me if the Henrik on vocals here is the same Henrik who fronted OUTLAST? Same era, both bands hailed from Linköping...anyone?

DEAD END

PARANOID

2015's Satyagraha was one of the best records of that year, and straight up the most inventive thing I have ever heard come out of the narrow confines of raw, distorted DBeat. I left a bandmate's wedding reception early to catch them in a backyard in Oakland last summer (sorry, Andrew), and while the sound was complete garbage and I couldn't see a fukkn thing because the lights were pointed at the meager audience....they leveled the joint. I bought a stupid Chainsaw Massacre ripoff tour shirt (little known fact: sometimes I don't make the best financial decisions) and this banger here that easily makes up for the cash I blew on that shirt. As the title (and art) suggests, here's Sweden's PARANOID laying waste to a who's who of modern and classic punk and metal: PISSCHRÏST, EXPLOITED, STREBERS, CELTIC FROST, SEPULTURA, KAAOS, DARKTHRONE, STATE OF FEAR, ACURSED (most underrated Swedish band of the '00s? Perhaps...), ANTI CIMEX, TOTALITÄR, and PENTAGRAM. And still....it sounds like fukkn PARANOID. Essential Cream Status.

COVER OF THE MONTH

RUMPE DARRA

You see those people dancing? There on the cover? Maybe you want to be with them.....or maybe you want to be them. I don't judge. I'm gonna tell you "1983: Sweden" and your underthings get a little moist....but the people. Why are they dancing? Why don't they have mohawks or leather and/or studs? Are they punk or not? I don't know, punk....it was 1983. I was eleven years old and I didn't know shit that wasn't RONNIE MILSAP or MERLE HAGGARD. It was Sweden. I lived in Austin. So I don't know if this trio were punk...or not. You know how to find out....

RUMPE DARRA

TIME OUT

Total relentless fury. Out of control Swedish hardcore with howling desperation from dual vocals,  perhaps too fast and loose to still be DBeat. Eight tracks spanning thirteen minutes, this 1998 demo just crushes from the first rumble of "For How Long" and only lets up long enough for a few depressing and ominous missives from the annals of history. The 1-2 punch of "Backstabbed" into "Orgies Of Insanity" is textbook, a thing worthy of repeat listens and scholastic analysis. Riffs upon riffs delivered by piercing guitars....it's like being hit in the face by a freight train over and over and over. And still you scrape your jaw off the floor and do it all again. 

.....HISTORIES WARNING

STRUL

I know it's creamingly abrasive hardcore from Sweden, all noisy and fucked up in all the right ways, I get that and that's why most of you monkeys are going to love this shit. BUT the thing I keep tripping on is that ominous rumble before the guitar overdub track drops in - like the engineer said "hey bros, we should mute this until you, you know, play a thing" and the band was all like "fuck it." Seriously, fools, this is an actual banger: hyper speed rock 'n roll doing battle with fierce hardcore punk? Sold. Relentless riffs? Sold.

NU BLIR DET STRUL

CRYME

Minimal digital sounds from Sweden...scooped this one on a total whim based on the presentation and discovered a world of weird - exactly what I was hoping for. Monotonous pulsations and TG-esque outsider sounds, CRYME defibrillate first wave industrial electronics with an urgency that is completely relevant in a modern world where one can mailorder a loop pedal and all of a sudden YOU'RE AN ARTIST. These are not simple sounds from CRYME, but these are not simple times.

MEKONIUM

THE BLINDS

I remember when this little burner from Sweden dropped in sometime in the mid '00s, and I remembering wondering if it was going to cue a wave of hardcore kids turning more towards rock 'n roll. And while it did (I mean...it happened, not saying this release was the cause, just an indication that it was coming), THE BLINDS are fukkn punk...there's just a careful ear towards snarky rock hooks and there's a KBD meets power pop on crack vibe that you can't help but dig. Those clean guitars getting battered to shits while the vocals have a perfect hipster rock swagger that predated the revival of that descriptor by at least half a decade. Everyone thought Brandon was gonna do a ripping hardcore label...and then somehow this banger way No Way Records 02. Go figure. I guess it's just good, fast, high quality, hi energy rock 'n roll music, and you can qualify or classify it however you want...or you can just get ripped and rage. I vote the latter.

