Punk | Hardcore 228 Items

For more than two decades, Anberlin has remained a formidable force in the alt-rock world, boasting a wildly devoted fanbase who’ve come to rely on the raw, cathartic power of their music. On the massively anticipated Vega—the first album in ten years from vocalist Stephen Christian, guitarists Joseph Milligan and Christian McAlhaney, bassist Deon Rexroat, and drummer Nathan Young—the Florida-bred band delivers a body of work forged with an explosive, new energy, thanks in part to the addition of singer Matty Mullins (the Memphis MAY Fire frontman who’s stepped in as live vocalist for Anberlin, following Christian’s announcement that he’ll no longer tour fulltime). The latest triumph in an extraordinary career that’s included selling over 1.5 million albums in the U.S. alone and turning out hits like the No. 1 Alternative Radio smash “Feel Good Drag,” Vega reveals a band whose creative passion and one-of-a-kind vision have only grown stronger over time. Arriving on the heels of two back-to-back EPs— 2022’s Silverline and 2023’s Convinced—Vega emerged from a period of unbridled creativity for Anberlin, who parted ways soon after 2014’s Lowborn and reunited for a series of lockdown-era livestreams. In bringing their new album to life, the band embraced a deliberately free-flowing and DIY approach, building up songs in McAlhaney’s garage before self-producing the LP at Tampa’s Feral Sound Studios. “In the past we’d sometimes limit our sound to some preconceived idea of what Anberlin is supposed to be,” says McAlhaney. “This time the mantra was, ‘If it feels good, let’s try it.’ Because at the end of the day, Anberlin is whatever we say it is.” As a result, Vega encompasses everything from the shout-along-ready pop perfection of “Walk Alone” to the brutally heavy intensity of “Seven” (a shapeshifting and strangely enthralling epic featuring a savage vocal performance from Mullins). “I think after spending time apart we came back with a new perspective, where we were all just excited to work together and create the best songs we can,” says Young. “No one was precious about their ideas; it was all about making something that feels new and risky and like nothing we’ve ever done before.” As they get set to embark on the “20 Years Of Tears” amphitheater tour with Thursday, Hawthorne Heights, and SAOSIN—a 56- date run that marks their most extensive tour in a decade—Anberlin looks forward to the pure thrill of performing their new material for their longtime legion of fans. “We’ve had so many people tell us things like, ‘Your songs got me through a really difficult time in my life,’ or ‘You guys are what made me pick up a guitar and start my own band,’” says Rexroat. “It’s an incredible feeling to know that we’ve impacted other people on that level—the amount of love we’ve felt is undeniable, and it’s one of the main reasons we’ve kept going for as long we have.”

THE Drin forge further into their own captivating world of sound on their fourth album, Elude the Torch. Since 2021, the Cincinnati group has released one strikingly original album per year, crawling closer to the aether with a driving, reverberated rhythm. The Drin's current sextet lineup is at a new height—loose, yet focused and commanding. Deep layers of saxophone, synthesizer, percussion, strings and opaque environments stir with flickering emotion across Elude the Torch, while D MCCARTNEY's nebulous verbiage and grim auguries paint landscapes within the rock ‘n roll murk.

CPC Gangbangs arose from the ashes of garage punk architects LES Sexareenos, Daylight Lovers and Spaceshits. These two tracks are part of the last batch of recordings from the scrapped final LP

Fucked Up"s now classic 2008 album The Chemistry Of Common Life synthesizes numerous diverse impulses into an expansive epic about the mysteries of birth, death, and the origins of life (and re-living). Merging elements of hardcore songwriting with up to 70 tracks of guitars, organs, winds and vocals, (including 18 guitars on the first single, the fatalistic "No Epiphany"), the music remains iconoclastic and startling, with Pink Eyes" vocals front and center. Guest musicians, of course, abound, notably gorgeous voices such as Brooklyn"s Vivian Girls and Toronto"s Katie Stelmanis.

