After making a strong first impression with their debut EP, Thailand’s Chainfight return with II, a follow-up that pushes harder into metallic hardcore aggression but loses much of the balance that made their earlier material so effective. The band clearly wants this release to feel darker, uglier, and more punishing, leaning deeper into the influence of classic 90s hardcore acts like Merauder and Biohazard, but the execution rarely allows those ideas to land with the same force. While the riffs remain aggressive and the grooves still occasionally hit with real weight, the EP is constantly dragged down by a muddy, claustrophobic production style that suffocates nearly every track.

“The Warning” immediately establishes the more hostile direction Chainfight are aiming for. Fast, ripping riffs and frantic drumming drive the song forward with intensity, showing that the band still understands how to build momentum through sheer energy. Structurally, the track has all the right ingredients for effective metallic hardcore, especially during the slower closing section where the double-kick patterns and heavier grooves finally create a sense of impact. Unfortunately, the production consistently undermines those strengths. The mix feels overly compressed and blurred together, causing the guitars, bass, and drums to collapse into one indistinct wall of noise. The vocals suffer the most, buried deep beneath the instrumentation and stripped of much of their presence. Instead of sounding raw and violent, the song often just sounds muffled. The breakdown near the end ultimately saves the track from fading into the background completely, but it also exposes how much stronger the song could have been with more clarity and separation in the mix.

“Culture of Lies” continues many of the same issues. The song opens with sharper thrash-influenced riffing and tighter drum work that initially gives the EP a needed sense of urgency. There are moments where the groove sections genuinely lock in, showing flashes of the chemistry that made Chainfight’s debut stand out within Thailand’s growing hardcore scene. Yet once the full band kicks into higher intensity passages, everything starts blending together again. The vocals sit too far back, making large portions difficult to fully distinguish, while the kick drums during the slower midsection sound strangely distant and hollow. The production creates a boxed-in feeling that removes a lot of the physical impact these riffs should carry. Ironically, the slower moments often end up sounding stronger simply because there is slightly more breathing room between instruments. The heaviness itself is still there, but it feels trapped beneath layers of muddy compression that never allow the music to fully open up.

“Tragedy On You” comes closest to recapturing the qualities that made the band’s debut so memorable. The groovy riffing, thick bass lines, and stomping hardcore pacing feel immediately recognizable as Chainfight, while the vocal performance itself is one of the stronger moments on the EP. The song carries a natural momentum that much of the release struggles to maintain. Still, the same production flaws continue to hold everything back. The drums once again sound muffled, lacking the sharpness and punch that hardcore relies on, while the bass occasionally becomes so blown out that it overwhelms the entire low end of the mix. There are stretches where the band sounds genuinely locked in and cohesive, followed by others where the performance starts to feel messy and unfocused. The slower breakdown near the end does provide some satisfying weight, but even then the mix keeps the impact at a distance instead of letting it hit with full force.

What ultimately makes II frustrating is how much it feels like a regression from the debut EP rather than a progression. The first release succeeded because it understood the importance of balance. It sounded raw and aggressive without sacrificing clarity. The grooves landed hard, the drumming felt explosive and precise, and the production allowed each instrument enough space to contribute to the overall sound. Tracks like Backstabber, Unconscious Melodies, and Your Contempt, My Hate showed a band capable of channeling classic 90s hardcore influences into something energetic, modern, and memorable. The drumming in particular gave those songs an extra sense of urgency, while the gang vocals and groove-heavy riffing added personality beyond standard beatdown formulas.

On II, many of those strengths still technically exist beneath the surface, but they are buried underneath a production style that constantly works against the material. The riffs remain aggressive, the breakdowns are still heavy, and the band clearly has not abandoned the sound that initially earned them attention. The problem is that the mix turns what should feel punishing into something exhausting for the wrong reasons. Instead of sounding chaotic in an intentional or visceral way, the EP often just feels cluttered and unfocused.

There is still obvious potential here because Chainfight already proved on their debut that they can write compelling hardcore songs built around groove, energy, and strong musicianship. II feels less like a complete creative failure and more like a project damaged by poor production decisions and weaker overall execution. If the band can combine the aggression they aimed for on this release with the tighter songwriting and clearer production of their earlier work, there is every reason to believe they can recover and evolve into something much stronger. As it stands, though, II feels like a disappointing step backward from a band that already showed they were capable of far more.