Not to be confused with the Philadelphia act of the same name, Michigan’s Balboa — known to the rest of us as Balboa MI — are a five-piece sludge outfit slinging hate like monkeys throw poop. On their new EP, the grammatically incorrect New Means to a End (Eaten Alive Records), they blast their way through four tracks in under 15 minutes, offering a truer representation of the In the Name of Suffering aesthetic than most Eyehategod followers could dream of.

Like that album, New Means to a End has its roots in an evil cousin of punk and hardcore, twisted and molded by time into something more sinister. Balboa MI play their sludge fast (for the most part) and make no apologies about it. There are tempo shifts, both sudden and telegraphed, but their intensity and their fuck-all remain in tact throughout. Before I knew it, I’d been through the EP three times. “Wounds I’ve Sewn,” “New Means to a End,” “One Condom, Zero Hour” and “Black Lung” are each about as visceral as this genre gets, guitarists Justin Collard and Ray Nelson thickly riffing out while vocalist Jarrad Collard screams like a fucking madman across the proceedings.

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