The musical landscape is ever changing. New genres are popping up, new hypes burst out of nowhere and then die out, and new bands present themselves to the world. How on earth are you expected to keep up, right? Well, a little help never hurts! So here we are, your humble servants, ready to sift through those filters for you to present you with the best demos we have encountered. We sincerely hope you will check them out. They could become your new go-to band! Who knows.
Al-Naf - Demo 2025
If you miss Hoax (I know I do) you might want to check out Al-Naf. To me, this demo sounds like missing Hoax songs., only better produced. I am still a sucker for bands that use boatloads of echo on the vocals-als-als-als so I am all in for these three tracks although it leaves me sad it is over in 3 and a half minutes.
Loach - Demo
A demo with twelve songs on it? Isn’t that a full-length? No, not if you play powerviolence, like Loach clearly does. What immediately catches your attention is the fact that there’s no guitar. And even though you hear it straight away you don’t really miss the guitar. The bass guitar alone is creating enough violent riffs to keep your attention for the full five to six minutes this demo lasts.
Self Arrest - Demo 2
The second demo from this new band. Again I am transported back to the late '80s. Not that I was there, but we all know there was some great hardcore back then, right? Anyway, on this second demo we get four great songs and a Breakdown cover ("All I Ask"). And with that cover, you get an idea if this is for you, right? I am ready for a full-length, bring it on!
Implode - Demo
From Melbourne, Australia comes a new band that listened to the same era of hardcore as Self Arrest: Implode. But Implode adds something to their sound that makes you think: yup, that’s an Aussie band right there -- and I am not talking about the accent. The seven-ish minutes of this demo are over before you know it as the band is very explosive (so I have some questions about the band name).
Zevk - Demo
When I saw the tag queer feminist punk somewhere I was ready to like this. And it took me no effort at all. Although the band is from Paris, all lyrics are in Turkish. The singer is from Istanbul originally, which explains a lot. Did I mention I am a fan of echo used correctly? Well, this is a prime example of how to do it. There are catchy riffs, rumbling and thundering drums and great vocals. This band is more punk than the two old-school hardcore bands reviewed above. They do remind me of other bands (but which one? It’s on the tip of my tongue...so frustrating), but not copycats. This might just be my favorite demo (so far, the year is not over yet).
Pegamento - Demo Instantánea
What if La URSS would become heavily influenced by old school rock 'n' roll and decided to start anew by recording a demo. I guess it would sound something like this Pegamento. It has that catchy vibe that, to me, characterizes that La URSS vibe, but also has rock 'n' roll vibes in the punk environment. Apart from the very, very ugly cover this is an excellent release!
Kostenfalle - Demo
I would categorize this as egg punk. Kostenfalle is a German duo making noise with just synths (old-school synths based on the Bandcamp photo) and bass. Bandcamp tells us there’s drums, but based on this demo I am tempted to believe this is a drum machine. It fits the sound that takes influence from a lot of places, but when I try to keep it brief this is krautrock through a strong punk prism. A pretty cool way to explore what egg punk can be.
The Follow Up
Some of the bands we discuss here will continue to release an EP or full-length. Because I enjoy seeing how bands evolve and progress I want to point these out to you here. Mind you, I might be late to the show or completely miss them. Still, when I see one of these promising bands take a next step towards world-domination I will report here!
Serotonin Mist - 現実の鏡 (Mirror of Reality)
Only one year after releasing their second demo, Japanese emo band Serotonin Mist are back with new material. A full-length album no less. I was excited about their demos and I am even more excited about this album. Twelve short blasts with old-school emo with as an added bonus a couple of breakdowns. I am all in for this stuff. Because of its short and intense songs this is really one of those albums to take in as a whole, meaning there are neither stand out tracks nor duds. Highly recommended.
