In Crust We Trust: Vol 32

Kia ora, crüe. Welcome back to In Crust We Trust. This semi-regular round-up focuses on crust punk, d-beat, stenchcore, raw punk, and every other Dis-charged subgenre. Artier punk occasionally appears, but in the main, ICWT concentrates on grim and grimy releases. Enjoy the ruckus, and thanks for stopping by.

750-ish days later…

How’s things? It’s been a while, huh – something like 23 months, but who’s counting!?! Apologies for the pause in proceedings, but you know how it goes. Life gets busy, the chores begin to stack up, and then, out of nowhere, an existential crisis knocks on your door. Uh-oh.

Anyway, it’s good to be back! I look forward to writing hundreds of thousands more words about virtually indistinguishable bands who are all in desperate need of a shower. If this is your first visit to ICWT’s unwashed shores, here’s the deal: I’m here to recommend music that’ll hopefully bolster your emotional fortitude while exorcising your inner turmoil. Deafening tunes + catharsis = ICWT. Biff, bang, boom. It’s a simple equation. Zero ego, max noise – voila!

Fair warning: if you’re a fan of rigorous taxonomic accuracy, you will find ICWT very frustrating. I don’t pay close attention to pernickety sub-genre delineations, and ICWT is a very broad and welcoming church. Ergo, don’t get hung up on the word crust in the title of this column. Crust is more of a vibe than a pinpoint marker around here, and the line between the sub-genres (or bands) covered is often more semantic than sonic. Think of ICWT as a sewer pipe or a particularly pungent vessel: All I really care about is pouring the filthiest noise into your earholes.

Obviously, the world’s changed a lot since the last edition of ICWT. But don’t panic; I don’t have the physical stamina or mental acuity to delve into an in-depth monologue about the current nightmarescape. (Suffice to say, holy fuck.) I also appreciate that you’re not here to read about political machinations – be they international or domestic – so I’ll cut to the chase.

Many of the bands featured in this column have a socially conscious worldview. If your values align with a progressive or open-minded outlook, then by all means, step this way.

That said, if you favour nihilistic music or enjoy bands with an end-of-days Weltanschauung, ICWT also features plenty of grouchy groups who’ll satisfy all your misanthropic desires. (And listen, I get it, the world’s on fire and Armageddon beckons, who wouldn’t be feeling a little crotchety right now?)

Lastly, I haven’t forgotten anyone who’s looking to escape all of the political and social tensions that surround us. If you’d rather switch off and simply be pounded into dust by heavyweight punk, let me assure you, ICWT highlights untold bands only too happy to oblige.

Point being: if you care about everything that’s happening, or you’re over everything that’s happening, or you’re simply looking to hide from everything that’s happening, ICWT is here to help. Sound good?

This edition of ICWT is longer than I initially planned. Mainly because I’m out of practice when it comes to writing punchy blurbs. I apologise for any rough patches below – I am a little rusty. Although, in my defence, snappy rhetoric and snappier witticisms aren’t my forte; I am a long-winded dirtbag by nature.

These days, you’re spoiled for choice when it comes to reading punk rock round-ups, and I am fully aware that an old hermit like me isn’t the first cab off the rank. All of that means I appreciate you stopping by even more: a hearty cyber-hug to you and yours for (re-)tuning in to ICWT.

As always, thanks to the Last Rites crew for hosting this garbage. (I’d also like to apologise in advance for any and all reputational damage caused by my return.)

Be well. Kia kaha.

PMA – all the way.

Ayucaba – Operación Masacre

Barcelona-based Ayucaba’s members originally hail from Latin America, and the band’s Operación Masacre LP is one of this year’s finest punk releases – if not the finest.

Ayucaba mix the guttural snarl of UK82 with the riff gymnastics of 80s metal, and Broken Bones, English Dogs, and the late-80s work of The Exploited have all been cited as inspirations. Japanese groups like Ghoul, The Clay, and Execute have also been referenced, and it’s the astute blend of all those international influences that makes Operación Masacre such a phenomenal LP.

Ayucaba’s former bassist Cromi steps up to the mic on Operación Masacre, swapping roles with current bassist Mateo, who sang on Ayucaba’s first couple of releases. No offence to Mateo, but Cromi’s voice adds a lot more personality to Operación Masacre’s songs. Cromi’s super-abrasive howls strip skin from bone, and in Operación Masacre’s quieter moments, Cromi’s murmurs will make you feel like someone’s walking over your grave. (See Inyeccion’s 2022 LP, Porqueria, for more of Cromi’s vocal talents.)

