Mrs. Piss, Downer Surrounded By Uppers/Knelt
Sargent House

Unforgiving: the best descriptor for Chelsea Wolfe and Jess Gowrie’s new creative conception, a two-piece calling themselves Mrs. Piss. They’ve released two songs and announced a debut album, Self Surgery, out May 29th. Both Knelt and Downer Surrounded By Uppers are vicious, grinding doses of industrial intensity: a more-than-promising intro to the project.

The first track of the pair, Downer Surrounded By Uppers, taps into a doomish punk vibe, combining eerie spoken-word undertones with a wailing lamentation of a chorus. A wall of sound in the most literal sense you can imagine, churning, fuzzy guitars and Gowrie’s relentless drumming builds to a clamour that’s as musically dense as it is intense. Discordant all the way, Wolfe seems to scramble over the words “can’t keep up with you, can’t keep up with you” before tumbling into the spiralling chorus. The track’s conclusion hardly winds down; its screaming hugeness feels more like you’re being spat out and it’s a brilliant feeling.

If you thought Downer Surrounded By Uppers was a towering monster of a track, wait till Knelt creeps up on you. With Wolfe’s crystalline vocals, its major-chord moments, and sweeping, whining solos, there’s hints of Wolf Alice here. But the grinding, grounding bass, crashing solidity of sound, and trudging, compelling drumbeats ensure that Mrs. Piss, for any musical comparison they invite, are incomparable in terms of the magnetism their unique genre blend generates.

Downer Surrounded By Uppers and Knelt constitute the groaning eruption of a musical collaboration that can only grow in power. From Mrs. Piss’s beginnings in 2017, to now, Wolf and Gowrie assert themselves as a formidable creative combination, and we can’t wait to see what else they bring on their debut.

Self Surgery is out May 29th.