��The latest release from Ohio scum-sludge beasts Fistula, who have at various points in their career included members of other notable filth traffickers like Rue, 16, Accept Death, Sloth, Sollubi, and Ultralord among their ranks; their constantly shifting lineup has never diminished the band's bone-crushing vision, though, and they've remained of the heaviest bands within the US underground since stumbling forth with their debut album Hymns Of Slumber in 2001. Combining vicious crossover thrash with the abject, drug-damaged sludge of Grief and Toadliquor, these guys out-ugly and out-crush just about everyone else out there.

�� On their most recent 12" Northern Aggression, Fistula deliver a new batch of songs that ooze foul Frostian sludge, bursts of rabid hardcore punk, and some seriously monstrous crossover thrash riffs, continuing the band's now twelve year descent into drug-fueled antisocial violence and slow-motion pandemonium. Now with former members of Anal Cunt among their ranks, it would seem that Fistula are mixing more thrash than ever into their bulldozing heaviness, and the seven songs featured here feature some of the fastest stuff that I've heard from Fistula in years. The record kick off with the brutal blasting hardcore of "Sobriety Is Overrated", showing that these creeps combine barbaric high-speed punk and skull-crushing sludge better than almost anyone. Songs like "The Fang" crawl through dingy, diseased grooves, and are enhanced by the monstrous production; the band has never sounded heavier than they do here. The rest of the record is jammed with more of their psychotic, pissed-off vocals, spiteful, abject lyrics and a terminally nihilistic attitude, all bleeding into the thrashing "Black Sunday" that surges into crushing mid-tempo breakdowns, the minute and a half "Harmful Situation" that lurches through a pulverizing stop-start groove, and the brutal grinding violence of "Kanker Nose" and "Lightbulb Smoker" that are smeared with gouts of rumbling putrid amplifier screech and rumbling low-end muck. Time and time again, these guys prove themselves to be masters of the downshift, dropping precariously out of high speed violence into blood-freezing sludge; I know I say this every time I write about another new Fistula record, but they seriously seem to get heavier with each new batch of songs. Agonizingly short at just under twenty minutes, but absolutely recommended if you're a fan of Fistula's fucked-up sludgecore.

�� Includes a download code for the EP.