Extreme Noise Terror / Trap Them

Released in conjunction with their recent co-tour and featuring one song from each band, this one-sided split 7” is a quick blast that will please old fans and also serves as a worthy introduction for new listeners.

The average ‘Org reader will be most familiar with Extreme Noise Terror as a name often seen on a black and white cloth patch on a local crust punk’s pants. You know...the one that is made entirely of patches. This legendary British crust grind band even enjoyed some brief mainstream attention in their homeland thanks to the late John Peel. Their 1:33 length contribution on this split is long by their standards, but still sounds like you would expect with a feedback intro, dirty but thick production, grimy heavy guitars, and guttural vocals. The insanely fast drums stand out on this track with some cool fills including that classic triplet snare fill so prevalent in this style. If you like this stuff, this track will most definitely suit your needs.

Trap Them have been on fire with their last few releases and continue their smoldering run with “Day 18: Enders.” They try to one-up the speed on ENT’s track before giving into their inner Entombed and unleashing a brutal 3/4 breakdown that wraps up the song quickly. While Trap Them is essentially a grindcore band, they are surprisingly musical. From their near-perfect tone of their overall sound to the small instrumental flourishes, they know their strengths and how to use them.

Pairing a legendary band with a new group is a cool idea for a split and you probably won’t find much better specimens of this genre. However, with the entire thing clocking in under three minutes it will either leave you shaking your head in disbelief at the sheer absurdity of such a short release or otherwise reaching for other releases by these bands.