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Yellowcake: A Fragmented Truth 7” (Total Peace Records / Not for the Weak Records) Phoenix, Arizona’s Yellowcake returns with their second 6-song EP, once again a split release with their hometown label Total Peace Records and east coast powerhouses Not for the Weak Records. As much as I loved Yellowcake’s first EP, Can You See the Future? (which we named Record of the Week in November 2023), when I saw the band play live I thought they were even better than the record, and I hoped their follow-up would reach the bar they set at that gig. Now that A Fragmented Truth has arrived, it exceeds all expectations. While very much the same band, Yellowcake takes a gnarlier turn on A Fragmented Truth, shifting the focus from the driving, fist-pumping rhythms of Can You See the Future? to something more jagged. The sound on A Fragmented Truth is slightly murkier and denser than the debut, and it’s altogether more punishing, de-emphasizing the agile stops and starts in favor of sheer, pummeling force. Yet, as the label’s description astutely notes, there’s a strong emphasis on textural variation here… frequently, Yellowcake is pounding away at what appears to be maximum intensity when a guitar track blindsides you with an attack from a frequency range that didn’t seem to exist a moment earlier. Similarly, the vocals sound even more dialed in here, taking the same approach as the first EP, but with a sound that’s both coarser and richer in tone. A must for fans of the noisiest, nastiest hardcore, A Fragmented Truth captures an already great band getting even better.