The Omnipresence of Audio
And so, “Listening Habits Volume #2” – the new frontier. Well, not really or in fact at all. Welcome to a new series emanating from the reanimated Ear Nutrition. A collection of words pertaining to the human ability to create art by banging, picking and plucking various objects in sequence to form a coherent whole.
The modus operandi of this series is to celebrate the very nature of these sounds. From the legacy of the old onward to the fluidic, undulating nature of the contemporary and finally, to the frequent flashes of the emergent, all in reverence to the functional and irrevocable symbiosis of the three.
Succinctly put. The new, the old and the somewhere-in-between, communicated in written form whenever I can be bothered, as experienced by my very own lug’oles in effort to counter the mundanity-derived cognitive atrophy I’ve experienced since bining this off!
Pest Control – Year of The Pest (EP)
October 2024
Crossover Thrash
Ear Nutrition had already been definitively fucked-off-with when Pest Control infested – rendering any fumigation superfluous – the eardrums of any being that dared with this EP. Year of The Pest, despite such a consistently voracious and indeed venomous back catalogue, raised and then proactively destroyed the band’s historical blight level with four tracks that imbibed the UK Hardcore-and-adjacent scene with an infectious and indomitable intoxicant in order to enable full cranial control. And thus, give or take this process, the EP became one of the first on the list ahead of this ear being derusted.
Though I implore you to infest in their 2023 debut full-length, Don’t Test The Pest and its expedient twenty-one minutes, this 2024 offering blows the very concept of being blown-out-the-water far from where its functionality landed it. Though condensed but with a second Joe-player named guitar (no fact-checking necessary there), the band’s already gleaming, inherently lascerating edge is sharper, comparatively more keen and more evidently enriched by the Hardcore so essential to Crossover, compounding the fervour of this insectoid mass of riffs and efforts of this blisteringly percussive snare-a-pede.
Do you doubt my testimony? No matter. Soon, the Parasitic Mind Control will do its work.
Punitive Damage – Hate Training (EP)
October 2024
Hardcore Punk/D-Beat
The resurgence of Hardcore in the past near-decade has seen innumerable bands two-step to the (hard)fore of the music scene via, thankfully, a consistent range of sub-catergorical variety – at least for the most part – that has allowed most subjective tastes to be catered for. This 2024 EP from Punitive Damage, akin to the band as a whole, is, was and will continue to be a “go-to” for those who crave consistent twists on the blueprint. Despite this volume of “Listening Habits” mostly having been pulled arbitrarily from a list, the previous entry and that of Hate Training were paired together, in a fashion, simply because they were, by me, blasted together and only together repeatedly in catharsis post-work. Try it, you won’t be disappointed. (Top tip: do the same with the vinyl too!)
Back to Hate Training-proper, then. This EP is not only a key part of a stellar back catalogue but marks how slick the evolution of Punitive Damage continues to be. With their earlier material built from a refreshed and pervasive D-Beat but also cut with other classicist nods to the usual forerunners and yet, simultaneously, permanently teetering on the edge of more “extreme Hardcore”, PD avoid the complacency of simply regurgitating post-NYHC tropes for the sake of it. In fact, when the band do infuse angular Metallic Hardcore from the aforementioned “school”, which is something more present on this EP, it is not only delivered banality-devoid, but at any given moment, the band are equally as likely to deviate again or pull from any other vault of inspiration.
Hate Training perfects and hones this process into a ceaselessly high-octane and frenetically pummelling mass. Plus, with that vocal performance, even if you aren’t keen on PD-core, what the fuck are you going to do about it?
*Note* Ceaselessness may be a result of repeated plays of this EP. Please do not worry, as this is how it is supposed to be enjoyed.
Propagandhi – At Peace
May 2025
Hard Rock / Metal / Who cares, it’s Propagandhi
In interviews before release, it was said by the band that this album, or rather some of its contents, would ‘piss people off’ or something to that effect. Such an in-house prediction is reasonably posited, for it is a risk for any band lucky enough to have accumulated an impassioned fan base. In the case of Propagandhi, at this stage of their long career, I would argue that this was, simply put – inexorable. To some, At Peace was and plausibly is a grower. To others, perhaps a less favourable quake in their otherwise earth-shattering back catalogue. However, to posit again, this time from the precipice of a promontory point, inanimately jutting out into the relative sea of the six or seven people who will likely read this. It is my opinion that Propagandhi’s long-awaited follow-up to their previous celebratory circuit is comprised of the very same unadulterated brilliance that has landed them such an enduring legacy.
