Professor Oates, I love the sound of rugged hardcore punk musicians...

I love the sound of rugged hardcore punk musicians that always seem to find mutually beneficial relationships with sludge metal. Even if it’s just a touring relationship. In cases like the Australian based I, Exist utilizes both elements in order to wield a concussive collection of barbarous sweat soaked anthems. This fixating familiar sound rings notice to the tones of bands like His Hero is Gone or From Ashes Rise. They found their sweet spot with a tasteful tirade of toasty southern punk and metal. Bring ‘yer deepest bowls and serve up a heaping helping of this contusing cram-worthy (neo)crust chowder.

With the way II: The Broken Passage begins you’d think this record was written from deep in the heart of Beale street. That’s attributed to the burgeoning blues tinged fire of the guitars right from the get go. They’re soon joined by the bellows of attrition similar to that of Pliocene era Baroness. The majority of the tracks average about three minutes in length each. Inside these accounts you’ll be met with stomping synergy between the toight hardcore percussive attacks, dust spewing triple guitar congelations, and an un-showered suburban ham-beast sized bass tone.

Certain tracks on this record tend to lumber around like a day drinking Crowbar song. “Lungs of Mire” starts out that way, but shortly thereafter reaches full ignition. Aforementioned propulsion flings them into another furious hard styled sprint before concluding with a dismembering digression. Nothing left behind but a curling channel of feedback. Contrarily the coin flips on the proceeding track, entitled “Fleshold”, and promotes an authoritative salty shore hardcore vibe. I wonder what exactly a “fles hold” entails. I do know that I wouldn’t want to find myself on the receiving end of one given the bewildering antagonistic structure of the song itself. Less than a minute of beat down later we’re back to the battering slow motion crawling similar to that of Weedeater or Sourvein.

The record leaves you on that same motif, but may or may not contain an invigorating climactic guitar solo.

Summative Sentence: Golden fried sludge punk seasoned with an antagonistic blend of give an and take tenacity and subsequent delta derived heavy metal.

Favorite Track: Lungs of Mire