Dead Stop

Dead Stop is a hardcore band from Belgium. The band started in 2002 bringing their oldschool sound havoc around the shows in Europe and USA. They were influenced by the oldschool hardcore bands like Negative Approach (maybe they took their name by their song, but don't know for sure), Minor Threat, Antidote. After the Demo, they released a ST in 2002, followed by their two LP's in 2004 "Done with you" and 2005 "Live for nothing". They did their last show in 2006 in Belgium and fell apart. Their sound is reminding me of 86 Mentality with more energy and just sincere and pure aggression with fast and furious riffs, just the way i like it. So give these guys a chance and enjoy.

http://www.myspace.com/deadstop

Video:
Dead Stop - Kiss my ass

Discography:
Demo
ST [2002]
Done With You [2004]
Live for nothing [2005]

Crux

Crux is an Oi! band from England. Formed back in the 1978, but didn't began serious work until the 80's and their EP "Keep on Running". They also appeared on the compilation "Oi Oi That's Yer Lot". Their songs were dealing the working class, sick and tired of listening to "disco shit", wanted to bring all their fury and passion of the streets to the frustrated working class youth of the British 80's. I'm bringin' you their collection of songs made after the band splited. The band actually did a few shows in the late 00's, don't know if their back for serious, we'll see. Enjoy this classic band.

Video:
Crux - C.L.A

Discography:
The Oi! Collection

Reflections of internal rain

ROIR is a neocrust screamo hardcore band from Novi Sad, Serbia. I will let them do a small intro: "It all started at the end of 2004 in Novi Sad. The goal was to run away from the every day worn out things and times in which we had entered. Ivan (guitar, vocal), Petar (guitar) and Aleksandar (drums) are in the band from the very beginning. Later on, Dusko gets lead vocal part and Nikola (Ground Zero) joined on bass line. Songs are about experiencing the present days, loosing close people, personal feelings, jealousness, envy, vain..". They are inspired by bands like Tragedy, His Hero Is Gone, From Ashes Rise, Ictus, Ekkaia, Catharsis etc. Unfortunetly the band has only one album "Last Flood" in 2009, but i heard that an EP is on the way, and will soon be released. I'm usually not into this kind of music, but this is definetly worth listening, it's been poisoning my ears for the last week, and not only that, the band is coming to Zagreb in 2 weeks from now. Enjoy.

http://www.myspace.com/reflectionsofinternalrain

Video:
Reflections Of Internal Rain - Resurrection

Discography:
Last Flood [2009]
Answers [2011]

Viande Rouge

Viande Rouge or "Red Meat" is a RASH Oi! band from France. Don't know much about the band, beacuse there is very little on the internet or on their website (which hasn't been updated for a while). The band was formed in the late 00's. They released one 5 track demo, and a few days ago I found their studio rehearsal sample with 10 songs, so maybe the band is coming with new stuff in the close future. They have some image like a terrorist group (don't ask me why, maybe extreme antifascism?), but hey, they at least play good oi music, ofcourse they're French. One more interesting thing to say is that they have a saxophone and 2 vocals. Enjoy.

http://viande-rouge.cyberspider.info/#

Video:
Viande Rouge - Sous contrôle des travailleurs

Discography:
Demo
Viande Rouge (rehearsal)

Azione Diretta

Azione Diretta is an Oi! band from Perugia, Italy. They are a young band on the Italian Oi! scene. Their name is inspired by the anarchist slogan\political view of "Direct Action", so they are an antifascist band. Lyrics are dealing ofcourse the working class, football topics and higher ideals worth fighting for. They got only one release "Rabbia" in 2007. Haven't heard from this band a long time, so i hope they are still playing and will come with some new songs in the near future. Enjoy.

http://www.myspace.com/azionediretta

Video:
Azione Diretta - Rabbia

Discography:
Rabbia [2007]

Zartako

Zartako. What to say about a band like this one? Well they were formed in 2002. in Bilbao. Bilbao? Yep, they are one of those bands in Spain, that are proud of their Basque roots. So they are Euskal Herria\Basque rather than Spanish. Their sound? Well, this is a though and easy question at the same time. These guys are playing a fusion of NYHC (influenced by Blood for Blood, Madball, Warzone) and furious brutal Oi!, just like the ones that are made in Spain. Their political view is militant antifascism, these are not some schoolboys or internet blabbermouths. I got a chance to hear them live in Paris on the Baricatta festial. The rage they express in their songs, is beyond realistic, energy is bursting through your skin, feelin' like your gonna explode. Discography? Their first album was in 2005 "Ohorea Eta Harrotasuna", after that their "famous" "Sangre por Sangre" in 2009, finally a live album in 2010 "Primero Nostros" and one song that is waiting for a new album "Valetudo". Their songs are mostly dealing with antifascist lyrics (oppression, hatred, class struggle). Their whole album (and the song) "Sangre por sangre" is dedicated to all the victims of fascism especially to Carlos Palomino, a stabbed young teenager that died in Madrid from the hands of a fascist. Enjoy the brutality of Zartako.

