One of life's great pleasures these days is seeing a Bandcamp notification from Zegema Beach Records, the British Columbia label that is becoming a pipeline for essential screamo from around the world. One of those notifications arrived this morning, touting the North American release of Amu Daria's six-song self-titled demo. The Malaysian band initially released these songs late last year, but Zegema Beach is giving them a spotlight in the Western world -- good thing, too, because this shit rips.
Per Bandcamp, Amu Daria hail from Klang Royal Town, and their lineup includes members of Safety Zone, Break Free, Invalid Format, Aster, and a band called xAntiVaccinex (you can insert the eyeballs emoji here, or maybe the big anxious toothy grin emoji). They're named for a major river in Central Asia and Afghanistan. This crew's brand of screamo errs on the side of scraping, clattering '90s underground rock -- that visceral Steve Albini sound Elvis Costello hates so much -- with traces of proggy, riff-driven metal a la Tool. But when not violently thrashing and shredding, Amu Daria make time for immolating blasts of shrieking noise, too. It's a whole buffet in under 15 minutes.
Listen below.
Amu Daria is out now on Zegema Beach, and you can buy it here.
