Location: Detroit, Michigan
Country: USA
Genre: Sludge metal, grind
Full length: My Flesh is Afraid but I Am Not
Format: Digital, vinyl, cassette, CD
Label: Housecore Records
Release date: July 8, 2025
What occurs when confidence and anxiety collide? Or what if pride and deprecation clash? Shock Narcotic's second album contains the answer. Former members of Pig Destroyer, Child Bite and Dillinger Escape Plan with current members of Battlecross released their first album "I Have Seen the Future and It Doesn't Work" in 2019. It was characterized as a harsh, frustrating, and bitter blend of grind and sludge. They were noticed for their existential trepidation and pessimism about the impending dystopia.
Most bands use social mirrors to shatter complacency or employ some sort of metaphor to make their point. That type of sophistication is unnecessary with this band. In order to bring buried instability to the surface, their two albums induce cognitive dissonance through forcibly channeled outbursts of agitated fury. This mirror is likely a mirror held up to everyday life, organized on the exterior yet unstable and unpredictable on the inside. They display this discord to the greatest degree possible out of sheer haste.
I'm watching a documentary on the creation of "Night of the Living Dead"; the scene where the zombies burst into the abandoned house is discussed and its significance is explained as being resonant of a breach of personal space. Under the surface, this resonated with viewers on a personal level. In some respects, the same principle applies here. Songs that are meant to strike so close to home are akin to zombies crossing your barriers and into your most private thoughts. There is the album’s potential.
Can Shock Narcotic's musicians perform as well on “My Flesh is Afraid but I Am Not” as they did in their other/older bands? Well these songs pound with furious intricacy while including enough electronic and industrial noises to maintain unpredictability. The way the tracks are presented appears to have an unstoppable drive, beginning right after the conclusion of the preceding track, leaving no opportunity for a breather. The bass guitars and some of the lead passages are reminiscent of bands like Godflesh, Fear Factory and Pitchshifter, leaning heavily on the industrial theme.
Songs like “Oblivion Licker” reminded me of Godflesh’s “Like Rats”, with hints of groove metal added. But by the time "Standard Issue Apathy" rolled around, I started to see why many listeners were noticing the band's disordered nature. There were so many distinct sounds from one song to the next, so much intermittent blast, so many varied measures, and everything was moving so fast that the album nearly spun my head. I didn’t expect “My Flesh is Afraid but I Am Not” to throw me for a loop so convincingly.
Most importantly, the album's appeal was enhanced by the spoken word segments that occasionally occurred between songs. It was a female voice that was presented via a filter of some kind, giving it a strange quality similar to seeing glimmers of the dystopia we’re intended to feel so much dread about. Even as a fan of extreme music I imagined this album would have been too much for me when I first started listening to hardcore and thrash. And this should say a lot if you’re likewise a fan of extreme music. -Dave Wolff
Lineup:
Shawn Knight: Vocals
Jeff Tuttle: Guitar
Don Slater: Bass
Zach Gibson: Drums
Track list:
1. To Kill For Nothing
2. The Benefits of Being Worm Food
3. Wound Absentia
4. Trash For The Pile
5. We Are The Enemy
6. Oblivion Licker
7. Standard Issue Apathy
8. Slurring Delirium
9. A Mass Suicide In Progress
10. Waiting For Life To Begin
11. Cling To The Familiar
12. Burial
13. A Furred Grave (Meathook Seed cover)
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