After the grave diasppointment that was the too-slick-for-its-own-good, overly sanitized second Poison Ruïn LP recently, i’m glad to have come across this neat substitute drug created by a Philadelphia group, scratching some similar itch of strongly ’80s heavy metal-influenced, dungeon-adjacent punk, even if the overall style here feels more at home in the wider hardcore and d-beat landscape. Nonetheless, if you take a closer listen these tunes reveal an abundance of sophistication, attention to detail and tons of highly captivating hooks to both anchor and elevate these seven bursts of breakneck-speed ecstasy.
Nourishment’s past two releases have been on kinda shaky ground in terms of song material in my opinion but anyway, on their newest one, they’re really hitting the nail on the head again with a batch of new tunes that deliver the familiar thrills way more consistently and artfully and for now, i’ll still say they’ve carved out a micro-niche very much of their own with both their compositions and atmosphere having way more in common with ancient death rock and contemporary post punk influences than anything currently happening in the wider blackened/dungeon punk landscape.
Punk’s dungeon era shows no signs of slowing down yet, newest evidence being this tape by a dude from Santa Fe, Argentinia – first self-released on his bandcamp this summer – which is now being reissued via the ever-busy niche label Grime Stone Records and blends in seamlessly with their roster in creating a sound that juxtaposes the most basic and DIY true- and black metal spoofs with some mid-to-late eighties-style punk moshing and tons of cute and goofy eggpunk fun and melodicism. Also, over on the guy’s bandcamp, you’ll find even more of that same greatness in the form of a new Split EP with Corazón Sombrío, which, as the artwork suggests, seems to be the inverted, extra black-hearted mirror version of that same dude? Anyway, this is compulsory listening for any serious dungeon afficinado.
These australians’ 2023 mini-LP was tons of weird-ass dungeon- and fantasy-themed fun already and their newest longplayer has an even stronger batch of headsplitting tunes made up of elements of garage-, synth- and post punk that right out of the gate delights with a distinct flavor of vintage Useless Eaters and Ausmuteants action in the opening track Pillager, complemented with a note of psych-/acid Punk á la Pow! in Moneyman while Big Hat – one of two holdovers first heard on their 2021 Mammon Machine EP – has a bit of a Strange Attractor vibe and Dopaminer may easily fool you into thinking it’s an exceptionally strong Why Bother? tune. Further, i can imagine friends of the likes of slightly more dungeon-flavored like Curta’n Wall or Oslo’s own eggpunks Molbo getting a kick outta this shit.
This is the third release already in just a couple months by this blackened-/dungeon punk act frome wherever in the US and just like its predecessors it’s yet another first-rate addition to the microgenre which approaches the stylistic signifiers of black metal from an uncommon post punk- and death rock angle to create a sound that’s in equal measure atmospheric, dense and layered while blasting a respectable crater in their own little patch of spooky dark forest all the same.
This Montreal group’s spectacular debut EP pulls off a pretty neat trick and does so flawlessly and at exactly the right time in our collective cultural consciousness. Ultra-catchy punk rock kinda bridging the gap between classic eighties acts like mid-career Hüsker Dü, Dinosaur Jr., Dag Nasty, Embrace or the later works of Naked Raygun and Government Issue on one hand; previous-decade noisy punk and indie rock groups á la earky Milk Music, Kicking Spit, California X, Milked and Happy Diving on the other, gets blended here with flourishes of decidedly ’80s-sounding heavy metal shredding and solo-ing which, in tandem with the heavily dungeon-themed artwork, is sure gonna strike a chord with friends of Steröid or Poison Ruïn, with this shit at times coming across a bit like a catchier, immediably approachable spin on the latter group’s work so far.
New fodder for dungeon dwellers and other medieval punk scum. Sword Breaker of Utrecht, Netherlands made a strong impression with their Demo in 2022 and their full-length debut now delivers more of that same kind of headsplitting fun which can easily be categorized as “Poison Ruïn and their ripple effects”, although that doesn’t mean that their tunes won’t deliver some exquisite thrills in their own right, approaching the microgenre from a way rougher and simpler angle (despite an ever-so-slightly cleaner production aesthetic) which feels way more ’70s hard rock- than ’80s heavy metal-inspired while also leaning harder into classic Oi!- and garage territory with addidional traces of Wipers and subtle touches of british psychedelia.
The californian label Grime Stone Records has long been way ahead of the curve when it comes to the more quirky ends of blackened- and dungeon punk releases and even if the musical merits of the bands and projects featured didn’t always manage to keep up with their lofty ambitions, these folks have also brought us some undeniable contemporary classics by the likes of Bloody Keep and Drýsildjöfull. The newest cassette by Curta’n Wall is yet another strong contender for the latter category, being a prime example of the more playful and egg-ish – though also in a way quite traditionally dungeon synth-inspired – end of the genre spectrum, drawing on some of the strongest tunes in their already quite prolific discography as a rock-solid basis for their insane sonic escapades while toning down some of the cheesiest (previously often unbearably so) aspects of their sound just enough to hit a certain sweet spot with me. While parts of their previous work have struck me as more novelty than substance, this record has finally grown a healthy amount of real meat around its bones.
Oslo group Molbo sure have made some waves recently with their two cassettes in 2023/’24 which got a huge boost when they got reissued together on vinyl earlier this year via Erste Theke Tonträger. Their overall sound hasn’t changed considerably since then but nonetheless there’s plenty of refinement evident here, consolidating their style into a more robust and consistent whole while once again weaving threads of garage-, post- and egg punk, death rock and dungeon punk into a pretty fucking inventive and gloriously deformed genre bastard, fortifying and defending their own little niche in the contemporary egg/dungeon canon.
Finally! Here it is, the first longplayer of Sydney’s Gordo Blackers a.k.a. Steröid who’s previously also had a hand in groups like Draggs and Gee Tee among others. A good three years after their debut EP blew a brand new hole into the castle walls of lo-fi egg- and dungeon punk, their sound remains a completely singular and yet strikingly simple affair, mixing the quirky fun of garage- and eggpunk with the catchy hooks and riffing of early eighties metal and arena rock. The result is a potent and intoxicating concoction so addictive it shouldn’t be legal really. As usual with anything even remotely metal-related, i’m kinda ill-equipped to make any specific assumptions about musical roots and influences at least on the metal side of things, so i’m gonna stay in my lane here and just say that these tunes fuckin’ rip without exception and the second half of this record is a welcome change of pace after the more straightforward, breathless hit marathon of side a, when the stylistic parameters become a good bit more varied, elaborate and adventurous, all of which is presented here in an ultra-dry no-frills mid-fi recording aesthetic that clears and tightens things up considerably compared to the earlier EP without watering anything down. Yup, that shit sounds absolutely fucking perfect if you ask me!
