German and London bands team up for explosive split EP on Angry Voice Records
German punk label Angry Voice Records have just dropped a new split 10” this year, pairing a new studio offering from Germany’s AntiBastard with the 2022 EP from London’s Butcher Baby titled Beer, Weed and Three Lines of Speed. This split EP is two swift bursts of raw, visceral hardcore punk with nothing light or fluffy about it. Expect rapid-fire d-beat. Expect buzzsaw riffs. Expect angry shouting and lots of it. Now that we’ve managed expectations, let’s dive right in!
Side A contains the first AntiBastard release since their 2019 full-length, ripping through five fiery tunes in the space of just eleven minutes. With titles like Dead Planet, Cop Criminal and They Live, you already know that this is unashamedly anti-fascist, anti-capitalist hardcore punk spewing out bleak auguries on the future of society as we know it.
You know, happy and cheerful stuff… it sounds bloody good though. AntiBastard’s songs abruptly shift from a marching mid-tempo crawl (exemplified in Rupture with the refrain “I don’t wanna go back to normal!”) to a swift d-beat punch in the face (“this is the ennnnddd….”) The riffs hit all the right spots with a touch of melody complimenting all the doom and gloom, and a few face-melting guitar leads thrown in for excellent measure. Overall, it’s raw, it’s heavy, it’s pissed-off, and it’s crammed with a tonne of tasty guitarwork in such a short timeframe
While AntiBastard chant about the inevitable collapse of society, London’s Butcher Baby sound like they’ll be downing many pints while partying at the local pub while it’s all occurring. Side B’s opening title track Beer, Weed and Three Lines of Speed begins abruptly with a row of infectious gang-vocal d-beat, killer high-speed drumming and thrashy riffs (my god, the riffs!) The ferocious energy of Butcher Baby charges on with the fiery Can’t Wank in Peace (possibly my favourite track on the split – god what a fucking title), with its shout-along chorus and a few more doses of face-melting lead guitar. The best thing about Butcher Baby’s songs is that they have been written with the crowd’s participation in mind, and would no doubt go off at a live show. Perfect examples of this are the sing-along choruses of tracks Beer, Weed and Three Lines of Speed, Man Flu and the “woah-ohs” of fourth track Chips.
By the end of the split EP, I’m left out of breath wondering what the hell just hit me (twice), but also left wanting more from both bands. Both AntiBastard and Butcher Baby complement each side of the EP incredibly well musically, with each band providing the same elements of raw heaviness and catchiness in their own ways. The unrefined production on both sides of the split almost makes you feel you’re right there in a beer-stained, sticker-coated rehearsal room with the bands themselves. This split EP is available on 10” vinyl and digitally from both bands at their respective Bandcamp pages.
Follow Anti Bastards and Butcher Baby on Their Socials
Need more Punk In Your Life?
Album review: Bombstrap – ‘Big Enemy’
Hard times create hard music, and with the state of the world as it is right now, there is plenty of fertile breeding ground for
Album Review: Veteran Punk supergroup Pressure Set unleash their debut LP
Pressure Set – a Transatlantic collab of unexpected origin lets loose on their self-titled debut. In 2024, Colorado-based SPELLS drummer Rob Burleson met guitarist Dom
Album review: Bar Stool Preachers invite you to ‘Party Eternal’ on their 4th LP!
Bar Stool Preachers’ fourth album ‘Party Eternal’ sees the band head into bolder, more dynamically varied musical territory than ever before. At times scathing and
EP review: Cindy Lawson roars ‘¡LONG LIVE THE RESISTANCE!’
Cindy Lawson is back with a vengeance on her recent third record, ‘¡LONG LIVE THE RESISTANCE!’ A four-song response to the violent siege of Minnesota
EP review: Inherited – ‘All 4 One’
We swear, there must be something in the water in the Benelux region, because it’s been a byword for high-quality heavy hardcore for some time
Album review: Marvin Heemeyer – ‘A New Low’
Play this debut album from French hardcore quartet Marvin Heemeyer to an unsuspecting passer-by, and they’d probably complain something along the lines of “it’s just
Liam is an avid heavy music geek and musician from Australia. Loves a good riff, despises IPA beer. Drummer/vocalist of Idle Ruin.
Did you know that we are 100% DIY? We run our own game. No one dictates to us, and no one drives what we can or cannot put on our pages – and this is how we plan to continue!
