Excellent grindcore from Croatia. Shamelessly old school, very similar to these ears to the great MACHETAZO! Slight seam split to top of sleeve (one day all labels will figure out that they should take more care to ship their packages PROPERLY!!!!) so price reduced accordingly. £3

Quality blasting deathgrind, reminds me of Misery Index. Some wear to sleeves. £4

Reissue of a great live set from these grind legends. £8

Classic early hardcore here, debut LP from GI. I always felt GI were quite an overlooked band; maybe it's cos I was obsessed with DC HC when I was a kid but they were always in the top tier for me. If you don't have this LP yr missing out, simple as. Blue vinyl reissue on Dr Strange. Talking of which, Dr Strange is a real dick. I always love when I get hunners of emails from labels trying to sell me their gear, and I always reply (politely) with "well man, I run a distro and release my own stuff so happy to trade" then inevitably get ignored. After the 4th time of this happening I usually find it quie annoying and tell them to fuck off and stop bothering me if they're not gonna support the underground. In this instance, I got a big "my label is more successful than yours and you're just jealous" email from the good doctor. Aye, very good mate. Still got a wee cock and no pals though, eh. Stick FOAD Records in that category as well, total "I'm bigger than you wee man" patter, fuckin JOCK tactics. These cunts wouldn't know punk if it slapped them in the face, which - some day in the real world and not behind the safety of their keyboards - it very well might. So.....erm don't bother supporting this jabrone's releases, send the tenner to me, please. Don't even know where this came from, cos he certainly didnae trade it with me, ha! £10

Muscular, very angry hardcore. Simger sounds like he's gonna pop a vein. Comes in a smart red poly bag. £8

After reading the Ramleh book (sorry sold out from me in a day!), I've come to the conclusion that gary Mundy is maybe the coolest guy in music. Everything he says in that book (hunt it down, it's amazing) is just bang-on the money and he just seems like a total dead-on guy. Plus everything he has ever recorded is fucking great. This is a reissue of two recent CD-only albums; Over Your Heads is a totally ecstatic noise blow-out which is in a very similar vein to what Skullflower have been investigating this past decade, whilst Over Your Heads intersperses that sound with pieces of more convential melodious, almost kosmiche-sounding tunes. It's absolutely great! £17

Behind The Mountain certainly seem to be a label obsessed with awkward vinyl sizes. I'm not really one for gimmicky stuff like this - it just makes the record more expensive to produce for no real tangible benefit other than it's got an inch less of diameter - but fair play to them, there's a million labels out there and you've got to differentiate yourself in some way really. You get around ten minutes from each band; Massgrave have a really rough dirty grind sound with a totally tinny drum sound, whilst SM play top-notch old school grind. I've had tons of gear in by them in the past year or so, I guess you'll know the score by now! This release also features a DVD which has a live set by each band on it. Great value package! £6

This is pretty much just the sound of a bunch of posh, priveleged twats dicking around, not doing very much, probably funded by government grants. And look....it's recorded at CAFE OTO! The home of the posh, priveleged twat and a safe space for them to dick around with impunity. Honestly....I just cannae cope with this utter guff patter. If someone doesn't buy this in a month it's just going in the bin. If I had anything about myself I'd take it with me next time I'm unfortunate enough to have to go to London and deliver it back from whence it came though Cafe Oto's letter box sandwiched between two dug jobbies and I'd have made more of a valid artistic statement than whatever the fuck these wet quinces are attempting to do here. Utter pish. £1

Nasdaq: great quiet/loud instrumental metal. Has a bit of Gary Arce's amazing heavy-reverb noodling guitar sound to it. The terribly-named Mothertrucker are thankfully well better than their monicker suggests, and play kinda post-rock instrumental stoner metal. Definitely not typical "stoner rock" though. Definitely a split well worth giving a listen to, two new ones to me who I'll be checking out more of. £7

Comp of 2019's Kind of Noise 7er and the Kaos flexi which I think came along with a double-LP retrospective thing. 6 ace tracks of total chaotic metallic punk, and the last track is an almost-noise rock tune with Moto from Kafka on vocals. These guys have the highest bar! I got quite a lot of these, but their gear always goes quick and there weren't many pressed, so grab while you can! £10

Angular, jaggy post-rock. Is this Mathcore? I dunno, I'm surrounded by maths all fucking day. Maybe that's why I find this kind of music quite annoying. £7

Debut album from this London-based post-hardcore/emo/?core band. I think Kunal sends me stuff like this in trades cos he knows it'll confuse my heavy metal brain. I've got a couple of Braid LPs, I quite liked them when I was a teenager; that's the only thing I can vaguely compare this too, but my frame of reference is fucking miniscule for stuff like this. Google them rather than wait the 5000 years it'll take to get an informed opinion out of me. £5

I've had this on CD for a while, good to see it on vinyl! SRS is pretty much Sigullum S here as Ernaldo Bernocchi is involved, and it's properly intense, overdriven power electronics. Iugula Thor gives us a side of grimy industrial PE. A very unappreciated act. After being an absolute DICK over the rights to the Atrax Morgue back-catalogue (he doesn't have them, never did), I don't support anything to do with Urashima any more and find his instant-collector's item, pseudo-deluxe, low-quality, often edited re-releases distasteful as fuck, but found this doubler so here it is for cheap. Goodbye! £10

Decent quality punk/grind meets crusty grindcore. £6

Pre-Filthy Turd/Soar Throat from Darren Wyngard, old stock from mid 90s. Creepy dirty noise/ambient. £2

Dungeonhammer: quite Hellhammer-sounding metal here, great buzzing guitar tone and mighty viking vocals. Purgator are more thrashy black metal style. Nice gatefold sleeve. £4

Minimalist post-punk rock stylings. Reminds me of later Fall stuff but maybe a bit more polished sounding. £4

Heavily death metal influence grindcore from FTF and straight-up intense and fast old-school grind from Brasilian masters Subcut. £3

Excellent 20-track primer for one of the most enduring Japanese metal bands ever. If you always quite fancied getting into Abigail but didn't know where to start, get this, then the flexi I put out, then remortgage your house on the way to Nuclear War Now. £5

Catchy, fast black metal with some decent stacatto riffing. £3

BC is Brain Conniffe who you probably don't know but who has collaborated with Nurse With wound in the past. Anyone who's collaborated with NWW instantly gets time for a listen from me and I'm glad i did, cos these two lengthy tracks are really good! Shifting drones and tones of texture and mood, with the second piece featuring the voice of the late, great Simon Morris. It's quite nice to just hear his voice again, to be honest. £5

Blind Spite blend the styles of the first four Morbid Angel albums here pretty well, but with a modern sound and an over-riding hardcore sound. It's really quite strange. I'm not too keen on the vocals....you know when metal vocalists just try a bit too hard and do about 20 different "styles" in every song? It sounds kinda lame I think. These guys defo listened to tons of Converge a couple of years ago. £5

Very bleak-sounding droning ambience from these two masters. £4

Absolute racket here from a guy from the excellent Oksennus....this is sort of drone-doom with bits of frantic explosion. It's quite like a less-boring Bunkur at points. £5

This is harsh screeching noise with massively over-blown vocals interspersed with blasts of drums. Apparently there's two drummers here, don't really see the point. In fact, the howling feedback is usually pushed far further into the mix than the drums anyway so they'd be as well not being there. There's an improvised feel to it, I think they just turned up and dicked around, really. It sounds better than I'm making it out to be honest, I reckon with a better mix and some more thought put into it these fellas could come out with a belter. £4

It's doom metal, it sounds like Black Sabbath. There's nothing new here and they don't have the interesting proggy songwriting know-how of the amazing Blood Ceremony, but if you like standard doom metal then this will serve your needs well. £4

Paganfire do another split with another band who do absolutely tons of splits with people. Live tracks from both! £5

Amazing final chapter in one of the most unqique death metal bands of the last few years for me, this one sees Obskure Torture play two incredibly dark, dank tracks of ritualistic dark black metal. Brilliant! £3

What a great but stupid name, love it. In that most folk utterly boil my piss, I'm surrounded by Pissboilers every single day of life. I'm gonna start a tribute band to these guys called KNITTING RIPPER. These guys are ok....trancey drone doom with heavy gutteral death metal vocals. I quite like it. Couldn't eat a whole one though. £5

Five live tracks each from these two masters of metal. £5

This is one of the most essential underground speed metal albums ever, receiving a timely reissue here on CD. Cannot recommend this enough, is just total savage POWer from start to finish. Great tunes. Absolute top recommendation from me! £7

Atmospheric death/doom. £4

I like this loads, it's an instrumental mix of neo-folk and metal. I'm loathe to say black metal, but it's black metal in guitar tone and has a kinda post-rock feeling to it. Which usually I'd hate but it really works well. I like the neo-folk elements best, and this guy uses the same two or three chords that Death In June and Sol Invictus have been mucking about with for the past 30 years, which gets a thumbs up from me. It could maybe do with not having the samples of cows and birds and stuff at the beginning of every song. I get it, you live in the country and want to hark back to a simpler time and re-connect with the land. Got it. So...skip the first 20 seconds of every song and this is cool. £6

This is a comp of EPs I think; best UKBM. £6

The most solid BM going right now. No frills, no bullshit, no stupid political or fruity psuedo-intellectual concept: just BLACK METAL. I'd get Lyke Wake as a starting point on vinyl, but this is also a big recommendation from me! £6

Christ, here's a heavy-duty title here. I can't imagine that my enemies' nads are causing anyone's life to be really abnormal, but noise guys like to be dramatic, don't they? Have a wee seat and a cup of tea boys, calm down. You spend too much time online. So what is this? It's Harald Mentor of Ride For Revenge (and a bunch of other stuff) making some dark power electronics with drawled spoken-word vocals. I don't know what he's saying, but it's probably something unpleasant about all his enemies. £6

Three demos (I mean what's the difference?!) from this great, weird and off-kilter BM act. I've become kinda fascinated by this stuff since I got a bunch in a couple of months ago and can't stop listening. Think it's driving me fuckin mad to be honest. Three CDs worth of even RAWER material? Go on! Nice DVD case packaging. £6

This is essentially SUMP (ie Gaz and George) but doing really lo-fi and creepy black metal. It's kinda weird cos I know both of these guys as happy, friendly fellas, and this genuinely sounds like the kind of music that a dying plague-ridden peasant from the middle ages may record as his final epitaph if he could. And I mean that in a positive way!! £6

More difficult-to-pronounce ctyptic black metal here. This stuff really rules. I've given quite a negative appraisal of some ultra lo-fi stuff elsewhere in this update, but I feel this really proves my point....it sounds like it was recorded underneath a bog by some trolls, but I can still hear what's going on! Superb stuff. £6

Really weird, sparse drum-machine sub-industrial black metal from Finland. I like it a lot! £4

Tape reissue of one of THE cult Euro metal albums of the 80s, the first ACID LP! I'm sure I've stocked some form of a reissue of this great album at some point in the past 20 years, and I'm sure I waxed lyrical about how it's ten tracks of absolute banrstorming heavy metal mania. If yr into heavy metal you need to get this, stat. ACID....IS THE NAME! HEAVY METAL.....IS THE GAME! Correct, mate. £5

Varied noise that seems a bit directionless a lot of the time but has plenty of interesting sounds. it's definitely harsh, but unfortunately seems to have that kinda modern really clipped sound to it that I find really unsatisfying (and why I think most HNW artists fail). There's something in there though! £4

A very interesting one here! Total genre-shifting, proggy collaborative band centred around the drummer from the ace Nasdaq. Sometimes it's heavy, there's bits of introspective indie rock, dream pop, 70s synthy bits, crushing doom passages. Total genre-defying stuff. I can't say I'm wholly into it myself, but should be commended for it's sheer scale and ambition. £4

Heavy electronics split. £4

Not sure you really need an iron will when yr wearing steel toe caps, you can just kick every one who stands in your way in the dome! I used to wear steel toe cap boots all the time, i think I thought I was in an Oi! band or something. I sacked them off when I was denied entry to a Mark Lanegan gig and as a result I either had to enter without shoes or run home to chane into a more sensible pair of Adidas Sambas, and as a result I missed the first couple of songs. Which is fuckin annoying cos I really like Mark Lanegan and had no intention of treading upon anyone's feet at the gig. Anyway, lesson learned. Soft shoes from then on. Another boring and pointless anecdote from me aside, this is absolute ILDJARN worship. It's done really well! If you dig Forest Poetry (and if not, why not?) I cannot conceive of how you wouldn't be really into this. can't be sure but I suspect this is George Proctor cos a) it sounds like loads of his stuff, b) he put it out, c) the artwork's the same as loads of his stuff and d) well, it's clearly him innit! £4

mentioned the band below as being a "less boring Bunkur". These guys are.....an equally boring Bunkur! I mean I'm being quite flippant there, but this is pretty standard drone/doom with black metal tremelo picking. I dunno, Sunn did it on Black One and blew everyone else out of the water as far as I'm concerned, that particular sound should probably be retired. £4

Absolute racket here from a guy from the excellent Oksennus....this is sort of drone-doom with bits of frantic explosion. It's quite like a less-boring Bunkur at points. £4

"New" album from PiM....I know this isn't "new" and in fact a decade old cos I was originally slated to release it. Was gonna be on vinyl, then I didn't have enough money to do that and it was gonna be on tape in a kinda old VHS box style thing, then I spent about 6 months of my life making that happen for the Repeated Viewing boxset, then it kinda fizzled out cos I'm a slack goon. Anyway, Andy never gave up and Dying Sun have stepped in so kudos! Listening to it again years later I wish I'd just remortgaged the house or something and sorted it out at the time cos it utterly rules. It just sounds really jarring and WEIRD. I love the incredibly grimy tone PiM has, and an ability to put sounds in there that average death/doom bands would never have the balls to. Some people might call it "experimental"; it's not really, it's just original and forward-thinking. High recommendation from me! £4

This is one of those demos which is so lofi it really just sounds like vocals and maybe something else happening in a bin somewhere else in the room. But mostly vocals. And you can't really hear them either. If you consider Dawn Of The Blackhearts to be a classic Jim Steinman-esque production, fire in! £4

Saw these guys a few years ago (must've been around release of this tape) and they were cool. Not sure what the hell you'd call this....it's got black metal goblin vocals, crushing heavy sludge guitars, tremeloe morbid Angel guitar lines and a definite power violence turn-of-pace. The front cover is a total "back of the Geography jotter" illustration of the Grim reaper which is my favourite thing about it. £2

SKRAVL: epic-sounding lofi black metal. The mournful synth bits are the highlight for me. War Is Aer (what's Aer?) is more produced. Keys are more to the front of the melody here; not quite as full-on in the front as, say, Summoning, but defo not just an ancilliary bit of atmosphere at the start. It's quite all-over-the-place but not without its charms! Think both bands are danish, and I cannot think of any other BM bands from Denmark off the top of my head! £4

Epic-sounding black metal. Very much demo-sound, it has the quality of being played through a radio in a house over yer back door. Tunes are good though, quite like Urfaust. £4

Real heavy-duty, swirling digital noise. I've never been a big fan of digital noise but this works pretty well. Really oppressive. I don't think I could manage the whole album in one go, mind. £4

Stoned To Death is a cool label. I might not be into everything they put out, but then why should I be? I really like a label who just puts out tunes they're into, in their own way, without letting anyone else fuck about with their business. Respect. This LP is totally unlike everything else in this update. Crevasse is snail-paced industrial doom. It's really sparse, kinda like a mechanical Burning Witch. V0nt is like some ultra-sinister techno-influence industrial metal. You know who they really sound like? GGFH. And I love GGFH! Brutal. £7

Shoe-gazey dream-pop with a Krautrock sensibility from Czech. Another winner from Stoned To Death! £8

Decent stuff; this comes across like a kinda motorik krautrock-informed post rock. Imagine the guys from Neu! playing Spiderland. £7

Face-ripping fastcore assault! £7

Grotty metal from London; can be pacy but it's not really grind or death. Just sounds like some cunts who probably like Celtic Frost getting together to make a racket. Is good! £4

Fuckin hell, this is wild man. I mean, on the surface it isn't; it's kinda alt-country sounding. It really reminds me loads of the kinda thing that would be on the soundtrack to a 60s biker or Spaghetti Western film....the kinda stuff that Paul Weiber used to hit out with. I LOVE that kinda thing, so to hear some Czech guys do it some 50 years later, with one side being an ode to crap british food sung in broken english...well, I'm sold. 98 copies only, get one! £6

FChrist knows what you'd call this. Like everything on Stoned To Death, I suspect it of being really weird (the cover art is), but it's sung in Czech, no info about the band, and the music is....well, very normal. It's kinda borderline alt-rock. The vocalist is pretty gruff and the B-side gets a bit punky but other than that....dunno. I'm outside my comfort zone here, nothing to report. £5

Absolutely essential piece of early death industrial, resurrected from the archives by the always reliable Narcolepsia. Manuel has one of the best ears for a good record of anyone I've ever known, and if he's gonna reissue something, you know it's gonna be something fuckin worthwhile! This is some of the coldest industrial you'll ever hear, an absolute churning mechanical hell throughout it's half an hour duration. I'm sitting on a relxaing Sunday afternoon listening to this and I feel like society as we know it is slowly collapsing. Which.....it is. Perfect soundtrack to these dismal times. £6

Conceived (or rather reconceived) as a eulogy to Dmitry Vasiliev of the Monochrome Vision label who very sadly passed away in 2018, this is a haunting tribute to a great guy. Shimmering, glistening tones and choral washes build layers of ambience, offset by jarring, off-kilter beats. I never knew Dimitry all that well, but like a lot of similar underground label owners, traded with him a few times and had the odd chat. He'd definitely be chuffed with this record. £4

Another new release from the incomprabale Zhelezobeton and it's another belter. I know the "synthwave" resurgence is a bit passe now, but fuckin hell this is dead good. Less well-known but better in my opinion than more lauded exponents like Umberto, say. This record absolutely nails the 80's direct-to-video soundtrack vibe with a hefty dollop of cheese spread over the top. Class. £5

Magificent abstract collage ambient here; tapestries of drone, field recordings and pulsing rhymthm make up a really compelling piece of experimental music. £5

Not entirely sure how you herd sloths...in fact do you ever even get sloths in a herd? It'd take fucking ages, and where would you want them to go, don't they die if they're not in trees or something? Important questions for David Attenborough should I ever meet him. Sloth Herder are a pretty good frantic black metal/grind hybrid...lots of teremlo picking and rabid vocals and pummeling all-over-the-kit drums. Horde Of The Eclipse start off with a despondant acoustic guitar track that made me think they were ploughing Steve Von Till territory, until suddenly came blasting some intense black metal. These guys remind me quite a bit of early Carpathian Forest or maybe Gehenna, melodic without being naff and a nice blend of atmosphere and decent riffs. As with a lot of US black metal I hear a punk influence in there, but I guess everyone doing BM these days is probably from the hardcore scene innit blud. £3

