It’s been another couple of incredible weeks for more-or-less hardcore-related noises so here are four more picks i find particularly notable, in a spectrum progressively moving from the more punk-ish ends towards the unapologetically metal-embracing realms of the genre. For starters we have a brand new tape by Dublin, Ireland group Flower Power who deliver five forceful punches of rough-ass lo-fi ruckus that appears to stand with one foot in the legacy of left-field hardcore shit á la early Flipper, Broken Talent, Noxious Fumes or more recently, Soupcans, Stinkhole and Vulture Shit, with the other firmly planted in oldschool KBD-style artifacts of the Mentally Ill, Endtables and Executives breed, combining hardcore energy with garage punk drive. A much more grim mood then emanates from the tunes of Leeds, England group Mother Nature, whose punk attacks have plenty of a post punk-ish, death rock-y, noise rock-ing vibe to them that reminds me of such acts as Acrylics, earlier Bad Breeding and the australians Arse. Cheap Heat of Schenectady, New York had already made quite an impact with their excellent 2022 demo and on their new EP, they pick up the threads right where they left them off, with a sound that mixes hardcore with a generous plundering of motörpunk, sleaze rock and speed metal, resulting in an overal aesthetic not entirely dissimilar to such groups as Cülo, Cement Shoes, Tarantüla and Polute. Last but not least we have the most metal-leaning group of the whole bunch, Dart from Oulu, Finland, who are the latest entry into a developing canon of bands working on rehabilitating the reputational damage of sounds on the intersection of hardcore and metal by recognizing the punk rock inside of metal, rather than clumsily forcing generic metal elements upon punk rock. The result, as you might have guessed, is drenched in tons of straightforward, oldschool NWOBHM energy and may please oldschool metalheads as much as it will fans of punk acts á la Poison Ruïn, Punter, Ninth Circle, Polute, Hög and Steröid.