The best Latin American punk is often characterised by its stripped-down rawness, both instrumentally and lyrically. Ayucaba’s latest songs feature plenty of raw passion and battery-acid melodies, but there’s also a great deal of songwriting sophistication to Operación Masacre. There’s real depth to the songs here, and repeated listens to Operación Masacre’s anthemic tracks reveal more and more fine-tuned details.

Obviously, punk bands with grander creative ambitions haven’t always delivered engaging releases; sometimes, a more studied release loses punk’s crucial sense of urgency. The good news is that none of Ayucaba’s artistic decisions feel forced, and the band’s fusion of metal’s primal attributes (including some downright scorching speed metal solos) with punk’s instinctive bite feels like a natural fit.

It’s hard to find fault with Operación Masacre; everything here, from songwriting to arranging to recording, right on through to the album’s excellent screen-printed artwork and design, feels carefully considered. That said, for all its creative finesse, Operación Masacre is still fucking feisty and equally ferocious, and it retains all of the immediacy and explosiveness of the best hardcore punk.

Raise your fists, throw a few bricks, or hurl yourself across the room; this is what punk rock’s all about. Operación Masacre es un absoluto tour de force.

(Metadona Discos, Educación Cínica)

Desolacion – S/T

Argentine four-piece Desolacion features a few members of Buenos Aires-based crust outfit Ruinas. If you’ve not heard Ruinas before, I recommend the band’s self-titled 2016 album, which isn’t wildly different in tone or texture to Desolacion’s recent eponymous debut.

Desolacion’s first release is pretty much a dream come true for fans of the heaviest lineages of punk and hardcore. Desolacion’s downtuned coalescence of super-dark stenchcore and crunchy, metallic crust evokes the classics, ticks all right malodorous musical boxes, and lays down a thick slab of monolithic metalpunk. What more could you want?

Is Desolacion’s debut innovative? Not on your nelly, mate. However, all the bulldozing riffage – and gloomy atmosphere shrouding all – is pitch-perfect for fans of vintage or contemporary groups, such as Stormcrow, Amebix, Warcollapse, Cancer Spreading, Swordwielder, Fatum, and more.

Everything here is heavier than a tank but also, crucially, as raw as a gut wound, which brings stenchcore’s fundamental strengths – noise and noisomeness – to the fore. Desolacion offer a solid mix of thrashing riffs and doomier dirges, backed, of course, by the resounding echo of rack and ruin, and society in freefall. In sledgehammering crust terms, Desolacion’s debut is an obvious end-of-year contender. Long-in-the-tooth crust fans will lap this up, but I’d also recommend Desolacion’s debut for anyone looking to dip their toes into stenchcore’s stink for the very first time.

A demolishing debut, if ever there was one.

(UP the PUNX Rec, Nothing to Harvest Records, Tvmbalavalla Discos, Disastro Sonoro)

Destruct // Svaveldioxid – Split 7”
Shitcontrol – Hungriga, Frusna och Lamslagna

North Carolina label Prescription recently (co-)released the 7” split of the year, featuring two of hardcore’s gnarliest bands: Richmond, Virginia’s Destruct and Stockholm, Sweden’s Svaveldioxid. Both bands contribute two new tracks and a cover of one of the other’s songs, and both sides of Destruct and Svaveldioxid’s split are equally violent and vitriolic.

Svaveldioxid are a foot-to-the-floor, Scandicore monster. The prolific band pumps out death metal-heavy kängpunk, and Svaveldioxid’s last couple of LPs, 2023’s Världselände and 2024’s Främmande Samtid Skrämmande Framtid, have featured some of the band’s harshest and heaviest songs yet.

Recorded at the famed Sunlight Studios, Svaveldioxid’s chainsawing contributions to their split with Destruct are annihilating. Svaveldioxid waste no time on fripperies or subtleties; they just hammer their latest ferocious tracks home in the most immediate – and old-school – fashion possible. Prepare thee for battering drums from Hell, cut-throat vocals from Hades, and the brutalist kängpunk exploding from the halls of Valhalla.

Destruct are one of the best d-beat/hardcore bands in North America. The group’s full-length releases – Echoes Of Life, Cries The Mocking Mother Nature, and To Stop The Conflict (the latter seeing Destruct pair up with Tokyo crust legends LIFE) – have all been utter triumphs. Why? Because Destruct have perfected the art of sounding utterly massive while delivering blisteringly raw songs.

