As what will likely become a running series focusing on underground labels that embody the DIY spirit and ethos, that are doing excellent work and putting out killer releases, featured here is the haven for off-kilter, experimental, emotional, and/or politically-charged Hudson Valley and Upstate New York hardcore bands Albany, New York’s Invisible City Sound Archive.

Below, I’ve provided images of each of Invisible City’s seven releases to date and my “tasting notes” on each release sans Spit Vision’s The Morning Has Gold In Its Mouth (INVIS 007), which I reviewed here, and Spiritkiller’s “Ruptured Pupil” (INVIS 006), as it will be on the band’s November LP and it’ll likely be getting some coverage here in more depth. But first, a bit of background about the label from co-founder Charles Cure:

Invisible City started in late 2024 by myself and the bass player from my band Spiritkiller, Byron Wheeler. The genesis of it was that we had sold out of a self-released two-song tape and also were out of copies of our demo on tape and had a couple bigger shows coming up, so we decided to combine the two releases into a single release on CD, which became the Spiritkiller - Year One CD. That was our first release and, initially, I figured we would just use it to release Spiritkiller's stuff on CD or formats other than vinyl. Our second release was the CD version of the Spiritkiller LP in early 2025.
A month or so after that maybe, I was talking to my friend Angelo who sings in Unfortuneteller and they were preparing a release. I really love their band, so as we talked about it, it made sense that Invisible City could do a tape for them as our first project working with another band. It went really well, and Byron and I have let it just unfold organically since then. Something I like about that approach is that it means we are releasing music made by people we know and are friends with, which means we treat every release with care and try to make it special in some way because it’s art made by people you know and love. It’s little acts of love, each release.
We knew early on that we wanted to focus on releases that present artists that are trying something a little more outside of the lines from the current mosh-oriented hardcore that was hitting an apex of popularity in the subculture, and that we wanted to work with bands that had a real emotional or political valence to their presentation. So, as we have gone along, we have tried to do projects that bring angularity and feelings and general weirdness and willingness to experiment into the hardcore/post-hardcore sound. We also want to have a roster diverse in its sound and aesthetic, but in a way that feels like all our bands could play the same show and it could make sense. I think we are accomplishing that so far.
We have only worked with artists from NY in the Hudson Valley and further upstate at this point. That's another intentional thing - we would like to try to highlight bands that come from the places that get overlooked here because of NYC sucking up all the attention pretty much always. Often times, especially in smaller cities or towns that are lucky enough to have a subculture/local music scene, these bands are made up of people doing a lot of work to try to support what is going on around them: booking shows, playing shows, recording bands, teaching younger people about how to create and perpetuate a DIY scene.

Spiritkiller-Year One: (INVIS 001): Reminds me a lot of the premier 90s Victory Records bands, although where they might’ve gone chuggy, Spiritkiller goes more post-hardcore (post-hardcore by its original definition a la Revolution Summer through the mid-90s). There are also notes of early- to mid-2000s Bridge Nine Records, Blacklisted, early-80s NYHC, and especially Refused in there. “Kaleidoscope” opens with a riff that reminds me a lot of “Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Battery” by Buffalo greats Every Time I Die (this is a good thing).

Spiritkiller-S/T: (INVIS 002): The band continues to sharpen their sound here. It’s a more assured offering as they build on the foundation of the earlier material, crafting what is now an instantly-identifiable sound. Imagine if Incendiary de-emphasized the mosh and was hybridized with Snapcase, Refused, and the spirit and orientation if not necessarily sound of the bevy of interesting and frankly excellent 90s second- and third-act bands that came out of the hardcore scene (think Handsome, Quicksand, Into Another, Only Living Witness, Orange 9mm, Rage Against the Machine, etc.).

Unfortuneteller-Casting Spells on a Burning World: (INVIS 003): Hearkens back to the heyday of The Suicide File mixed with the angularity of Gallows’ Orchestra of Wolves. The Cancer Bats-esque ”Vibekiller” kicks off the B-side with an absolutely nasty riff—indeed, the riffs on Casting Spells are a major highlight. Really cool band.

No Division-6 Songs (INVIS 004): Interesting release that is a welcome and necessary addition to the quadrant of the hardcore scene populated by bands ranging from Polar Bear Club to Crime in Stereo to End of a Year/Self-Defense Family to Caleb Lionheart. Add to that some Modern Life Is War and Songs to Scream at the Sun-era Have Heart, and you’ve got No Division. “HOME FRONT LINES” even includes a section that sounds a lot like The Smiths musically, and “WESTERN FAILURE” reminds me melodically and atmospherically of pre-Sundowning This Is Hell.

Easy Blame-Hypernormalized (INVIS 005): Imagine the wilder, unhinged excesses of Black Flag mixed with Lewd Acts, Pulling Teeth, Ceremony, and 90s screamo, and you’re kind of in the ballpark. Feral, nervous breakdown-inducing, you’re going to feel uncomfortable listening to Hypernormalized. You’re supposed to.