The new decade is only a few months old, and already the only certainty is that certainties have ceased to exist. Yet as we traverse through new and intimidating terrain unfamiliar a short while ago, two collaborators have come together to unwittingly create a record curiously suited to an intimidating and unpredictable new era. ‘Deafbrick’, the multiplication sum of Säo Paulo’s sonic warriors Deafkids and London’s pulverising duo Petbrick is a veritable force against adversity, and less a polite meeting of minds than a fiery collision whose impact and incandescence extend beyond the horizon. The project first came to light by way of a collaboration at Roadburn Festival, which in itself was the result of the friendship between Deafkids and Petbrick’s Iggor Cavalera (also of Sepultura /Soulwax/ Cavalera Conspiracy) who had met the band in Brazil, “We had so much fun doing the collab and there was a real chemistry between the five of us, so it seemed like a natural progression to actually get into a studio together and write a record.” – reckons Petbrick’s Wayne Adams (also of Big Lad/ Death Pedals). The results run the gamut through a litany of uniformly invigorating audial landscape – this is an arena where Deafkids’ appetite for lysergic punk-damaged tumult and Petbrick’s ventures into dystopian synth-driven soundscapes can happily engage in gladiatorial contest. From the unearthly percussive clangour of ‘Hyperkinetic Mass Disordert’ to the DHR-addled chaos of the paint-stripping ‘Mega Ritual’, every second of ‘Deafbrick’ is infused with malevolent charisma and iconoclastic élan. Yet perhaps the ultimate destructive moment of this particular demolition derby comes via a thrillingly monomaniacal take on Discharge’s ‘Free Speech For The Dumb. Not that it necessarily met the approval of Discharge themselves, who make a cameo appearance on the song’s outro. “I asked them to record some quotes saying how much they hated our version” laughs Iggor. “One of them even said that Metallica did a better job. That really freaked me out!” Metallica, it’s fair to say objectively, do not do a better job.