Oh boy, do we have a fiery fifty-five seconds of grindcore for you today. The City of Angels is the home of March’s noisiest musical offering, one being delivered by the brutes who go by Skullsmasher. Pairing with Polish extreme darling Selfmadegod Records, Skullsmasher are just about ready to let the world hear their fantastic debut LP, Rocket Hammer Brain Surgery (best album title of 2019, don’t even bother disputing this), but until then, consider yourself lucky to have an early listen of the opening track, “Negative Pressure Pulverization”. On with the show!

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Featuring members of underground acts such as Draghkar, Azath, and Ripped To Shreds, Skullsmasher play the kind of hyper deathgrind that fans of Insect Warfare and Maruta alike should find appealing. “Negative Pressure Pulverization” sets the ball rolling on their debut LP with a track that feeds the attention-deficit a hearty dose of rough and ready grind medicine. The sub-minute length can’t hold these Cali natives back from ripping through a smorgasbord of shifting riffs and sweat-soaked blasts, all delivered behind a cavernous vocal display that balances precariously, but impeccably, between death metal ‘urgh’ and grindcore ‘aaah’. Majestic, truly.

The promotional materials offer up a mature explanation of the band’s sound, referencing the “dissonance and chaos fought in the battlefield of minds”, and I get it. If you asked 2000AD comics to soundtrack one of their violent, dystopian comics (much like the artwork for the record which is just god damn stunning), ninety-nine times out of a hundred they’d pick Skullsmasher. Rocket Hammer Brain Surgery is a grind-attack on the senses and it feels designed to blend your grey matter into a fine, useless powder. The band left us with these parting words and they’ll make sense once you’ve blasted through this delightful, devastating premiere.

“DRAINAGE. EARTH SUCKED DRY BY OUR GREED. THE FASTER WE WORK, THE FASTER WE DIE. PULVERIZED INTO ASH BY THE NEGATIVE PRESSURE OF SOCIETY.”



Rocket Hammer Brain Surgery (seriously, what a title) sees release on March 29th, with preorders available via Selfmadegod and Skullsmasher themselves. Treat yourself to some auditory mayhem this Easter. You deserve it.