I listen to a podcast on a very regular basis where the two hosts dissect, fact check, and later mock the insane actions of a well-known conspiracy theorist turned water carrier. It’s a way for me to try to understand the bizarre split realities in which we live and how we got to this point. It also helps me laugh about something so obviously absurd.

Finnish grindcore masters Rotten Sound have been making lightning-fast records and fiery statements about our fucked-up world since forming more than three decades ago. “Mass Extinction” is the band’s 11^th EP (to go along with eight full-lengths), and it comes at the tail end of a chaotic 2025, a year especially heinous in this country. These nine tracks that last, combined, just under 10 minutes, lash at a world overcome with strife, misinformation (so much of it on purpose), chaos and oppression, so much so that creating change proves potentially impossible. The band—vocalist Keijo Niinimaa, guitarist Mika Aalto, bassist/backing vocalist Matti Raappana, drummer Sami Latva—wastes no time unleashing vitriol, dire warnings, and devastation, perhaps feeling you have to burn to the ground anything worth building back up again.

“Recycle” explodes, spitting hammers, howls smashing as the playing trucks and mashes heavily. “Ride of the Future” trudges, blinding howls incinerating, everything coming to a vicious, abrupt end. “Gone” launches, drums spattering as bodies are wrecked, and on a dime the pace changes, wrecking everything in its wake. “Polarized” somehow manages to go faster, machine-gun destruction eating into your insides and regurgitating them. “Brave New World” slashes, chugging mud as threats about the world being recycled blares like a loud speaker. The playing jackhammers, sending guts flying, leaving glass shards spraying the air. “Empty Shells” is a complete demolition, rubbery riffs flexing and rippling, stomping everything on the ground over raspy howls. “Idealist” is thrashy as well, cries of, “Wake up!” rousing, the energy mangling, ending as a total battery. The closing title track sludges, slow-driving power squeezing ribcages, eerie sound clips chewing nerves. An infernal crunch powers, the smoking fury raging out of control and into the madness.

Rotten Sound are as channeled and ferocious as ever on “Mass Extinction,” a mammoth EP that might be short in length but lands like a goddamn skyscraper being spiked off the ground. Their concern and fury over the state of the world is fully relatable, and the manner in which they spit nails is impressive. Shit might be burning everywhere, but at least people like Rotten Sound aren’t going to stand there with their arms folded.

For more on the band, go here: https://rottensound.com/

To buy the album (U.S.), go here: https://shopusa.season-of-mist.com/list/rotten-sound-mass-extinction

Or here (Europe): https://shop.season-of-mist.com/

For more on the label, go here: https://www.season-of-mist.com/