Destruct recorded their latest tracks at Minimum Wage Studio, where Ultimate Disaster tracked their phenomenal (and similarly pummeling) 2025 LP, For Progress…, which I’ve raved about elsewhere. Destruct’s signature brand of audio assaultiveness – think feral Swedish mangel throttling the crustiest Japanese crust – is once again dialled up to jaw-breaking levels on their split with Svaveldioxid. Anguished howls, decimating riffs, and bombarding percussion strike with ruthless and relentless aplomb. As always, for all Destruct’s primitivism, their latest tracks hit like giant fucking juggernauts. Somehow, Destruct sound more intense with every subsequent release. Scorched earth d-beat par excellence.

(Prescription, Children of the Grave Records)

Prescription also released Hungriga, Frusna och Lamslagna, an eight-song cassette from the Swedish crew Shitcontrol. The tracks on Hungriga, Frusna och Lamslagna were recorded on a 4-channel Portastudio, which adds a nice and raw old-school flavour to the proceedings. Shitcontrol’s Discharge-style approach is about as direct as direct gets – no surprise given Shitcontrol lineup features diehard punxs from Anger Burning and Discontrol – and while nothing here is going to reconfigure the parameters of kängpunk or råpunk, that’s not really the point. Shitcontrol simply deliver classic rage-driven hardcore. It’s full-frenzy noise – wild-ass mayhem set to slay your woes.

(Prescription, Brus Tapes, Mosslik, Misslynt)

Hellshock – XXV

To answer your first question: no, the addition of Tragedy’s Todd Burdette to Hellshock’s line-up has not added a whiff of fist-pumping crust to the Portland veteran’s latest release, XXV. Much like Hellshock’s self-titled 2022 album, XXV sees the band continuing to shed their d-beaten/encrusted epidermis, diving ever deeper into the caverns of end-times metal. Punk isn’t ditched entirely, of course. In much the same way that bands like Stormcrow or Sanctum combined a reverence for Bolt Thrower with crust’s full-throttle aggression, XXV still stinks of stench-a-tude.

Opener “Breathe” starts with a wash of synth and a dash of melodic riffage, but Hellshock are soon hacking into all comers with their death metal-worthy riffage. Tracks like “Dead Hands” and “Complete Outsider” see Hellshock incorporating more stylistic shifts via slower, more portentous passages. And production-wise, Hellshock have never sounded heavier on doom-choked and bass-heavy behemoths like “Oblivion” or “Dead Hands”.

XXV isn’t shiny or clean by any means, but there’s no question that Hellshock have reduced their guttural rawness in favour of amplifying the overall mass of their sound. Whether that works for you is obviously going to be a matter of taste – or down to which era of the band appeals most – but there’s no doubt XXV is one of Hellshock’s densest and darkest releases, both conceptually and sonically.

If you’re hoping for Hellshock to return to the swamps of crust, you’re out of luck, my friend. But if you want to hear Hellshock continuing to bend metalpunk to their will, you’re going to love the bleak and bruising XXV.

A quarter century in, Hellshock sound as aggro as ever.

(Black Konflik Records, Agipunk, Black Water Records)

Exist Enslaved – Path of Esoteric Warfare

Moscow “stenchcore bastards” Exist Enslaved are named after the first track on Cathode Ray Coma, the 1994 LP from dog-on-a-string crusties Excrement of War. Unsurprisingly, Exist Enslaved reproduce the rough, gruff and tough-as-old-boots sound of that era on their sophomore album, Path of Esoteric Warfare.

I imagine it’s an interesting time to be in a punk band in Russia right now, especially for groups like Exist Enslaved, writing songs about the pointlessness of endless wars. Excrement of War aside, Exist Enslaved recall similarly-minded groups like Extinction Of Mankind or Sacrilege, with the band’s chugging guitars and echo-wrecked growls harking back to punk’s early adoption of thrash’s ram-raiding tempos. There’s something almost post-industrial here, too. Not musically, as such, but in the feel, the ice-cold atmosphere, the sound of collapsing factories and communities of survivors barely holding on. Path of Esoteric Warfare is best suited for fans of the rawer and notably bleaker end of the stenchcore spectrum.

(Mournful Bridge Records, Drunk Scum Records)

Psych-War – Psychotic Warmonger

Psych-War’s 2023 demo hit harder than many studio recordings released at the same time. Much like their bludgeoning debut, the Philadelphia-based band’s first full-length, Psychotic Warmonger, features a feast of savage riffery, and the LP defiantly spotlights Psych-War’s “FUCK IMPERIALISM”, “FUCK GENOCIDE”, and “ANTI-WAR” worldview.

