‘It all falls from the sky, heaven’s gone, Damned to the wastelands, collateral damage in the kingdom of the sick’ (A Crisis Area Forever)

Duhkha is a concept common to Buddhism and Hinduism that acts as a catch all for any phenomena that innately provokes a feeling of unease.  And it would be no understatement to say that the band fully animate their moniker – their utterly bruising debut album, and follow-up to 2022’s self-titled EP, bristles with a profound and unflinching sense of disquiet.

Hailing from Southern California, the band features members of Dangers, Seizures, and Eighteen Visions, and their sonic foundations are very much those of late 1990s’ metallic hardcore in the vein of Deadguy and Coalesce.  Dense, discordant guitars veer from slabs of staccato fury to dissonant melody, underpinned by a polyrhythmic cyclone of a rhythm section.  Meanwhile, demonically growled vocals weave a desolate, cosmic tinged telling of apocalyptic futures.

The battery is ferociously heavy, the atmosphere unrelentingly oppressive.  Stand-out tracks range from the doom infused Arrows and monolithic rage of Heaven Screen to the brutally crushing A Crisis Area Forever.  The first sustained respite arrives on the album’s more expansive final track, Null, as a rousing valedictory chorus segues into a billowing post-metal climax.