Usually, I’m happy enough when one scuzzy, brutal fast-hardcore band releases new music. Today, we’ve got two of them, and they’re doing it together. Wilkes-Barre’s Worn and Boston’s C4 have teamed up to release a new split 7″ called Split Your Skull In Half. You get the title, right? See, it’s a play on words. It’s a split release, right? But these bands will also break your skull. It’s all very conceptual. You might have to sit down and think about it for a minute.

Worn specialize in grimy, disgusting basement hardcore, and they released a truly impressive album called Human Work in 2021. C4, meanwhile, have a singer named O-Zone who’s a big, scary, Viking-looking longhair who never seems to appear in public without a bandana and Timberlands. C4 released an 11-minute LP called Chaos Streaks in 2021, and it’s insane. I would heartily recommend seeing both bands live.

For the new split EP, Worn and C4 contribute three songs apiece. That’s a lot for a split, but none of those six songs quite reaches the two-minute mark. These are fast, ugly, extremely entertaining tracks, and they all fit together beautifully. Listen to the split below.

The Split Your Skull In Half 7″ is out now on Tribe Dream Records.