Japan has a long, proud history of making some of the most gut-rippingly intense punk, metal, and hardcore in existence, and the Tokyo band Kruelty have carved out a place within that tradition. Kruelty make the heaviest version of hardcore imaginable, pulling influence from beatdown and death metal to make something truly disgusting. Last year, Kruelty somehow made it across the Pacific to play FYA Fest in Florida, and they blew minds. Today, the day after this year’s FYA Fest wrapped up, Kruelty have announced a new album and dropped a real ogre-stomper of a new song.

Kruelty released their debut album A Dying Truth in 2020, and they followed it last year by releasing a split with the similarly inclined Arkansas band Terminal Nation. Today, Kruelty have announced a new album with the beautifully meaningless title Untopia. The band recorded the LP with God’s Hate guitarist and hardcore all-star Taylor Young at his studio the Pit. (They tracked the record while they were touring in the US last year.) First single “Burn The System” is an absolutely brutal onslaught that lasts for five minutes and feels like your colon being crushed in a garbage compacter.

Kruelty guitarist Zuma has this to say about “Burn The System”:

Musically, I put massive Swedish death vibes on it, as I don’t think we had any of those songs before, but it’s still Kruelty for sure. I wrote the lyrics on this song too, and the theme is how working-class people like us live every day. So basically, we chose this song for the first single to reveal how we improved from the last album. Hope you guys will enjoy some new Kruelty.

Check out “Burn The System” and the Untopia tracklist below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Unknown Nightmare”
02 “Harder Than Before”
03 “Burn The System”
04 “Reincarnation”
05 “Maze Of Suffering”
06 “Manufactured Insanity”
07 “Untopia”

Untopia is out 3/17 on Profound Lore.