‘Nos aplasta ya, nos desplazan ya, Nos arrastran a ese otro lado donde no quieren estar, El futuro es colonizado otra vez’ (El Himno Desentonado De Una Nación Moribunda) / ‘They crush us now, they displace us now, They drag us to that other side where they don’t want to be, The future is colonized again’ (The Dissonant Anthem Of A Dying Nation)

Mexico City’s Soga made quite a stir with their demo back in 2018, which was promptly put to vinyl by Iron Lung.  They are now back, and if you enjoyed that first release, you are going to absolutely love their debut album proper, Corrosión.  The trio deliver hardcore that is fast and intense, yet as you spend time with the album it begins to reveal layers that give an enduring depth beyond the raw immediacy.  And it is those unexpected twists that will keep drawing you back into its impassioned embrace.

At the heart of the band’s sound is their fiercely tight rhythm section, which locks in an unrelenting groove that, in turn, allows the guitar to indulge in its own freewheeling excursions into swaggering, blues fuelled solos.  The bassist and guitarist share vocal duties, and they alternate and overlay their semi-shouted vocals with an invigorating and confrontational dynamism.  The band’s tight grip on these fundamentals then affords them the scope to embrace more unexpected eruptions of late 1970s’ punk uproar and flares of post-punk melancholy with a wonderfully organic ease.

Meanwhile, Soga delve unflinchingly into the issues facing Mexican society from land seizures and gentrification to mass graves and disappearances, all while under the suffocating choke of state and church.  From the blistering opener, Mi Cadáver (My Corpse), it is an exhilarating ride as they sweep through the raucously unhinged El Himno Desentonado De Una Nación Moribunda to the the melodically layered N, and then the urgently surging Comer Pavimento (Eat Pavement).