The "Hunt Has Come Full Circle" 7" was a real favourite of mine when it came out a few years ago and I gave it a glowing review on this very page at the time; so to have the two tracks from it remastered along with a bunch of further tracks re-explored by junk noise master Sektor 304...well that can only be good, right? Rather than ADD to the original material, Sektro 304 actually pares back the original tracks and allows them to breather a bit more; the more spare approach actually sounds more sinister. Biarrely it had me thinking of the genius sparse approach of the second KHANATE record, which is still the best "noise" record parading as a metal album ever made! Anyway.....this fuckin rules; get it! £6

Minimally structured drone/ambient with some lovely melodies going on. Enjoyed this one a lot. £3

Droning synth, bleak industrial. Abandon all hope! £5

Sludgy noise rock, formerly on Relapse records. This is a collection of singles, and other shit. The other shit is where I'm mostly interested in, cos it's mainly covers of hardcore tunes by Discharge, Cro Mags, Minor Threat, Rudimentary Peni, DRI, Black Flag, Negative Approach, and Poison Idea. These bands are all the absolute business, and I can't say Rabbits do them much justice to be honest. It comes across as a bit snide really. I'd never heard of these guys before, if you want to hear the noise rock equivalent of Monarch then dive in. Can you guess if I do? £5

An utter CLASSIC power violence record here. If you need to know what the MITB sound is: this record is what it's all about! That churning, ultra-heavy bass tone, weird off-kilter rhythms, time signatures that make no sense to any human, vocals that sound like a bear having a stroke. THIS is power violence. Bleeding Rectum can't compete with that but their side still totally rules. I think they were from Belfast but they played a kinda thrashy so-cal style fastcore. Reall raging, razor sharp stuff. This reissue comes on blue vinyl and features an insert with full art for each band just like the original, but comes in a proper sleeve rather than just a folder-over. Never understood why this record had that crummy boring cover art when two utterly AMAZING Morbid Mark illustrations for each band got stuck on posters inside. Ah well, no record is perfect! £10

Wow, these guys have stepped it up! I've had a few of their records over the past few years but this one really picks it up a few notches in terms of intensity, production value, and sheer face-shredding FORCE. Excellent grindcore that rarely lets up. £8

I can't lie, when I saw these guys' stupid logo I instantly thought "fuck this, I hate wacky music", but to be fair this is really pretty ripping fastcore. They do kinda come across like a fast Lawnmower Deth most of the time, but in spite of myself I've always liked Lawnmower Deth. I suppose it's refreshing to have a band just be stupid and not pretend to be right-on to gain some worthiness points. Also gets a bonus for the utterly bizarre cover art, which seems to be a crochet globulous mass of various "geezer's" heads, including Jim Bowen, Frank Butcher from Eastenders, Jeff from Byker Grove, Mr T, and Jordan. £8

Ultra-obscure mid-90s black metal from Sweden here. Have to confess I shamefully wasn't aware of Skuggmorker at all, and boy was I missing out! Both these demos have a real obscure mysterious aura about them: very atmospheric and grim sounding. For a demo the recording quality is okay, whoever mastered this to vinyl did a great job as there's definitely no degredation in sound and any "deficiencies" (I believe BM parlance is "necro") are entirely down to recording standard and lack of musical ability. This is mainly mid-paced black metal, with a lot of tunes in that kinda galloping, half-a-beat-off style that Graveland were so good at. There's even a total amatuerish long solo keyboard tune. This will never be regarded as a classic of early black metal, but if you (think you) know the genre inside-out, this is an essential curio. Limited to 200 copies on black vinyl, so gettit! £12

Punky metal which sounds like a kinda Celtic Frost-inspired Septic Death, with maybe a bit of 90s metalcore in there too. £4

Powerful and brutal grindcore with a dual-vocal delivery (I think) and a wee bit of a complex hardcore edge. Mad screeching vocals and PV-style barks. CD version features a full live set as a bonus! £3

An album with a pun title is almost always gonna wind me up the wrong way, so I'm kinda inclined to think this is shite before listening. The fact that UK Hategrind have perhaps the lamest name I've ever seen doesn't make things any better. Anyway, maybe the music's inspired. BSB are ok, they play that frantic grind where the singer sounds like he's always totally losing the plot. It's not bad really but I'd heard it a million times by 1999 to be honest. UKHG sound like a bunch of beefy blokes who were dead into Pantera in the 90s and never really moved on much. They now play grind but you know the Cowboys From Hell are where it's really at for them. They lived up to their name for sure. £3

Crusty-ish grind. Their new album is better in my opinion (and available on vinyl above!) but this one still rages, and is only 3 quid. £3

I've never heard of KTT before but apparenty he plays his own instrument which I think is processed bass; this adds some extra texture to Vomir's walls of dense noise. £5

Raw, primal, violent blasting harsh noise. £5

Classic obscure industrial from mid-80s Italy here. Sparse with plenty of room to breathe, it sounds kinda like someone constructin a factory in space. ZI is a totally overlooked name in 80s euro noise and should be considered amongst the likes of Maurizio Bianchi, Giancarlo Toniutti or Mauthausen Orchestra. £5

Excellent 7" from the always solid sleaze BM machine Abigail and some excellent epic euro-metal-stroke-black metal from Akasha. Ridiculous nurse/nun with big breests ripping out Christ's guts artwork too. Limited to only 300 copies, get em while you can! £3

Pretty groovy almost-grind (not fast enough) from BC, ultra-rough no-fi gorey grind from Sram. £4

Bangsat provide little variation on Napalm Death's "Scum". Worked for Rot, Agathocles and about a million others so no judgement here! Exogorth aren't too diffrent, maybe a bit more hardcore but they have really annoying screamy vocals that just go right through me. Clear vinyl lim 100. £4

Breathilizor is Food Fortuna and Poopy Necroponde from Sockeye and this is very similar in terms of utterly retarded surreal humour, but much more metal than Sockeye's tard-core. Everything these guys released is brilliant. Brody's Militia is really competent hardcore/grind but for me doesn't even live in the same universe as anything by Breathilizor. £4

This band name reminded me of that bit in Peep Show where some wee neds call Mark "clean shirt" and he's confused cos he doesn't accept it as a valid insult. These guys are from NY I think and play a kinda garagey punk rock. Reminds me a bit of a more snide and less urgent Nation Of Ulysses, but if I'm honest my sphere of reference for this kinda gear is reasonably narrow! £4

Column Of Heaven continue to amaze me to be quite honest. If you thought The Endless Blockade were perfecting their craft, CoH continually manage to go steo after step further. So often I get records in here for distro and can't think of anything to say about them cos they're just fucking boring and sound like everything else. CoH are so far ahead of the game I can't think of any easy things to compare them to at all. Do me a favour and just get this and make your own mind up! Radioactive Vomir are great too, actually. It's always difficult when you follow such a top-notch band on a split record, but they do so with aplomb, their primitive black/death metal providing a good foil to CoH. £4

Old-style grindcore. Particularly good is the Sakatat side, just recently got their live tape on BoG and it's brilliant. Good solid grind. £3

Superlative immersive synth drone from Expo70. Usually a purveyor of long-form, slowly-evolving shimmering notes, he knocks it out the park on one side of a 7" and the limited run-time of a 3". I remember iamseamonster as being a really cool wee uy who used to post on the DFFD forum years ago, and I always thought he made cool tunes, so Im glad he got to put this record out with a "name band". He makes really nice slowly-shifting, dreamy soundcapes. Reminds me loads of my good pal and ambient genius Cheer. This is a really limited version of this with an extra CDr which I recently discovered I have two copies of! Going for loads more on Discogs! £10

So the kids I teach at school know I run a record label, they know the name. At some point one of them is going to discover that I stock a release by a band called Fist-A-Ferret, and I'll have to explain myself. I have no valid explanation for this. I'd maybe ask the band, "why did you think this was a good monicker to represent your tunes?", but I can only hope that they themselves are 12 years old, cos that's the only excuse I'd accept for such an utterly rank band name. Actually I'm not even gonna listen to it. You know it's probably gonna be utter shite. Slaves To The Grind: sorry, but you're guilty by association. £0

Am Rep-ish noise rock/HC. £3

This is cool! Not often enough do the worlds of hardcore punk and experimental music meet, and when they do it's usually not massively successful. Merzbow has a kinda 50% hit rate on his collabs for example. This one's getting a similar ratio, modular synth tones meeting primitive hardcore blasts. Sometimes it comes together beautifully, sometimes it sounds shoe-horned in a bit. The recording quality sometimes detracts but it's a noble experiment. Nice die-cut packaging too. If they spent a bit more studio time and did a full album I reckon this would flesh out really well. £3

Long-running PV/trashcore meets top grind from Tersanjung. £2

Quite raging hardcore from both bands. Pigeon Hunt are quite 90s-style screamo; vicious, tight stuff. Iron Boris have more of a groove going on. Decent pairing! £2

Old school, no bullshit doom/heavy metal here. I really miss Game Two loads. £3

Two great weed-worshipping bands from Finland; Irritate playing groove-based grind and Bud Junkees sludgey stoner. £2

Restock! Melodic Finnish punk rock, this is their second 7" from 1979. £5

Old school melodic hardcore from France. £ 2

Sludge/drone doom. £4

Raging PV from Leicester vs long-running rabid HC from AOBW. Bonus points to AOBW for: 1) Negative Approach Cover (which isn't "Ready To Fight") and 2) rip-off VOID art. £3

Mostly sub-30 second blasts of violence from NC. HB give us.....mostly sub-30 second blasts. They've got a much more crossover sound though, really good gear actually. £3

One of the original "junk noise" purveyors hits out with two sides of creaking, clattering, squeeking and smashing. It's pretty difficult to do this stuff well I think without it sounding like someone just fixing a bike, and honestly, I don't think anyone's ever come close really to the first New Blockaders LP. This'll definitely annoy yer neighbours though. Limited to 100 copies in really cool dayglo-inside-printed covers. £2

Old school raw grind from Apes meets death/thrash from Slaughterday, who also do Venom's greatest tune, "In League With Satan". £3

Dopi from Machetazo and Lasse from Hooded Menace join forces and make some utterly apocalyptic metallic crust. This definitely takes Monolith-era Amebix as a template, right down to the really subtle synth and intonation of the vocals. Great chunky, driving riffs. This is proper crust, not fuckin children with dreadlocks playing hardcore with deliberately low production values. Insane hardcover-book-style packaging too. Utter bargain! £4

Dictaphone-level noisecore stupidity from SMS. There's tons of good riffs going on here though, these guys defo know what they're doing. UDM have one of the harshest sounds I've heard in ages. There's this weird high-pitched squeeky sound over it. Is it a theremin? It's really annoying. The drums sound like they just found some old bins and battered them for a bit. I dunno, it's kinda cool I guess. When I was 16 I'd have been all over this! Actually when I was 16 I'd have probably recorded this. A wee bit better. :-P £4

Total unevenly-recorded noisecore attack from SSS here, drums way up in the mix, rough as fuck. Cool! Mare Coca is a really old school blur assault that could've been recorded in the early 90s. Bonus points for some of the best cover art I've ever seen on the SSS side, rotting Sesame Street characters....My Heroes! £3

Ridiculous, over-the-top screaming noisecore from SSS, Fuck knows what Umbilical Tentacle is all about. Sounds like a kinda 50s schlocky go-go-band with vocals which are just a lassie bein attacked in a horror film, then blasts of incomprehensible grind. It's really stupid. £3

Restock! These Finns have a bit more of a post-punk bent than the others of the scene. 1979. £5

Restock! This one is a little more abrasive than the "Kaupunki" EP but still sounds a bit to me like Gang Of Four played on 45. 1979 £5

This is a really old one, I know this cos I found one of my old distro lists with this on it! And I charged 2 quid for it 15 years ago and At War With False Noise does not recognise inflation as it's an insidious capitalist construct, or summat like that. Total solid thrashcore from SAT and noisey violent PV with slugey bit from SNK. This version comes with an extra sleeve, maybe came from one of the bands. £2

Punk/reggae collective featuring members of Ex-Cathedral, Snoc Boom Six, King Prawn, The Filaments, and hunners more! £4

Thoroughly unpleasant collab between Torturing Nurse and Fecalove. Grotty harsh noise. £6

Maybe the only Finn punk band who performed in english? I guess maybe they were having a go at trying to match the english sound because they have a very oi! style (love those R'n'R guitar leads). Excellent! 1979 £5

Second single from 1979; quite brit-punk influenced driving punk rock swagger. Clear vinyl. £5

Excellent noisecore comp from the best country for this kind of thing right now: FINLAND! Featuring: Nihilist Commando, Aunt Mary, Funeral Mongoloids, Anal Barbara, Musta Oksennus, ProDeath, Chains Of Death Command, Luostari, Pahoinvointi and Unpeace. A pure 12 monute ravaging of the senses! Includes a wee booklet. Very sorry for the high price but the wholesale price on these was bloody ridiculous. DIY or don't, eh. £4

What's a black leather cop? There's so many things that could be. The mind boggles. Anyway, this is droning noise from Newcastle. Tonally pretty gritty and not too savage upon the lugs. £4

This must be an old yin! Total freeform screeching feedback, joyous guitar stupidity. BSBF were the last really great band to come out of Glasgow in my opinion. And they didnae even really come out of Glasgow, ha! £4

Coco & Fiend Friend I think is George Proctor and Nicola Vinciguerra (who both collaboratively ran Turgid Animal between the UK and Italy back in the day!). I've no idea who Bore are. This has a real raw, old industrial feel to it. £4

£2

Field recordings (dictaphone?) of cars? I don't fuckin know any more man, my heid's wasted with some of this nonsense! £3

So obscure it doesn't even have a Discogs entry! Harsh and violent noisecore from Gaz Howells of Sump/Iron Drugs/Barbarians etc etc. £3

Old school death metal (think Grave, Dismember etc) from Argentina. This is their first demo. £3

Lee Stokoe, George Proctor and Jerome Smith combine to make something which is very much a sum of its parts, closest maybe to Lee's genius ex-band Marzurran but not a million miles away from Haikai No Ku or even the "rock" era of Skullflower. Nihl are a great complement, with some really comelling dronescapes. £4

Really amazing ultra-heavy drone here. Similar in terms of heavy tone to Culver, but much less static and more progressive. Absolutely SUPOIB! £3

Comp of two EPs of dirty death n' roll a-la mid-late 90s Entombed. Good! £3

Total unlistenable "shit folk" from Vomir. I love it!! £4

£3

Tape version of 7". In-the-red raw punk. Metallic punk barrage! £3

What the fuck is an undignified cave? Can you get a dignified cave? I suppose the amount of dignity furnished upon a cave is very dependent on whomever resides within. I don't hang around many caves though really so possibly no the best guy to ask for comment. Anyway. Top class crawling funeral doom from Brazil here. It's ultra-simple, but that's what makes it so good: no flowery shit, just grinding, painfully slow doom. Very much in the old style. Perfecto!! £4

I have no idea what the fuck this is. It's like Eastern European hiphop, sometimes like Casio-keyboard punk, with weird radio samples throughout. I dunno how I come across some of this stuff man. £4

This sounds like the skulls being crushed under the wheels of those big robot tanks at the beginning of Terminator 2. £2

This one definitely has been sitting around un-noticed for years cos this was in my distro list when I was still at school, and I left school 20 years ago! £4

Supergroup trio of Jussi and Tomi from Circle etc and Chris Black from High Spirits. I saw this described as "heavy metal Devo", which isn't a terrible description. It's VERY 80s sounding and the synthesisers can get a bit much for me but the tunes are good. If you're into really polished cheeseball metal with a modern production, then this may very well be the greatest record you'll ever own. £18

Similar in style to Sikioasento below, but with half of the running time, not quite as an edurance test. I really love the churning bass sound...the first track is perfect! Anyone discussing "heaviest albums ever made" need only to listen to Bizarre Uproar to have any slow DOOM absolutely fuckin trounced. £17

Bloody hell this is intense stuff. BU have always been at the forefront of harsh noise in terms of sound, and it's often been a new direction from them acts as a bit of a lightning rod to the rest of the scene. This record feels like it might be another one of those moments, and if it is, crhist almighty some unpleasant sounds are coming our way. It's utterly punishing from start to finish. One of my greatest triumphs when I die may be that I can say I listened all the way through to this record whilst making up a third year trigonometry homework exercise. In hindsight, I might have preferred to be water-boarded. The core of the sound here is some ultra-heavy bass, augmented with ultra-distorted vocals, screeching feedback and clattering metal junk. It's the idea that every sound in the composition is as harsh as the next; there's plenty of texture going on, but absolutely zero room to breathe. It's total torture music, but that's the point, and I find it really pretty compelling. In fact I think I might fire it on again, my class need some Pythagoras practice... £20

I dunno if it's everything that's been happening lately, but I'm kinda finding shit like this to be just kinda fuckin annoying. Black State is another band whose previous records have bleak covers of Nazis and pictures of anonoymous black murder victims with titles like "Guns From Black People To Kill Them Later". I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this is made by some middle-class white man who's probably got just a wee bit of a pinger that I'm getting riled up by it. I'm not really, just think it's lame. If you want to have conviction of your stupid beliefs, at least a) don't be anonymous and b) state your beliefs up front. It's very easy to make vague allusions to stuff and say it's "artisticlly investigting" something. Very few have ever got away with that with any degree of validity, cos most are just daft wee boys. Musically this is pretty minimal, bleak power electronics. It's ok, but it's also incredibly easy to make if you have an amp and a few basic effects pedals. Moment of revalation: noise cunts aren't very talented! Another one for folk to buy on Discogs who don't read these reviews. £15

Urgent-sounding, pretty melodic screamo. One-sided 12er with a screen-printed B-side. £4

Masato Tanaka are really weird: they're like a kinda screamo band but with loads of 50s-sounding hokey keyboard. I'm not into the more conventional hardcore-y bits but I love the keyboards! It's utterly bizarre. Pocket Gallows are all over the pace stylistically, each of their three songs being quite different, gioing from frenzied mathcore to ambient to sludgey slow-mo doom. This is definitely a record for folk who appreciate schizophrenic sounds, and comes in a really smart screeprinted sleeve with cool inserts. Worth a punt. £6

I put Charles Hayward on in Glasgow years ago and he's one of the coolest guys I've ever met. I've loved most everything he's done for years: This Heat obviously, but that MASSACRE record, CAMBERWELL NOW...fuck! Anyway, after the tour he phoned me up to tell me that nicking about Glasgow eating chips with me was his best memory of that tour and that's maybe the best thing I've ever been told by another person. What's that got to do with this record? Well nowt, but I just wanted to tell the world that I spent the day with Charles Hayward. This is great post-punkular improv that I saw described as being influenced by Tuxedoomon and Negativland. I can definitely hear the former going on here! Hayward's distinctive percussion serves as a backbone as the other guys (Mika Taanila and Jussi Lehtisalo) at turns lock into the groove or go wild. Great stuff! This was recorded live at this planet's Ground Zero of conceited, glib pretentiousness Cafe Oto, but don't let that put you off too much. £18

