‘I watched my parents kill themselves at work just to feed me, And I’m killing myself in the same way, But I struggle to feed myself’ (Death To All Oppressors)

I first came across Lágrimas (Tears) through their searing 2023 split album, which brilliantly juxta posed their savage eruptions with the expansive atmospherics of Habak.  This is the Los Angeles band’s first vinyl release since then, and features the band’s latest five-track EP, I’m Not Strong Enough For This, and then on the flipside a reworking of their first four-track demo, 2019’s Like When I Was A Kid.

Their melodic crust continues to ferociously fuse detonations of viscerally cathartic hardcore with passages of beguilingly introspective melody.  The earlier material is, perhaps, more rooted in the classic dynamics of late 1990s’ screamo, with the band’s subsequent evolution placing greater emphasis on the soaring intensity of their neo-crust influences.

The harshly roared vocals build connections between the forces of capitalist extraction that are ravaging the planet (Our Decline), relentlessly grinding our communities into the dust (Death To The Oppressors), and fuelling the murderous violence in Gaza (They Get Paid For It).  Following the serpentine vehemence of the opening I’m Not Strong Enough For This, these latter two tracks land an utterly venomous, darkly anthemic one-two, before the fiercely writhing finale of Devil Wind.