This LP is a collection of songs released on various EP and split records. France’s Syndrome 81 started gaining momentum in the punk scene with their 2013 demo tape, drawing comparisons to the plethora of great bands that defined the French Oi sound of the 1980s with a heavy stomp culled from classic Ushc. The band has progressed since then, and the sound is more diverse but also more defined, having filed off some of the American influences and moved in a darker, distinctly French direction that is both melancholy and anthemic, with lyrics being influenced by growing up in Brest, France. The band comes from this dark place and write songs about their personal struggles growing up and growing old. These are songs about watching your friends lose sight and move on while you question why you are still here, haunted by your past and having to look your former self in the eye while you apologize for who you’ve become. These are songs about trudging through a desert you built yourself. 18 songs in all.

180 gram vinyl

From their self-released 1993 demo tape through to the present day, the Templars have repeatedly established and re-established the high water mark for American OI! for three decades running, and 1998’s Omne Datum Optimum is a landmark record in the band’s genre-defining discography. Originally released in 1998 on Anti-Heros frontman Mark NOAH’s GMM Records, the Templars somewhat controversially eschewed their signature home recording set up in favor of a professional studio on Omne Datum Optimum. Co-produced by Noah and Jeff Bakos at Bakos Amp Works in Atlanta, GA, the album’s cleaner sound proved divisive among fans at the time of its release. Luckily, time has proven the band’s intuition correct, with the record gaining a well-deserved cult status over the years. Despite the higher audio fidelity, there are no dulled edges and no pulled punches here—the Templars’ signature Street Rock n' Roll sound is fully intact and as potent as ever. As tuneful as it is hard, Omne Datum Optimum is bursting with the intricate bass melodies, soaring leads, Working Class swagger, and thoughtful songwriting that set the Templars apart from their peers. The current renewed interest in Oi! music makes a proper reissue of this 25-year-old classic a no-brainer, and the unexpected but welcome cultural cachet of the form means that it’s more likely than ever to get its proper due. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s apparent that Omne Datum Optimum is not only a great record, but arguably both one of the Templars’ best, and a defining work of the genre. Sporting reworked cover art and our tried and true attention to detail, TKO is proud to bring Omne Datum Optimum to vinyl for the first time since its initial 1998 release.

Popeye was an established fixture in Southern California, both personally and creatively, as the former frontman for melodic hardcore greats Farside. There was little in his routine to suggest at that point that Popeye’s life was headed for any sort of major change. It felt like an ideal life, in fact, until it didn’t. “It was very solitary, and I guess I was OK with that—or at least I told myself that I was OK with that—until I met the woman who is now my wife,” he explains. “That absolutely changed everything.” At the tail end of 2021, Popeye (Farside) uprooted his entire life to move across the country to the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he would eventually come to meet the rest of his new band Calling Hours: guitarists Thomas McGrath (the Commercials) and Tony Bavaria (the Commercials), bassist Garrett Rothman (don’t Sleep), and drummer Jim Bedorf (don’t Sleep). For Brian McTernan, a celebrated producer with a nearly 30-year history of shaping some of the biggest hardcore records of all time—including albums for HOT Water Music, Turnstile, Circa Survive, and THRICE—advancing Calling Hours from the idea stage to the recording stage was personal: “Popeye is one of his favorite singers of all time,” Rothman explains. “He told me he named one of his cats after Popeye.” The outcome of that collaboration is Say Less, a seven-song record for Revelation Records that revisits the band members’ melodic, post-punk sensibilities while working in a decidedly contemporary direction. It’s also a deep dive into the feelings of displacement and discomfort that punctuated Popeye’s move—a meditation on the intersection of sense of place and sense of self

Speak Out, originally released in 1988, has been remastered, pressed on color vinyl, and includes a bonus, full-color, 40-page booklet curated by the band, and has been returned to it’s original gatefold layout with an added embossing on the cover.

'Horny Tears From Hell' combines a fusion of sounds from ominous genres that collide together in a dark, hauntingly endearing manner. Hard rock escalating electrocuted riffs slide you back onto your childhood sofa, Guitar-Hero guitar resting on your chest as you hear your pal play 'Through The Fire And Flames' on expert difficulty. Doomy metal aesthetics avalanche you into sweaty, hilariously middle-aged death pits at your local black facaded headbanger joint. Setting up camp in O'tool Studio just outside of Berlin, Wax Legs bugged out to create something that seeks musical integrity. Keeping some natural amp hums and hisses whilst adding eerie noises from worlds we don't want to find.