This is a real weird one. I'd never heard of these guys but they're apparently an incredibly influential French Oi! band who have been going since the early 90s. That only tells a bit of the story though cos these guys' sound is well beyond the pretty narrow parameters of Oi! Like a lot of classic French punk bands they employ a drum machine, but whilst the vocals and basic tunes are very Oi!, they also use keyboards liberally and there's a definite metal edge to their guitars. Kinda brings to mind The Blood. A pretty unique sound. Also went to put these on Discogs and it turns out I got copies of the original press and they regularly go for an absolute feckin fortune (has sold for 80 quid!), so grab yerself a bargain! £15

Ace to have this on vinyl! Got this on CD not long after it came out...nearly 20 years ago. Whit?! PO started off as a kinda less experimental version of their sister band Circle, with the same underlying principle of repetition at their heart, but with some of the most great fuzz tone heard since Welcome To Sky Valley. Quite how people from such a cold place can play tunes like this is beyond me. If you dig the sound of stoner and the nature of psychedelia, then Pharoah Overord are 100% FOR YOU. £18

I always kind of thought of Pharaoh Overlord as being a sort-of more straightforward "rock" Circle sideproject but as the years have gone on the two bands seem to be crossing over in sound to the point I often can't tell the difference between the two. And I don't really mean that as a criticism. What's this one like? Total fist-pumping soaring synth chords, ringing guitar amps and a driving motorik beat. I wish I'd got this on CD so I could listen to it on a drive! Superb. £18

Psycho: still at it after what, 35 years? They donate about 5 minutes of totally stupid grind punk, very raw. They actually seem to sound less professional now than they did on their first record! EOS - very old school-sounding grind punk that reminds me quite a bit of Unseen Terror. MxAxMxAx: manic death grind. £9

Old stock find! Great melodic punk rock from 1995. I remember these guys went on a couple of years later to be on Fat Wreck and were one of the original spiky hair/bowling shirt bands who I guess were pretty influential on all the Blink 182's and all that in the late 90s. I was a teenager in the late 90s and the only "alternative culture" that anyone accepted was that kinda stuff and so I utterly fuckin hated it of course. Not these fellas' fault mind and this is a more than decent slab of punk rock. £8

This is the last record of this update I've written about, and I feel like all I've done is fuckin gripe about everything. I think I'm just sick of "edgy" stuff and he really weak justification of it. This is Pasi Markkula of Bizarre Uproar and Xenophobic Ejaculation and Pekka of Gelsomina, Sick Seed etc, making much more stripped-back stuff than their day jobs. This is very stark, with the first 20 minutes really having very little happening at all. When it gets going and isn't just samples it's mainly vocal/feedback-based and I'm sure the lyrics are all very unpleasant. I really dug the first couple of LPs 10 years ago but I dunno, I'm not too fussed for anything like this now. If you're gonna be into this you'll no doubt have an idea already. £15

Isis frontman and Hydrahead main fella does solo stuff, who knew? It's pretty different from most of the tunes he usually hits out with, being what I think is layered guitar with loads of effects. It's realy abstract with little in the way of song structure, and I can imagine the Hyrdhead crowd would utterly hate it. I think it's really pretty good! It's treading similar ground to the last SCHALKEN tape I put out, albeit not quite as atmospheric. And it'll sell 100 times as mny copies cos of cool points. £18

Screaming riff-a-rama metallic hardcore from both bands. £5

Very minimal but devestating power electronics that seems very much to be a tribute to the early says of the PE scene where the theme of glorification of death through the ultimate atrocity of the holocaust seemed to be de riguer. You'd have thought by now it had probably been explored enough - or even explored in a way with a little more intelligence than Ramleh or Whitehouse managed - but sadly we're still just getting images of camp victims and fascistic titles. The music is prime minimal PE, the aesthetic is tired teenage cliche that I personally cannae be fuckin hooped with. £15

New album from George Proctor's Saxon-influenced black metal project. This is very Darkthrone-sounding, vocals are fuckin amazing; TONS of reverb! I really like this project. There's pretty much nothing new going on here, but in a world where I don't really care about what Darkthrone are hitting out with now, I know that White Medal are hitting out with epic fuckin riffs every time. £10

Ultra-scuzz lo-fi punky black metal. Basicaly, if you know Gareth Howell's other stuff, this is very much on brand! £4

Excellent example in miniature of Circle's mix of Neu-eqsque motorik kraut leading into grandiose heavy metal choruses. Top! £4

I THINK this is a Gaz Howells band (Gaz, if you're reading this, is this your band?) who I see to remember my pal telling me were asked to put a recod out on Phil Anselmo's label at some point. Fuckin weird. Maybe it never happened cos Phil was just too busy saying stuff that just SEEMED to be really racist but actually was fine. Repeatedly. Anyway, I don't care about Phil Anselmo but I do care about this ace 7 inch! This is really grimy, scuzzy punk that really does sound like the kinda grotty scumrock that Gaz would come out with. Music to listen to whilst consuming a steak bake and a 2 litre bottle of Irn Bru outside a Gregg's. Limited to only 100 copies and in smashing foil-printed sleeve. £5

Absolutely rockin all-girl 4-piece from Finland here. They've got a real hard-as-nails sound and great hooks. If Man's Ruin were still a thing they'd absolutely have done a 10 inch, and this is one of those you'd pick up on a whim and be well chuffed with! £4

SYNTH WAVE OF SWEDISH DEATH METAL is the tagline for this. Jesus. So this is pulsing squishy 80s beats and Hi-NRG disco synths mixed with crunching early 90s death metal riffs and vocals. I don't really know where I am any more! £4

Ace raw oi/black metal from Sump and punk with a BM edge from SV. £4

Raw, uncompromising BM from White Medal and dissonant, melancholic BM from Dommedagssalme. £4

Powerful mid-period Morbid Angel-style death from Hungary. £4

Long-lost second full length album from Atomic that should have been released in 1996 but never did, until now! This is very typical of the time; the riffs are more mechanical and chunky, drums are more punchy and industrial-sounding. It sounds quite like Fear Factory, basically. Now the Nuclear War Noobs contingent may scoff at this, but the mid-90s was a time where pretty much all bands were effected in some way by this tidal change in sound. As someone who was unfortunate enough to be a teenager at that time, I kinda felt like I just missed out on all the cool stuff of the late 80s but it encouraged me from a really young age to be foreced to explore the underground more. Anyway, I rambling...I LIKE the first couple of Fear Factory albums. They still stand up! And a band who knows how to write a good riff, still knows how to wrie a good riff if they're playing mid-paced groove metal or priitive thrash. So this gets my approval, for what it's worth. £4

Recordings from between 1989 and 1992 from this pioneering noisecore act. If you're into this band you'll probably have this stuff already; it came out on a tape originally and has been recently also reissued on tape. The CD contains a late 90s session that is totally savage which I don't think has come out before. It might be from the Bleeeeeurgh! 7" but fuckin hell, my ear for the differences between 90s noisecore recording sessions isnae what it used to be. Anyway, do you like noisecore? If the answer is yes and you don't have any Aunt Mary, then I'd suggest getting this. £6

Similar in style to Sikioasento below, but with half of the running time, not quite as an edurance test. I really love the churning bass sound...the first track is perfect! Anyone discussing "heaviest albums ever made" need only to listen to Bizarre Uproar to have any slow DOOM absolutely fuckin trounced. £6

Ultra-distorted evil black metal. Nice digipak. £4

Ultra high-fidelity power electronics here from Germany. I feel like this is very influenced by black metal, and the lines are somewhat blurred at times between the incredibly distorted vocals and feedback of this and a lot of modern BM. In both genres my personal preference is the much more lo-fi approach of the early proponents BUT I can see the merits of this kinda gear. £5

I went down to Newcastle with these boys and Vuil a couple of years ago and had a great time. Pretty wild guys, one of them utterly decimated a toilet with what could only be described as a tolly from Hell. Anyway, enorous jobbies aside, this utterly rules. Raging deathrash of the highest order. Very similar to our own Vuil in fact! Extra points for some of the most terrible cover art I've ever seen, looks like a guy with an afro sitting on a shopping trolly, weilding a big toothbrush. £4

Old school death metal from Norway with a pretty thrashy edge. Vocals are cool, kinda not very death metal at all, remind me a bit of the weird tortured howls on early At The Gates. Think this is Johannes from Enter Obscurity's "other" band! £4

New album from Hungary's longest-running (I think) black metal band. Their demo "Strom Above The Carpathians" from 1997 is one of the greatest underground mainland European BM recordings in my opinion, and you never hear them talked about at all. They've got more technically adept as time has gone on, as well as a bit more "symphonic" I guess, and I can definitely hear a heavy mid-period Emperor influence here. Recommended. £4

Re-recordings from their sole 1990 demo from this under-the-radar Hungarian crossover legend. This is cool stuff, the tunes are top class. It's not greatly technical, but if you dig crossover that doesn't take itself too seriously you'll dig this. £3

Old school thrash with elements of both US and Euro 80s styles. £3

Dark occultish thrashing black metal. £3

CD version of a 7" by the most ubiquitous death metal band around and Hatevomit, who play quite slow death metal with great gutteral, brutal vox. The disc is really cool, is like printed with the band logos on the underside. £4

Death/grind from Hungary who apparently released a demo in 1993 (which I've never heard of!). Anyway, this isn't a full on speed-fest, soe decent riffs and good production. Vocals are gonna be pretty much love or hate though I reckon, sound a bit like the guy from Lack Of Interest but more stupid. £3

I know, I know....fuck sake. And I also know I once released a CD by a band called RAPE X, and every time I remember that I think to myself "man, what a dick". Anyway, I'll attempt to see past the band name which could only have been conceived by someone who's definitely never had sex with another human before. It's actually good. First track is built around a basic beat and sounds pretty Throbbing Gristle. The rest is more standard PE fare, pretty directionless with black metal-ish vocals. It's definitely brutal stuff but it doesn't sound very well-composed in the way that say, a lot of the acts on Unrest are. £5

Early Regler here, playing both genres as an exercise in absolute human edurance. It's interesting the absolute intensity of it, and you can feel when it's getting a bit too much when the pace changes. Much like the HNW recording they did (or most Regler), casual listening just doesn't work, and enduring with this really allows for more appreciation of what they're going for. Top marks!! £6

Reissue on CD (Nuclear War Now did the vinyl) of this obscure Yugoslavian act. If you dig a bit, Eastern Europe is an absolute treasure trove of great heavy metal from the 80s, and I've bagged countless amounts of solid gold over the years just by taking a punt on a random metal band from a forer Soviet territory. Anyway, this is superb speed/thrash with a real ear for melody. You might imagine this might be lo-fi and more death metal-influenced, but these guys were definitely listening to 80s hard rock, as a lot of contemporanaeous bands from the region were. This realy rules, highest recommendation from me. Bonus for the excellent cover art, where the band's own "Eddie" has decpitated Freddie Kruger with his one glove! Good lad. £4

Dunkelheit definitely have a particular MO going on here, bloody hell. I was hoping that the "scat" in this act's name would be referring to it maybe being a power electronics acts but with a vocalist going "skebaa-skebiddy-bee-ba-bo!", but it's not. It's just more power electronics. Sorry I'm bein a dick. This is decent. I like it more than the other more "metal"-sounding things on Dunkelheit cos it is definitely more traditionally "noise" in it's aesthetic. Very all-over the place in its construction like a lot of Japanese noise, the only thing that maybe lets it down for me is the vocals. It's got that kinda macho delivery that the 90s US PE acts had, and I always thought they totally missed the point. Hmm. £5

The first of the Skullflower albums to come out in the "new" style. Augmenting his ranks with Culver's Lee Stokoe and Harm's Sam Davies, this introuced a black metal-influenced sound with grim tremelo guitar and layers of blackened feedback. Great stuff. £5

Matthew Bower seems to have become a bit of a provocoteur in the past couple of years, making cryptic allusions to mystic fascism via his frankly baffling blog. Enough in fact, to have the Facebook mob ensure that Skullflower now joins the ranks of those bands DELETED from the list of stuff it's acceptable to like. I listened to an interview with Jon Ronson lately where he talked about this weird thing these days where there's a zero tolerance in the echo chamber of social media for anyone making a mistake in something they've said, but also the idea that once someone's said some bullshit, it only takes a few people to jump in on it for it to - to all extents and purposes - become FACT. I think having your own mind and opinion is pretty much one of the most important things a human being can ever do, and that's why I entirely defend for example, selling say, Burzum records on this site. The world has become a black and white place, and you're either defined as a good guy or a dirty fascist. I'll tell you what, I've never met anyone who's proclaiming loudest that they're either who isn't a complete and total CUNT. Still here? Aye, new Skullflower record. Well, it's called "Purity", so despite being over 50 years old and after all the accusations, Matthew still wants to give a kinda ambiguous, facisty-soundin title, but don't worry there's no hidden speeches by David Duke or that in there far as I can hear. Musically this is stellar. Opening with a 20 minute track of squalling guitar which could've been lifted from a mid-70s Les Rallizes Denudes gig, we have three lengthy tracks where synthesisers take the fore; it's epic in scope, and has a cinematic, grandiose feel. The last and shortest track is some of the most beautiful, evokative material I've ever heard Skullflower come out with. So in summation: I think this album is great. Buy it or do not. If you choose to do so, it won't make you a Nazi you fuckin dummy. £7

Minimal power electronics. Image on the front is the band playing live, a guy with a massive gut and flabby tits wearing a pair of joggy bottoms. I'm not quite sure how such a specimen of wretched doughiness could honestly be held up as a figure of "male supremacy", cos my mum could definitely batter him. £6

"Atmopsheric funeral metal" is how this is described by the label and that's a pretty bang-on description. Slow, ponderous with plenty of mournful synth and great, monosylabic vocals intoned without a hint of tune, augmented with rasping death growls as the 42 minute (!) single track goes on. I haven't listened all the way through (come on, I've got about 100 new records in this update and I just got in the new Brainbombs album for myself!) but it's decent stuff. £4

White Medal continue ploughing the furrow (was agrarian farming what society was built on in Saxon Yorkshire?...was Yorkshire even a thing in Saxon times?) of Transilvanian Hunger with some utterly fucking demonic vocals that sound a bit like the guy from RDP who only records while he's stuffed his face full of cake. In this case it'd be the Saxon equivalent of cake, which would probably just be some form of oaty mush. As ever, White Medal rules! £6

Absolutely superb primitive but atospheric black metal. £6

Incredibly grandiose (read: ultra pompous!) black metal from Hungary. If you think a band like Summoning are maybe a wee bit over-thet-top, you should defo check these guys out. It's soaring keyboards with that kinda "angel chorus" effect on them all over the shop and power chords a-hoy. They even finished the album with a Tchaikovsky tune. I mean I think it's fuckin class and have been listening to it all morning. £5

Crikey, proper gutter-level black metal swill here from Gaz Howells. £4

Incredibly fruity-sounding dungeon synth. Listening to this took me right back to the bit in Golden Axe when you're in the level that's got all the wee mad elf guys in it. Bit floral for me, defo doesn't make me think I'm in a dungeon, which I think really dungeon synth should do. £5

Like Kapala below, these guys come from India and play a similar style of ultra-lofi war metal. I don't know if it's cool in India to record your music on a dictaphone in a bin, but based on both these bands that's defo the current trend. When you don't just hear DRUMS, you can often make out gruff vocals and some guitar. There may be guitar riffs being played but I can't be entirely sure. Like Kapala, I find this oddly compelling, but it's not harsh enough to be "fuck....that's harsh", or good enough for me to think "fuck....that's good". I base the complexity of thought which goes into these reviews entirely on the complexity of thought which has gone into the music in discussion. £5

Blast-furnace pitch-black noise/drone, great stuff. £4

New cold void emminations from Culver. £4

Ultra-basic death metal from Germany. This is total mongo death metal, riffs played into oblivion, drums playing the most simple of beats. But it works! I like it in the same way that Legion Of Andromeda are effective: it just bats you into submission. Sometimes being fancy isn't necessary. Plus these guys are from Aachen, and I went there on holiday a few years ago to check out Charmlemagne's palace, and it's one of the coolest places on Earth! Top marks. £5

Bloody hell this is harsh. It's a total rip of stuff like Revenge, Conqueror etc bit not quite so well-executed. It's ULTRA-distorted. I mean really, really distorted, to the point where everything just sounds like an absolute fuckin mess, and it's really poorly recorded which just adds to the aural soup. It's like a noisecore band during the slow bits, but without any memorable riffs cos...well you can't hear them. This sounds like a really negative review but I kind like this in a bizarre way. I do find it astonishing that someone would shell out proper dosh for something like this on vinyl, but then I don't understand why half you cunts do the things you do. £5

Well this is a really weird one. Lepillantokullo are a Hungarian thrash band from 1992 who released one demo that saw a CD release last year. This is their first material since then and it's well worth a listen, I kinda like how they seem to have existed in a bit of a time capsule. Not sure whether the bizarre cover art is praise-worthy or not: it features a fish leaping out of the water with a massive human erection, and a fist at the end of its penis. I wonder why these guys never achieved mainstream success. £3

Cold, atmospheric synth soundscapes. It's a bit minimal to be called dungeon synth bt has a similar vibe. I like it! £5

Diabolical black/death from both bands. £4

Well here's something that took me by surprise! Here we have Lee Stokoe aka Culver having a go at black metal. There are no drums, vocals or guitar riffs here but a minute in and you know you're listening to black metal. It's almost like a lofi bedroom take on Sunn's (largely successful) Black One LP, with minimal synth and stacatto guitar lines. Excellent stuff. £4

Great driving black metal with George Proctor (White Medal/Sump/every other fuckin band in the world) on drums. £4

Why does metal music and that always have to have titles that are about fighting against folk and being in conflict? It's stupid. I should've called my label "In Tolerance Of Nice Noise". This is a three-way split with EP's worth of material from Pact Of Ash, Unkerd Wood, Gamal Sed AKA....Lee Stokoe, Jamie Stuart and George Proctor. £4

Filthy-sounding death metal with some truly unpleasant vocals. Guy sounds like a baby with croup. £4

What are you up to right now? Self-isolating with fuck all else to do? Watched every episode of 13 Reasons Why on Netflix? Made a loaf for the first time and felt well chuffed with yourself? You have haven't you. I know you have! Well your loaf didn't prove for long enough and I bet you feel like ending it all yourself cos 13 Reasons Why is pish, so instead let's go back to a simpler time and do a crossword. But not one where you need to have a large vocabulary or word power: nope, you just need to know the name of the second Sarcofago LP. And don't use Google ya big cheat! £4

