There’s not a lot that could be more nihilistic than death, right? Enter ‘hard-hitting six-piece deathcore band from Copenhagen,’ Hanging The Nihilist. The Danish brutalists present their debut EP with the manifesto of ‘a common goal to break necks with their earth-shattering breakdowns and groovy riffs.’ The less than earth-shattering news that ‘the band has been working hard on their upcoming release’, means I may not be entirely on the edge of my seat, but I’m certainly poised for some heavy shit action. And that, they deliver.
The rippling piano undercurrent on the first track, ‘Undercurrent,’ which takes its cues from ‘Tubular Bells,’ is smashed into smithereens by some brutal double-pedal drum work, doomy power chords and throat-shredding vocals that epitomise ‘screaming anguish’ and are which are not of this world.
‘Endless Crime’ drives things into even darker, even more savagely metal territory, the demonic vocal howl dominating a squall of treble and mangled power-chords. Things overhang into the realms of corny melodrama in moments of ‘Forgotten’, but for the most part, this a relentless and unforgiving set of songs.