There will probably never be another year in punk music where its last two digits end up serving as stylistic shorthand, in the way that 1977 and 1982 are. (Thinking about it, this seems to have been snuffed out as a practise in music generally – any number of scenes and sounds are tied immovably to one specific era, but people just don’t normally say things like ‘nu metal, 2001 style’ or ‘Britpop 95’ or whatever.) That’s far from a problem, even for some gimp writing an intro to his end-of-year column after another 12 months blagging it as a reviewer. Punk and hardcore are still really great and exciting, generate loads of life-affirming rackets – such as the 20 capsule-covered starting in two paragraphs’ time – and will do so for a long while yet.
If there’s one thing that’ll define the year in any kind of collective punk memory, it’s the level of outspoken solidarity with Palestinians in the face of a genocide perpetrated by Israel but unbendingly supported by the USA and UK, where a majority of the bands reviewed in this column live. To an extent, you would expect this from a leftist subculture, but a casual observer would probably also expect the American (if not global) punk community to have united as one in opposition to the presidency of Donald Trump – which didn’t happen in any overt way.
The exact reasons why this is, certainly compared to the equivalent response to Reagan in the 1980s, have never been clear-cut to me, and I’d also note that as yet, lyrical responses to the Gazan crisis have been more the exception than the rule. (The history of Western punk bands addressing Middle Eastern politics is not wildly distinguished in general). Often, though, it’s manifested itself in benefit compilations: there’s a long link-based list here, all worth checking out and cutting a cheque for I’m sure though I’ll specifically endorse the No Genocide / No Occupation / Yes Liberation trilogy and the newer Palestine Solidarity Compilation Vol. 2.
Noel Gardner’s Top 10 Punk Releases Of 2024
ExtortionThreatsIron Lung
Aussie princes of powerviolence went a decade and change without releasing anything, then gave us two 15-song EPs in two years. Threats is as hard as hardcore gets and there’s not a hint of metal in earshot, just a big stack of 30-second explosions each impeccably fast and angry.
EjaculatorsWank GenerationGeneral Speech
They don’t make ‘em (poorly researched movies and guilelessly moralising TV dramas) like this (punk bands with hamfisted chops, box-ticking shockjock lyrics and a beyond-stereotypical image, created for these movies and TV shows) anymore. Yet that is the vibe Chicago’s frankly rude Ejaculators are touting on their debut EP.
KriegshögLove & RevengeLa Vida Es Un Mus
One of the preeminent ensembles of post-millennial Japanese hardcore – something achieved despite, or possibly because of, hardly ever releasing records – release a record, their second album in fact. They let their hesher tendencies take the rein, the results skewing as close to, say, Fu Manchu as trad D-beat at times.
IkhrasJahanam BtistanaQuality Control
Unmissably real and legitimately valuable diasporan hardcore from southern England. Ikhras releasd this five-song demo tape in February and it sold like shit off a shovel, indicating the populace yearns for red-raw youth crew-adjacent HC sung in English and Arabic and brooking no debate in its calls for a free Palestine and an end to colonialism.
Assistert SjølmordAssistert SjølmordStatic Shock
This band’s name is Norwegian for ‘assisted suicide’, so when I put it into Google the top results are for the Samaritans and CALM. Thanks for algorithmically checking in, but this pounding EP of early 80s-style hardcore is the elixir of life. Assistert Sjølmord are tuneful, in a finesse-free way, but so direct you’ll feel pinned to the wall.
SubduedAbattoirLa Vida Es Un Mus
Breaking my pledge to write original content for these top-ten blurbs so I can echo my review of this album in July and say, again: Subdued, best anarcho punk band in the world? Yes, yes they are. Abattoir is gothic, martial, lyrically obsessed with blood and exceptionally bleak in tone, image, word and deed.