Retro rock/heavy metal from Finland that sounds really like Uncle Acid. There's a tiny wee bit of the Hellhound sound going on here too. Not too sure about the vocals, which are delivered in a knda Southern states drawl, which sounds kinda stupid knowing that these guys come from a country which sees the Sun for 3 weeks a year. If you can get over that this is decent retro-rock. £10

Long-running (since 1989!) grind veterans' new LP. £6

This is described on the sticker on the front as similar to Popol Vuh, Neu and Nurse With Wound. Advice: never over-egg the pudding in yer hype stickers! I know that they're called that for a reason, but honestly, this doesn't sound anything like any of those bands. Which isn't to say it's not probably influenced by them - fair enough - but if you're expecting some wild, free-form, anything-goes exploration of the boundaries of sound implied by existing in the same Ur-world as the aforementioned acts, then yr gonna be gutted when you plonk this on your turntable! So what is it like then? Well it is actually ok. The first track's pretty boring Low-esque guff (which I think is what put me against it from the start) but it soon gets going to some nice driving, rhythmic analogue-synthy sub-Kraut jams that aren't a million miles away from a futuristic Neu! I guess. The second side's kinda cut-up noisescapes with some synth overlay. I dunno about this, it's all over the place really and doesn't fit together as a coherent piece of work at all. Check it out on Bandcamp, don't let me be yr almighty music Magi all the time. £7

2014 album of raging, intelligent hardcore punk. £5

Personal favourite of this batch of AM LPs. First tune is an anti-EDL song and has one of the best lyrics I've heard in years: "This nation is what it�s become � it doesn�t matter where we all came from". Bang fuckin on! £5

Great new album from long-running punkers. First tune particularly took me by surprise...a 7 min+ kinda mid-paced rocker. Ace. £5

Third album of heavy rockers here. These guys don't push many boundaries, but they do a decent Budgie/Motorhead/Sir Lord Baltimore send-up pretty well. They're definitely doing their best vintage store shopping to look dead like heavies from The Professionals too, fair play. Bonus points awarded for the wee "From the makers of...." bit on the back of the LP, and if you don't get the reference, get off my website, poser! £14

Frantic screamo/hardcore from Germany. £3

Great full-length (well, it's still a 45 but their songs are dead short!) from one of the UK's best proponents of fast. White vinyl. £8

Superb recording from a TV show (!) AG played on whilst on their South American tour a couple of years back. Mix of old classics and newer stuff, very high quality recording. Can't beat Agathocles really, you know the score. £6

New album (not the same re-hashed tunes or shit rehearsal tracks) from AG. They're also grinding and not doing that weird drum machine guff any more. It's decent! £7

Ultra-obscure death/doom demo time! This came out in 1993, at a time where I guess death/doom had probably already reached its peak, so they were most likely strongly influenced by the early records of My Dying Bride, Anathema, Paradise Lost etc. This is a great mix of haunting doom and crunching death metal; it feels like a demo in that different songs feel a wee bit divergent in terms of style, but that's kinda part of the charm with demo recordings innit! I reckon if these guys had got a full album together it would've been a belter. Really nice package with an interview on the inside and three different colours to choose from: black, orange smoke and brown smoke. Limited to 100 of each colour, and I have copies of all. Be quick, this'll go fast! £10

Progressive, complex grindcore from Poland. Some decent riffs in here. £7

Odd pairing here: Relapse avante-garde grind from Antigama meets 70s soundtrack style stuff from Anima Morte. See my comments below for my thoughts on modern bands trying to be like bands from the 70s and failing miserably; this is kinda one of those occassions. Embarassingly shite cover art, better music, but not enough to convince me personally to shed any coin on it. As ever, of course, I am not the boss of you! £7

Earliest material from one of the most important anarcho bands. Antisect have always been a very special band to me; they never had much material but the evolution of their sound is totally fascinating and totally engrossing, and their message one of the strongest. While honestly I don't think much of the new record (note it's absence in this update) or the nonsense going on with the band's membership, the message is nevertheless still strong, and I wish more bands would subscribe to the idea of eschewing that message! Anyway, the demos here are really pretty rough and they were clearly still finding their sound, but the tunes are still great. The live set on the flip actually sounds well better, and is a great early listen in on a legendary band in their formative years. £10

After dominating sludge for so many years, Finland seems to be a breeding ground for the recently-resurgent noise rock scene. These guys are maybe a little more sluggish than most the AmRep bands for example, but there's a metallic heaviness to them and a definite punk swagger also. Comes in a huge Crass Records-style foldout sleeve, limited to only 300 copies. £2

Armagedom have been going for years (check out their first LP from 1984, Silencio Funebre and be BLOWN AWAY!), and they've never gone away, releasing records every few years to little fanfare. As a label who's been releasing records to little fanfare I can totally respect that! This just sounds like it should: totally old-school and with none of the crappy new production a lot of older band favour; raging vocals, razor-sharp guitars...it's magic! Highly recommended. £8

Great raging fast hardcore from Brazil. Raging stuff. £8

Really dig this! New to me, Ashtar are a duo from Switzerland and play a real amalgamation of various metal styles, and listening to it now I don't think they're a million miles away from new At War band Heavydeath. Driving, repetitive riffs form the backbone to the tunes, with melodic black metal guitar lines and sinister rasping vocals mixed with ethereal singing. Actually it's got a real Bergtatt vibe to it (best Ulver by far by the way!). Majestic! £8

This is the band formed by Josh Graham, a guy who I believe makes possibly the most terrible art in metal. Quite how he's managed to make a living Photoshopping forest animals onto backgrounds of big buildings with a stormy sky in the background is beyond me. His stuff looks like the kinda images you see middle-aged american tourists wearing on their jumpers. Anyway, he's a long-time collaborator with Neurosis, and his band sounds pretty much like the boring, post-rock bits of later-period Neurosis, with none of the intensity or heaviness. Luckily, this record comes in a generic Latitudes "company" sleeve so at least you don't have to look at his gash artwork. £8

Stonking french obscurity here, futuristic sci-fi prog characterised by complex arrangements and jarring off-beat sensibility. Like an alien YES crash-landing to earth during the interval of a FOCUS concert. Brilliant. £9

Great catchy, quite chaotic grindcore from this long-running UK band. Some of the weirdest vocals I've ever heard. I once accidently saw my cat murdering a frog and the noise it made was this really horrible wee shriek, and this guy's vocals sound like that frog. I did save the frog, so it's possible he just hopped away and became the singer in a grindcore band. £8

Brazilian supergroup (featuring members of Apokalyptic Raids, Iron Fist and the excellent Whipstriker) who play ultra-retro early 80s-style thrash, with a heavy punk influence. Raw guitar sound and the production is bang on like a dusty old garage recording, this one could've came straight out the back of a tape trader's manky old sock drawer. Fans of old Venom, Razor and anythig remotely resemlbing Motorhead or Discharge will dig this. Regular edition on black vinyl with poster. £5

Reissue on vinyl of this odd wee EP that came just after Mental Funeral. It's been ages since I listened to this and in my head the songs were shorter....I seem to remember the CD single I had of it lasting for about 4 minutes but there are a couple of decently-lengthed plodders in here amongst the blasts. Doesn't have the grotty stoner sound of Mental Funeral but does have Steve DiGiorgio absolutely tearing it up on the bass, thumping the twisted guitar lines into the dust. Love the simple, bloody artwork too. £13

Both pre-album demos and a couple of extra tunes, these recordings have surfaced under several names over the years (my favourite is the CD with the Mike Diana artwork from the 90s). This is still dear for a collection of demos but better than spending 30 quid on the middle-class gimp-fest that is the Nuclear War Now diehard LP. It's like the metal nerd equivalent of going out for a kids' McDonald's meal. £16

A real mish-mash here, these guys initially seem like a grind band but there's really prominent sludgy parts, some definite power-violence nods, and even the odd wee bit of heavy rock riffing. Not too sure if it's really my kinda thing, but if you like an ecclecticly-influenced take on grind, then this is fer you! £8

Warehouse (my garage) find! £8

The final chapter in Bathory's second trilogy (this being the first "viking" records), "Twilight.." was somewhat aptly-named as Quorthon would go into a period of artistic hibernation for a few years after its release, possibly seeing nowhere else he could take the epic, soaring sound he'd so brilliantly cultivated on this and its two predecessors. Masterful, epic, driving, emotive metal: another masterpiece from one of the greatest metal musicians to ever have lived. £16

This one's from 1971 and is the most synth-based of their compilations. Excellent! £14

Brilliant late 70s Radiophonic Worshop record, this one isn't a collection of themes but more of a concept album, with one side-length song. Pretty much a prog rock album, with a rock band backing. Cracking stuff! £14

It's nice to come across something in this update that isn't "crusty grind", or maybe even "grinding crust". These guys play kinda slow-mo industrial metal that seems to have gone out of fashion, and for the life of me I can't understand why, cos it's infinitel more interesting that crust or grind. Reminds me of the brilliant and short-lived Tom Choi band IT IS I. Ditto if you like the first Godflesh album dig in. £8

Absolutely impossible to tie down to any one sound, this latest record from Billy Bao starts off with a side of repetitive, raw AmRep-via-Brainbombs punk and is soon interjected by electronic bursts and frazzled tones. The 20-minute second side begins like a disco party and soon succumbs to what sounds like some sort of industrial experiment in a prison yard. It's completely unfathomable and pretty great! £8

Never been too into Birdflesh, they sound too bouncy and fun for my liking. It's competent grind, but quite how they're so poular I can only attest to so many grind fans being kinda roasters. PLF are much more like the thing, dead filthy sounding with death metal inflected guitar bits and rough vocals. Even their art is cool as fuck. Worth it for their side alone I reckon. £8

Second album of this bizarre meeting of Japanese all-girl pop music crossed with power-drill electronics. Honestly, I'm still not convinced. I know there's a kinda big thing in more highbrow circles these days to enjoy J-Pop and all that, y'know the "it's all just good fun" brigade. Like, it's an undisputable FACT that everyone inherently likes all pop music with a catchy tune and if they don't it's just denial on a grand scale. Well, I spent my time in Japan avoiding this crap cos it's irritating. I spent most of this LP trying to ignore the pop bits and listen to the Hijokaidan parts, but even then they've got riffs and that. Wacky novelty: not what I signed up for! £8

Manic noisecore split. £5

Restock! Excellent reissue of a long-gone CDr which features one track by each band cross-fading in the middle. Expansive electronics meets savage grindcore. Nice silk-screened B-side. £6

Absolute amazing dirge punk from Bloody Head, whose stuff I've been all over since their first tape hit a couple of years ago. Real grotty stuff that brings to mind Kilslug (I cannae be the only one who got the reference in the title, right?) and is easily the equal of contemporaries Drunk In Hell. New 7" coming very soon on At War/Viral Age!! £10

Blowfly takes on rock and roll here. Suck Around The Clock! Every single song is about sex in some way, absurd but great. £9

Excellent proto-rap record from the maestro. £9

Droning heavy noise. £10

Pretty standard ultra-slow doom with the odd "core" fast bit coming in and shrieking Iron Monkey-ish vox. I like the horrible guitar tone, very heavy. £8

"Avante garde hip hop". Not for me, fella. Some sleeve damage (one corner bent on all copies) due to snide packaging on its way to me. £2

Quite different to the other Bookwar stuff, this is pretty post-punk. I actually quite like the 80s-electro-meets-guitar distortion sound going on here but the rap vocals totally put me off. Some sleeve damage (one corner bent on all copies) due to snide packaging on its way to me. £2

When I first heard of this two-piece they were described as "straight-edge veggie punx from the North of Scotland". I mean that's every box ticked for me and I hadn't even heard them yet! Having seen them live a few times now (and just back from seeing them last night actually), these guys are the best punk band going right now for me, just total raw attitude with fuckin great tunes. I totally admire how they're just going for it, sticking out their own records at such a young age, playing gigs and channeling the rage into PUNK. Which is what punk should be, innit. Sound-wise, songs are usually 2-minute melodic blasts with great terse raw/singy vocal interplay. Main touch-points would definitely be early 80s US hardcore, 77 punk and Riot Grrrl (obviously). They use a drum machine, which actually works ace and keeps the songs high-tempo/abrupt end blasts. This also gets a final bonus point for including Rick's poem from my favourite TV show ever, The Young Ones. Get on this! £10

Great solid doom metal. There's absolutely no quirk to this at all, it's just total no-frills doom metal like has been coming out of Europe since the late-90s and which most cunts don't give a shit about but the folks who know the score will pay attention to. "Alright now!". £9

Terse noise rock from Brito, has a nice 90s sound to it. Grinding Halt have a bit of noise rock going on there too, but with a tight snare, borderline grind style coming through frantic riffing and vocals. £2

One of the greatest sludge bands, always thought Buzzov.en had a bit more of an accessible sound than say, Eyehategod. I remember when I first got Sore as a teenager being a bit gutted and thinking it sounded like Alice In Chains or something in comparison to the brutal nihilism of EHG, but you've got to take this in context of the late 80s/early 90s, think about Pessimiser bands, noise rock, stuff like 16 etc and you can see the massive influence Buzzov.en had. Listening to this now for the first time in absolute years it's still absolute fuckin class actually, would defo recommend picking it up. £9

These guys are from Finland and play doom metal. They are NOT Reverend Bizarre but if you were to walk into a room and here this playing you'd be forgiven for thinking they were. It's decent stuff that makes me think of a heavier COD by Saint Vitus. Decent gear; if you like punchy doom metal then this will be up your strasse. £8

My review above (of "Chasm, Caves....") should maybe be redacted somewhat cos I listened all the way through to this, Carpathian Forest's first full-length, and it's not too bad. Have to say the riffs are really memorable, catchy songs, decent dark atmosphere. It's got a much more "modern" black metal sound that I hear TONS of bands these days nicking, but for me doesn't have the same enveloping evil tone of the first classic EP. Still, if you like fast, memorable riffs this is defo worth a purchase. £16

Third full-length (though these guys have done about a gazillion split 7"s along the way) from these grinders. 17 tracks in just 28 minutes of pretty beefy grindcore, with the odd slowed-down sludgy bit and nod to power violence structures. Really nice thick-spine gatefold sleeve. £7

Dual vocal punk-grind. £4

Really decent raw grind/death metal. Very old school sound that brings to mind Blood. £5

Very intense, focussed and RAW grind. Short. Sharp. Shock! £8

Reissue of the early 90s 7" here on the bigger format from these two noise legends. Bunch of short tracks of creeping, organic noise from MITB and a long blown-out blast from Bizarre Uproar that's a perfect conduit from the Aunt Mary noisecore to the power electronic assault of today. Recommended of course! £8

Raging hardcore from Italy that has a bit of the classic Italian hardcore sound but with total thrash riffs. Good stuff. £5

So, the story of this record was Gary Ramon of Sun Dial convinced Coil to come in and record in his studio, which used to be an old gaol and which was owned at one point by Iron Maiden (!). Always on the lookout for a macabre and weird vibe, Coil turned up and recorded what would be their most free-form, spontaneous record....possibly becuase of this it was ensured that it would com out in a tiny edition and be deleted forever as per the bands' wishes. Of course, years later they remixed it, added bits in and the "new" Astral Disaster was a much more cohesive record, and is the one I'm familiar with. So....as with the stuff on Cold Spring, now that both members are deid, everyone's taking an opportunity to cash in and this reissue of the original release is back in the public domain again. I kinda have mixed feelings about this one....absolutely the band clearly did NOT want this reissued in this form, or they'd have done it themselves, so from that point of view I kinda think this is a bit full of shit. From a fan's point of view, well it's fuckin ace to hear this properly and own a copy. I dunno, tough call. Anyway, the tunes are absolutely ace, and if you can't get onboard with the Sun Ra rocketship-to-yr inner-mind of The Sea Priestess then I doubt you have a soul. £16

These guys are from Sweden but have a pure Boston sound. Total steamroller duh-duh-duh-duh-da---da----da----daaaa! If you dig the 80s Boston crews this will definitely be up yer alley. Great! £6

Decent live recording of this reunited group who released the all-time classic acid-psych record, "First Utterance". They play most of that album here, and smartly avoid anything from their shite second album. I'm not entirely convinced by the addition of the cover of Venus In Furs, think had I been there that might have a good juncture for a toilet break, but overall this is a pretty decent reunion record. Still not heard the new album, but on the strength of this one they might still have it in em to come out with a decent record. £10

Second (I think?) Conan LP, reissued by Peaceville. These guys have fallen off my radar lately; when they first came out I thought their ultra-distorted driving doom was pretty cool. It wasn't really reinventing the wheel (first High On Fire album eh!) but they had some decent riffs and I loved the cartoony Warrior At The Edge Of Time artwork. I'm mostly acquainted with them now via daily Facebook posts from main guy Jon telling the world that if you work really hard and are as dedicated as him then you too can be as cool as he is cos he's in a moderately popular band. I think he might be my hero! £15

This is great! Pre-Rupture (Gus when he was still plain "Andrew"), this is well, pretty right-on and not what a lot of people would imagine given the very out-there lyrical sbject of much of Rupture's stuff. Though anyone with a brain could see they were always the absolute masters of piss-taking anyway eh! So anyway, this is great heavy and sloppy hardcore with a definite grind sound, impressive given this was recorded in 1989! Highly recommended. £8

New Corrupted LP, and it's gone right under the radar. Possibly cos it's not available to listen to and the promo from Cold Spring is so vague that it doesn't in any way describe the tunes (Corrupted have been a band for a while and they're heavy!), plus it's also one of those "plays at 33 or 45" records, which gives most people the fear. So, let me do what Cold Spring failed to do and attempt to describe it! I guess this one will turn off tons of Corrupted fans cos, well it's not doom. But then, they did a double album once that had like half an hour of solitary piano on it, and they've collaborated live and released collaborations with Solmania several times over the years. Corrupted's message, sound and aesthetic has been a constant, but the style of music they play has been constantly evolving. This ight be their most esoteric release yet, but it's still very much Corrupted in tone, and any fandan hitting out with "aaaah this isn't Corrupted....it's not heavy" doesnae have a clue. 33 is where I've been listening to it most. Side one starts in almost silence, building up layers of deep tone and low end in a way that the band have been doing in a more "rock" format for years. This is suddenly blown away by screeching feedback and white noise wipeouts over a bass sound dangerously threatening the needle of my turntable. I mentoned him earlier, but this sounds like Solmania could be involved again! This violence gives way to some really beautiful shimmering drone to end the side. Second side is a much more minimal affair of building tones and textures throughout; again very heavy. Reminds me a bit of Nurse With Wound's Spiral Insana actually. Been listening to this loads since getting it and it gets better and more immersive on every listen. 100% recommended, brilliant! £15

