Gouge Away

Gouge Away formed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 2013, taking their name from a Pixies song, a fair signal of where the band's instincts lie. Fronted by vocalist Christina Michelle, the group came up through the hardcore punk scene, self-releasing two early EPs, Still Bored and Focus Your Anger, and touring in support of local charities and activist groups.

Their debut album, , Dies, came out in 2016 through Eighty-Sixed Records and drew notice from Touché Amoré's Jeremy Bolm, who invited the band on tour with his group and Ceremony. Its lyrics took on animal testing, police brutality and social injustice, and the record was later named among the year's best emo and punk releases by several outlets.

The 2017 single "Swallow," put out through Bolm's Secret Voice Records, helped the band settle into its own personality. Gouge Away signed to Deathwish Inc. in 2018 after label co-founder Tre McCarthy saw them play a show with Touché Amoré, and released their second album, Burnt Sugar, that September, co-produced by Bolm and mixed by Jack Shirley.

The band's records lean increasingly on quiet-loud construction, dissonant guitar figures and passages that pull back rather than push harder. The result sits somewhere between hardcore, post-hardcore and noise rock, with Michelle's delivery shifting between a flat, close-miked speaking tone and full-throated shouting.

Live, the band is known for the sharpness of those transitions. The lineup has included drummer Thomas Cantwell, guitarists Mick Ford and Dylan Downey, and bassist Tyler Forsythe alongside Michelle.