SECTIONED

Annihilated SELF-RELEASED Frenzied Frontierer members bring the maths and the muck

This is gloriously filthy, meticulously crafted, conventiondefying hardcore. Comprising four-fifths of Edinburgh’s (also brilliant) Frontierer, Sectioned take that band’s mathcore mentality and stab its kidney with a snotty shiv made of punk. Annihilated’s 13 tracks all roll with sphincter-tightening ferocity, the time-signatures flailing, feedback-bellowing, Kurt Ballouesque production choking any love, any compassion that might have slipped through. Glitchy electronics are utilised best on the tech-metal masterpiece Portrait, but in no way like The Dillinger Escape Plan. Nah. Rather than melodically entice, electronics are deployed to distract, to misinform, to give you the fucking willies. Everything about Annihilated is intense, the rare quiet patches just feeding the tension. And while not as obviously ‘hooky’ as bands like The Armed and Converge, Sectioned do have earworms – they’re just harder to catch. An uncompromisingly defiant debut album.

Nappies recommended. FOR FANS OF: THE ARMED, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, WILL HAVEN