Dystopiate - Terminal Dissonance

Released: September 13

Dystopiate is a three-piece set from Boston that includes two guitarists (Tom & Andrew), a guest drummer (Jeff Beckwith) and a bassist/vocalist who has also been featured on this blog with his solo project Cryostasium, Cody Maillet. Cody showing up here is really interesting as this project is worlds apart from Cryostasium, which is something of an ambient and dungeon synth-adjacent project that gives video game vibes and mostly soft textures. Dystopiate, on the other hand, is about as in your face as it gets with the vocals screaming in your face and wild guitar licks and riffs. Terminal Dissonance fits firmly in the realm of hardcore punk but there's plenty of additional influences to go around including some very thrash metal type riffs and insane solos. 

The album is a quick ten songs that keeps all of the intensity all of the way up. After a couple of listens, I can confirm that there is not a single slow moment to be found except for the occasional moment where its stripped down to just a bass and drums riff. There's a good amount of variety here though, with the album opening up to "R.A.S. II" which is just pure hardcore punk with that d-beat in the back, unhinged vocals, and an insanely fast solo that lasts all of like 10 seconds. So you know exactly what you're getting from the start. 

One of my favorite moments on the album comes near the end with "Hit the Deck." This one definitely is keeping with the hardcore basics, but it feels a lot like early 80s Anthrax as well. I can't really put my finger on it, but I had to skip backwards a couple of times on this song because it was just that riff that carries throughout the whole song. That start, stop, start again solo was a nice touch too. Then there was the song named after the band that had some of that same thrash aesthetic, but I swear I could also hear some clear death metal influences in there as well. But overall, this album is just awesome and it gave me some serious nostalgia for that old-school hardcore that I didn't expect.