Warfare is a split album that sees two stalwart bands of Japanese metallic crust, Ulcer and Disturd, combine forces to darkly compelling effect.

‘They toy with them at their pleasure, like wolves in sheep’s clothing, corrupt master’ (Foxes)

The first side sees Ulcer take the reins with their first new material since their 2017 debut 12-inch, Vandalism.  The band emerged from the ashes of Effigy and Axewielder, a lineage that is richly evident across their four tracks.

Before the trio get down to business proper, the barrelling instrumental opener, Vacancy, primes proceedings perfectly.  Darkly smouldering, ominously doom-laden riffage forms the heart of the battery, locking into a mid-paced heft that is underpinned by a loose limbed yet fiercely propulsive rhythm section.  Meanwhile, the guttural vocals confront a global economic system predicated on exploiting the most marginalised.

The bleakness of the atmosphere conjured, evokes thoughts of late 1980s’ UK crust influences being melded with a healthy lacing of early 1990s’ US metallic hardcore – think, perhaps, Axegrinder meets Culture – and executed with seriously aggressive intent.  Babel and Warfare land with a particularly savage velocity.

‘The reality reflects, undisputed truth, legalized murders in the name of democracy’ (Day)

Disturd, also a trio, take charge for the flipside.  They have been honing their sound for nearing two decades and this release follows up their most recent 12-inch, 2025’s Vision.

Disturd bookend their side with two hauntingly reflective instrumentals and the balance of their tracks then draw on many of the same fundamentals as Ulcer.  The difference lies in the balance of how they are deployed.  Disturd choosing to give prominence to the sheer muscularity of the riffage over any melodic flirtations, as particularly embodied by the monolithic power of Under The Warfare and Wave.

The focus here is on delivering bone shuddering heaviness.  An emphasis matched by the roared vocals, which are intertwined with cleaner backing, as they contemplate a world sinking into the morass of endless war.  It speaks to a blend of the crust fired crunch of S.D.S with the more contemporary brawn of, say, Heiress.