YAMBAG is from Cleveland, Ohio, and they play a style that I would compare to a mix of NEOS and DROPDEAD. Mindfuck Ultra is fast and tough; YAMBAG even gives us great musicality in their songs. I genuinely love this record, whether they’re playing at 100 mph or 200 mph or giving us psychedelic merry-go-round music. This is top-notch stuff and I could go on and on about it, but instead I am just going to advise you to at least check it out online.
Now here’s an aural equivalent to smelling salts. Hailing from Cleveland, YAMBAG transcends tradition by infusing their heartless brand of bumping punk with spasmodic, nerve-shaking blastbeats. The seven tracks here shift between rocking, stilted, and pummeling shards of hardcore that erupt into brutal, rattling bursts of relentless powerviolence when you least expect it, and somehow it all feels like a party. It’s a ruthless, calculated killer, and is easily the best record of all time to feature bastardized versions of the McDuck family on the cover.
This is this shit that my jaded-ass reviewer ears are looking for: relentless fastcore. Guitars are clean and super fukkd up sounding, drums have a HELLNATION-meets-teenage-blastbeat awkwardness (and they are kinda recorded like shit in the most endearing way), and just 25% of the tracks top the 60 second mark. Put me in a space machine and send me back to 2001, but with all of the anger I feel in a 2020 reality, and boom I’m ready for some fucking YAMBAG. Choice track: “(O)Possum,” but there are seriously no clunkers to be found here. Thank you!
