Ismatic Guru's 'Hell on Earth' Packs a Whole Nightmare Into Eight Minutes
Two people, six years, six EPs. Ismatic Guru are Bran Schlia (also of Bonzo) and John Toohill (also of Science Man), they operate out of Buffalo, and Hell on Earth is their second release of 2026 on Toohill’s own Swimming Faith Records. Post-Trash’s Dan Goldin premiered the single “It’s Nothing” the week before release with a framing hard to improve on: “In strange time we need strange music. In ugly times we need ugly music. When times are both strange and ugly, we can be thankful for the restless nature of Buffalo most bugged out punk band, Ismatic Guru.”
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: For a duo, the bottom is remarkably crowded — the rhythm work under “It’s Nothing” is, in Goldin’s description, “a rhythm that sounds pulled from a neon tinged aerobic sci-fi nightmare.” It is programmed-feeling and human-played at once, and it never sits still long enough to settle into a groove you could name.
The Spatial Dynamics: Nothing is centered. Goldin describes riffs that “sputter and splatter, stabbing and careening,” and the mix leaves them jagged rather than gluing them into a wall. That decision is what lets five songs in eight minutes read as five distinct songs instead of one long lurch.
Standout Performance
Toohill and Schlia’s refusal to repeat a section. Goldin’s read of the band’s whole method — “the band play loose and weird, their unique sound forever progressing as the songs themselves groove and contort in memorable ways” — is audible in the compression: an idea arrives, gets stated once, and is replaced.
Why It’s Certified
“Endless quest” opens, “Island Lord” and “All Messed Up” are the most deranged stretch, and “Theme for Hell on Earth” exits without ceremony. The band describe it as “a psyched-out and totally scrambled prog-punk adventure in under 8 minutes,” aimed at “scheming up ways to free your time from the clutches of capitalism in the rising surveillance state.” Goldin, on the single: “Yep, it’s that good.” Certified great.