The title of CANDY’s debut album, Heaven Is Here, alongside its gory artwork are too true. In the version of Heaven which some disgusting strains of people here in the United States envision it looking like, it’s arrived and it’s akin to a living Hell. This is the perfect feeding frenzy for the kind of inspo which the bi-coastal heavy music band nourishes their art from, however.

With their intensity refined by producer Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Trapped Under Ice), vocalist Zak Quiram, guitarists Michael Quick and Andrew Stark, bassist Kaleb Perdue, and drummer Steve DiGenio take extremities from hardcore and metal into account in their search for a so-called salvation, leading the brain through a distorted journey full of anxiety-pressed confrontations with the self encapsulated by grizzled riffs, blasts of drums, and blistering electronic noise. Each step is a voluntary decision to be profusely bludgeoned into oblivion, and maybe that’s the best way out of it all at this point.

Highlights: “Human Condition Over Human Opinion”, “Transcend to Wet”, “World of Shit”

Candy’s Heaven Is Here is available now on Relapse Records.

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