Year: 2025Label: Rebellion Records/Cosmic Key Creations Metal and punk have never had a harmonious coexistence, though they have always cross-pollinated each other. Metalheads have sneered at the crudeness and perceived lack of musicianship in punk, and conversely punks have mocked … Continue reading STORM OF STEEL: Storm Of Steel
Year: 2024Label: Rebellion Records Rebellion Records are really ushering into a new era of crossover as of late – or maybe label owner Wouter is, more like. His band Live By The Sword has been pushing the envelope of how … Continue reading HEATHEN PEACE: Civilisation Ends Here…
Year: 2025Label: Rebellion Records With their third album, US-Dutch Live By The Sword keep on consolidating their sound, and staying away from anything easy to pigeonhole. At this stage, the band exist in a liminal zone between metal and oi!, … Continue reading LIVE BY THE SWORD: The Pagan Pantheon
Year: 2025Label: self-released No, this isn’t the Italian cult metal band Bulldozer nor any of the other numerous bands of the same name, nor Spanish Bulldozer BCN – this is The Bulldozer from Finland. As far as I can tell, … Continue reading THE BULLDOZER: Battle Scars
As most of you probably realize by now, 2024 is over and we’ve entered 2025. For those of you who haven’t, consider this a public service announcement. Anyhow, let’s take a look at some of the noteworthy releases of last … Continue reading A year in summation: 2024
Year: 2024Label: Hell’s Tone Records Has it really been two years already? It doesn’t seem like such a long time since Finnish Laki & Järjestys last released something – but, indeed, their debut album Uusi aika was released in 2022. … Continue reading LAKI & JÄRJESTYS: Ei katumusta
Release year: 2024Label: Young Guns II Now, this here release is a prime example of the reasons why I love punk, the grassroots scene and the DIY ethos. I mean, how awesome isn’t the story of how this release came … Continue reading ROACHENDERS: Roachenders
Release year: 2024Label: Randale Records/Pirates Press Records/Captain Oi!/Cherry Red Records And here, for one final time, is Cock Sparrer. If you listen to punk or oi!, you’ve no excuse not to know who these guys are. Formed way back in … Continue reading COCK SPARRER: Hand On Heart
BURDEN: Scorched Earth Release year: 2023Label: Rock ‘n’ Roll Disgrace/Rebellion Records Tough guy hardcore is a term familiar to anyone into the harder edge of punk music. You know, bands from New York or some such singing about the reality … Continue reading Scorched earth burden
HATS & CAPS/EASTSIDE DOGS: Split Release year: 2023Label: KB Records Split releases can be annoying things. At the best of time, you receive almost an album’s worth of material not by one, but two bands. Then, a split release certainly … Continue reading Of hats, caps and dogs
Only Death Is Real 