Give or take, of course, the fickle distraction and timely tactical charge of an audio animatronic goat directed by – as you would expect – the hegemony of the attention economy. Isn’t it pretty? I like goats.
Anyway! A band’s deviation or lack thereof is irrelevant beyond the base-level use of the word as an attribute relative to its output. The human capacity for opinions is what it is as an adjunct to this, but is ultimately still rendered with no more gravitas than a dismissive “whatever” by one simple maxim. Still with me? Good. Succinctly put, if a band is making the music they wish to, then so be it.
At Peace may well be less inclined to the surface-level freneticism of previous efforts. It may seem more reserved to some, but that is furthest from the (relative and subjective) truth. Propagandhi has spent these intervening years at a window, and the result is the definitive collection of what was gazed upon. From their propensity for incendiary criticism of the undesirable to the sardonic jibes at the orchestrated quandaries of this world and their artificers, onward to the experiences of the songwriters themselves, navigating their respective paths, there is no metaphorical barring of holds on this release.
The messages of At Peace are equated at every turn by instrumentation that feels, as their historically innate and demonstrable skill ceaselessly delivers, like the direct translation of whatever point is being made in any given line. There is realistic and relatable woe on this LP, there is anger, rage and yet the juxtaposition of hope, ardent determination and conviction despite such gargantuan odds set to the backdrop of these crushingly dismal environs.
I would actually go as far as to say that At Peace contains some of Propagandhi’s very best. Smithers, have the adjective – “worst” killed.
Archetypal waffle aside, what do I know, eh? I’m just out here searching.
Karoshi – Self-Titled (EP)
May 2025
Punk-Rock / Post-Hardcore
I don’t think anyone could have known the seismic impact that the advent of Dischord Records-brand “DC Post-Hardcore” would have on the sequential 40-odd years of Punk and Punk-adjacent music. As much as I could prattle on further in terms of how said era and its insurmountable legacy has shaped much of my own taste in music and ethics, ultimately, the gravitational impact of everything in and around that “Revolution Summer” is best left to those more qualified than I.
However, that doesn’t mean that I can’t (attempt to) comment on what the aforementioned is continuing to inspire. Enter Karoshi and their aptly via moniker, existential Post-Hardcore Punk-Rock. Expressive and pertinent, the first EP/Demo from the Bristol three-piece is contemplative to an intentional and societally-orchestrated, viscerally self-aware fault.
‘Contemplating a mass curtain call. What part have I played in this?
Is my agency a myth? Drown in the sweat and blood with us all’
Coded as a UK-dwelt but skillfully dealt variation of a fancied amalgam (at least to my ears) of Dag Nasty, Government Issue, Fugazi and Leatherface, Karoshi’s debut is unadulterated and frantic, an attribute accentuated by a juxtaposing and discordantly weaponised reservation employed entirely to equate its greater socio-political and frustrated existentialism.
That, however, is enough from me. Do the thing.
Class Of 86 – ‘Here & Gone’ (Single)
August 2025
Melodic Hardcore / Thrash-Punk
Apparently, Class Of 86 are one of those bands that, much like some sort of calculated guitar-wielding Gandalf, arrive precisely when they mean to. Exactly then, is what my gleeful surprise in August 2025 was derived from, when a band that I often listen to en masse precisely when I mean to, topically and pertinent to this prose, released the track ‘Here & Gone’.
Canonically conveying an ardently riffed and hybridised mass of Melodic Hardcore and Skate Punk Thrash, albeit one clearly raised on plenty of Vitamin T, the Class Of 86 back catalogue, despite its often personal and socio-political musings, is, to be concise and devoid of further waffle (in this sentence anyway), insanely fun. Springing from a mould tributary to the legacy of Propagandhi’s influence on Punk and Progressive Thrash, but also that of the titans known as A Wilhelm Scream, Class Of 86 are a multifaceted allure for those partial to Punk, Thrash and everything in between.
‘Here & Gone’ is another head-banger, groove-laden and beholden to the Melodic Hardcore wing of the band’s sawtoothed repertoire, complete with precision placement of contrastingly melodious axe-work, as usual, skillfully complementing their innately shredded stereo image. ‘Here & Gone’ is a regular repetition in my own listening habits, and I beckon thee to sample its existential journey.
‘Another night spent headbanging the wall.
I was imbued with the sense that a purpose exists for us all.
Each trying moment we face, a variable in a sum that equates to a net total of raison d’etre’
Straight from the disorganised list, 2/3 arbitrary – all bangers. “Listening Habits Volume #2” – completed it, mate. If you missed #1, backtrack to the top; it’s a fast one!
Blah-blah – NO REQUESTS! NO MASTERS!
