D.C. punk band Ekko Astral are back with “horseglue,” the heaviest song from the band to date. The two-minute slugfest is a baptism in fire that sees the three-piece reborn from as the harbingers of sludgy dystopiacore, brimming with confidence.

Over rim shots ticking like keyboard clacks, Ekko Astral frontwoman Jael Holzman details her own slow descent into disillusion during her time as a reporter in the U.S. Congress, reporting on the national politics preceding the 2024 election. “Why am I so close to automatic rifles/I write my words down and shoot holes in your ankles,” Holzman sneers. “Can’t believe I’m just a dateline to my friends” — and then gunshot snares that lead you headlong into a concussive wall of distorted and mangled guitar, bass and drums.

As if to hold up a mirror up to the short attention spans that drive corporate media, the song barely approaches two minutes before suddenly ending with Holzman repeating the old journalistic adage: “If it bleeds, it leads.”