Destruction Unit

Originally formed in 2000 by singer and guitarist Ryan Rousseau along with Jay Reatard and Alicja Trout, Destruction Unit are a psychedelic punk band based out of Arizona. Chaotic and noisy, the band's sound features massively fuzzed-out guitars, pounding drums, and shouted vocals, taking punk's energy and anger and forcing it through a wall of distortion that's bent on reducing every eardrum it comes into contact with to ruins. The trio released a number of limited-run singles and cassettes before putting out its first proper album, Self Destruction of a Man, in 2004, followed by Pact of the New Flesh in 2006. Afterwards, the band would undergo a massive lineup change, with Rousseau recruiting his brother Rusty on bass, as well as two more guitarists, N. Nappa and J. Aurelius, and drummer A. Flores. With a bigger, more raucous lineup in place, the band took its three-guitar assault into the studio, returning in 2013 with an EP, Void, as well as a full-length, Deep Trip, which was released through Sacred Bones in the summer of that year. Destruction Unit's thunderous on-stage assault was documented for the ages on 2015's Live in San Francisco, an installment in Castle Face Records' series of concert recordings from Bay Area performances.