Amazing direct-to-tape (and thus essentially live!) album from 1978 from these Japanese psychers. The raw energy of the early Blues Creation days is gone but there's still that inimitable spark of far-out creativity (pun intended) that really set these guys apart fro the rest. Highly recommended. £10

Raging, pissed-off hardcore with that real angry, urgent Boston sound. Ultra raging vocals. Great! £6

The album that really set the benchmark to the general public as far as Norwegian black metal is concerned: after a couple of years of playing decent death metal, Darkthrone took their cues from the scene going on around them, stripped it back a bit (more than a bit on the next couple!) and came out with their take on the genre. The results of course were beyond successful and Darkthrone became one of the leading bands of the genre, with Blaze... rightfully being considered a seminal work since. If you don't have it, why not? Here's your chance! £17

Very obscure stuff here: this was originally released as a private press in Belgium in an edition of 300 copies. These guys are a kinda Beligan Doors, with plenty of Mellotron, but with a grand Sgt Pepper psych-pop sound. Cool! £10

£4

Reissue of 2004 album from these gore grind legends. As always, stellar work. £8

Restock.....apparently this record is 10 years old (!). Jings. Anyway, as I've probably said many times on here, I love early Dead Infection. Some of THE most filthy, rotten grind ever recorded, and their first LP is absolute pinnacle for me. This one is much cleaner sounding (though this is very much a relative term!). I feel the grinding, ultra-heavy bass sound is lost a lot here to the guitar, but the riffs are generally absolute banging so I guess it's swings and roundabouts. Well worth checking out if you don't know them or want some proper good grind. £8

Pretty spacey sludge with some hardcore leanings. £4

Deadmocracy play really fast grind with that really tight snare sound, top stuff. Never heard of Hinfamy, turns out they're from as far back as 1990 and their side of this record was recorded in '96. Best bit is the bonus tracks on their side though, real lo-fi and is that bang-on mid-90s grind rehersal tape sound! £4

Superfi's write-up of this describes it as "sort-of Neurosis-meets-My Bloody Valentine-meets Can" and whilst I don't think these guys hold a candle to any of those bands, it's a good description! Heavy but melodic, driving and repetitive but catchy, I think it's not bad. £7

A weird one this. This was originally released as an EP on CD only in 1992, but as a record cut at Sunlight Studios it doesn't quite have that Swe-death sound that we're all accustomed too. There are certainly elements, but this record shows a near-schizophrenic amalgamation of styles, with black metal-ish termelo picking, death metal riffing, classic metal stylistics and the odd gutteral vocal. It's maybe not avante-garde in the way that say, Pan-Thy-Monium were, but it's bizarre enough to be of interest to anyone into extreme music which is a little left-of-centre, and before genre boundaries were so rigid and restrictively boring as they are today. Recommended. On red vinyl £12

Doom with crusty hardcore blasts from DeNo meets clasutrophobic, lofi doom from WOTH. This is a restock and I got tons so I'm doing them really cheap. Total bargain! £3

Reissue (and first time on vinyl) of this classic Hellenic black metal album. Released in 1996, this is one of the high-points of the Greek black metal scene and embodies much of what stands that wave from the mid-90s apart: majestic, sweeping choruses, melodic riffing, savage vocals, excellent use of keyboards; all creating a truly haunting atmosphere. Highly recommended to anyone into Rotting Christ etc! £10

Second album and a worthy follow-up to the classic debut "Unspeakable Cults", this is grade A Greek black metal. Almost melodic death-style guitar riffs are contrasted against an often gloomy tone and neo-classical style synthesiser leads. It sounds bizarre, but if you're into the Greek black metal sound you will definitely get this! First time on vinyl also! £10

Live project of Fumio Nunoya (vocalist of Blues Creation), this is a live set of his insane shredding, gruff vocals over some slow, pondering heavy blues riffs. Brilliant stuff and could only have come from the wild early 70s Japan scene. Green vinyl and screeprinted clear sleeve. £8

Amazing debut LP from Dave Brock's first band. There's not much by the way of psychedelia on here, but this is top-class gritty blues rock. The electric blues revolution had happened a few years previously, which of course went on to form "rock" music, but these guys took a purist approach, playing a more roots-50s style of blues. Absolutely great stuff, and worth tracking down for the interested Hawkwind fan of course! £12

Absolutely amazing hardcore from Peru. Got their demo a wee while back after being introduced to the excellent Alta Intensidaz tape label by a pal. These guys play very rough hardcore, pretty sloppy but the total intensity and feeling is there. Some of the best raw punk I've heard in ages, maybe only second to the astounding SENTENCIA. £8

Epic funeral doom with a black metal production and aesthetic here. If you liked Nortt then you'll definitely be into this. Really grim stuff which sounds like it could conjure a Tolkein ring wraith. Double vinyl in a really heavy-duty package, usual ultra-high standards of presentation from AD. £14

Simplistic, Swe-beat thrashing hardcore here from ex-members of PHOBIA. Marbled purple vinyl. £5

Debut album from one of the most influential punk bands of all time. Direct, pounding beats and metallic riffs with simple, to-the-point, brutal lyrics. This is where it began! £14

Plodding, droning sludge from both bands. £7

DP: ex members of DENAK playing non-stop old school grindcore. Ras: ultra-fast pummeling grind with maybe a bit of a gore-grind edge to it. £3

Heavy duty doom metal that is at both turns crushing but quite trad-sounding, but with a definite commercial rock vibe. Vocals are a bit weird though, the singer sometimes sounds a wee bit like the guy out of the Deftones in quiet bits. When he gets going he's quite like Kirk Windstein of Crowbar. Not really into it to be honest, but it may float yer boat. £10

Third full-length (second since their recent reformation) from Dream Death, and oddly it actually features the exact lineup of Penance's classic Road Less Travelled lineup. I thought their last album was absolutely storming, and one of the very few examples of an old band getting back together and coming out with something informed by the past but still looking forward and trying something new. This one....hmm, maybe a bit less so. Don't get me wrong, it's still good, with some absolutely cracking Frost-ian riffs and their trademark tempo changes, but comes across to me as a pretty straightforward, predictable album compared to the last one. I kinda found listening to this like checking out a new Autopsy album: it got a couple of listens and then got filed away, and when I next want to listen to Dream Death I'll seek of Journey Into Mystery and that'll be that. Red vinyl, lim 200. £17

Drone Throne play heavy stoner doom in the vein of Sleep and Eyehatgod whilst Toad play Murder City Devils-style melodic punk. £4

Great, ultra-catchy grindcore! This is from a few years ago, old stock found! £6

These guys sound like a faster Extreme Noise Terror. Cool! £6

Top class lo-fi grind from ED meets great and pretty original power violence from Scotland. EXCELLENT cover art too! £5

Top class garage/punk/pub rock-style stuff from France. Reminds me of stuff like early Hives maybe, pretty rockin stuff. No bullshit, just bang-on rock n roll. Sung in French too! Slight wear to sleeves, price reduced accordingly. £3

Let's get the title out of the way first: what exactly is UNAMUSED rancid flesh. Can rancid flesh be unamused? If, say, rancid flesh were able to have sentient thoughts, given the fact that it's rancid and no longer part of a living being, would it be anything BUT unamused? Further to that, woud unamused really be the right verb to describe the situation the flesh had found itself in? I kinda think that grind bands these days are either really fucking stupid, or just gave up trying cos they're so entirely devoid of ideas. It makes me totally unamused. This is ok gore-grind which is neither amusing nor unamusing. Brown/green marble vinyl. £8

Absolutely astounding, driving death metal here. This is some of the most atmospheric stuff I've heard in some time....utterly oppressive in sound and tone; it doesn't rely on riffs, rather the soul-sucking black atmosphere. Recommended! £9

Fast and furious thrashcore from Enemy Insects, kinda thinkin somewhere near Charles Bronson but a bit more metal-sounding, meets party-thrash from RD, think Municipal Waste etc. Smart graphics on the front, guy with a fly's head chewing down on a minging-looking pizza. £6

Now, I'm sure you're reasonably intelligent but just in case you're not: this isnae an LP by that 90s boy band. I like to pride myself on the diversity of stock I atake in but that would be a step beyond. So what is this? Well it's a French duo; one guy on drums playing really rudeimntary basic beats with another guy utilising deep feedback, sub-bass drones and synth lines. It's great, meditative mantra music and I realy dig it! Lim 213 copies. £7

Superb reissue from Looney Tunes from a band who I'd never even heard of before. Euthenasie were a German anarcho/peace punk band from the late 80s: this record includes their demo, two comp tracks and a live set. Lyrics in German and English. Cracking stuff here, defo worth the measly 3 quid! £3

Raw crushing crust metal. Great packaging with a die-cut sleeve and a cool screen printed B-side showing through. £8

Great stuff which builds on their excellent demo (above). Dark, raw crusty hardcore with a real metal sound. £8

Subtitled "13 Songs Of Refer Madness". Love how they didn't change this spelling error on the reissue; unsure if the label also don't know how to spend "reefer". I guess if you smoke a lot of funny fags it impedes yer ability to spell cos you're too busy talking endless boring incomprehensible shite and eating Monster Munch. Anyway, Exit 13 were a great grind band from the 90s featuring all manner of premier league grinders amongst their ranks, and this one features Pain Teens vocalist Bliss Blood. ON PAPER, and excellent prospect. This however is not a grind record and instead is a kinda comedy loungue album of covers of songs about weed. You may have gotten this from any comments I ever make on stoner culture, but I find it entirely tiresome, find spending time with stoners incredibly irritating, and any form of stoner comedy makes me want to smash everyone involved over the head with a Youth Of Today LP. So honestly, I find this to be one of the most annoying things I've heard in ages, and presumably I never got it when I was a kid because I wasn't a childish fucking idiot like anyone who might gain any enjoyment from this plop. That said, if yer a personality-free smelly loser who loves talking about how much they smoke, knock yerself out, hippy! £10

RESTOCK! Extortion: you know the score by now, raging grind/PV in the vein of Siege and Infest, these guys have been mega-prolific in the past couple of years and this is another good split to add to the collection! Cold World have been going about for over 20 years now and still come out with old-school fast thrashcore with the odd PV bass lead and fist-pumping chorus. Good stuff! Clear vinyl. £8

The first Fall live LP, and in classic Fall style, they released a record recorded mainly in working men's clubs where the audience weren't into it, included a tune where MES has a right go at the band for "showing off" (playing a drum fill) and includes two studio tracks, one of which was recorded in Smith's kitchen. It sounds mostly like shit and is absolutely fucking brilliant in every way. £14

Anything that comes out on a label which just calls itself ITALIAN DOOM METAL RECORDS cannot be bad, right? And y'know what? It's not! In fact, it's really pretty great. Very dense and heavy doom with pretty sparse vocals which sound recorded in a room down the hall a-la Sleep's Holy Mountain. In fact, that record is a pretty good comparitor to this, and while it doesn't scale the heights of (in my mind), the greatest stoner-doom record ever made, it does a not bad job of paying tribute. £9

Somewhat of a misnomer here on the title: this is NOT old stuff but a re-recording of their early gear which was never released previously. That said, it's dead good, ultra-fast thrashcore. The drummer from NO COMMENT was in these guys, nuff said! Comes with a CD of the original rough-sounding material too. £14

Old school hardcore from Brazil, bit youth crew-sounding. £4

Absolutely brilliant retro rock that was originally released on this very label! For a better description see "Releases" page! £8

Fetus Eaters play manic grind with lots of really strange samples and "funny" song titles. They are worth a listen mind. Borstels Rache are absolutely top notch oi-influenced hardcore with dual rasping/oi vocals. They bring to mind early Bohse Onkelz (in sound not attitude!). Wear to sleeves. £4

Ultra-fast grind in the vein of Yacopsae, but with a shit sense of humour. £7

Totally unique, crazy noisecore from Japan. This was originally a mini-CD and SPHC has steped up to put it out on vinyl. It's got a really clean production, about a million musical styles going on, it sounds completely all-over-the-place but also totally cohesive at the same time. Definitely a head-scratcher, but one of those which you find yourself constantly coming back to. Basically, the band members are both credited as "hand-craps" in the liner notes, nuff said. £6

£4

La Vida hit out with another belter here...these San Franciscans play a lovely fuzzed-up post hardcore with a definite C86 sound. Some great memorable hooks: maybe the most "pop" thing the label has put out, guarentee these guys will make a name for themselves. £8

Not the british freakbeat band but an obscure Danish psych/prog act from 1972. These guys aren't all-out space rock or prog, bringing to mind the first Hawkwind album or the less out-there stoner Kraut bands. Some great fuzzy guitar and organ going on here. Cheap cos I cannae sell it on Discogs any more as they deem it a bootleg so I want shot! £7

Massive death-doom here from this new US band. These guys were most certainly brought up on an unwholesome diet of WINTER and GRIEF and this is a despondent dark trip of grave-robbing menace from start to finish. Really heavy but with riffs to back up the chest-baring of the feedback, this is one of the strongest doom/sludge records I've heard in ages. Recommended. Lovely Stoughton gatefold sleeve, clear vinyl with black splatter. Lim to 100 in this colour. £10

Counter-culture icon he may very well be, but Kim Fowley was a rapist so fuck him. Cheap. £8

£3

Excellent early Japanese hardcore here. These guys take many of the same influences of a lot of the Jap punk bands (ie Disorder, Chaos UK, Discharge) but also have a prevailing 77 sound, and are as a result much less reliant on the super-distortion of many of their contemporaries. This comp features 7" and flexi material from the early 80s and comes with a download for two full recent live sets. £7

New album from these long-running Japanese fast-core legends and it.....sounds exactly the same as their previously LPs. Which honestly isn't really a bad thing, cos these guys rule. Got their first record when it came out near 20 years ago now from Slap A Ham and they're still as intense as ever. £8

Ace doom metal with a strong Italian influence and heavy psych sound. The first song just sounds totally like a beefed-up version of "Black And Violet" by Death SS. Focus is very much on the creeping tones of the farfisa organ. Total horror metal! You don't get shit like this anywhere but Italy, thank christ for Bloodrock Records! Another winner! £10

Decent UK prog here from 1970. Has the odd shade of the Dr Z album, with quite a lot of key-led parts. £8

Epic-sounding doom metal, emphasis on the "metal"! The label describes this as "the record Sabbath should have made after Technical Ecstacy", which sounds like a decent description to me! £6

Very under-the-radar obscure latin-infused psych prog from 1982 with plenty of fuzz guitar and wild Sanatana-esque solos with complex time signatures and some great crazy percussive parts. £8

Speedy, grinding crust-punk from Argentina. This LP features 32 tracks from various splits and EPs. £4

Thought this was gonna be a thrash record but nope, this is total dirty rock 'n' roll, very firmly in the later-Motorhead vein. It's pretty decent stuff: good choruses, heavy and dirty sound. Cool! £8

New Gero, first vinyl since the "reappearance". The A side is a stolen Japanese disco track with a bit of huffing over the top and the B side is wee excerpts of the same track repeated a few times. The back cover has a press release lifted completely from some US hip-hop live 12. I guess most people would consider this one of the worst and most pointless records ever produced; for me it confirms that Gero is the best fuckin band who isn't The Fall to have ever existed. I kinda hope everyone hates what he's coming up with now, cos I saw a lot of folk jump on the "oooohhh a ker-azeee LEGENDARY Japanese band are back together....yeaaaaah!!!" without having half a fucking clue what Gero is all about. Here's a story actually: a guy got in touch with me about 10 years ago asking my then-band to submit a track to his Gero tribute album. I guess he'd seen we were little more than a tribute band and played sort-of noisecore. So I said "yes, of course", and proceeded to tape a conversation of some workies out my back door having their lunch. I submitted it and he was like "erm this is not what The Gerogerigegege sound like", to which I replied, "YES IT FUCKING IS YOU IDIOT. I DON'T WANT TO BE ON YOUR POSER CLOWNSHOE COMPILATION ANYWAY". Track remains unreleased. It's a belter. £10

Absolutely cracking demo from 1984 here. These guys definitely share the Italian horror metal sound of Death SS/Sacrilege etc but are way more extreme! There's a big Venom influence here: songs all have heavy occultish leanings and the recording is incredibly lo-fi. In fact I can hear the nascent sound of the South American bands very strongly here! Tons of bonus tracks are also included, best of all a brutal cover of one of my favourite ever metal bands: Omen's "The Axeman". Comes with a poster with loads of info, limited to only 150 on orange and black splatter vinyl. £10

Nope, not that kinda boring acoustic band Stephen O'Malley briefly did, these guys are Czech and play pretty standard crust-ish punk/HC. I dig the raw vocals, make me think of one of my favourites, Terveet Kadet. Musically, it's pretty melodic, raw hardcore, sounds pretty angry. £5

Really heavy but also incredibly listenable, hook-laden sludge. These guys even remind me a bit of a properly heavy doomy version of Fugazi or something, there's certainly a very post-hardcore element to it (but not in a pure boring way like all those shite bands who sound like a Tesco Value Neurosis). Would definitely be the business for fans of mid-period Melvins, early Torche, Floor etc. £5

Double LP reissue of these Italians' debut album, this is decent heavy rock. It's incredibly un-trendy, but if you like the lighter end of say, the NWOBHM, then this will appeal. Has a good beefy production and decent rousing choruses, and the gatefold packaging is lovely. £12

Now on their seventh album (it really doesn't feel that long since I saw them supporting Orange Goblin just after releasing their debut!), Grand Magus are 100% 'eavy metal these days and have settled into a sound that's gained them a huge army of loyal fans. They're pretty polished these days, but really powerful sounding with a total 80s sound that nevertheless never sounds willfully "retro". Total chest-pounding, longboat-rowing stuff! If Priest weren't quite so prog these days (not a bad thing by the way) they'd sound like this. Excellent art from the man of the moment, Tony Roberts. pound;12

It's not often that a modern horror film does much for me but I really enjoyed The Devil's Business. Reminded me a lot of the excellent films of Ben Wheatley. The soundtrack (by Crippled Black Phoenix/ex-Electric Wizard/Iron Monkey drummer Justin Greaves) is excellent...going from sparse almost post-rock to moments of palpable creeping tension, and certainly befits the otherworldly demonic atmosphere the film evokes. Top marks. £7

Gufonero: marketed as sludge/doom but this is way more interesting than that and honestly not doom or sludge in any way at all. I'd say it's loads more noise rock, led entirely by some of meanest-sounding bass lines I've heard since Unsane. Definite AmRep sound going on here, and they may even have listened to more modern stuff like Throat (see elsewhere this update). Great stuff!! La Cuenta do one long side of droning doom. It's not bad, but you've probably heard it before. I kinda like the ranting vocals buried in the mix, mind. A weird pairing, made probably because no cunt knows what doom is these days. Anyhoo, highly recommended for me, and more Gufonero in future thanks! £5

