DIY - Disgraca, Lisbon

Sweden - Umea

The most important venue in Umeå right now is probably Verket, where anyone can organize shows for free if they want to and the venue provides a basic backline and such. It's all ages and if you're 18 or older you can BYOB. There are shows there every weekend and sometimes weekdays also! The bands that play there are very diverse, ranging from hardcore/punk, metal, acoustic singer/songwriter stuff, pop, hip-hop and everything inbetween. So it's not a strictly punk venue although it was founded upon the punk/DIY mentality which it still runs by today. This has brought all the different genres closer to each other as the lineup at shows often consists of bands from mixed genres, it's probably like this in other cities also, I don't know, I just think it's great because you still have your all-out hardcore punk/pop/metal/whatever shows! So in short: Verket is incredibly important to keeping the underground music scene alive in Umeå.

Charlie is a classic punk/hardcore venue in town but there hasn't been many shows there as of late or I must have missed them so I haven't been there personally and now the venue has to close because of some reconstruction thing. However, there will be one last gig with a lot of local punk/hardcore bands so I'll make sure to be there then. If anyone reading this happens to be in Umeå the 7th of February, go there!

A new venue in Umeå that is very interesting is Kulturhuset located in some old roundhouse. I don't know the exact history behind it but I think it all started last summer when, in their own words "This started because some people saw an empty place, gathered together and wanted to fill it with life. Spontaneous, improvised and beautiful. Want to help? Come by and get involved!" This all looked incredibly promising and everyone was excited for the outcome. People from all over town got together to help with all the construction and decoration work needed and then things got started. There were bands playing, art showings, film showings and all different kinds of cultural stuff! This was supposed to continue indefinitely, kind of like a festival without an end. However, eventually politicians and people with money and suits and whatever had to intervene and now the future is unclear for Kulturhuset, but I remain hopeful! Nonetheless, big ups to the people involved in bringing this project to life!!

Then there are places like Guitars, which is a club so that means 18+. For the most part they have DJs but every now and then bands plays there, mostly more established local bands or established bands visiting town. 

There's also Hamnmagasinet, which kind of is a youth center, located next to the local skatepark. Not too many shows are put up there which is a damn shame because the sound system is pretty gnarly. I guess it's because they have a no-alcohol policy that people refrain from visiting/organizing shows there. 

Let's move on to promoters. So, for hardcore we have 090 Hardcore who does a great job putting up hardcore shows and they are also responsible for 090 Hardcorefest which is a two-day festival planned to be held annually. The first 090 Hardcorefest was held in late September last year and it was so much fun with local bands and bands from all over the country on the lineup. It was just amazing. 

Another promoter is Umeå DIY, putting up shows for bands regardless of genre!
Although as I said earlier regarding Verket, anyone can put up shows there so most shows are organized by people engaged in and commited to underground music! 

Okay, so I'm gonna try and put together a list of bands that are currently active in Umeå. Keep in mind that hardcore is far from the only thriving undeground music scene in Umeå but because this is a hardcore blog I will only mention hardcore punk bands. (sorry, other kinds of music) Here we go!

Lesra hardcore/metal 

Trots: hardcore/punk
soundcloud 

Riwen hardcore
indierecordings 

Kira hardcore/doom/emo/post
bandcamp 

Eaten Raw hardcore/punk/crust
bandcamp 

Grid grind core
bandcamp 

The T-55's hardcore/punk
soundcloud 

Desolation State Riot post-metal/sludge/hardcore
soundcloud 

The State The Sea Left Me In post/emo/melodic hardcore
bandcamp 

Fukushima hardcore/punk
bandcamp

Bad Nerve hardcore/punk
soundcloud 

Dick Tracy hardcore/punk
blogspot 

Kidnapped hardcore
bandcamp 

Nedslagsplats hardcore/punk/crust
bandcamp 

Erased hardcore (formerly known as Tough Luck) soundcloud 

System Annihilated progressive metalcore
spotify 

Perkulator hardcore/punk/crust
soundcloud 

Håll Det Äkta hardcore
spotify 

Skörbjugg hardcore/punk 

Latest Fashion hardcore/punk
bandcamp 

Misantropic hardcore/punk/crust
spotify 

Noll Tolerans hardcore 

bandcamp

The list came out a little longer than expected but I hope that's about it. If I've forgotten anyone, sorry, I tried my best!

