MAGGOT HEART + PEB + THE TARTS Urban Spree, Berlin am 07.10.23

Maggot Heart whet primal appetites on new album HUNGER. Berlin’s Rapid Eye Records, together with Finland’s Svart Records, deliver Maggot Heart’s third knock-out blow of innovative Post-Punk.

Maggot Heart, crossover rock band based in Berlin, channels emotional alchemy through music. Consisting of guitarist and singer Linnéa Olsson, bassist Olivia Airey and drummer Uno Bruniusson, Maggot Heart refuse to be categorized. Originally from Sweden, Olsson formed Maggot Heart as a solo project in 2016, after carving a name for herself in bands like The Oath, Beastmilk/Grave Pleasures. From detonating their initial underground break-out City Girls EP, Maggot Heart had the underground by the throat, palpitating the grape-vine. With two critically acclaimed albums under their belt, the 2017 debut Dusk To Dusk to 2020’s Mercy Machine, Maggot Heart are not here to coast, they’re here to make waves. Musically compared to such diverse acts as Patti Smith, Sonic Youth, The Stooges, Killing Joke and Voivod, playing live with Earthless in the US, High on Fire and Amyl & The Sniffers in the EU along with several invitations to tread the hallowed stages of Roadburn Festival, Maggot Heart have been foaming-at-the-mouth road dogs. Now on their third album HUNGER, recorded in Berlin and mixed by the acclaimed American producer and engineer Ben Greenberg (Metz, Portrayal Of Guilt), Maggot Heart’s game is about to change.

If Dusk to Dusk was the mind, and Mercy Machine the body, then HUNGER is the spirit. Whip-tight choruses, guided by a grunge-aged sensibility, where Punk and Noise Rock grime are layered beneath Swedish 70’s proto-metallic ooze, lurch you back for more. HUNGER goes for the gut but with panache, boldly exploring the dichotomy of desire and desperation through powerful refrains and a brave sense of rhythm. Songs like "This Shadow" and "Archer" with abrasive pop hooks and Bowie-esque Jazz brass, showcase Maggot Heart's ability to blend simplicity with deft musical awareness. Bassist Olivia Airey and drummer Uno Bruniusson (whose former work includes the enigmatic In Solitude) are musicians at the very peak of their powers, and the backbone of Maggot Heart. As Olsson says it best when she states:

 “A band is a family, a pact in blood, a strange and unique and incredible relationship. I think playing music together with someone is probably the most intimate you can get outside of romance. All that sweat, the trust you have to have in one another, the exchange of energy”.

HUNGER is the album where Maggot Heart’s finesse of their own fervor finds them standing on their own feral hind legs. Existing on a diet of her own determination, Olsson knows well what hunger means for the survivor. Olsson isn’t hungry, she embodies HUNGER. The album cover, a vulnerable portrait of strength.

No other band out there sounds like Maggot Heart. On HUNGER their bones are exposed, a hole where the rib used to be, the void staring back. Sink your teeth into HUNGER. Starvation has never sounded this vital.