Record of the Week: Scumraid: The End 7"

Scumraid: The End 7" (Crust War Records) We last heard from Seoul, South Korea’s Scumraid in 2018 when they released Control, and the six-year break seems to have served them well. Like their tour-mates in Physique, Scumraid elevates the crasher crust sound without reinventing the wheel, their powerful playing, dynamic performances, and adventurous production making the genre sound invigorated. In fact, I’d say The End is by far Scumraid’s best material. I love the format of The End—eight short blasts of raw punk fury—and the production is crisper than on their previous record, Control, with ear-splitting high frequencies and a command of textural dynamics akin to D-Clone’s. One of my favorite things in this style of crasher crust is when it feels like it’s blazing along at the absolute maximum intensity, then suddenly a new frequency leaps from the shadows and plows into you from an angle you didn’t know existed. The End is full of those moments, avoiding the stretched-out psychedelic end of the crasher crust spectrum in favor of short, fast, loud, and bludgeoning. It’s also worth noting that, as of now, this EP is only available as a Japanese import and isn’t streaming online anywhere, so you’re going to have to trust us when we say how hard it rips. But I can’t imagine anyone who’s plugged into the DIY hardcore network enough to lay their hands on a copy will be disappointed.