Corpse Rat/Feral Blood & Stress Ghetto/Sick Old Man.

It wasn’t that long ago that I was writing about the full-throttle debuts from Wellington, New Zealand punk bands Corpse Rat and Stress Ghetto, and here they are once again. This time though, Corpse Rat are sharing a 7" release with Nelson-based brain-smashers Feral Blood, while Stress Ghetto are splitting a 7" with Auckland's d-beat reprobates Sick Old Man. All of those bands have delivered filthy, uncompromising music in the past, and their recent splits are just as strident. In fact, all of the music mentioned below is about as fucking horrible and hostile as you could hope for.

Corpse Rat/Feral Blood (Razored Raw, Always Never Fun)
Noise punk sadists Corpse Rat have an unhealthy obsession with ultra-abrasive Japanese hardcore, and they throw plenty of raw first wave black metal into the mix too. Trio Feral Blood also make obnoxious, ill-tempered music. But they sound more inspired by scungy Scandi d-beat. It doesn’t matter that Corpse Rat and Feral Blood have different, albeit equally riotous, influences though; they still make for perfect split-release comrades. Chiefly because both bands make intensely visceral music.

Corpse Rat deliver three songs on their split with Feral Blood, and all of those tracks are blown-out, cacophonous onslaughts.(Just like every song on Corpse Rat's defiant debut.) The bass-heavy crasher crust of “War Horrors” is followed by the savage and icier chill of “Candidate Carcass”, which is followed up by the feedbacking barrage of “Static Death”. All of Corpse Rat’s contributions are remorseless head-splitters – i.e. first-rate Nightmare or Reality via Bathory rawcore – and there's no mistaking that the band's red-lining vocals and harsh instrumentation dramatically underscore Corpse Rat’s 'fuck you' sound and vision.

Feral Blood’s three songs on the split pummel ’n’ batter with bruising impact. Bassist Talia and drummer Haig share vocals on “Graveyard Earth”, “Blood on Chrome” and “Call of the Wild”, and they both tear into those songs with throat-shredding vigour. Feral Blood deliver propulsive d-beat fuelled by an almost Motörcharged momentum. Jagged riffs come thick and fast, backed by a burly rhythmic uproar, and there are even a few rock-solid hooks buried in all the breakneck chaos. Dig in if Anti Cimex or any of their thundering descendants are your thing. And make sure to check out Feral Blood's rip-roaring demo too.

Stress Ghetto/Sick Old Man (Self-released)
I just realised today that this is the third release from Stress Ghetto that I’ve covered in the past eight months on Six Noises. First, I featured the trio’s frenzied self-titled debut, which was released by local label Razored Raw. Then I covered the band’s raging Material Hardship 7", which was released by Wellington labels Always Never Fun and Limbless Music. And now Stress Ghetto are unleashing more warp-speed blasts of noise on their self-released split with blackened d-beat and crust crew Sick Old Man.

Stress Ghetto tear into degenerate hardcore with a powerviolence sledgehammer on their split release songs – which were all recorded back in mid-2017. Tracks like “Antibiotic Resistant Strain”, “Floorpuncher” and “A.B.M.F” are raw explosions that detonate with off-the-chain ferocity. (And Stress Ghetto’s dark sense of humour is fully intact on their split too.) I don’t know if it’s an extension of Stress Ghetto’s underground or DIY attitude, but I couldn't find any of their split tracks streaming online. I guess that means you'll need to grab a physical copy of their 7" split or miss out on their latest blistering rants ’n’ raves. FYI: don’t be a chump in that regard. Grab a copy, forthwith.

Auckland crusties Sick Old Man deliver two unruly tracks on their side of the split, and “Bacchanalia” and “Anarchia” are both bile-spitting bursts of vitriol. Much like Corpse Rat, Sick Old Man inject raw and spiteful black metal into their d-beaten råpunk. Meaning the band’s growled/gravelled vocals, buzzsawing/bone-chilling guitars, and concussive percussion make for a vicious and venomous brew. And you could almost say that Sick Old Man sound like Why?-era Discharge covering Transilvanian Hunger-era Darkthrone. (I mean, they don’t. But they kind of do, –ish.)

Sick Old Man’s raucous 2016 debut, Tribunus Plebis, was a deafening good time. But aside from a couple of compilation tracks, the band’s output has been thin on the ground since then. That absolutely increases the enjoyment factor on their split with Stress Ghetto. Because it’s simply great to hear Sick Old Man adding more audio nastiness to the pile.