“I somehow missed that the Chicago hardcore punks C.H.E.W. broke up, but if we get Stress Positions out of the deal, I ain't mad about it. Stephanie Brooks now fronts the ex-C.H.E.W. dudes, but it's not a cut and paste job—where C.H.E.W. relied on speed and swagger, Stress Positions wide-screens the pit's psychedelic vista. There's a little more metal riffage and mid-tempo tension to maximize the intensity so that, once the band revs to hallucinatory level, the impact is devastating.”—Lars Gotrich

Originally released in 1983, SUB is the most iconic Brazilian punk compilation ever. It's the first official recording of Ratos de Porao, and the only studio recording of Psykoze and Fogo Cruzado in the 80s. It features the most famous and classic songs from Cólera, who will be touring Europe again in August 2023. Remastered from the original master tapes at the legendary El Rocha studios in Sao Paulo.It has 4 bonus tracks from the pre-recording, comes with a rare poster, an insert with lyrics, and a great new text written by Pedro Carvalho. This is the first time SUB is being released in Europe.SUB is the most classic Brazilian punk compilation, recorded between 1982 and 1983. It was conceived and brought to fruition by Redson, the guitarist and vocalist of Cólera, who is considered one of the key figures in South American punk. Besides Co?lera, Redson invited Fogo Cruzado, Ratos de Pora?o and Psyko?ze, three of the most promising and active unrecorded bands at the time. If Co?lera was the most experienced band in the scene at the time, Fogo Cruzado had already left its mark as one of the best, if not the best in terms of skill and stage presence. Similarly, Ratos de Pora?o and Psyko?ze on the other hand were younger and had fed on the new ways of punk from the get-go. Even though the Grito Suburbano bands had initiated the evolution towards hardcore a year before, SUB brought to the scene even higher levels of belligerence and speed.Just like how other international scenes documented the rise of punk with Flex Your Head in the US, Propaganda - Russia Bombs Finland in Finland, Punk and Disorderly in the UK, Outsider in Japan and many others in several countries during 1982, the idea was to record the growth of Brazil's punk scene. The title chosen for Brazil's second punk comp was SUB, which used part of the idea for Co?lera's aborted debut album and alluded to Sa?o Paulo's literal (working class) suburbs, as well as its proverbial "subterranean" underground - punk's natural habitat...

Two punk inspired pop nuggets about having a good time. Track A inspired by the pandemic and track B Inspired by Jonathan Richman. New Nashville punk outfit led by Dublin-born songwriter Stefan Murphy who toured extensively & released records under the moniker The Mighty Stef. The Sleeveens are comprised Ryan Sweeney (Cheap Time / Hans Condor / Sweet Time Records) on drums, Eli Steele of Sweet Knives on guitar, and Jamie Mechan on bass. Mechan also engineered & produced the record at his 302 Sounds studio in Mt Juliet, TN.

Cran from Paris, France who you may have heard on the Paris on Oi! 12" compilation are releasing their debut LP 'Natë' on the amazing Uvpr label who had previously released their 7" EP. The Cran album: punk, melodies, big choirs, dark, deep lyrics. Lots of good songs, nice evolution.

Roman classic punk rock in the '77 vein, reminding of Giuda, Idol Lips, Taxi, Silver Cocks and DISSUADERS.

Reissue of their 1997 Lookout album, remastered by Mass Giorgini, including gorgeous new artwork by Tom Neely! On moonlight white vinyl, including poster insert and download code. A must for all Ramones fans!

Formed in 2023 from members of Time FOR Living (Rivalry Records), US Roughnecks (Hellcat/Epitaph Records), Five Victims Four Graves (New Age Records), Original State, Cold Trap and more, Worst Ways is bringing a fresh entry in the fast melodic-hardcore scene. Anchored by unrelenting energy, the band combines blistering intensity with melodic depth, creating a dynamic mix of sound that has surprising range.

Their debut, self-titled LP showcases Worst Ways’s ability to blend rapid- fire rhythms with introspective lyrics, bouncy grooves, and big melodies, all

interspersed throughout the record. Standout tracks like “Shattered,” with a guest vocal from Marshall Lichtenwaldt of THE Warriors (Pure Noise Records), and “White Horses” highlight their ability to merge intensity with thought-provoking themes, while “Never Know” and “Fade” hold down that speed and heavy end of the spectrum.