Hylko Premiere “Green Spa (Cold Region Version)” Video; Split w/ Barren Womb Out Now
Posted in Bootleg Theater on April 7th, 2026 by JJ Koczan
I’m not entirely sure what or who brought Norway’s Barren Womb and Japan’s Hylko together. It’s not an intuitive pairing — the former are noise rock and the latter low-end-minded stoner-psych — but whoever decided their two-songer split needed to be a thing was right. Released March 20 through Captured Records and Fucking North Pole Records, the outing of course brings a track from each band, as Barren Womb plumb the session for their last album, 2024’s Chemical Tardigrade for the aggressive, surprisingly-melodic-in-the-chorus and chug-finishing “The Perils of Self-Improvement” and Hylko, with a video premiering below, offer “Green Spa (Cold Region Version),” having clearly dug the tone, riff and overarching vibe out from under some very large, very damp, possibly sentient moss.
Both bands have surprises in store, and both are assured in their aesthetic, but it’s the tension of Barren Womb and the more open fluidity of Hylko that make the complement work. As grounded as Barren Womb are as they turn to the crashing hook and then back around to the shoutier verse and the angular bridge that follows ahead of the last push, along come Hylko at a
marked distance from lucidity, murky and effects-laced and seeming not so much to roll out the groove of “Green Spa (Cold Region Version)” as to shove it forward and let it float on its own momentum. It does not feel like a coincidence in the video when their instruments turn out to be made of cardboard and grass as they apparently get in a last-minute woods rehearsal for the gig where the clip culminates.
Hylko are the Tokyo-based three-piece of vocalist Moock (also djembe), bassist Nori Shio and drummer TofuckG, and on “Green Spa (Cold Region Version),” Eternal Elysium‘s Yukito Okazaki both produced and contributed ambient sounds. I think maybe you can hear some of that at the end of the video, when they take some time and put up the explanation text. That’s not actually the end, as there are 10 seconds after where it’s a dark shot of a face and it goes out from there, but the entire procession at that point has been weird enough that you can just go with it. Hylko‘s 2024 debut, The Man Comes Around, had its own blend of mellower flow and more active rush, but “Green Spa (Cold Region Version)” sounds more live, and seems to dig into the bass frequencies with particular revelry.
All of which is to say you’ll find the video on the embed below, followed by more from the PR wire, and I hope you enjoy:
Hylko, “Green Spa (Cold Region Version)” video premiere
On March 20, 2026, Nordic noise-rock duo Barren Womb return with new music as part of a split single with Japanese stoner rock trio HYLKO.
Barren Womb’s contribution, “The Perils of Self-Improvement,” is a mid-tempo stomper delivering grim news for the supposed wisdom of self-help culture. Built around a jangly guitar loop, the track gradually gathers force through pounding drums and impassioned screams before exploding into a massive melodic chorus, complete with the band’s trademark tag-team vocal delivery.
The song was recorded during the sessions for Chemical Tardigrade, Barren Womb’s acclaimed 2024 album, and intentionally held back for this split, a small but potent offering for both longtime fans and new listeners.
For over fifteen years, Barren Womb, Timo Silvola (drums/vocals) and Tony Gonzalez (guitar/vocals), have been a feral force within the international heavy underground. Often described as “easy listening for the hard of hearing,” the duo blend primitive punk energy, grinding repetition, and explosive quiet-loud dynamics into a chaotic yet strangely addictive racket.
Across five albums, numerous singles and EPs, and hundreds of shows across Europe and North America, the band have built a reputation as one of Norway’s most relentless live acts, sharing stages with Conan, Entombed A.D., Nomeansno, Slomosa, and Voivod, and appearing at festivals including SXSW, Øya, Deserfest Oslo, Tallinn Music Week, and Høstsabbat.
On the other side of the split, Tokyo-based trio HYLKO deliver “Green Spa (Cold Region Version)”, a groove-heavy stoner psych track built around a deep five-string bass riff and inspired by a journey to a hot spring in search of truth.
Featuring Nori Shio (bass), TofuckG (drums), and Moock (vocals/djembe), HYLKO create a surprisingly massive sound using only bass, drums, and tribal percussion. Produced and recorded by Yukito Okazaki (Eternal Elysium) at Studio Zen, the track blends fuzzed-out stoner rock, jazz-tinged rhythms, and hypnotic psychedelic textures, proof that sometimes less really is more.
The result is a split release that pairs Norwegian noise-rock abrasion with Japanese stoner-psych experimentation, bringing together two bands that thrive on doing things their own way.