http://www.myspace.com/zartako

Video:
Zartako\Baricatta fest - Txotas, En las barricadas, Cazador Cazado, Omerta

Discography:
Ohorea Eta Harrotasuna [2005]
Sangre Por Sangre [2009]
Primero Nosotros [2011]
Valetudo

The Burial

The Burial were an Oi! band from Yorkshire, England. Their sound was a mixture of Oi! incorporated with ska, northern soul and folk music. They were one of the first skinhead bands playing ska music, formed in 1981, in the skinhead revival years with the birth of the punk movement. They wanted to express the true nature of skinheads the apolitical one, strongly supported by their working class roots. Although they were apolitical by their music, their personal feelings were always with the working class, always supporting the Unions, Strikes and revloutionary socialist groups like Red Action in Britain. I would like to express their words with few quotations rather than blabing.

"I come from an iron ore mining village near Middlesbrough and a strong trade union background. A lot of my family were original skins and to us Skinhead was a working class movement and fascism is totally opposed to that. The strong grounding in working class politics has given Northern Skins an abhorrence of the National Front that London skins never had."
-Barnes, the brains of the band

Their first sound was more light with major ska influences, while after the years passed by, they were sounding more streetlike Oi!. They released only one album done in 1988, "A Day on the Town" and appeard on various compilations like Oi! the Demos, The Sound of Oi!, Oi! the Sex and Oi! Glorious Oi!. They also assisted the anarchist rant-poet Nick Toczek on various projects under the name Britanarchists. The band splited in 1988. The Burial were one of those groups that showed and kept the true core\spirit of skinhead (sub)culture alive. The skinhead movement has nothing to do with fascism.

"I’ve got short hair doesn’t mean I’m a frigging Nazi. Don’t mean I’m a Commie either."
-Guitarist Chris

Video:
The Burial tribute

Discography:
A Day on the Town [1988]
Other recordings

86 Mentality

86 Mentality is a Washington DC hardcore band. Formed in the 00's under the influence of US hardcore bands of the 80's like SOA (they covered their song Gonna hafta fight), NA, Last Rights, Youth Brigade, Iron Cross and Oi! bands like the 4 Skins, Blitz (also covering their songs) etc.. Their sound is a mixture of the earlier mentioned influences with an angry, fast and raw sound. Lyricly the band is dealing with mostly street life topics. One extra song i would mention is "Blood Red Violence" written for all who fight against fascism on the scene. Their first release was an ST in 2004, then two more LP's "Goin' Nowhere Fast" in 2005, and "Final Exit" in 2008. Unfortunetly the band disbanded and had their last show in 2008. A shame, one of my favourite bands, because of the unique mixture of Oi! style with Hardcore furious sound.

Video:
86 Mentality - Intro\Life trap, Terror Boys

Discography:
ST [2004]
Goin' Nowhere Fast [2005]
Final Exit [2008]

Void

Void was a DC based band from the suburbs of Columbia, Maryland which was close to Washington so they got labeled in circle of DC emerged oldscholl 80's hardcore bands. They were formed in 1979. and their first released appearance was on a Dischord compilation "Flex your head" with three songs, after that they recorded split in 1982 with Faith (also a DC hardcore band). Following then their "Potion For Bad Dreams" in 1983 which has a more metal sound and was actually unrealesead because it was denied by the guitarist Dupree (don't know excatly why?). After the band split up beacuse of the very violent crowd that was following them on their shows and the bad reputation they splited in the fall of 1983. In 1992 their early demotape "Condensed Flesh" was released. Along the violence on the shows the band was also very well known for their specific sound merging hardcore punk with heavy metal reefs created due to their guitarist and along with the chaotic voice and performance of the singer the band made mayhem everywhere they played. If you like oldschool hc then this is a jackpot. Enjoy.

http://www.myspace.com/voidhardcore

Video:
Void - My Rules

Discography:
Condensed Flesh [1981]
Faith Void - Split [1982]
Potion For Bad Dreams [1984]

Home Ain't Never Home 02.03.

