REVIEW: Squelching – Hurting You [EP/2025]
Artist: Squelching
Album: Hurting You – EP
We’ve all, at one point, described something as…well, indescribable. Something that just doesn’t have the right word to match its impact on whoever might be witnessing it. This might be because too many words apply, and picking one just doesn’t seem feasible—or maybe, perhaps even more commonly, no one word really does whatever it is you’re trying to describe justice. For a lot of people, this is usually an issue in terms of beauty, or attraction. For those listening to Oklahoma onslaught Squelching, it’s more…disgust. Terror. Repulse. Hard to really pick a word, because whatever synonym you’re thinking of, Hurting You is definitely that and more. Built on a firmament that fits somewhere between deathcore and brutal death metal, Squelching are just as unsettling as their namesake—and even more oppressive. Ruthless chugs and slams take turns with gut-wrenching grooves and outright chunky riffs to create a release that is outright eviscerating—in fact—eviscerating might just be the perfect word.
There are plenty of artists out there focused on being technical, atmospheric, so on and so forth. Squelching sure as hell aren’t one of them. From the moment the intro fades from unsettling sample to even more an unsettling collection of corrosive chugs, you—the listener—know you’re in for something raunchy. Things don’t get better—in the notion that Hurting You’s abuse isn’t about to end any time soon. Dense with devastating, immense percussion, everything about Hurting You is crafted to be as blunt as possible. “DIY Vasectomy” is more proof of this, a song whose drumming is quick and pissed—until it’s dense, low and plodding. Goliath bass gallops overtop while remorseless, gritty guitars grind the listener’s ears to a fine dust. “Ethical Death” is another outstanding example—just when the listener thinks the song has reached its apex, things keep getting more and more depraved; something we’ll touch on a little later. “Corpse Defilement” takes a turn towards the band’s penchant for brutal death metal, feeling the scale tip a little more slamming than some others throughout the EP. With all this said, there is no ethereality on Hurting You—no element of atmosphere that isn’t dense and designed to drown the listener beneath ignorant aggression and sheer dissonance. Hurting You doesn’t let up on the brakes at all with respect to its instrumentation—and that’s also true when we think about the band’s vocal element.
With Squelching’s instrumentation hellbent on destruction, the vocals can’t be anything short but a full motion towards malevolence. Ear-piercing squeals and raw mid range shouts fight alongside muddy, murky low bellows for dominance—and the real winner is the listener. Once more, the listener’s attention turns to “Ethical Death,” where Squelching loudly declare “I MADE YOU EAT YOURSELF” before diving from one breakdown in another lower, slower, more ignorant breakdown. Other times, you can’t even really understand the lyrics Squelching ram down the listener’s ears—you just can feel the pure abrasion syllable upon demented syllable. Where the band’s musical component soars in the direction of senseless violence, their vocal approach solidifies it, amplifying every slam, riff, groove, blast and chug, lashing out until the listener is reduced to whatever is less than a pulp.
I’m not sure if its the over-the-top breakdowns, grotesque vocal themes or that god awful (complementary) squelching sound that pops up in most of their tracks, Squelching (the band, not the sound…but also, sure, the sound) is pure sonic oppression. The type of aggression-for-the-sake-of-aggression that I haven’t heard or felt since the days downtempo first emerged on the scene. Somewhere between slam and deathcore without falling in the cringy pitfall of “slamming deathcore,” Hurting You is a masterclass in sonic repulsion while worth the listen.
9/10
For Fans Of: Corpse Pile, Drowned Under Concrete, Disfigured
By: Connor Welsh
