I'm starting to automatically assume that any 7" I get from a New Jersey hardcore band will be thrashy and/or powerviolencey in some way or another. Stressed Out and Rip It Up knock out this eight-song, sub-10-minute split that provides just that.

Stressed Out come up first with a solid four tracks of snotty and pissed franticness. The recording is great, a lot clearer than you might hear for young bands doing this style of hardcore, and it makes the band's songs sharp and effective, though they mostly seem to serve as a foundation for something much greater, hinted at by more major chords in their "band title" song, "Stressed Out," and typically overlapping vocal rambling in "Deer Blood." Also like their nod to Milhouse in the liner notes...hopefully it's the Milhouse I'm thinking of.

Rip It Up do a similar thing, but a little meaner, dirtier and with more fast parts, although they can be a little jokier with their lyrical content. "Grind the Edge" is a funny skate-edge anthem and "Die-o-Rama," is, well, a zombie apocalypse-type story of armageddon. I know Seasick has only been a band for a couple years around those parts, but musically, I think they might have an influence on these guys. Maybe.

STREAM
Stressed Out - Depression
Stressed Out - Stressed Out
Stressed Out - Deer Blood
Rip It Up - Torches. Demons.