New album is out now. Coining the phrase westcoast death violence as a tagline for your band is as intimidating as it is ballsy, considering the long list of heavy music gods that have influenced legions.

But band stands tall, channeling predecessors like Nails, The Endless Blockade, Iron Lung, HM-2 leaning death metal, the work of the Burdette brothers (specifically Deathreat and His Hero Is Gone), reducing them to a molten plasma that swallows or leaves everything engulfed in flames. In an era where hardcore has abandoned rules but is still a patchwork of pastiche, Scalp is blazing trails and redefining extremity. Featuring thirteen new tracks clocking in under twenty minutes, Scalp’s grip tightens around the neck until the knuckles go white, emblematic of classic tension and release. ‘Not Worthy Of Human Compassion’, the band’s third LP, is out now on Closed Casket Activities.

Scalp, on tour:

August 5 San Luis Obispo, CA — Humdinger Brewery
August 6 Fresno, CA — Strummer’s
August 7 Bakersfield, CA — J’s Hideout
August 8 Chico, CA — Eagles Hall
August 9 Berkeley, CA — 924 Gilman
August 10 Santa Cruz, CA — Catalyst Atrium

Band return to the catchy, vein-bulging nihilism that marked their debut ‘Domestic Extremity’, adding in the technicality found on the follow-up ‘Black Tar’. The result is a flag-flown high and an amalgamation of the maximal elements of heavy music– a full-on siege by way of death metal, grind, d-beat and powerviolence seen through the blood-soaked and grimy lens of negative hardcore. Musicality aside, a book called The Lucifer Effect cast a long shadow on the record. Written by Philip Zimbardo, the tome details the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, examining the human factors that could make anyone susceptible to paths into shadow. Nothing is more terrifying than an evil genius, and ‘Not Worthy Of Human Compassion’ is as maniacal as it is learned, calculating and precise as a cut from a scalpel.

‘Not Worthy of Human Compassion’, tracklisting:

LTARMLAC
EGODEATH
PIT
80ACRESOFHELL
SHACKLEROT
CROWSFOOT
LOATHER
SURROGATEVICTIM
UNTITLED
CONSPIRACY
RIGORVIVUS
DRAG
BOTTOMLESS

Photo by Oscar Rodriguez