Mysterious Skin is a punk band from Seattle, WA which incorporates all of the best aspects of the realm of heavy aggressive rock music. Their most recent EP, Hard Grip, is their third release, following a 8-song demo and a 5-song tour tape. The band relies on d-beat as their sonic predilection but uses it as a vehicle to explore their clear desire to explore musical brutality over genre adherence, shifting from expertly riffed snot street punk of Midwestern punk influence and disturbingly fast grindcore of Coke Bust-tempo acceleration. Scanning all three releases chronologically, the band literally gets faster and faster with time. It’s their sense of urgency, which seems to be of a kind that is almost exclusive to the west coast, that sets them apart. Some bands sound tired even on their recordings, but the true spirit of hardcore comes in its ability to force the listeners heart rate to quicken, as though the message the band is delivering will cause combustion if it isn’t delivered. The vocals are searing, and at times as quickly delivered as the music. The snare drum rolls in the song “Type A Violence” don’t seem humanly possible, while the tremolo picked single note shreds feel like a drilling in the brain. Mysterious Skin is best for fans of Permanent Ruin, In Disgust, and basically anything Martin Sorrondeguy has done. This is everything I like about hardcore put into one band that decidedly leaves out everything I hate about it.