If you’ve been following my writing endeavors on this site, you’ll probably have noticed that I more or less stopped writing much about screamo around 2020. I’ve drifted back toward the more classic end of the hardcore punk spectrum. I’m not following the “skramz” scene closely enough to tell you whether it’s having some great, new […]

Formed in 2025, Sects is a newer Chicago-based emo band featuring veterans of the Midwestern scene from Welcome to Berlin, Tractor Beam, and 15,000 Guns. Not that I’m familiar with all those bands, but these folks absolutely stole my heart as soon as I hit play on their self-titled demo. Opener “Party at Mo’s House” […]

Harakiri Origami is one of several solo projects run by a musician known simply as Warsaw, operating under the Randori Sounds umbrella. Based in Orlando, Florida, Warsaw has been involved in various extreme music projects since 2023, including Sankaku, Hefeweizen, Mons Meg, and Zetsubo. Since 2025, Harakiri Origami has released four albums, with Lacerations Shaped […]

Last week, I was reading an interview with Montreal’s Noise Not Borders festival on The Counterforce website. I’ve never been to Canada, but I always find it interesting to see how people organize shows, festivals, and DIY spaces in different parts of the world, and Montreal seems to have one of the most vibrant and […]

Okay, here’s another new release that I could use as a perfect opportunity for a little d-beat history lesson. Back in 1989, a bunch of English lads from West Yorkshire formed a band called Disaster with the idea of sounding just like the classic Discharge records, which resulted in their now legendary 1990 demo and […]

Cánidos is a crusty d-beat pack from Tijuana, Mexico, and despite what the title might suggest at first glance, this is not a posthumous release. The band is still active, but until now, their records had only been available digitally. They originally wanted to press their latest EP, El futuro es la extinción, on vinyl, […]