Debut 12er from this NYC noise rock band. Theese guys aren't reinventing the wheel here. They're not even refining it to be honest....but if you've worn out your Unsane, Helmet and 16 records or just proper love that muscular, ultra-riffing/screeching feedback sound then this is worth a listen. £7

Gotta be honest, this one appealed to me immediately well more than the Haan record above. It's still noise rock I guess, but it's much looser and less METAL sounding, with tons of dissonant, sub-gothic guitar wails all over the shop. There's still stop/start tempos and gruff vocals but I love how it just comes across as an absolute fucking mess. Cool! £7

Powerful and punchy sludge metal from ex-members of Corrupted and future YOB guys. £5

Rough grind. £7

Hellbastard made maybe the quintessential crust demo, "Ripper Crust", their debut Lp was an absolute classic dank punk/metal hybrid and their second album "Natural Order" was a face-ripping violent thrash belter. But you know what? Nobody gets a pass for life, particularly in punk - a genre which came about from rallying against complacency and musical conservatism - so I'm not gonna crawl up their arses just cos I love their early material, and frankly, this stuff is pretty balls. The music is kinda ok. Stupid intro track aside, it's just standard thrash, maybe a wee bit stop-start Pantera in places, but not a complete disaster. The lyrics are abysmal, just total moron "I hate the system, me" crud. Opening chorus: "We're all bitches now, Nobody gives a shit, Locked on 100 targets, Nobody gives a fuck". Whoa. Somebody overturn the government right now. Herida Profunda play pretty boring hardcore with a crust bent and kinda grind vocals. It's on a picture disc, but rather than put all the info on one of the gazillion inserts that come along with this thing, they've jammed it all on the record, along with the fucking gash new Hellbastard logo, which features skulls, wings, AND GUNS. Thinking I've maybe been too harsh here, but christ, just seems amazing to me that so many people involved in reformed bands these days can be so out of touch with what the score is, probably cos they're surrounded with sycophantic arse candles who tell them everything they come up with is class. Get the Endless Grinning Skulls record instead, guys who've been at it for years who are actually still relevant. £4

Rough, crusty grindcore from Poland. £5

Excellent debut album from this Glasgow three-piece who have been gracing stages here for the past few years, so chuffed to see them get a bit of widespread recognition at last! Given that Rise Above have been plumping for reasonably safe Tesco Value Sabbath kids of late, it's nice to see them release a record by (an albeit very retro-influenced) band who are both diverse and ecclectic in tone and influence. I guess at base is a late 60's psychedelic pop sound but there's electric blues, soul, early 70s prog rock, the odd heavy metal riff and I'm sure I heard a bit of surf guitar in there at one point, all held together with some really sublime vocal harmonies. Really cracking stuff! £17

New album from one of the all-time heavy-hitters of not just Japanese noise but noise in general. This new album sees them at their free-form, caustic best...full-blown guitar feedback blowout, screeching electronic tones and mental vocals. As a bonus this comes with a full recent live set of them performing this material. Hijokaidan are definitely a live band (I saw them play Glasgow a few years ago and it was the loudest thing I have ever heard!) and this disc captures them perfectly. Smart picture disc that actually sounds ok. £12

After 20 years this was Hirax's comeback album, and it's an absolute rager! Not quite up to the ultimately high standard of the first two LPs but this un's still a topper. Gatefold sleeve. £7

Wow! Really raging and non-stop speed grindcore from Liverpool. Never heard of these guys before but they've probably been in loads of other bands before. This is definitely total paint-stripping stuff and will appeal to fans of UK heroes The Afternoon Gentlemen. Best artwork of the week here too; a great drawing of "Terminator horse vs 50% black metal Robocop"! £4

Violent grindcore split. £3

Good stuff here, metallic hardcore that has that really massive sound where it's as if ten bands are playing the same thing at the same time. Great! Apparently were due to do a split with Electric Wizard at one point but I cannae see it myself. £6

Sewer Election meets Skull Defekts fro some really minimal cold tape drones. As with all Urashima release, this is limited to 99 copies and apparently comes in luxury packaging, but it actually comes in the cheapest packaging possible: blank labels, printing on one side of a sleeve, insert out a home printer and snide thin plastic wrap. £10

Raw, very old-school-sounding grindcore. £7

Absolutely exemplary black metal from Finland, I know absolutely nothing about these guys but the sound is total Burzum demo...real fuzzy, abrasive guitar sounds, desperate vocals and a truly haunting atmosphere. Another of my all-time favourites, Ildjarn, definitely springs to mind when listening to this too. Comes with a bonus LP with the bands demo on too. Highly recommended! £7

Incredibly earnest hardcore/fastcore from Italy. The track I'm listening to at the moment has the most out-of-place theremin I've ever heard, but it's not too off-putting. Ace screen-printed packaging. £6

Ultra-violent, primal black metal from Greece. A real face-ripper this one, at close range it could definitely flay the skin right off yer chops! Very good, and nice screenprinted packaging to boot. £6

Excellent debut (from 1969) of exploratory psych/folk/progressive from the US. Sharing a sound maybe with contemporaries Jefferson Airplane, this is often quite acid-tinged but with a definite blues, roots feel. Their second album I think is even better but this is great stuff! £8

Members of Graveyard and Morbid Flesh come together to pay tribute to the old guard here with an unapologetic take on thrash/death. It's not going to win any awards, indeed songs like "Dynamite The Mosque" are likely to have them stoned in certain countries, but subtle these guys are not. If punky death metal with songs about putting priests to death whilst drinking beer and fornicating with loose women are your thing, welcome to your new favourite album. £5

Odd mix of techno and anarcho punk. Featuring members of Leftover Crack. £3

Great new album from one of the best modern PE acts around. Had the pleasure of coming out of gig retirement to put IFotS on last year and his set was the highlight for me: absolutely brutal and meticulous in their planning and delivery. Played a few tunes of this too I believe! If you're into PE and haven't checked this guy out yet, yer missing out big time pal! I have coloured and black vinyl copies. £8

Second (and very slightly more progressive) album from this late-70s Basque folk band. Straddling the early Steeleye Span/folk-oriented Fairport line, this will definitely appeal to 70s folk fans. £8

Dunno about this...electro-pop-sounding stuff, Bookwar has some rapping in Russian on it? Erm aye. Some sleeve damage (one corner bent on all copies) due to snide packaging on its way to me. £4

The 1986 World Cup is memorable for Maradonna's brilliant goal against England and also the one where he beat loads of players single-handedly then scored (see what I did there?). It's also noteable for yet another instance of Scotland being drawn in a pure fuckin brutal group and getting knocked out very narrowly despite definitely deserving to get out their group. It's now also the subject of a grindcore album. Jesus Crost play really catchy grind with dual vocals (one a kinda death rasp and the other that really annoying pig squeal thing); it's often start-stop stuff but sometimes a great riffs kicks in and it's proper good. Each song I assume is meant to be named after a player who played at the World Cup, except John Fashanu never played at a World Cup. Should've named it Gordon Strachan instead. Amateurs. £8

Black metal speed and tremelo picking meets soaring post-hardcore choruses and up-tempo screamo hardcore bits. I mean I can't think of anything more horrific than fusing these genres and this is about as far from what I'm into as I can think, but don't let that stop you. £8

I'm completely baffled by this: the art is a pair of fists with a line of cocaine and streaky bacon making an X on each hand. Are they taking the piss out of straight edge people? Are they straight edge themselves? Are they taking the piss out of lapsed edgers? Why would anyone care? As someone who doesn't smoke, drink, take drugs or eat meat, the idea of defining yerself by what you don't do seems absurd to me now I'm not a teenager, and the idea of criticising someone else for something they don't do...is even more stupid. The cover art is fucking terrible either way. So what do these guys sound like? Ok grind, pretty gnarly. Plenty of pop culture samples taken right out the Spazz book of "how to use a funny sample out of the Simpsons", Chapter One. £4

This one's a belter, an 80s synth score with a real driving new wave sound to it. Great later Corman space-based splatter film too! £10

A bastard child of doom, sludge and post-hardcore. Might be cos I was listening to Neurosis earlier today but didn't do much for me. Clear vinyl. £8

2000 album and I'd lost touch with these guys by this point so this is my first-ever listen to this album. I seem to remember them getting like a hardcore guy in to do vocals but there's no trace of that here, it sounds class. So much so in fact, that I'm keeping one of these for myself! The sound is tempered and more "mature" (ie it's not just all going in totally different directons madness, but it's still ultra-techy and intense. Great! £10

An excellent companion piece to Brave Murder Day, this EP came out before it I think and features a whole B side of extra tracks (well two of them!). Superb goth-infused black/doom. £15

Grind with a crust/hardcore edge and a definite early Florida death metal influence (some of these riffs are very Altars Of Madness!) going on. £4

Congratulations are due here for having the wettest band name AND album title I've ever seen....and both on the one record. I can almost hear these guys giving a mumbled apology for it and I've not even listened to the record yet. Haaaaaa.......take that back! Was expecting a pure sissy weep-fest but there you go, don't judge a band by their poofy name, this is alright. Two piece guitar/drums, very stripped back and reminiscent of mid-90s Dischord I guess, maybe a bit of Kill Rock Stars sound say in there too, good riffs. I dig it. Sorry for making fun of your name. £7

One of the most legendary of the South American early progressive albums, this is a classic of melodic, beautifully-crafted compositions with the odd killer fuzz lead and a transcendental otherwordly atmosphere. Remastered from original master tapes in stereo sound for the first time. £12

Kobory: very lo-fi (all hi hat and drums way high in the mix) grindcore with great vocals like Oscar Garcia was coming out with on that first Terrorizer record, before everyone tried to be more "extreme" than each other and just ended up sounding stupid. Great stuff! Metralleta: fast screaming hardcore. £4

Debut solo recording from Taj Mahal Travellers man Kosugi. While maintaining the spacey, psychedelic improvisations of THT, this record (which is essentially just a reissue of his debut album Catch-Wave under a different name) is instead two tracks of deep, probing drone. Excellent minimalist music that sits alongside western contemporaries like Cage, Conrad etc. Clear screenprinted sleeve, red vinyl. £7

Crushing, heavy sludge with a strong crust/dark hardcore influence £5

Great new album from one of my favourite nu-sludge bands. Actually, that's not a fair term cos they're not really sludge. They take their cues from Kilslug/Upsidedown Cross, maybe played at a slower pace. Theye've definitely been listening to stuff like Eyehategod in their time, but it's got none of that fucking guff southern-fried riffing that let's face it, fuck all bands except Eyehategod are any good at. Anyway, this is proper twisted stuff love it!! £8

These guys are a weird one for me: they're clearly going for a kinda shoegaze/psychy sound but the production is really tight, it really lacks any sort of flow or feeling for me. Know what it reminds me of....Boris! Like that real sterile production psych like the "Pink" album they did, which is the point I got totally fed up with them. Dunno, judge for yerself. It's not really bad I guess, but defo not my thing. £10

I'm not sure about this one. On one hand, it's an absolute fuckin' BELTER of a soundtrack...taking in heavy-riffing bum rock, 80s-synth, cheesy guitar, atmospheric ambient parts....but as a score to the original silent 20s classic I don't think it works at all. I just don't really get the motivation behind it really, they could've essentially re-scored ANY film with this soundtrack. So, in summation: get it cos the music's good. Don't listen to it with the film on! £8

Crushing doom/sludge. £8

Melodic old-school punk with an aggressive edge. £4

Was hoping this band were named after the GG song but I doubt it...this is total 90s NYHC style hardcore. Lots of songs about how hardcore will never die, how everyone's brothers, and gan choruses on every song. If you like 90s-era Agnostic Front, big man with tattoos who wear shorts no matter the weather, bandanas, guitar breaks where everyone jumps at the same time, circle pits, Biohazard, the vocalist pointing his microphone into the crowd a lot, videos with guys walking pitbulls don the street, the prison drama OZ, buttoning yer shirt right up to the top along with really white socks.....then you'll dig this brah! £5

Raw, savage PV from Loaded For Bear (good name, I still dig The Nuge if no-one else does). This is pretty loose but I really like the savagery of it. Bizarre X should need no introduction...one of those bands who by accident I manage to have about 20 7"s by. Going since the mid 90s these guys are one of the best of the German grind/thrashcore/PV bands and their side of this LP is top-class stuff, very much in the vein of the early US power vilence bands, with those vocals that sound like the singer's in the middle of eating a huge cake while in the recording booth and plenty of stop-start tempos. Recommended! £3

Rough, crusty and dark hardcore. £6

Lost Boys give us a couple of tracks steeped very much in the early-80s USA punk/HC style. Think early DOA, JFA and Aganet Orange. The Irradiates play punky surf rock not a million miles from Man Or Astroman? etc. £3

Pretty chaotic stuff here, I dunno honestly if I'd call this hardcore. It's probably closest in sound to the more quirky Finn bands of the early 80s. Not bad stuff. £6

Creeping, sparse collaboration between Pietro Mazzocchin (The New Sadism, Observation Clinique, Swastika Kommando) and Pierpaolo Zoppo (Mathausen Orchestra). Great. £15

RESTOCK! Another entry into the seemingly-endless tide of "occult rock" bands hitting us like a never-ending late-night Channel 4 Friday night showing of Hammer Horror films, Mansion are neverthless not bad. Hailing from Finland, their riff-heavy stern female-vocal approach isn't a million miles away from countrymen/women Jess And The Ancient Ones or maybe Seremonia. There's a heavy NWOBHM vibe going on here, with precise riffing and a lot of doomy passages. Overall a really solid slice of doom rock with great vox and a stellar production. One to watch out for! Limited to 500 copies only on clear vinyl. £7

Raw, chaotic grind from Canada. £7

Rabid, crusty grind. £7

This is A demo collection rather than THE demo collection, which in my mind would imply the band's first recordings. This is in fact a kinda random selection of bonus tracks seemingly picked out the air. It includes the Follow The Saviour EP from 2001, the "Everything Is Rotten" demo from 2005 (which appeared previously as bonus tracks on Slave To Society), and a demo called "The Final Word2 from 95. All good stuff (it's MASTER innit!) but seems like a cheap cash-in to me with no artistic coherence at all. £9

Mattin is one of the coolest guys going. I love his total dedication to pushing boundaries, his ceaseless energy, and the fact that he thinks the Lou Reed/Metallic LP is the best album ever. This album sees him bring together a bunch of musicians (none of which I know but I'm sure have done stuff somewhere else) and make some cut-up-sounding (but not cut up) OUT-rock. I guess a lazy comparison would be Boredoms or maybe Buttholes at their most non-linear, but this doesn't really sound like anyone, which is really what Mattin's work is all about. Every so often they'll hit upon a TUNE though that shows they're not just fucking about. Ace. £6

I'm not gonna try and dissect the ART behind this cos I'll be honest, I've not given it more than one listen and I feel much of Mattin's stuff requires you to really get inside it and think about what's going on. Musically, there is a lot of spoken word here and the lyrics often seem to be political allusions/confusing rhetoric ("Liberals listen to Leonard Cohen", "Dark....Dick Cheyney.....SATAN!"); musically we have a stellar cast of improvisors channelling the words with some blasting skronk. As with all Mattin's work, this is a difficult one, but his stuff always endures! £6

Brutal early power electronics from the master. £17

Perfectly serviceable grindcore, reminds me a lot of the early 2000's Razorback bands, kinda bouncy and up-tempo. I do think if you're gonna have a manky collage and talk about rusty pots your music should sound a bit more foul. Or really foul in any way at all. Try harder (less hard?) on the next record please, boys. £10

Grotty snail-pace sludge from Medicine Noose. I really like SPEWN. Think they're maybe Russian (their titles are in cyrillic). They remind me loads of Corrupted: they have that really off-kilter plodding style and the vocals rule, tons of reverb and a raw throaty and gruff howl. Sludge rarely does much for me but when it's done well it's great.....and this is done well! £8

Total Grief worship from Medicine Noose, another success here! Disgusted Geist are much more death metal and have a great early-90s sound with vocals that pretty much all just go "UUUUUUUURGGH....UUUURGGGHH.....UUURGGHHHH". They have slow bits too which gives some room for excellent riffage. Love the artwork for this too, it's just a really abstract picture of something disgusting. Maybe it's like something's innards, maybe it's just a microscope image of a plate of chips. Dunno, looks cool. £8

It took me a while to get into this one. It was my pal - and ultra Melvins fan - Leckie's favourite Melvins album, and my teenage self should've listened to him, paid more attention and not dismissed the "weird songs that aren't music", cos that's what makes the Melvins GOOD. The idea that they joined a major label (it seems purely on the basis that they were pals with Kurt Cobain) and made music that was probably less viable than the already not-very-commercially-viable gear from before, is very cool indeed. This album was the final straw for Atlantic, and it's pretty obvious why. It's schizophrenic as fuck, with brass, sitar, heavy tunes, ambient tunes, white noise. It's fucked! It rules! Side note: a Funeral Mongoloids album was recorded featuring Pasi from Bizarre Uproar, me, George Mutant Ape and Pekka Gelsomina. We recorded it on a tape machine but I couldn't find any blank tapes in my house, so I just took my copy of Stag on cassette, recorded off a CD in the 90s. Dunno why, but it only recorded over one channel, so that album should be in mono. (might have been even better if the Melvins songs had been kept in one channel tbh!) £17

Powerful, angry hardcore with pure rabid shredding vocals. £4

Savage, caustic and raw grindcore from France. £4

Raging punky metal/hardcore that has elements of HHIG and definitely mid-period (ie To Ride...) Entombed to it. Pretty good!! £5

Driving old school black metal. Limited to 97. £7

Crust core with an early 90s swedish death metal guitar tone. £8

Dark crusty hardcore from Morkhimmel meets doom metal from The Tower. I've had stuff in by them before and realy like em, they have a definite 90s euro-doom vibe to them. Weird combo of bands but a nice contrast! £8

Excellent psychedelic acid rock from France. Very reminiscent of neo-proggers The Bevis Frond, maybe the more freak-out elements of masters like Cream or Jefferson Airplane. Definitely channel the late 60s spirit far more effectively than the anemic shite that passes for "psychedelia" these days. A couple of puffs of low-grade weed, a Grateful Dead album and playing the same boring riff while pretending to be out your tits for 20 minutes do not a psychedelic band make, Tarquin. Fuck off. This is the real deal, though. £10

Old school grindcore from Italy heavilly influenced by Terrorizer, Phobia, early Brutal Truth etc. Features members of Ultimo Mondo Cannibale. Sleeves are damaged at top, price reduced accordingly. £3

Amazing all-girl post-punk rager here. Saw them with Sleaford Mods a wee while back and they were superb. £6

