Primal Brain

Reviews

Primal Brain Is It All a Game? cassette

Third release for this Oklahoma City unit. The main inspiration here is ’80s American hardcore with pedal-to-the-floor intensity and some noisy elements, especially around the vocals. There’s some moments of wild speed, but what stands out for me is the mix/production for the guitar: the whole mix is centered on it, and the distortion flirts with being clean-ish in a very Midwestern HC way. This is decidedly not hardcore worship or rehash; every song on here goes hard, regardless of tempo, with plenty of interesting twists and turns. Great fucking hardcore punk that stands out among its peers, like OUT COLD put in a blender with weirdo Midwest HC vibes.

Primal Brain It’s Still All a Game cassette

Blistering hardcore punk rife with heavy breakdowns. Follow-up cassette to the band’s first demo from a few years ago, It’s All a Game, also on Oklahoma City tape label O.D.D. Tapes. Apparently not much has changed over the last two years. A nasty, blown-out, lo-fi recording which makes the band come across as a raw punk band at times, tho I’m not convinced that is the intent. Pummeling and unrelenting, ripping through song after song, all building up to the closer which is a crushing dirge of a number. Super heavy, and equally scary.

Primal Brain It’s All a Game cassette

Oklahoma City does it again. Furious, damaged hardcore punk made by freaks (made for freaks). Check the hiccup in the chorus of the eponymous opening track and feel yourself get swallowed by all those damn guitars. Aside from “Real Bad Dream” where PRIMAL BRAIN just fucking unleash, these kids are taking the craft out of early ’00s punk proficiency and cramming it into the 2015 maggot stomp mold…the result is fucking glorious.