Zulu is a one-man project from Anaiah Lei, drummer of the LA rock duo the Bots and the Orange County hardcore band DARE. On his own, as Zulu, Lei makes frantic, intense, punishing hardcore, and he does it from a raw and vital perspective. Lei has said that he wants Zulu to be “a band that’s 100% for and about Black folks.” Zulu released the impressive debut EP Our Day Will Come last year, and now Lei has followed it up with an even harder and more urgent EP called My People… Hold On.

The first thing we hear on the new EP isn’t music. It’s a poem from Aleisia Miller about the burdens put on Black women. After that, Lei burns through four focused and brutal songs in seven minutes. Jesus Piece’s Aaron Heard guests on one of them. The music is primal and passionate, and so are the lyrics: “What’s it gonna take/ What’s it gonna be/ For you to see/ We’re human beings.”

This is some great mosh music, but not just a genre exercise. It’s music that pulses with real, genuine anger. Listen to it below.

You can get My People… Hold On at Bandcamp.