Back catalogue: Punk/Hardcore

Review: It would take the current state of the world to awaken seasoned Boston based hardcore punk veterans The Hope Conspiracy from their slumber. The aptly titled Confusion/Chaos/Misery serves as the first piece of new material from the group since their 2009 True Nihilist EP, and offers a feral barrage of unhinged, D-beat inspired scathing hardcore fury. Whilst the members have kept busy in a myriad of equally impressive projects such as All Pigs Must Die, Hesitation Wounds, and Paint It Black (to name but a small handful), time felt fitting for them to regroup with Converge's Kurt Ballou at the iconic God City Studios to lay down this sonic curbstomp of a return, complete with a vicious cover of 'Dogfight' by Swedish crust-punk legends Anti Cimex as closer. And according to the band's website/press release - "this is just the beginning..."

Review: Out of print for years, The Prowler, the first ever EP by pop punk stalwarts Horror Section, returns under the aegis of the label Eccentric Pop for one last Halloween season. Pressed for the first time on opaque red (/250) and black (/250) vinyl, the album is an emotive blend of horro r- and pop - variants of the band's genre of choice, more than anything flaunting the infectiously low drawl of lead vocalist Tommy Boyer, amid massive grungey guitar propulsions by the Nick Habit and Teflon Dave. The five tracks are like creepy skeletons in closets, each popping out at the listener like emotive ghosts.

Review: Borrowing a title from a 50ft sport climbing route in Oliana, Spain, there's definitely something big and wonderfully overbearing about the debut offering from Hot Face. Freshly pressed onto London's revered and always-forward thinking Speedy Wunderground imprint, the work here more than lives up to the label's name, going at listeners with pedal to the metal for the most. Comprising two tracks, an original and 'dub', the opener nods to the likes of King Gizzard and other sprawling, epic prog-metal-psyche outfits, offering up huge guitar solos and switching tempos with cunning, guile and groove. Flip it to find the alternative take, which ups the impact of drums, taking us closer to dance music as it's more widely recognised, and the heyday of big beat, if anyone remembers that one?

Review: Here come the Wirral's finest, Half Man Half Biscuit, with their 15th album of offbeat post punk. The track names alone are worth a celebration, not least 'I'm Getting Buried In The Morning', but of course it's the rabble-rousing tunes themselves we're here for. This is the first album since their regular home of Probe Plus shut its doors, but one suspects a simple label change won't have derailed Merseyside's finest from their pursuit of sardonic, sharp as a tack anthems for the disenfranchised and disassociated.

Review: Made up of seasoned veterans of the Washington D.C. scene, and fronted by Chris MacKaye (younger brother of Fugazi and Minor Threat mastermind, Ian, as well as the bowed head that adorns the latter's iconic album cover), Hammered Hulls are set to unveil their highly anticipated debut full-length, 'Careening'. Released through legendary MacKaye founded label, Dischord; the project is likely to be the final work recorded and mixed at famed studio, Inner Ear, which shut down at the end of last year. Engineered by studio owner Don Zientara, produced by Ian MacKaye, and sporting an overwhelming essay of praise from Rites Of Spring and Fugazi alumni, Guy Picciotto; it's hard to shake the sense of the punk stars aligning to offer a unique, timely project crafted by the hands that laid the integral foundations over four decades ago.

Review: The 'Fake Blood' that courses through our veins is bleeding us out from the inside, and HAM are here to let us know. An angst-ridden pop punk opus for the modern era, the band first released Heart Attack Man in 2019, and it now hears a reissue via Triple Crown. Their second album, it's a melodic 11-tracker of highly-strung gut-punches and punky teenage upset, crafted to convey a state of discontent towards society at large. Though the first sounds mired in negativity, the message by the end is heartwarming, encouraging the listener to take baby steps to mitigate negative sources from their lives; leeches, anyone?

Review: While influencing a massive array of modern emo, pop-punk and indie-rock outfits, Hot Water Music have made it abundantly clear that they don't feel the need to go home just yet.

Their latest, sad times lamenting opus, 'Feel The Void', sees the group recording for the first time with latest addition Chris Cresswell (The Flatliners), who stepped into the band initially for live settings upon Chris Wollard taking a sabbatical for mental health reasons.

Now, for the first time since 2004's 'The New What Next', the band have opted to work with producer Brian McTiernan, arguably responsible for the three best albums to come from HWM during their 'glory days'.

Beyond a return to form, everything from the anthemic 'Hearts Stay Full' to the muted crawl of 'Ride High', screams of a seasoned group of artists with so much more to say. While often replicated, 'Feel The Void' outsads, outfeels and outriffs any would be imitators, and only further cements a status that really was in no need of maintenance.

Review: A split release more than two decades in the making, and divided by life priorities, pressing delays and the literal expanse of the Atlantic Ocean; America's Huntingtons and Netherlands' Travoltas reunite after touring together in the Autumn of the new millennium to craft a long-planned, endlessly playful batch of pop-punk stompers. Debuting a brand-new cut a piece, as well as covering two of each other's older tracks, and rounding things out with renditions of favourite oldies, both groups have overcome the odds of truly, Rock'n'Roll Universal International Problems, to finally deliver a project approached with nothing more on its mind than the joy of collaboration.