Ape Unit have spent the last 18 years carving out their own chaotic space in the European underground. Based in Cuneo, Italy, the band pulls together grindcore, power violence, noise rock, and whatever else grabs their attention, refusing to fit into any single category.
Sticks, their latest EP, landed in April through a network of 10 DIY labels across Europe, Japan, and North America. The record captures Ape Unit with a new lineup, pushing their sound further into uncharted territory.
"Ape Unit started as a joke, really," guitarist Alberto tells No Echo. "A way to have fun together playing what we believed was raw and ugly music."
Ape Unit started in the summer of 2007, when Alberto and original guitarist Alessandro joked about what a real grindcore band should be called. The name stuck, and soon a group of friends came together, ready to make noise.
Most of the members had little background in extreme music when they started. "Apart from Mariano and Los, none of us had any experience dealing with extreme music, nor had we any idea about how to play fast and solid," Alberto laughs. "Just give a listen to our early stuff, and you'll see what I mean."
The lineup that recorded Sticks came together after major changes in 2022 and 2023. Longtime members Los and Steve left as life pulled them in other directions, and for a moment, Alberto thought the band might be finished.
Everything shifted when drummer Elia joined in September 2024. "As soon as Elia joined, I was overcome by the urge to write fresh stuff and do it quickly," Alberto says. "We spent spring and summer 2025 rehearsing and nailing down riff after riff until we had nine songs."
Describing the new songs isn't easy. "I've been thinking about calling it 'acid grindcore,'" Alberto jokes. "But that sounds pretty silly, doesn't it?" Ape Unit have never fit into a single genre. Grindcore and power violence are touchstones, but their influences extend far beyond them. "There is a sort of psych or twisted angle to our sound," he explains. "We've always had a very free and punkish approach to the stuff we write and never cared much about conforming to trends."
That freedom extends to the lyrical content of Sticks. Rather than tackling overtly political or socially conscious themes, Ape Unit prefer to focus on bizarre real-life stories, strange characters, and the absurdity of everyday existence throughout Sticks. "The nine songs deal with real stories and characters we kind of fictionalized to fit our ultra-short songs and better describe the freakish and absurd world around us," Alberto says.
While Ape Unit's hometown of Cuneo isn't typically associated with grindcore or power violence, the guitarist is quick to praise the local scene. "The area where we're from has always been considered a remote province, even by bands coming from nearby cities like Turin, Genoa, and Milan," he says.
Despite the lack of venues and the absence of a traditional hardcore scene, the region continues to produce a surprising variety of creative bands. "We can't really talk about a proper hardcore or grindcore scene. Most bands around here lean more toward noise rock, but luckily nobody follows any particular trend."
Among the Italian bands Ape Unit recommends are Storm(o), Double Me, Gufonero, Grumo, One Day in Fukushima, Failure, So Close, Thirst Prayer, Melee, Gotho, Sacrofuoco, and Bialera.
As Sticks continues to make its way through the global DIY underground, Ape Unit remain exactly what they've always been: a band operating entirely on its own wavelength. For a group that once described itself as "grindcore fantasists," that feels entirely appropriate.
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