Psychotic Warmonger adds a thicker layer of crust on top of Psych-War’s already crushing d-beat. Obviously, beefing up a band’s sound can also cause that band to lose some of its primal power, but that’s definitely not the case here. Tracks like “Lucifer’s Jaw”, “Starving Dogs”, and the aptly titled “Ripping Inferno” feature distortion-drilled hardcore that’ll hit the spot for fans of Anti-Cimex, early Disfear, or Progression/Regression-era Wolfbrigade. A few stench-ridden blasts of Bolt Thrower-styled riffage turn up, too, further highlighting the key components here: mass destruction + max-intensity.

Psych-War’s brutal sound attack smashes minds, once again.

(Agipunk, Archaic Records, Sore Mind)

Nagasaki – S/T

The latest release from the stable of New Mexico label Blown Out Media is the self-titled EP from Swedish band Nagasaki. The Stockholm-based trio are very much vibe-matched to Blown Out Media’s previous array of ferocious audio sadists. Nagasaki’s self-described “Evil Neanderthal Råpunk” is, unsurprisingly, raw and primitive, and the two tracks off their EP that are currently streaming online sound like Shitlickers wrestling with System Fucker. Or Totalitär scrapping it out with Ferocious X. Or Anti-Cimex scuffling with Contrast Attitude. You get the point, right?

Nagasaki’s second release does sound tidier than their first. But everything is still akin to a distortion-lashed melee, and no one in their right mind is going to call Nagasaki’s kängpunk listener-friendly. Riffs and percussion rain down like radioactive fragments, and I think it’s safe to say that Nagasaki’s latest release will be a råpunk riot throughout. Vicious, harsh and horrible – shitnoise reigns supreme.

(Blown out Media, Fucked Noise Sound)

No Sector / Peracetic – Split 7”

It’s great to see Aotearoa New Zealand band No Sector getting more North Hemisphere exposure with their recent 7” split with Canadian outfit Peracetic. No Sector are from my hometown, Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington), and the band’s excellent Mercury Poisoning EP, released earlier this year via stalwart Wellington label Razored Raw, caught the attention of several punk-friendly scribes in Europe and the US.

No Sector’s new split 7” is released by Canadian label Sewercide Records, and it sees the band mixing the volatile energy of UK82 with fuzzed-out Scandicore. No Sector’s idiosyncratically-voiced singer, Caroline, adds a crucial dose of anarcho punk’s unconventionality into proceedings, and with more high-energy guitars matched to No Sector’s signature uniqueness, their side of the split with Peracetic is another solid win for the band.

Peracetic sound nothing like No Sector, and the Canadian band tear through five red-lining songs on their side of the split. Every one of those songs is a raw punk brawl featuring blown-out riffs, crashing percussion, and screaming vocals. Where No Sector go eccentric, Peracetic go berserk; it makes for a fun 7” split featuring differing visions of punk from bands who are nonetheless united in a single mission: spreading the hardcore word. Good times. Great stuff. Guaranteed.

(Sewercide Records)

Moribund Scum – First Cold Days In Hell

Plenty of promising bands only stick around for 10 minutes (i.e. one killer demo or a kick-ass 7”) before they implode. German crusties Moribund Scum deserve a hearty round of applause for (a) hitting the 15-year mark in 2025, and (b) still sounding like they’re up for the fight on their latest LP, First Cold Days In Hell.

Moribund Scum’s mega-gruff music leans hard on the sewage-streaked crustcore angle, rather than the polished stadium crust approach. The band sound as politically charged as ever on First Cold Days In Hell; tracks like “Running On Fumes” and “They Come With Pitchforks” provide chest-pounding deathcrust, while others, like “Fragile Manhood” and “Dismantle”, deliver rabble-rousing stenchcore. No one’s going to accuse Moribund Scum of reinventing the wheel, but First Cold Days In Hell proves that there’s still plenty of creative fire in the band’s belly. First Cold Days in Hell is sure to resonate with fans of bombarding crust à la Fatum, Instinct of Survival, Cancer Spreading, Visions of War, and kin.

(Bomb-All Records, Up The Punx)

Cristø – Fragments Of The Inferno

If you hold Sacrilege’s Behind the Realms of Madness in high regard, or love
Lifeless Dark’s more recent Forces of Nature’s Transformation, then Los Angeles band Cristø’s new 7-song EP, Fragments of the Inferno, is likely to grab your attention, too. With new vocalist Natalie on board, Cristø’s latest release slams metallic d-beat headfirst into old school thrash, and then slathers on a coating of broken glass and a pile smashed-to-fuck hopes and dreams.

