Eighteen’s Most Triumphant: New Music That Shreds on Spotify

The Void is all about guiding you down the rabbit hole of excellent, boundary-smashing, mind-bending music. This week’s guest curator of our Spotify playlist is Arthur Urquiola, voracious music devourer and guitar slinger/vocalist for the band Tracy Lords. Arthur is here to introduce you to the songs that struck mad chords this year. Enjoy his deep dive into some sonic savagery below, or listen on Spotify.

“With another year of distance between now and the dark days before the Internet was ‘The Internet’ which allows ease of access to all the music being created, it’s getting increasingly difficult to narrow a single year’s best records down to a top 10 list,” Arthur says. “There’s even new music not on Spotify that I loved this year from bands like Tragedy, Endon and Dagger, as well as records that have yet to be released by the likes of Fucked Up and High On Fire who have rarely, if ever, let me down in the past. So as of writing this, here’s my top picks for 2018 in a road-tested Spotify playlist format.” Check out Tracy Lords on Facebook, or get their records on Bandcamp.

1. C.O.F.F.I.N – Princess Highway
It felt fitting to begin this selection for The Void with a song from my favourite Sydney Punk Rock mentalists. C.O.F.F.I.N is the history of Rock n’ Roll through a Punk Rock prism. They’re also a monster of a live band and the funnest hang.
Get C.O.F.F.I.N record on Bandcamp

2. SWARRRM – マーチ – March
This band has created by far its best work 22 years into its existence – a take on “Emotional Grindcore” that’s cathartic, eclectic and fucking fearless.
Get SWARRRM record on Bandcamp

3. Fu Manchu – Don’t Panic
I could just listen to this band’s sick fuzzed-out guitar sound for days on end, but the fact that ‘Clone of the Universe’ is some of Fu Manchu’s most compelling and stripped-down work in years is one hell of a bonus.
Get Fu Manchu record on Bandcamp

4. Zeke – Working Man
Fourteen years between records and it feels like someone just hammered Zeke free from a big block of ice and set them loose. This entire record does not let up. How did they actually get faster?
Get Zeke record on Bandcamp

5. The HIRS Collective – It’s OK To Be Sick
Brutally heavy on multiple fronts. This band sounds like it’s fighting to stay alive while reaching a helping hand out to others struggling to keep their head above water.

6. Palm – 音我苦 -ONGAKU-
‘To Live Is To Die, To Die Is To Live’ could very well be one of the biggest Japanese Hardcore records to come out in years, but really it’s one of the best from anywhere. It’s impossible to pick a highlight from it, but this one has a killer guitar solo from Gridlink’s Takafumi Matsubara. Palm are on tour forever and probably playing wherever you are soon.
Get Palm record on Bandcamp

7. Youth Avoiders – Street Violence
Delightfully lo-fi Garage Rock at a ferocious Hardcore Punk speed. Their Self-Titled from 2013 was the perfect record. The new one’s even better.
Get Youth Avoiders record on Bandcamp

8. Zeal & Ardor – Row Row
Black Spirituals meets Black Metal? A truly unique artist. The first record ‘Devil Is Fine’ came out in 2016 and still seems new to me. I was not expecting a follow-up so soon that could actually top it.
Get Zeal & Ardor record on Bandcamp

9. War On Women – Silence Is The Gift
One of my favourite current bands, as well as one of the most important in my opinion. ‘Capture The Flag’ looks at you dead in the eye with its message as serious as a heart attack, but this tune is such a rocker.
Get War on Women record on Bandcamp

10. Integrity – Document One (GISM)
Really, this is my way of sneaking in more Japanese Hardcore. G.I.S.M. is such a seminal band, but Dwid and his boys pay fitting homage to them from a place of genuine love and reverence while really making this song their own.
Get Integrity record on Bandcamp

11. Marijannah – 1974
Members of two of Singapore’s best bands (The Caufield Cult and Wormrot) come together to absolutely crush it at an altogether different game.
Get Marijannah record on Bandcamp

12. Hot Snakes – Death of a Sportsman
This seems to be everyone’s AOTY.
Get Hot Snakes record on Bandcamp

13. Will Haven – No Escape
Will Haven had already been making records that stood head and shoulders above their contemporaries in the mid-’90s. If ‘Muerte’ really is their last then it’s a fitting farewell; ending as they reach another creative high. This song is one of record’s highlights and features YOB’s Mike Scheidt.
Get Will Haven record on Bandcamp

14. Sleep – Giza Butler
With High On Fire’s ‘Electric Messiah’ out soon it just doesn’t seem fair that Matt Pike gets to strike musical gold as often as he does – much less twice in a single year.
Get Sleep record on Thirdmanstore

About the author’s band: Hell’s house band THE TRACY LORDS is a chaotic smash n’ grab of primordial sludge in molten tones and carwreck whiplash rhythms. With enough artfulness, drama and sadness to keep the young’uns interested and lo-fi charms for the Punk Rock cogniscenti, The Lords’ hope-crushing heaviness is inflicted with the simple MO of set up, break the audience into little pieces and get out. Photo credit: Bob Wan.