Having set out their stall and marked their territory over the course of two splendid albums over the last few years, Aussie bruisers Mental Cavity are back in 2021 with a third instalment of audio assault and battery in the shape of new release Mass Rebel Infest.

Long term fans will be aware of the band’s modus operandi by now – short, sharp bursts of unforgiving, sense-pummelling filth – and they’ll be pleased to hear that the four piece continues to explore this territory again on MRI, pouring on in the agony in a series of set-piece exercises in aural devastation. Twelve of the bastards, in fact, including a couple of cover versions from the Cro-Mags and Disrupt; but, whilst the band again treads a familiar path, it’s worth remarking that everything on this new effort is… well, more than the band have offered up before.

The madcap intro of standout cut Anointing The Filth is a case in point, taking what they’ve done before to a natural and very thrilling conclusion as Alex Young‘s concrete mixer bass weaves Lilkeresque tapestries over the swelling noise buildup of Aaron Osborne and Rohan Todd‘s guitars before the trio, exhorted by an explosion from drummer Simon Murphy, career off into an unhinged piece of grind-informed mayhem that Napalm Death would have proud of in their prime. By the end of it’s two minute and fourteen second duration, if you haven’t sustained at least one rupture or some minor ligament strains then you haven’t been listening properly.

The Portal is another brutally effective highlight, meshing brutal vocals to a slightly off-kilter riff, but, as I usually end up saying when reviewing these guys, there really aren’t any lowlights here worth commenting on. This high quality stuff, nothing more, nothing less…

Theirs isn’t a style of music for much experimentation or ‘progressive’ intent, but while Mental Cavity continue to discover new ways to stove the listener’s ears in – and on Mass Rebel Infest they’ve certainly done that – you’d have to say they’ve certainly earned the right to keep on doling out the misery for plenty more years to come. And more power to them, I say!

Mass Rebel Infest releases on June 25th