Curiosity? a powerfull tool. When i began listening to punk i never really had much interests in hardcore music. Maybe because i couldn't relate to it? but the truth is i never really new what it was (like). I was always open minded to music, always tried to not judge some style beacuse it is an way of expression and every style has it's own artistic values so it should be listened that way not in an musicallycentred direction. Not just talkin' about punk styles, the blues, jazz, folk\country, rock (r)evolution, reggae, electronic, hip hop. etc. every with it's own values, rituals, the culture it cherishes, creativity, diversities and crossovers it creates and a way of life which promotes in between the dominant\popular culture. So i began to be interested and listening to hardcore more and more. Well it punched me right from the start, i liked it agressiveness and honesty, it was also faster which was another +, because i was getting bored from the slow music. "Turnover"? At one point that now seems like a distant past i was completly focused with it, it ran me over, but i never really liked the overnight tranfromations, everything doesn't happen overnight it takes time before you can decide is this just a current fab or something you will be commited to with all honesty through years to come. So i took it slowly and we will se what the future holds.

It was a cold and snowy wednesday day in Zagreb, on the day we took a van and were heading to Vienna (Austria) for a hardcore gig. At the start we had problems with the rented wehicle as the front light didn't work (Dubrava), so we had to fix it, because of the problems we could have get on the border. This is the second time being very sobber in Vienna, as i didn't have much money, but the guys were more than solidary so i had a few beers on the way there and at the concert. I was excited because i didn't know what to expect, i never was on a show like this, Croatian hardcore gigs can't be a comparison, especially not without a band like this one on stage that is going to play tonight. It was a different world to me, so i had to adapt. We started our trip very late, so we got there just in time for the first band to play.

The first band was Austrian Charly Bone, i played them one time on my stereo just to hear them out, but they didn't make a very good impression on me. Similar was on stage, we were 20 minutes on the band, but nothing special. I don't like to miss out bands especially if i travel somewhere, than i would prefer to hear them out even though i ain't that keen on the band. This was a different situation as we spent the minutes waiting for the main band chatting or in my case passive chatting. Also on the second band the Australian metalcore\hardcore Carpathian. I knew the band but i never really "chewed" them out as only a few songs got to my ears while listening to them at home.
And after them, the main band came on the stage, the band most of us came just to hear. The Massachusetts Defeater which i don't think needs to be introduced. "Waiting to explode when the song is played", on my disappointment the vocal was the only person on the stage with an acoustic guitar with the lovely song from the new album "I'don't mind". I ain't such a big fan of an acoustic guitar in punk\hardcore music so this wasn't my cup of tea, but i decided to melt with the crowd and played along my part in the expressionist crowd. But certainly this was a good intro, as the whole band came to the stage i didn't thought the song after this will be an explosion on the start, as they played their famous "The Red, White and Blues" which i tought would be at the end, but certainly a good shock. The crowd was erupting. Then after "Dear Father" , "Blessed Burden" with stage dives which some ended with their heads on floor. As i can recall the next one was one of my favourite "The bite and sting", so they wasted my favourite on the start. But nevertheless there was still good songs to be played. They played their new song "Empty Glass", then "Home Ain't Never Home", "A Wound and Scar" and i think "Singin' New York Town" from the Lost Ground EP. I think i left some or one song from the Travels album, but the last was "Cowardice", until they came on the bis, and played "Prophet In Plain Clothes" and thanked the Verse for this (don't know exactly the connection), with the acoustic on the end and singin'-a-long. That was the show from the "Humble guys from Boston, Massachusetts".

After the concert the guys grabbed a few beers (well it was only midnight when the concert finished), which was a normal thing to do, only not to our sxe who wanted desperately to go home (couldn't blame him). I was dying of a wish just to join them, but because the lack of money i decided to drive home not to bother them with driving, because i was very familiar to the situation when you want to loosen up after the concert and i played my role but still got one beer for the effort. Luckly i drove home with not much problems with the tiredness, and arrived in Zagreb at about 6am, waiting to go to sleep after a exhausting evening and night.

Oi! l'album

Still in the french mode, giving you a compilation for all of you who love\like the French Oi!\streetpunk artists. This is a contemporary VA vynil made in 2009 from the french UVPR label with bands such as HardxTimes, The Rudes, The Janitors, Bombardiers and many others. Enjoy.

Oi! l'album [2009]