One year after Swvmps, first of the name, which came out on the first day of 2017, American electro-hardcore project Rabitrup will release Swvmps Ⅱ; on 5 January. The so-called “sludgestep” entity is a tough one to label traditionally, although I’d say it’s some sort of electronic-heavy experimental post-hardcore. The synths have the same intensity, even more so perhaps, than those found in Phuture Doom‘s “blackstep” experiment, but Rabitrup lack any sort of parallel to metal music, technically. Of course, there are the cathartic screams, and the intensity of metal is conveyed perfectly through the synthesized instruments here, but there is no trace and no will of resemblance to metal beyond this point, I believe. The three songs here make up twenty minutes of ear-shattering synths. There’s a lot of influence from breakcore, drill and bass, and noise music, too, as prominently features on the droning, highly distorted, nine-minute closing track, “Walls”. Swvmps Ⅱ promises to be one of the harshest early releases of 2018.

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An advanced digital copy of the album was sent to us for review.