Nerve AgentGame Of DeathNoise Merchant
Jacked’n’hammering crossover mayhem out of Birmingham. Some of the members played in a band called Drawn In who didn’t do a whole lot beyond the city limits, but Nerve Agent’s tungsten-hooked thrash is on a par with your Power Trips and Foreseens, so needs to blow up.
Lost LegionBehind The Concrete VeilMendeku Diskak
From Chicago, and a very Chicagoan album to boot: the spirit of the city’s iconic 80s bands Naked Raygun and The Effigies courses through this 25 minutes of stirring proletarian tuneage, joined by heroic doses of UK/US Oi! and the sort of post punk that stemmed directly from first wave punk.
Peace TalksProgressPeterwalkee / Flyktsoda
This was released at the arse-end of 2023 and I’m justifying it being in here by virtue of Progress getting a Euro pressing in spring and this being a Euro-based website. Peace Talks are from Pittsburgh and one of many sick modern hardcore bands from the city: one of the more musicianly ones, I’d say, but with Krystyna Haberman on vox expect no trace of wimpiness.
TraümeWrzaskQuality Control
Dark thoughts and forbidden levels of reverb from a Warsaw four-piece who you’re entitled to describe as a goth band playing at 78rpm, but for maximum approving nods why not observe they’re honouring the Polish hardcore continuum that swings back to Post Regiment and Dezerter? Punk music still fucking rules in 2024 is the main thing to take away here.
10 Punk Releases That Got Away
AlambradaRíos De SangreUnlawful Assembly / Fuerza Ingobernable / Autsajder Produkcija
This particular ‘ten that got away’ are predominantly from the splattery gonzo hardcore end of what gets covered in here, so apologies if you’re not overly keen on that stuff. But not many apologies because Alambrada drunkenly steamrolls all in its path and meek contrition is off the menu! They’re from Bogotá and share a couple of members with Muro – the most prominent hardcore band from the Columbian capital on a global level – while playing even faster and with more frazzlingly tonto rhythms. Rafael Augusto and Wilson Melo, the two Murovians, put breaks and bridges where they have no right to be over 12 songs of fast ‘83 style HC with a little cheeky crust punk bass in penultimate number ‘Rabia’.
BleaksThe MessGoldMold / Icepicks At Dawn
Was oblivious to the two tapes this Glasgow band had done prior to this one-sided 12”, or for that matter their activity at the indier end of the city’s DIY punk playing field, but Bleaks got my attention with this EP of scrawly, scrawny hardcore urgency. Seer, whose demo I fell for in 2023, strike me as likeminded Glaswegians; other relevant UK bands doing the contemporary rounds might include Subordinates from Birmingham, Geordies (and recent Bleaks tour buddies) Diall and mysterious Salopians Weo. Negi-vibes with pace and a rock & roll framework, there are some disparate HC substyles deployed here which maybe shouldn’t work together but do.
The CarpKnock Your Block Off
This LP, the debut release by The Carp from Cleveland, opens with a sample of one of those early 20th century IWW folk singalongs and a song called ‘Dump The Bosses Off Your Back’ which chunters along anarcho-weirdo style (think Straw Man Army). Great! But, mostly, a feint, as thereafter Knock Your Block Off pitches its tent somewhere between wall-of-text US post punk bands like Uranium Club or Landowner, fellow Total Punk alumni Sick Thoughts, and more-patches-than-denim 00s streetpunk bands, as nodded to via a cover of A Global Threat. The major dude in The Carp is Nathan Ward, who also helms Cruelster and therefore (I’m guessing) that project’s sensational Instagram page.
Desintegración ViolentaLa BestiaRoachleg / Static Age / Unlawful Assembly
This band’s name, vocalist and original drummer are all Colombian (the drummer was Rafael Augusto from Muro and Alambrada, in fact) but Desintegración Violenta live in Berlin, and there they make truly blood-gurgling proto-death metal poisoned by tape-trader crossover and GISM’s Detestation. La Bestia’s intros tend to be where they keep their most triumphant riffs, with bassist Ursula locking it in via a rash of fast-picked runs on the opening title cut and the closing ‘Eliminación Histórica Total’, which also has a bit that sounds amusingly like ‘Eye Of The Tiger’.
