Most people are taught at an early age to be extremely careful when consuming anything raw. And here we have legions of people piling into sushi bars, right? Lesson not learned. Maybe that’s a good thing, because with Bay Area Black Metal hellions Pale Chalice offering up their debut EP Afflicting the Dichotomy of Trepid Creation that’s basically as uncooked and fleshy as anything that’s come down the pike the past year, wanting the thing charred would make these four songs not taste right.

The utter chaos and full-frontal assault from this band strikes from the get go. Like, right away. The moment Transplant of Dimensional Recourse strikes, it’s on. There’s no time to prepare, relax, feel your way around. You’re in the middle of a battlefield, or as Sterling Archer might say, the danger zone. This is unadulterated, uncleanly, unkempt madness that continues without recourse for the next 29 minutes. And yeah, for an EP, it’s basically a double album for any Grindcore band, so money spent, totally worth it.

Though this band hails from San Francisco, California, they don’t have a decidedly American – nor Bay Area, for that matter – sound. They do exude some of the brutality of the early Norwegian movement, and they have some snuff and doom from all over just to blacken this thing entirely. Their moments of domesticity pop up toward the tail end of closer Ascend the Idyllic Sphere, where they let the tempo drop and allow some traditional rock to enter into the mix. But it’s only momentarily, and even when it’s there it’s tempered by lava flow, so you don’t get a chance to get used to the quiet.

The quintet, who all take on bizarre, sometimes amusing pseudonyms, are tight and loose at the same time. They play together explosively and all sound like they’re on the same page, but there’s also a sense of letting things flow organically, leaving a feeling that much of what’s on Afflicting the Dichotomy of Trepid Creation developed naturally. That can’t be faked. Frontman Ephemeral Domignostika is a howler, with gravely growls and piercing shrieks that sound like he’s emitting such pain because that’s the state he’s actually in. Again, you can’t manufacture that, and there’s never a moment on these four cuts where you don’t pay him undivided attention.

It will be interesting to hear what this band serves up next and where they take their assault from here. Do they have other tricks up their cloak sleeves? Here’s hoping they do, because a full-length that’s basically this same thing would be a bit of a disappointment because they seem capable of dreaming up a lot more. For now, this EP will suffice, and it’s not out of question to label Pale Chalice the world’s next great raw, black hope.