Splitting Hairs / Hearing Splits (Jan-Jun 2025)
Splitting Hairs / Hearing Splits (Jan-Jun 2025)
July 15, 2025
Covering the splits that were released in the first half of 2025. Take a listen to some artists putting out a record together without necessarily collaborating. The annoyance of having two or three Bandcamp streams, often with just one of the sides is worth the effort.
SH/HS 2024 Part 2
SH/HS 2024 Part 1
SH/HS 2023 Part 2
This isn't the way I'd expected to encounter two huge-ish names from the metal world. On one had we have Iggor Cavalera founding ex-drummer of Sepultura, and on the other hand we have Shane Embury, who has a vast array of projects but is most known for his place in grind acts like Napalm Death, Lock Up, and Venomous Concept. On the surface, neither of these should be part of a dark ambient split. But when considering Igor's electronica explorations in Petbrick and how Shane started the dark ambient Dark Sky Burial project recently it does make sense. This is the kind of split that has just one song on each side, but together they make for more than 30 minutes of runtime, making this essentially a full length. "Neon Gods" is the longer piece, with pulsating synths and industrial noise, slowly moving from being brooding to being overwhelming, while "Own The Darkness" is the more consistently droning of the two, having a somewhat cinematic feeling.
Bandcamp: Label (full)
by RaduP
"One-man black metal band" is a term that is taken for granted, but isn't entirely applicable for the two projects here, even though they're both solo black metal projects, solely due to the fact that they're spearheaded by women. Of course there's more to this split than just the feminine structure of the two unitary lineups, mostly due to how the raw aesthetics of black metal get injected with a very specific melodic sense, some guitar solos that feel first wave-ish, an overwhelmingly dense production that bridges dungeon synth, blackgaze, and the experimentally dense rawness of a band like Pa Vesh En. There's a slight difference between the two, with Genital Shame being more melodic and Lust Hag being more dense, but they contrast each other nicely.
Bandcamp: Lust Hag (full) / Label (full)
by RaduP
I love splits where the two artists cover each other's songs, and this is almost that. Integrity got the memo and they're covering two Earth Crisis songs on their side, while Earth Crisis cover one Integrity song and then proceed to fill the rest of their side with re-recorded versions of their own older songs, which I guess still keeps the theme of not having any actually newly written music. I don't have much of an emotional connection with any of the original songs, mostly treating everything here as "new" for me, so I expected everything to be in that early 90s metallic hardcore vein, and most of it is that, but then Integrity's "Cease To Exist" ending with an experimental ambient section and "Firestorm ∞" expanding what was originally a vinyl looped groove into a riff repeated over 8 minutes. At least Earth Crisis employs no such funny business and sticks to the core.
Bandcamp: Integrity side / Earth Crisis side
by RaduP
It's been quite a while since we last heard from Fyrnask, and considering that this is my first contact with Norway's Vetter, I was obviously more excited by the prospect of hearing one of these two bands. It is quite clever that the bigger name out of the two comes last, making you wait for them. My first contact with Vetter thus became quite a pleasant one, even though it's clear that they're a one-man band, the raw production at times hindering, but making the slow building ritualistic black metal of its track not feel patience testing. Fyrnask's side is slightly shorter, but it feels more immediately impactful and polished, though just as ritualistic and atmospheric nonetheless.
Bandcamp: Fyrnask (full)
by RaduP
Even though I'm still mourning that one of the most promising hardcore bands lately disbanded a while ago, Gulch are also the reason why I discovered Sunami though a split I also covered in this feature. Now Sunami are getting me to discover Pain Of Truth, which does seem to make splits feel very useful for discovering bands. Coast To Coast is a short two-songs-per-band affair, a quick shot of beatdown hardcore adrenaline that delivers exactly what its genre promises. The Bandcamp description of "dope ass split" is pretty accurate, though ironically it is Pain Of Truth's side that feels the dopest, with Sunami's side sounding a bit funky, especially the snare.
Bandcamp: Label (full)
by RaduP
If there's one good thing about hardcore punk releases, and by extension hardcore punk splits, is that they don't waste time around. Here we have a multiple songs-on-each-side split that's less than ten minutes in total runtime, which is less than the time it takes Sunn O))) to play the second note. Though the songs are developed enough to be slightly more that quick bursts of aggression, one of them even exceeding two minutes, it's Missouri Executive Order 44 that's more into elaborate mathcore, with Usurp Synapse's side bordering more on post-hardcore than mathcore proper.
