Anarchy Rating

All reviews are scored out of a total of five Anarchy symbol's. A score of three is given to something that is a typical example of its style with nothing too outstanding or bad about it.

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Austerity – Anarcho Punk Dance Party LP

Austerity - Anarcho Punk Dance Party CD coverAusterity
Brighton, UK

It appears that this band have been around for a while but this is the first I’ve heard of them (unusual for me for a band from Brighton). Still, this is a nice intro to what they’re about.

The band place themselves at least in part in the post-punk box. Yeah, I can […]

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Kontakta – Life In A Cage EP

Kontakta - Life In A Cage coverKontakta
Southampton, UK

Kontakta’s third release follows very much in the mould of their first two. It’s frantic traditional anarcho-punk with the obligatory angry voice shouting across the top of it. Lyrics are a bit tired and don’t really say anything new (in fact, the song about the animal testing of cosmetics is about 20 years behind the […]

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Löckheed – 4 Track Demo

Löckheed – 4 Track Demo coverLöckheed
Santa Rosa, California, USA

Now this is the right way to introduce yourself to the world of online noise. Löckheed take a solid D-beat sound, throw in a bit of crusty crasherness for good measure, and churn out something chunkier that a jumper knitted by your nan. And, like a good nan jumper, it’s both comfortable and a bit […]

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Bombardement – Bombardement LP

Bombardement coverBombardement
Bordeaux, France

This isn’t just D-beat, this is ‘Hear Nothing…’-era Discharge worship with bells on. Switch out Cal for their vocalist, close your eyes, and you could easily be back in Stoke in 1982. Thankfully, you can listen to this and not have to go to Stoke or back to 1982.

If you’re going to do the D-beat thing, this is […]

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VA – Terminal Decay LP / Artcore Fanzine #29

AKA ‘Artcore Vinyl Fanzine Volume Five’. Punk rock fixture ‘n’ fitting Welly is back with yet another broadside in his war against mediocrity in the zine scene. And he’s a veteran in every sense – this is issue #29 of the exceptional ‘Artcore‘, an organ that he’s been thrusting into the hands of grateful punks since 1986. But with the printed word becoming harder to sell to the internet masses, Welly’s risen to the challenge and occasionally produces a vinyl fanzine to bring something a bit different to the […]

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Anthrax – One Last Drop 7″

Anthrax cover

Click for larger image

No, not that one, the proper one.

This is a limited vinyl pressing (300, each numbered) of their first new studio tracks in 25 years, originally released on MCD in 2009. The band have put this out to raise money for Bradford’s legendary ‘1 in 12 Club‘, who are facing large bills for essential safety work on their building.

Which means the first thing you’ll get […]

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Opposition Rising – Aftermathematics LP

Opposition Rising posterThis is the first vinyl release from the rapidly-expanding Riot Ska Records collective (among others), and it’s a great start for them.

Opposition Rising hail from Boston and band members have been heavily involved with the scene for many years. Their diverse tastes are reflected in the sound they’ve produced here, a pleasant cocktail of sharp old-school hardcore and dismetal with touches of what is probably best described as ska-crust. The production job is crisp […]

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Misery – From Where The Sun Never Shines DL

Misery - FWTSNS coverBack with a bang after too many years, heavy crusters Misery return to show the young pups how it’s done.

Embracing the new audio world order, this is a download-only release. But that doesn’t mean getting lumbered with crappy bitrate mp3s. No, this one’s available in full studio glory FLAC. Burn it to CD and you’ve got exactly the same thing the boys heard at the mixdown.

And this really needs to be […]

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Amebix – Knights Of The Black Sun 12″

Amebix - Knights of the Black Sun sleeve

My oh my. This truly is a work of art, from the outside in.

Let’s start with the sleeve. Ethereal tones of grey and blue swirl through each other to suggest a sense of freedom in what first appears to be a very foreboding landscape confined by the blackest of shadows. Immerse yourself in it for a minute and you’ll see the shafts of […]

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Burnt Cross – Break The Law Not The Poor 7″

Burnt-Cross-Break-The-Law...-cover
The brothers Marriot show no let up in their output as yet another explosive blast of full-blooded anarcho-punk is committed to vinyl. This time round, they’re busy calling out murdering bastard cops for the scum they are and suggesting a suitable riposte with their stripped-down and powered-up reworking of The Apostles’ ‘Mob Violence’, a venom-filled verbal assault on the rich and their lackey police (and which, along with Conflict’s ‘The Ungovernable Force’, rates as my all-time joint-favourite […]

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