Labels: Self-Released
Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital
Release Date: 01 Aug 2025
Tracklist:
1. Blindsides
2. Paroxysm
3. Tiles Whisper Dreams
It's the 1st of December today, which means it's officially acceptable for people to put up Xmas decorations (if you're in the UK, you'll know what I'm on about). What it doesn't mean though is that you can publish your end-of-year lists; save that for 2026. With that out the way, I'm not done with 2025, as this review demonstrates.
US Mathcore/Metal band Car Bomb self-released their newest EP back in August. After forming in 2000, they have pretty much been self-releasing all of their music; save for their 2007 full-length Centralia and a split 7" with Burnt By The Sun, which were both released via Relapse Records. This EP saw the light of day just over two years after their Live At Santa Cruz album in 2023.
The progressive end of metal has been growing exponentially over the last couple of years and Car Bomb slotting themselves back into that growth makes complete sense. Tiles Whisper Dreams sees them making use of the EP format perfectly. Starting off with ‘Blindsides’, Car Bomb waste no time in plunging you Into a sense of confusion with fast/slow instrumentation and harsh/clean vocals. There’s no point in hoping for a traditional verse-chorus-verse structure because that’s not what they’re about; instead, you should expect music that pushes boundaries in terms of time-signature and sound in general.
‘Paroxysm’ is a lot more immediate in delivery and a lot more aligned to the prog-metal of Meshuggah to begin with, before Car Bomb switches it up with grinding tempos and disgustingly good breakdowns. At times the clean vocals remind me of Chino Moreno from Deftones, but only just. At the end of the day, whatever comparisons I come up with mean nothing really. Car Bomb are very much their own beast and that’s how it should be.
Closing with the title-track ‘Tiles Whisper Dreams’, Car Bomb deliver one last dysfunctional, crazy blast of mathcore. It leans towards more straightforward metal early on before growing into mind-bending extremity later on. It’s performed with such passion and professionalism from beginning to end, as is the whole EP to be honest.
It’s often hard for bands to convey their sound to listeners during such short EP’s. Car Bomb being Car Bomb though, they manage it perfectly. The world may be getting caught up with AI and how It’s going to take over and enslave us all, but one thing it can’t do (yet at least) is make music sound genuine. Thank Jebus for both metal and Car Bomb.
You can buy this EP on all formats directly from Car Bomb below:-
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