‘The violence erupts, A scorched earth, A lipless smile, Recognise the life gone, A history erased, A scorched earth’ (Scorched Earth)

Diploid hail from Melbourne and have been prolifically active in the Australian DIY scene for the past decade.  I Am Yours. And I Am Here Again is the band’s fourth full-length and follow-up to 2019’s Glorify.  It sees the band take their fierce fusing of chaotic hardcore and grindcore to new levels of ferocious inventiveness.  The album itself is, perhaps, best understood as a single visceral movement, packing as it does 18 songs into 25 whirlwind minutes, songs segueing almost seamlessly into one another.

Diploid though are experts in judging just when to change gears to ensure that their onslaught retains its unbridled intensity throughout.  Opener Falling, and closer Active Shooter, provide suitably discordant bookends to the sonic carnage, while tracks such as the crushing The World Is Overflowing With Sorrow, the swaggering Scorched Earth, and the utterly bruising His Arms Bound prove to be personal highlights.

The album’s title comes from a speech by exiled Turkish author and human rights activist, Dogan Aqhanla, when speaking at the Armenian Genocide Commemoration in Berlin in 2005.  The author’s work has been defined by explorations of genocide, and this together with processes of radicalisation provide the band’s lyrical fulcrum.

I had the pleasure of catching Diploid on their first European tour in July of last year.  And while my expectations were high, nothing quite prepared me for the battering that was delivered that evening.  Every aspect of their set from Mariam’s raw screams to Reece’s demonic roars, from the ferocious riffage to Scarlett’s brutally frenzied drumming was amplified beyond what felt physically possible.  Cathartic doesn’t even begin to describe the impact, and as the set ended you found yourself almost dazed from the brutal velocity of their performance.

This is the European pressing from Rope Or Guillotine.