Tetanus

 

Just a quick one today about this demo tape from Tetanus, a new band from Charlotte, North Caroline, which was released last month on Sorry State.

 

Not much information about these guys except what the label page is saying: 

"Tetanus came together when two other Charlotte area bands, Patho-gen and 7 Minutes in a Microwave, broke up just as the COVID-19 pandemic started to hit in the US."

Go check these two bands if you're not familiar with them, it's super good hardcore punk.

 

 

 

  But let's get back to the bacterial infection: with six tracks all under the two minute mark these guys didn't drop by to linger around. However, you can't put everything in the hardcore punk drawer right away. Let's say it's fast noisy punk with some (a lot actually) hardcore parts.

The vocals and the guitars sound "fuzzy" and distant enough to imagine oneself at the other end of a last century's handset, reminding me of that crazy story of HR recording the vocals of I agaisnt I over the phone from prison!

 

 

 

But I'm rambling and Tetanus is not: with six straight forward in-your-face tracks, this tape could have been just another loud and noisy release but it's a little bit more than that...

 *** (great song name by the way) for example manages to go back and forth between fast hardcore parts and slower and heavier, keeping us alert all the way while the noisy guitar start of Life Is Pain is a beautiful invitation to hear more... and that's the small details which make a huge difference!

And the cover of Chicago punk legend Mentally Ill's song Gacy's Place is a very enjoyable bonus, Tetanus turning the already-quite-fuzzy track into a proper super noisy hardcore punk song! Good job on this one guys!

In a nutshell Sorry State releases another good hardcore punk tape for a band that is far from revolutionizing a genre where the competition is more than fierce these days (the average quality of the hardcore punk tapes I have been listening to for the past years is extremely high in my opinion) but that masters the subject well enough to bring some subtle touches of originality which delight my tired hardcore kid ears...

And nice artwork by the way!

You can listen to Tetanus in Rien à Faire #18.

 

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