I've never been a great fan of Nadja (as is probably obvious from any reviews I've given them on here) and that's probably as much to do with my musical tastes than actually thinking they're bad....I just find the kind of music they make really, really boring. So this is a collaboration and I'm writing this very sentence before even listening to it so gimme ten minutes to give it a blast...........(10 minutes elapsed)........This is less "shoegaze" than Nadja's usual stuff, sounding a LOT like early (Absolute Go)-era Boris or Sunn, but it's not got the nice beefy, heavy tone they have and sounds gratingly high-end. Vampillia add strings giving quite a cinematic feel to proceedings. Honestly, I'm still bored and cannae make it all the way through, but I do listen to an awful lot of Graham Bonnet so maybe if you're into this kinda gear I'm not the chap you should be asking. £6

Gloomy metallic hardcore very much in the vein of Anti Cimex (they do a cover here actually!) and maybe Japanese bands like DEATHSIDE. Dark and intense. £8

There aren't any wheels being re-invented here, but if you like your wheel to sound solidly like doom metal then yer onto a winner here. Pretty cool Ozzy-wannabe vocals, heavy, thick tone and songs where Satan is mentioned every so often...you know the score. Definitely worth a listen if doom's yer thing. £6

Pretty much exactly the opposite that you'd expect from a former member of Hijokaidan, but then, the Japanese noise scene was never best known for its predictable characters! This is pretty much gentle folk guitar, whispy vocals and the odd flourish of lush strings. £8

Fanclub boot of one of THE classic first-wave hardcore records, and one of the few to release a proper full-length at the time. This is just absolute raging, totally intense stuff from start to finish, and has some of the most memorable tunes from that early first wave. The second record on Touch and Go and never reissued on wax so unless you want to pay over a ton then the only way to get it on vinyl. I checked it against my original and sound isn't quite so great (its clearly been mastered off a good vinyl copy) but totally acceptable for a tenner and it's not exactly a Steinman production in the first place is it? £10

£8

So just looking at the design of this album cover automatically has me reaching for my shotgun for crimes against composition, but as of now I have not listened to any tunes. Let's Google em and have a go at a song on Youtube. This is total shite. Seems like these guys have a budget behind them? Maybe they're really big and I've just not noticed cos I don't listen to boring bumcore metal. Well, I kinda just have cos I made it through 30 seconds of one of their bent tunes. Honestly, avoid. I'll get rid of these on Discogs. Weird choice for the othrwise ace Voice of Azram. £4

The cover of this makes it look like a thrash record but it's very much NOT! This is post-hardcore, but in the "Revelation Summer" idea rather than sounding like fuckin Coldplay which I think most modern "post hardcore" does. Reminds me loads of stuff like Embrace and The Faith (Subject To Change-era), or maybe a wee bit of mid-period Husker Du. Vocals on this one can get a bit grating mind you, after two songs I wanted whatever 5 year-old lassie who sings for them to put a fuckin sock in it. £6

Saw these guys a few weeks ago when my pal put them on in the Note and they were pretty cool. In fact very cool cos they asked me to take a couple of copies of this record to flog. This is slow, ponderous doom which isn't quite sludge, isn't quite funeral doom. I mean...does it fuckin matter what it's called? It's dead slow and sounds like it was recorded in that big creature in Empire Strikes Back that they think is a cave. Tome are dead good. Really repetitive riffing. Very lofi, dirgey sound with vox pushed way back with lots of haunting reverb. Good gear! £8

Ultra-intense grind/HC here. There's a fine line between stuff like this which rules and stuff like this which is generic and bland. And honestly, I cannae put my finger on it. But I think this rules! Check them out. £8

This absolutely blew me away when I had it in before, so glad to get another bunch of copies in. If you like the brutality of Man Is The Bastard and Zeni Geva, check out these Macedonian mentalists! Face-ripping sonic torment of the best kind. £5

Everything comes around; the stoner/doom hybrid is back in style, big time! These guys play a total hard-rockin' style that's equally influenced by Budgie and Thin Lizzy as it is by Sabbath. Catchy, riff-heavy bluesy heavy metal with great Ozzy/Gillan vocals. Comes with a bonus 7" and quality comic book-style art. £12

Total old school third-division heavy metal/thrash. Excellent teenage cover art. £10

Very slow, ponderous and ultra-heavy doom from Glasgow. These guys were half of Snowblood but this strips back all the post-rock elements of their previous band and focusses entirely on utterly flattening you. Total holcaustal winds of death. Double LP with two songs; if yer into Boris when they were good, Sunn, Corrupted etc this will be yer bag! £10

Interesting one, here: not quite a proper album, the first side of this was originally released as Ommadon's contribution to the ace three-way tape they did with Coltsblood and Horse Latitudes. Seeing it as too good a tune (all 20+ minutes!) to be just on a limited tape, they decided to make a record of it, with a B-side that comes across like a kinda more esoteric analogue to the more riff-heavy flip. Much as I really like it when Ommadon go for it with the meaty riffs, I quite like the expansive sound of the B-side and it's that one I've been giving more attention to since getting this. The artwork is ace to, black and white etching I think of what seems to be an underground cave, which fits the claustrophobic subterranean sound of this record perfectly. Recommended. £8

Total youth crew here. I kinda like how a lot of these modern hardcore bands just carry on like music hasn't progressed in any way for the past 30 years, there's a something quiet nice about picking up a record where without even listening to it everything is exactly the same as a Youth Of Today LP. So, if you're looking for some new and interesting tunes, well, look elsewhere. If you like youth crew and know all the obvious records and want something cheap that won't dissappoint, spend seven quid on this! £7

Only 50 copies! Fuckin' hell! £7

The first time I got this in I wrote a reasonably garbled review of this and wasn't really sure what to make of it. "Doesn't sound quite right...heavilly-processed vocals that sound slowed down"...I was listenig to the thing at the wrong fucking speed. Note to labels: if you release a 45 rpm 12" WRITE IT ON THE LABEL! Anyway, this is quite off-the-wall death metal. At root it's got the South American sound (these guys are from Columbia) but it deviates from traditional song sturcture often. Vocals still remind me of Brujeria, pretty smart. Apparently these guys include a member of PARABELLUM, great underground band! £6

Metal punk which is pretty much just Motorhead. If you dig Motorhead I'd be astonished if you didn't at least enjoy this fleetingly. It doesnae have the charm or tunes of Motorhead but it's enjoyable to chuck on! £8

Early 70s East German jazz/soul/prog fusion here. Pretty cool stuff, reminds me a wee bit of the first Frumpy record or even maybe early Colliseum. £10

Debut album which is pretty much the definition of meat and potatoes death metal. I personally love it! Gothic will always be where they blew the doors off for me, but this ne has a dry, ponderous sound to it that just totally captures the raw sound of early death metal. £17

Really dig this, sounds like Jesus Lizard but heavier and with slow, sludgey bits. £10

Brilliant synthesiser score to Wes Craven's cracking Deliverance-meets-The beverley Hillbillys movie, this one is beyond tense and has that magic 80s synth sound to it. You may not know this but the guy who did this soundtrack also played guitar on River Deep, Mountain High, played in the Everley Brothers, and wrote the theme tune to Knightrider! Beautiful packaging from One Way Static, leading the way with soundtrack reissues. £10

The final ever recordings from bonkers American ex-pat Fritz Welch's free-form trio. Primitive and never restrained, these guys come across very much as three improvisors with a tacit knowledge of what the others are doing, the sporadic noodlings coming together to some brilliant kraut crescendos. An excellent record to bow out on! True to form, the pro sleeves are all defaced with paint and have the logo hand-written in pen, along with various inserts. Mine had a letter written apologising to the neighbours for the noise. £10

Long-lost (originally only released in two presses of 100 copies) freak-psych-folk from Austria. Often bizarre and straddling a line between whimsy and an acid-freid dark tone, this one is a real underground 70s gem! NOTE: all my copies of these have wee bumps to the top right corners. £9

Firstly: cracking band name! I assume they're named after that episode of The Sopranos where Pauli and Christopher get lost in the woods overnight chasing the mad indestructible Russian guy. Anyway, I digress. This is savage hardcore (with Calum and Shane of the sadly-gone They Are Cowards) with a black metal touch: ultra-fast tempos, stacatto riffing, screamed vocals. Great stuff! £5

Their debut album is one of the best things I've got in this year so I had to track down the second album and here it is! This takes up just where the debut left off; totally gnarly as fuck evil gothy punk. Really nasty, horrible stuff. I absolutely love it. Proper dark thoughts man. Brilliant. £8

Pohjamuta play slow sludge (occasionally picking up a wee bit of pace). It's not exactly redefining anything but the vocals are pretty cool early Burzum-esque howls and if yr a fan of sludge you'll find this perfectly acceptable. Usko play a mix of slow sludge metal with raging fast almost power violence-y bits with a total basement sound (the snare sounds like a biscuit tin and the vocals are way higher in the mix than everything else). I'd usually not be into this kinda gear but I kinda like it to be honest, think the total primitivism of it is cool. Limited to 202. £8

Food and Poopy of Sockeye meet up again to continue their abject stupidity with this new band. Maybe a bit more "psychedelic" than Sockeye, this sometimes comes across a bit like someone with mental issues trying to play Hawkwind. Which is kinda also a description of the Butthole Surfers, ha! As with everything these guys have ever been involved with, ace! £7

Dark and intense hardcore from a band who have spearheaded this style of music, in the past few years there's been TONS of this kinda gear passing through the distro. This is pretty short and sweet, abotu 20 mins runtime I think, but keeps you wanting more. Never lets up at all! £6

Originally a private press ultra rarity from the late 70s, this acid-folk masterpiece gets the reissue treatment courtesy of the excellent Mandraz label. Pusey is American, but the sound here is very British, with a big Incredible String Band influence. Some incredible guitar playing going on here, fans of the first Comus record will be all over this! My copies of this have a wee seam split on the bottom of the sleeve. £7

Another weirdo slab of wax from Golden Pavillion, this one is a french guy who recorded an album that sounds exactly like After The Goldrush era Neil Young. Quite a bizarre thing to come out in 1981 it must be said but if you're a fan of Shakey or just like weirdo obscurities then this comes highly recommended! £8

BRILLIANT new 12" from Ramleh. One side is a rhythmic post-punk repetitive chug-a-thon that's as memorable as anything they've ever come out with, while the flip is the absolute definition of "industrial": thundering, terrifying metallic noise that is an totally all-encapsulating war on the lugs. Sounds great as a 45. Only 200 copies, get em quick - highly recommended! £8

Post-punk in the vein of old Wire. £7

These guys are a kinda ultra-eager hardcore bands who play fast and have grindy guitars. It's ok but nothing you probably haven't heard from about a gazillion support bands in the past couple of decades tbh. £8

Hard-driving mid-70s prog from the USA which brings to mind a more aggressive, to-the-point Yes. This was never released at the time and finally finds a proper release from the vaults of Golden Pavillion! £10

German thrash that sounds like....german thrash. Very straight-forward Kreator worship here (particularly the gargled/rasping vocals are very Mille Petroza), these guys aren't breaking any new ground at all but if you want an injection of old-school thrash and have worn out your Destruction records then these guys are well worth a listen. £5

Blazing metallic hardcore from Finland. Lim 300. £3

Really great punked-up sludgey metal. Definitely a cut above the usual boring sludge bands, this reminds me a lot of early Buzzov.en material. Limited to 300 copies. £3

Solid gold classic Hammer flick, this is a great soundtrack, being a kinda odd mixture of austere, almost baroque orchestral sounds and near-spaghetti western stylings. GREAT! £12

Pretty avante offering (originally released in 1981) from Cluster/Harmonia man. More in the vein of Cluster's more experimental and "difficult" work of the late 70s/early 80s I guess than the more listenable hip gear that most folks are into. I personally dig it! £12

Decent death metal from the Midlands. Good tight riffing. It's not gonna blow any minds, but total solid stuff. Limited to only 100 copies! £7

Basement recordings of kinda weirdo avant punk tunes. Dead murky no-fi recording. £4

Sole album by these early 70s prog monsters, formed from the ashes of the genius NOVEMBER. There's a much more heavy and progressive sound here than in their previous band and this album showcases some truly exhilarating heavy prog. Top marks. £9

Raw industrial racket comes clattering out of the deep bass throb from this French underground supergroup. Hear the whole thing here: http://saisonderouille.bandcamp.com/ The corners of the sleeves on these are all bashed a wee bit thanks to poor packaging from the label to me, hence the cheaper price. £4

Second album from "heavy metal space rockers from Sweden". Honestly, I'm not hearing much space rock here. It's not bad, ut reading the write-up on the Rise Above website about these guys being "IN STARK CONTRAST TO SO MANY RETRO-THEMED BANDS OF THE DAY".....are they, aye? So nay retro-themed bands of the day, aye? Like every other record on Rise Above then. Sorry, I'm being snide, just get tired as fuck at how putting out records has just descended into a really cynical advertising campaign and little else. What's this sound like? It's much more well-rounded than the first album, with a beefier, more "metal" production. I'm thinking kinda Sad Wings songs with a Sin After Sin sound. It's not bad to be honest, but if yer looking for a) space rock or b) something in stark contrast to every other Rise Above band....then buy In Search of Space by Hawkwind. £17

You may know Krista Van Guilder as being the original vocalist/guitarist for doom band WARHORSE back in the late 90s. This sees her resuming both roles in a doom band and the two tracks on here are hopefully a sign of things to come! First song is a bit of a heavy metal galloper, with shades of NWOBHM in the Sabbath riffing. Second track and side is a bit more of a doomer, with a real Hellhound-ian influence apparent. Great powerful vocals too from Krista that will go down well for fans of Wounded Kings, Uzala, Blood Ceremony etc. A top class EP and can't wait to hear what these guys hit out with next! £6

Collaboration between a Slovakian noisecore band Sedem Minut Strachu and noisers Supraphon Family. SMS are one of my favourite recent noisecore bands and are helmed by my pal Rado who is one of the coolest guys I've come into contact with since starting the label, definitely someone who gets what an underground label is all about. This collaboration is absolutely fucking brilliant, totally savage noisecore blasts, blurr meets electronic wipeouts. Not since (Man Is The) Bastard Noise or Endless Bloackade (and various offshoots) has anyone been so successful with this merging of styles. Highly recommended, record of the week! Hluk off! £5

Hook-driven, raw punk rock from Finland. This originally came out in 79 and is definitely one of the best of the bunch of the early Finn-punk scene. £9

Old-school hardcore from Lee Dorrian, Gaz Jennings, Scott Carlson, and some other beard. It doesn't live up to the promise of the amazing debut 7" for me, but it's still mroe than decent and blows most new "crust" out of the water. Do find it a wee bit hilarious mind you that we;re getting lyrics here railing against the capitalist system and folk spending all their time on Facebook from a guy who runs one of the most cynical, expensive and un-punk labels about, who give their bands fuck all copies of their wn records and have treated several people I know like shit. I guess what's more punk than being a complete fuckin let-down though, eh? LIMITED EDITION white vinyl! £17

Despite being named after one of my favourite doom tracks of all-time, these guys don't really sound very much like Bedemon at all, but are bevertheless very doom-orientated. They come across as quite similar to recent US bands actually like Samothrace and their simplistic but really powerful approach reminds me loads of the great Hellhound band BLOOD FARMERS. One of the best doom metal records to come out of the UK in recent years! Great packaging too like an old pulp book. £18

SSS continue their quest to do a split wih every one of the most prolific bands around by teaming up with Unholy Grave. Got to be hoenst, I'm massively surprised they never did one with these old-school grinders already to be honest, but there ya go. Black vinyl. Sleeve got wavy as a result of water damage in transit. £4

Rough (I guess this gets called "crust now....it's not) hardcore here with kinda death metal vocals. It's far from offensive to my lugholes but it's not gonna change anyone's world. If "blackened crust" or whatever it is they call this kinda thing now is your bag or you just really really wanna hear a vaguey Swedish-sounding guitar but for some reason the first Entombed record doesnae do it for you any more, be my guest! £8

This is what I'm all about! Naming yer band after a Necros's song is always gonna get my attention and these guys are like an agressive mix of them, SSD and maybe early Die Kreuzen. There's plenty of proper metallic pummeling riffs in there and a real disjointed, violent and not-all-there sound to it that makes me think VOID. Recommended! £5

Power violence/fastcore from both bands. Dog Eggs make me think of a faster Lawnwmower Deth, they're a bit daft really. £8

Collaboration between the master of expertly-constructed industrial noise and the master of clattering the absolute fuck out of metal stuff. The result is pretty much what you'd expect! £10

Well this was album of the update before I even listened to it! Absolute legendary dirge-punk band here, Sickness came pre-Groinoids and pre-Kilslug. They released one 7" (which I have but it doesn't have a cover....anyone with a sleeve message me thanks!) but there'd been talk of a bunch of unreleased stuff seeing the light of day at some point....well, here it is! Here we have two more tracks recorded properly during the 7" session. The A side has two more unheard studio tracks for a radio session. The flip is three live tracks, including a rare rehearsal from 1979. Think about it, coming out with shit like this in '79, unreal man! This is totall deranged stuff, not a million miles away from Flipper who I guess most folk consider the masters at this gear. Personally think Sicness/Groinoids/Kilslug are every bit as good if not better. If you have to get one record in this update, go fer this one. If you have to get two, get this and the Bloody Head LP to hear the masters and apprentices together! £10

These guys are formed from 4/5ths of stoner legends Acrimony but this is a little less psychedelic than the aformentioned Welshies and they adopt a more straightforward stoner rock approach that nevertheless nods to classic 70s rock and doom. Doesn't quite hit the heights of Tumali Shroomaroom but then....what does? £12

Total under-the-radar stuff here, know absolutely nothing about these guys but thoroughly enjoying this! I cannot find any info about the band at all but it doesn't look like they ever released anything while they were going. This collection contains over 90 minutes worth of great post-punk with a hard, almost metal edge and the odd foray into widdling weirdness. Maybe a hint of noise rock about them too, I think the closest comparison I can think of is maybe Lubricated Goat? Great stuff anyway and highly recommended. £10

Wow, this is fuckin wild. Not sure what to make of it to be honest. It's totally free-form and utterly fucked, it sounds like there's a flushing toilet going on the whole way through it, the guitarist is just playing anything over the whole lot, the drums occasionally start blasting and everything else joins in, and the vocalist (there might be two actually) just sounds like a ranting maniac who's wandered into the recording studio and is trying to ask everyone to stop playing and give him some cider. Think this might be the best release of this update, cos it's completely fucking mental. £8

Noisy, angular post-hardcore racket. £8

Mods are an absolutely brilliant live force and this LP captures them at their most visceral. Mainly culled off the latest album but with all the hits on there too. Top stuff! £12

Another entry into Urashima's series of reissues of rare Slaughter Productions material, here comes the turn of Slogun, and one of John Ballisteri's earliest releases. This is grinding noise which has a lot of parrallels with contemporaries Bloodyminded. Very influenced by the caustic early 80s wave of power electronics - but much less sparse - with layer upon layer of horrible noise, samples and feedback. Harrowing but brilliant stuff. Lim 99. £13

