Cell Rot

Reviews

Cell Rot Parasite LP

This Bay Area grindcore outfit mixes with sludge and powerviolence in a recipe for chaos at its most unrelenting. CELL ROT’s Parasite is a slab of total aggression—eleven tracks that sound like they were recorded inside a pressure cooker. The production is dense but not dull; each blastbeat and low-end rumble slices through with terrifying precision. Vocals are guttural, halfway between a scream and a cave echo, backed by riffs that refuse to stay in one tempo for more than two seconds. There’s a sharp political and existential edge here—nihilism meets confrontation. Convulse keeps releasing records that make the underground feel dangerous again.

Cell Rot Slowly Falls Apart 12″

Releasing a record this deadly in 2021 when (most) punks haven’t seen a live hardcore show in a year is…well, kinda mean. Crushingly heavy California hardcore, CELL ROT moshes as aggressively as they blast, with a dark undertone that makes you feel like you’re listening to something dirty. But you’re not. You’re listening to something joyful…it’s just the joy that comes when you realize that you will never win. Never. If you thought the Violent Spirals LP was devastating (it was), wait until you hear what it sounds like when CELL ROT Slowly Falls Apart. 

Cell Rot / World Peace split EP

Here’s a quick little ripper from two bands out of California that hits like a brick to the forehead. CELL ROT lays down some beefy mid-tempo, crust-ridden hardcore. There’s plenty of oozing sludge breakdowns and blasted-out fury thrown in to keep it interesting, but it’s a steady ride to bleak oblivion throughout. WORLD PEACE delivers some bare bones, bass-and-drum powerviolence that is all low and all go! I’m talking about that four-songs-in-three-minutes type of shit. Like if early GODSTOMPER were more into NO COMMENT than NAPALM DEATH. Don’t pass this up!