Browsing Tag

Grindcore

Skitz Wizards sharpened their knives in ‘Anger as a Weapon’

The title single from Skitz Wizards’ 2023 EP, Anger as a Weapon, is a vitriolic hardcore punk cut above the rest. There’s enough cathartic venom to make the reprehensible actions of our disaster capitalist overlords momentarily bearable.

With ample distortion in their arsenal, the Nottingham-based outfit, which says true to the virtue of early anarcho-punk, is abrasive enough to put Napalm Death in the same league as Ed Sheeran.

Founded in 2021, the duo set out to extend sonic escapism to the downtrodden. Given the socio-politically agitated environment we are all suffocating in as poverty becomes more prolific, it should come as no surprise that plenty of the increasingly disenfranchised populous is tuning into the raw distorted bass and breakdowns that can effortlessly match our own mental turmoil.

Anger as a Weapon is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Grindcore meets Sludge Metal in XMALCOLMX’s humanity damning single ‘MAN IS THE PREY’

Sludge Metal, Black Metal, Nu Metal and Grindcore all cataclysmically collide in the 2020 album from  XMALCOLMX, ‘MAN IS THE PREY’. Each track exhibits the Stockton, California-hailing artist’s experimental style which has set the benchmark for boundary-pushing within the DIY music scene of Northern California. If you want the best introduction to XMALCOLMX’s addictively visceral sound, hit play on the title single.

The progressive track kicks off with distorted trepidation and hostility before rhythm starts to break through the caustic sonic sludge and punky protestive vocals bounce along with the monumental progressions. With an aural curveball at every turn in the tight instrumentals and the vocals proving to be just as versatile, MAN IS THE PREY quickly entices you through the addictively rhythmic abrasive energy

You can check out MAN IS THE PREY along with the rest of XMALCOLMX’s sludgy masterpiece for yourselves by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast