The sheer brutality of Marriage + Cancer.

Marriage + Cancer, photo from their Facebook page

If Jesus Lizard and In Utero-era Nirvana had a baby it would sound an awful lot like Marriage + Cancer. This quartet from Portland makes a bunch of glorious, crashing, chaotic yet precise, noise on their self-titled debut that comes out near the beginning of next month.

Most bands that attempt this type of sound tend to be unable to bolt the kind of chainlink melodies to the rumbling avalanches of sound that makes the sound unique and not simply derivative. I mean, when I open something with a "RIYL: Jesus Lizard, Nirvana," that's a pretty fucking tall order, right? But Marriage + Cancer earns the comparison.*

I actually got the album last month but kept holding off listening to it because I wasn't sure I was quite ready to strap myself to its brutal and bucking ride, but I finally gave in last week and it's been clanging and banging around my head ever since.

I don't see any tour plans for the band outside a show in their hometown, but the first single is below. If it sucker punches you and leaves your head ringing in painful joy, you can pre-order the album from the band's label.



*I am not they are as beautifully brutal as the bands I'm comparing to, I'm saying that they don't embarrass themselves when I bring up their name in that company.