A rock star once called sobriety a state of uncomfortable clarity, but Leo Ashline gets blackout blunt in the press accompanying Dry Drunk: “For me, the hell of sobriety is the normalcy, the mundanity of routine, the lack of adrenaline – the overwhelming numbness that develops the more comfortable and safe your life becomes.” Industrial hardcore pairing Street Sects isn’t Rock & Roll HOF-eligible anytime soon, but the notorious soulflayer rages cataclysmically against conformity throughout the Austinites’ third long-player and first in seven years. Ashline and machine-of-loving-grace bandmate Shaun Ringsmuth loop Dry Drunk’s chainsaw ferocity back to 2016 Street Sects bow End Position, which documented the former’s ongoing addiction with Ministry-like rabidity. Nearly a decade later, the duo’s catharsis cuts deeper. “A List of All Persons I Will Harm” opens with digital grindcore, Frankie Goes to Hollywood gone apocalyptic, while “The Glass Shithouse” wraps self-recrimination in slapping percussion and sadomasochistic beats-n-screams. TVT-era NIN (“Entertainment Law”), Joy Division skanking Wax Trax (“Love Makes You Fat”) – zero mundanity here. Street Sects offshoot Street Sex and its concurrent debut Full Color Eclipse peels back the former’s face-tearing dBs in favor of anti-Pet Shop Boys techno-pop. “Go stick your phone up your ass, set the tone to vibrate,” opens Ashline. Dance floor bangers (“ROCK SALT”), digicore Bowie (“TURN BLUE”), and RevCo (“NEW BRAUNFELS”) practice deliciously unsafe Street Sex.

Street Sects

Dry Drunk (Compulsion Records)

Street Sex

Full Color Eclipse (Compulsion Records)

This article appears in September 26 • 2025.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.