Slump are grind with mid-tempo sludge parts. Life Ends play fast and harsh grindcore. £4

Dual-vocal crust-core from Sweden, featuring members of Warcollapse. £8

Posthumous final album from Glasgow's post-doomers. Really nice chipboard gatefold packaging. £7

Haunting, minimal, repetitive black metal. It has a real droning quality that's maybe not a million miles away from the american bands like WITTR etc. £7

These guys are alright: absolutely the opposite of being sofisticated (sic), they play straight-up scuzzy thrash metal with a huge Venom influence. In fact, if Venom had done an album of songs all in the vein of "Teacher's Pet" it probably would have sounded like this. You've got to respect a record with a song titled "Total Flatulence War (When Beans Attack)". Black or green vinyl (lim 100). £6

Managed to get my hands on a bunch of dead stock of this rager from 1990, all unplayed! Sons Of Ishmael were a hardcore band from Toronto who came out as the first wave of hardcore was dying (their debut 7 came out in 1985), and unlike DOA who left Canada altogether, or Nomeansno who got major distribution and toured all over, SoI remained under-the-radar, and like a lot of later-80s HC bands found more of an audience in Europe than North America. Their Pariah Martyr Demands A Sacrifice is to me one of the finest Canuck hardcore LPs ever recorded, and whilst this isn't uite as good, it's got some great tunes and real dry humour. Bargain, gettit! £5

There's a kinda trend at the moment for fake film scores (fuck, I even got in on the action....though to be fair the Repeated Viewing record was actually conceived about 5 years ago just took ages to sort it out!). Anyway, this is one of them, dunno the band but looks like it's meant to be a Politzioteschi. Sound-wise it's not far off the money; there's a bit of tape hiss, funky bass, Hammond organ going on, samples. Like a lot of these things the art isn't up to snuff, have hardly ever seen anyone get art to look like an actual old record, presumably because....they don't actually know fuck all about old records. SHOTS FIRED! £8

Holy shit this is a fuckin' belter! These guys are famous for having released the first heavy metal LP from Italy and....here it is, along with four bonus cuts! Listening to this as I type I'm astonished these lads never got much of a big name for themselves because this is really top class heavy metal. Really sharp production that brings to mind the best Judas Priest albums (Sad Wings to Killing Machine now you ask!) everything about this record is bang on point and while the obscure weirdo demos from Italy are often amazing, it's nice to head and actual proper album from the country produced within the key period. Highly recommended!! 200 copies on black vinyl. £10

Heavy crust/d-beat with a very metal sound from Ireland. Covers have a wee bit of wear to them caused by the irritatingly regular slapdash packaging job. £3

Absolutely brilliant new album from long-running power electronics duo SJ. Taking a similar approach to later Whitehouse, this sets itself apart from the primitive, early feedback experiments in that it is very well-recorded, varied and heavy noise. Dense drones are counter-balanced with ultra high-end feedback and metal clattering, brilliantlly constructed and held together by superb production values. Packaging is great, heavy gatefold sleeve and heavy coloured vinyl. Limited to 300 copies on red vinyl with gold splatters. £14

Comp of two 1973 singles from "Barcelona's greatest hard rock band from the early seventies", and it's hard to disagree with that description based on the first track on here: a real heavy-hitting stomper, total high-energy bonehead material with some rolicking moog at the end. Right on! £7

New EP from the master of Italian occult horror doom, Tony Tears. He's very strongly influenced by Paul Chain of course, but he's been doing this for 30 years now and arguably while not as out-there as Chain (and I personally LOVE the more out-there Chain moments!), he has honed that creepy horror vibe better than any other band on the planet. This is four new tracks: the two on side A are horror doomers and the other two on the flip are more ambient organ-led tracks in a similar vein to early Jacula/Antonius Rex. Album of the month for me! £12

Techy, grinding hardcore/death from Sweden I think. £5

Temple: these guys rule, absolutely great epic doom metal! No screaming vocals or feedback here, just total hymns of solemnity and twin leads with soaring chorus vocals. Love it! Acolytes Of Moros is still doom but has a much rawer production and harsher vocals. It's very bleak but the thin sound is totally blown away by the majesty of the Temple side. Worth it for them alone, though. £8

Great, ultra-heavy trad doom from Italy. This is mostly dead slow and incredibly sinister funeral dirges, but not in the snide "DOOOOOOOOM!" beard-and-baseball-core way, just proper heavy-duty tunes for a funeral. Ignore the crap cover art and you've got an utter belter on your hands here! £7

Ripping old school grindocre with death and thrash influences. £8

Final LP by one of the finest hardcore bands of all time, period! And they've left on a high note; this record is just as pissed-off and heavy as their early stuff. Never lets up from the start and the riffs are great. Just top notch Finn hardcore, recommended. £8

First release of dis-core with screeching metal vocals. £6

This Ends Here: decent stuff, reminds me quite a bit of Word As Law-era Neurosis. Heavy bits but still with an edge of kinda-melodic punk. Very "crust" production! Conqueror Worm: barberous, savage grind. £7

This is a real weird one: two bands doing a split LP with absolutely no information on it in any way at all, and both sides are only Nirvana covers. I've never heard HIRS before so no idea if they've changed their style to accomodate the Nirvana tunes. They do a kind thrash take on the originals with some pretty cool screamed vocals. Not sure if it's two singers or just double tracked. Not greatly fond of the Thou tracks, those vocals man....sound fuckin brutal doing this kinda music and the older Nirvana tunes weirdly sounded miles heavier when Nirvana were doing them. In Bloom is no bad cos a lassie sings it and her vox suit the tune much better. I'll be honest....this record just kinda annoyed me a wee bit and made me want to listen to Nirvana. If you're into either band, really like covers or enjoy novelty records, then wire in! Pink vinyl. £10

New EP from the best noise rock band going right now! This is the first record they've put out that I've not been involved with in some way but that's no indication of quality: quite the opposite, it's the absolute business and follows on perfectly from the previous two. Savage, unrelenting, driving dirge. GREAT! £5

Totally on-point raging d-beat from SWEDEN. Alright! £8

Essentially The Accused under a different name (they are now known as "Accused AD"), this recording originally came out as a split CD nearly 10 years ago and is resurrected as a single-sided 12". Musically, it's really not a million miles away from The Accused and is much better than the "new" Accused with BRAD from Burning Witch (!) on vocals. It does have "tribute" artwork (Earth AD) which I'm never a big fan of. Yer legends yourselves guys, no need to pay homage to anybody else eh! £10

Kinda post-punk-ish angular guitar pop from Japan. This isn't my thing at all it must be said, but if yer into jangly, hook-laden pop-rock then this will certainly be yer bag. I know some people tend to like stuff simply by virtue of the fact that it's Japanese. To those people I said: it's a tenner. £8

So I guess this is pretty much dictionary definition of "pretentious". Tome Of The Unreplenished....what does that actually mean? A book about things which need refilled? Maybe there's some sort of cosmic origin story....honestly, I could not give half a shit. Anyway, this is actually really pretty decent. Reminds me quite a bit of TOMB. It's mainly a thick murky fog of noise with blasts of black metal occassionally emerging from the gloom. I daresay these guys think they're probably cutting edge and honestly, Abruptum were doing it much more simply and effectively 25 years ago, but this was nevertheless a decent listen and no doubt loads would get more out of it than me. £8

Superb experimental, improvisational soundtrack to Rollin's earliest vampire films. Really quite disquieting, this is jazzy, fractured and off-kilter and drifts in and out, and adds to the odd, surrealistic atmosphere of the film perfectly. Highly recommended. £12

Inspired, cool-as-you-like jazz soundtrack to early 60s Italian hip-fest Smog, a day-in-the-life-of-an-Italian-stranded-in-LA which more than doffs its cap to the French New Wave style, both cinematically and in this slick score. Great vocal theme as well by Helen Merrill. £10

Long-awaited vinyl reissue of the debut album (there were only 30 copies of their debut put on on CDr...and I got one!). I don't think this album has the tunes of Bloodlust or the songwriting sensibility of Mind Control, but you can hear from a cursory listen that this guy knew what he was doing. Ok, there were a gazillion rubbish sound-a-likes coming in their wake, but to give credit where credit's due, Uncle Acid are a massive cut above the rest! £17

Restock. New Uzala - yes! This is the follow-up to their excellent debut which I had the greatest pleasure to release a year or so ago, and I'm glad to say this one lives up to the incredibly high standards of its predecessor! There seems to be a more epic vibe about this one, with most of the songs coming in at quite lengthy playing times, and there is more of a concentration on atmosphere than riffs, which is no bad thing. Darcy's soaring, siren vocals are even more stunning here, and having only her taking lead on all songs gives the album more of a sense of coherancy than on the debut. One of the best bands around and absolute unequivocal proof that you can do something new with doom! Lovely Tony Roberts artwork and nice tip-on Stoughton sleeves (like the debut). £10

This is a new one to me! Here is a collection of early material from one of Italy's pioneering heavy metal bands. These guys have a total NWOBHM (I'd say NWOIHM but I don't think such a think exists, ha!) sound, with the chugging riffs and punky attitude. The singer even sounds a bit like the gravelling bark of the legendary Paul Di'Anno! Been giving this heavy play the past few days, top notch driving 'eavy metal! There's some wear to the sleeve so price reduced accordingly. £6

Reissue of this excellent statement of intent from the Heartbeat label, showcasing the best punk bands Bristol had to offer in 1979. Includes Vice Squad, Glaxo Babies, X-Certs, Private Dicks and The Stingrays. £10

Compliation of sludge/doom bands doing covers. Includes , Fistula, Habsyll, Sollubi and Crowskin amongst others doing some really bizarre covers. Nirvana, Dead Kennedys, Kiss, Neanderthal....some of this is decent. Nice packaging with embossed and die-cut recycled sleeve. £8

Third in this always-excellent series of LPs/zines features big features on all the bands and more. This one features music by and words on: ACxDC, Horsebastard, Fissure, The Kill, Bloody Pheonixand more. £8

Excellent tribute to one of the best Boston bands, remarkable for the fact that I think there's more material on this tribute than they ever actually recorded (didn't they only play like 3 shows or something too?). Anyway, 19 songs here, including covers by Pignation, Cripple Bastards, Voetsek, Ruination, Voorhees and Extortion plus many more. £8 £6

Great idea for a comp: 19 bands all doing songs around a minute long! They're all fast of course, but good bunch of styles documented here. Bands include Dephosphorus, Ravencult, Dodsferd, Necrosadist and Witchrist. £8

Even better than the last one, this has a few big names on it: Bolzer, Column Of Heaven, Archagathus, Lobotomized and Yuyvr all blast out 1-minute (or so) tunes. £8

Great 4-way split here with Master of Cruelty, Fetid Zombie, Nocturnized and Vomit Church; an EP's worth of material from each! Limited to 250 copies on white vinyl. £8

Excellent compilation of some of TVG's best, taken from their annual Thrashcore Ball. Featuring Bizarre X, Wormrot, Saywhy?, Idiot's Parade, Entrails Massacre and Yacopsae. £8 £5

K2, Sshe Retina Stimulants, Macronympha, Richard Ramirez, Haters and Government Alpha pay tribute by their interpretations of material by one of the classic industrial acts. £12

Urashima's output of new bands is of infinitely more interest to me I must say than the constant stream of snide reissues, and this collection is a great example. Focussing on Finland and directed by the stern master Finn behind Sick Seed, Pekka PT, this is a superb collection of contemporary Finnish noise/PE that shows well.....the Finns do it best! Featuring Chloroform Rapost, Edge Of Decay, Silence Of Vacuum, Sick Seed, Snuff, and Unclean, this is a rivetting collection of the highest quality depraved, grimy, power electronics with a very distinct regional sound. A couple of these bands are new to me and I will be keeping close tabs on them cos there's not one act on this comp who isn't superb. Lim 99. £17

Second instalment of maybe the most famous biker movie/biker movie soundtrack of all time. Plenty of ultra-fuzz from the grand masters, Davie Allen And The Arrows. If you don't know "Blue's Theme" by now you need to sort yerself out maaaan! £12

Power violence from Canada that's very Infest. £5

Violent Frustration: violent fastcore with dual vocals from Germany. Cavernicular: erm....kinda the same but not as fast. £8

VG - hyper-speed grind core, pretty rotten, loose sound. MA - pretty catchy goregrind but with those absolute shit vocals that sound like a wee pig getting bummed. £6

Total fuckin raging, destructive, savage metallic hardcore from Japan. Absolutely NO let up at all in its short run-time! If you dig Gism, Outo, Warhead, Framtid, you WILL enjoy this! £7

Superb debut here, one of the less talked-about death metal classics in my opinion. Maybe not a million miles away from say, "Human"-era DEATH, this isn't a speed-fest but has enough twisting riffs, tempo changes and diabolical lyrical passages to keep any DM fan interested. Great murky sound here and top growls. Essential death metal listening. £17

10" version of the best FAST METAL band on the planet! For an in-depth review, go to the "releases" page, cos I released this un on CD! £7

Intense, blasting black metal that has an intricate metallic hardcore backbone. £8

Blasting, unorthodox black metal from a bunch of guys who've come up the ranks of metal/hardcore bands (the drummer was in Knut). This influence shows a lot: there's a full, heavy production and the playing is excellent, and the technicality adds to the cold black metal sound. It's not as atmospheric as I like my black metal personally, but if you're after a full-on metallic rage then this is a good place to go. £8

Dark metallic hardcore in the vein of His Hero Is Gone. £3

Nice wee release here; an EIGHT INCH record along with a 12 page booklet featuring comic art, discography and interviews, all in a plain paper bag! 100% pure ultra-distorted noise punk in the finest tradition. £6

Third LP of Jap-style noise punk from these scene vets. This one isn't quite as abrasive as their previous stuff. Mind seeing them for the first time, basically the guitar didn't seem to be playing any tune at all in any way, it just sounded like "sssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh". So this is well more "musical" I guess, some good tunes going on here. My favourite bit about this record though is the peurile schoolboy snakes and ladders board game enclosed, which seems to be mainly about wanking. £8

Doom metal with gruff death growls. Chugging heavy-duty riffing with quite a mournful sound that is very reminiscent of the Finnish death metal scene and just after I wrote that I see these guys are from....Finland! Great grim serial killer-looking painted artwork. Most copies of this have tiny wee corner dings to a corner. £3

Excellent intense power violence/grind. Pretty standard Dropdead/Siege/Infest worship but with a nice ear for melody (honest) and proper heavy parts. Do it almost as well as AWWFN's own MANGLE! £8

These guys rule. Driving heavy duty metal; at first it came across like kinda mid-paced rolling sludge like early Corrupted but there's bit of more rocking material going on there too. Very listenable, good tunes! £6

Reissue of the debut album by this american folker. This is a great example of sparse, early american folk music. Clear screenprinted sleeve, yellow vinyl. £5

Hard rockin' riff-heavy rock from San Fran (duh!). Bit of a throwback to the glut of garage/stoner bands coming out in the mid-to-late 90s, this is decent enough stuff with strong, gritty female vocals and a nice sparse, tough sound. £7

Something a bit different here from Bloodrock. These guys play dark post-punk/goth. The singer sounds like a female version of Robert Smith in The Cure's 17 Seconds/Faith/Pornography period, and in fact the tunes aren't a million miles away either. Think Clan Of Xymox, Xmal Deutchland, maybe the more gothy periods of Siouxsie And The Banshees or Depeche Mode. Dark! Very recommended from me. £12

Restock! Claustrophobic tortured doom from Ireland. Very gloomy stuff highly recommended! Lovely gatefold sleeve and heavy inner too. £7

Full-length from one of THE most intense, full-on powerviolence bands around. I remember getting their record on Slap A Ham back when I was at school and - despite being heavy into Napalm, Carcass and all them, thinking "jeez, this is a bit much, innit?". And by that, I mean...this is fucking great! £8

A fascinating blend of traditional Afghan music with a late 60s/early 70s psychedelic edge and some excellent crooning from the man Zahir. £8

Superb anarcho punk from Switzerland. These guys have been going for 20 years now and this is a great idea: a new LP of raging, angry Euro punk with plenty of gang choruses and razor-sharp guitar leads, along with a CD version of the album, as well as a 21-track retrospective CD with tracks covering their entire two decades as a band. Great value package! £5

Sort of a cross between hardcore and death metal with the odd ambient soundscape thrown in for good measure. £3

Intense and powerful metalcore from Germany. £3

Essential early document of the creation of Coil, when membership, aesthetic and style was still very embryonic. This double LP set reissues the tape credited mainly to Zos Kia, featuring at the time John Balance who, along with John Gosling, was still playing in Genesis P-Orridge's (oc)cult-obsessed free-form collective Psychic TV. Their ultra-dark, tribal tracks are total early industrial in their sound and execution, and fit well with the first Coil recordings: Manson, Crowley, Spare are the obvious inspirations and thematic touchpoints. The music here can often be a wee bit aimless but it represents a time of total juvenile musical and artistic freedom, and showed Balance what he was capable of and where he could take Coil in years to come. £17

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Another day, another death metal split seven inch with an utterly redundant title meant to sound clever but which actually means nothing at all to anybody. Aenaon are driving, mid-paced death metal whilst Satanochio (where do these guys come up with these names?) play quite lo-fi death-ish chugging metal. £2

More noisecore style from Agathocles. Paucities sound more Agathocles than Agathocles do! £2

You have to wonder how people come up with their band names. I mean, when people in the real world ask about my record label, I feel a bit of a twat saying "oh it's called At War With False Noise", cos they look at you like "ah, very good mate". Now, let's be clear, I don't give a floppy shite what people think about me, but if I was to get speaking to someone and ask what their band was called, and they said "Cum Sock", I'd probably say "ah, I realise you are a total roaster. Goodbye!". Cos only a total roaster would call their band Cum Sock. So anyway, I've just put Cum Sock on my stereo and they are total turd. The Agathcoles side is much better, actualy some decent grindcore rather than a lot of the sub-par plop they've been churning out the past few years. £4

Always find it amazing how AxGx make themselves to be proper right-on then release records by bands who have songs like "Magic Johnson Has The Good AIDS". So MPG are basically a bunch of children making boring music that sound like Spazz if they were a bunch of children. AxGx is as boring as they have been really since they gave up trying about 20 years ago. I see Ratgirl Records is involved in this one too, people still happy to deal with that snidey wee thieving cunt? RIGHT ON! £4

D-beat meets grind, from Spain and Poland. £ 2

Anarchus are one of the earliest grind bands from Mexico and their "Total Hate" demo is a lofi grinding classic. This track, honestly, is isnae. It's a Lords Of The New Church cover (?!) and it's a kinda black metal-sounding novelty and little more. Disrotted give a song of plodding heaviness that works better than the big long songs; Corrupted and Grief showed that brevity can work for slow music, not everything has to be an epic slug-a-thon! £3

CDs

TAPES