Connecticut’s noise rock outfit Intercourse unleashes their most visceral offering yet with How I Fell in Love with the Void, a 2025 release on Brutal Panda Records that dives headfirst into personal and societal abyss.

Clocking in at just over 20 minutes across 10 tracks, the album is a blistering assault of metallic hardcore infused with sludge and powerviolence edges, evoking the chaotic spirit of The Jesus Lizard and contemporaries like Chat Pile.

Vocalist Tarek Ahmed‘s grating howls dominate, delivering diary-like confessions with a raw, self-deprecating edge that blends bleak humor and unfiltered despair. Themes orbit the futility of existence—divorce, mental illness, generational trauma, and the grind of capitalism—framed as a twisted romance with emptiness. Ahmed channels influences from Nietzsche’s abyss gaze, turning personal lows into corrosive anthems that find perverse comfort in collapse.

Standouts include opener “The Ballad of Max Wright,” a jealous rant against scene politics set to black metal-tinged intensity, complete with vulgar threats and absurd references. “Zoloft and Blow” laments marital fallout with skramz flair and slathering vocals akin to David Yow, while the epic “Family Suicide Gun” drags listeners through doomed legacies with cataclysmic riffs.

Tracks like “Cryptid Divorce Court” and “I’m Very Tired Please Let Me Die” amplify the album’s manic energy, blending scrappy punk with spiraling discord.

What elevates this record is its searing honesty: abrasive yet tight instrumentation that threatens to derail, mirroring life’s unpredictability. It’s deranged, heavy, and arguably Intercourse‘s best, distilling modern depravity into a noisy catharsis. For fans of unapologetic noise, it’s a must-listen—though its corrosiveness might be too much for the faint-hearted. In a world of polished facades, this void-embracing gem rings true.