Scum Noise
Chaotic Distress

Scum Noise is a hardcore/crust band from Brazil based in São Paulo, active since 1990, and this "Chaotic Distress" is their first full-length work dated 1995. The mere 23-minute duration perfectly encapsulates the musical proposal of this band: chaotic, raw, and gritty. Scum Noise focuses heavily on stepping on the accelerator both musically and conceptually, evoking negative and pessimistic feelings about the reality of this society. The initial intro is an instrumental composed of screams under bombardments, a bloody explosion that recalls the true nature of human civilization: the one that will eventually lead to self-destruction. The second track, "Terrible Truths," is a barely two-minute instrumental, a perfect soundtrack for armageddon, a panzer-like cadence that preludes the true sonic assault that begins from the third track onward, a powerful and furious hardcore-crust with intentionally unpolished sounds to highlight even more obsessively the rot of their music that borders on the most deafening noisecore. In "Kill and Die", the influence of Discharge dominates, with hardcore-punk fired at a thousand miles an hour without breath, ending in a biting chaos-core finale and beastly dissonances following one another with disarming continuity, as in the subsequent "No", "Human Decadence", and "Obsession".
In "Living Trash", the speed becomes even higher if possible, with a central break from the rhythm section composed of bass and drums lasting just a few seconds, then interrupted by the almost grind fury of the final part. "Keep out" and "Circle of insanity" play on devastating restarts and breaks where the chorus is shouted obsessively and maniacally before everything explodes into the most aberrant chaos. "This is Brazil" and "Killers country" are outbursts with an almost thrash metal flavor, while with "Liar", "Discrimination", and "Shit politics system" they return to pounding the most ferocious and uncompromising hardcore, something the band manages to do very well, fully engaging the listener in the proposed sound hell.

A work I recommend to those who love this type of direct, wild, and uncompromising music. This album is not easily found here in Italy, but I recommend taking a trip to foreign distros where you can also find 7'' rarities like the 1992 split Scum Noise/Victims of Greed.