To my ears, Finland has had the best scene in punk over the last few years. An endless trickle of shockingly great hardcore records, a lot of which never seem to make it outside of Finland, and fewer of which get much recognition for it.
For me, the cream of the crop, keeping the spirit of Finnish hardcore as vibrant and exciting as ever, are Hapea and Ydinaseeton Pohjola. And after making some effort to ensure the first two Hapea EPs were adequately distributed here in the USA, I finally put my money where my mouth is and released their third 7".
Lotus Fucker played with Hapea on our second European tour and they were one of the best bands we saw. The short sharp shock songwriting of Terveet Kadet, the reckless and wild execution of Bastards, a wall of raw noise blasting sound like Kuolema. Channeling all the things I love about Finnish hardcore, to me Hapea are the flag-bearers of a new generation and I hope everyone gets hip to this shit!