Do you like punk? Do you like Noisy shit?
Terminal Bliss hopes so, because their new EP, Brute Err/ata, is goddamn noisy and very punk.
In 11 short minutes, this quartet composed of a who’s who of Virginia punk, including members of Pg. 99, Mammoth Grinder, and Suppression, kick in the door and lay waste to everything in sight.
They kick things off with “Clean Bill of Health," a song so drenched in cacophony one might initially mistake it for some kind of power electronics with drums.
The vocals spit out spite and disdain as the rest of the band seizes and thrashes underneath.
The riffs become a slight bit more decipherable as things proceed, but the intensity remains in the red the entire time.
“Anthropmorbid” follows up with a vile-spitting 28-second attack, ending with vocalist Chris Taylor ironically quipping, “Thanks for your patience."
“Small One Time Fee” sounds like Void jamming with Throbbing Gristle, while “Discarded Wallet” plays punk like it’s grindcore, utterly feral but just not quite as fast.
“March of the Grieving Droid” slows things up a bit, finding the group throwing out a bit of rock swagger before rediscovering the chaos near the end of the song.
Brute Err/ata culminates with “Hidden Handed Artificial Harassment Experimental Run Amok." Initially, they engage in another merciless D-beat assault, but they finally then succumb to their nosiest inclinations. The back half of the track is filled with punishing electronics and echoed vocals, raw and menacing, utterly punishing.
The older I get, the more I appreciate shorter releases. Ironically though, these leave you yearning for more and that is exactly what Terminal Bliss achieve here.
It’s safe to assume there’s only so much punishment a listener can take in one sitting, especially with the sound they achieve here, but Brute Err/ata makes you want to push your endurance to the limit so as to not be deprived of the pain.
We’ll see what they will ask of us next.
Get It
- Relapse Records (Vinyl, CD, digital, bundles)
Tagged: terminal bliss
