EP REVIEW – Granite State – PROPER FORMS OF PROTEST

‘…‘PROPER FORMS OF PROTEST’ is here to remind you of what hardcore should be about; confrontation, defiance, and community…’

Hailing from Germantown, Maryland, Granite State have been honing their craft since 2019. The punk outfit have flirted with hardcore, metalcore, and doom metal over the years, crafting a sound that is abrasive, confrontational, and crushing. This year sees the band not only release their second ever EP, but also the first release since their 2023, 17 minute long epic, ‘The Mountain’.

Are you looking for 10 minutes and 2 seconds of taking a brick directly to the cranium? That is roughly what Granite State offer on this EP, and that is meant as the highest possible compliment. The energy is relentless, the lyricism is violent, and the breakdowns are utterly disgusting. ‘PROPER FORMS OF PROTEST‘ is not a simple polite request for the abolition of ICE, as if that remains the central flaw of a broken system, but a reminder that the entire system works entirely as intended, and that meaningful resistance has never been achieved through dialogue alone.

‘GALLOWS‘ evolves from a gruesome onslaught of screeching guitars and relentless percussion into a breakdown that will have you setting fire to your own house. ‘5.56’ barrels forwards ceaselessly, buoyed by a barrage of incendiary percussion, before erupting completely with a guest appearance of Carson Pace of The Callous Daoboys. ‘MOLOTOV’ errs on the experimental side, utilising the band’s experience with doom metal to sculpt a monstrously weighty closing track. The track commences as an immense, disquieting soundscape, before slowly coalescing into a juggernaut anthem of resistance; a reminder that the hells experienced in Palestine that we bear witness to should insight you enough to seek change.

Aggressive and unpleasant, ‘PROPER FORMS OF PROTEST‘ is here to remind you of what hardcore should be about; confrontation, defiance, and community. The commodification of alternative spaces has lead to an increasing acceptance that these spaces should remain divorced from politics; in reality, those that do not ally themselves with the oppressed should never be permitted within the pit. Hardcore should never exist to pacify, but to invigorate and antagonise. Grab your friends and get violent; Granite State are here to bring back hardcore.

RATING: 84/100

For Fans Of: God Complex, Knocked Loose, Vein, Enemic Interior, Massa Nera

Follow the band on social media below;

Instagram // Bandcamp