Surfer James – Demo Tape 2019. (Painters Tapes)

It has been a very long time since I’ve heard some proper powerviolence and I can only blame myself for not looking out for some cool newer powerviolence bands, which is by the way really a shame since I am a big fan of a genre. There’s a vast space of some good ones, especially in the US where this genre originated at the first place, so this tape come to my door as a blast, at the right time when I needed some crude harsh sounds the most. Surfer James are hailing from Detroit, Michigan, home of some good legendary hardcore punk bands which has been listened in the past, so there’s no surprise why their second demo tape is such a great material to tear some walls down to the ground. Surfer James are blending fuzzy hardcore punk riffs with crunchy overdistorted bass lines and everything is covered with noisy blastbeats performed by a crazy drummer who’s drumming skills are pretty neat. They incorporate stoner, sludge, hardcore punk, grindcore and who knows what else in their music, but these guys balance everything like pros, without further delays on the one specific genre, so you’ll not be bored with their arrangements. After all, all the tracks are short, but sweet and surprisingly very well recorded considering Surfer James recorded their demo in a drummers basement on a 4-track. All performing instruments including powerful vocals are hearable and this is one fine demo recording for powerviolence standards. So, if you’re into fast aggressive music with constant frantic changes in genres and tempos, this demo tape is more than a great start if you’re wondering what’s up with powerviolence scene today. This demo tape is available in the US through Painters Tapes from Detroit and in Europe throught Knochentapes from Denmark, so hopefully these labels are covering the rest of the world, but don’t wait for too long, because these tapes come in very limited editions.