Siyahkal - Corrupt

After making us wait a decade for their first LP, SIYAHKAL hesitate none to deliver another blow to the head. A year later, another twelve inches. 

On “Corrupt,” their trademark gallop comes through clearer while no less mired in ear-piercing qualls of noise. Unrelenting in intensity for its 12-minute run time, “Corrupt” has a certain urgency to it—a frustration, a tension and release. If it slows, it’s only to recollect and come back blazing. 

At moments, the record harkens to the dissonance of LP-era Die Kreuzen. At others, it harnesses the hypnotism of the first Una Bestia Incontrolable LP. Here, Siyahkal uses rhythmic propulsion like a jackhammer to the skull. If there are prisoners being taken, it will not be them. Through all of it are KG’s gruff vocals, and lyrics that aim to capture the very moment that the greater “we” all find ourselves in—under the boot of States that neglect our very right to be free. 

Iran or America, the people in power are all the same. They see us all as fodder for war, to maintain their power. And with ‘Corrupt,’ this injustice is not just written into word, but screamed into song.

"This album was recorded in January 2026, but before February 28, 2026. Writing about this album, now, is proving harder than writing the album itself.

Many pages and iterations and still nothing comes to mind that feels right other than speaking on how we feel personally.

This album is about contradictions and paradoxes. They are at war now. But we have been fighting the evil known as the Islamic Republic for decades in any way, shape, or form. Now we are getting carpet bombed by big beautiful bombs their B2 bombers drop on our heads.

We see some devastated by this war and some that sing songs as bombs fall on their neighbourhoods. What’s brought us to this point? We are happy to hear Khamenei has evaporated and joined the rest of the cohort in hell. That happiness lasts for only a moment, as we remember that our people are being bombed at the same time.

We/they attack our bodies with every means possible. Drugs, alcohol, razors, ropes, bullets, batons, bombs, sirens, rubble, … .

We cherish life even if they don't want to let us live it. Only in the moments when we are gathered together - when we get high, drunk, or dissociate - do we feel alive. All of those moments end with a kiss, a big hug, a deep sigh and a sliver of hope that maybe one day we will be free. We owe this to the people that aren't here with us when the spring comes each year.

Outside Iran we are eating like shit. Glued to our phones. News cranked on the TV. Articles open on our computers. We do anything to feel something. Inside Iran, they shoot us in the street. They bomb us from the sky. We are watching our bodies deteriorate day by day. No one gives a fuck about us, but us.

There is nothing else left to say. To all the lives lost and the life that follows!

Yours Corrupted,
Siyahkal"