After hearing Neolithic single track on the 7” split with one of my favorites Martyrdod last year I promised myself to revisit this Baltimore crew given a chance. That chance just materialized itself with a 5 track eponymous EP. What drew me to Neolithic then was their almost singular d-beat hardcore press, violent and brooding at the same time. Yielding on brutality a little, Neolithic gives a glimpse of the band more mature, but no less menacing.

The EP manages to show Neolithic acquiring much more of a range, although electricity permeates the release throughout (both via punchy energy and some of the instrumental feedback). The band is now an equal mix of d-beat hardcore, death metal and some punky attitude. Whereas Myopia opens with expected violence and heaviness, the track slides into thrash beat, just like Perdition Chaser does later on, stopping for slower torture somewhere in between. War Discordance, on the other hand, is much slower than what Neolithic probably ever done, and drips with venomous gutter death metal hazard. Even further showing the band’s advancement are shreds of melody in Entropy of Totality riding atop violent chords and teeth shattering rhythms. The punky contagion must have also spread from Martyrdod to Neolithic, as Pervasion of Oblivion has that characteristic stumbling gate, before sailing off into steadiness with more melody heard in spots.

Neolithic is that band where I can take their d-beat hardcore, because it is not all speed all the time. I hope the band only gains followers now that its horizons are broader.