The members of Hubris come from a wide variety of alternately heavy/fast/melodic hardcore acts (Zhenia Golov, Invade, and the decidedly non-hardcore Mirrors & Wires among them), but they come together on this demo to bust out no-frills, brutal, smog-laden hardcore.

The guitar tone on this demo takes precedent over everything else, really: It sounds like a broken car engine, and drives the four songs across its eight minutes with barked, incomprehensible vocals buried under a consistent layer of caustic noise. Musically, it dips its toes into several different sub-hardcore pools: crust; '90s metallic; Integrity-type "oh shit" moments. But it really takes a focused attention to pick up on the details hidden in the sewer-level recording and constant brute force Hubris exudes, from the sludgy breakdown in "Dejected" to the coarse howls and momentary powerviolence of "Forced Out".

Though the music leaves room for improvement, the band's strong social conscience gives their lyrics some substance: "Forced Out" suggests that rapists within punk and hardcore might be alarmingly vibrant. In the way of diction, they go from patient, poetic narratives ("Years had passed and I had an idea but not an understanding of what time had done") to brusque damning ("...this city is shit"; "You are a piece of shit") quite abruptly.

There's promise here, but the delivery could be clearer. Hell, it's a demo cassette, though, and it lays down a blueprint appropriate enough to take corrective measures on later.

DOWNLOAD/STREAM
2011 Demo EP