These days, there’s no denying a creative, critical and media-driven ‘state of grace’ surrounding broad-minded hardcore punk. From the more or less mainstream collective consciousness of Turnstile or Knocked Loose, to indie darlings such as Scowl or Soul Glo, right through to a heartfelt local sense of community – it makes one want to invoke the ‘scene that celebrates itself’ from the bygone days of shoegaze, without the derogatory connotations of that era, to describe the atmosphere experienced at Hetta or Prado gigs – which transcends geographical and generational barriers with an effervescence not felt for some time. Reflecting this, with a keen eye, ZDB has also been giving vital space and time to bands born at the epicentre or on the fringes of this centrifugal movement, and it is on this wavelength that it welcomes the Norwegian band Hammok. A trio that emerged unexpectedly in the midst of the pandemic on Oslo’s (now) bustling scene, which, with the recent release of their second album — When Does This Place Become Our Scene — on Sargent House, fits perfectly into the Los Angeles label’s portrait of a dysfunctional family alongside The Armed and Botch.
With the challenge set out in the album’s title – shouted furiously in the razor-sharp opener The Scene – Hammok’s music pulses with all the urgency and abandon of the most furious hardcore, whilst simultaneously unveiling the melody that ensures these songs linger in the memory. With a raw yet sufficiently clear production that avoids drowning in a morass of shapeless distortion, When Does This Place Become Our Scene unleashes a dozen beasts, in a profusion of caustic riffs, rhythms that both find their groove and drive everything forward in unison, electronic touches and incisive lyrics rooted in a reality that is as much the band’s own as it is easily recognisable almost everywhere.
BS

Roy Batty, originally from Pinhal Novo, made their stage debut in December 2025 with their first EP, Roy Batty. A year on, having played gigs in Coimbra, Braga, Caldas da Rainha, Lisbon, Porto, Ovar, Guimarães, Santarém, Setúbal and Barreiro, the quartet are back with their new EP Arrábida Glow.
The title, drawn from nights spent wandering the Arrábida countryside, along the twists and turns between Pinhal Novo and the River Sado, refers to the momentary dazzle of lights and illuminations. This sequence is fully reflected in the EP’s sonic wall. Overwhelming and disorienting, triggered by headlights suddenly blinding the face at full beam, Arrábida Glow draws inspiration from the sass to the assault, stripping away its musical theory, 100 per cent focused on feeling, dissonance and the circumstantial and personal.