- Genre: 'Heavy Metal'
- Release Date: '16th February 2018'
Our Rating:
It’s been a while since I heard a fade-in. And so it is that the title track opens the album quietly. It’s not a bad ploy, because it means that when the thunderous percussion and driving, gritty guitars really slam in hard, I’ve whacked the volume up and I nearly crap myself.
And yes, the Stoke quartet do go in hard on this, their debut album. The album’s nine tracks are powered by intense percussion and dense, stop-start chugging riffs. The vocals are raw-throated hollers of nihilism, calling to mind Rollins-era Black Flag. There’s a hardcore feel and energy, and this is accentuated by the production – uncluttered, up-front, murky. But there’s a very metal edge to it, too: blastbeats and bass tones s dingy and to vibrate the bowels abound, and the final track, ‘Wormfeeder’ is a punishing low-end assault with a vocal pitched from the depths of hell. And they still manage to create space for brooding and atmospheric sections, making for an album that’s far from lacking in variety.
Clocking in at around half an hour, it doesn’t outstay its welcome and instead distils its fury into concise blasts of aggression.
