Gulch formed in Santa Cruz, California in 2016 and spent six years becoming one of the most talked-about hardcore bands on the planet before walking away from it completely — on their own terms, at the absolute peak of their powers. That exit is a big part of why anything from their final run carries serious weight. Their entire recorded output is 19 songs. One of them is a cover. Most clock in under two minutes. The discography is a demo tape (Demolition of Human Construct), a 6-song EP (Burning Desire to Draw Last Breath, 2018 on Creator Destructor Records), a split with Sunami (Bolt Swallower / Accelerator, 2021 on Triple B Records), and one full-length — Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress, released July 24, 2020 on Closed Casket Activities. That’s it. That’s the whole catalog. The New York Times later credited them as one of the driving forces of American hardcore’s resurgence in the 2020s.
The final show was July 31, 2022 — the band played it out with a short run of farewell dates that had been announced piecemeal since September 2021, guitarist Cole Kakimoto having publicly stated the plan to break up immediately after releasing the LP even before it dropped. Gulch merch was notorious during their run — items sold out in minutes, the secondary market was immediate and steep, and by the end their hat and hoodie drops were scene-wide events. A snapback from the final show run with the sticker still intact is about as provenance-specific as it gets for a band with no reunion on the horizon. Currently $175 OBO with 10 watchers and the listing noting it’s been sitting in storage — condition is listed as Good.
