LISTEN TO SPLIT CRANIUM’S D-BEAT/CRUST/PUNK MASTERPIECE ‘I’M THE DEVIL AND I’M OK’The trans-Atlantic supergroup’s sophomore LP will be released this Friday via Ipecac Recordings

"...a  ripping record that draws heavily from the well of hardcore punk à la  Minor Threat, Leatherface and Bad Religion, with a slight nod to  Discharge and GBH." - Revolver
 
Six years since their self-titled debut, the trans-Atlantic project Split Cranium have returned with their sophomore album I’m The Devil and I’m OK.  Guitarist/vocalist Aaron Turner (SUMAC, Old Man Gloom) and guitarist Jussi Lehtisalo (from legendary Finnish shapeshifters Circle) are joined by Faith Coloccia (keyboards/vocals - Mamiffer, Mara), Nate Newton (bass - Converge, Doomriders) and Tomi Leppänen (drums - Circle, K-X-P) making I’m The Devil and I’m OK simultaneously more sonically rounded and more visceral and vicious than the band’s debut album. “We wanted to make a record that was less straightforward than the first one,” Turner says. “Jussi loves melody and I love dissonance and noise, so that is probably the healthy creative contrast that made this record what it is.”
 
Listen to I’m The Devil and I’m OK in its entirety today - streaming on BrooklynVegan & Invisible Oranges.
 
On I’m The Devil and I’m OK, Split Cranium waste no time establishing their mission statement and opens the album with Popol Vuh-inspired keyboards by Coloccia that saturate the ruthless reinterpretation of the Discharge template on album opener “Evil Hands.”  The following nine tracks continue to be driven by the blazing guitar malaise of Lehtisalo and the harrowing bellows of Turner, in addition to melodic counterpoints provided by Newton, the ethereal keys/vocals summoned by Coloccia, and the sturdy backbone from Leppänen.  These are but a few of the components that knock I’m The Devil and I’m OK off the axis of traditional d-beat hardcore. 
 
The strongest records in the anarcho-punk canon have figured out ways to inject melody or push extremes without diffusing their punch or diminishing their hooks. Split Cranium retains the principal components of speed and vitriol while expanding their frequency spectrum into realms of both beauty and sheer ugliness, making I’m The Devil and I’m OK a white-knuckle headfuck in a realm of sterile imitations. 
 
I'm The Devil and I'm OK is due out this Friday from Ipecac Recordings - pre-order here.
 
I’m the Devil and I’m OK — Track Listing:
1.  Evil Hands
2.  The Age of Embitterment
3.  Wet Shadow
4.  Ingurgitated Liquids
5.  Whirling Dusk
6.  Pain of Innocence
7.  Blood Boiler
8.  Death Bed - The Yellow Room
9.  Heavy Daughter
10.  I’m the Devil and I’m OK
LP News punk