Sprainer released their debut seven song EP and these guys are hailing from Peterborough, UK. This little EP and songs on it contain everything I love about this music. It contains tight musicianship and mixture of catchy pop punk with harshness of melodic hardcore influences and also skate punk in many song structures. Lyrics are smartly written and deal with every day themes like loneliness, searching and striving for more, ethics, morality and knowing when to depart if necessary. Music is faster and uplifting, like late nineties and early 2000s pop punk/melodic punk influenced bands with great vocals, voice that stays in your mind and ear long time after listening to this little record. My personal favorites are: ‘Cut Thumbs’, ‘Tentacles’ and ‘I Hate My Job’. Good melodic record by good band.
Ach, South America, land of vast underground scene and HCG are from Brazilian hardcore punk scene and I am really glad that I discovered this band. This came out a while ago, but it is good, and there is never too late for great music isn’t it? This one contains five songs of angry fast hardcore punk with blistering drumming, raw guitars and thundering angry vocals with lyrics in Portuguese language. The music of HCG reminded me a lot of old school California hardcore punk bands like Circle Jerks, early Suicidal Tendencies, TSOL, even Verbal Abuse or RKL. This is superb hardcore punk energy, the only thing is that it passes too soon and makes you wish for more. I love the use of samples in some songs, that is always great in my opinion. My personal favorite is ‘Inimigos Camuflados’, but all songs make you wanna spin the record one or couple of more times. Great!
No Option are US hardcore band and this is their new release containing four songs . What to expect here? This is hardcore like I used to listen when I was growing up to. Street smart influences and atmosphere and something we used to call new school back in the nineties, being metallic hardcore with lots of changes in tempo, breakdowns but also straightforward punk influenced song parts. Vocals are angry and screaming with occasional excursion into clean singing waters. Of all these four songs somehow my favorites are ‘302’ and the title song. This is hardcore that you feel energy when you are listening to, so that means good hardcore little record. Hope for more music by this band in the near future.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 