The musical landscape is ever changing. New genres are popping up, new hypes burst out of nowhere and die out and new bands present themselves to the world. How on earth are you expected to keep up, right? Well, it never hurts to help! So here we are, your humble servants, ready to sift through those filters for you, presenting you the best demos we have encountered. We sincerely hope you will check out the demos here and keep an eye for these bands. They could become your new go-to band! Who knows.
Hory - Demo 2026
With most demos I don't exactly remember how I picked them up. This is one of those. No clue whatsoever what made me get it, but I am terribly happy I did pick it up. Hory is from Czechia and has one of the best singers I've heard in a while. Her voice is the highlight of this demo for me. It's supported by very melodic hardcore punk with a bit of a post-punk twang to the guitar sound. I am reminded of Dag Nasty at times, which is nice, because I don't hear a lot of that vibe lately. The lyrics might be a stumbling block for some as the band chose to sing in their native tongue.
True Fraud - Demo II
Demo number one from True Fraud transported me right back to the '80s. Well, to the records from that era, as I wasn't thinking about hardcore at the time. This German band recreates it to the T. The NYHC scene is primarily responsible for their inspiration, so there's a lot of two-steps and breakdowns without sounding metallic. Early Sick Of It All, Gorilla Biscuits, you name it, I'm sure these guys listen to it endlessly. With two great demos under their belt, I do hope they stick around long enough to give us a bit more material.
Blame - Demo '26 II
The first demo had only two tracks, but these tracks managed to impress me with their NYHC sound. I thought of Blames first demo as a bit more metallic hardcore sounding than True Fraud. Those parts reminded me more about Midnight Souls and Modern Life Is War. Not a bad sound to be compared to. Where are they now, with their second demo?
Well, they are consistent, I gotta give 'em that. One thing I am not hearing this time is Modern Life Is War. I went back to the previous demo to check and I stand by my judgement that there are traces of that sound to be found on the first demo. This time I am more reminded of bands like New Morality, a Dutch band which I guess was basically influenced by the same NYHC bands. Closing track "A Fool" starts out almost tough guy style, I am not a big fan of this, but the tempo change is pretty cool.
Lax - Demo
Can a band convince you in just under five minutes? These four blistering tracks sure try to. This is fast and mean hardcore with members of Leashed and Better Reality (I'll admit to not knowing these two bands before writing this review, so I won't blame you if you haven't heard of them either). I like the metal flourishes that pop up here and there. If five minutes is too much of an investment just check the riff opening "Running On Noise" to understand what I'm talking about. The production is a bit hollow sounding, I hope future releases will sound more full, more fleshed out. The bass sound on this is amazing though, so I hope they keep that!
Censer - Demo
Censer from Cleveland treats the world to six minutes of powerviolence on their demo. This is powerviolence that is not afraid to slow the tempo every once in a while (second track "Gland" is a good example of this). The sudden shifts from blast beats to those slower tempos keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time. The production is amazing, but after looking at their Bandcamp and seeing the name Will Killingsworth it all makes sense. I am looking forward to more bludgeoning attacks by this band.
Cräne - 15 Minutes De Plaisir
Cräne from Montreal reached out to us to share their fifteen minutes of fame. Fun! I mean fun! And I must admit, the title of this demo is no lie, this is fifteen minutes of fun, so in my book, that's fifteen minutes well spent. I also think this might be the longest demo I've ever discussed here.
They describe their sound as old school hardcore with a modern twist and some garage rock elements. I would say that's pretty accurate, although I think that undersells their garage rock influence a bit. This demo reminds me a bit of where the New Bomb Turks were more into hardcore when they recorded their debut. The vocals are more hardcore than that though. They are cool, but they remind me of another band. I can't figure out which one and that bothers me a lot. I'll probably come up with it five minutes after this column goes live. Oh well...
Non Factum - Demo
I don't know how this band caught my attention, but I bet the artwork had something to do with it. Just look at it. To me this is a picture about reaching for hope. I think that might be what Non Factum wants to express, more or less. If I trust google translate, the first song "Wujudkanlah Mimp" translates to "Make Dreams Come True" and the second song "Sama Sama Manusia" ("Same Same Human") speaks about equality. The sound of this demo harkens back to somewhere in the Noughties, You remember the time when you told your mother "NO MOM, THIS IS NOT A PHASE!" while listening to emo? Jimmy Eats World comes to mind. This kind of music only works with great production and this demo has just that. It also has those choruses that get stuck in your head ("Wujudkanlah Mimp" especially, which I find myself singing along to phonetically), which leads me to conclude they did an amazing job.