BUSY WITH BUSINESS

TREPANERINGSRITUALEN

Exceptionally compelling dark gothic industrial noise from Sweden. A blatant fixation on religion and ritual makes these sounds all the more interesting to my ears even without the aesthetic accompaniments...I was hooked instantly. If 2012's Deathward, To The Womb intrigues you, then I encourage you to explore here.

DEATHWARD, TO THE WOMB

STREBERS // BLANDAD PUNK, HC & KÄNG

My introduction to STREBERS was on my first Euro tour, when Rülle told me they were his favorite band and was more than excited to show me how great they were. Their approach is as infectious as relentless, starting with the impossibly catchy chorus to "Sanningen" inserted into the track's all out hardcore burn. Comparisons to contemporaries are not out of line, but the '80s Swedes had an uncanny ability to make that fist in the air hardcore that was still catchier than any of the pre-landfill pop drivel that denizens of the rest of the planet were regurgitating at the time. The 1991 collection Kaos & Skrål is a pretty perfect place to start, with EP tracks and some solid bangers from STREBERS' first 12" platter from 1986...and someone was kind enough to slap the thing onto cassette so I could share it with you.

KAOS & SKRÅL // BLANDAD PUNK, HC & KÄNG

And speaking of kind, that same someone filled the B-side of that STREBERS tape with a starter kit titled Mixed Punk, HC & Crust. Essential rippers from ANTI-CIMEX, EXTREME NOISE TERROR, YOUTH OF TODAY, NO SECURITY, and because so few homemade compilations are truly perfect there are a few tracks from the debatably interesting but often unlistenable then-future commercial juggernaut TEDDYBEARS from when they were just a kinda weird rock band (be careful, the internet suckhole related to this band can be detrimental to any kind of constructive activity and may adversely affect your opinions of humankind in general and pop culture specifically). But on a positive note, it had been a while since I had blasted ENT and that band still crushes so hard. The B-side of this tape is an excellent primer for the uninitiated and a ripping refresher for those already in the know. Quality.

VICTOR EREMITA

Murky, cold and detached minimal electronics...like alien industrial sounds in slow motion, or living through a catastrophe while trapped helpless under water. Four tracks (or "Aktions") spanning one half of your precious hours. Respect to Black Horizons for never disappointing.

A STUDY FOR TRANSCENDENTAL COMMUNICATION

S.I.K.A. // BINGO

Raw and dirty thrashing punk from Slovakia's S.I.K.A. (who cranked out several splits aside from this one). Extremely chaotic noise/math/grind from Sweden's BINGO....like really fukkn out there music. Five from S.I.K.A. and seven from BINGO, this cassette served as a promo for an EP that wasn't yet released when I met the S.I.K.A. dudes on tour. Good tunes, very happy to pay them a repeat visit.

S.I.K.A. // BINGO 

REA RESPIRATOR

They are still out there, those scarcely unearthed bands from decades gone by. And in this case, some screaming Swedes get treated to a cassette reissue of their 1986 demo by a label from Croatia....I would like to thank The Internet, because I swear these two entities might have never met otherwise. These are the gems that fell through the cracks when that handful of movers and shakers were furiously dubbing and trading tapes in the '80s....and there must be more, right?! (feel free to send them to me, by the way) Off the rails, spastic and ultra catchy hardcore/thrash here, eight tracks from the demo and seven more from tape comps and who knows where else. Bring it on, because this shit is great (ROVSVETT, 16 B.U.H. people involved here, so the "great" part isn't really a shock). Cheers to Aftermath Tapes for digging this one up, raging shit. And to everyone else....you're welcome.

