Puñalhada

Puñalhada -Siempre Marica, Nunca Cobarde – Equador – Oct 2024

The hardcore punk scene has been thriving for the past few years in this politically hostile post-covid social environment. Multicultural, feminist, and radically anti-fascist groups of punks seem to be surfacing more and more everyday on a global scale. The band Puñalhada, a loose translation of the Spanish words stab and fairy, is a perfect example of this.

Hailing from Quito, Equador and describing themselves as feminist punk and queercore, this female lead hardcore group burst out of the gate after releasing their debut EP this past October. The first track on the EP is titled Dia De Venganza, which translates to Day of Vengeance, immediately gets the stage for the sound and messaging that the band is achieving. Its fast, aggressive, and packs punches with no nonsense. A statement from the band states “we are a vindication of the various struggles that we face, and a challenge to the heteronormative regime”. The band isn’t reinventing the wheel from a musical construct standpoint, this is straight classic hardcore, but they also join the ranks of other popular modern queercore bands such as Gel & GLOSS.

The band certainly wants it to be clear that their are presenting a strong message to the public, especially on the second track Huir Del Binario, which translates to Escape the Spanish Binary. The song questions and vocalizes the frustrations of a country strongly tied to the gender binary. The band also covers the hardcore band from Spain called ‘Punal‘, which was surely an influence. Those that are interested in english speaking female-lead latin punk artists such as Alice Bag & Downtown Boys, and are looking to branch out into more Spanish spoken hardcore artists such as Los Crudos, should definitely give this EP a shot.

Listen to the track ‘Dia De Venganza’ down below.