Anti-Zen S/T (2014)

Since every punk has decided to up and move to Philly, so many other cities have been left to hang in terms of new sick outfits to jam out to. While I have no idea if any of the members of Anti-Zen live in Philly or are planning on moving to Philly (at this point I wouldn't be surprised. Every band has at least one member thats planning on moving to Philly), for all intensive and categorizing purposes I am claiming Anti-Zen to be a DC band.

Anti-Zen sounds nothing like most bands that are most associated with their scene. In fact they depart from most popular notions of hardcore to make a demo that combines elements of UK late 70's crust,some sweet ass solos, 90's dark Iapanese hardcore, and just totally insanely great vocals that are screechy and whiney (in a reallyyyy good way). Released off of Hesitation Wound Records, Anti Zen includes members of State Violence and Aghast. While the vocals definitely sound nothing like Nick Blinko, their over all sound definitely resonates with Rudimentary Peni (especially the bass lines). Which is just awesome because what bands these days can you really say sound like rudimentary Peni? Not many, my friend.

The song that totally sold me for this being demo being so fucking killer is "Mao II", specifically at 1:03. Then immediately it goes straight into "waves and Radiation" which is my other favorite song on the demo. Pretty much each song just kind of gets catchier and catchier. Those solos, man.

FFO: Rudimentary peni, Bone Awl, The Comes

BUY/LISTEN HERE

UPDATE: Just learned that two of the members of Anti-Zen live in philly. Proving my point.