Caligula

Just when you thought that metal-hardcore crossover had been strip-mined to exhaustion, Caligula crawls out of the Flats, swinging a big piece of metallic punk at your head, screaming for blood like it's a new-school zombie that hasn't lost a step, in spite of the fatal damage it's taken.

After two years in the Cleveland underground and some touring, Caligula makes its national debut with this five-song EP, issued on the Canada/New York-based United Edge Records. Frontman Ryan Kennedy goes about his business as if he's intent on snapping his vocal cords and breaking your arms; none of the rote hollering in any screamo chorus begins to measure up to his paroxysms. Guitarist Eric Silvay provides a brief respite, the acoustic instrumental called "Instrumental." Elsewhere, he's a pure berserker: In the closer, "Tonight Tastes Like the End," Silvay blends tech metal and glorious, unadulterated chaos, creating a noise that sounds like a hybrid of Kreator and the Buzzcocks. No, seriously.