Joshua Zero is a London-based artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist who has spent the last few years quietly building one of the more distinctive sounds in the UK independent scene. Working under the self-coined genre tag “zerocore,” Joshua blends alternative rock, emo, shoegaze, math rock, and hardcore into something that resists easy categorisation and is better for it. Their debut album zerocore, released in October 2024 through Oslo-based DIY label Backpack Records, introduced them to the world with a record that was as personal as it was sonically ambitious. Their music has always been deeply tied to their own experience of identity, emotion, and survival.

That last word is not used lightly. A car crash on tour in November 2023 put everything on hold, including a short film planned to accompany the album, and forced a long and painful recovery. That experience shaped the back end of zerocore significantly and clearly left its mark on the creative process that followed. Carnage, released May 8, 2026, is their first major statement since that debut, and it arrives with a sharper edge and a title that does not leave much room for ambiguity.

Track-by-Track

1. I TORE YOUR NAME INTO PIECES

The EP opens with one of its most visceral and immediate statements. The title alone tells you exactly where Joshua Zero is emotionally, and the track backs it up with a raw urgency that grabs you from the first second. This is not heartbreak processed from a distance. It is still on fire, still jagged at the edges, still too close to have been smoothed down into something more comfortable. The production refuses to let the listener off the hook, and that is entirely the point.

2. THEY COO SO PERFECTLY

The second track introduces a different kind of tension, observational rather than purely personal, watching something or someone perform warmth with a precision that feels almost mechanical. The phrase “coo so perfectly” carries a faint unease beneath its surface, and Joshua leans into that ambiguity with real skill. The shoegaze influence is strongest here, layers of guitar washing over a rhythm section that keeps things grounded while everything else floats slightly out of reach.

3. AK47 DEATH FANFICTION // REBIRTH

The most audacious title on the EP and one of its most structurally interesting tracks. The double-barrelled name signals a split in the song itself, moving from something heavy and confrontational in its first half into something more open and expansive in its second. The rebirth section genuinely earns its name, the arrangement opening up in a way that feels like coming up for air after being held underwater. It is the EP’s most dynamic moment and one of its most memorable.

4. THE INEVITABLE END OF EVERYTHING

The longest title on the record matches its ambition. This track carries the kind of weight that comes from actually sitting with the idea it is named after rather than using it as provocation. Joshua Zero has been through enough in the past few years to write about finality and survival with genuine authority, and this track reflects that. The production is dense and immersive, building slowly into something that feels both crushing and cathartic before it finally releases.

5. HOLY ICONOGRAPHY

The EP closes with its most atmospheric and image-driven track. Holy Iconography sits at the intersection of the sacred and the personal, the kind of song that uses religious language not as doctrine but as emotional shorthand for something larger and harder to name. The production is the most layered of the five tracks, guitars and vocals weaving together into something that feels genuinely devotional without being earnest about it. It is a strong, considered close to an EP that has never once taken the easy way out.

Final Thoughts

Carnage is five tracks and fourteen minutes of an artist who has clearly decided that restraint is no longer the priority. Joshua Zero arrived with zerocore as an introduction. This EP is something closer to a declaration. The sound is more focused, the emotional stakes are higher, and the writing has the kind of directness that only comes from someone who has been through something real and come out the other side still making music about it. For fans of emo, shoegaze, math rock, and alternative music that takes its own ideas seriously, Carnage is one of the more compelling short-form releases of 2026.

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