Any band that can call itself Nightmare Fuel and live up to its name is worthy of your attention. Nightmare Fuel is a crust-punk project from the Pacific Northwest that released its first demo right after the pandemic started. I can’t tell whether it’s a proper band or a one-man project. The credits of the new Nightmare Fuel EP name the members of the band thus: Agony, Despair, Misery, Grief, Gloom, and Happy. (Happy plays drums.)

Nightmare Fuel’s version of crust is the nastiest thing you will hear today if your smoke alarm does not go off. The band plays fast and frantic and mysterious, coating its attack with reverb and echo and making sure its vocals only barely sound like human language. Musically, the band is based in the Motörhead-addicted fast-growl drive of D-beat, but there’s plenty of the murk and mystery of black metal and death metal in there, too. It’s some real grimy shit.

Nightmare Fuel work fast. Their demo came out in April. In August, they released A Vaccination For The Social Plague, a marathon 13-track album that happens to have the year’s best cover art. (Seriously, look at this shit. Fucking rules.) The new three-song EP Absolute Infuriate is the follow-up to that album, and if anything, it sounds even more mystically pissed off. Listen below.

The Absolute Infuriate EP is out now, and you can get it at Bandcamp.