Saigon’s beatdown hardcore scene doesn’t ask for your attention. It takes it. Empathize, one of the city’s most promising young acts, have dropped their latest single “31 Types of Torture” featuring American rapper Mikey Rotten, and it hits exactly as the title promises.
The track opens in classic Empathize fashion: fast, aggressive, and suffocating, leaving no room to breathe. Then Mikey steps in and the tempo collapses into a wall of sludgy, slow-grind riffs that are pure beatdown orthodoxy. It’s a well-executed structural shift that plays to both acts’ strengths without either losing their identity in the process.
This isn’t Mikey Rotten‘s first venture into Vietnam’s underground. The rapper previously collaborated with District 105, and the two are set to hit the road together on an Asian tour launching in just a month, a run that signals growing momentum for cross-cultural heavy music out of Southeast Asia.
On the production side, “31 Types of Torture” was arranged by Empathize, recorded by KET và Khoa Le, and mixed and mastered by KET, whose work keeps the low end massive without muddying the attack. Artwork comes courtesy of Pchan.
