Going back decades, Oxnard, California and its surrounding suburbs have a long, rich hardcore history. In recent years, Oxnard standouts Dead Heat have been fusing metal and hardcore with serious chops and fury, doing the ’80s crossover-thrash style better than probably any other band since Power Trip. These days, another band from that same area is doing a very different version of metallic hardcore, and they’re kicking a whole lot of ass, too.

Santa Paula’s Slowbleed have an overwhelmingly heavy style. Like fellow California monsters Xibalba, Slowbleed’s version of hardcore veers into thundering death metal territory. Slowbleed debuted with their Never Been Worse EP in 2019, and over the weekend, they released their full-length debut The Blazing Sun, A Fiery Dawn. They recorded it with producer Taylor Young, who’s been in bands like Twitching Tongues and Nails and who’s recently produced beast-ass records from bands like Drain, Regional Justice Center, and God’s Hate. There’s nobody better-qualified to capture a truly heavy hardcore band’s sound on record, and Young has done great things with Slowbleed.

On The Blazing Sun, A Fiery Dawn, Slowbleed have perfected a guttural, overwhelming stomp that’s full of towering riffs and demonic-roar vocals. The album really only lets up for the ominous quiet moments that foreshadow the heaviness to come, and it’s got a whole lot more shredding than most hardcore records. This LP is confirmed sick shit, and you can stream it below.

The Blazing Sun, A Fiery Dawn is out now on Creator-Destructor Records.