Sidetracked / The Seeker – Split EP

Sidetracked are some extreme music afictionados from Tacoma, WA, who have decided to give relief to their powerviolence fascination, and guess what? They are doing it for two decades now!

I’ve already got a handful of tapes and CDs from this band but they just don’t stop churning out new material again and again. Playing some of the fastest, wildest and fucked up form of hardcore punk, these guys have produced more than 300 songs while planning more than a dozen new EPs and split releases just for 2020.

Their side of this split consists of six tracks that clock in a little bit over 1 minute in total—with the average song going around 8 to 15 seconds long. This brings to mind Despise You, Magrudergrind, Crossed Out, No Comment, etc. This is powerviolence bowing to the best of the genre.

On the flipside, we have The Seeker from Milan, Italy, who have been the backbone of European powerviolence in recent years, and also among the most loudmouthed bands when it comes to keeping the DIY ethos, supporting antifascist action, and exposing posers and hypocrites within the scene.

With seven tracks that go in four and a half minutes in total, they play short blasts of built up aggression that contain the real essence of the genre. Their lyrics are chokefull of F-U’s and “die you asshole” refrains, and if you have watched 2018’s Slave to The Grind documentary, you already know what “Manadatory Fuck You” song is all about. This is a genuine DIY powerviolence, Jon Chang and the grindcore elite can suck it!