ATARAXIA

Perfectly executed bombastic Japanese DBeat hardcore punk. Loud, fast, massive guitars, howling vocals, just the tiniest hint of melody in the riffs...check the "ooopphh!!" after the drums start "Shinjutsu" and if you are raging then you aren't listening. This 2014 demo is exactly what it's supposed to be, and it's exactly what you need. 

I FEAR WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

FILTHY HATE

Relentless and demonic over the top Japanese metalcrust. You know the drill. Link below. 

HATRED STENCH STENCH CORPSE // POSSESSED TO SATAN

MICROFILM

I feel like things have been pretty raw at TEHQ for a few days now. I also don't feel like there's any reason to clean it up. 2004 demo from Japan's MICROFILM is blown out hyper fast and frantic hardcore delivered the way that apparently no one outside of that island can. Even when they drop a catchy riff ("Revenge"), these kids are so amped and full of energy that you want to jump through the walls. There are hundreds of Japanese bands, especially from the '90s/'00s, that slipped between the cracks and flew constantly off of the outsider radar...and a lot of those bands are really fukkn good. Readers:  I present MICROFILM.

WRISTCUTDEMOTAPE

REVAS EN LA SONGO

Two young Japanese powerhouses crank out three tracks each of relentless destruction. MALIMPLIKI turn their churn into into a rhythmic pulse that surges with the beat, distorted almost to the point of losing any semblance to music whatsoever (this is a good thing) - total intensity. SACA LA FIESTA skip the distortion, but their sound is still dirty and raw as fukk. Two short, smart punk blasts with shouted female vocals and the longer, slower "My Truth" to bring Revas En La Songo to a close. There are so many bands in Japan....

REVAS EN LA SONGO

COLLAPSE SOCIETY

Noisy and chaotic beyond belief, poorly reproduced and suffering from waves of hiss, ramshackle mania with vocals mixed way too high and bass distorted to a near noteless rumble. In other words: perfect. I think this is how these sounds were meant to be listened to, and COLLAPSE SOCIETY has been doing the thing for fukkn 25 years. Noise Not Music, motherfukkrs. 

DEMO '93

LIFE

Hard to imagine that Tokyo's LIFE have been dishing out relentless bursts of bulldozer crust for more than two decades...but put this demo on high and fukkn believe it, punk. A twelve minutes, eight track chaotic Japanese assault - blast "Forest Destruction" and you'll understand how far ahead of the curve these punks were. Still one of my favorite Japanese bands...

WHEN THE PEACE COLLAPSES

DUDMAN

Ripping fastcore from Japan - I never got to se these dudes in the flesh, but their brand of start/stop action has always appealed to me. Snagged the (rehearsal?) tape fromth e drummer when his other band was on the West Coast in 2001....and fifteen years later these tracks still burn hard. A dozen bangers in 14 minutes. Get with it, punk. 

DUDMAN

DECONSTRUCTION

Pure and absolute noise fukkn punk assault. Imagine Japanese crasher crust with the bombasity replaced with walls of muffled insanity and distortion, and then make it more brooding and distorted than that. Massive and oppressive sounds from a band who dropped just two demos before (to my knowledge) slipping away. 

DECONSTRUCTION

DISTRICT

Five songs. Eight minutes. Wild style Japanese hardcore with heavy '80s DC and Thrash2K influences. The demo is titled Exciting & Super Real, and for good reason. File alongside period comrades like OUTLAST, JELLYROLL ROCKHEADS and TOTAL FURY -pure cream from start to finish...

EXCITING & SUPER REAL

HATSURI

One quick ear to the bass that opens this 2009 tape and you think you know what you're in for. Then come the drums, and you start to realize that HATSURI are so much more over the top than you thought. Frantic, noisy, chaotic Japanese insanity of the highest order here - piercing noise punk guitars, thunderous drums, riffs that go from start to weird to warp speed and back to Japanese hardcore in half a minute, and the vocals are every bit as manic as the music demands. Total under the radar banger, and from what I can tell this release on Freedom Fighter is the totality of their output - I guess if you're gonna go fast, you might as well go strong.

6 TRACKS TAPE

BURST IN YOUR HEAD

You like Japanese hardcore? Cool, because I like Japanese hardcore. So what's the problem? Ahhh, there's no problem at all, because we are all listening to Japanese hardcore. Anyone who want's to tell me anything at all about this band is more than welcome to make themselves heard, because I know nothing more than this tape with no info or song titles, and I want more than these four songs...and I'm sure you will too. Because you like Japanese hardcore.

