DEMO/EP ROUNDUP - Lebre Frita and Inferna

Join us as we dive headlong into the treacherous underground punk movement for a few more new short-length releases ...

First up, Portuguese self proclaimed "experimental power-pop punk band" Lebre Frita with their four-song, fourteen minute Untitled EP. After multiple listens, I'm still left scratching my head where the pop part of the equation comes from, as there's nary a hint of anything popular here ... however, the rest of the description proves apt. This is most certainly some devastating hardcore punk, with the experimental side coming forth through the unique, unregimented song structures and guitar sound. Listening to this is akin to taking in a hardcore punk jam session being held in a cavern, ominous riffage spilling all about you in endless, pummeling audio waves. No guitar solos and minimal vocals (which are seemingly recorded from an adjacent crevice when they do pop up), this is very much a punishing rhythmic beast of a record. Not for the faint of heart. Dare ya! (8)

We move into relatively more conventional, yet still bracing, hardcore punk territory next with Oklahoma's Inferna, who affront listeners with their five-track, ten minute Facing a Future of Terror EP. Hellray's vocals immediately plant you against the wall, incessantly and incoherently screaming in your face, ensuring that you know that she's pissed off about something (whatever that may be). If that ain't enough, the band then kick in with wall-of-sound aplomb, delivering high speed, unhinged hardcore punk with the odd slower sections acting as the coup de grace. (7.5)