Golden Torso EP on 25 Diamonds Records

Based on this color insert in the single from Golden Torso you’re dealing with a four piece of bearded, tattooed giants. They’re understandably crafting thrashy, hardcore tunes and remind me of friends who would be guaranteed to help my grandma cross the street. Like Fucked Up, there’s way more than what you’d expect on the surface. Especially front man Monotone Sweatshirt who growls and yells through "Broken Extra Arms" along with a muted crunch from 2FirstNames on guitar. The amp hum is incorporated into the loose distortion and muscly riff that grinds around like slightly out of sync gears .

Take your arms and jump around / you are dead / in my head

There's an echo of space surrounding these chords when they stop, silent for a moment. A solo breaks through and they’re on to "I Killed Miss Elizabeth". They keep the sound quality appropriately hardcore, they don’t compress or add too much artificial room sound, half of the battle is won is in this recording. Great vocal rhythm in the lyric

Times are rough around this town / this town

They drop out so that bass line can come up front for a minute, keeping the vocal (sonically) clean, he's got a clear message which never stops speeding along. Who wouldn't want to play with this kind of energy? It doesn't give the audience much time to react but that's the inherent strength in the genre. There's no way to break through this aggression, you're powerless - take it in, this show of force with enough real melodic rock to actually move around to. I hear some Hot Snakes speed and complexity minus the crystal production, appropriately rough around the edges.

B-Side’s "Bear Claws" lays on phasery distortion and flying solos, on the attack from the first measure, they seem to be taking disjointed parts and slamming them together, fusing weird little riffs that shouldn't necessarily end up together. A melodic fast solo and the lead trade the spotlight with lyrics about wounds and fathers. “To Hell in July" has a grindy distorted harmony, which starts this tempo before the drums join in. This is most like Fucked Up, maybe in “These sheets are made of cancer!" punctuated with layers of band vocals. This riff bends down into a crowd of vocals, this track is their strongest to me, combining their energy to this point with unique guitar work, especially this crunchy unison part. This isn't typical hardcore that wallows in that end game, this has enough tune to become an anthem to sing along with at their show, and I don't think these guys would have a problem with that.

Cool purple and black smashed swirl vinyl on 25 Diamonds Records.