Raspberry Bulbs: not for the faint hearted. 

Beginning life as the solo project of band lynchpin M. del Rio (previously of Cali metallers Bone Awl), the band have evolved into a rambunctious five-piece with a fierce live reputation. Debut LP Nature Tries Again arrived on Dominick Fernow’s Hospital Productions back in 2011, and offered a selection of seriously unvarnished lo-fi punk – Dead Kennedys as imagined from Burzum’s prison cell.

Raspberry Bulbs’ sophomore album Deformed Worship will find a home in Blackest Ever Black‘s broad church in July. The nine-track LP has a chequered past: the original studio recordings were all canned, then subsequently re-recorded onto cassette 8-track in November of last year. There are a lot of influences at play – traces of Born Against here, a hint of Sabbath there – but the results are distinctive, muscular and totally uncompromising.

Deformed Worship will be released on vinyl LP and digital formats in July; album track ‘Groping The Angel’s Face’ (sample lyric: “fondling the graves/And groping the angel’s face”) is available below. Raspberry Bulbs play live with Total Control, Crazy Spirit and Survival at 285 Kent, NYC, on Thursday 23 May – head here for tickets.