Cristø’s hardcore chug-a-thon – and accompanying retro-activity – recalls English Dogs and Broken Bones, which essentially means you can expect blazing solos matched to battering, street-level riffage. It’s worth pointing out that Fragments of the Inferno sounds grittier and a lot heavier than Cristø’s self-titled debut – thus, it’s a more impactful release all round. Take a peek at Fragments of the Inferno’s cover art to reveal all you need to know. A solid 3.5 skulls outta 5. NO GODS / NO MASTERS – for sure.

(Self-released)

Deadsky – Reapers Call

If you’re a fan of label Profane Existence’s signature output, you’re going to love Deadsky’s Reapers Call LP. The Pittsburgh-based band are DIY diehards, and Deadsky go old-school on their first full-length. The band draws inspiration from the weightiest strains of d-beat, crust, and sub-basement 80s thrash. It’s a heavyweight sonic mixture that’s driven hard by an equally heavy political punch, meaning Reapers Call hits home on more than one level.

Reapers Call‘s opening track, “Class War Now”, says it all, really. Within, ruthless crust launches a brutal assault, while speed metal solos pierce the air. From thereon in, Reapers Call sees metal’s might and hardcore’s rage battling it out on apocalyptic-sounding tracks. Reapers Call‘s is dark as the current shitgeist. Genocide, oppressive politics, and capitalism’s myriad ills are all unpacked on Deadsky’s neck-wrecking songs. There’s also an echo of the wasteland here, too; the same vision of broken cityscapes and ruined lives conjured by legendary bands from across the pond – see Amebix, Doom, Axegrinder, and Antisect.

Deadsky’s debut is a ripper, a rager, and a heavyweight death-dealer. Tune in for classic crushing crust.

(Profane Existence)

Sickness of Greed – All That’s Before Us

US band Sickness of Greed lifted their name from one of Japanese behemoth LIFE’s gnarliest tracks. Of course, LIFE are one of the greatest crust bands to have ever walked this shattered earth, and if you’re a devotee of the long-lived Tokyo band’s discography, then Sickness of Greed’s All That’s Before Us cassette is going to hit the spot, too.

LIFE aside, the work of numerous Japanese titans – see Deceiving Society, Framtid, Abraham Cross, or Defector – has likely inspired the visceral creative pursuits of Sickness of Greed. (And you can also throw the max-filth of grot-bags Extreme Noise Terror into the mix, too.) All That’s Before Us sounds thoroughly obnoxious and equally untamed – two big stinkin’ ticks right there. Tracks like “No Sanctuary”, “The Case for Violence”, and “Do We Accept Hell?” are pedal-to-the-metal blasts of crashing/smashing crust that show zero restraint when it comes to tempo, temper, or ferocity. Imagine being run over by a contaminated dump truck; that’s All That’s Before Us in a nutshell. Cruddy noise for cruddier times. The perfect prescription.

(Sore Mind, F.A.R. Company, Filth Holocaust Records)

Sacrosanta Decadencia Occidental – Danzas No Solpor Do Mundo

Sacrosanta Decadencia Occidental (SDO to their friends) are a Spanish crust band that sings in Galician, the language of their homeland in northwestern Spain. SDO are steel-clad enough to have their own Metal Archives page, and while the band’s first full-length, Danzas No Solpor Do Mundo, features more than enough extreme metal to warrant that MA inclusion, SDO’s sound primarily echoes a myriad of colossal crust and stenchcore bands, such as Disrupt, Contagium, Stormcrow, Amebix, Sanctum, and more.

Danzas No Solpor Do Mundo is a muscular album packed with very strong songwriting. D-beat, blast‑beats, and whirlwind guttural crust keep Danzas No Solpor Do Mundo’s tracks barrelling along at top (often grindcore) speeds. However, there are also acoustic passages and subtler vocal moments within, meaning SDO offer a real point of difference among the stench/crust pack.

It’s all that volatility and variance that make Danzas No Solpor Do Mundo a more interesting release. SDO take unexpected turns and mix short, eruptive songs with longer neo-crust-ish tracks. SDO also make time to translate their anarchist critiques of the capitalist system, the war machine, and the unstoppable ecological destruction right outside your door. English and Spanish lyrics are available on SDO’s Bandcamp page, revealing a band fuelled by hate but still deeply concerned about a wide range of issues.

