Right now, Santa Cruz’s Scowl are one of the leading lights of an insanely hot Bay Area hardcore scene. This past summer, for instance, the Bay announced the return of live music when Gulch, Drain, Sunami, and Xibalba played to thousands of people on a strip-mall parking lot, taking a stage that the band members built themselves. Scowl opened that show, and their legend has only grown since then. Today, Scowl follow up their 2019 EP Reality After Reality… with How Flowers Grow, their full-length debut. It fucking destroys.

Scowl’s whole style is fast, rough, frantic hardcore punk with a serious ’80s edge to it. Frontwoman Kat Moss has a truly impressive roar, but she’ll occasionally go left, singing something catchy and melodic instead. How Flowers Grow covers a lot of territory in its 15 minutes, and hearing the whole album front-to-back feels like having adrenaline injected straight into your eyeball. We’ve already posted the early tracks “Bloodhound,” “Fuck Around,” and “Seeds To Sow,” but the whole thing demands your attention without taking up too much of your time. Stream it below.

How Flowers Grow is out now on Flatspot Records.