Labels: Toxic State
Review by: David Giles
NYC punk on Toxic State. Lots of influences showing through here and the EP lands somewhere in between G.I.S.M., “noisecore revival’ bands like Warning//Warning & Lebenden Toten and old scand. Raw punk/d-beat all filtered through more modern scrappy hardcore bands like Confines, Brain Handle etc. I wasn’t hugely into it at first, I guess because I was expecting a hardcore record, but this is pretty great. It makes me think of almost the evil twin of the Male Nurses 7”: same guitar lead-driven feel to it except where Male Nurses’ tracks are catchy, Crazy Spirit are creepy; where the MN EP has sing-along vocal hooks, CS have a near-black metal rip-off squawk. This is really dark and murky punk. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you’re into anything distorted that’s came out in the last 5 years.