Also worth mentioning is Danzas No Solpor Do Mundo’s detailed artwork, which was hand-drawn by SDO’s singer/lyricist María and guitarist/synthlord Edu, and took more than a year to complete. The intricate illustration deftly captures SDO’s trip across modernity’s hellscape on their first full-length LP.

Danzas No Solpor Do Mundo showcases a lot of artistic ambition, but crucially, SDO hold tight to those key ingredients (and those all-important apocalyptic atmospherics) that crust fans crave. In one sense, SDO serve up forward-thinking stench-punk. In another, they remain firmly rooted in traditional crust. Ultimately, Danzas No Solpor Do Mundo is the best of both worlds.

(Crust As Fuck Records, Global Help Records, Deviance, Hecatombe Records, Svab, Ruido Y Pasión Records)

Kato – Ihmiskulttuuri

Everything you need to know about the St. Louis, Missouri, band Kato is located approximately 5883.42 miles from the band’s home base, and 42 years in the past. That’s when/where Finnish hardcore label Propaganda Records released their famed Hardcore ‘83 compilation. That comp, and every other lauded Finnish punk release from the early 80s, provided all the fuel for Kato’s breakneck 2023 demo (released by the always interesting Roachleg Records).

Kato’s first full-length LP, Ihmiskulttuuri, is out via Feral Kid Records, and much like the band’s demo, Ihmiskulttuuri is simultaneously ice-cold and red-hot. Kato feed d-beat and raw punk into a screaming wood chipper, and the result is a fast/furious avalanche of max-fuzz guitars and howling vocals – i.e. a blizzard top-tier, Finnish-inspired noise. Expect absolute chaos, intensity, and zero pauses for breath: Suomi (via St. Louis) hardcore all the way.

(Feral Kid Records)

Acid Casualties – Flags are False

I’m still trying to shake off my last bad trip, from back in 1999, so mark me down as both an acid casualty and a fan of New Jersey hardcore crew Acid Casualties. The band’s Flags Are False LP is blistering. The live-wire tracks within are universally explosive, but for all the album’s unbridled chaos, Flags Are False still feels tight and honed to the edge.

Flags Are False is über-abrasive – there’s no hi-fi polish here – and like recent releases from bands like Necron 9 or Cicada, Acid Casualties cut through all the posturing and bullshit of hardcore. There’s no unnecessary, roid-rage filler on Flags Are False – although, if you burst a few veins while listening to the album, that’s more than understandable. Acid Casualties shove throat-wrecking howls, concussive drums, and full-force riffs down the neck of 90-second songs, and every in-your-face tune is set to annihilate the stress of hope-crushing days.

Feel free to choose your own idiom for this one; take no prisoners punk, or straight-for-the-jugular hardcore – either works. Acid Casualties don’t hold anything back on Flags Are False’s rampaging tracks; the band’s first full-length is a triumph of no frills, but full-fury, hardcore.

(Iron Lung Records)

Feral State – II

The second full-length album from Leicester, UK band Feral State, II, sounds burlier than the band’s self-titled CD from 2022. The drums hit harder on II, the riffs are weightier, the bass is more jagged, and the vocals are more guttural. All of that is a big plus if you’re searching for thrashing d-beat that draws plenty of sonic darkness from metal and a lot of thematic grimness from crust’s usual roll call of concerns: war, misery, poverty, angst, etc.

Plenty of outwardly brutal tunes on II also have genuine hooks – see “Slow Decay”, “Nuclear”, or “Survival Game” – which adds another layer to several of Feral State’s Discharge-inspired tracks. In fact, it’s highly likely that if you dig the heaviest and catchiest releases from Stoke-On-Trent’s finest, then you’ll be happy to embrace the rowdy hardcore bangers that Feral State deliver.

(Self-released, Noise Merchant)

Contracharge / Drogato – Today’s Empire is Tomorrow’s Ashes

Today’s Empire is Tomorrow’s Ashes is a 10-track split LP featuring Chicago’s Contracharge and New York’s Drogato. Both bands are play crust punk, but as we all know, crust can be dished up in many ways. Some crust is served on a fancy plate, accompanied by numerous studio trimmings. While other kinds of crust sounds like its been tossed out of a garbage can full of writhing maggots and dirty needles. Contracharge and Drogato deal in the latter kind of crust. The sort of noxious noise beloved by patched-ass, broken-toothed, piss-stained, dumpster divers. The best type of crust.

