REVIEW: State Power - Hyperstition

The infinitely accelerating death-spiral of our samsara, seizing, trapped between monolith mistakes of man’s own make is but one hyperstition; an ever-accelerating, self-fulfilling prophecy of gradual insanity. The State, in its multifaceted, janus-faced form so writhing through and gnawing at the bones of the world, is but one vector for such an open season against our vague pre-conceived hopes of sanity. STATE POWER’s Hyperstition, on the other hand, is a deafening, explosive, silent stopping, briefly, of that spiral: an interlude between the seemingly inevitable end and the long winding collapse we have endured throughout. To look up, past the shadows, and scream: afraid, angry, anxious- but most importantly, absolute. 

Crashing through your sound system directly from Utrecht in the Netherlands, STATE POWER have been bringing love-induced nervous breakdowns to the hardcore scene since 2024, and with the upcoming release of their full-length album, Hyperstition, show great promise to continue to do so. 

Building up from a truly sturdy foundation of collaborating and brilliantly attuned friends, this particular ensemble shows a particular brilliance in seamlessly concocting terrific, terror-inducing riffs, rupturing drums and a united creative vision that that blends together in a way otherwise unexpected of the traditionally gruff and rough sounding hardcore genre. In no way does this mean Hyperstition is not outright deadly: rather, that STATE POWER have turned such blunt-force audio violence to an art. 

Pim Cruiming and Daan Lutgernik on guitars, not only bring their tempered talents from their time with TWO AND A HALF GIRL but their skill in working side by side to make each track flow and feel fantastic from first song to last- with this particular mixologist’s talent only reinforced by the full band. Mert Güngör’s drumming, kindled by sheer passion for hardcore as much as experience from HALF CAB, keeps the otherwise ravenous and jittering rage of their sound on track, alongside the silent workhorse vigil of Rinus van der Weerd’s bass: all working in perfect tandem to make Stefan Bonestroo’s ever-accelerating, ever-insane, ever-on-the-verge-of-breakdown shine as they deserve. An almost insidious change from his work with BONY MACARONI, it is audibly clear that the sound of STATE POWER is equal parts passion for hardcore and appreciation for what everyone brings to the table, bringing to mind a far higher production value than expected of a debut album.

While STATE POWER attest that their sound comes from a place of righteous love, their past track record of frothing riffs is only further blown out of the park by Hyperstition. This album is dark. Very dark. Bringing to mind an endlessly apocalyptic, unmedicated successor to the prophetic cultural observations of Operation: Mindcrime, the album is almost absurd in its appreciation of the reality of the modern world. Beginning with a hypermodernist ironic sneer towards the rise of AI, thinking machines and thoughtless man in the introductory Dominant Threads, the band put to sound the deep, internal, confusion-laden red-hot hatred towards the seeming catastrophe of this time of monsters we dwell in. Turning the sickness in his stomach not to spitting vomit but spitting bars, STEFAN’s rage at the endlessly whirring systems we are trapped in is audible from the first screeching lament of Brain Bug. An anxiety attack in song form, it remains impossible to listen to without at least twitching the eyelid in angered solidarity, totalising the meaningless toil of maximising shareholder value just to eat despite the constant horrors. Each lyric feels less written for performance, nor written for a manifesto: but discerned in a post 3-hour sleep 12-hour shift hallucination that would’ve otherwise caused a peasant revolt and another instance of Stadtholder cannibalism in Holland in simpler times. 

If Brain Bug is the anxiety attack brought on by the weight of reality, Schizoscene is the post-realisation insanity; a permanent breakdown at breakneck speeds, breaking down the walls of sleepy ignorance to revel in the psychosis of modernity - only restored from the brink by a hauntingly lamenting chorus. From the Spoils Of Empire in the rotting imperial core to the distress at the death of logic and the bypassing of consciousness in Gnaw - where Mert’s drumming particularly performs as perfect psychopomp through these dying times - to The Sin of Empathy, continuing STATE POWER’s sin theming, each song is a rapid-fire burst of neurotic hyperviolence against systems, powers, rich men and horrors whose breadth and scope of sheer sadism could never compare to.

In some ways, this ensures much of the songs blend together almost too well: yet in a way, this ensures losing yourself into the ever-swirling messages and sounds throughout the album becomes even more immersive, considering the maddening topics at hand. It is clear that listening to these songs be played one after another in a maelstrom of a crowd, live, would leave one with one or two lifelong memories whether you could recognize exactly where one riff ends and the other begins: and that may perhaps be the most important in hardcore.

Hyperstition is an album that less-so grows on you, and more makes you realise it has been silently screaming in your mind, only waiting to be given a sound. STATE POWER’s quintessentially hardcore sound is a beautiful, almost pure-bred, every-beat-a-painting attempt of a genre otherwise concerned with setting fire to the paintbrush. Let it be known the brush is certainly still on fire- we are simply impressed that they have created such while it burns in their hands as it does the art in their minds.

Score: 7/10

Hyperstition will be released on the 28th August 2026 via Parasocial Records.

Words: Jakub Czaicki

Photos: State Power