We are extremely proud and honored to announce the release of "I&II" on white, 180 gr, 45RPM vinyl - the full-length release from elusive and mysterious experimental powerviolence terrorists Friendship (also known as the Friendship Collective). "I&II" is a compilation of tracks previously self-released by the band as two separate CD EPs (the I EP and the II EP) now both condensed by Sentient Ruin into a single castigating long player of maximum auditive torture. The I&II compilation masterfully showcases the full extent of the band’s absurd formula: a maelstrom of bleak and punishing powerviolence/grind ferocity colliding with the suffocating weight of the most abject sludge-doom, and further enhanced by the iconic and completely mindless approach to extreme metal and punk which has always characterized Japanese bands as being the most absurd and unpredictable out there.
Hailing from the Chiba prefecture of western Japan, Friendship are one of the most vile, antagonist, and visionary grind/powerviolence acts to have ever emerged from The Land of the Rising Sun. Their absurdly devastating music comes together as a collapsing black hole that devours everything with maniacal ferocity, sparing nothing from the plain of existence. In perfect adherence to the tradition of Japanese extreme music where everything is always taken to ridiculous and mindless extremes, Friendship's music is like a chain reaction that can not be stopped - the devastating consequence of an uncontrolled nuclear fission of Japan's most praised and iconic musical extremities: the mindless chaos of bands like Endon and Zeni Geva, the pulverizing blunt force trauma of bands like Unholy Grave and Death Side, and the cataclysmic sludge-doom aberrance of bands like Corrupted and Congenital Hell. Of course this hell on earth envisioned by the band far from stops to their sole Japanese roots. Instead their sound goes beyond, encompassing and embracing the full scale auditive terror of legendary American powerviolence bands like Nails, Column of Heaven, Man Is The Bastard, Iron Lung, and Hatred Surge, and the tormented sludge dirges of masters like Swans, Godflesh, Noothgrush, and Dystopia.
Originally released on February 17 2017 by SR as a ltd. ed. cassette which sold out in record time and left outlets like CVLT Nation, No Clean Singing, Metal Injection, Metalsucks and beyond gasping in complete awe at the band's horrifying heaviness, Friendship's I&II now assumes its ultimate form as an inhumanly heavy sounding white vinyl record comprised again of twelve tracks of absolutely unfathomable violence, that will plunge the listener nt an authentic plight for survival, as they desperately try to survive the utterly senseless chaos unleashed upon them by these Japanese masters of complete sonic terror.
Released in the EU by Danwbreed Records and in the US in collaboration with King of the Monsters Records, pre-orders for I&II vinyl records and digital products are now live on our store and on our Bandcamp.