Baptized in Hatred that Draws First Blood: LYCVNS - TEETH feat. Carlos Guzman of Feels Like Karma (Track Review) Released: 4/5/26

 

Some songs ease you in, and then some songs grab you by the throat before you even realize what's happening. "TEETH" by LYCVNS is firmly the latter. From the very first line: I'll make you fucking swallow teeth, this track makes its intentions crystal clear, and it never once blinks, never once softens, never once apologizes for what it is. This is heavy music made by people who aren't playing a character. This is the real thing. LYCVNS arrives with a lineup that feels assembled with a specific kind of violence in mind. Erin Medrano (Fallen Condition) leads on vocals, and what immediately separates him from the pack is that nothing about his delivery feels performed. There's no posturing here, no calculated aggression for the sake of fitting a mold. Every line he delivers sounds like it's coming from somewhere genuine and unresolved, like he's pulling these words out of something he's been carrying for a long time. That authenticity is rare, and it's the kind of thing that you can't fake your way into. You either have it, or you don't, and Medrano absolutely has it. His vocal presence anchors every moment of this track and makes the heaviest parts hit even harder because you believe every single word.

Michael Kulakowski (Trust In The Serpent) on guitar is doing exactly what a track like this demands. The riff work throughout "TEETH" is relentless without being sloppy, aggressive without losing its shape. There's a sharpness to the way the guitar sits in the mix; it doesn't just fill space, it occupies it, dominates it, makes you feel like the walls are closing in. That's a difficult balance to strike, especially in a track this raw and forward-facing, and Kulakowski pulls it off with the kind of ease that only comes from someone who's deeply locked into what they're building. Every chord feels intentional. Every transition hits like it was designed to knock the wind out of you.

And then there's Brad V Earl (The Skies Are Shifting, The Cutest Nuisance) behind the kit, the backbone of the entire operation. Drumming in a track this aggressive is a high-wire act, too much, and you overwhelm the song, too little, and you lose the momentum that makes it work. Earl walks that line with precision, driving the track forward with a brutality that never once loses control. The drums don't just keep time here; they add pressure. They make the track feel like something that's about to boil over, and that constant sense of escalation is a huge part of what makes "TEETH" as suffocating as it is. The rhythm section isn't decoration. It's the engine.

Then there's the feature, and it's worth talking about on its own terms. Carlos Guzman of Feels Like Karma doesn't just show up to add his name to the credits; he brings an entirely different energy into the room, and the track is better for it. Feels Like Karma has been quietly doing the work in the Chicagoland underground, an alt and post-hardcore outfit out of Joliet that's been building something real without waiting for anyone to hand them a platform. Guzman's presence with his bass work on "TEETH" feels like a collision between two scenes that respect each other enough to not hold back. He doesn't soften anything. He doesn't play it safe. He matches the track's intensity and adds a volatile layer that pushes the song from heavy into genuinely suffocating. When two acts from the same regional underground link up like this, and it actually works, it says something about both of them.

Lyrically, "TEETH" operates in that raw, unfiltered space where rage and introspection blur into something harder to categorize. The opening salvo is pure aggression: "break every bone underneath your skin, awaken the demons from within," but the track doesn't stay in one lane for long. There's a haunted, inward quality that starts bleeding through almost immediately. Lines like: "my soul is drenched in sin / this is who I've always been, and these scars remind me where I've been / you can see it in my skin," aren't shock value. Their confession. There's a self-awareness underneath the fury that gives the track genuine emotional weight, the sense that whoever wrote these words has sat alone with them for a long time before deciding to scream them out loud. "Pressure building in my chest like a corpse that won't stay dead" is one of the more striking images on the track as a line that manages to be visceral and vulnerable at the same time, which is exactly the kind of tonal tightrope that separates a great heavy song from a forgettable one. And "raised inside a violent cage / I am baptized in hatred," hit with a biographical force that makes you stop for a second. This isn't a band performing darkness for aesthetic purposes. This is a band processing something real and turning it into sound.

The closer is where everything crystallizes: "You wanted war, you wanted blood / now choke on both."  It lands like a final verdict with no room for appeal, no softening, no qualification. The track doesn't beg for understanding. It doesn't ask for your sympathy. It simply states its terms and dares you to push back. "TEETH" is the kind of track you play when you need something that hits back. It's the kind of song that finds you at your worst and meets you there without flinching. LYCVNS isn't easing into things; they're kicking down the door, and with Erin Medrano's raw vocal conviction, Kulakowski's suffocating guitar work, Earl's relentless drumming, and a heavy feature from Guzman that adds real fire to an already burning track, they've put out something that demands to be heard. The Chicagoland underground keeps producing, and "TEETH" is proof that the scene has teeth of its own. Keep your eyes on LYCVNS. They mean it.

Here is Teeth courtesy of Slam Worldwide: 

Go give them a follow on Instagram: 𝐋 𝐘 𝐂 𝐕 𝐍 𝐒, Carlos Guzman, & SLAM WORLDWIDE