As the world breathlessly awaits the next album from Virginia screamo destroyers Infant Island, we should also take a moment to appreciate the small universe of side projects that has spun off from the Infant Island mothership. Today, on this most blessed of holidays, two of those side projects have joined forces to unleash a hellacious new single.

Mattachine is the angry and unapologetically queer metallic hardcore band led by Alexander Rudenshiold, the Infant Island guitarist who recently left Virginia to go get his PhD in California. (Full disclosure: Alex is a good friend.) In 2020, Mattachine released a great debut EP called Isolation As A Form Of Torture, and up until today, they haven’t done anything since. Mikau, meanwhile, is the splattery, maximalist DC-based mall-metalcore band that includes Infant Island/Mattachine drummer Austin O’Rourke. About a year ago, Mikau released their Abaondonware EP, and it was a wild ride.

Today, Mattachine and Mikau gotten together to release a frantic, ferocious, punishing song called “Unlucky Channel.” The track lasts for two minutes and 19 seconds, and it’s full of stuff: Feverish riffs, blastbeats, screams, ADD-addled keyboards, a beast-out caveman breakdown. Put this on at your New Year’s Eve party and scare everyone. Listen below.

“Unlucky Channel” is out now on Acrobat Unstable Records, and you can buy it as a floppy disc.