Contracharge’s “d-beat audio terror” is born from the gutters of mangel and råpunk. Their brawling contributions to Today’s Empire is Tomorrow’s Ashes are red-raw – in sound and vision – and Contracharge’s songs are gravelled enough to leave a nasty road rash. Drogato bring rawer “drug-laced anarcho crustcore” to the table on Today’s Empire is Tomorrow’s Ashes. The band deliver gut-punching tracks – sometimes, at a grindcore pace – which ooze as much contagious disease as they do abject wretchedness. Contracharge and Drogato both paint very grisly pictures of modernity, but then, you paint what you see, right?

(Hey Fuck You Records)

Disturd – Vision

Kobe crust colossus Disturd has been kicking around for close to a quarter of a century, and the band’s foreboding music will sound familiar to fans of fabled Japanese label Crust War – see Crust War heavy hitters like Axewield or Zoe. Disturd’s full-throated roar has an old-school accent, heavily influenced by Amebix, Axegrinder and Antisect. (Or, for a more Japanese flavour, think SDS, Acid, or Antiauthorize.) Disturd don’t go in for pointless theatrics or wanky showboating. Instead, the band’s aesthetic choices are plain and simple. Disturd pick the war hammer up, give it a few swings, and then bring it down, again and again, pulverising skulls, smashing bones – a ruthless pummelling.

Disturd’s sound is heavy, gritty, and apocalyptically grim. The band’s latest release, Vision, features six tracks recorded in a single session engineered by Palm guitarist Akira Inada. (A few tracks here are rerecordings of older songs, while others are brand new.) Vision is another mind-mangling release from Disturd, with the band upping the dose of thrashier tracks and seeing their metallic crust chuggin’ along at full steam. As usual, Disturd bring the doom – and plenty of gloom – and Vision maintains a bleak and brooding mood throughout.

Disturd have made a lot of use of the signifiers of vintage crust, but for all their referencing of the past, the band don’t sound like a tribute act. Sure, Disturb are thoroughly old school, but they’re not uninspired. Disturd are traditionalists, in the best sense, finding the perfect way to bludgeon fans with their intimidatingly dark crust.

(Black Water Records, Grind Bird Records)

Alright, so here’s the deal. Vision isn’t streaming online, as yet. I’m one of those dicks recommending an album – or a 10” in this case – that I own a copy of but have no means to share. Apologies for that! Here’s a YouTube rip of Disturd’s recent-ish split with 惡AI意 instead – just to get you in the zone.

Distress – Under Pressure Of Reality

Back in 2006, St. Petersburg band Distress’s Progress/Regress LP caught my ear with its rough-hewn blend of late-80s/early-90s UK crust and booze-fuelled Scandicore. I haven’t kept track of the band over the years – although I did check out Distress’s 2018 split with the Swedish kängpunk outfit Irritation – but it was good to catch up with Distress again via their latest/third full-length, Under Pressure Of Reality.

Musically, Under Pressure Of Reality falls somewhere between Discharge and Anti-Cimex, with a healthy dose of rough-hewn metal added to the mix – think Wolfbrigade. Obviously, plenty of modern crustcore bands aspire to sound like Wolfbrigade, and the addition of more metal – along with beefier production values – means Distress circa ’25 sound like a herd of charging rhinos. Under Pressure Of Reality sees gritty trad-crust crashing into bass-grinding metalpunk, and lyrically, it’s all about the struggle; the philosophical and physical challenges of surviving the current epoch. Under Pressure Of Reality isn’t breaking any new ground, but it’ll no doubt appeal to fans of Skitsystem, Warcollapse, and, of course, the aforementioned Wolfbrigade and kin. A rock-solid release all round.

(Selfmadegod Records)

Nullpolitik – S/T

Alas, alack, Nullpolitik are another great-sounding band lost to the trials and tribulations of underground punk. Admittedly, the short-lived Aotearoa New Zealand band split up yonks ago, but it’s still worth mentioning the “lost recording session” that Nullpolitik left behind.

The group’s 10-song, self-titled cassette includes covers of Shitlickers and Totalitär, and if you slap those two bands together, you get a rough enough reference point for Nullpolitik’s sound. Essentially, the band take a spoonful of raw punk and sprinkle it over a helping of d-beat. It’s not a complex or even unique recipe, but Nullpolitik cook things up with plenty of crusty gusto and Japanese noisepunk levels of heat and aggression. Add in gruesome vocals and you’ve got yourself another tasty helping of Southern Hemisphere punk.

Is it sad that Nullpolitik are no more? Not really. As I’ve said a million times before, the death of one rungus New Zealand punk band routinely leads to the birth of another gnarly outfit with much the same lineup – and on it goes, stonk after stonk, gronk after gronk, ad infinitum.