Bandcamp: Missouri Executive Order 44 (full) / Usurp Synapse (full)
by RaduP
New Standard Elite has, over the years, cemented itself as one of, if not the very best curator of brutal death metal. From Gorgasm to Nithing, if you have any interest in the genre, this is where you should be looking, and this four-way split is a perfect introduction to what it’s all about. Insalubrity, Excrescence and Anal Stabwound play very regular brutal death metal with some slam influences here and there, and quality-wise it doesn’t get much better than this. Anal Stabwound especially really kill it, and overall it feels like each band is better than the previous (if you accept the strange production on Excrescence’s side). Theurgy, however, really seal the deal with their very flashy, over the top technical approach, which is not very surprising since they have ByoNoiseGenerator’s drummer with them. It doesn’t get as crazy as other releases from the label, but Sheol is a great showcase of some of the very best that brutal death metal can offer.
Bandcamp: Label (full)
by Roman Doez
There's something really cool knowing that there's two metal/punk bands called En Love and Rabbit, both head-scratching band names in their own way, and that they appear on the same record. Band names aside, there's a clear punk energy from both of these bands, enough to call them both hardcore punk bands first and foremost, but the way that said punk is "metallic" draws from pretty intriguing extreme metal sources, En Love being the closest to proper old school metalcore, and Rabbit having a pretty strong death metal leaning. Together they make less that ten minutes of sonically intriguing metallic hardcore.
Bandcamp: Label (full)
by RaduP
Doomentia Records released a split last January, featuring two Italian bands that share Sicialian origin, as well as an individual talent for black metal. Malauriu offer “Scuru”, a song of occult, experimental, and mystical black metal that features Abysmal Grief’s Regen Graves on keyboards, an addition that give a dungeon feel to the composition. Sinoath, on the other hand, do things in a way that is at the same time straightforward and progressive on “Symphony Of The Scythe”, mixing faster passages with doomy sections, and incorporating piano and captivating guitar melodies. Thematically inspired by a vision of death and its role in our everyday life, the track is dedicated to the late Massimo Chiofalo, who played guitar for the band in the past. The production on both tracks gives an old-school feel, being organic and soulful, and adding to the atmosphere. Italians generally do metal that is pushing boundaries, and this split does this very convincingly; the only downside is that there aren’t more songs on it by these two great bands.
Bandcamp: Label (full)
by nikarg
Raw black metal fans have been feasting lately thanks to Horrible Room’s great lineup of bands, and it was good time they showcased what they’re all about in a four-way split. I was already familiar with (and a fan of) Леший (Leshiy) and Звёздный храм (Zvyozdny Khram), and they play their usual style here. Their compositions are as great as ever, but Zvyozdny Khram’s side went for an ear-shattering, pulsating production that is more distracting and annoying than anything, really bringing the song down. I was however not acquainted with Крошка Нетопырь и Малыш Мёртвая Голова (which I will abbreviate to Kroshka) and Вельд (Veld), and they both positively surprised me. Kroshka’s tracks are all different, but the second one’s Ildjarn-esque punkish black metal is very solid and the third one’s post-punk / gothic rock sensibilities is the real highlight of the split for me. Veld closes things off with nearly 20 minutes of ultra lo-fi folk, it’s barely even metal at this point, and it’s a good time. If you like raw black metal in any way, this split is a must hear.
YouTube: Full
by Roman Doez
A collaboration that is allegedly a decade in the making, Italy’s L’Ira Del Baccano and Dutch outfit Yama join forces on stoner doom split Tempus Deorum courtesy of Subsound Records, after making acquaintance with one another in the Italian Dolomites. The two bands both fall fairly typically within the stoner metal genre, but with L’Ira Del Baccano single-song contribution having a longer duration than Yama’s three songs combined, they’re evidently going about things with distinct approaches. The former band’s 19-minute “Tempus 25 (Sempiternal Rapture)” is an odyssey of psychedelic clean guitar noodling contrasted with outbursts of fuzzy riffs, leaning heavily towards the melodic guitar jamming but making effective use of well-placed riff segments. There’s little-to-no vocals in the song; in contrast, Yama use a somewhat nasal vocal style that immediately grabs one’s attention in their first track “Wish To Go Under”. There’s a slightly lush sadness-tinged tone to parts of this song, but also thick trudging doomy riffing, and their longest contribution “The Absolute” maintains the doomy tone and pace across a more long-form jamming effort.
