Industrial Puke started in 2017 when Rentokiller vocalist, Jens Ekelin, called out for musicians to join him in creating a no-nonsense hardcore/death metal band influenced by Disrupt and Dismember. Two members of Rentokiller enrolled along with musicians from Swedish underground veterans, Burst and Gust. Why it took them so long to produce a seven-minute debut EP cannot be explained away by the disruption of Covid-19, but they already have an album in waiting for 2023, so you should look at this as a taster. And it tastes rancid.
Opener, ‘Mental Taxation’, takes the initiative with a strong gallop of crusty hardcore penetrated by the noxious gas of death metal before the band settle into their d-beat tempo. Lead vocalist, Linus Jägerskog, agonises with an exaggerated malevolence as the growling bass guitar frequency underneath competes for your attention. The switch to a higher-pitched scream technique is like Knocked Loose and Stray from the Path lowered by two semitones. Can you feel the rage racing through your veins? Industrial Puke act like they’ve heard nothing from hardcore or extreme metal since 1995, which does them no harm. The imperious Celtic Frost stride at the beginning of ‘Banished’ takes you back to 1985 but with a harmonic-minor loop of hardcore guitar rhythms. You could put this on the same stage as Napalm Death, but it would go down well with the Autopsy fanbase as well as the Power Trip loyalists.
Industrial Puke have no time for introspection or extra dimensional exploration on Where Life Crisis Starts. This raw back-to-basics approach serves them well on ‘Constant Pressure’, where they use the classic technique of cutting out the guitar post-chorus to give the bass and drums a chance to burrow through your skull with more subtle instruments. There might even be a shade of melody in the second guitar channel towards the end, but the noisy mix keeps you wondering if this is an illusion. The final title track scrapes past the one-minute mark in an industrial death metal mood, yet it’s over before you can make sense of it. Repeat listens leave you bewildered. Seven minutes of this could easily be fourteen without testing your patience. Another couple of songs would have been the sensible option, but the full-length debut arrives next year, which means they must be doing something right if you want more.
In theory, hardcore and death metal should not be natural bedfellows, but many of today’s extreme bands force you to ask if a reappraisal could change minds. Industrial Puke are part of that conversation, and their debut album next year looks set to force the question onto the agenda once again.
JVB
Verdict
Release Date: 16/09/2022
Record Label: Suicide Records
Standout tracks: Mental Taxation, Banished
Suggested Further Listening: Snafu – Exile // Banishment (2021), Carnage – Dark Recollections (1990), Nequient – Darker Than Death or Night (2022)