Persecutor Lateral Violence EP

Australian metallic powerviolence unit PERSECUTOR doesn’t ease into Lateral Violence. Five tracks with no breathing room, just a direct barrage of aggression. They follow a more modern approach to their craft, emphasizing the fat, buzzsaw guitar tone more along the lines of a band like NAILS, which I wouldn’t necessarily call “powerviolence,” but they certainly have one foot in the dynamics used in that genre. The tracks clock in a bit longer than your average powerviolence song (most around the one-minute mark), so there is room for the twists and turns that this style brings. Every song is over before you can get comfortable, leaving nothing but a bad ringing in your ears. The last song, “Solitary Confinement,” breaks all the rules and goes for almost five minutes of bone-crushing doom and gloom akin to the longer songs of the SECRET or TRAP THEM. The title says it all, aggression turned inward and outward at the same time, a critique wrapped in a beatdown. Short. Hostile. Necessary.

• Reviewer João Seixas
• Label To Live A Lie
• Issue MRR #514 • March 2026