Or in other words, what kills you is the same thing that gets you through another day. This is the thesis of “Smoking Kills”, the newest flexi disc by Seattle’s Fashion Change. Beginning as the pandemic basement project of Ryan Mathews, Fashion Change is captured here in its most realized form yet, both in terms of added members and sonic expansion. While the troglodytic rhythms and chainsaw guitars of Kyushu punk (see Confuse, Gai) are undoubtedly present, the music and message also borrows from the lighthearted nihilism of UK DIY and brutal indignation of No Trend. In the end, we have 320 seconds of psychoactive hardcore that is greater than the sum of its parts. This is New Music for a New World that none of us asked to be in.


Our take: Brilliant new 3-song flexi of arty hardcore punk from this Seattle band. I love the wild collision of influences—brutal death metal vocals, searing, Kyushu-style noise punk, Meat Puppets-esque warped punkedelia—it’s a real buffet of strange underground sounds. It all sticks together, though, thanks to top-notch songwriting and playing, particularly the brilliant drumming, which finds all these ways to be unexpected and creative while keeping everything stripped down and primitive as fuck. If you have a taste for adventurous underground sounds from Spike in Vain to No Trend to S.P.K., you’ll love the warped darkness of Smoking Kills.