Street Tombs Existence Is Corruption Review
Street Tombs
Existence Is Corruption
Carbonated Records
2026
Street Tombs are a band that began in 2017 from the ashes of an underground institution. The legendary venue the Cave closed its doors in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the band hosted shows for that city and the DIY punk/metal underground of its surrounding areas. They released three demos and their Reclusive Decay full length in 2023. After much critical acclaim (the album earned #38 on Decibel Magazine's Top 40 of 2023) and several tours, that brings us to the brand new 8-song second full length, Existence Is Corruption.
Street Tombs are a band that I feel brings the spirit of the earliest days of death metal and hardcore punk back to these troubled modern times. Uniformly (and quite convincingly) informed by the sounds of Bolt Thrower by way of Discharge, GBH and early Sepultura, they are a much needed raw shot in the arm to the highly produced, stiff and brittle sounding records that permeate the respective genres they come from. These songs are not mere call outs lyrically, they are an indictment of all modern society, complacency, corruption, and destruction. So, embracing their punk ethos, Street Tombs aren't delivering any gory tales or supernatural ghost stories here. They are playing ugly and mean while holding up a mirror to an equally ugly and mean infected world.
The band doesn't over complicate things (once again a hallmark of the d-beat and crust they embrace) here, they give us belching low guttural vocals, speed and ferocious energy from the onset of “Pestilent Storm” to the last note of “Parasitic Feast”. The proceedings aren't without variance, however, as the pull off riffing and mammoth galloping double kicks in “Deceptor” demonstrate. “Septic Values” skanks along with plenty of chugs and boundless vitriol, and the slightly longer (5:06) Exodus-like intro of “Upset the Grave” grabs you by the throat before more ramming speed crashes into a mid-tempo verse and back again. “Mental Multilation” is a crusty mid-pacer with minor key verses, rapid double kicks and trem picking, while “Braindead” is an exercise in moving all over the fretboard with chromatic shifts and more deathly gallops. Finally, the closer “Parasitic Feast” is what I imagine later Exploited (Beat the Bastards era specifically) might sound like if performed by a blackened death troupe.
Existence Is Corruption is not for the faint of heart, nor is it meant for the mainstream consensus of thought. This is dirty, gnarly and angry, politically charged extremity in the best of ways. In 32 minutes, Street Tombs have proven that it's never too raw, too energetic or too heavy or too punk. They are consummate practitioners of all things violent and old school. If crossover thrash infused with punk and early death metal had a belligerent, dangerous, scalpel-wielding child in a toxic graveyard sounds like a good time to you, then Street Tombs will be your new favorite band…
RIYL- Bolt Thrower, Warlord UK, Discharge, GBH, Death Breath, Amebix, The Exploited
~TB