Consider this: The new En Love promo tape ends with a song called “Starving Blade,” and it is 18 seconds long. En Love, from Columbus, make a freaked-out, reactive form of hardcore punk that defies subgenre categories. Even when they lock into a midtempo stomp-groove, something that they do very well, they sound unhinged an animalistic, as if making this music is their only way of coping with a fucked-up reality. Their songs don’t adhere to any particular structure, so it makes sense that one of them is only 18 seconds long.

We last heard from En Love at the end of 2022, when they released their Fled EP. Now, the band is getting ready for a quick run of shows with Gumm and Prevention, so they’ve dropped this new tape, which blasts through five songs in five and a half minutes — less time than it takes to get through Mercury Rev’s new song. It’s fucking awesome. Below, stream the tape and check out En Love’s dates.

TOUR DATES:
7/05 – Bloomington, IN @ Roses
7/06 – Detroit, MI @ Parts & Labor
7/07 – Cleveland, OH @ No Class
7/08 – Rochester, NY @ Psychic Garden
7/09 – Holyoke, MA @ Dracula
7/10 – Providence, RI @ Black Lace
7/11 – Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
7/12 – Roanoke, VA @ The Floor Is Gone Fest
7/13 – Louisville, KY @ Spinelli’s Downtown

En Love’s promo is out now on Delayed Gratification Records.