SLUGCRUST – Discharge(d) EP

With its combination of hardcore punk bass grumbling, abrasive vocals, crust punk edge and grindcore ferocity, Slugcrust’s contributions to ‘Bind’ – a split EP release with hardcore/crust punk band Swamp – gave listeners a window into some tautly arranged, but truly uncompromising noise. Despite the most intensive riffs attacking like a cross between early Napalm Death and classic Discharge, the band clearly decided that simply wasn’t brutal enough and have cranked up their sonic attack about threefold for this absolutely punishing follow up. On ‘Discharge(d)’, most of the material takes its cues from their previous EP’s ‘Decibel Rebellion’ and increases not only the speed but also the volume on four of the five tracks. If that’s not enough, it allows its title cut to deliver a brutal, doomy assault that fans are unlikely to forget.

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TROCAR – Four Forfeit Digits EP

Advertised as “a love letter to Relapse Records” and inspired by bands like Mortician, this debut release from Arizona’s Trocar really doesn’t mess about. Its four tracks serve up lightning fast sheets of noise where industrial noise collides with the insanity of grindcore, aiming to hammer the listener into submission in record time. Valuing a relentless intensity over indulgence, it creates pure noise without sacrificing tightness or complexity.

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CORRUPT MORAL ALTAR – Patiently Waiting For Wonderful Things EP

A band who’ve previously given the world songs like ‘Insect Politicians’, ‘Politics Is A Bargaining Tool Between Beggars’ and the especially chipper ‘Destroying Everything You Believe In’, Liverpool’s Corrupt Moral Altar have carved out a career out of being especially provocative. Their 2020 EP ‘Patiently Waiting For Wonderful Things’ continues their trend for musical assaults combined with razor-edged lyrical imagery.

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NEGATIVE THOUGHT PROCESS – Hell Is…Much Better Than This

Bringing together ex-members of Strike Offensive and Victorian Whore Dogs, UK crust punk/hardcore band Negative Thought Process are an angry bunch. ‘Hell Is…Much Better Than This’ finds the trio absolutely raging through a half dozen tracks in under ten minutes, but also stretching out musically a little further than you’d expect from a band so heavily influenced by grind/crust sounds. It’s all relative, of course, as its difficult to stretch too far when you’ve set boundaries that dictate that nothing should exceed two minutes, but NTP often sound so much more interesting than a lot of similar bands.

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