Racetraitor's vocalist Mani Mostofi is a fan of split EPs. In a statement on To Live a Lite Record's blog, he reflects on the formats uniquely punk quality and how they exhibit the "collective underpinning" of the DIY ethos. Of his current split for TLALR, he further stated that he hoped it would serve as a "community building exercise in which like-minded bands each offer their take on life, politics, and brutality in a shared space." A laudable goal for sure and one clearly in line with his radical commitments.
The idea of a collective project is one that leftists spend a lot of time musing about. While it may not be possible for most who believe in the moral and rational basis of anarchist political structures to realize all of their shared goals while forcibly living within the confines of capitalist realism, this does not prevent political actors of this persuasion from creating collaborative works of art that speak to their ideals. As previously alluded, it is this struggle to creating a space for the shared expression of political conflict and righteous anger amongst likeminded compatriots that acts as the impetus for this 4 Way Split between legendary anti-racist metallic hardcore Sufis Racetraitor, power-grinders Closet Witch, primitive communist black metallers Haggathorn, and Chicago's finest meme-metal magicians Neckbeard Deathcamp.
Neckbeard Deathcamp starts the EP off with two songs, "Spit Shine" and "OK Boomer," and it's easily their best work to date. I've appreciated their skilled satire of the right-wing's increasingly fascistic, internet youth culture since their 2018 debut White Nationalism is for Basement Dwelling Losers, but as satisfied as I was with the concept of that album, the execution left something to be desired. However, after hearing their contributions to this Split, I can belatedly say that I am now a fan of their music as well. Dark, raw, crusty black metal, steeped in sour feedback and perpetually disturbing the peace with foul, guttural, sewer-mutant vocals. They've absolutely grown as songwriters and musicians in the past two years, and they should be very proud fo the material that they've contributed to this EP.
Of the bands on this EP, the one that I was most familiar with from the outset was Closet Witch, the ragged-edged grindcore conjurers from Iowa. The concentrated emotional discharge of their 2018 self-titled LP ripped a hole clean through me when I first heard it, and I haven't completely recovered since. Closet Witch's first track "A Happy Kettle" emphasizes their power-violence influences, with shredding grooves and a punishing, churning break down that winds you up for muscle splaying, joint-dislodging, ten-story tumble of "Ace of Cups" and the septic embrace of "Abstinence but Not." Closet Witch's contributions to the EP are the most aesthetically varied of the lot, as exemplified by the ambient, post-hardcore of "Solar Lullaby," which is reminiscent of the wondering, sonic thought-mires that Cloud Rat sometimes integrates interstitially into their work, albeit not as ambitiously as the on last year's EP, Do Not Let Me Off the Cliff.
When Racetraitor finally gets their turn, they channel their inner Wolves in the Throne Room for three brutal, deconstructive examinations of power differentials and pacifying ideology. The rattling "Sarcophagus" feels like a wrecking ball falling through a net of cobwebs, distending and eviscerating illusions in its passing, with dark dancing tremolos, ripping blast-beats, and a wrathful tide of verticality collapsing atmosphere. Next, "Subordinate Terror" takes the plunge into blackened hardcore a la Baptist, while the "Golden Calf" returns to their roots, invoking kindred riff-blenders 108.
Finally, the curtains are drawn on Haggathorn's track, "Awakening." The cut is a remarkable six minutes of bitter, crude, second-wave inspired, gothic rock ‘n roll, with a surprisingly cinematic edge to its lapping grooves, capturing the sense of motion created by the rhythmic falling and rising of a great lid before a cataract clouded lens. A giant eye with the capacity for omniscience, but which can now only see its own advanced state of decay and enfeeblement. Unable to see anything but its own demise, it assumes that the world is dying with it.
As far as collective works are concerned, the 4 Way Split works as a cohesive statement of intent to reform a world of corrupt commitments. A far better, cohesive and potent declaration than what serves as "resistance" to hegemony in contemporary political discourse- the facile musings of ivy-league educated opinion columnist with by-lines in a paper of record, or the technocratic, blue-prints drafted by coastal think-tanks and Silicon Valley elites that aim to "do good, by doing well." With terminally detached allies like these who needs enemies? There is little doubt that we live in perilous times where the average person has little more than bad and worse choices laid out before them. There is a dearth of meaningful structures into which those who dream for a better future, one free of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, enforced hetero-normativity, and capitalism, can pour their collective efforts and ambitions. These structures will have to be built from the ground up, and I do not think it is naive that an album born of such collective intentions can serve at the inspiration for the transformative change so badly needed in the world. It may be too much to ask of a single album, but if you won’t demand the impossible, how can you hope to achieve anything real?
