���� The latest from proggy blastcore beasts Gas Chamber, Stained Hand delivers two new tracks of this Rochester, NY band's killer mix of atmospheric, prog-tinged darkness and violent hyper-fast hardcore. These guys have been putting out some of my favorite stuff on the Iron Lung label, and this new EP is just as great. "Stained Hand" weaves a mournful, slightly menacing melody around hypnotic clean guitars and restrained drumming over the first half of the song, a dark and almost math-rock-esque feel to this long instrumental introduction; they eventually kick it into high gear though, while keeping up that eerie guitar melody, winding it around the pummeling high speed tempos and blazing hardcore riffs and bellowed vocals that spill out across the rest of the song, turning this into something sadly majestic and super catchy all at the same time. The untitled song on the b-side is even more expansive in scope, arising out of a cloud of looping melodic fragments and backwards sound, a bleary, droning backdrop that the band sets another one of their brooding melodies against, only to once again tear it apart as they hurtle headfirst into another violent blast of breakneck thrash. And then out of the blue, the song suddenly shifts into a killer doom-laden second half that almost sounds like a rawer, hardcore-damaged take on 80's era King Crimson. Very nice. Another killer piece of music from one of the most interesting bands in hardcore right now, housed in fantastic sleeve art taken from early 20th century German illustrator Ernst Reupke.