After a decade or so of bouncing around the underground, Bay Area mince-masters Haggus found a new home with Oakland’s venerable Tankcrimes last year, and promptly released two surprise EPs in the process, both of which landed a spot (a split spot, appropriately) on my year-end list. Of those, No End In Suffering was a rawer, gorier take on the band’s usual lo-fi crusty grinding, while 3 Cadavers, 2 Corpses, And A Carcass was more riffy, heavier, and both showing slightly different sides of the band’s goregrind/mincecore mash-up.
Flash forward not quite a year, and here we are with the first Haggus full-length on their new home (their fourth full-length overall). Destination Extinction sees our ski-masked heroes churning out another ten tracks of minced-out madness, albeit cleaner and more refined ones, comparatively. The most notable and immediate distinction between Destination and the releases before it is that, produced and mixed as it was by Greg Wilkinson, Destination simply sounds clearer than any Haggus that came before. It’s still filthy, but it’s a more… professional version of it. It’s still filled with pitch-shifted vomits and snarls and barks, with guitar tones dialed up from the sewers, but now those are sharp enough to be distinct and well-rounded. Destination also rolls along on a wonderfully gnarly grindy bass sound, and punchy and clear drums that still sound real.
From a song perspective, most of Destination Extinction hews closer to the metallic crunch of 3 Cadavers, although there are definite nods to the sloppier, punkier side of mince scattered liberally throughout. Mister Brisket’s dirty low-end tone is evident from the get-go, in the stomping opener (and first advance track) “Rotting Off.” New drummer The Slamburglar lays down the tupa-tupas and blasts, with some whip-tight stops and some chunky, bouncy riffs beneath Hambone’s inhuman gurgles and buzzsaw chords. “Bound By Realms Of Cruelty” rips out of the gate with a harmonized guitar lead, adding a fun element of shred to the first minute or so, before cycling through a series of riffs and rhythmic shifts that are downright “intricate” compared to some of Haggus’ previous work. “Lobotomized Compliance” follows the lead into metal ground, while the tracks that surround it – “What’s Fucking Left” before and then “Do You Love Mincecore” after – step back to the punk side of the line, and both show the band’s ability to write big grimy hooks hasn’t waned. The latter of those might as well be a street-punk song, just roughed up and coated in puke. Or… even more puke, I guess…
