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Are you pro-cimex or Anti-cimex? If you answered the latter, then this devastating slab of dark chaos is for you. Fragment have been producing some of the most blown out D-beat hardcore in Canada for the past couple years and this new e.p. is no exception. Picking up where their 2017 lp 'In The Dust' left off, Serial Mass Destruction sees the group at their best yet, dragging this raw punk beast through the same Scandinavian and Japanese influences while being cut to hell in a sea of spikes and studs. A one time pressing of 300 copies, expect something special for the preorder copies so don't sleep.
Our take: Serial Mass Destruction is the latest EP from these Canadian crusties, and I’m loving their combination of raw, d-beat ferocity and avant-garde touches. When I first dropped the needle on this record, the thin, trebly sound was striking, making me wonder if this would be a throwback to the era of half-assed MySpace crust. Listen past the hiss, cymbal wash, and feedback and you’ll hear a rhythm section that sounds like it’s trying to play along with Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing at 78rpm. While the sound here is noisy, it feels artistically so, with strange timbres like the unidentifiable high-pitched noise in “Bodies” as intriguing as anything you’ll find on a harsh noise or power electronics record. My favorite track, though, is the closing “Hatred Spreads,” whose lumbering, Amebix-inspired groove allows the experimental touches to bubble to the surface, reminding me of that killer recent EP from Rigorous Institution. The brittle sound might turn some people off, but fans of progressive d-beat will want to check this out.