‘Where the fuck is my package, It was supposed to arrive two hours ago, I need that fucking baggage, Deliver me faster, deliver me first’ (Supply Chain Wallet)

Following up on their debut 2024 full-length, Let’s Kill Punk, New Orleans’ Paprika swiftly return with a new six-track self-titled EP.  You can’t help but continue to be struck by the band’s full-bore approach.  Everything feels as if it is dialled up to 10 and, if it is there to be hit, it is being hit as hard as humanly possible.  Quite literally a sonic bulldozer.

However, as you recover your senses after the initial onslaught, the band’s inventive song writing dynamics begin to compete for attention with the sheer velocity of the delivery.  The guitars have a satisfyingly mid-range buzz and the riffage is as nimble as it is muscular, while the rhythm section proves as dextrous as it is uncompromising.  This blend of brawn and brain is particularly successful on the rhythmically rabid Catonic Pisser and the bludgeoning Claw.

The snarling, echo doused vocals complement perfectly as they unleash a searingly clear eyed, sardonically observed assessment of our bleak predicament.  Unblinking Eyes takes aim at surveillance capitalism (‘no time to breathe, no time to feel’), before Catonic Pisser examines micro-plastics polluting our bodies (‘petrochemicals seep into my skin, dull my brain’).  Wasting Time, with its killer climatic solo, then belligerently tucks into workplace drudgery (‘sure let me get that for you, the pleasure is all mine’), while Supply Chain Wallet laments the relentless stoking of our unquenchable consumerism.