A few weeks ago, the Bay Area bands Gulch and Sunami, two of the best and nastiest hardcore bands currently working, came out with a wild, ferocious four-song split. Now a couple of bands from the Northeast have come out blasting with a split of their own. Considering how much work goes into recording a split 7″, there is frankly no way that the two splits have anything to do with each other, but the timing makes it feel like the knuckleheads of the greater New York area are saying that they will not be left behind.

Pain Of Truth, the first of the bands on the new split, are a Long Island crew led by Hangman’s Michael Smith. The group came together during the quarantine era and released the excellently ignorant debut EP No Blame… Just Facts in October. That one had guest appearances from members of bands like King Nine, Year Of The Knife, Billy Club Sanwich, and Simulakra, and it’s an exemplary piece of sheer brutality. Pain Of Truth’s new songs on the split, “Blood On Your Hands” and “Scarred,” are exactly the same kind of hard-as-fuck metalcore.

Pain Of Truth share the split with the excellently named Hudson Valley band Age Of Apocalypse, who released a hugely promising demo called The Way last year. Age Of Apocalypse’s two contributions, “Grief” and “Greed” are furious thrashers with big, melodically howled lead vocals and crushing breakdowns. Stream the whole split below.

The Pain Of Truth/Age Of Apocalypse split is out now on Streets Of Hate.