Sychophant

Compared to what was going on downunder 6 years ago, the australian scene hasn't unleashed any new good band in the last couple of years. Just compare the recent "split scene" comp. lp with the "AxHC" comp. 7" that came out 6 years ago and tell me I'm wrong. What's the point of my mumbling? Well, the only band that appeared in both comp., White Male Dumbinance (click here to read their interview I've previously posted) is finally back, after years of silence, with a split ep with england's SFO. Three new brilliant tunes of their uber-heavy powerviolence that alternates perfectly heavy slow parts with blast beats. Seriously, this guys can't do wrong. I know it's an obvious one, but the Arms Reach comparison is stronger than ever. And it's not only that both bands have Luke on vox. Musically WMD sounds like a modern version of Arms Reach. And if that's not enough, did you ever notice that both band respectively released a full ep, a split with an aussie band and one with an english band? 

Sick-Fuckin-O is a new band featuring Lecky of Voorhees. The Infest reference explains perfectly what you should expect from'em. Nothing terrible of course but neither exciting. England hasn't unleashed anything interesting since 1988. Exacly, when everyone stopped playing their own stuff and started to emulate every new trend that came from across the ocean. Love the Poison Idea rip-off insert but c'mon, this ain't enough.

1984-1986

After my recent Terveet Kädet post, let's go back again to fuckin' Tornio, Finland. While this godforsaken polar place is well known for being the hometown of the aforementioned finnish hc institution, this small nordic town has also a well hidden punk secret: Sorto. In their brief period of activity, they proved to be one of the most extreme and noisiest band from the hardcore first generation. What keep me still excited about punk is to discover an obscure band like Sorto: their whole discography consists only in 12 short tracks that fit perfectly a 7"! The first six songs are extremely short and primitive outbursts of what I'd dare to call proto-noisecore. They're taken from their one and only "Aina Valmiina" one sided 7", self-released by the band back in 1986 in the mere quantity of 300 copies and now a sought-after collector item that goes for big bucks. The remaining six tunes are a bit longer and have lots in common with another genre that would have erupted soon from scandinavia: black metal. The guitar sound and the way the riffs are played, the vocals and the monotonous tempos cannot not bring to mind the classic black metal that would have been unleashed from Norway in the next couple of years. Of course Sorto still remains a punk/hc bands, but musically the common points are undeniable. These tracks are from the "Surmattu Unelma" demo that was supposed to be came out as an ep but unfortunately it never happened.

My copy is a repress of Sorto discography ep imaginatively titled "1984-1986". Originally released in 1992 by Ecocentric Records, 10 years ago Power It Up (from Germany, too) decided that this needed to be available again. This is not at all hard to find but it has been on my wantlist for years. It's one of those records that you want but you keep saying to yourself "yeah, I'll get it later" since it's widely available. Glad to finally being able to secure a copy at a record fair.

Here's a great recent interview with Sorto's drummer Altse taken from Not Very Nice 'zine #3 that came out sometimes around '07/'08.