Retox

Best known recently for their costumed, synth-led blast beats in the Locust, Justin Pearson and Gabe Serbian have delivered another hard-hitting, genre-bending outfit with latest project Retox. Pearson's resume includes such notable heavy, experimental acts as Swing Girls and Some Girls, while Serbian boasts time in bands like Cattle Decapitation and Holy Molar. The point is that, along with the rest of the band, Retox are a finely tuned and aggressive machine with a clear sonic goal: producing stripped down, brutal blasts of hardcore with no pretensions or extraneous parts. Like spiritual peers Daughters (circa-Canada Songs) or Pearson and Serbian's Head Wound City, the songs on Ugly Animals are primal and unforgiving in their speed and Pearson's vocal intensity. Recorded directly to tape, the roughness isn't just in the compositions, but the recording itself, which buzzes with complementary harshness.