Laid To Waste’ finds Horsewhip in the same general realm as 2018’s self-titled debut, but with the sound bulked out and the tension ratcheted even tighter. Their piss n’ bile hardcore still pulls from multiple sources – slab-like metallic crunches; jittery dissonance; spaced-out wiggles – but things seem somehow more complete, with every lunge, crunch and rumble precision-tooled to cause maximum damage. I’m reminded a lot of a modernized take on the late 90s Prank Records sound that managed to take in Damad, His Hero Is Gone and Guyana Punchline: heavy, crusty, uncomfortably jagged and driven by a ferocious sense of purpose.