GENOCIDE STREET MONUCCA

CRAZY FUCKED-UP DAILY LIFE

16 more tracks of mania from Nagoya's CFDL. A fukkd guitar to be envied and emulated, a blistering pace, and simplicity drilled into your brain with devastating intensity. You know this drill.

CFDL DEMO '91

WE MUST BURN

Total under the radar Japanese ripper from 2002, this demo was put to wax by 625 a couple of years later and is probably waiting for you in your local bargain bin (because Western record shoppers are clueless, apparently). Metal tinged fast hardcore delivered with precision and unmatched ferocity, much of the tape can be compartmentalized as fastcore, but "Not Parts" stands out not only as a departure from the style but as arguably the best song on the tape....though the blazing simplicity of "Back To Basic" that kicks in next is pretty hard to fuck with (most bands go from blast beats into breakdowns, or blast beats into hardcore riffs...WE MUST BURN goes from a blast beat into a faster blast beat). Total quality.

...AND WE BURN

I have two copies of this tape...the one with no cover has a seventh song which I have included for your pleasure. It's a really good song, and I like to share.

REDUCTION

Fist in the air Japanese shits from 2000. More hooks than you might expect from the crasher crust cover, but never at the expense of blown out fury. "Reject" could almost pass for a banging USHC number with different vocals, the breakdown drumbeat is perfect and it makes me wonder how many '80s 'crew bands could have benefitted from mass guitar distortion, and the title track is a meeting of the worlds with melodic prot-neocrust guitar leads (this is 15 years ago, remember) mingling with galloping drums and anguished vocals...all rooted in guns blazing Japanese hardcore. Also worth noting: the cover proudly states "SINCE 1999" - this demo was released in 2000.

DISRUPTION

STAN HANSEN

Face shredding early '00s hardcore, these six tracks fly by before you know what hit you. STAN HANSEN make sure to include plenty of hooks to keep you reeled in and tracks like "Affluenza" fall in line with more "traditional" Japanese Hardcore, though the bulk here is just chaotic, frantic hardcore of the highest order. Track of the day: "Faith In A Life."

6 ASSHOLE SONGS PINK DEMO

ABSTRAKT

And this is your Monday. Completely pegged and bulldozing everything it its path, still drunk on the weekend and not ready to stop. Blown out, fukkd up, howling, clenched fist mania of the highest order...ABSTRAKT give you exactly what you want. Maximum distortion, maximum fury, and screaming bass solos (not kidding).

ABSTRAKT

CRAZY FUCKED UP DAILY LIFE

Here's some more. I mean, you want more don't you? That's what I thought, so here you go. Fukk, I love this band.

STAY FREE, NOT STAY PUNK

CRAZY FUCKED UP DAILY LIFE

You are all familiar with this Nagoya based band, yes? Active in the early-mid '90s, C.F.D.L. released a formidable array of noisy and chaotic vinyl slabs and a dizzying number of raw cassette demos like this one. With tracks like "Alcohol....Makes Me Happy" and "I Love DISORDER" I think that even the uninitiated can get a pretty good handle on what's in store when downloading today's cassette: noisy, chaotic, fast, raw, hardcore. Bristol noise filtered through Japanese energy.

NEVER MIND THE ATROCITY EXHIBITION, HERE'S CRAZY FUCKED UP DAILY LIFE

NATIONSTATE

This one is just....I don't know. Fukk. So much power and so much noise and so...so fukkn insane. I snagged a 12" from Osaka's NATÏONSTATE when I was there in 2006, but didn't know about this cassette until a few months ago. Over the top insanity. Blown out Japanese noise/crust. Two studio tracks, two live numbers and 63 seconds of noise linking them all together. You know what to expect by now, and I can assure you that this is what you are looking for. Folks from NATÏONSTATE went on to LAST SENTENCE, in case that's the sort of thing that encourages you...but really you shouldn't need any encouragement today.

NATÏONSTATE

 Packaged with flyers and inserts and inside a screen printed box as well - this one is almost as good to look at and dive into as it is to listen to....almost....

BABELDÖM

BABELDÖM have an unpolished edge that is so damn infectious, it's pure raging hardcore played at the very brink from start to finish. The blasts in "Fight Against" take the intensity even higher...and the feedback squall into blast into breakdown into noise solo back into thunderous Japanese hardcore that makes up "Hazy Earth" is just...I don't know how to describe what that song does to me. The very definition of relentless, BABELDÖM play furiously and add the manic energy of off the rails '80s Boston to their brand of punishment. Unhinged and brilliant.

WHAT IS THE HUMAN BEING