How can artists and musicians respond to an era when jackbooted thugs descend on U.S. cities, tech billionaires blithely deploy technologies calculated to wipe out the livelihoods of millions, and misinformation controls the rage of the masses? For Chicago’s grinding metallic hardcore misfits NEQUIENT, the answer is to get even angrier and weirder.

Avarice is the quartet’s third full-length album, the culmination of more than a decade spent evolving their unique synthesis of extreme metal and hardcore in the depths of the aggressive music underground. Honing the adventurous songwriting and lyrical venom exhibited on previous releases like 2018’s Wolves at the Door and 2022’s Darker Than Death or Night, this unrelenting assault blasts listeners out of complacency with withering screeds against the malignant forces ravaging our world.

The album’s opening song “Mad King / Fool” arrives as the lead single for the record delivered through a video shot by Michael Rataj, edited by Patrick Conahan, with lighting by Danny Cardona. Vocalist Jason Kolley states with its release, “‘Mad King/Fool’ synthesizes the eclectic elements that make up the NEQUIENT sound into a focused burst of aggression. With our D-beat, grind, hardcore, mathcore, and thrash influences at the fore, it's perhaps the closest we'll get to a straightforward moshpit anthem. The lyrics attack the U.S. gerontocracy, particularly as embodied by our current president, and lean heavily on references to Shakespeare's King Lear.”

Produced by Sanford Parker (Eyehategod, Yob, Wovenhand) and mastered by Collin Jordan (Harm’s Way, Windhand, Voivod), Avarice is the recorded debut of bassist/backing vocalist Aaron Roemig (Arbogast, Mine Collapse) who joins the band’s mainstays Chris Avgerin (drums), Patrick Conahan (guitar), and Jason Kolkey (vocals). The grotesquely intricate artwork by Arifullah Ali, design by Scott Shellhamer (American Heritage, Buried at Sea, Coffinworm), and guest contributions on synth from Kevin Kalay and Circa Tapes all contribute to an atmosphere of existential horror.

Sophomore album Darker Than Death or Night was praised as “a fusion of the Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge, and Combatwoundedveteran—if those bands were feral and sludgy” by Decibel, as “"proper fuckin' excellent weirdo hardcore" by The Heavyist, and for its “menacing layers of hardcore, grindcore, thrash, and straight-up gnarly metal” by The Chicago Reader. Invisible Oranges said, “NEQUIENT is the soundtrack of our frustrations, this angry, chaotic sound of distrust, anger, and voicelessness now given a megaphone.” Since that release, NEQUIENT has exhibited an undying dedication to the DIY way with a series of tours, including a run of dates alongside Psychosomatic and Black Mass.