‘With a future so grievous, It’s easy to fatigue, We’re all mad and tired, Show them, Collective action can start many fires’ (Idle Animosity)

Hailing from Richmond Virginia, Siphon’s debut EP, Stark Raving Mad, erupts out the gates at a ferociously frenetic pace and it doesn’t take its foot off the pedal for the duration of the four blistering tracks.  Influences from earlier generations of UK and Japanese hardcore are evident and then refashioned through a more contemporary lens – metallic in form, raw in execution.

Waves of surging riffage unfurl throughout, exuberant solos fleetingly flare and die, the battery propelled by a manically relentless rhythm section.  Meanwhile, the savagely rasping vocals breathlessly confront the authoritarian slide engulfing the US, still hopeful that redemption can be found amid collective action.  The frantic opener Mass Casualty Incident and the equally unrestrained title track land with a particular snap.