By Alex Kantarelis

Tinnitus ~ hands down one of Worcester’s heaviest bands ~ has recently released a new album and is looking forward to big things in the second half of 2013. The band is a mix between the power-violence sound of Infest and the sludge of Eyehategod. Guitarist and founding member, Ryan McArdle, described Tinnitus as a “grind-influenced hardcore band with more of a punk perspective. It’s like if the Cro-Mags covered Napalm Death.”

If that’s your cup of tea and you’re from Worcester, then you’ll be glad to know the band has all its songs up on its Bandcamp page for free.

Tinnitus officially got started playing small punk shows in basements and at the now-defunct Wheelchair in Worcester in 2008. What started as something fun for a bunch of friends in high school quickly became something much bigger. By 2010, the band was in Western Massachusetts, recording at the legendary Dead Air Studios with producer “Chill” Will Killingsworth, who really knew how to capture its sound. The result was Tinnitus’ first EP, Gehenna, which was quickly followed by an East Coast tour with Worcester punks Antietam. Word was spreading, and Tinnitus was building a solid reputation in the hardcore scene and playing shows all over the Northeast.

A few more tours and a couple of years went by; now the band is back with a new album, Volume II, which sees Tinnitus taking its sound to even darker and heavier levels. Engineered by Give Up The Ghost drummer, Alex Garcia-Rivera, Volume II is eight songs of the most brutal hardcore.

The band chose to record the songs live in the studio, instead of breaking down each instrument, giving the album a frantic and raw feel and avoiding the all-too-common over-polishing that so many hardcore bands fall victim to in this Pro Tools world we now live in. Garcia-Rivera recorded the songs directly to tape on a vintage reel-to-reel machine from the ’70s. It took the band members four hours to set up their gear and find the sound they liked and a half hour to shred through their songs, capturing everything all at once.

McArdle is a fan of analog recordings and is glad that all the recordings Tinnitus has released were done live and on tape. “There’s something about recording live that really captures what the band is. It captures the sound that we are trying to do more ~ the real aggressive, in-your-face sound,” McArdle said.

While the songs are currently available for download, vinyl nerds can still get their hands on a physical copy from Cricket Cemetery Records, which released a 7-inch version this summer.

August sees the band hitting the road for the third year in a row, in support of Volume II. The band’s members are no strangers to the Firehouse and the Distant Castle and, occasionally, one of Worcester’s clubs, too. While they’d be stoked if you threw them some cash for their music on Bandcamp, they’d be just as stoked if you downloaded it for free.

“I think music should be free. If you want to support (a band), go to the show, buy a T-shirt. As long as people listen and have a good time, that’s all I really care about,” McArdle said.

Good attitude from a great band.

For free Tinnitus music and tour dates, check out tinnitusma.bandcamp.com.