Today's Song of the Day comes courtesy of Porto, Portugal’s Borf. The self-titled debut from these coastal city crushers is dropping next month courtesy of Germany’s Lower Class Kids Records and it’s an absolute rager worth marking your calendars for.
The aforementioned label is a clear indication of the quality herein, as they’ve been consisting churning out crucial cassettes since 2017, handling overseas tape releases for Drill Sergeant, Bas Rotten, Scalp, and Spy, among others.
With a bio name-checking the mighty Kickback, the white-knuckled pummeling that follows should be no surprise but that’s but a sliver of the influence on display here. I hear elements of crushing D-beat, blackened hardcore, and early ‘oughts metalcore played by a band unafraid to ratchet up the bpm rate. At times approaching the speed trial tempos of grindcore, it calls to mind the “feel good” melange of Richmond’s Candy, almost moving and forever morphing.
Lead single “Endeavor” scrapes itself into existence with a fleeting moment of piercing feedback and squall of noise. It quickly segues into a massive wall of crust-laden fury, peddling something akin to All Pigs Must Die, Baptists, or latter day Nails. The vocals are furious and their backing shouts are impossibly burly.
After the initial build, the 90 seconds fly by on a wave of mutilated melody, burying deeply any sense of hooks or melody. As ferocious as the band behind the vocalist gets, there’s still an edge of chaotic screamo’s, uhhhh, emotional strain a la Birds In Row that keeps the proceedings from veering into apocalyptic nihilism or outright intimidation.
It also borrows from the cacophonous clatter that’d satisfy fans of Gulch, Porcupine, and other subgenre manglers. Take note… this is for y’all.
“Endeavor” is but one of 7. If it’s any indication, the impending collection looks to be exhilarating. Call it whatever you wanna, Borf rules. I warned you.
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Borf will be out on June 11th and can be pre-ordered via the Lower Class Kids Records Bandcamp page.
Tagged: borf
