Live recording of this ripping LA punk band, recorded August 14th, 2019.

Our take: Live on the radio tape from this great band out of LA with two previous cassette releases on Suck Blood. I loved the recordings on band’s earlier cassettes—pretty much everything coming out on the Suck Blood label sounds incredible to my ears with the perfect balance of rawness, heaviness, and clarity—but this recording proves that Hate Preachers aren’t just a mediocre band adept at getting a good sound. It’s not that this recording sounds bad by any means—everything is clear, present, and good-sounding—it just doesn’t have that perfectly placed layer of grit the other two tapes had. That’s OK, though, because Hate Preachers is a killer band. It’s not a reference I would have reached for before (and maybe it’s because the band, which is a three-piece, is pictured on the cover), but on this recording Hate Preachers sound a lot like Direct Control. If nothing else, they have a similar knack for making hardcore punk catchy without being melodic and sound so classic that it feels like they could have made their music at any point in the last 40 years. If you’re a Sorry State regular, you should have a complete collection of Suck Blood releases. They haven’t made anything worth skipping yet, this included.