SLÄPP LOSS ALLA BAND

SMÄRTSAM UTLÖNING

This Swedish/American combo might have started as a simple project amongst friends, but the result is undeniably ripping Scandithrash by way of DISCHARGE. There's nothing fancy, but the riffs are beyond stellar and the delivery is essentially flawless - USHC makes a brief appearance in "Dö Ditt Jälva As," but despite the North American contingent partially responsible for these jammers, this is pure Swedecore brilliance. I suggest that you stop paying attention to cool things long enough to get into this mania.

SMÄRTSAM UTLÖNING

NISSES NÖTTER

Malaysia's Black Konflik threw several killer cassette reissues into the pot last year, and while it's great to have SVART PARAD and DISORDER tapes blasting out of the boombox, but this 12 song banger from 1984 is probably my favorite reissue of last year from any label. These pre-teens from Göteborg were an absolute force - hyper fast blow out hardcore, unhinged and full of the kind of energy that I've come to believe that adults simply cannot conjure. The drums are a textbook example of hardcore punk drumming, and that element of NISSES NÖTTER is where I keep turning my ear, even while the rest of the band is raging beyond belief and the singer is wailing in pre-pubescent frustration. A full LP/CD re-issue came out a few years ago with live and rehearsal tracks, while this release is simply the Knäckta Nötter demo in all its fury. It blows my mind to think that I am basically the same age as these dudes, and that when they were making these sounds, I was listening to QUIET RIOT and THE CARS. 

KNÄCKTA NÖTTER

THE RATS

Sweden's answer to ANNIHILATION TIME. Filthy hardcore punk rock 'n roll - perfect vocals and screaming guitars. The more worldly among you should already be familiar, but the rest of you need to get amongst this pronto.

LIVE WITH DEATH

Tampa tonight at Epic Problem with EX-FRIENDS, PERMANENT MAKEUP, SCIENCE and ASSHOLE PARADE

16 BLÅSARE UTAN HJÄRNA

Crucial late '80s Swedish hardcore punk, 16 BLÅSARE UTAN HJÄRNA defy subgenre pigeonholes but lay down some of the most insanely essential hardcore. Melodic but dark, the guitar work could easily be viewed as a precursor to primitive black metal while the frenetic pace owes more to RAPED TEENAGERS or Spain's ROUSE (though perhaps it would be more accurate to say that ROUSE owe their sound to 16 B.U.H.) and the songwriting begs comparisons to some of the more original US hardcore of the mid '80s. I know this might not make any sense, but it's as if HERESY started cranking out melodic punk if only because it sounds like 16 B.U.H. want to play at breakneck speed but are trying desperately to hold themselves back. I was planning to post the BHOPAL STIFFS demo today, but that tape reminded me of this one and I realized that I'm playing a show with MOB 47 tonight, so I'll put the BHOPAL STIFFS up tomorrow. You'll like it, I promise. I don't have a cover for this tape, but the internet tells me it looks like this:

VAD HAR VI, GJORT FÖR FEL?

And RITUAL CONTROL is playing with MOB 47 tonight. That shit is crazy...

SVART STÄDHJÄLP

I got a most excellent package from a friend in Malmö a few weeks ago and in addition to goodies from his past and current bands, he turned me on to these ripping kids from his neck of the woods. There's a couple of EPs kicking around so perhaps you are already hip, but if this is your first taste then I suggest you prepare your palate for stripped down and fiery hardcore in the spirit of the 1980s Midwest delivered the way that only Scandinavians seem to be able to pull off these days (and by "these days" I am referring to the last decade or so). Eight minutes of attack presented with guitars perfectly suited for a garage rock burner and hooks galore, but with a fury more akin to the kind of hardcore that makes to question whether you should get amongst the madness or watch from a safe distance.

GATUVAPEN