Gen GapHanging Out With…MF
That label name, MF, belongs to Jim Shomo, founder of Philadelphian shit-fi hardcore entity Delco MF’s. At some point Delco MF’s must’ve upgraded from a one-person studio project into a multi-member band, as there are apparently three of them in Gen Gap. In the course of stuffing nine songs into the cavity of this debut 7-inch they muddy the waters between punk, hardcore and garage: some songs, or bits of songs, remind me of Career Suicide, others the New Bomb Turks, others the boss White Collar LP from summer, not least in Gen Gap vocalist Izzy’s somewhat similar, unfuckwithable vocal style.
GyltI Will Commit A Holy CrimePopular Affliction
There must be more hardcore bands in LA than almost all other cities, just in terms of raw numbers, but I rarely seem to hear about them. Gylt are pretty rad though, and seem to be drawing crowds in the wake of I Will Commit A Holy Crime, their debut EP from summer. Its six songs have flashes of deathrock drive, early Black Flag, metallic soloing and mosh parts rendered a bit wonkier than they might be via odd guitar tunings. Perhaps unexpectedly, since IWCAHC was recorded they’ve been joined on bass by Georgia McDonald, former singer for Australian indie bigshots Camp Cope.
Killing FrostYears In Permafrost / Recordings 2021-2024Menduku Diskak
Though this is a logically ordered discography collection, not only do these ten songs have the feel of a studio album, this turns out to be the ideal format for the swashbuckling metallic hardcore of Finland’s Killing Frost. Comprising three-fifths of crossover thrash demons Foreseen, with another member producing and their roadie Niko Vilkman on vocals, while Foreseen are fuelled by shredding speed Killing Frost love to lumber, with doomy tendencies accentuated by intermittent goth metal keyboards. On ‘Nothing Is Enough (Frost Is Forever)’, the towering closing number, they’re like if Dream Death had been trying to get signed to Revelation Records.
Necron 9Flower ChildrenUnlawful Assembly
Lots of Unlawful Assembly content in this bit: guess that label’s favoured recording fidelity (horrendous) has been chiming with me in ‘24. Necron 9 are from Milwaukee, as are Unlawful Assembly, and Flower Children sounds even more rancid than the Alambrada and Desintegración Violenta records, which takes a special talent. It’s their third tape to date, claims to have been “recorded live in three hours” – I assume they took in a movie during this time – and is guaranteed to be cooked crack if you like exposed-brains thrashers like Delco MF’s (again) and Speed Plans. Here’s a short video of Necron 9 playing a gig on a five-a-side pitch because why not.
ShafrahBnat El MedinahSaalepower 2
Strong contender for my favourite sleeve art of 2024 here, and the debut LP by Shafrah sounds pretty tasty too. They seem to play up the ‘mysterious’ angle, concealing their faces when playing live and foregoing performers’ credits, but have been billed as coming from Chemnitz and featuring Jonas Hehn of Lafff Box. Bnat El Medinah is primal, pogoable Arabic-language hardcore with some moments of counterintuitive experimenting, as on the fuzzy centrepiece title track and LP closer ‘Wala Shae’, and a vocalist – also named Shafrah – who’s got a right good boiling-point bark on her.
Sin TaxAbnegationMiracle Cortex
45 years, or whatever, of hardcore punk and people are still impressed by a band playing really fast. They would probably be excited by their uncle jingling keys really fast in their face too, right? Wrong! This EP by Sin Tax out of Melbourne is insanely speedy for nearly all its eleven minutes, like purebred mid-80s hardcore but with a guitarist (in particular) playing as fast and evil as early 90s black metal, and if it doesn’t direct torrents of blood to your collected extremities then I can only conclude you have checked out of life!
