Chicago noise metal trio Oozing Wound titling their fourth album High Anxiety is an exercise in both truth in advertising and understatement. The group has never been particularly subtle, but this seven-song statement starts in a fury and never looks back, offering both an assault of metal terrorism and antisocial lyrics so scathing that the album starts off with a song called "Surrounded by Fucking Idiots." The band's roots in Chicago's noise scene bleed through in the sheen of nihilism that coats the album, and a palpitating metal heart pushes the songs along at top speed. Musically, the band is in top form, unleashing storms of riffs on every track. "Fifth Chisel" comes on like a thrashier take on Justice-era Metallica, twisting that classic riff-metal style into something uglier and unrelenting. The same is true on "Tween Shitbag," a vitriolic hatefest aimed at an insincere music industry churning out products instead of art. Things don't let down until the seasick plod of "Birth of a Flat Earther," a feedback-laced mid-tempo song that rides an intense Jesus Lizard-esque groove and lyrically destroys science-denying cults. Oozing Wound's experimental roots come through again in the ending sections of this song as they weave layers of electronics and saxophone low in the mix, creating an eerie din that heightens the song's evil vibe. Album closer "Vein Ripper" also uses this technique, filling the song's thrashy skeleton with noisy textures. High Anxiety is a relentless rush of hateful sentiments, bitter perspectives, and unstoppable energy. Combining the no-rules ethos of the noise scene with the technical precision of metal results in a sound that coveys its punishing statements without sacrificing musicality and, indeed, exists as an artistic embodiment of off-the-charts anxiety.