HWA
Debut EP · 8 tracks · 10 minutes 30 seconds
Out August 21, 2026
“Demo of the year in my humble opinion.”
Gene Meyer, Decibel — "Blast Worship: HWA" (December 2, 2025)
Gene Meyer gave his December 2, 2025 Blast Worship column — Decibel’s showcase for emerging grindcore bands — over to HWA and wrote of the band’s Demo 2025: “Demo of the year in my humble opinion.” This EP is HWA’s side of 《Hwa // Naiite》, the band’s split with fellow Korean grindcore band Naiite, carried over track for track. The split came out first, on physical only, so all eight recordings reach streaming here for the first time. Four of them — “September Theater,” “Past Self,” “Hollow Face” and “Letter to Jane Doe” — are the demo takes with a new mix and master; the other four were recorded for the first time.
The whole thing is eight tracks and ten minutes thirty seconds, and it is built to be taken in one pass rather than sampled. The band describes what it plays as blast-beat-driven drums, merciless guitar and very high screams with melodic, emotional riffs laid over them — grindcore that is fast and ferocious and beautiful at once — and names Discordance Axis, Gridlink, Barren Path, Vektor and Cloud Rat as its reference points.
The album’s press release was written by the Korean music critic Jaewon Jang, who reads those reference points as three separate debts: the technical, melodic grindcore of Discordance Axis, Gridlink and Barren Path; the flamboyance of Vektor; the depressive cast of Cloud Rat. He hears thrash and a black-metal sense of melody running through the riffs, and writes that JK’s screaming brings Jon Chang to mind.
His argument is that the record lands on texture before it lands on rage. “Where other grindcore bands have prized the genre’s emotion over its texture — turning the listener into a single-celled creature shaking its head and punching a wall — HWA drags those angry listeners into a chair and hands them a higher-order anger.” He closes by asking how many albums in Korea have used the texture of grindcore to make a listener think seriously.
The lyrics are in English throughout, written by vocalist JK, who also drew the cover. HWA says it sets out to put the hurt, loneliness, misanthropy, self-loathing and emptiness that come out of human relationships down raw, without dressing them up. The full text of all eight songs is on this page.
About HWA
HWA formed in Seoul in September 2024 as a two-piece: OCheolWang on guitars and bass, and GopChang — a drummer active across the Korean grindcore scene — on drums. Vocalist JK joined in 2025, completing the current three-piece lineup.
The band put out Demo 2025 on October 30, 2025. It was never given a formal release, and Decibel covered it anyway, in Blast Worship on December 2, 2025. In 2026, HWA released a split with the Korean grindcore band Naiite, 《Hwa // Naiite》, through Vanilla Thunder Records.
The band’s name is the Korean syllable hwa, and the album’s press release turns it over through its written forms: 火, fire and anger; 禍, calamity; 和, harmony; 花, a flower.
《HWA》, out August 21, 2026, is the band’s first EP.
The facts
- Release
- August 21, 2026
- Format
- Digital EP
- Length
- 8 tracks · 10:30
- Genre
- Grindcore
- Lineup
- JK (vocals) · OCheolWang (guitars, bass) · GopChang (drums)
- From
- Seoul, South Korea
Contact
For interviews, WAV masters or anything else you need, write to contact@ggac.kr. Please credit photographs to Jung Wootaek.
Downloads
- Full EP — 8 tracks, MP3 320kbps (ZIP) — 10:30 total
- Cover artwork — high resolution (JPG) — Artwork by JK
- Band photo — high resolution (JPG) — Photo by Jung Wootaek — please credit
Streaming
Listen
01 · September Theater
Descending into the void Color of a fall I keep recollecting The very last feeble sunlight Live in vain Endlessly while the dream starts rotting The endless hope I’m drowning in the pool of despair And sleep with my sorrow The autumn blooms with another sunrise Weeping endless scar deep in my lungs Chattering thoughtlessly with a scarlet voice Drunk in inmemorable illusion Infinite glaze of spear keep watching me The point of my weakness singing deadly September Theatre Withering away And all went quiet
Press play and the record runs straight through, one track into the next.
Credits
- Vocals, Lyrics
- JK
- Guitars, Bass
- OCheolWang
- Drums
- GopChang
- Composed by
- OCheolWang, except "Irreversible Imprint" (GopChang)
- Arranged by
- HWA
- Recorded by
- Lee Jinwoo at Spot Sound
- Mixed and mastered by
- HoKang Yu (Pepperman)
- Artwork
- JK
- Photo
- Jung Wootaek