Memphis’ Ex-Cult, released their album Negative Growth in 2016 via In The Red Records. It’s the third full-length from is a continuous onslaught of bristling, blaring, mono-tonal punk songs that run zig zag through dystopia dodging rifle fire and tossing hand grenades. There are no duds here, and no dramatic departures. The cuts hurtle on, one after another, like bad news that comes in nines, blistering the ground as they pass and deepening the surrounding pall of smoke. You could pick a high point by dropping in at any point on the album (though bonus for you if you land on “Hollywood Heat Seeker”).

Ty Segall, who plays in GØGGS with Ex-Cult singer Chris Shaw, helped record Negative Growth and you can possibly discern his influence in the louder, sharper dual guitar sound (that’s JB Horrell and Alec McIntyre clanging out the riffs). Shaw told one interviewer that they’d used no guitar amps at all, instead feeding the guitars directly into the soundboard.

“In the year of the snitch, there are forces beyond your control that keep you up at night. Ghost notions that swirl around your room while you sleep. Your own pillow laughing right in your face while you fight for an hour of rest. There are voices that whisper from the corner, telling you everything you never wanted to hear. ‘Negative Growth’, our third album, is dedicated to fear and deception.
This collection of songs were conceived in Memphis and finalized in Los Angeles, with the help of our family doctor Ty Segall. It was created in February 2016, when we traded Memphis misery for a week of California sunshine. ‘Negative Growth’ is a nine-track nightmare, a death trip in the crystal ship. Out later this year, the institution known as In The Red Records will do the honors. The Hollywood Heat Seeker takes ten years off your life.” – Chris Shaw (Ex-Cult)