‘Can’t shake the feeling that you would rather me be dead, Waste of space, waste of time, waste of love, I am nothing, Trust the process, I am dying, I will starve until I die’ (Trust The Process)

Melbourne’s Diploid return with a new blistering five-track EP, Mantra, and follow-up to 2021’s coruscating full-length, I Am Yours. And I am Here Again.  Their fierce blend of grindcore and chaotic hardcore continues to be refined as it is woven through with slabs of muscular death metal-tinged riffs, flourishes of discordant melody, and bruising blast beat fuelled eruptions.

Meanwhile, guttural roared and harrowingly harsh vocals intertwine and interchange to devastating effect.  Lyrically, bleakly allusive imagery of self-doubt, body image, starvation, and coping strategies tell both a deeply personal story, while simultaneously evoking the devastating social inequality and environmental exploitation being wreaked in the name of progress.

As ever, the band’s delivery is elevated by two defining characteristics.  Firstly, an unbridled velocity that few can match and that simply leaves you reeling.  And, secondly, their skilled grasp of the dynamics of song building that ensure that each track retains a keen sense of its own identity amid the unrelenting onslaught.

The savage opening title track sets the tone perfectly before feeding into the brutal riffage of Denial Defensive.  The intensity is unyielding across the more melodic fury of Me And My Numbers and the monolithic Practice Of Perishing, before the utterly compelling Trust The Progress sees a swaggering opening salvo dissolve into an agonised, squalling climax.  An absolute sledgehammer of an EP, sonic violence applied with punishing precision and inventive dexterity.