NOTE: Current pressing on both white vinyl and blue vinyl. Copies will be selected at random for orders.

Back from the bowels of forced-shut-in sessions with their 2nd EP, BRAIN TOURNIQUET amplifies the frustration and bitterness of the all too familiar life pause that was 2020. Not that life is all that great in the first place. Senseless murder and hate surround everything. There is no freedom. There is pain. You know what would feel good right now? Throwing a brick through an actual person. We could laugh at all the parts that fall out and wash down the gutter. Now take all that violence and put it to grinding distortion. That is BRAIN TOURNIQUET. Hardcore, power violence, whatever you want to call it, it's angry.


Our take: Washington, DC’s Brain Tourniquet returns with their second 7” for Iron Lung Records, offering another dose of blistering hardcore with an aesthetic grounded in early power violence classics by bands like Crossed Out and No Comment. While you’ll hear plenty of familiar power violence tropes on this EP, they don’t comprise the entirety of Brain Tourniquet’s playbook. For instance, I love the winding, COC-esque intro to “Machine Gun,” and the psychedelic twists and turns in “Darkness.” The playing on this EP is also breathtaking, with the rhythm section generating moments that make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. The fast parts aren’t just inchoate blasting; you can often hear the bass and drums lock together on these intricate little rhythmic runs they perform with jaw-dropping speed and tightness. And that Brain Tourniquet can pull that off while sounding like a band playing together in a room and not like a Protools Frankenstein creation is even more impressive.