If you want to play in Umeå get in touch with local musicians/bands and they will help you or try contacting 090 Hardcore or Umeå DIY, I'm sure they will help you!
umeadiy@gmail.com

Belgium - Anarcho

Atomic Pollution is a one man anarcho punk band 100 % D.I.Y. so don't expect that polished, soul-sucked sound.

We're anti all authority, anti-capitalism, anti-fascism, anti-xenophobia, anti-war... . Striving for a better world.

Power is poison, DESTROY POWER NOT PEOPLE !!!

All our work is available for FREE DOWNLOAD AS A BIG FUCK OFF TO FASCISM, CAPITALISM, THE MUSIC INDUSTRY AND GREEDY CORPORATIONS IN GENERAL !!!

SUPPORT the D.I.Y. ANARCHO scene !!!

Action NOT fashion // Punk NOT profit

THNX to all who support us !!!

Anarchy&Peace !!!

Creative Reading Atomic Pollution

C.R.A.P. is a page done by A.P. ( Atomic Pollution D.I.Y. Anarcho punk) to support/promote the international Anarcho/DIY community & its values.

Our blog page helps the DIY community with info on bands/projects/zines/distros & all aspects of DIY culture.

"If you would like to be featured on our blog then email yer info to" crapziness(A)gmail(dot)com

http://crapziness.blogspot.com/

Romania - Bucharest 3

“Mediocracy broke up last year...they had been having some troubles for some time and around July decided it was over. Radu, the ex guitar player from Mediocracy, and 2 other friends started jamming and soon formed Killer Victim.

Killer Victim had their first show in February 2014. So far they have had had 7 gigs where they played some shows with local bands in Bucharest, opened for Comeback Kid, I Am A Curse and a big festival called Rockstadt Extreme Fest.

The next gig is next week in Bucharest opening for Negative Approach. In the following weeks they will start recording their first songs, which will be on split EP with Drop out Of Life. After that probably more gigs and hopefully a tour some time next year.

For the rest of the scene…you still can't say there is a real hardcore scene in Romania because people still seem to have different views about what that is supposed to be. But I guess some part of it is there because bands are really solid with each other and there are mostly the same people in all of the bands.

The problem is that most bands play variations of metalcore/post-hardcore, which means there isn't much variation...but some of them are still pretty good…at least for our scene.

Some bands from Bucharest worth checking out are:

The Boy Who Cried Wolf (post-hardcore)

Breathelast (metalcore)

Cap de Craniu (death metal/deathcore)

Void Forger (doom/crust)

Crossbone (crossover/thrash metal)

Valerinne (post punk/post rock)

Roadkill Soda (stoner metal)

There are also some young bands that have just started playing.

Ropeburn (stoner metal/hardcore)

Take No More (hardcore), who are probably the youngest band we have in our scene, since its members are all under 18 years old.

This is the event for the concert with Negative Approach, Something for the Core. As you can see it's a 3 day fest where most of our local bands will perform.

Almost all of them are from Bucharest except for…

Deliver the God (Brasov/deathcore)

The Dignity Complex (Brasov/progressive metal)

Coins As Portraits (Brasov/grindcore/experimental).

We have a few clubs where we can book shows almost any time…the only problem is with the period of the year because it all revolves around holidays and shit...so summer is pretty much dead here, except for big shows of festivals...I guess it’s the same as everywhere.

Distroy Booking and has booked bands like Straight Opposition, Born For Slaughter, Left In Ruins, Pavilionul 32, Despite Everything, Insane etc. DB is hoping to get more crust/metallic hc/grind bands because most of the bands are metal core.

VZR Graphics does artwork from time to time for bands like Corrupt Moral Altar (UK), Macula (Brazil), H8 (Romania), Born For Slaughter (Macedonia), Pavilionul 32 (Romania) plus gig posters and other related stuff. Take care!”

UK - South Wales 4

This show at Fuel showed four local bands to update things a bit...

Forsaken

Ancestors

Judgement

Interrogation

Fearless Management seem to be doing a great job across a range of styles too...

Also it's worth mentioning that Cardiff is probably the only city to have three venues that put on hardcore shows in one small street! There's also a 'fashion quarter'...

Clwb Ifor Bach

Full Moon