(Razored Raw, Limbless Music)

ICWT Recommends…

My sole motivation for writing this column is to share great music. However, I also like to support other writers (or podcasts, etc.) that I’ve enjoyed, in the spirit of DIY camaraderie. Does that sound a little passé? I don’t know. I’m an old school fool, a simple man with a simple plan. To be honest, I don’t read or listen to a vast range of extreme music commentary because much of it falls outside my orbit of interest – I’m not a fan of metalcore or chest-thumping hardcore, for example. Still, you do you. If you love that stuff, enjoy!

In any case, I will strive to include more writing or pod/vid-chat recommendations in each edition of ICWT. Here are a few to get you started.

My go-to US record store is Raleigh, North Carolina, stalwart Sorry State Records. (Shout-out to staffer Usman for reliably shipping noisy LPs 8,584 miles to my front door. Usman also helms the label Perscription, home to that killer Destruct/Svaveldioxid 7″ mentioned above.) If you haven’t already, you should definitely sign up for Sorry State’s weekly newsletter, which features a host of always-interesting write-ups about brand new and vintage releases, and plenty of great recommendations.

I’m mentioning Sorry State because the store/label’s guv’nor, Daniel Lupton (see also killer hardcore outfit Scarecrow), recently featured as a guest on a great podcast episode from the 185 Miles South crew. Episode 268 counts down the best European hardcore 7” releases from 1981 to 1985. Handily, 185 Miles South put together a playlist of the 7” releases that you can check out on YouTube. The feature-length episode is a deep dive, and while some hardcore fans will obviously have something to say about 185 Miles South and Daniel’s opinions and their choices of what EPs to include or exclude from the final list, that’s also kind of the point.

Episode 268 is meant to spark a good-humoured debate about the music we love. Additionally, the episode presents an excellent opportunity to become more informed about EPs that you (and I) may have never heard of. Here’s the link to the show, enjoy!

Webportal DIY Conspiracy got underway in 2005. Since then, many of the site’s contributors have worked extremely hard to unpack the culture and values of punk rock via scores of reviews, interviews, and in-depth articles. Many of those articles have explored the intricacies of lesser-known scenes, which is a testament to DIY Conspiracy’s commitment to supporting the underdogs rather than following trends or publishing more corporate-friendly content.

Recently, DIY Conspiracy has published a couple of excellent articles. DIY – The Counterforce: Building a DIY Punk Infrastructure Against Corporate Platforms features a conversation with Martin Force about “DIY punk on the web, the Fediverse, DEMO FEST 2025, and keeping hardcore punk out of corporate hands”. You don’t have to agree with all the opinions expressed within, but it’s a great interview covering a wide range of topics that politically-minded punks likely mull over now and then. Super interesting!

Also well worth checking out is Dirty Wombs: Southeast Asia & Japan Tour Report 2025. Dirty Wombs are a Greek hardcore band that draws a lot of inspiration from the ‘Burning Spirits’ style of Japanese hardcore. The group’s tour journal takes in shows/adventures in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Japan. It’s a great article, with plenty of social, cultural, and political reflections within. I’ve visited Japan and I found the country to be fascinating, beautiful, and also packed with contradictions. I was particularly interested in reading Dirty Wombs’ take on the nation. Also, I can confirm that Japan is the Mecca for record nerds. Punk, metal, jazz, whatever you fancy, Japanese record stores will blow your fucking mind.

I’ve sung the praises of Terminal Sound Nuisance enough times to sound like a certified stalker. But no apologies, kid. The blog covers the kind of crust-caked noise I like via engaging write-ups that feature a few wry jokes now and then. Recently, Terminal Sound Nuisance has been running a series entitled Japanese CRUST (compilations) Against the Millennium, which has provided plenty of fun thus far. Even if you’ve already heard the music mentioned, it’s always interesting reading Terminal Sound Nuisance (and MRR) scribe, Romain Basset, detailing releases and providing tidbits of info you’ve likely never thought about before. Nerd-level brilliance, really.

Lastly, it’s always worth noting Analog Attack’s ‘What Are You Listening To?‘ livestreams. If you can’t watch the livestream, all the WAYLT episodes are archived on Analog Attack’s YouTube channel. There is always an entertaining range of guests – from bands, labels, and punk-friendly media outlets – and host, Mike, and co, chat about new releases as well as plenty of obscure gems. Always interesting, What Are You Listening To? frequently brightens my day.

Posted by Craig Hayes

Old man from Aotearoa New Zealand. I write about dadcrust for d-beat dorks, raw punk nerds, and metal dweebs.

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