Hands down, the best NYC Noise band in 2025 is… from fucking Tampa?
Florida has always been an unlikely source of dark and heavy shit. How can such a sunny part of the country, best known for families vacationing and old folks retiring, produce the likes of Nasty Ronnie and the Tardy Brothers? I mean, all you need to do is look at photos of Birmingham, England from the late '60s to know it would eventually spit out a Sabbath. But the Sunshine State? Damned if I know. Yet, the place has never ceased to unleash musical menace upon the world.Mix that Southern spirit with a heavy dose of late '80s CBGB grime, and you get The Path of Increased Indifference. The group’s latest album, Night School Field Trip, blends Killing Joke-meets-Bad Brains precision with razor-gargling vocals that fall somewhere between early-period Rob Zombie and late-period GG Allin. This is music for people whose late '80s/early '90s collections included first-pressing Pussy Galore, Unsane, and Helmet albums alongside piles of Foetus and Swans live shows on VHS. This is the soundtrack you put on while a Lydia Lunch movie plays silently on the TV right beneath the framed nudie cover of the first Boss Hog record.
Get the picture?
Now, take all that and add a few scattered Hardcore breakdowns and Geordie-esque guitar arrangements, and you’ll get some idea of what this maelstrom is about — short of listening to the thing yourself, which, if any of the preceding 200 or so words have appealed to you, should happen as soon as possible.
Night School Field Trip is some of the heaviest and most immediately satisfying music I’ve heard in ages. It’s both an homage to the sonic savagery of a bygone era and a hint at Metal’s future possibilities. Get it.
EMAIL JOEL at gaustenbooks@gmail.com
