Last year, the Texan hardcore band Portrayal Of Guilt released the raw, ferocious, genuinely astonishing debut album Let Pain Be Your Guide. On that album, Portrayal Of Guilt turned late-’90s screamo dynamics into a straight-up battering ram, playing them with death-metal levels of precision and brutality. And if anything, they’ve increased their ferocious power since then. Today the band releases the new EP Suffering Is A Gift, and it is an absolute motherfucker.

The six songs on Suffering Is A Gift only last about 10 minutes total; this is, after all, a 7″. But those seven minutes still show an evolutionary leap for a band that was already pretty far along to start with. Consider the minute-long opener “Self-Inflicted,” which, in a jarring blink, lurches from atmospheric electronics to grindcore throat-ripping. The rest of the EP adds more layers, but it stays just as punishing throughout.

If you care about heavy music, then Portrayal Of Guilt’s continued evolution is an exciting thing, especially when they’re only evolving in a more bloodthirsty direction. Suffering Is A Gift feels like a transitional work, but that doesn’t make it any less vital. We’ve already posted the early track “Scarcity,” but the whole EP is on the internet now, and you can stream it below.

The Suffering Is A Gift EP is out now on Closed Casket Activities.