Song Premiere: Shaving the Werewolf's caustic wake-up call

Hot take: I actually like January. At least in the world of music, when a few brave releases set the tone for the next 12 months. 

• 2024: ultra-heavy January arrivals proved to be the opening salvo for a killer year of pummeling albums. 
• 2025: mind-bending hybrids set the stage for a twisted year of genre-smashing experiments (more on that soon). 

2026, well, promises to be a wild year. The new releases bursting their way into my bubble are fearlessly bizarre and addictively chaotic, subverting genres or just plain burning the rulebook altogether. Let weirdness reign in 2026. 

Perhaps no band enforces this possible trend than Shaving the Werewolf, with their mad blend of powerviolence, nu-metal, noise rock, and mathcore. Their self-described “disagreeable music for disagreeable people” joins forces with Norwegian grindpunks Forcefed Horsehead for a blistering and blisteringly weird split set for release on February 13th. Until then, we have “Smoking the Crack of Dawn,” the new single from Shaving the Werewolf. 

Shaving the Werewolf are very, very good at splicing grinding dissonance onto bouncy song structures that worm their way into your brain like a parasite. Listening to their music is entering an alternate realm where the banal becomes dangerous and nothing is as it seems. “Smoking the Crack of Dawn” is the perfect example, opening with tightly coiled grooves that echo the sleaziness of rock, but crunch with ugly dissonance.

Bursting with manic intensity, the track takes the familiar and filters it through howling insanity. Guitar riffs become shrill and distant before briefly swinging into a twangy lilt that crashes into plinking piano keys that channel haunted blues melodies. Lurching grooves echo a song played on every broadcast of the National Football League, giving the painfully familiar a terrifying new face. “Smoking the Crack of Dawn” is the raucous wake-up call we need in January, a visceral warning that 2026 has sonic chaos in store.

From Horrid to Worse, the collaborative EP from Shaving the Werewolf and Forcefed Horsehead erupts into the world on February 13th. Follow STW and FH on Bandcamp for updates on digital and physical releases.