Punishment (Gate)

Crown Magnetar are out for blood-and buckets of it. The fact this proclamation is being made for new EP Punishment-just over a year since dropping 2023's crushing Everything Bleeds-could be a shock, though it makes sense upon further examination. The group's second LP brought blunt force bludgeoning to the table with it's chugging deathcore brutality. This rhythmic rage took precedent over technical death maximalism that was the focus of 2021's debut LP The Codex of Flesh and 2022's intermediary EP Alone In Death, and is here delivered with the sharpness and focus of a razor. That Punishment (out March 7 on Unique Leader Records) beats the blood out of the fresh and deep wounds in equal measure suggests the band spent their time at Dream Awake Audio packing their instruments, both literal and decidedly more lethal, full of those very same blades. It's even reflected in the over-the-top titles of "Barbed Wire Noose," "Nailed the F*k Down" and "Decapitation Ritual," which are as much a brutal blast as the blazing beats and double bass that fill them. That those names make announcement single "Bringer of Dead Light" sound soft (on the surface) becomes hysterical when it decimates ear drums.