Rat Race x Polosonik: Listening Guide
We’re buckling up for high registrations on the Richter schale. On Thursday January 18th Rat Race and Polosonik curate two floors of hardcore punk, grindcore and post punk. In this short listening guide we tell you who plays what.
Words by Kos van Erp / Pictures by Dylan Hayes
Azijnpisser
Azijnpisser is a four-piece hardcore outfit painting a bleak picture. The Eindhoven band combines oldschool, primordial hardcore with the violent riffing of crust punk. Loud, unforgiving, with vocals that know how to get the message across.
Ceremony Long
Ceremony Long is the first band from Poland. Focus country at this year’s Eurosonic Noorderslag, the Majority of the acts on the lineup are Polish, booked with help of the good homies over at Good Boys Booking. Ceremony Long, who come all the way from Katowice, combine metal influences, hardcore and traditional punk with no-wave and postpunk switchups and sampling and found footage use akin to industrial rock. It’s fused under high temperatures into exhillerating post hardcore by members of esteemed experimental outfit Cisnienie.
M.U.G.
M.U.G. is frenzied hardcore straight from Rotterdam. With members from Pig Frenzy and Crustenunie, and sporting a second guitarist, neurotic riffs lead in a shredding concoction of mosh pits, screaming, guitar noise and frantic drums. Lace up tight.
Scumeater
Grindcore with death-defying properties. The Poznań group rolls on insane drum workouts, heavy guitar riffs and dazzling tempos. It’s deathgrind that teases the grim reaper for sport.
Traumatizer
Traumatizer makes no nonsense, high octane hardcore punk. The female-fronted four piece bursts at the seams with energy, dragging entire audiences along in their tornado of distortion. Front row’s gonna be attacked but remember: it’s nothing personal.
Szlauch
Closing the night is Szlauch from Szczecin, Poland. Presenting fast paced synth punk with granulated rave influences, this seems to be the only act in existence that could bring Rat Race x Polosonic to a danceable, fitting home stretch. About to extrude your last bits of NRG.
Amputaczja Glowy
Hardcore where the adrenaline comes in pints. The Polish-Ukrainian crew spits out war-conscious, highly politicized lyrics over a deformed backbone of high speed riffs and dynamic work on the drum kit. There’s a dark, doom-adjacent feel to their older recordings that’ll beat you down before you beat it.
Smola
Blow hardcore way past its limits and you end up with the powerviolence of Smola. Perhaps the most violent, abrasive act of the night, these four present all screech no breather. Soaring guitars, high pitched screaming, wild work on the kicks and a rock solid spine of bass. They know how and where to hit.
Rat Race x Polosonik takes place at OOST during Eurosonic. Tickets are available here. Other OOST nights that week include collaborations with Rewire and Dekmantel. More info via www.komoost.nl.