haust - ride the relapse (2008)

This band calls to my mind a specific emotion, or perhaps a state of mind, that I'm not sure there is a word for. The closest match might be "frenzy"- a sort of unhinged, panicked rage. On Ride the Relapse, the debut album from this Norwegian band, this frenzy is expressed as crunchy, nihilistic hardcore punk. It's a particularly heavy and metallic take on hardcore, sounding somewhat like a stripped-down version of Converge. It also straddles the line between punk and black metal- the riffs wouldn't sound out of place on one of the new Darkthrone albums, and it's really only the restrained drumming that prevents this from crossing over into actual black metal. Matching the aggressive mania of the music, singer Vebjørn Guttormsgaard Mølleberg shrieks and raves about white trash, drugs, Oslo and whatever else manages to catch his hate. It's an excellent debut and perfect listening for when you put on headphones to drown out all the human waste in the world.

Haust - White Trash Extravaganza
Haust - Ugly Fucking Oslo