Review / 200 Words Or Less
Deadmen
Anger Rising

Afraid of the Basement (2014) Nathan G. O'Brien

Deadmen – Anger Rising cover artwork
Deadmen – Anger Rising — Afraid of the Basement, 2014

This is some metalpunx ouf of New Jersey. Superfast and snotty as all hell. Like some spikey-haired snot punk singing for a grind band or something. There’s sweet breakdowns too, which lend it a hardcore vibe. Maybe I’m way off-base, but that’s what I’m feeling. Not always my favorite thing, but I find this rather endearing. Guitars are sick. Especially on “I Won’t Fight It” and “Go Out Like Darby”, which are the final two songs on Side B. There’s a level of crunchiness to the whole recording that I really dig. Pretty solid production but still like, loud and crusty, ya know. Plus they have movie samples in between songs which I always get a kick out of. And there’s some cool sample manipulation type shit incorporated. I should mention that this was sent by Shayne, a solid dude that I’ve been trading mail with for quite a while now. He usually sends along a copy of Afraid of the Basement fanzine (which he contributes to) which also happens to be the name of the label that put this out. I won’t lie, the fact that this comes on cassette makes me like it way more than I normally would. I’m a sucker for tangible items and even more so, if they're re-tread archaic formats. Really nice looking pro-printed packaging, which is no surprise as AOTB is one of the more professional-looking zines that comes through my mailbox.

Deadmen – Anger Rising cover artwork
Deadmen – Anger Rising — Afraid of the Basement, 2014

Recently-posted album reviews

Chat Pile

Who Loves The Sun
Flenser (2026)

If Chat Pile were a film, they would be a dark thriller. The kind that builds tension until the end and, once we reach the third act, still might not ever show the killer. It's plodding and intense and, while I just pulled out a genre reference, the best thing about the band is how much they defy conventional musical … Read more

Generacion Suicida

Hombre Nuevo
Vitriol (2026)

On the tail end of Autogramm’s 2018 tour of Mexico (what little I remember of that week now is a lot of pulque and not a lot of sleep) I visited the one punk record store in CDMX that I found via googling where to buy bootleg punk t-shirts. I’d already visited Venas Rotas Discos earlier on the trip and … Read more

Karen Dió

Fugaz
Hopeless (2026)

Six songs. That's all Karen Dió needs on this EP. Considering the title translates roughly to fleeting, brief, or transient in Portuguese, maybe that's exactly the point. Dió's second EP doesn't hang around long enough to overstay its welcome. It arrives, makes a hell of a lot of noise, throws some gigantic hooks at you, and disappears. But there's considerably … Read more