Minneapolis’ War Plague and Stockholm’s Svaveldioxid join forces for a thoroughly uncompromising split 7-inch.

War Plague and Svaveldioxid have shared an enviable commitment to consistently releasing new music over many years.  Indeed, last year War Plague released their fifth LP, The Rot Thickens, and Svaveldioxid, both a split EP with Destruct and their sixth full-length, Misär O.D (Misery O.D).  And while every band works at its own pace, Absurd Depravity is proof that both these bands thrive on this productivity.

‘A silver spooned fascist, Power hungry addicts, There is no future, Our future’s the past’ (Hellscape)

War Plague kick things off with the searing Hellscape, marshalling muscular metallic crust riffage, with a soaring melancholic melodic motif, and typically cymbal awash drums.  This is a momentum that the surging velocity of Pyre does not allow to go to waste for even a moment.  Meanwhile, the savagely growled vocals survey a world being gutted by corporate greed and government complicity.

‘Man kvinnor och barn, Omringade i staden, Dödsdömda av varlden, Och skjutna av blockaden’ / ‘Men, women and children, Surrounded in the city, Condemned to death by the world, And shot by the blockade’ (Sarajevo ’92)

While War Plague’s metallic inclinations are filtered through an avowedly crust filter, Svaveldioxid’s downtuned buzzsaw riffage is immersed in the rhythms of Swedish käng.  Their opening track, Sarajevo ’92, is built round an absolutely crushing opening and a venomous central riff, while Masspyskos (Mass Psychosis) sees the band let their pummelling mid-paced groove take centre stage.  The semi-shouted, echo saturated vocals explore the horror of the world’s inaction in the face of the Siege of Sarajevo and the seemingly ceaseless spread of mass shootings.