Bandcamp: L’Ira Del Baccano (full) / Yama (full)
by musclassia
Sickrecy appeared the last time we put out one of these articles, but it’s not really surprising to see a grindcore band managing to grind out a couple more songs within 6 months. There’s two tracks apiece from the Swedes and their Austrian album-mates Distaste on this Murder Records-released split. The latter have been around for a couple of decades longer than Sickrecy, but the Swedish band take up slightly more of this release, as their blast- and riff-heavy cuts are each a minute or two longer than Distaste’s efforts. Sickrecy’s tracks straddle grindcore and death metal, with elements of OSDM penetrating “Last In Line” in particular; Distaste are comparatively no-nonsense, opting for all-out grindcore fury and near-relentless blasting across the 3 minutes that their two songs collectively run for.
Bandcamp: Label (full)
by musclassia
Two North Carolina bands come together here for a half-hour of fierce yet multi-dimensional black metal. Mo'ynoq are perhaps slightly the more typical of the two, and get off in very traditional fashion with the tremolos and blast beats opening “Hyperstitions”, but there’s a hint of meloblack alongside the frozen landscapes of their two songs. The ultimately predominantly mid-tempo pace of “Hyperstitions” is lit up by some exhilarating shredding, while “Cessation Of The Wind” immediately weaves melody into its riffs and maintains this mostly throughout, even with a greater emphasis on blasts. Urocyon demonstrate a different face altogether in the quiet, nature ambient opening seconds of “A World Forever Changed”, and even when the band kicks in, there’s a bit of a doomy trudge courtesy of the atmospheric drum patterns. It’s a well-paced and multifaceted effort that stands out as a clear highlight of the split, but album closer “The Sentient Curse” has a more classic sound as it delivers melodic but blast-heavy atmo-black. With quite a few different elements touched upon across the split, Mo'ynoq X Urocyon reveals a local black metal scene in rude health.
Bandcamp: Mo’ynoq only / Urocyon (full)
by musclassia
No Esperan Por Nadie means “They don’t wait for no one” in Spanish. It’s an ideal title for this split by Cóclea and Canut De Bon; two Chilean acts that blaze through volatile genres such as noise rock, post-hardcore, screamo and powerviolence.
After a short manifesto mixed with joints and coughing, it is Cóclea that kickstarts this wild release with a pummeling industrial-like riff, frenetic drumming and a singer that gradually loses his mind as he repeats the lines “Let’s warm up!” as a mantra. Cóclea’s abrasive energy is so overwhelming and packs so much attitude that I can’t help but wonder if they are aiming to surpass the big boys. One can hear the insanity of Today Is The Day but also the more calculated intensity of Big Black and Unsane. There are also punk and grunge elements that bring to mind both Chat Pile and Uniform to a lesser extent. Name-dropping aside, Cóclea have a clear identity. Most of the songs focus on building up one riff until it explodes in noisy fashion before moving onto the next one. Mathcore hints help fuzz out these transitions, thus resulting in songs that grow from sludgy dirges all the way to hardcore explosions. It’s almost post-rock in a way but far more uncompromising and rawer as their songs tend to end in the most deconstructive, chaotic manner possible. Cóclea have great ambitions for sure and I’m excited to hear a full length from them as they are another band that puts Chile in the noise rock map alongside Hesse Kassel which I covered not too long ago. Cóclea are in fact so ambitious that they used up 22 minutes out of the 30 in this split. What can you possibly do with only 8 minutes left…?
Enter Canut De Bon who comes in with a gas can ready to set the whole place on fire. They surely know how to make each of those 8 minutes count with a distorted tango sample that quickly leads to an infernal abuse of dissonant guitars and throat-ending shrieks. Canut De Bon (who take their name from the asshole that introduced the evangelical church to Chile) play the type of messed up screamo pioneered by acts like Orchid (USA-MA) and Jeromes Dream. This is obviously the most violent side of the split and it greatly complements Cóclea’s half (eh, three quarters) by answering Cóclea’s tension building with immediate release instead. The drumming is brutal and the overall tone of the riffs is bassy and morbid as all hell but things get also oddly sentimental as all good screamo bands can. This last aspect is exemplified by the very ending which includes a quick passage from a popular Chilean children song but performed with painful, melancholic screams instead. It could be due to the short length of their material in this split, but I’m even more eager to listen to a proper full length by these guys considering how intense and varied these 8 minutes were. I can only imagine what they can do with double or triple the timeframe.
Bandcamp: Conjoined account (full)
by X-Ray Rod
Anything we miss? What were some of your favourite splits of the year so far?
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That Pain Of Truth / Sunami split is fracking HARD. Definitely two of the best hardcore groups out there today.
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To me mist unknown and less interestig from band choices aeticke of van damme legs series
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