State of Affairs — BAD FORM

Bad Form’s State of Affairs is the musical equivalent of getting glassed in a Wollongong pub and loving every bloody second of it. Seven tracks, fourteen minutes, and not a single wasted moment, this is anarcho tinged hardcore street punk done proper, with just enough melody and noodly solos to make you forget you’re about to get kicked in the teeth by the next riff. It’s feral, it’s fast, and it doesn’t hang about long enough for you to think, which is exactly how punk should be.

Opening with “Freedom” and “Let Down”, the band tears through their statement of intent at a pace that’d give most drummers a coronary. The production is tight as hell — raw without being muddy, sharp without losing grit. DIY punk often sounds like it was recorded in someone’s dunny with a broken tape deck, but here every instrument has its place, and the mix levels hit that sweet spot between chaos and clarity. Tracks like “State of Affairs” and “Cult of Manosphere” come at you like Molotov cocktails lobbed through a cop shop window, while “The Cog Turns” slows things just enough to let you catch breath before the next storm.

Listen to State of Affairs on YouTube.

What’s killer is how Bad Form manage to sound British as fuck, think early Gallows, yet still undeniably Australian. It’s got that scrappy Wollongong edge, a mix of sunburnt sarcasm and working class fury that could only come from here. No pretension, no filler, just straight up venom spat over riffs that swing between razor wire aggression and cheeky melodic flair.

State of Affairs is a short, sharp shock to the system. Punk that remembers to be fun while still sounding like it wants to burn down Parliament House.

Pay what you like on Bandcamp, but don’t be a tight-arse. Get State of Affairs here.