Criminal Instinct – “NMFP” & “Victim”

Criminal Instinct – “NMFP” & “Victim”

The Atlanta band Criminal Instinct make fast, raw, almost comically aggressive hardcore punk. Their music goes all the way over the top in its sheer mouth-frothing pummel. Gang-chant choruses! Juddering riffs! A singer who sounds like he’s delivering beatdown threats in an unfamiliar Eastern European language even though he’s clearly singing in English! One-minute songs! Quiet parts that suddenly erupt into visceral jackhammer attacks! It’s all here!

Criminal Instinct have been around since at least 2012, and they’ve released a few assorted demo tapes and one proper EP, 2014’s Fever. This fall, they’ll unleash Terrible Things, their first full-length. They’ve just shared two songs, and they’re both motherfuckers. “NMFP” is a 91-second moshpit grenade of a song; the title stands for “Not My Fucking Problem.” “Victim,” by contrast, is a 68-second moshpit grenade of a song, and it’s got a fun fakeout opening that sounds like ’50s luau music, at least for the few seconds before the riffs crash in.

Both of these songs go extremely hard, and you can hear them both below.

Terrible Things is out 11/8 on Closed Casket Activities.

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