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The decline of western civilization continues to ensue, and bands like Rolex and Grimly Forming continue to rattle the walls of the LA punk scene with menacing hardcore mania. On their latest split, these bands combine forces to double the threat, though their styles are distinctly unique. Side A: Grimly Forming delivers unrelenting blows to the head with their sinister Fear meets United Mutations flavor of US hardcore. Their riffs are abrasive and discordant. The vocals are deeply evil. The vibes are very harsh. Side B: Rolex Pummel listeners with chaotic rhythms and scratchy, off-kilter violent jangle. On this split the band went in more of a clean-hardcore direction- think Bad Brains meets Minutemen- the drums and guitars going bonkers. Then they threw in some tactical thrash going a million miles an hour while high on a million beers just for fun. Calculated and pulverizing mayhem. This split is a double feature of wonky, LA punk at its best.
Our take: 11PM Records brings us a split from these two perfectly matched LA punk bands. While Grimly Forming and Rolex sound pretty different when you describe them—the former plays weird hardcore with black metal touches, while the latter plays arty proto-hardcore—their music has a similar overall tone and feel: fast, minimalistic, agitated, and progressive. Rolex—a band we’ve been following for many years at Sorry State—delivers their most compelling material yet with a set of skronky, bass-led numbers that sound like the moments in the early Minutemen and Saccharine Trust catalogs most influenced by Wire’s Pink Flag. Here Rolex also reminds me of Texas’s Blue Dolphin in the way they embrace both the freewheeling, anything-goes hippie mentality and intense musical chops (see: the crazy drumming on “Destination Moon”) that characterized the early SST set. As for Grimly Forming, their sound is similarly thin and arty, but their vocals are nastier and more guttural and their drummer incorporates blasting techniques that remind me of Norwegian black metal, particularly those moments that feel eerie and weightless. While that’s a big part of Grimly Forming’s sound, they also have a knack for writing killer mid-paced riffs, which you hear on “Killing Spree,” “Passing Cars,” and the climactic “The Mirror,” whose riff approaches Warthog levels of battering ram catchiness. The split record is kind of a dying art, but this one knocks it out of the park with a full helping of grade-A material from two bands who are well-matched but different enough to complement one another.